Music Blogs

  The rules of the game are simple - to connect two seemingly opposing forces through six degrees of separation. The medium - Myspace, of course. Granted, that place is basically a ghost town, every time I log in I get lambasted by virtual tumbleweeds. That being said, now that the trend-slaved Johnny Q. Public has scrambled for Facebook's 15 minutes of fame, Myspace is left as a pretty good place to find your favourite bands.

I've started on a blinder here, linking popular ‘Satanic' ambassador Marilyn Manson to crossover Christian Cali rockers Switchfoot, via a chain of no more than 6 MySpace friends.

1. Marilyn Manson - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

There they are, in his top friends list. I get it I guess. Karen-O's bittersweet take on nu-goth and Nick Zinner's hair. Manson would totally have them over for a chalice of lamb's blood.

2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Cat Power

It doesn't take long to find out how small the music world really is. Making the move from Yeah Yeah Yeah's to Cat Power a.ka. Chan Marshall reveals a pit seething with incestry (that's a new word I just made up; it's like a combination of incest and ancestry. It works.) There's Cat Power; and Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, and the Dirty Three. I know it's a tangent, but it's like 6 degrees within 6 degrees: Jim White of the Dirty Three drums for Cat Power; The Dirty Three is basically a handful of Nick Cave's Bad Seeds; Warren Ellis from the Dirty Three (and also Nick Cave's right hand man) played on Marianne Faithfull's new album, which also featured Cat Power and Nick Cave.

Yowser.

3. Cat Power - Dark Was the Night

Let's continue. A quick step from Cat Power to Dark Was the Night, a charity album that was the brainchild of Aaron and Bryce Dessner of the National. The album supports the work of the Red Hot Foundation and features some of the most brilliant pairings you'll find in the alternative world, including Antony & Bryce Dessner, Bon Iver & Aaron Dessner, mrs Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues, Dirty Projectors & David Byrne, Conor Oberst & Gillian Welch. The list goes on.

4. Dark Was the Night - The Postal Service

By now you can almost sniff Switchfoot. Ben Gibbard's the key here - he did a track on DWTN and is also known as International Side Project Man. When he's not fronting Death Cab for Cutie, he's doing laps with the Postal Service. Death Cab's music has been described as joyful alt-indie, which makes me wonder, what's with the uber-depressing band name?

5. The Postal Service - Jeff

Yes, Jeff. This is by far the best link ever. Check out this guy:

Jeff is independent, intelligent, honest, quirky, affectionate, fun, passionate, sensitive, romantic and loyal. He enjoys the company of people that have already felt the sting of reality yet are still open minded.

He likes fixing game consoles and Scrabble.

He approves friends "all day long" - so far he's got over 11,000, including the Postal Service and, you guessed it...

6. Jeff - Switchfoot

Switchfoot. Jeff loves ‘em. He's also guilty of being an innocent party to the 6 degrees of separation between Christian California and the semi-lord of darkness. Fancy that.

 

Now, I know what you're thinking. It's Myspace, everyone's linked by Tom.

Tom is everywhere. And that's the problem. He's like the Antichrist, and linking the Antichrist to Marilyn Manson, well, what's the point?