The Rock n Roll Saviour Complex

Total Wanker

If you were to judge the current state of music just by reading any issue of NME from the last two years, you'd have a couple of deep rooted and strong misconceptions: the Arctic Monkeys are the only band in the world; Oasis should headline every festival and Alex Turner is not a wanker.

However, the most important mistaken principle that NME and others rely on these days is the idea that rock music is dead and constantly needs to be saved. This crazy, over-exaggerated hype has reached a climax recently with Royal Blood's debut LP getting to number one in the UK charts. The most recent issue of NME has Royal Blood on the cover, being described as being the band "giving British music a kick up the arse". Throughout their feature NME hype them up, calling them a "genuine rock phenomenon", mentioning "amazing results for rock in recent weeks" at Radio 1 and implying that Royal Blood are going to kick off a huge new wave of guitar music.

Slightly Moronic

It all sounds very familiar. Just take a look at Alex Turner's douchey speech at the Brit awards. The whole premise of that stunt was based on creating an image that the Arctic Monkeys are the saviours of the genre. Just read this stupid as fuck article by Sergio Pizzorno from Kasabian: http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/kasabians-sergio-pizzorno-british-rock-n-roll-needs-to-up-its-game. What's happening here is a capitalisation of the apparent lack of any "rock band" leading the music scene and using it to sell records. This is what I like to call the Rock n Roll Saviour Complex.

This is a confusing ploy used by the likes of NME to sell their magazines to an increasingly middle-aged readership. The reason NME constantly declares rock to be dead is partly because their definition of it is stuck in 1996. In 1996, Britpop arguably turned the clocks back for the rock n roll guitar group in quite a detrimental way. A focus shifted entirely away from creating something new and fresh and straight onto creating something that harked back to a bygone era. This was cool whilst it lasted but when a generation of guitarists grow up thinking that Noel Gallagher is the best role-model they have, the future begins to look bleak...

The truth is though that despite Britpop, decent guitar music never died and has always been around. It's just that it's changed and looks different now. The same rock n roll spirit of punkish rebellion with a youthful focus is alive and has never been better. This is the same spirit that was once owned by bands like the Rolling Stones and the Who. Punk came along and the Sex Pistols and the Clash took it. The Smiths had it, the Stone Roses had it, Nirvana had it, even Oasis and the Arctic Monkeys once had it. The counter-cultural rock n roll spirit never went away, it just changed shape. Saying it did is just lazy.

Fat White Family are awesome

So which guitar acts have this kind of spirit today? Like everything else good, they're in the process of breaking out of the underground as we speak. Until you see Fat White Family live, it's impossible for you to fully understand just how good a state rock n roll is in today. Their pure punk spirit, dressed in scuzzy fuzzy guitars and their sleep deprived appearance means that this Peckham collective are probably the best young band on the planet. Unlike almost every other band today, Fat White Family's music has a point to it. Everything from the cynical band name to frontman Lias Saoudi's frequent comments about how shit something is, Fat White Family scream rebellion. They play by their own rules and abide by no-one else's. Their shows are filled to the brim with raucous energy (and even nudity). They are the embodiment of the rock n roll spirit in 2014.

Mac Demarco with bros

On the other end of the spectrum, but still in the same category is Mac Demarco. Some of the best guitar work of the last few years has come from this Canadian singer. He's written some of the twangiest riffs in recent memory but it's his attitude and personality that separates him from the crowd. Utterly unpretentious and genuine, Mac is a totally unique package. Like the Fat Whites, he is best when live. He's got a reputation for being wild and drunk live but more recently he's toned it down slightly, being able to rely more on the strength of his songwriting. His carefree, footloose aura that doesn't give a crap is much more aligned with the spirit of rock n roll than anything that's declared itself to be this year. Like all good music, Mac speaks for a generation. A generation who really can't be bothered with the bullshit and would rather just wear ironic baseball caps and chill their own way. Judging by the growing cult of Mac Demarco around the world, it's clearly resonating with plenty of people.

Sleaford Mods probably embodies the spirit far better than any guitar group today. They're a rap/shouted word act but there's a ton of rebellion in Jason Williamson's lyrics. They've captured the voice of pissed off, austerity Britain and deserve every bit of praise they get. Divide and Exit has to be a contender for best British album of the year.

This is perhaps the greatest flaw with the Rock n Roll Saviour Complex: it distracts from the acts that embody this timeless, youthful spirit in modern times. The same spirit that bursted out of the hacked off and frustrated solo of You Really Got Me by the Kinks. The spirit that still exists in the screams of Lias Saoudi and Mario Cuomo of The Orwells. In its place, the commercial, soulless "indie" stands in the limelight. Bands who are rock only in name.

Royal Blood's new album is decent, don't get me wrong. Those songs are well crafted with some really good riffs. The sound Mike Kerr gets from his bass guitar is incredible as well. It's decent music, but there's no way it's giving anything a kick up the arse. It's basically really high-quality pub rock, which is good but it just doesn't capture the right vibe. Definitely Maybe caused such a riot when it first came out because Oasis wrote songs about escaping the shit and making it. Liam Gallagher's voice encapsulated that rock n roll spirit perfectly. That's what it's meant to be like. Constantly declaring it dead in order to resurrect it isn't going to do anything other than appeal to stupid people.

Everyone will work it out in time. No-one will be talking about AM or Royal Blood in a few years, but there might be a few decent discussions about Salad Days and Champagne Holocaust. The smoke and mirrors don't last...

I mean, they're pretty good for what they are