A series for Saturdays in 2026 inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's set of cards, Oblique Strategies (Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas). Eno and Schmidt created them to be used to unblock creative impasses and approach problems from unexpected angles. Each week I'll turn over an Oblique Strategy card and post a song or songs inspired by the suggestion.
Last week's Oblique Strategy suggestion was What wouldn't you do?
I went down a road of asking all the big musical questions and ended up with The Cramps asking about pussies and dogs and Buzzcocks asking why they can't touch it.
Out in the Oblique Saturdays community there were a huge range of responses, a playlist with something for everyone. Al G went with Betty Boo, Spencer gave us Benedict Drew, Mrs G threw in Rage Against The Machine, Prue Leith offered up Tool (their second OS appearance), SRC gave us The Associates and their mantra for life ('If you can't do no good, then sucker, don't you do no harm'), Jase came with Mark Lanegan and Ecstasy, Passion And Pain, JC suggested Malcolm Middleton and Paul Haig, Rol offered Pet Shop Boys, Beerfeuled gave us Rick Astley, C suggested The Bangles and Frankie Valli, Ernie had Gina Birch's stilettos, Khayem arrived with Boney M and Half Man Half Biscuit (they don't often crop up together), The Swede dropped in with Frank Sinatra and Count Basie and Chris Yardley came with a fear of potholing and The Jesus And Mary Chain.
Thank you everyone.
This week's card from Messrs Eno and Schmidt says this- You don't have to be ashamed of using your own ideas.
Thanks Brian and Peter. I'm not sure how to take that. The whole blogging lark is largely using my own ideas and churning out daily posts. Back in the mid- 2000s when I first started reading music blogs (the Golden Age of Music Blogging) I began frequenting The Vinyl Villain and Acid Ted, satisfying my twin searches for digital versions of 80s indie and 90s acid house. I used to frequent several blogs that are long gone- STX's Audio.Out was a goldmine for Weatherall and similar and Spoilt Victorian Child was good for guitars. Ripped In Glasgow was essential. Drew started up Across The Kitchen Table, London Lee's Crying All The Way To The Chip Shop was very good and Davy H's The Ghost Of Electricity was an eclectic source of tunes. Song For Toad. Seventeen Seconds. Dusty Sevens. Planet Mondo. There were others that I can't even remember the names of now.
All of these people were writing music blogs and suitably inspired at the dawn of 2010 I thought I'd do the same, post a song a day for a year and see how it went. My own ideas included posting plenty of Andrew Weatherall, various Manchester and Factory related acts, and try to feature songs that had stories attached to them. There was a long running Friday series, Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night that began after a guest posting at The Vinyl Villain, where I wrote about Wayne Walker's classic 1956 song All I Can Do Is Cry.
In the early days there was lots of 60s garage, regular Half Man Half Biscuit posts and a lot of Wild Billy Childish. The first Andrew Weatherall post and the very first Bagging Area post (1st January 2010) was pretty obtuse- an idiosyncratic and one off track from 2002 by Weatherall and Keith Tenniswood as The Black Balloons called Fowler's End.
But enough of this self- congratulatory navel gazing. Here are some other ideas...
Sugar in 1992, Bob Mould churning up loud guitars with a summer drowning, channeling Debaser's bassline and taking Husker Du's wall of noise into the charts.
It's Immaterial in 1986, a sumptuous and vivid backing track with one of those It's Immaterial half spoken word and half sung vocals about suffering and surviving.
Jennifer Has Some Strange Ideas
Timothy J. Fairplay has made loads of really good solo records, vintage synths and drum machines with descriptions such as Stasi House and Dungeon Module. He's a lovely bloke too. Jennifer Has Some Strange Ideas is from an EP in Hoga Nord in 2017 called Mindfighter and is typically inventive and engaging analogue synth electro fun.
Finally, Parquet Courts in 2012 with no ideas other than some rather lovely, shambling indie rock...
As ever, feel free to drop your own responses to the Oblique Strategy into the comment box- You don't have to be ashamed of using your own ideas.
