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Might as well turn this into a little digest. Brandon Stosuy and Anim'l Collective reviews deserve their own threads, of course, but then there's your all-purpose, harmless douchies like Jon Dale, whose greatest sin is nothing worse than being a bit too credulous, a bit too pious, a bit too eager to chomp at the bit. Watch as he salivates over the recent 39 Clocks CD reissue on De Stijl and devotes the entire first paragraph of his review to kissing Tom Lax's ass, then attempts to justify this inept, sycophantic digression together at the end by comparing the Clocks to Shadow Ring (!):
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5059 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5059)
Highlights:
[The compilation] most often reminds of some weird Swell Maps/TV Personalities/basement-DIY whack-job zone, with a touch of Francophile Doctor Mix abandon thrown into the mix.
What I dig most about Zoned is how much it reminds you of other wasted DIY shit.
A good description of the longer, more rambling joints on Zoned would be the longer, more rambling joints on Jane From Occupied Europe.
The best, most unexpected and unexpectedly essential compilation of the year.
"Joints"?!
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39 Clocks are totally great, btw.
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Apropos of nothing I just want to come out and say that I find the Shadow Ring's music to be completely unlistenable.
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jawns!
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I only have one gripe:
it doesn't mention it's a CD release only (which makes it unbuyable)
on the other hand it makes me want to listen to that shadow ring record he mentions
I've got two others on my phone which have absolutely no place there...
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it makes me want to listen to that shadow ring record he mentions
Guy, it's beautiful and odd, just like 39 Clocks. Kidding aside, the Shadow Ring record he mentions is also a CD-only compilation and it looks pretty sweet except it's a fucking CD. You can probably still get copies of Lighthouse and I'm Some Songs on vinyl pretty easily.
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Loy-
Should I take umbrage somewhere amongst this brouhaha?
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Naw, man! I just thought that was a gratuitous name drop / ballz massage Jon Dale was proffering there -- not like you solicited that shit! Shee-it, if people's tripping all over themselves to massage "the boys," that ain't your damn fault, just 'cos you dropped some casual science about the Clox. Occupational hazard, I guess -- when you dropp mad science like that, sooner or later some peanut-brittle baby's gonna go and sprinkle your name all over his web doggerel.
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debate:
39 clocks sound more like "villiers terrace" and "pictures on my wall," than anything by the tvps or the swell maps.
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The early, drum machine version of Echo & the Bunnymen is at least in the same ballpark. 39 Clocks sound nothing like TVPs or Swell Maps. Dunno why this guy is so hung up on thinking of 'em as a German response to British DIY / early Rough Trade kinda bands, which they just aren't. Probably it's easier and sexier to think of them that way than to take them on their own terms, or than at least analyzing them in the context of their German contemporaries.
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Did they have German contemporaries?
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The early, drum machine version of Echo & the Bunnymen is at least in the same ballpark. 39 Clocks sound nothing like TVPs or Swell Maps. Dunno why this guy is so hung up on thinking of 'em as a German response to British DIY / early Rough Trade kinda bands, which they just aren't. Probably it's easier and sexier to think of them that way than to take them on their own terms, or than at least analyzing them in the context of their German contemporaries.
I hear a vague resemblance to Nikki Sudden on the track with the review- the phrasing of the vocals, I mean.
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Did they have German contemporaries?
I guess I think of them as being loosely associated with the German New Wave. Blixa Bargeld apparently thought of them as such, not that he's a very reliable source. He called Acapulco Dance Party one night to blab about 'em and gave me all kinds of misinformation but, tellingly, referred to them as a "Zick Zack band from Hanover who played with Neubauten." (Remind me to tell you about the time he called from Beijing to complain that a Christina Kubisch soundwalk he heard on the program had "plagiarized" a Neubauten song recorded two years later.)
You're right that they stood apart from the vast majority of NDW bands -- no one else in that milieu was mining the Suicide / Modern Lovers / Velvets / garage lineage as explicitly -- which is to say, they were pretty rock & roll for their time and place.
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At the risk of splitting hairs, I always seperated them from the Zickzack/Rondo/Pure Freude bands as they were from the south & seemingly (willingly?) cut off from the 'cutting edge' that was happening north. Their extraction of VU/Modern Lovers overt "vibe" not withstanding, I always thought of their output as singular, as I also did the solo works of Eric Hysteric & for that one brilliant 7" by Deutscher Abschaum/Pervers, both of whom hailed from southern Germany as well.
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At the risk of splitting hairs, I always seperated them from the Zickzack/Rondo/Pure Freude bands as they were from the south & seemingly (willingly?) cut off from the 'cutting edge' that was happening north. Their extraction of VU/Modern Lovers overt "vibe" not withstanding, I always thought of their output as singular,
isn't that true of most of the no fun scene though? 39 clocks are quite unique in their approach to the german language (i.e. all of their material and their band name was in english), the embracing of which was so critical to much of the german underground/new wave ethos. however, they did play as part of Second No Fun Festival, and they did release a record on What's So Funny About (which took over for Zickzack).
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Those are both good points, and ones I hadn't considered. I'll be the first to admit I wasn't aware of the north/south divide; makes sense. And Pookie, now that you mention it, of course their use of English is a pretty forceful way to distance themselves from NDW. Funny, I'd never given it much thought, but come to think of it, I initially mistook them for an obscure NYC band when I heard "Past Tense Hopes and Instant Fears on 42nd Street." Such an obvious marker, really. It stands out to me when I hear a Latin American band do the same, but I hadn't stopped to consider the politics of the NDW and what it meant to sing in English.
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I don't know. Maybe? Interestingly the band's 1st 'Greatest Hits' compilation was an lp on Flicknife released in 1983 entitled 'Blades In The Masquerade'.
At the end of the day I am merely a fan. As a diadact/pedant of that period historically & to the letter, I demure. Take it away,__________
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My new favorite Dusted writer is Emerson Dameron, whose work I investigated yesterday during my lunch hour. Check out his year-end favorites! His motivations are hard to fathom. For someone who's been doing this as long as he has, he knows surprisingly little, he has no discernible "angle," and his writing is tortured and clumsy. Check out his review of the new Jay Reatard LP!
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5167 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5167)
Iggy: misanthropic? Poisoned bubblegum!
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who compared jay to husker du? just askin'
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But, for punks, edgy power-pop seems as though it?s one of the few long-term routes that isn?t a dead-end.
yes it is
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His 2007 solo album Blood Visions staked his considerable claim to the punk tradition that sounds like melodic, smart-assed ?60s garage-rock LPs spun at 45 RPM.
no. i hate "wrong-speed-descriptions". they rarely make sense. why? cause when it's really done it sounds like experimental music made by 17 year old idiots who quit their emo band, have nothing to do and will "discover" african music in two weeks.
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Jay Reatard had and was aware of this technology years and years ago.
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Man this shit is tedious. If this is what music writing has become, it's no wonder print media is dead. Why do these idiots try to pretend like every CD review is an unwritten dissertation... Only to give up after 3 paragraphs when they realized they've devoted far too much of their "valuable" time to some tangential inside joke they were never in on in the first place. UGGH.
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'pulco, I am a bit lonely. Who at Dusted to I call for a ball massage?
yrs - Twinkey
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I nominate this guy, Twink:
http://dustedmagazine.com/writers/crumsho (http://dustedmagazine.com/writers/crumsho)
Can't vouch for the quality, but he seems easy -- he even digs Billy Bao!
Watch him grapple with Lester's legacy, then congratulate himself for seeing the futility of music criticism:
At the end of the day music critics, like critics of any art form in general, are confronted with the fact that much of our time is spnt trying to convey what are personal moments of introspection and meaning to a populous much better suited for figuring that stuff out on their own. For all his wordiness, Lester Bangs seemed to understand that.
Just like you, Michael, just like you!
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I'm gonna start writing like this
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Fuck, if I'm gonna do that I guess I gotta finally learn what a "raga" is.
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At the end of the day music critics, like critics of any art form in general, are confronted with the fact that much of our time is spnt trying to convey what are personal moments of introspection and meaning to a populous much better suited for figuring that stuff out on their own. For all his wordiness, Lester Bangs seemed to understand that.
i'm not sure how you can tolerate reading this impenetrable schmaltz long enough to make these selections. Or are these just random samplings?
Isn't the job of a music critic to make people want to buy stuff? I can't see any of this schlub's "personal moments of introspection" selling records.
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Isn't the job of a music critic to make people want to buy stuff?
only if it sucks
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I bet none of these limpwrists likes WARZONE at all WARZONE WARZONE WARZONE WARZONE
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Music criticism/records = an excuse to talk about their own lives at the expense of the record, mostly.
If you can't tell me what the record sounds like, at all, it's strike 123, siddown.
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I hate when critics refer to a record as 'essential'. No record is essential unless you require it to continue breathing and eating.
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a good music review is the lowest form of flattery.
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i'm not sure how you can tolerate reading this impenetrable schmaltz long enough to make these selections. Or are these just random samplings?
Honestly, it's almost random. For that Crumsho thing I just scrolled down the list of Dusted contributors and found somebody whose list of articles told me he was probably fulla shit. There's a dozen examples on that site alone.
I have a pretty high tolerance for this stuff, probably from having graded hundreds of undergraduate essays and from reading other people's garbage in creative writing workshops when I was much younger. Something about "rock criticism" in particular really seems to bring out the worst in people, or bring out the worst people. As Sharkey said in that Vice interview, music fans are the worst people on earth.
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a good music review is the lowest form of flattery.
to the author, reader or artist?
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(too often)
D. all of the above
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For once, here's a dude at Dusted who gets it, who writes intelligently about difficult music without being a pretentious dipshit:
http://dustedmagazine.com/writers/meyer (http://dustedmagazine.com/writers/meyer)
Bill Meyer. I must have read some of his reviews before but never noticed his byline. Also checked out one of his "pop" reviews and it was spot-on in its criticism without being nasty or facile:
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5046 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5046)
And he wrote one of the few thoughtful, perceptive reviews I've read of Graham Lambkin and Jason Lescalleet's Breadwinner disc:
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/4373 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/4373)
No dicksucking, no ballz massages.
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For once, here's a dude at Dusted who gets it, who writes intelligently about difficult music without being a pretentious dipshit:
http://dustedmagazine.com/writers/meyer (http://dustedmagazine.com/writers/meyer)
Bill Meyer. I must have read some of his reviews before but never noticed his byline. Also checked out one of his "pop" reviews and it was spot-on in its criticism without being nasty or facile:
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5046 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5046)
And he wrote one of the few thoughtful, perceptive reviews I've read of Graham Lambkin and Jason Lescalleet's Breadwinner disc:
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/4373 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/4373)
No dicksucking, no ballz massages.
yep, i've enjoyed the few reviews i've read of his. most recently his review of the moritz von oswald trio album.
pretty easy to read and follow.
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Let's face it, The Clean is the most important band of the twentieth century.
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5237 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5237)
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Let's face it, The Clean is the most important band of the twentieth century.
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5237 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5237)
HA! came here to post some dale-isms. this clean review boasts some heavy shit:
The energy of youth has been replaced by metaphoric and literal Pacific wisdom, a development that at first is a not unsad thing... BLABLA
American counterparts The Feelies and Yo La Tengo
this' what made me laugh: http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5232 <-- new jim o'rourke
The Visitor most of all sounds like glorious fantasia
But that fantasia (and occasional referentiality) is welcome: I?ll take O?Rourke?s articulation of fantasy over most any other artist?s drudgery of reality, any day.
and why-the-fucking-not? but the best one is a small phrase. from now on every sentence should start with
In toto
really.
just the pure typing motion for "In toto" is thee blast! you start off with your middle finger(which is supercool in itself) on the 'i', fast!, a 16th note! then you hit the 'n' with your index followed with the child-playful "toto". maybe in sum ersatz baroque rhythm if you like? it's great! i'll do it all weekend. it's more fun than some drudgery of reality for sure!
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This makes me very unsad.
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Wow! Just... wow.
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/oneohtrix-point-never (http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/oneohtrix-point-never)
FYI: Donald Lopatin's records are essentially nth-generation kraut/ambient/"sci-fi" synth excursions, laden with cryptic artwork and heavy titles that obliquely reference '80s sensibilities (instead of '70s sensibilities, which is what Lopatin is actually aping). If the year-end lists in The Wire, Tiny Mix Tapes, Dusted, etc. are to be believed, the 2-CD compilation Rifts, which collects three of Lopatin's recent LPs, was by all accounts the single most important sound recording of 2009 (besides Anim'l Collective). His conversational style is so precious! For a while you could link from the article above to a priceless exchange between Lopatin and fellow intellectual heavyweight David Keenan ("the Scotch Greil Marcus") on Keenan's blog, but now it's "by invitation only"!
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i have the "zones without people" LP on arbor and think it's pretty good.
what do you really expect from a guy with album art like this:
(http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/zoneswithoutpeople.jpg)
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I have Russian Mind, which is apparently the artist's favorite, and it's dull as bones. Also, he claims it's a "concept" record.
Tell me what you hear in that Zones Without People record. Am I missing something? I mean, I listened pretty closely to Russian Mind several times and found very little going on in there. The ZWP artwork looks like a Mars Volta / Philip K. Dick / Heavy Metal phantasy. Is that a woman in three stages of orgasm?
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i have a pretty low threshold of appreciation for any kind of warbly synth music. OPN does it well enough for me, though i've only listened to ZWP 2-3 times. i don't find myself kneeling in front of the speakers taking notes or anything. although i did find myself thinking about legend of zelda and shit when i was listening to it. also, and i'm sure this won't help my cause, but his stuff kind of hits the same spot for me that boards of canada's "music has the right to children" did when it came out - tickling the ol' suppressed memory lobes for snippets of filmstrip soundtracks and all that.
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Wow! Just... wow.
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/oneohtrix-point-never (http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/oneohtrix-point-never)
FYI: Donald Lopatin's records are essentially nth-generation kraut/ambient/"sci-fi" synth excursions, laden with cryptic artwork and heavy titles that obliquely reference '80s sensibilities (instead of '70s sensibilities, which is what Lopatin is actually aping). If the year-end lists in The Wire, Tiny Mix Tapes, Dusted, etc. are to be believed, the 2-CD compilation Rifts, which collects three of Lopatin's recent LPs, was by all accounts the single most important sound recording of 2009 (besides Anim'l Collective). His conversational style is so precious! For a while you could link from the article above to a priceless exchange between Lopatin and fellow intellectual heavyweight David Keenan ("the Scotch Greil Marcus") on Keenan's blog, but now it's "by invitation only"!
don't. know. where. to. start.
I didn't really become fascinated with the music until I read an email exchange between Lopatin and Wire critic David Keenan
pretty much says it all about the interview. horrible. to guys in a room jerking off cuz they know how - studied philosophy for a 3/4 year 'n stuff. oh yeah, and they don't (!IMOPRTANT!) reject "mass culture": pipettes, icp wiki and all. on the other hand they jam it "bassett-style" and while they're at it drop an obscure hommage to tremaine's attempt. pat pat lil boy. you probably wearin' nice shoes too... well done.
i have to read a sightings interview now to clean myself.
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In this month's Wire, our boy David Keenan turns in a four-page profile of Mattin -- a good four years after the magazine first ran a feature about M., written by the only person on the Wire staff to openly call bullshit on "Hypnogogic pop," the sober and cynical Keith Moline.
Ever the intrepid researcher and Rock Taxonomist, Keenan refers to Billy Bao and Drunkdriver as "hardcore punk bands." Cool! Ducktails gets a genre all to itself but I guess Drunkdriver and Billy Bao will just have to crowd into the same pit as Negative Approach and Chronic Sick.
Also, it seems that Drunkdriver's Kristy (or "Christie," as Keenan spells it, and who am I to argue?) is a man. The irony's especially sweet in light of the main photo in the article, which features Mattin in ghastly drag, no doubt a gesture in line with M's long-running critique of machismo and misogyny in the Noise scene.
Otherwise, the article's fine -- for once, the Kilted Kinbote stays out of the way and injects almost none of his legendary Keenanalysis into the mix, save for a priceless bit of "journalism" in which he meekly invites Mattin to a rugby match. An interesting piece in which the author mercifully relegates himself to the background.
BTW, according to the Volcanic Tongue catalogue, the (Highly Recommended) List of Profound Insecurities LP finds Drunkdriver "at their sludgiest, their greasiest" (compared to their usual "hardcore punk.") Buy it!
Elsewhere in the issue there's a fine eulogy for Rowland Howard that includes a moment of genuine insight and eloquence from editor Chris Bohn: "The tawdry balladry [of Howard's final solo records] cleaves to his belief ... that the greatest rock is birthed from equal parts intelligence and stupidity." That's one of the best things I've read about rock & roll in recent memory. The piece is brief but worth reading if you find yourself at a newsstand with a few minutes to kill.
There's also a good one-page article about the Dutch scrape artist Raymond Dijkstra -- the first interview I've seen with this guy, who otherwise has received no press in the English-speaking world outside of an annotated discography in the abysmal U.S. buttzine Bixobal.
* * *
More news from the bearded mind of Davey Keenan: Ohneotrix Point Never's Rift is officially a masterpiece!
World-beating collection that bundles three of the most significant Hypnagogic/synth/wasteland psych recordings of the post-Noise era across two CDs alongside a bunch of tracks from rare CD-R and cassette releases. Daniel Lopatin?s vision of a new synth music capable of devouring both underground and overground modes while reformulating them as passports to tomorrow presents one of the most radical re-thinks of the basic aesthetics of experimental music. Just as Noise lapsed into a generic caricature dominated by strict rules and style demarcations ? ala dance music ? Lopatin?s Oneohtrix Point Never project, alongside the work of The Skaters, Emeralds and a few other lone thinkers ? signalled a way out of the impasse. By factoring in timbres that were previously out of the reach of underground music and by reformulating memory and nostalgia as energies that were capable of unlocking suppressed personas, Lopatin birthed a music that was formally radical while maintain the ability to speak in the most profound, emotionally expressive terms. Rifts collects the entire trilogy of LPs he released on No Fun and Arbor, Betrayed In The Octagon, Zones Without People and Russian Mind, running from automatic computer music and the lonely sound of machines singing to themselves to perfectly formed melodic miniatures that conjure up the kind of imaginary landscapes that work as the perfect reification and reflection of the process of memory. Rifts is one of the most affecting collections of electronic compositions I?ve ever spent time inside and listened to with headphones it makes for a totally immersive trip, with Lopatin?s feel for the precise architecture of sound giving the music the feel of a dimensional hallucination. A modern masterpiece, highly recommended.
I love it! "Noise lapsed into a generic caricature dominated by strict rules and style demarcations" sometime around 2006 -- an not, say, 1989, 1995, or 2004. Quick -- somebody tell Ron Lesser! Enter the swashbuckling Lopatin, who rescues Noise from its tragic impasse by "birthing" a music that sounds just like Tangerine Dream.
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Also, it seems that Drunkdriver's Kristy (or "Christie," as Keenan spells it, and who am I to argue?) is a man. The irony's especially sweet in light of the main photo in the article, which features Mattin in ghastly drag, no doubt a gesture in line with M's long-running critique of machismo and misogyny in the Noise scene.
Mrs. Acapulco tells me I should clarify what I meant here. She's usually right, so here goes: Keenan has clearly never heard of Drunkdriver before, or even bothered to Google them, and when Mattin mentions a conversation he had with Kristy, Drunkdriver's kickass guitar player, Keenan mistakenly (bizarrely, hilariously) assumes that the guitar player is male -- even though she clearly has a woman's name and a quick Google Image search for live photos of the band would have shown that the guitar player is NOT a man. It's an embarrassing blunder in light of The Wire editorial staff's liberal pieties (in the past the magazine has slagged Prurient for Dominick's alleged phallocentrism and Sun City Girls for -- get this -- being insufficiently respectful of Middle Eastern cultures) and also in light of Mattin's oft-repeated criticism of the Noise underground's sausage party ethos.
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Another glowing review, this time from Pitchfork (8.0!):
Though it sometimes feels like drone music will be forever relegated to the fringes of the indie world, an impressive batch of bands and labels have sprung up recently to counter that idea. Alongside bigger acts such as Sunn O))) and Grouper (not true drone, but plenty drone-y), artists like Emeralds, Black to Comm, and Yellow Swans [?!]are each tugging the style into intriguing directions. Daniel Lopatin, who records as Oneohtrix Point Never and shares a label with Emeralds, could plausibly be lumped into this group but also exists outside of it. Where others bring to bear a wide range of instrumentation in creating these glistening, open-ended sounds, Lopatin does so using only electronics (synthesizers and arpeggiators, primarily) and as a result, his music is arguably more distinctive and often more difficult to pin down.
Because he's worked outside the label structure and released albums on limited-run cassette and CD-R until now, Lopatin's music also hasn't been easy to find. But Rifts, a 2xCD collection of his material since 2003 (including all three Oneohtrix Point Never full-lengths-- Betrayed in the Octagon, Zones Without People, and Russian Mind), seeks to correct that by compiling just about everything he's recorded as OPN to date. At two and a half hours long, it's a dizzying amount of music and virtually impossible to absorb in one sitting but for anyone with a passing interest in drone or ambient music, it's worth setting aside the time.
Part of the reason Rifts feels like a crucial listen is that Lopatin's approach is so thoroughly his own, to the point that trying to attach it to one genre doesn't really work. At turns icy and serene, at others frenetic and twisted, it feels like a modern sci-fi remake of minimalism and kosmiche-- there are long, repetitious builds with big openings between notes that suggest vast space and long drift. Intricate synth arrangements unfurl over long stretches in tracks like "Immanence" and "Ships Without Meaning" to create a sense of endless glide. In this capacity, Lopatin proves he can reconstruct drone on his own terms, but on Rifts' more forceful, tech-y songs he shows that's not the only trick up his sleeve.
The three LPs joined together in Rifts were supposedly intended as a trilogy, and while they do work as a unified whole, it seems wisest to approach the record as a compilation. The sheer size of it is daunting and you don't lose much by listening to its separate movements individually. Within these smaller pieces, Lopatin oscillates between the long-form mechanized whir described above and shorter tracks that push the album forward and draw back your attention after lengthy drifts. More Blade Runner than 2001: A Space Odyssey, "Computer Vision" and "Betrayed in the Octagon" use chopped-up, rapid-fire synths for propulsion and quick tonal shifts to add color. This is precisely the kind of music some would criticize as robotic and unfeeling, but for such heavily computerized sounds, Lopatin also shows a way with mood-- a song like "A Pact Between Strangers" is dark and threatening, like walking into a strange home with all the lights off.
But maybe what's most impressive about Rifts is that Lopatin creates a singular kind of noise-- there just aren't many albums out there that sound like this-- and rides it for nearly three hours without repeating himself very often. In this sense, the recent LP it reminds me of is D?m-Funk's Toeachizown, in that the vibe is inseparable from the artist, clearly the work of one person with a novel agenda and the chops to see it through to the finish. And like D?m-Funk's, it's the type of music that doesn't knock you over the head at first, but sort of seeps into your pores over time, uncovering new pleasures when you inevitably come back for more.
? Joe Colly, February 2, 2010
Blahblahblah emperor, clothes, somethingsomethingsometh ing, etc.
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yeah, i read that this morning and wondered if you would reference it. terrible. dude also doesn't seem to know that yellow swans disbanded two years ago.
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Also, it seems that Drunkdriver's Kristy (or "Christie," as Keenan spells it, and who am I to argue?) is a man. The irony's especially sweet in light of the main photo in the article, which features Mattin in ghastly drag, no doubt a gesture in line with M's long-running critique of machismo and misogyny in the Noise scene.
Mrs. Acapulco tells me I should clarify what I meant here. She's usually right, so here goes: Keenan has clearly never heard of Drunkdriver before, or even bothered to Google them, and when Mattin mentions a conversation he had with Kristy, Drunkdriver's kickass guitar player, Keenan mistakenly (bizarrely, hilariously) assumes that the guitar player is male -- even though she clearly has a woman's name and a quick Google Image search for live photos of the band would have shown that the guitar player is NOT a man. It's an embarrassing blunder in light of The Wire editorial staff's liberal pieties (in the past the magazine has slagged Prurient for Dominick's alleged phallocentrism and Sun City Girls for -- get this -- being insufficiently respectful of Middle Eastern cultures) and also in light of Mattin's oft-repeated criticism of the Noise underground's sausage party ethos.
Ah, Kristy mentioned this article to me. Is this online or will I have to read at the magazine store?
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infinitely more heavy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI3ImtC_QuM&feature=related
next touchstone for the mainstays of the Volcanic Tongue catalog:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRd9TQNxfXw
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Whet bull, did you read that letter that some dude wrote to The Wire in response to Edwin Pouncey's review of Bill Orcutt's record? Priceless.
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In Edwin Pounceys review of A New Way To Pay Old Debts (The Wire 309), Bill Orcutts playing is compared to Cecil Taylor, Derek Bailey and Glenn Gould with evidence that is either highly specious or totally non-existent.
One of the most salient features of the album is the low C played on the open detuned sixth string of Orcutts guitar. Its hard to miss. He returns to this note every few seconds on every single track. There arent any other notes in that register on the album. Orcutt sticks to the C minor pentatonic scale for the majority of his licks on strings one, two and three (as you pointed out and one can observe from the video posted on The Wires webpage, Orcutt has removed strings four and five from his guitar). At the end of a list of guitar influences, you name Derek Bailey claiming that his influence echoes loudest here. No further explanation of this influence is given in your review, but lets examine what Derek Bailey has done for the guitar and see if we can find any similarities to Orcutt.
Bailey took Anton Weberns technique of constructing a single line of melody out of individual notes from several instruments of disparate timbres and applied it to the guitar. Rather than having access to a trumpet, clarinet and violin, for example, his timbre options were limited to fretted notes, open notes and harmonics. Bailey would pick a set of tri-chords and improvise on these three different options. Yes, theres more to Derek Baileys oeuvre than this, but this is Baileys most obvious contribution to the history of guitar playing. Bill Orcutt doesnt do anything resembling this. There arent any tri-chords. Orcutt sticks to a pentatonic scale. Theres no even distribution of pitches among fretted notes, open notes and harmonics on A New Way To Pay Old Debts. The only similarity I can find between Derek Bailey and Bill Orcutt is that they both play the guitar and that they both improvise.
Pouncey goes into a bit more depth in his comparison to Cecil Taylor. He says that there is a distinct keyboard element to Orcutts style, and that the influence can be plainly heard midway through Lip Rich, where the reverberating guitar strings against the pickup are strained to the point where they sound like Taylors stabbed piano keys. First of all, the middle of Lip Rich sounds like the rest of Lip Rich. Theres nothing Cecil Taylor-like about this section that can be plainly heard. It also sounds like every other track on the album with the exception of the last. Second, Id like you to name one Cecil Taylor album where he returns to the same pedal-point over and over again every few seconds throughout every piece.
Pouncey supports the idea that Glenn Gould is an influence on this album by pointing out that they both sing along with their instruments. You mention Gould in the headline, but this is the only connection to him you posit, and it is a superficial connection, if not a meaningless one. Lots of instrumentalists, classical and jazz alike, have recorded albums where their singing along is audible. Why not compare Orcutt to a jazz musician who sings along with the music? At least then theyre both improvisors. The comparison might be slightly more meaningful if it was made to another guitarist, but then it would undermine the equally tenuous and unsupported contention that Orcutts playing sounds like a keyboard.
As for the Gould quotation, No piano need feel duty-bound to always sound like a piano: the truth is that A New Way To Pay Old Debts does sound like a guitar album. Anyone who knows anything about the instrument will know that when they hear the omnipresent open low C that Orcutt returns to again and again like a crutch and the use of the C minor pentatonic scale. It doesnt sound anything like a piano, an instrument that doesnt have open or fretted strings and doesnt allow for that particular technical sleight of hand.
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It also doesnt sound anything like Derek Bailey.
Did Orcutt tell you to mention Bailey, Taylor and Gould? If so, maybe Orcutt should have written the review. Youve already demonstrated a lack of interest in (or perhaps aptitude for?) serious critical rigour. No need to actually review the music when the artist is feeding you lines about it.
One of my gripes with academic music theory is that its proponents see no problem writing a paper, publishing a book, or teaching a class that contains lots and lots of evidence and no point. Nothing to prove. I dont need to hear someone rattle on about a harmonic analysis of Wagners Tristan And Isolde if that analysis isnt going to lead to anything about Wagners cultural or historical significance. With your review of A New Way To Pay Old Debts you have done the opposite. Youve made a series of assertions about a works significance without providing one bit of real evidence. For shame.
Christopher Riggs Michigan, USA
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thanks for sharing this immaculate piece of bullshit
goes to show that this mag could be even worse than what it is if some readers became writers
guy could have sent this one line, though:
It also doesnt sound anything like Derek Bailey.
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i think that reader letter is spot on. for what it aspires to be, the wire uses a lot of flowery, non-specific language. rampant namedropping is a way of both showing how extensively well-read the (review) writer is and avoiding specific discussion of the music. pointing out that these comparisons are bullshit so verboselly, and from such a precious perspective, may not be your cup of tea, but what the writer of the letter said is true and helpful, whereas dropping (hip) names that may or may not be valid comparisons is just misleading, lazy and conceited.
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ha! haven't read the review but i have no problem with the letter at all. he's really transparent in everything he states and is absolutely making clear why he disagrees with the review of the record. i don't think that there's anything bad about that. also the "wire even worse if readers wrote" thing is besides the point cause that letter doesn't come from a motivation to get hired. i guess he just wanted to contribute to a mag he seems to really care about. (who would think that such a piece would get published in the first place???)
also the suggestion to condense it to one sentence would obviously be as bad a name drop as the review like it's criticised.
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ha! haven't read the review but i have no problem with the letter at all. he's really transparent in everything he states and is absolutely making clear why he disagrees with the review of the record. i don't think that there's anything bad about that. also the "wire even worse if readers wrote" thing is besides the point cause that letter doesn't come from a motivation to get hired. i guess he just wanted to contribute to a mag he seems to really care about. (who would think that such a piece would get published in the first place???)
also the suggestion to condense it to one sentence would obviously be as bad a name drop as the review like it's criticised.
I disagree with the tone of this letter, I disagree with the sentiments expressed, I disagree with all the arguments (except this one line), I disagree about the review too citing glenn gould and whatnot, I disagree with all of this culture and their approach to music
and I disagree with side 2 of that record!
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Ah, Kristy mentioned this article to me. Is this online or will I have to read at the magazine store?
Unfortunately none of The Wire's content is online (as far as I know.) If you send me a SASE I will photocopie the article and mail it to you in 2-3 weeks (or you can just read it at Borders or sumfin', which is what I usually do).
Whet bull, did you read that letter that some dude wrote to The Wire in response to Edwin Pouncey's review of Bill Orcutt's record? Priceless.
Yeah, thanks for posting it! I really liked that letter, and I agree with Damn that the letter writer is pretty lucid and no-bullshit. Pouncey's generally a cool dude, I think (isn't he Savage Pencil? I think so...). His review is yet another case study in the highbrow/lowbrow inferiority complex from which most rock-based writers suffer (even the best ones). Like, the way only way we can think of to discuss the merits of a solo instrumental record is to compare it to shit like Cecil Taylor or Derek Bailey, even when the soloist in question is essentially a self-taught musician with no formal technical chops. Arthur Doyle is another dude whose playing, frankly, sucks in academic terms -- he's just a fucking weirdo who plays that way 'cos that's all he knows. Dude probably couldn't play a decent standard in the bebop style if he wanted to.
I think Orcutt's record is great, one of the best solo guitar records I've heard in fact, but his process seems completely intuitive and has nothing to do with Bailey's or Taylor's -- both of those guys came out of jazz and arrived at their processes in a very methodical, studied way. If it came down to it, either one of them could play circles around Orcutt, but neither would ever have arrived at Orcutt's technique. Orcutt's ultimately an all-American, intuitive folk musician (a very good, very advanced one). The Glenn Gould comparison is just ridiculous, clutching at straws.
I think The Wire is excited to see a cat like Orcutt making a "serious" record, under his own name (as opposed to a fucked-up noise record with a band called Harry Pussy) like a "serious" musician, so he gets the "serious musician" treatment and his work is equated with that of the giants of improv, rather than accepting it on its own terms and trying to make sense of it as its own thing.
infinitely more heavy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI3ImtC_QuM&feature=related
next touchstone for the mainstays of the Volcanic Tongue catalog:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRd9TQNxfXw
That HBO shit is fucked UP, brah! If you should incorporate that shit into your soundworld, you might open up a few third and even fourth eyes (the fourth is the peen, I think). I'm with you, Boodles -- the CTW's library music is leagues ahead of all that shitt. Friday, Sophie's Pt. IV? I could go for another sangwich.
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Loy the Loyer - time to file a discovery motion. If you do, you find this:
http://www.myspace.com/criigs
Letter writer is Oberlin educated, classically trained and implicitly aghast that none of you fuckin' TB yokels know him and his music while most of you are digging the Orcutt like crazy, as you should be.
Riggs letter is nothing more than a failed NFL QB--now a commentator--saying this about a QB's 18-20, 400 yard, 5 touchdown performance: "His footwork was all wrong." Caught up in technicalities, unable to appreciate what's happening before his eyes or, in the case of Bill O., his ears.
Orcutt sounds like Orcutt. I don't care what The Wire or Riggs think. The fact that the latter's "music" sounds like insects dying only make it more so. Bailey, Gold, Taylor, Riggs, The Wire, in the context of Orcutt's masterpiece, can all SUCK IT.
Riggs' letter especially is nothing but bullshit.
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Loy the Loyer - time to file a discovery motion. If you do, you find this:
http://www.myspace.com/criigs
Letter writer is Oberlin educated, classically trained and implicitly aghast that none of you fuckin' TB yokels know him and his music while most of you are digging the Orcutt like crazy, as you should be.
Riggs letter is nothing more than a failed NFL QB--now a commentator--saying this about a QB's 18-20, 400 yard, 5 touchdown performance: "His footwork was all wrong." Caught up in technicalities, unable to appreciate what's happening before his eyes or, in the case of Bill O., his ears.
Orcutt sounds like Orcutt. I don't care what The Wire or Riggs think. The fact that the latter's "music" sounds like insects dying only make it more so. Bailey, Gold, Taylor, Riggs, The Wire, in the context of Orcutt's masterpiece, can all SUCK IT.
Riggs' letter especially is nothing but bullshit.
woo hoo!
right on.
I still think that side 2 is a letdown after the brilliance of side 1
but might reconsider if I ever think of beginning the listening by side 2...
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Yr a good guy Guy so I'll provide you w/ a euro sports analogy in the event the American football one is somewhat lost on you.
It's like a footy goalkeeper recording 10 saves on his team's way to a 1-0 shutout in a Cup game and the commentator, a failed goalkeeper, saying, 'His ponytail was all wrong."
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I like the Orcutt record. Need to give it more listens.
That is all.
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Yr a good guy Guy so I'll provide you w/ a euro sports analogy in the event the American football one is somewhat lost on you.
It's like a footy goalkeeper recording 10 saves on his team's way to a 1-0 shutout in a Cup game and the commentator, a failed goalkeeper, saying, 'His ponytail was all wrong."
Ha! Seriously, though -- who is this? I'm racking my brain tryina figger it, but I've no idea. 'Salright if you wanna be coy about it.
Like I said, I love Orcutt's record and I don't particularly care that he leans on a single pedal-point throughout or whatever. Pouncey's a good writer, but I think rock doodz tend to have an inferiority complex vis a fuckin' vis jazz and other academic musics, so if something comes along that smells like, you know, "serious musicianship," they're eager to talk about it in those terms, y'know?
Your point's well taken that Riggs is missing the point. There's an implicit argument in his letter that Orcutt's techie shortcomings are a problem, which is stoopid, but he's right to call Pouncey on his shit. Would Orc have gotten the same treatment from The Wire et al. if he'd called himself sumfin' goofy, like Double Leopards, or Cave of Nazis, or Taint Shit (TM)? Progly not.
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Yr a good guy Guy so I'll provide you w/ a euro sports analogy in the event the American football one is somewhat lost on you.
It's like a footy goalkeeper recording 10 saves on his team's way to a 1-0 shutout in a Cup game and the commentator, a failed goalkeeper, saying, 'His ponytail was all wrong."
Ha! Seriously, though -- who is this? I'm racking my brain tryina figger it, but I've no idea. 'Salright if you wanna be coy about it.
Like I said, I love Orcutt's record and I don't particularly care that he leans on a single pedal-point throughout or whatever. Pouncey's a good writer, but I think rock doodz tend to have an inferiority complex vis a fuckin' vis jazz and other academic musics, so if something comes along that smells like, you know, "serious musicianship," they're eager to talk about it in those terms, y'know?
Your point's well taken that Riggs is missing the point. There's an implicit argument in his letter that Orcutt's techie shortcomings are a problem, which is stoopid, but he's right to call Pouncey on his shit. Would Orc have gotten the same treatment from The Wire et al. if he'd called himself sumfin' goofy, like Double Leopards, or Cave of Nazis, or Taint Shit (TM)? Progly not.
Coy Loy - I don't think Orcutt called himself anything. He just teed it up and wailed. Plus, I coulda sworn someone told me he took the two MIDDLE strings off the board.
I think Riggs letter is more about jealousy than anything else--Orcutt's getting covered/praised and he's not. I find much of the writing in The Wire insufferable and impossible to wade through, but rock criticism has always been mostly (95%) bullshit, guys makin' up stuff, name-dropping, pointless comparisons, etc. I honestly think the good rock criticism is part of the critic's autobiography. Anything else = crank yankin' and always has.
Pedants, mathaterians, and improv "theorists" like Riggs don't rock and they never will.
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Yr probably right. I haven't looked at the dude's MySpace site but I guess he does sound like he's got a stick up his ass.
Also... I might be overanalyzing Pouncey. His eagerness to drop names might just be a straight-up failure of vocabulary or imagination.
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I Am a Dalek
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Yr a good guy Guy so I'll provide you w/ a euro sports analogy in the event the American football one is somewhat lost on you.
It's like a footy goalkeeper recording 10 saves on his team's way to a 1-0 shutout in a Cup game and the commentator, a failed goalkeeper, saying, 'His ponytail was all wrong."
well, I did understand the american right away... but this one I only recognize the punchline
which is all that is needed
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Pouncey's a good writer, but I think rock doodz tend to have an inferiority complex vis a fuckin' vis jazz and other academic musics, so if something comes along that smells like, you know, "serious musicianship," they're eager to talk about it in those terms, y'know?
no, no, no loy, only pseudo r*ck doodz in the wire do that
it is a culture that needs to be put in its place and destroyed.
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Yr probably right. I haven't looked at the dude's MySpace site but I guess he does sound like he's got a stick up his ass.
Also... I might be overanalyzing Pouncey. His eagerness to drop names might just be a straight-up failure of vocabulary or imagination.
dropping names sells records
people want to know what it all sounds like
(unfortunately)
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Pouncey's a good writer, but I think rock doodz tend to have an inferiority complex vis a fuckin' vis jazz and other academic musics, so if something comes along that smells like, you know, "serious musicianship," they're eager to talk about it in those terms, y'know?
no, no, no loy, only pseudo r*ck doodz in the wire do that
it is a culture that needs to be put in its place and destroyed.
I don't mean to divert anyone from scrutinizing The Wire for purposes of directing ridicule and scorn at many of its writers (by the way, its editor Tony "Red" Herrington has rejected my requests for Teepee coverage, as one example of the mag's hypnagogic cluelessness) just pointing out that in this case the "solution"--Riggs' letter--is merely another example of the disease, maybe even a new, more virulent strain.
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goes to show that this mag could be even worse than what it is if some readers became writers
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Tony "Red" Herrington has rejected my requests for Teepee coverage
Highlarious! You actually wrote The Wire and asked that they cover Teepee? Oh, man, now that is priceless. Will you post the letter here, please?
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Tony "Red" Herrington has rejected my requests for Teepee coverage
Highlarious! You actually wrote The Wire and asked that they cover Teepee? Oh, man, now that is priceless. Will you post the letter here, please?
No, I didn't write to The Wire and ask that they cover Teepee. I wrote to The Wire to point out several errors in a recent issue and "Red" and I got to talking about bands that I thought might fit under The Wire's umbrella. He's a big fan of Sun Awk! and Dudtails by the way. I did get them to review The Bassholes. But I should have kept the exchange because it wound up with him in high dudgeon over some perceived slight. I believe my last email to him was, "Lighten up Francis."
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I gotta start writing those guys! Is there even one female writer at that magazine, btw? Could be wrong, but I don't think so.
My favorite "Best / Worst of 2009" list was David Keenan's of course, where he bemoans the longevity of "the smartass / tough-guy school of criticism, blathering on mindlessly"! That was the best. I hope he read my review of his wife's shitty record in Termbo last year. How big of a waste of time would it be to start corresponding with Keens (under an assumed name), and how big would the payoff be, y'think? If that ratio were anything better than 2/1, I know what I'd be doing right now.
Also, humor us, will ya? You big lady.
Meshkalina, what's your favorite song to listen to when you're taking a poop? Mine is the same as my favorite song to listen to while jerkin' it: "Telstar," by The Tornadoes.
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I a MAN, am in love with Whet Bull. I don't have the time, patience or creativity to form thoughts as good as his, but I (yes, I!), a degenerate homo, LOVES THE MAN.
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By the way, yes, they had the woman from Electralane writing for them, at one point. Till they bombed.
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Sir, you're a gentleman and a scholar. And you're embarrassing us both with the gratuitous ballz massage of two posts ago!
Toodles,
W. Bull
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So 'Pulco, will you name some music writers you admire?
I think Mia Clarke (Electrelane gal?) still writes for The Wire here and there, and there's some newer chick but I'm at work and don't keep a pile of Wire mags at my desk. But sure, overall it's a big sausagefest.
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So 'Pulco, will you name some music writers you admire?
OFF TOPIC!!!
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So 'Pulco, will you name some music writers you admire?
OFF TOPIC!!!
Back on topic. Chuck Eddy. Discuss.
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Chuck Eddy and Chuck Klosterman need to die in a rollercoaster accident. Or a fishing boat
mishap.
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Chuck Eddy and Chuck Klosterman need to die in a rollercoaster accident. Or a fishing boat
mishap.
Eddy >> Colostomyman but both totally suck. I met Eddy in Ann Arbor rec store many years ago. He had a Can album in one hand and a Sheena Easton 7" in the other. He thought he was hip b/c he had a foot in both worlds, never realizing that he should try to explain the polarity of taste. In fact, he's never felt the need to do that and thinks it's enough to do things like make Little Big Town (contemp. country) #1 on his Village Voice year end ballot. It's not, but by now who cares. I've already written way too much.
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Chuck Eddy and Chuck Klosterman need to die in a rollercoaster accident. Or a fishing boat
mishap.
Jim Derogatis can suck a dick too. Also Marcus, Matos, Robert Palmer, Keenan (as mentioned earlier), etc, etc.... is there anyone out there even comparable to Meltzer (i.e. fun to read, knowledgeable, not pretentious)?
edit: I guess "Roland Woodbe" is always fun, Tony Rettman (but he doesn't seem to write anymore), Metal Mike from what I've read... who else?
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Chuck Eddy and Chuck Klosterman need to die in a rollercoaster accident. Or a fishing boat
mishap.
Jim Derogatis can suck a dick too. Also Marcus, Matos, Robert Palmer, Keenan (as mentioned earlier), etc, etc.... is there anyone out there even comparable to Meltzer (i.e. fun to read, knowledgeable, not pretentious)?
Jim Derogatis' book about "psychedelic music" achieved a perfect null state since it revealed, after 250+ pages, that he knew absolutely nothing about the subject.
Later he posted on his website a private reminiscense about Lester Bangs of mine w/out my permission.
If they ever made a movie about him like "Almost Famous" they'd have to get one of those 900 pound people who hasn't been out of bed for two years to play him.
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Chuck Eddy and Chuck Klosterman need to die in a rollercoaster accident. Or a fishing boat
mishap.
Jim Derogatis can suck a dick too. Also Marcus, Matos, Robert Palmer, Keenan (as mentioned earlier), etc, etc.... is there anyone out there even comparable to Meltzer (i.e. fun to read, knowledgeable, not pretentious)?
edit: I guess "Roland Woodbe" is always fun, Tony Rettman (but he doesn't seem to write anymore), Metal Mike from what I've read... who else?
Meltzer could be very pretentious. Palmer--RIP--was a good writer with some questionable taste. I liked Jay Hinman's blogs--not the political one--and the guys/gals here and at ZGun do a nice job. Negative Guest List is getting a good buzz. Lindsey Hutton at Next Big Thing has had the same nice p ersonal style since he was doing NBT print zine. I'm not into a lot of the same music but find something of interest there now and then. But it's mostly a big ocean of shit, not NBT just rock criticism at large. Look at the Village Voice Pazz and Jop year end poll. It used to be all the heavy hitters waying in w/ completely unknown bands winning and good essays about for example The Mekons turn to apocalypse country but now they have a thousand people voting, most of them who got the rock critic job at a mid-size city paper b/c no one else wanted it. The result is ANIMAL COLLECTIVE hooray.
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Chuck Eddy and Chuck Klosterman need to die in a rollercoaster accident. Or a fishing boat
mishap.
Jim Derogatis can suck a dick too. Also Marcus, Matos, Robert Palmer, Keenan (as mentioned earlier), etc, etc.... is there anyone out there even comparable to Meltzer (i.e. fun to read, knowledgeable, not pretentious)?
edit: I guess "Roland Woodbe" is always fun, Tony Rettman (but he doesn't seem to write anymore), Metal Mike from what I've read... who else?
Meltzer could be very pretentious. Palmer--RIP--was a good writer with some questionable taste.
Yeah, I see what you're saying re. Meltzer, what with the occasional pseudo-philosophical babble, and the guy had a pretty obvious chip on his shoulder, but I feel like a lot of his "pretension" comes off as tongue-in-cheek (to me at least). I even find the nigh-unreadable "Aesthetics of Rock" funny in an absurd sort of way.
Palmer seemed to have his heart in the right place, but dude's writing is dry as mummified toast. zzzzzzzz
I read and enjoy Z Gun... smart reviewers, although I think they could stand to call stuff out more often for being shitty. I'll have to track down the other stuff you mentioned.
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You might have Palmer mixed up w/ someone. His style is pretty lively.
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You might have Palmer mixed up w/ someone. His style is pretty lively.
No, I don't. Although I'll admit that my knowledge of his writing doesn't run very deep. I just picked up that new anthology of his stuff at the library, read about 10 of the pieces, went "fuck this" and returned it.
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I haven't seen it. Are there two Robert Palmers?
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I dunno. This is the book I'm talking about:
http://www.amazon.com/Blues-Chaos-Writing-Robert-Palmer/dp/1416599746 (http://www.amazon.com/Blues-Chaos-Writing-Robert-Palmer/dp/1416599746)
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I agree when the subj. matter is dry--like those first couple essays--the writing is dry. In fact, I prefer his stuff about Lennon, punk, various wildmen to blues and jazz stuff. I was unaware of the book. Reading him in "real time" probably makes a difference too. A lot of stuff that was once punchy is now just old.
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My favorite old-timers are the usual suspects: Bangs, Meltzer, Shaw. I'm sure I'm in the minority but I think Christgau's writing in the '70s was often very insightful. I thought the writing in Bananafish was outstanding, esp. Seymour Glass, Roland Woodbe, and Earl Kuck (whoever that was). Mark Dancey's Motorbooty was a great satire zine. Black to Comm and Superdope were great reads. I loved Byron's writing when I was a little younger but I don't find him dependable -- guy's too entrenched (and Thurston is a jackass).
The Wire's Keith Moline is pretty good, and Marc Masters is a good, no-bullshit guy as well. Dude who does Yellowgreenred is an excellent writer (he posts here, as you probably know), though he likes some stuff that I can't stand (that's fine, he's not stupid about it). Bill Meyers at Dusted writes intelligently and lucidly about experimental music, one of very few people doing so right now. Dan Warburton at Paris Transatlantic is probably the single best writer on experimental and "difficult" music. My friend Brian Olewnick, a Paris Trans contributor, writes a good blog about experimental and improvised music. Mark Prindle, also a friend, is one of the funniest, smartest writers of my generation and I read his work religiously. And I'm not gonna lie, Mosurak's column is a great resource and I always read him even if I don't always agree with him or particuarly love his writing -- Still Single's important 'cos they review every underground rock record that matters and the column's reached a point where people send him every record that comes out and he doesn't hafta kiss anyone's ass.
And I sincerely respect and admire my colleagues here on Termbo and at Z-Gun, two organizations of which I'm proud to be a part.
DeRogatis is a moe-ron, Klosterman's a jagoff who shoulda stopped writing about a decade ago. I liked Chuck Eddy's heavy metal book (which isn't actually about heavy metal, unless Morrissey and the Swans also count as metal), but I find his columns undigestible.
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Oh, yeah:
I really enjoyed Shit-Fi for awhile, though I think the guy's premise is fundamentally flawed. Very good writing in there and seriously erudite w/ respect to the music he discusses.
Patrick the Llama, Aaron Milenski and others at Lysergia / Acid Archives are among the best people writing on marginal music. Along those same lines, Mario Panciera (or whoever it was that actually wrote 45 Revolutions) is brilliant. (Kugelberg, not so much.)
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Hey, I don't wanna jack the thread or nuthin', but yr response makes me want to ask a question re: Yellowgreenred. Is the music yr talking about which you can't stand the techno/club-related stuff, or are you referring to just disagreeing with his opinion on some more Termbo approved genres?
Just curious, 'cuz I love that he's getting techno action on that shit, and while I understand the aversion a lot of scum-rock "types" have for it, I am actually curious as to how, like, Forced Exposure moved from being a print zine covering, y'know, scum rock, etc. to being a distro that happens to import a lot of techno stuff.
I'm sure the answers are out there, and I apologise for typing the word "techno" multiple times into one post on Termbo, but these are "thoughts" and "questions" that pop into my Naive Midwestern(tm) "mind", and I thought I'd ask. For some reason, ask here.
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Earl Kuck was "my" sales guy at Revolver back in my Santa Fe days & rumored to be the same person as Seymour Glass - where is he now?
Re: Marc Masters, I liked Crank quite a bit but his current reviews in the Wire seem to reveal a taste in music that ossified back in the mid-90s when Homestead was putting out David Ware CDs. That may be Wire editorial bias & not Masters' fault.
Bill Meyer wrote a bunch for Popwatch back in the 90s, didn't he? Anybody have a pile of those they wanna unload?
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re: Bill Meyer - Yes. Yes/No
re: Still Single - agreed.
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I am actually curious as to how, like, Forced Exposure moved from being a print zine covering, y'know, scum rock, etc. to being a distro that happens to import a lot of techno stuff.
The distro arm came out of a little mailorder thing they did outta the back of the magazine. It used to be mostly the same subject matter as the later issues of the mag: some scum/no wave rock, various strands of psych, some free jazz and free improv, and a bit of 20th-c classical. My impression is that Jimmy Johnson got into techno, but I may be wrong.
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Loy, can you elaborate on Shit-fi's flawed premise. Jusr curious 'cuase I agree that his writing is great and I really like his site. I think it's interested to see theory in that particular sphere.
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EDIT: I need to stop posting from my phone cause these posts are a mess.
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Ha. Pretty much have only been posting from a phone. Keep it tight.
Schrader had a thing in the Brooklyn Rail recently about Lipstick Traces. It was interesting, probably on hissite
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I believe YellowGreenRed or whatever is Pissed Jeans guitarist who is also a good visual artist.
Your Flesh has consistently had douches writing for it but now it has latter day renaissance dude Montgomery Buckles, a huge step in the right direction.
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From the 90s crop, the best were Bananafish, Rock Mag, Superdope and Black to Comm. Bananafish could make a Stomachache 7" sound like something you would want to actually sit down and listen to, but in the end the writeups were almost always better than the subject. Here I am with a Masonna CD in the machine, reading about it in Bananafish...I take the CD out, toss it onto the sell pile and keep reading the mag.
Rock Mag took reviews and writing seriously, which for the 90s was 75% of the struggle since every other writer was either a) too smart and cool to actually review records or b) nakedly trolling for CD promos ie; an everything is great!! hack. Ellison maybe got too academic at times, but at least he had a point he was trying to hammer home, taste notwithstanding.
Superdope just had a nice balance of psych/punk/KBD/indie, no other mag had quite the same range while keeping a punk-first tack, outside of that mag that the Oblivians dudes were doing, what was that called again? Wipeout!
Black To Comm is the toughest one. His taste is largely impeccable, I really like the scattered layout and the sheer heft of his mags, but this is more a vote for the mag as a whole, rather than the writing. That dude really is a terrible writer overall, he can't explain why anything is worthwhile without tilting at the same old battered windmills born of cultural bitterness, and, with the later issues, flat out encroaching old age. "A golden era has passed, pity the fallen Empire of Max's Kansas City ye cringing mortals!" Every review ends with the same xerox-style crankiness. I'm sure people find that charming in the manner of the surly Old Man bartender who won't serve you what you ask for because he's "kooky 'n all" but in the end I usually just note the artists and titles of interest and kind of blip through the rest of the review looking for his inevitable points of comparison.
MRR in the 90s could always run the occasional punker article that was as good as anything in any other zine. That's the random nature of the mag.
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Black To Comm is the toughest one. His taste is largely impeccable, I really like the scattered layout and the sheer heft of his mags, but this is more a vote for the mag as a whole, rather than the writing. That dude really is a terrible writer overall, he can't explain why anything is worthwhile without tilting at the same old battered windmills born of cultural bitterness, and, with the later issues, flat out encroaching old age. "A golden era has passed, pity the fallen Empire of Max's Kansas City ye cringing mortals!" Every review ends with the same xerox-style crankiness. I'm sure people find that charming in the manner of the surly Old Man bartender who won't serve you what you ask for because he's "kooky 'n all" but in the end I usually just note the artists and titles of interest and kind of blip through the rest of the review looking for his inevitable points of comparison.
MRR in the 90s could always run the occasional punker article that was as good as anything in any other zine. That's the random nature of the mag.
Superdope was Hinman, right. Tim Ellison's tastes got outer and outer; I think he writes a blog about opera now, I ain't lyin.
Stigliano fancies himself a serious supply side race baiting conservative, but is also quiet fond of racist and poopy humor. He has great taste in music, but his writing is the equivalent of listening to Lamont Young. Starts out good, but a little goes a long way.
Also, he's started many "feuds" with the unsuspecting--Hinman, the OZ Dave Lang, Ken Shimamoto--over things too trivial to recount and gone on and on about them. See above comparison to Lamont Young. And ref. to racist and poopy humor and add gay.
If you are going back this far,--early, mid -80s?-- The Offense and The Offense Newsletter in Columbus have to be in there. All the Columbus suspects--Howland, House, Shepard, Rep, TJ Lax, etc. and more as fanzine writers run by an insurance investigator named Tim Anstaett who loved in equal measures Joy Division and Sinatra and who brought the Fall to Columbus (among many other achievments of staggering audacity, oh yeah, TKA ever the straight arrow, drove Nick Cave around the East Side looking for dope too!). Flexi discs that people would kill to own now. No, there is nothing on the 'net.
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re. Meltzer
moooohahahaha!
Black To Comm is the toughest one. His taste is largely impeccable, I really like the scattered layout and the sheer heft of his mags, but this is more a vote for the mag as a whole, rather than the writing. That dude really is a terrible writer overall, he can't explain why anything is worthwhile without tilting at the same old battered windmills born of cultural bitterness, and, with the later issues, flat out encroaching old age. "A golden era has passed, pity the fallen Empire of Max's Kansas City ye cringing mortals!" Every review ends with the same xerox-style crankiness. I'm sure people find that charming in the manner of the surly Old Man bartender who won't serve you what you ask for because he's "kooky 'n all" but in the end I usually just note the artists and titles of interest and kind of blip through the rest of the review looking for his inevitable points of comparison.
i just read the follow-up blog a coupla times and it was depressing the shit outta me. kept on checking it though cuz of the subjects. KEPT.
the only things beside this message board/the classix i really like to read right now are z-gun and a coupla wires. that's pretty much it though i have some niche homo lying around. they're pretty nice but not as brain blowing essential as z-gun but what could again so whatever you know what i mean.
i read the old ones for writing, the new for info. still waiting for the slash mag site with all the scans to get going. already wrote the guy but nothing seems to happen.
erm, and i don't wanna be an ass but calling the electronic stuff discussed on yellow green red simply "techno" is pretty wrong. just to give you an idea of his AMAZING SCOPE! there's more to it, dig?
the first time i saw that he wrote about e-dance i found it odd. it's not really coming together cause he's pretty focused in "both fields" (that'd be termbo-y kram and more - i'm sorry for the words following - "sophisticated" i.e. not "purely functional" dance like for example villalobos or dubstep fringes). i'd love to have two blogs by hollabackgirl.
HEAR ME, DUDE?
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I remember Edgar Brau of Simply Saucer being pretty funny in Black to Comm. Isn't he kind of a lunatic conservative? Sounds about right.
Never read Conflict but I bet I'd like it. Never even SEEN one, I don't think.
I love that yellowredgreen covers electronic / dance music. I've gone through brief phases where I paid attention to some of that stuff but it's just too vast and I'm not that into it. It's nice to see that guy writing about it alongside, y'know, contemporary KBD kinda stuff and so forth. I was referring to stuff like Cold Cave and Zola Jesus, which he likes quite a bit. He's probably the only writer whose support for those bands makes me wonder if I'm not missing something.
Jared, I love Shit-Fi and I think that guy's really doing something important by documenting / analyzing obscure scenes and by bringing all these disparate strands of marginal music together. It's even more interesting that he's examining this kind of music through a Marxist prism. A long time ago I read a scathing critique of the cult of Madonna Studies among cultural studies academics, for whom pop music phenomena serves as fodder for discussing sexual politics and so on. The writer of that critique (I forget who it was -- maybe someone in The Baffler, maybe Mark Dancey in Motorbooty) said something like, "I wonder what these writers would do if they ever got their hands on Merzbow." It's refreshing to see someone with Schrader's punk erudition writing about music from a militant standpoint, but I'm not convinced by his manifesto, where, if I'm reading him correctly, he seems to suggest that "shit-fi" or "bad music" as an outpost of purity, a music that by dint of its very shittiness, dodges commodification or even stands in opposition to it; and he seems to say that music that relies on technology to smooth out its rough edges is the opposite, is always already "product" that passively accepts the rules of the marketplace and reproduces them in its structure. He also seems to hold the song, in its unmediated, shit-fi form, as a sort of platonic ideal. I think that's a bit too simple. But I'm not doing him justice here. His writing deserves attention and careful reading and (gasp!) discussion. Maybe Schrader will start posting here again!
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Conflict has not aged well; Cosloy agrees.
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Again, my lazy writing stuffs my foot firmly in my mouf. Didn't mean to lump it all as "techno" proper. I spend a lot more ca$h on similar, er, "sophisticated" "electronic" "dance" music than I do on Termbocore. Interested in both, however, and truly enjoy his coverage.
Wish I could find a board where people talk about Ron Hardy like Termbros do Steve Albini.
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Wish I could find a board where people talk about Philip Sherburne like Termbros do David Keenan.
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A long time ago I read a scathing critique of the cult of Madonna Studies among cultural studies academics, for whom pop music phenomena serves as fodder for discussing sexual politics and so on. The writer of that critique (I forget who it was -- maybe someone in The Baffler, maybe Mark Dancey in Motorbooty) said something like, "I wonder what these writers would do if they ever got their hands on Merzbow."
The argument I've gotten back from the missus when I complain about Madonna Studies is that like her or not, she's a cultural force in a way that Masami Akita is not. I like some of Akita's music quite a bit, but my vision of Merzbow studies would be a lot of talk about his bondage phase (long past at this point) or his current animal-rights banner waving, in the language of that Lopatin-Keenan dialogue. Zzzz...
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That's true. And I dunno if I'd wanna advocate for Merzbow or... I dunno, Teepee, becoming part of curriculum at Reed.
Students of Madonna treat their subject just as students of drive-in theatres or gay hankie codes treat theirs: as a cultural product / phenomenon, not as an artist endowed with agency and intent. And I suppose the bigger the phenomenon the richer it is as a subject for the societal parasites who haunt our cultural studies depts. Which makes me wonder, whose body of work is larger: Madonna's or Masami Akita's? Tough call.
That said, Noise in general has been getting a lot of academic attention lately. Some writers have even managed to strike a balance where they can write about Noise intelligently, as an artform, while keeping a critical eye on the Noise scene as a social phenomenon, with all the economic and political implications that entails.
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yeh yeh ok....
Talk to me about Supertramp
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Wrong thread, jack! BTW, yeah, Jeannie's still a babe.
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Shes a vampire...
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I remember Edgar Brau of Simply Saucer being pretty funny in Black to Comm. Isn't he kind of a lunatic conservative? Sounds about right.
Never read Conflict but I bet I'd like it. Never even SEEN one, I don't think.
I love that yellowredgreen covers electronic / dance music. I've gone through brief phases where I paid attention to some of that stuff but it's just too vast and I'm not that into it. It's nice to see that guy writing about it alongside, y'know, contemporary KBD kinda stuff and so forth. I was referring to stuff like Cold Cave and Zola Jesus, which he likes quite a bit. He's probably the only writer whose support for those bands makes me wonder if I'm not missing something.
Jared, I love Shit-Fi and I think that guy's really doing something important by documenting / analyzing obscure scenes and by bringing all these disparate strands of marginal music together. It's even more interesting that he's examining this kind of music through a Marxist prism. A long time ago I read a scathing critique of the cult of Madonna Studies among cultural studies academics, for whom pop music phenomena serves as fodder for discussing sexual politics and so on. The writer of that critique (I forget who it was -- maybe someone in The Baffler, maybe Mark Dancey in Motorbooty) said something like, "I wonder what these writers would do if they ever got their hands on Merzbow." It's refreshing to see someone with Schrader's punk erudition writing about music from a militant standpoint, but I'm not convinced by his manifesto, where, if I'm reading him correctly, he seems to suggest that "shit-fi" or "bad music" as an outpost of purity, a music that by dint of its very shittiness, dodges commodification or even stands in opposition to it; and he seems to say that music that relies on technology to smooth out its rough edges is the opposite, is always already "product" that passively accepts the rules of the marketplace and reproduces them in its structure. He also seems to hold the song, in its unmediated, shit-fi form, as a sort of platonic ideal. I think that's a bit too simple. But I'm not doing him justice here. His writing deserves attention and careful reading and (gasp!) discussion. Maybe Schrader will start posting here again!
Shit-Fi premise trades on the concept that music that is emotionally and aesthetically raw to the point of discomfiture will always be uncommidfiable on a mass-consumption basis. I think this is generally true, since the only way this stuff can cross over in an undiluted form would be as a one-off "novelty" hit (the Stewart Home thesis on punk rock in the UK runs on this premise). This is far more likely to occur in a smaller market like, I dunno, Belgium. 70s punk became a pop package in mainland Europe. Hard-left Crass Records releases charted in the UK. Both of these results are impossible to achieve in the USA. You can only be soft-left in your music in the USA, especially if you are fully independent of the majors. Change only occurs in increments, driven by youth/post-youth cultural outliers...like this website.
GATE KEEPERS!!
In the end though, I think the premise is weakest in it's most subjective, theory-resistant aspect: define "shitty music". You can do it historically, just pile up the exemplars and start doing what scientists are inherently trained to do: categorization. How about in the fluid, perspective-free, wild-assed HERE and NOW??
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I dunno, Teepee, becoming part of curriculum at Reed.
College kids could do way worse than pondering the offerings of The Tepee Kid. That guy has it goin' ON. No shit.
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Shit-Fi premise trades on the concept that music that is emotionally and aesthetically raw to the point of discomfiture will always be uncommidfiable on a mass-consumption basis.
I think this is generally true, since the only way this stuff can cross over in an undiluted form would be as a one-off "novelty" hit (the Stewart Home thesis on punk rock in the UK runs on this premise).
See, I dunno what "mass consumption" even means anymore. If it means Michael Jackson / Lady Gaga numbers, then Xiu Xiu and Deerhunter are shit-fi heroes. There's plenty of counterexamples but for the best proof that excruciating rawness isn't a prophylactic against market forces, I give you the rawest...
(http://vox2.cdn.amiestreet.com/band-picture/Ol%27-Dirty-Bastard_yk2uRws-N0Ix_full.jpg)
The notion that some music is "purer" than others and winds up on tape, on record, in your living room, undiluted -- this is dodgy. I mean, intuitively I get what he's saying, but Schrader MUST be interested in the intent behind the music to some extent. Intent is what separates the first Germs single from the MSR catalogue, and also what separates those two from militant artists like the Crass collective, The Ex, or Billy Bao.
Among intelligent Marxist scholars it is widely understood now that no art -- none -- is impervious to commodification. All cultural production exists within and interacts with market capitalism. Some art may resist commodification but the genius of capital is that it can subsume virtually any form of resistance and turn it toward its own ends, which is why the more an artist removes himself not just from the trappings of market-ready "product" but from the process of capitalist production itself, the better able he is to critique the system from the outside -- but he's never entirely outside and sooner or later whatever resistance he poses can also be bracketed and turned into product. For another easy example, look at garage-rock, look at KBD, look at Industrial music. Artists don't even have to take affirmative steps toward selling out -- even if they do nothing, the market itself will eventually buy 'em and sell 'em several times over.
This is far more likely to occur in a smaller market like, I dunno, Belgium. 70s punk became a pop package in mainland Europe. Hard-left Crass Records releases charted in the UK. Both of these results are impossible to achieve in the USA. You can only be soft-left in your music in the USA, especially if you are fully independent of the majors. Change only occurs in increments, driven by youth/post-youth cultural outliers...like this website.
Schrader acknowledges that music won't change the world. And also, if I am taking his measure correctly, he is not a politlcal incrementalist. No Marxist ever is. Incrementalism is the province of NPR democrats, people who listen to Xiu Xiu and Deerhunter. And maybe me, also, in the real world, where art doesn't matter at all.
In the end though, I think the premise is weakest in it's most subjective, theory-resistant aspect: define "shitty music". You can do it historically, just pile up the exemplars and start doing what scientists are inherently trained to do: categorization. How about in the fluid, perspective-free, wild-assed HERE and NOW??
You've nailed it, and in doing so you've pointed toward what I see as the biggest flaw in Schrader's manifesto: it sounds as though he doesn't care about intent. This makes sense in part because most cultural studies writers regard works of art not as the product of a single mind or a coherent group with self-agency and a capacity to intend its meaning; instead, a song, a movie, a book tends to be considered as the result of impersonal forces acting upon the artist. In fact, the artist generally doesn't figure in the picture at all. This isn't an unsound premise, per se, but it yields some funny results, like Index, Anti-Cimex, and the Electric Eels sharing a bed at the Shit-Fi Inn. Maybe the point here is, to return to what you were saying, that the way to claim music for the Left is retroactive, by forming alternate canons such as the one Schrader proposes in his Shit List. Okay, fair enough. But any such list that doesn't include Ol' Dirty is fatally flawed.
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Schrader acknowledges that music won't change the world.
Patently false.
see: The Beatles and USSR documentary that PBS recently aired, Plastic People of the Universe etc...
The opposite is in fact true, music constantly helps shape the world and to remain willfully ignorant of that fact as a musician is criminal on a moral/cultural level.
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If music was not as important and impactful as it is, why did the Pinochet regime take the time to burn the masters of all of the music produced in the country that wasn't Spanish folk music? Why did the US gov't go after Roky Erickson and John Sinclair? Why did the CIA write a letter to NWA?
The reason so many in the underground try and buy that ticket is that it absolves them of any and all personal responsibility they have as musicians.
I'm not of the belief that all musicians should be obligated by a sense of personal responsibility, but ya know, it is the reason that I know and understand that shit like Pizza Punk, Wavves and a million other shits out there are pathetic child rock and history will prove me correct there, I guarantee it.
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If music was not as important and impactful as it is, why did the Pinochet regime take the time to burn the masters of all of the music produced in the country that wasn't Spanish folk music? Why did the US gov't go after Roky Erickson and John Sinclair? Why did the CIA write a letter to NWA?
I dunno. Paranoia? Listen, if I didn't think music is important I wouldn't spend all my free time doing it, writing about it, arguing about it on Termbo. I just don't believe that music is a particularly potent way to enact political change, partly because musical messages are ambiguous and can be used to support any cause you can think of. Did Fleetwood Mac win the election for Bill and Hillary? No more than Walt Whitman helped Bill seduce Monica. (Wasn't Milosevic an ardent Bach aficionado?) But it's true that music communities often harbor radical intellectuals. Similarly, Hitler considered the modernists a threat to the Nazi program and every poet since the time of Plato has been cast out of the Republic either symbolically or literally (mostly symbolically, though in the case of the Republican poets in Civil War Spain, the symbolic and the literal were fused together... see e.g. the assassination of Lorca.)
The Czechoslovakian example is the only case I can think of where rock & roll played a pivotal role in bringing down a regime, and even then it was Zappa and the Velvet Underground that galvanized Havel. Might as well have been Tiny Tim and Leonard Cohen. Another rare example might be James Brown's concert in Boston in the wake of MLK's murder. But really, I think the persecution that was visited on so many artists -- not just rock musicians -- has less to do with the power of music than with the generally progressive politics of artistic communities. Artists have the means to disseminate ideas, and if they're regarded as enemies of the state, their art is perceived as a threat.
That being said, I'm pretty committed to my values, which are fundamentally leftist (still), and I think Schrader is too. And even when I'm making or facilitating music that would appear to be apolitical on its surface, those values guide every decision I make, from what I'm going to play to how / whether I'm going to manufacture and sell it. The same is true of you, I'm sure. But let's not kid ourselves, our favorite records aren't going to levitate the White House, no matter how many of us get arrested for peeing on the lawn.
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Totally. Music reflects, illustrates (metaphorically), and in some cases motivates, but it remains a form of artistic expression that simply hasn't got what it takes to forcefully change the course of an economical cycle or its consequent political manifestations. Least of all because its very existence is strongly influenced by the method of productions that allow it to take shape in various forms and attitudes. That said, the majority of historical figures often professed their love for it depending on their own personal tastes.
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More rock criticism from the peoples (someone at hipinion.com) this is a comment about listening to Ruby Suns new LP via headphones.
"I got into one of those sweet hypnagogic states; the album was pretty transcendant. Now, I'm digging it a lot!"
I'm wasting my time at TB.
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More rock criticism from the peoples (someone at hipinion.com) this is a comment about listening to Ruby Suns new LP via headphones.
"I got into one of those sweet hypnagogic states; the album was pretty transcendant. Now, I'm digging it a lot!"
I'm wasting my time at TB.
The ultimate in timely reviews: stream-of-consciousness tweets as you are listening to it for the first time.
Death to stale insights!!!!
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"Hypnagogic!"
Stream of UNconsciousness.
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The Czechoslovakian example is the only case I can think of where rock & roll played a pivotal role in bringing down a regime, and even then it was Zappa and the Velvet Underground that galvanized Havel.
Sorry dude, but you need to do a lot more research on this subject, because you have no idea what you're talking about. Those just happened to be Havel's favorite bands and has nothing to do with what happened with political change there. It's also a complete non-secret in Russia the role that the Beatles played in fermenting change there.
Sure in the US change is impossible, the only thing that can change things here is bullets and blood. Even that won't do much. Short of Stalinist purges, the US is unchangeable. That says a lot more about the US than it does about music and it's power.
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I'll gladly do more research into what rock & roll did for the Czechs -- it's true, that's not a subject I know in depth (if you have that book on PPU, I'll gladly borrow it from you). I'm just saying, people can want their music to do all kinds of things, but they can't control what others do under its influence. If music has power, it's a hazy, mysterious, and elusive power, not the kind that lights powder kegs -- you need the will of a people to do that, and I'm not convinced that music can be channeled to provoke people to do any specific thing. Carducci actually talks about this quite a bit. To paraphrase him, If the Rolling Stones had rocked a little harder, or a little to the left perhaps, would the Hell's Angels have spared that poor man's life?
Put it another way: When Judas Priest recorded Stained Class, did they intend for those two yokels to blow their brains out? Anything that can blow the top off a teenager's head is powerful (on teenagers, and on psychotics too). If Rob Halford looked like a fat mailman instead of a leather daddy, would the music have had the same effect? Is bondage gear music? Yes, yes, yes, and yes! (No.)
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I agree with you that you can't control what happens with the power of music, but that's not to say that it is powerless or that musicians should just deny that power because they have little control over what is done with their music. It's actually a lot like psychedelic drugs and much like psychedelic drugs the influence it's had over culture, society, politics and many other things it may have never imagined possible is immense, to put it lightly. Rock and Roll certainly has the power to change the world and to deny that is to deny reality and the fact of the matter is, reality exists whether you believe in it or not. So people can claim all they want that it lacks this power, they're just going to look like complete idiots or like they have ulterior motives to those of us who are bright enough to see the truth, and it doesn't take the brightest bulb in the basket to notice something as obvious as the fact that the sun shines.
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And really if you're going to deny th power of music, you may as well deny the power of the written word as well because that is also completely open to interpretation, even when the message seems overt and direct... and once you deny the power of the written word, you may as well just keep on going and deny power. In fact, at that point we may as well just let BradX take the pulpit because as he'll gladly tell you all power lays within the hands of the Lord and when we pass Officer Brad the mic, it won't be us passing it, but we'll be acting as the hands of the Lord as everything is predetermined anyway and we'll simply be acting out according to His will.
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If music has power, it's a hazy, mysterious, and elusive power, not the kind that lights powder kegs -- you need the will of a people to do that, and I'm not convinced that music can be channeled to provoke people to do any specific thing.
But isn't music's hazy, mysterious, and elusive power exactly that: its capacity to constitute a people. Obviously things like economics, race, sex, etc. etc. more significantly affect the groups people form, but any group of fans or enthusiasts is evidence that music can play some similar role. Sometimes you get a people with a mind for progressive change; more often you get a group of boobs.
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Intent is what separates the first Germs single from the MSR catalogue, and also what separates those two from militant artists like the Crass collective, The Ex, or Billy Bao.
Absolutely, but I don't think ignoring intent is entirely inappropriate, either, when writing about music as an artform or a product of capitalism, etc.
In the above example, the Germs intent was to be glam rock darlings, but they were also retarded and lazy, so they were happy to settle with Forming. There is a certain charm to this, most people I know seem to either obsess over this as their definitive statement OR ignore it completely as a mistake. They certainly recognised post-this record that they were actually a horseshit band and had no hopes of backing Bowie on his next US tour and were happy to settle into the LA punk novelty so long as it threw them a little hammer and allowed the juices to flow a little, so their intent changed. But, really, whose intent? Darby's, to be Adolf Bowie? Smears, to be fuckin' in Nirvana? Merzbow's intent, deep in his heart, may be to conquer the charts and stand above Madonna, to have his tunes played on the radio, to be animated as a guest on the Simpsons...
In the other bands, at what point are we going to discover the flute player from Crass' intent was to get some attention for his Marxist sculptures, or that Billy Bao is really just some build up to a Chumbawumba styled break into stardom?
If we think about things separate from intent, it certainly removes mystique, but it also allows us to acknowledge that when Johnny Blank Dogg releases his next record, regardless of his intent, it will be initially purchased more on the strength of his previous work or the perception that regardless of it's content it may be flipped two months down the track for at least double purchase value, and maybe it will be learnt that he was attempting to comment on rampant consumerism or female oppression, and maybe minds will be blown or life paths altered and you will be a little kinder to animals and the elderly. Maybe...
Over time we can actually see the results and the context that the artwork/product develops within and without, and perhaps we can draw the lines to imagine intent as a whimsical affectation of fan dribble (which is something I am personally inclined to do), but I think the kind of thinking that goes into Shit-Fi is informed by "fan" culture, but intentionally attempts to step outside of it.
It makes for hard reading, and it definitely makes for confusing reading for people like me who haven't spent much time in these kinds of books since I was a young pup with patched backpacks...
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Comparing music to the written word in a context of things that have the power of influencing change is plain dumb, sorry. The lyrics of ANY song simply don't have any tactical meaning that would help organize a, say, strike or protest at the goverment's cut on fundings for this or that. Also, if rock musicians were seriously able to merge into a political party, they'd be laughed off from the word go because NOBODY who is in power or works for a political cause with dedication really takes seriously someone into drugs. Didn't the decline of the black panthers start by infiltrating them with junkies and scandals, till their original meaning got lost in derision? Carry on dreaming.
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Also, the first person to mention the 60s, or street protest and its ties with music, must provide checkable credentials of their knowledge of first hand accounts of the reality of what it means to be in the middle of it with an agenda, since stories about the factual power of music in an out of the workplace vary wildly depending on the amount of time one is putting into making it happen.
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Whose talking about hippies?
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before i read up on some stuff here some thoughts/questions on the shit fi manifesto that i'm readin right now (that is the "excerpt" on the page)
Our bad music does not speak in the economic terms record labels understand
there is in fact NO music that speaks in economic terms labels understand. have you ever heard of the perfectly marketable product of music-industrial production (or what people think it is/was)? it probably flopped. it's gambling all the time.
manufacture of ... musical taste
sorry but i always had my problems when it comes to adornos kulturindustrie even if it's presented just as an aspect of a larger agenda like here. if anyone could prove this - that it in fact works/worked at some point, that some companies DID manufacture the desire for certain sounds and then proves it via hardcore musical analysis - that individual would probably be the single most important musicologist of the last 50-100 years. and dead before he could finish his work. and i'm not talking about an aesthetic like the motown sound cause then amphetamine reptile would "manufacture musical taste" too. so one important question would be: where to draw the line? impossible to answer.
The industry has deemed both the ideas behind our music and the means of its creation obsolete.
what?
on digital recording
the ease of these technologies encourages homogenization.
banal fact: there's a lot of analog equipment that's easy to use and produces a certain "sound". i mean what if an army of spoiled brooklyn indie hipsters read that early blank dogs, 2nd los llamarada, tnv blablabla was all recorded on tascam 411?
the manifesto also contradicts itself when talking about artificial obstacles in recording leading to "training" - or in other words: better technical ability - and stating that there's no relation between enjoyment of music and the "means of produtction" INCLUDING that technical ability. how that wasn't recognized by the author is a mystery to me.
also i'm wonderin if this manifesto considers that a large part of marginal culture is inspired by the mainstream at all? there's really degenerate, weird disco shit out there! or just look at punk music! i think this is a motherfuckingly obvious thing. does this manifesto state that those kinds of musics are ironic to a certain degree, in other words: "subverting" it? fuck that. i don't think arthur russel was ironic. and if he was: why should he have been ironic when he made go bang and not world of echo?
so is this a manifesto proud to be flawed?
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mmm, I'm interested in this discussion but can't seem to grab it all, late coming on it.
the whole point of theory, I'd say, is that it is after the facts. no theory exists before the facts appear, that is why the question of intent can be somehow discarded.
one can theorize the germs 1st record because the germs did that first record. it is not explainable in itself, it is a fact amongst other facts, the way one ties some of those facts together and explains it together becomes theory. theory like all expressions (including music) of man, beyond facts, is nothing more than fiction. you can somehow relate to it but it never is reality or facts.
the germs, in doing their 1st record, were into praxis
they had a general and also real idea of what punk was, or you say glam, the idea (or theory) of punk and glam and they did what they could do about it. that is why I always thought "formin" was/is a groundbreaking record.
now I don't see how a piece of music can change the world, but I clearly see how some types of music create cultures and how those cultures relate to world changing, or how some types of music are made by some kind of people for their own use and how that is defining (and redefining as it goes) their relationship to the world, existing society, etc. and can somehow gel their desire for change...
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before i read up on some stuff here some thoughts/questions on the shit fi manifesto that i'm readin right now (that is the "excerpt" on the page)
Our bad music does not speak in the economic terms record labels understand
there is in fact NO music that speaks in economic terms labels understand. have you ever heard of the perfectly marketable product of music-industrial production (or what people think it is/was)? it probably flopped. it's gambling all the time.
manufacture of ... musical taste
sorry but i always had my problems when it comes to adornos kulturindustrie even if it's presented just as an aspect of a larger agenda like here. if anyone could prove this - that it in fact works/worked at some point, that some companies DID manufacture the desire for certain sounds and then proves it via hardcore musical analysis - that individual would probably be the single most important musicologist of the last 50-100 years. and dead before he could finish his work. and i'm not talking about an aesthetic like the motown sound cause then amphetamine reptile would "manufacture musical taste" too. so one important question would be: where to draw the line? impossible to answer.
Yes. You've nailed it. This notion, that in a free-market society taste itself is manufactured wholesale and scientifically controlled by capital, is obviously mistaken. Adorno's theory of the culture industry is a handy trope with which to analyze mass culture only in the aggregate. It's undeniable that mass culture in capitalist society funcitons as a tacit advertisement for the free-market system and its values (and you can plug in whatever values you want depending on what society you live in -- it doesn't matter) because the culture industry isn't interested in promoting any specific values other than the preservation of the very power structure that serves as the motor of that industry. The "manufacturing taste" theory has it exactly upside down because there is no music -- none -- that can't be turned into a commodity. In fact, that's exactly what's happening with music consumption right now, and it's a process that began in the eighties. The market is fragmenting itself, and in the process streamlining itself. It's more efficient to have a thousand producers of niche commodities (Blank Doggers, screamo, grindcore, minimal drone, juggalo music or whatever) than to have three to six top-heavy corporate labels attempting to capture millions of listeners with a single product. And notice, each of those cottage industries -- let's take Blank Dogs and Captured Tracks for example -- is structured like the big, corporate music industry that it is replacing, only in miniature. But I digress -- your're right, it's a crapshoot, and if anyone knew how to command-and-control the vagaries of taste... well, we wouldn't be here right now, would we? (BTW, it always struck me as rather self-congratulatory to say that capital can control mass behavior -- or even the way people feel -- down to the kinds of records people enjoy... Except for us, of course! We're smart and we're free! We listen to Blank Dogs!!! Obviously mass culture conditions people to respond to certain stimuli, but it's a very imprecise mechanism and, as you said, it's always a gamble; part of the genius of the market is its ability to respond to consumer feedback.)
the ease of these technologies encourages homogenization.
banal fact: there's a lot of analog equipment that's easy to use and produces a certain "sound". i mean what if an army of spoiled brooklyn indie hipsters read that early blank dogs, 2nd los llamarada, tnv blablabla was all recorded on tascam 411?
the manifesto also contradicts itself when talking about artificial obstacles in recording leading to "training" - or in other words: better technical ability - and stating that there's no relation between enjoyment of music and the "means of produtction" INCLUDING that technical ability. how that wasn't recognized by the author is a mystery to me.
also i'm wonderin if this manifesto considers that a large part of marginal culture is inspired by the mainstream at all? there's really degenerate, weird disco shit out there! or just look at punk music! i think this is a motherfuckingly obvious thing. does this manifesto state that those kinds of musics are ironic to a certain degree, in other words: "subverting" it? fuck that. i don't think arthur russel was ironic. and if he was: why should he have been ironic when he made go bang and not world of echo?
so is this a manifesto proud to be flawed?
Maybe! I thought about that... Maybe it's an ironic manifesto. (It's not, but man, what a good out that would be.) You've articulated very nicely what I meant to say when I first replied to Jared about why I think Schrader's premise is "fundamentally flawed" -- namely this polarity between "pure" "undistilled" music and analogue recording and carefully manicured "commercial" music. It's just not that simple.
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Holy shit!
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5513 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5513)
Best paragraph:
This is one of a number of exuberant pieces that, for most, will be the album?s raison d'etre: inhibition kryptonite without the sleaze. This makes up about half the record.
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Yes, let's get back to where we once belonged:
"The cryptic chants of Al Cisneros, the subtly shifting bass lines, and the perfectly executed drumming of Chris Hakius neither tired nor bored. Rather, through the beauty of simple heaviness, we had an album that excelled at elevating the listener. Even hydra-headed canine labyrinth guardians must've nodded and fell prey to the hypnotizing dread. Listening to this romantic pall of erotic metal, like slow-fucking at the Sphinx's feet, you could have swore you were Ra for a second."
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Holy shit!
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5513 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5513)
Best paragraph:
This is one of a number of exuberant pieces that, for most, will be the album?s raison d??tre: inhibition kryptonite without the sleaze. This makes up about half the record. [/quote
Great review. And Jersey Shore name drop! in the wince inducing conclusion
"But what this reconciliation suggests is that Hot Chip want to broker a kind of Middlesex between disco?s blissful ephemerality and an indie-affiliated emotional maturity. Such a mixture is coded as faggy because it?s antagonistic ? on both ends ? to the ?Jersey Shore? gloss on dance club culture. I think that?s the point."
If you ain't Jersey Shore you are FAGGY. Real talk. GTL for life.
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Yes, let's get back to where we once belonged:
"The cryptic chants of Al Cisneros, the subtly shifting bass lines, and the perfectly executed drumming of Chris Hakius neither tired nor bored. Rather, through the beauty of simple heaviness, we had an album that excelled at elevating the listener. Even hydra-headed canine labyrinth guardians must've nodded and fell prey to the hypnotizing dread. Listening to this romantic pall of erotic metal, like slow-fucking at the Sphinx's feet, you could have swore you were Ra for a second."
Source, please? A+! I'm gonna guess it's a Dusted review of the recent Om record with the new drummer.
Remember Option Magazine's "Purple Prose" section, where they pulled out the best shit from press releases? People used to get paid to write shit like this. By the labels' PR departments. "Kirk Pengilly of INXS is a Renaissance man... the keeper of a dry sense of humor," etc.
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Yes, let's get back to where we once belonged:
"The cryptic chants of Al Cisneros, the subtly shifting bass lines, and the perfectly executed drumming of Chris Hakius neither tired nor bored. Rather, through the beauty of simple heaviness, we had an album that excelled at elevating the listener. Even hydra-headed canine labyrinth guardians must've nodded and fell prey to the hypnotizing dread. Listening to this romantic pall of erotic metal, like slow-fucking at the Sphinx's feet, you could have swore you were Ra for a second."
Source, please? A+! I'm gonna guess it's a Dusted review of the recent Om record with the new drummer.
Remember Option Magazine's "Purple Prose" section, where they pulled out the best shit from press releases? People used to get paid to write shit like this. By the labels' PR departments. "Kirk Pengilly of INXS is a Renaissance man... the keeper of a dry sense of humor," etc.
You are only partially correct sir. Tiny Mix Tapes top 100 of the decade
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/favorite-100-albums-2000-2009-80-61
Scroll to #75.
The entire list so far is a corny-copia of bad writing. Lots of bad music too.
"Come back tomorrow for 60-41!" - YOU BET
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Ah... thanks! I'd looked at that list before. What a masturpiece!
Forgot to mention earlier one of the best print zines I've read in recent memory, the British annual Sound Projector. They cover vast swaths of music with an emphasis on the marginal and the difficult. Their graphic design is modeled on Russian constructivism and they do it quite well but unfortunately all their covers look alike 'cos they're all printed in red, black, and white. The writing is mostly excellent. A good chunk of it is strictly record reviews -- good ones, intelligent ones, no cutesy personal garbage. It's tough to find in the US. I've only ever bought one copy here, when Academy stocked a single copy of their 2007 issue, and it was pricey -- maybe $12 or $14. That issue had big features on Storm Bugs and Snatch Tapes and in-depth reviews of everything from recent MB releases to BM obscurities. Their older issues are becoming available online.
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I think Aquarius stocks that but they sell out really quick.
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"Curious Voltage--whose aggravated New Age sonorities, represented here by a brief, tantalizing clip of 'Surface to Air' nowadays sound like a forerunner to the post-Noise Hypnogagia of Ducktails, Daniel Lopatin and James Ferraro."
WHOray the new WIRE is here!!
Not a fan of Sound Projector.
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aggravated New Age sonorities
post-Noise post-Noise post-Noise post-Noise post-Noise post-Noise post-Noise
hypnagogic
HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION
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hypnagogic [sic]
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Holy shit!
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5513 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5513)
Best paragraph:
This is one of a number of exuberant pieces that, for most, will be the album?s raison d'etre: inhibition kryptonite without the sleaze. This makes up about half the record.
ugh.
i will say that i listened to the track streaming on that page and love it. catchy song!
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Yes, let's get back to where we once belonged:
"The cryptic chants of Al Cisneros, the subtly shifting bass lines, and the perfectly executed drumming of Chris Hakius neither tired nor bored. Rather, through the beauty of simple heaviness, we had an album that excelled at elevating the listener. Even hydra-headed canine labyrinth guardians must've nodded and fell prey to the hypnotizing dread. Listening to this romantic pall of erotic metal, like slow-fucking at the Sphinx's feet, you could have swore you were Ra for a second."
Source, please? A+! I'm gonna guess it's a Dusted review of the recent Om record with the new drummer.
Remember Option Magazine's "Purple Prose" section, where they pulled out the best shit from press releases? People used to get paid to write shit like this. By the labels' PR departments. "Kirk Pengilly of INXS is a Renaissance man... the keeper of a dry sense of humor," etc.
You are only partially correct sir. Tiny Mix Tapes top 100 of the decade
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/favorite-100-albums-2000-2009-80-61
Scroll to #75.
The entire list so far is a corny-copia of bad writing. Lots of bad music too.
"Come back tomorrow for 60-41!" - YOU BET
oh, hairdryer peace = how shit can s-gaze get? aaaaaaallllriiiight..... man is that wrong. i also highly doubt that stonehouse released it himself cause he "couldn't convince anybody to release it".
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I'm not really following this thread at the moment, even though I'm sure it has some quality posts on it, but I'd just like to ask Whet Bull what he makes of the recentlz decesead Steven Wells, who was very good at deflating many a musician's ego. Cue the priceless, mid-90s Sonic Youth interview on Melody Maker. David Stubbs in his Mr Agreeable guise was also hilarious on the same pages. Rarely agreed with either of them, though.
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[
[/quote]
oh, hairdryer peace = how shit can s-gaze get? aaaaaaallllriiiight..... man is that wrong. i also highly doubt that stonehouse released it himself cause he "couldn't convince anybody to release it".
[/quote]
Tiny Tapes mythmaking!!
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He couldn't convince me. I passed. I have original cassette demo-different than finished prod-but I "didn't want to go there".
I thought the end result-on his own-was best in the long run. Good for him.
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He couldn't convince me. I passed. I have original cassette demo-different than finished prod-but I "didn't want to go there".
I thought the end result-on his own-was best in the long run. Good for him.
He's having distribution problems* with the new cassette.
*He took everyone's money in August and then---to date---never sent them anything.
p.s. "Bethany left the band and started Best Coast, and then Amanda started another band called Vibes and then all the people in Vibes became Pocahaunted again. The new Pocahaunted is better than the old one, imo."
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He couldn't convince me. I passed. I have original cassette demo-different than finished prod-but I "didn't want to go there".
I thought the end result-on his own-was best in the long run. Good for him.
He's having distribution problems* with the new cassette.
*He took everyone's money in August and then---to date---never sent them anything.
Fact: "artists" like him, or me, or some other people I know should never have to deal with business aspects of being a band. I doubt the dude is rippin' anyone off. Shit happens. It seems like this kinda thing can almost be expected with certain "artists" and that they should be given a break. This ain't no Blank Dogs record.
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He couldn't convince me. I passed. I have original cassette demo-different than finished prod-but I "didn't want to go there".
I thought the end result-on his own-was best in the long run. Good for him.
He's having distribution problems* with the new cassette.
*He took everyone's money in August and then---to date---never sent them anything.
Fact: "artists" like him, or me, or some other people I know should never have to deal with business aspects of being a band. I doubt the dude is rippin' anyone off. Shit happens. It seems like this kinda thing can almost be expected with certain "artists" and that they should be given a break. This ain't no Blank Dogs record.
He CHOSE to deal with the business aspects of this release; he didn't "have" to. And now more than six months have elapsed, so as long as people aren't getting what they are paying for he is fucking them. He should give his customers a break and send them what they paid for or refund the money.
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I think really in this situation, you just gotta throw your arms up and clentch your hands tightly, Darth-style, and yell "STONNNNNNNNNEHOOOOOOOOUU UUUUUUUSSSSE!" to the gods. Then you just gotta let that shit go. I've found this tactic quite freeing on a number of occasions, and you'll end up feeling much more relaxed and happier after. I imagine it's probably kind of what a blumpy feels like.
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I think really in this situation, you just gotta throw your arms up and clentch your hands tightly, Darth-style, and yell "STONNNNNNNNNEHOOOOOOOOUU UUUUUUUSSSSE!" to the gods. Then you just gotta let that shit go. I've found this tactic quite freeing on a number of occasions, and you'll end up feeling much more relaxed and happier after. I imagine it's probably kind of what a blumpy feels like.
There is merit to what you sarcastically? offer, but it's not really about this situation is it? It's about what comes after. How many people get burned or read about someone getting burned in such a transaction--I acknowledge that this one could still happen--and then are reluctant to part w/ the next $10 to a completely legit seller whether it be an individual, small label etc. I think the ripple effect of EPIC FAIL's (so far) such as this one should not be ignored. THEY ARE KILLING THE SCENE MAN.
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Man I dunno but can we bury the phrase "EPIC FAIL"? I feel like I'm reading Boing Boing when I see that shit.
34 DIGGS.
BEST NEW MUSIC.
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Man I dunno but can we bury the phrase "EPIC FAIL"? I feel like I'm reading Boing Boing when I see that shit.
34 DIGGS.
BEST NEW MUSIC.
No.
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Boring-est thread ever.
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(http://themomblog.freedomblogging.com/files/2009/03/crying-baby-giant-eyes1.jpg)
Awwwww....
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Boring-est thread ever.
http://terminal-boredom.com/forums/index.php?topic=22736.0
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From Pitchfork's review of the new Floating in Space 3xCD / 14xcd3 BOX SET:
There's a hole in my arm where all the money goes," moans Jason Pierce at the start of "Cop Shoot Cop...", the 17-minute closer of Spiritualized's third album and lone masterpiece, Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space. His bedraggled voice drips through the words. He's an addict, but it's as if he realizes none of it mattered, anyway-- there's no salvation, no redemption, only cold life and sudden death. One cop lives to kill another cop. (Or a junkie survives only long enough to shoot up again.) The world keeps turning. Just like in his opening line, he quotes John Prine: "Jesus Christ died for nothing, I suppose."
I thought that bit was pretty funny. The grade: 10/10! Not bad for a set of retardo ballads about smack (feat. gospel choir, Dr. John, and a million-dollar recording budget).
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Jason Pearce could really do with expanding his vocabulary next time he writes lyrics. Or maybe not, since he's way past his best work anyway, so fuck him.
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Tell me about it. I don't mind that record, it's just embarrassing to listen to his lyrics and his languid, retardo-shoegaze delivery amid the pomp and circumstance, y'know?
Just got done reading this muddled piece of... What exactly is this? "Think piece" is a misnomer:
http://www.furious.com/perfect/viviangirls.html (http://www.furious.com/perfect/viviangirls.html)
I wonder if this "feminist" shtick gets him laid.
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Tell me about it. I don't mind that record, it's just embarrassing to listen to his lyrics and his languid, retardo-shoegaze delivery amid the pomp and circumstance, y'know?
Just got done reading this muddled piece of... What exactly is this? "Think piece" is a misnomer:
http://www.furious.com/perfect/viviangirls.html (http://www.furious.com/perfect/viviangirls.html)
I wonder if this "feminist" shtick gets him laid.
"De facto breakup"? How about "breakup"? Oh fuck me, he uses the word "edgy"? Acapulco, you are a bastard for digging this up.
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Perfect Sound is usually good when it comes to interviews, but there's a lot of really embarrassing writing on that website:
http://www.furious.com/Perfect/bangsmarcuspistols.html
OUCH! Holy mother of fuck. I couldn't read the entire beastly fuckaduck, I just skimmed. Favorite line:
The Clash's "White Riot," Joy Division's "Warsaw," or the Buzzcock's "Orgasm Addict," all share this deprivation and its urgent anti-authoritarian stance, but only "Bodies" escapes the domination/submission cycle in social upheaval by rejecting its own corporeality and potential for fathering.
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"fuck this and fuck that" has never been so profound.
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Tell me about it. I don't mind that record, it's just embarrassing to listen to his lyrics and his languid, retardo-shoegaze delivery amid the pomp and circumstance, y'know?
Just got done reading this muddled piece of... What exactly is this? "Think piece" is a misnomer:
http://www.furious.com/perfect/viviangirls.html (http://www.furious.com/perfect/viviangirls.html)
I wonder if this "feminist" shtick gets him laid.
"De facto breakup"? How about "breakup"? Oh fuck me, he uses the word "edgy"? Acapulco, you are a bastard for digging this up.
This is written by my cousin whom I've never met. Awesome.
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Perfect Sound is usually good when it comes to interviews, but there's a lot of really embarrassing writing on that website:
http://www.furious.com/Perfect/bangsmarcuspistols.html
It's almost worth it for "I spoke to Lou Reed about Nick Cave and he didn't give a shit."
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This is written by my cousin whom I've never met. Awesome.
Dude also went to U of C but was not a WHPK dj, which makes his taste in music pretty suspect. Actually, the fact that he went to U of C and graduated a year ahead of me but I'd never heard of him until today is enough.
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Tell me about it. I don't mind that record, it's just embarrassing to listen to his lyrics and his languid, retardo-shoegaze delivery amid the pomp and circumstance, y'know?
Just got done reading this muddled piece of... What exactly is this? "Think piece" is a misnomer:
http://www.furious.com/perfect/viviangirls.html (http://www.furious.com/perfect/viviangirls.html)
I wonder if this "feminist" shtick gets him laid.
Haha, I didn't make it past the title. Any article that leads with the words "male feminism" should be shot through the muzzle before the first race. I don't want to read an article about "how men feel about women making music that makes men feel" and I don't know why anyone would read this stinkpiece rather than just listening to the Vivian Girls, and I double-shit don't know why anyone would listen to the VGs instead of listening to, I dunno, Black Tambourine or Heavenly, who VG would sound more like if they actually bothered to put hooks in their songs. There is really no band that could feature in this article and make me want to read it... not even Heather Leather. The perils and prizes of female musicianship in a world of horny male musicians and music-buyers hanging on to the seams of their daisy dukes and space-dyed sweaters is really one of the least compelling topics I can think of. Every once in a while some desperate dude in a bar will try to grip my zipper with some sort of impassioned spiel about how he empathizes with female musicians who have to navigate the scary world of Music Stuff where nobody understands them and everyone thinks they're stupid, maybe throwing in a secondhand sob story from some dude's fuckin' girlfriend who spent an hour in the back of a club crying because the sound guy slapped her bass levels down cause she was out of tune. I don't give a shit, and honestly, there's nothing that turns the supple and tensile restraints of my "weekend" panties into razor wire faster than a dude waxing passionate about women's issues, or who assumes I give a fuck.
OK, I just read the article about halfway through. I don't really know what the hell he's talking about, and he misspelled 'John Fogerty' and cited Patti Smith as a "founder" of music criticism. See ya later.
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Wow.
That was impressive, even for you.
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Dick envy knows no limits.
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Tell me about it. I don't mind that record, it's just embarrassing to listen to his lyrics and his languid, retardo-shoegaze delivery amid the pomp and circumstance, y'know?
other than the first song, that record was terrible - down there with house of love's "babe rainbow." i had no idea its reputation was so sterling in the world of rock critdom
that said i stopped reading the review after this part: Since the 1997 release of Ladies and Gentlemen, Spiritualized have recorded three LPs, a handful of singles and EPs, and two double-disc sets called Complete Works.
for those unaware, the complete works sets were compilations of previously released (and hence, previously recorded) material.
Dude also went to U of C but was not a WHPK dj, which makes his taste in music pretty suspect. Actually, the fact that he went to U of C and graduated a year ahead of me but I'd never heard of him until today is enough.
keeping the tradition alive... i would have thought the maroon association would be enough to earn the look askance. at any rate being an HPK DJ was not always the hallmark of quality
in any case, male feminists who understand neither women nor feminism are not a new thing... though quoting greg kot and dero should be a clue as to where he's coming from.
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Rob, what was the name of Seth Sanders' zine? The one issue you gave me was great but I LOST it. Need more.
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a nest of ninnies. sanders also contributed to tru$t fund cryan jap.
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Tell me about it. I don't mind that record, it's just embarrassing to listen to his lyrics and his languid, retardo-shoegaze delivery amid the pomp and circumstance, y'know?
Just got done reading this muddled piece of... What exactly is this? "Think piece" is a misnomer:
http://www.furious.com/perfect/viviangirls.html (http://www.furious.com/perfect/viviangirls.html)
I wonder if this "feminist" shtick gets him laid.
"Veteran music critics like Jim DeRogatis, Greg Kot, and Rob Sheffield were singing the praises of the album just as equally. "
Did that have to pass an editor?
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Tell me about it. I don't mind that record, it's just embarrassing to listen to his lyrics and his languid, retardo-shoegaze delivery amid the pomp and circumstance, y'know?
Just got done reading this muddled piece of... What exactly is this? "Think piece" is a misnomer:
http://www.furious.com/perfect/viviangirls.html (http://www.furious.com/perfect/viviangirls.html)
I wonder if this "feminist" shtick gets him laid.
Haha, I didn't make it past the title. Any article that leads with the words "male feminism" should be shot through the muzzle before the first race. I don't want to read an article about "how men feel about women making music that makes men feel" and I don't know why anyone would read this stinkpiece rather than just listening to the Vivian Girls, and I double-shit don't know why anyone would listen to the VGs instead of listening to, I dunno, Black Tambourine or Heavenly, who VG would sound more like if they actually bothered to put hooks in their songs. There is really no band that could feature in this article and make me want to read it... not even Heather Leather. The perils and prizes of female musicianship in a world of horny male musicians and music-buyers hanging on to the seams of their daisy dukes and space-dyed sweaters is really one of the least compelling topics I can think of. Every once in a while some desperate dude in a bar will try to grip my zipper with some sort of impassioned spiel about how he empathizes with female musicians who have to navigate the scary world of Music Stuff where nobody understands them and everyone thinks they're stupid, maybe throwing in a secondhand sob story from some dude's fuckin' girlfriend who spent an hour in the back of a club crying because the sound guy slapped her bass levels down cause she was out of tune. I don't give a shit, and honestly, there's nothing that turns the supple and tensile restraints of my "weekend" panties into razor wire faster than a dude waxing passionate about women's issues, or who assumes I give a fuck.
OK, I just read the article about halfway through. I don't really know what the hell he's talking about, and he misspelled 'John Fogerty' and cited Patti Smith as a "founder" of music criticism. See ya later.
I totally know how you feel, seriously, and it makes me so stinking mad that you will never get to express these opinions in the Times, or Spin, or Rolling Stone, because they've got their Gina Arnold and their Jessica Hopper already, ergo phallus-worshiping gender-apartheid state that is American Rockcrit 2010 has met its tokenist quota and there's no room on the ark for a girl with a passion for music and the words to express it.
You wanna refill on that wine cooler?
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a nest of ninnies. sanders also contributed to tru$t fund cryan jap.
and, most crucially, the baffler...
loy, if you didn't skip mandatory meetings you would have your anon now
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Dude, I'm not on the fucking staff email list anymore! I told Ken and he said, "Oh, oh, that must have been an oversight, I'll make sure you're on it." Nothing. Whatevs.
I didn't realize he wrote for The Baffler. I'll look for his byline. I did notice the shout-out to Steve Green in the issue of Anon you gave me. Ever read BuzzKill? One of the best zines of the nineties.
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Tell me about it. I don't mind that record, it's just embarrassing to listen to his lyrics and his languid, retardo-shoegaze delivery amid the pomp and circumstance, y'know?
Just got done reading this muddled piece of... What exactly is this? "Think piece" is a misnomer:
http://www.furious.com/perfect/viviangirls.html (http://www.furious.com/perfect/viviangirls.html)
I wonder if this "feminist" shtick gets him laid.
Haha, I didn't make it past the title. Any article that leads with the words "male feminism" should be shot through the muzzle before the first race. I don't want to read an article about "how men feel about women making music that makes men feel" and I don't know why anyone would read this stinkpiece rather than just listening to the Vivian Girls, and I double-shit don't know why anyone would listen to the VGs instead of listening to, I dunno, Black Tambourine or Heavenly, who VG would sound more like if they actually bothered to put hooks in their songs. There is really no band that could feature in this article and make me want to read it... not even Heather Leather. The perils and prizes of female musicianship in a world of horny male musicians and music-buyers hanging on to the seams of their daisy dukes and space-dyed sweaters is really one of the least compelling topics I can think of. Every once in a while some desperate dude in a bar will try to grip my zipper with some sort of impassioned spiel about how he empathizes with female musicians who have to navigate the scary world of Music Stuff where nobody understands them and everyone thinks they're stupid, maybe throwing in a secondhand sob story from some dude's fuckin' girlfriend who spent an hour in the back of a club crying because the sound guy slapped her bass levels down cause she was out of tune. I don't give a shit, and honestly, there's nothing that turns the supple and tensile restraints of my "weekend" panties into razor wire faster than a dude waxing passionate about women's issues, or who assumes I give a fuck.
OK, I just read the article about halfway through. I don't really know what the hell he's talking about, and he misspelled 'John Fogerty' and cited Patti Smith as a "founder" of music criticism. See ya later.
I totally know how you feel, seriously, and it makes me so stinking mad that you will never get to express these opinions in the Times, or Spin, or Rolling Stone, because they've got their Gina Arnold and their Jessica Hopper already, ergo phallus-worshiping gender-apartheid state that is American Rockcrit 2010 has met its tokenist quota and there's no room on the ark for a girl with a passion for music and the words to express it.
You wanna refill on that wine cooler?
Yeah, and while you're at it, tell the bartender that my tits aren't gonna turn into pictures of pirate ships if he stares at 'em long enough. Jeez! You want a cig? The guy at the corner store told me my teeth were gonna fall out if I kept smoking Newports, but I told him those were the only part of my mouth I didn't need! Haha! Whoa, I love this song! "Keep on rockin' in the free world... der ner ner!!"
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Ever read BuzzKill? One of the best zines of the nineties.
just busted out my issues a few weeks back--still one entertaining read. termbo's own clinoform is a buzzkill alumnus.
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Ever read BuzzKill? One of the best zines of the nineties.
just busted out my issues a few weeks back--still one entertaining read. termbo's own clinoform is a buzzkill alumnus.
What the world really needs now is more Cimarron Weekend.
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keeping the tradition alive... i would have thought the maroon association would be enough to earn the look askance. at any rate being an HPK DJ was not always the hallmark of quality
Hah, very true. Was just this week discussing some terrible DJs who I was personally responsible for, even. But, and I can't speak for anything outside of the last five years or so, it does seem like everybody at the school with decent taste does become a DJ at one point or another.
The guy writes like a second-year in Critical Perspectives, for sure.
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What the world really needs now is more Cimarron Weekend.
Andy Earles's writing is all over the place, and Dave Dunlap has regular pieces in the City Paper. I need more CW, 'cause I never got the last two issues.
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Earles' blog threatened to reprint CW in full, but it hadn't happened every time I checked. It's been a while though...
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just saw dunlap will see him again next weekend, i'll see if there are any copies to be had, they had them in shangrilas forever but not recently
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oh, man - the cimarron weekend review of some belle & sebastian record is probably the best record review i've ever read. i used to could recite it. something about selling the cd back to the record store and using the cash to buy a butterfly net and frolic by a bubbling brook.
that and the aquarius records review of slayer "god hates us all": "so he gave us this new slayer record."
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Oh man, Aquarius reviews are the best, all woozy and seasick, and buzzy and blackened, like catchier new wavey Brainbombs with a drunken Greg Ginn on guitar.
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scrawl was great, marcy had/has great voice and songwrtting was top notch
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Oh man, Aquarius reviews are the best, all woozy and seasick, and buzzy and blackened, like catchier new wavey Brainbombs with a drunken Greg Ginn on guitar.
I find Aquarius reviews to be too long, self-indulgent and self-congratulatory to a fault, like this:
"Just from the cover painting, let alone the music, this Dwarr album is SO perfectly Aquarius, you'd almost think we made it up."
Which happens over and over in each weekly update.
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i wouldn't go that far on scrawl but certainly could come up with a decent mix-tape song from most of the bands that guy mentioned... as long as that mix-tape was called "the diary of my self-emasculated manhood"
also, he totally forgot to mention heavens to betsy and the fifth column (not the good fifth column, mind)
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Oh man, Aquarius reviews are the best, all woozy and seasick, and buzzy and blackened, like catchier new wavey Brainbombs with a drunken Greg Ginn on guitar.
I find Aquarius reviews to be too long, self-indulgent and self-congratulatory to a fault, like this:
"Just from the cover painting, let alone the music, this Dwarr album is SO perfectly Aquarius, you'd almost think we made it up."
Which happens over and over in each weekly update.
Also, I'd like to say this band truly sucks:
(from Aquarius update) ART MUSEUMS Rough Frame (Woodsist) cd 13.98
Sometimes it's easy to take the musicians who live in our city for granted. We see them around all the time, lots of them shop in the store, so the mystique and mystery that you usually have with bands from far away doesn't really exist. So when we found out that our pal Glenn Donaldson (Skygreen Leopards, Thuja, Blithe Sons) and Joseph Alper (Skygreen Leopards, Whysp) had begun a new off-kilter pop project we were thinking, "cool we're sure it's going to be good", but holy fuck, once we actually put it on we realized it was GREAT! And if we didn't know the folks involved it's the kind of listening experience that would have sent us right to the Internet to Google all the names of the players involved, to figure out who the hell these guys were, and even more importantly, what year this weird pop record was actually from!!
Art Museums use primitive 4-track recording techniques with equally rudimentary drum machines which serve as the perfect tools for their totally endearing, catchy yet understated songs that sounds so innocent and carefree and definitely harken back to the classic C86 days.... For sure looking to The Television Personalities and such as HUGE influences, but borrowing and paying homage to their pop forebears in such an incredibly fresh and vibrant way. These are the kind of songs that just keep growing on you and getting further and further under your skin on repeated listens. Like the best Chris Knox songs or if The Shins went way lo-fi and covered early Guided By Voices. Or Belle and Sebastian getting their XTC on, in like a lone lazy afternoon. Art Museums have created that rare recording, a pop album that is smart and rewarding yet also just so damn fun to listen to. An absolute must have!
"If the Shins went lo-fi . . ."scintillating
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primitive 4-track recording
(http://retrothing.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/teac4track.jpg)
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Belle and Sebastian getting their XTC on
Ouch, that hurt.
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WAIT. Jared actually meant THE WORST. Okay, apologia. DUH.
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http://www.furious.com/perfect/viviangirls.html (http://www.furious.com/perfect/viviangirls.html)
From the above, HILARIOUS:
"I hadn't made one of these history-of-punk compilations for a while, and the thing that jumped out at me this time is how virtually everything I put on there post-Nirvana was female: Outside of Pavement and "Fell in Love With a Girl" (which is half-female, come to think of it), it was Scrawl, L7, Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Hole, Sleater-Kinney, Ladybug, She Mob, and the Vivian Girls. That's probably not a surprise to anyone who was following closely through the '90's,
Congratulations, you have the taste and more importantly, research skills, of a 13 year old in 1992.
Can we propose a licensing mandate for rock critics in order to certify that they have even the most cursory knowledge of the subjects they cover?
Beyond all that: L7? Hole? What a horrible mix-tape. What are you trying to do, make a young cousin into a Republican?
So punk began when Jennifer Finch and Courtney Love started hanging out with Kat Bjelland? I learn something every day!
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Oh man, Aquarius reviews are the best, all woozy and seasick, and buzzy and blackened, like catchier new wavey Brainbombs with a drunken Greg Ginn on guitar.
I find Aquarius reviews to be too long, self-indulgent and self-congratulatory to a fault, like this:
"Just from the cover painting, let alone the music, this Dwarr album is SO perfectly Aquarius, you'd almost think we made it up."
Which happens over and over in each weekly update.
Also, I'd like to say this band truly sucks:
(from Aquarius update) ART MUSEUMS Rough Frame (Woodsist) cd 13.98
Sometimes it's easy to take the musicians who live in our city for granted. We see them around all the time, lots of them shop in the store, so the mystique and mystery that you usually have with bands from far away doesn't really exist. So when we found out that our pal Glenn Donaldson (Skygreen Leopards, Thuja, Blithe Sons) and Joseph Alper (Skygreen Leopards, Whysp) had begun a new off-kilter pop project we were thinking, "cool we're sure it's going to be good", but holy fuck, once we actually put it on we realized it was GREAT! And if we didn't know the folks involved it's the kind of listening experience that would have sent us right to the Internet to Google all the names of the players involved, to figure out who the hell these guys were, and even more importantly, what year this weird pop record was actually from!!
Art Museums use primitive 4-track recording techniques with equally rudimentary drum machines which serve as the perfect tools for their totally endearing, catchy yet understated songs that sounds so innocent and carefree and definitely harken back to the classic C86 days.... For sure looking to The Television Personalities and such as HUGE influences, but borrowing and paying homage to their pop forebears in such an incredibly fresh and vibrant way. These are the kind of songs that just keep growing on you and getting further and further under your skin on repeated listens. Like the best Chris Knox songs or if The Shins went way lo-fi and covered early Guided By Voices. Or Belle and Sebastian getting their XTC on, in like a lone lazy afternoon. Art Museums have created that rare recording, a pop album that is smart and rewarding yet also just so damn fun to listen to. An absolute must have!
"If the Shins went lo-fi . . ."scintillating
This review perfectly captures the vibe in Aquarius on any random weeknight at 8pm. Except that no song-based recording made in the last 20 years is being played in the store, just droooooooooooooooone.
Everything's so precious.
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Just ignore all of this stuff. That's what I do.
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i guess that art museums record sounds vaguely like TVPs, which means it's better than 99% of the dumb shit i have to hear all day.
joanna fucking newsom, best coast, cloud nothings, beach house WAAAAAAAH
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i guess that art museums record sounds vaguely like TVPs, which means it's better than 99% of the dumb shit i have to hear all day.
joanna fucking newsom, best coast, cloud nothings, beach house WAAAAAAAH
All borderline terrible to terrible yes, but better than art museums. the only way art museums sound like tvp is that they both sing in english
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i like the art museums record and think that AQ's review of it is decent enough - it's a record-store blurb, not a proper review.
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i guess that art museums record sounds vaguely like TVPs, which means it's better than 99% of the dumb shit i have to hear all day.
joanna fucking newsom, best coast, cloud nothings, beach house WAAAAAAAH
All borderline terrible to terrible yes, but better than art museums. the only way art museums sound like tvp is that they both sing in english
thanks for getting back to me so quickly!!
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i like the art museums record and think that AQ's review of it is decent enough - it's a record-store blurb, not a proper review.
Aquarius weekly tip sheet a toxic synthesis of the record store blurb and a record review. Also, "blurb" = SHORT and minus hipster mannerisms.
Re. the actual record, to each his own. For me, there is nothing at all happening with Art Museums rec.
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i guess that art museums record sounds vaguely like TVPs, which means it's better than 99% of the dumb shit i have to hear all day.
joanna fucking newsom, best coast, cloud nothings, beach house WAAAAAAAH
All borderline terrible to terrible yes, but better than art museums. the only way art museums sound like tvp is that they both sing in english
thanks for getting back to me so quickly!!
what can i say? I got to work too early today and now I'm just sitting around trying not to log in to pornstargalore.com
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is this the new wavves?? loy? anyone?
http://www.myspace.com/cloudnothings
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is this the new wavves?? loy? anyone?
http://www.myspace.com/cloudnothings
whoa, that band sucks.
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is this the new wavves?? loy? anyone?
http://www.myspace.com/cloudnothings
Okay, Art Museums > Cloud Nothings, but not by much.
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i guess that art museums record sounds vaguely like TVPs, which means it's better than 99% of the dumb shit i have to hear all day.
joanna fucking newsom, best coast, cloud nothings, beach house WAAAAAAAH
All borderline terrible to terrible yes, but better than art museums. the only way art museums sound like tvp is that they both sing in english
The TVPs influence is pretty blatant to my ears. I give Aquarius a pass because they're a record store, not a mag. I give them credit for not cutting & pasting the one-sheet like 99% of mailorder shops do. It's all about reading between the lines (and I realize AQ has a LOT of lines to read between) - I've been reading it for so long that I can usually sort through the hyperbole & land on the few things I might be interested in each week.
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I just finished reading the new issue of MRR. Cloud Nothings is the shittiest band name I've heard all week.
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I give Aquarius a pass because they're a record store, not a mag. I give them credit for not cutting & pasting the one-sheet like 99% of mailorder shops do.
I think the cut-and-paste method is more honest, frankly. Though I guess by this point most people understand that the "friendly employee recommendation" is usually a line of retail sales-point bullshit, and the online review is simply a longwinded extension of it.
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As for Aq, I am really glad it exists. I often don't read them, mainly because I just don't share their overall taste. I do like a lot of the 'world' stuff they champion and occasionally some of the drone stuff, but the metal stuff they go nuts for, I'm just not interested.
And I often find that their taste in pop music (which I'm a lot more interested in), is really way off from what I like - they'll ignore really great, and much more 'underground', pop records in favor of bland pop bands like Silver Sun or 'Death Cab' (sorry for printing the name), and it will kind of all get lumped together as the same thing. I just chalk it up to it not being any employee's 'thing' there; and maybe it's pop snobbery, but reading their reviews of pop stuff can be pretty painful. Good example is that Shins thing in the Art Museums review (a record I do really like). I can handle other little niggling errors in that review, and sure they're right about the TVPs (you're not listening if you can't hear that), but the Shins? There's a lot worse things than the Shins, but I just don't hear that at all. I think if it was any other genre, they would have been overly (painfully?) specific and much more precise.
That said, I really appreciate their doing those. If you're into the stuff you know that they are really into, I think they are pretty useful. They might be overly fawning and dramatic (and yes, precious), but they do spend tons of time on those, and admire them for their sheer dedication. Sure, sometimes getting a concise, basic 'sounds like this and that' is more useful, but the cut n' paste stuff all comes from the labels, so you can't believe those either.
I've found that with so many record stores flailing, it's the ones who spend the time to maintain a personal connection to the music that have still stuck around. I mean, it's nothing new, but more than ever, you just can't put shit out there. There's just too much stuff and too many other places to find it. Outside of the few insane record dudes who spend all day listening to stuff, you just gotta have quality funnels.
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^ i actually really do hear a shins thing in the art museums. there are a couple of songs that have a very strongly shins-esque vocal melody and delivery. also, peter gabriel. and TVPs.
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^ i actually really do hear a shins thing in the art museums. there are a couple of songs that have a very strongly shins-esque vocal melody and delivery. also, peter gabriel. and TVPs.
they might be hiring.
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i'd work there. nice people. the song "rough frame" has some shins-esque moments - as painful as it is for me to say it, it does. a couple of other songs too. i had this thought before i read the AQ blurb.
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The point is not whether one hears a Shins thing in there, it's that someone would think that was a good thing. Just like the other phrase about XTC chasing Bell and Sebastian w/ a butterfly net or whatever.
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I give Aquarius a pass because they're a record store, not a mag. I give them credit for not cutting & pasting the one-sheet like 99% of mailorder shops do.
agreed, although it would be helpful if there was a byline on these blurbs (which i don't think there is).
the sine qua non of blurb-as-criticism has to be the printed FE catalogs
best record store clerk comparison yes/no - rob schrader calling the coctails "the poor man's doctor nerve"?
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I give Aquarius a pass because they're a record store, not a mag. I give them credit for not cutting & pasting the one-sheet like 99% of mailorder shops do.
I think the cut-and-paste method is more honest, frankly. Though I guess by this point most people understand that the "friendly employee recommendation" is usually a line of retail sales-point bullshit, and the online review is simply a longwinded extension of it.
More honest? Do you mean that if every record store is using the same pre-written description that it evens the playing field? Serious question.
At any rate, I don't find the one-sheet descriptions helpful at all. Remember a year or so ago when, if one-sheets were to be beleived, every other band sounded "like the Clean"?
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the best one-sheet was the one for labradford's first album - it namechecked about twenty bands (spacemen 3, f/i etc), none of which the band had ever heard before.
loy seems to be making an argument that at least a one-sheet is fully disclosing its agenda... although the logical conclusion of that thought process is a completely commodified society where we buy everything from walmart with the promo blurb as our guide - and where's the fun in that?
full disclosure - i once wrote a one-sheet blurb for a release, but i 100% believed in it
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I wrote the occasional blurb (for records I liked) when I worked at a distributor in Vancouver, and one of those was for my friends Under Pressure, a decidedly un-grindcore (read on...) '80s-style hardcore band from Winnipeg. The following critique of my shameless commercialism was brought to my attention years later, and boy, does this guy ever show me, huh? I mean, seriously, a hardcore band influenced by Motorhead? What kind of absurdity is that?
http://www.sweetposer.tk/urbmn/index.php/2005/12/19/it-came-from-the-scratch-records-email-list/
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full disclosure - i once wrote a one-sheet blurb for a release, but i 100% believed in it
your secret is safe with me...
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full disclosure - i once wrote a one-sheet blurb for a release, but i 100% believed in it
Real disclosure-- I was once compelled to write a blurb for a record I released and the record sucked. Time to stop doing a label when that happens.
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the logical conclusion of that thought process is a completely commodified society where we buy everything from walmart with the promo blurb as our guide
No, it's not. That doesn't make any sense. That's what reviews and criticism are for. I'm not saying the review/blurb hybrid is a capital crime, it's just shitty writing and I find it tacky when commercial writing assumes the trappings of criticism. The Aquarius catalogue is a perfect example of record store / lifestyle branding. Aquarius positions itself as a tastemaker with a unique sensibility and the online catalogue is its virtual mouthpiece. Compare Academy, which is far and away the best record store in the country and it doesn't have a distinct ethos or house taste.
We already live in a completely commodified society, and Rob, isn't that exactly how you like it anyway? Or is there another, more ironic register in which one should interpret your passion for ridiculous, expensive hip-hop fashions, food and liquor, and other consumer microtrends?
There's nothing wrong with one-sheets. They're a necessary, if somewhat distasteful, part of the indie record trade. I've written a good dozen or so myself, a couple of them wildly, deliberately misleading. No one said you had to be "sincere" in those shitts and it's fun to fuck around with 'em. That said, I've never done one for a record I didn't love.
Never read the FE print catalogue but the online catalogue is strictly a cut-and-paste job from one-sheets. The only print blurbs I've read are in old issues of the magazine, when FE was still predominantly a fanzine with a small distro arm carrying a couple dozen items that Jimmy himself liked and no one else carried.
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Aquarius positions itself as a tastemaker with a unique sensibility and the online catalogue is its virtual mouthpiece. Compare Academy, which is far and away the best record store in the country and it doesn't have a distinct ethos or house taste.
just for discussion's sake, what's wrong with having a "house taste?" - if, indeed, being huge proponents of drone/noise/black metal is a "house taste." i like AQ and academy both, but why favor the blurb-approach of one vs. the other? AQ is somewhat more of a niche place - they have very little vinyl in the store - whereas Academy is a very broad place. i kind of like it when stores have a specialty.
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I'm not saying there's anything "wrong" with it per se, I'm simply pointing it out. Stores like Aquarius, Other Music, Sound 323, Volcanic Tongue work pretty hard to fashion a brand identity for themselves as stores, as total environments, to the extent that there's a certain cachet associated with shopping there (whether in the brick and mortar shop itself or on its virtual counterpart). The royal "we" in their blurbs is most telling -- it suggests that the shop is a sort of laboratory where dedicated listeners are listening to and evaluating new releases and cherry-picking the best ones as a service to their customers (in reality, the store's interest is, of course, to sell EVERY CD in stock). The effect this creates is that when you purchase, say, the Art Museums CD, part of what you buy is the value added by the store and its ethos. By purchasing this or that black metal CD, or back in the nineties, those CDs from the "decadanse" section at OM or whatever, you buy a share in the culture of the store, which is of course a complete fiction. Nothing wrong with having a niche, either -- Aquarius has simply parleyed its niche into an effective marketing scheme whereby the store's identity is itself a product.
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interesting. can it also be a brand/identity to be a "full-service, non-specialty" store like academy? i'm not sure that having a specific genre niche is the only way to cultivate a brand or identity. i would imagine that there is some sort of similar "positioning" by academy, that is recognized by some number of their customers? it seems to me that academy has the best "brand" of them all - being the best store in NYC (if not the country), with incredible used stock.
i've never kidded myself into thinking that one-sheets or record blurbs were much more than marketing. i think that specific clerks will latch onto a record, band, or sound, and genuinely promote the hell out of it - this is both pure marketing as well as (i feel) a sincere desire to impart knowledge to the consumer and share their taste?
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interesting. can it also be a brand/identity to be a "full-service, non-specialty" store like academy? i'm not sure that having a specific genre niche is the only way to cultivate a brand or identity. i would imagine that there is some sort of similar "positioning" by academy, that is recognized by some number of their customers? it seems to me that academy has the best "brand" of them all - being the best store in NYC (if not the country), with incredible used stock.
Sure, it's just not very effective branding. They don't even have a cool logo, and their online presence is limited compared to the other stores discussed. Look, none of these are charitable organizations, they're businesses. What I'm saying is that Academy, like many other stores, doesn't make a lifestyle or a culture out of its business. It's very straight-up: WE SELL RECORDS HERE. Even now, there's no cachet to buying shit at Academy as opposed to... I dunno, Earwax or Sound Fix or whatever. It's just a store. A very good one. Whereas you see people buy common CDs at Other Music -- the standard Matador / Kranky / Secretly Canadian indie titles that are the store's bread and butter -- at a higher price CDs than they might at Tower across the street (back when Tower was open) or at Generation or Kim's or Sounds or J&R, because it's cooler to shop at OM. Some people might do this out of some (probably misguided) desire to support small businesses, but I'm fairly sure that it's simply hipper to be an Other Music customer than it is to be some shmuck who buys music at a store that also sells Jay-Z and Green Day discs. In other words, they're paying to be part of OM's boutique culture.
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That really seems to be the only two modes in which record stores can exist any more. Giant warehouse like stores that sell whatever and everything to people who want to make their own taste and small "taste makers" that tell people what to buy. It seems more or less mirrored in new york and San Francisco. Other Music and Academy, Aquarius and Amoeba (as an aside, Amoeba is definitely the best record store in America, it's just the same as academy but much, much larger.) It really shouldn't come as a shock to anyone that music criticism is bullshit 99.9% of the time and ranting endlessly about it seems to be the ying to inane criticism's yang. It has always been bullshit too, look at Robert Chanugadsfsdjfks or however you spell his name. What a tool! How can someone not be a tool when they are the self described "Dean of american rock" or whatever. I think music criticism has been totally debased by mp3s. I mean, a book, yeah, a review is useful, I read book reviews and actively seek opinions, reading a book, especially a long book is a huge investment and it can be hard to get a good idea by reading 10 pages or so. Now you can just look up some band on myspace or whatever, listen to their best song, and form a pretty strong opinion, or about as strong as an opinion as one is going to form.
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You can also read books for free on Google Book, or read random pages in full on Amazon.
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I've been to Amoeba. It's not as good. Sorry.
I happen to LIKE music criticism, and I enjoy keeping tabs on it. Some music criticism is great, and it not only serves as a comsumer guide but as a way to make sense of music culture.
Ranting endlessly? Fuck you. This is a discussion. If you think it's not worth talking about, follow your own advice and ignore it, yingnuts.
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PS: Christgau's a good writer. Read his reviews from the '70s. Or don't, and shut tha fuck up.
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PS: Christgau's a good writer. Read his reviews from the '70s. Or don't, and shut tha fuck up.
Christgau's biggest strength to me was that he was game to review ANYthing, he wasn't too good to review punk, even if in the end he was too good to like much of it. Although he really really liked the Descendants.
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Fuck me, this shit is pretty fucking interesting if you're a fucking nerd. Like us. Busted!
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This thread was losing me until it reminded me of one of Sonic Youth's rare finest moments, the FE 7"
"I killed Christgau with my big fucking dick."
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Fuck me, this shit is pretty fucking interesting if you're a fucking nerd. Like us. Busted!
Indeed. Guilty as charged!
Didn't Michael Gira send Christgau an envelope filled with sperm? Or was it Gira / Jarboe fucksauce? Dunno which is better / worse! Gotta hand it to a guy who can inspire that much visceral hatred from them likes. True, Christgau misses the mark a lot, esp. in the eighties (though I completely concur with his championing of UB40), but at his peak the guy was a pretty ballsy writer who took rock seriously (but not too seriously) and called people out on their bullshit more'n anyone this side of Meltzer and Bangs (both of whom dug Christgau well enough, if memory serves).
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the logical conclusion of that thought process is a completely commodified society where we buy everything from walmart with the promo blurb as our guide
No, it's not. That doesn't make any sense. That's what reviews and criticism are for. I'm not saying the review/blurb hybrid is a capital crime, it's just shitty writing and I find it tacky when commercial writing assumes the trappings of criticism. The Aquarius catalogue is a perfect example of record store / lifestyle branding. Aquarius positions itself as a tastemaker with a unique sensibility and the online catalogue is its virtual mouthpiece. Compare Academy, which is far and away the best record store in the country and it doesn't have a distinct ethos or house taste.
i think the sense i was responding to was that record stores were somehow corrupted by commercial self service in a way that, say, labels (or bands, or reviewers/critics, or fans) were not... we are all prostitutes etc etc. it is also worth mentioning that most reviews/criticisms are not worth the utf-8 they are encoded in (after all - isn't that the point of this thread)?
i am curious as to what makes academy so great specifically... i suspect it is better products at lower prices. this is a great model for the educated consumer with lots of time, but imo there is still room in the equation for boutiques/lifestyle stores. as markus popp once brilliantly phrased it - DJs are great because they do all the dirty work of listening to records on your behalf, thereby saving you precious time for more valuable endeavors (tuba frenzy #4, 1998).
no comment on how eating and getting drunk represent consumer microtrends btw
Never read the FE print catalogue but the online catalogue is strictly a cut-and-paste job from one-sheets. The only print blurbs I've read are in old issues of the magazine, when FE was still predominantly a fanzine with a small distro arm carrying a couple dozen items that Jimmy himself liked and no one else carried.
that is mostly true now, hence the caveat in the OP. there were two major paper catalogs bookending the chris knox issue, all three of which were chock full of original content about the records in question (magical power mako cover, dirty three cover, catalog update in the back of the knox issue).
anyway if you want to see the exception that proves... well something, this one is pretty handy:
Gas-station attendants around the world will rejoice at news of this final missive from Jason DiEmilio (aka Azusa Plane), a cleverly titled reminder of one of the Boss's most visionary & epic lines. Featuring two long tracks of cable glitch, amplifier hum and microphone bumping, this CD has such comedic aspirations that even Neil Hamburger will probably have to sit up and take notice. Thank you, New Jersey.
what makes this particularly harsh is that FE was the sole US distributor for this label (may still be, for all i know)
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I don't disagree that Christgau is a great writer, he is certainly exponentially better than I will ever be and even that is a bit of an understatement. I just don't like his know it all attitude very much and his yuppie-centric world view. He just reminds me of the guy in high school who would brush his hair to the side, sneer, and condescendingly turn the subjective in to the objective. Also, as being one of the most visible critics he is one of the easiest to talk shit on.
Also, I don't necessarily hate all music criticism, I just like to awkwardly brawl my way in to discussions. As a music guide I usually prefer All Music. Lots of people talk trash, but I have found it a pretty good way to navigate discographies. I guess the ironic thing is I trashed criticism, but it's the foundation of my musical education. I am pretty young, so I have been able to download music my whole life and the process generally goes:
Look at wikipedia for summary of reviews ----> Download album -----> Buy my favorite records.
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i am curious as to what makes academy so great specifically... i suspect it is better products at lower prices. this is a great model for the educated consumer with lots of time, but imo there is still room in the equation for boutiques/lifestyle stores. as markus popp once brilliantly phrased it - DJs are great because they do all the dirty work of listening to records on your behalf, thereby saving you precious time for more valuable endeavors (tuba frenzy #4, 1998).
I gotta pretty busy schedule. I still manage to buy good records w/o the dude from Tumult spoonfeedin' me some Wm. Basinski bullshit. "Lifestyles" are for assholes and morons.
anyway if you want to see the exception that proves... well something, this one is pretty handy:
Gas-station attendants around the world will rejoice at news of this final missive from Jason DiEmilio (aka Azusa Plane), a cleverly titled reminder of one of the Boss's most visionary & epic lines. Featuring two long tracks of cable glitch, amplifier hum and microphone bumping, this CD has such comedic aspirations that even Neil Hamburger will probably have to sit up and take notice. Thank you, New Jersey.
what makes this particularly harsh is that FE was the sole US distributor for this label (may still be, for all i know)
YES!!! I love that shitt. A buddy of mine once said of FE's negative writeups that it's like, We dare you to buy this record. No one's got the ballz no more.
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I am by no means an expert on pricing records but I have heard from multiple people that Academy's used vinyl is generally over-priced.
Me, I'm a Used Kids girl at heart.
edit: didn't read through this and just realized you are talking about distro rather than instore maybe?
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i feel like i need to digest a few volumes of baudrillard just to peruse the distro-updates. maybe chop off my dick and attach a watering can before i darken the doorway of a record shop!
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I am by no means an expert on pricing records but I have heard from multiple people that Academy's used vinyl is generally over-priced.
Me, I'm a Used Kids girl at heart.
Not for New York. Some things could be cheaper, but I think it's fair for the most part.
Used Kids was one of the only things I liked about Columbus. Tons of great cheap shit. Ring me up, Ron House!
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Fuck me, this shit is pretty fucking interesting if you're a fucking nerd. Like us. Busted!
of Meltzer and Bangs (both of whom dug Christgau well enough, if memory serves).
Nope.
http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/noiseboy-00.php
http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/meltzer-70.php
from that Meltzer collection that came out several years ago: Robert Christgau?"what a prig," "what a dogfucker"
from an account of infamous '74 rock crit symposium at SUNY-Buffalo "highlights were: Meltzer and Bangs' tag-team verbal trashing of the Village Voice's Robert Christgau,"
http://www.wordsonwords.com/reviews/LesterBangs.html
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YES!!! I love that shitt. A buddy of mine once said of FE's negative writeups that it's like, We dare you to buy this record. No one's got the ballz no more.
well, i wish i had the ballz to disregard their review of the blo reissue (that compared them to "one of big chief's 'we gunna have a party' moments")... yes i can quote FE catalog descriptions from memory.
used kids had many fine records, but certainly the days of finding dreamweapon for $7 or crystal crescent for $2 (to name two particularly coveted finds) are long gone
academy's used LPs are not overpriced for NYC but that's about as far as i'd push it
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i feel like i need to digest a few volumes of baudrillard just to peruse the distro-updates. maybe chop off my dick and attach a watering can before i darken the doorway of a record shop!
No need, chrizow, no need. The penis is an important tool for STICKIN' YOUR DICK IN IT (records).
Nope.
http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/noiseboy-00.php
http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/meltzer-70.php
from that Meltzer collection that came out several years ago: Robert Christgau?"what a prig," "what a dogfucker"
from an account of infamous '74 rock crit symposium at SUNY-Buffalo "highlights were: Meltzer and Bangs' tag-team verbal trashing of the Village Voice's Robert Christgau,"
http://www.wordsonwords.com/reviews/LesterBangs.html
Sweeet. Thanks for dose!
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i feel like i need to digest a few volumes of baudrillard just to peruse the distro-updates. maybe chop off my dick and attach a watering can before i darken the doorway of a record shop!
No need, chrizow, no need. The penis is an important tool for STICKIN' YOUR DICK IN IT (records).
Nope.
http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/noiseboy-00.php
http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/meltzer-70.php
from that Meltzer collection that came out several years ago: Robert Christgau?"what a prig," "what a dogfucker"
from an account of infamous '74 rock crit symposium at SUNY-Buffalo "highlights were: Meltzer and Bangs' tag-team verbal trashing of the Village Voice's Robert Christgau,"
http://www.wordsonwords.com/reviews/LesterBangs.html
Sweeet. Thanks for dose!
The links are good, quick reads; I figured you'd dig 'em. In his mostly dreadful bio of Lester, DeRogatis provides some details of the tag team Christgau thrashing at the symposium (which, by the way, lasted 40 minutes total--the symposium, not the trashing).
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well, i wish i had the ballz to disregard their review of the blo reissue (that compared them to "one of big chief's 'we gunna have a party' moments")... yes i can quote FE catalog descriptions from memory.
Nice one. There's a coupla Coley reviews that I remember (almost) word for word, my favorite being his writeup of an early-nineties Dead C record:
If you believe formlessness to be an actual "bag," and furthermore, that it is your bag, then this here platter might just contain the national anthem of your "tribe."
That's pretty close, I think.
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YES!!! I love that shitt. A buddy of mine once said of FE's negative writeups that it's like, We dare you to buy this record. No one's got the ballz no more.
well, i wish i had the ballz to disregard their review of the blo reissue (that compared them to "one of big chief's 'we gunna have a party' moments")... yes i can quote FE catalog descriptions from memory.
used kids had many fine records, but certainly the days of finding dreamweapon for $7 or crystal crescent for $2 (to name two particularly coveted finds) are long gone
academy's used LPs are not overpriced for NYC but that's about as far as i'd push it
I guess I've lived here long enough to actually think that they're prices are not inflated at all. In fact, I'd go so far as to call bullshit on anyone ready to complain about their prices as they are so far from offender status when it comes to that sort of thing. A lot of records come through that place so that is really the biggest plus.
Hit Used Kids over the summer and while there wasn't anything amazing I did manage to spend over $40 or something.
There was a recent FE list that had a pretty amazing negative vibe, but I can't remember what record it was for. If you bother to read the whole list every week there's occasionally a gem or two still to be had.
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YES!!! I love that shitt. A buddy of mine once said of FE's negative writeups that it's like, We dare you to buy this record. No one's got the ballz no more.
well, i wish i had the ballz to disregard their review of the blo reissue (that compared them to "one of big chief's 'we gunna have a party' moments")... yes i can quote FE catalog descriptions from memory.
used kids had many fine records, but certainly the days of finding dreamweapon for $7 or crystal crescent for $2 (to name two particularly coveted finds) are long gone
academy's used LPs are not overpriced for NYC but that's about as far as i'd push it
That $7 Dreamweapon could've once been mine. I sold Ron House a ton of RECORDS back in 02 or 03. I'm talking THOUSANDS of pieces. UK had a bin w/ my name on it. Record nerds throughout the Col. metro area were weeping w/ joy.
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dreamweapon was just after the annex had opened under mike's dominion, early 90s i think. i guess when i think of used kids' golden days (with respect to my mere existence), it was when record stores still had "import" sections... all that stuff was so far under the radar it didn't have much resale value. i'm sure it was a similar situation with jerry's and other stores across the midwest.
all pre-ebay of course.
used kids story: i returned a firehose cd because it sucked, upon which ron proclaimed "just because they're from ohio doesn't mean they're any good" (or whatever the grammatically correct way of saying that is, time to go home i think!)
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dreamweapon was just after the annex had opened under mike's dominion, early 90s i think. i guess when i think of used kids' golden days (with respect to my mere existence), it was when record stores still had "import" sections... all that stuff was so far under the radar it didn't have much resale value. i'm sure it was a similar situation with jerry's and other stores across the midwest.
all pre-ebay of course.
used kids story: i returned a firehose cd because it sucked, upon which ron proclaimed "just because they're from ohio doesn't mean they're any good" (or whatever the grammatically correct way of saying that is, time to go home i think!)
After Ron and Used Kids parted ways and he struck out on his own as a record dealer he was buying lots of vinyl and not selling any. This was a couple years ago. When I pointed this out to him he said, "I'm not worried. Vinyl as a commodity in and of itself will soon be worth more than the American dollar." GENIOUSSS
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well, i wish i had the ballz to disregard their review of the blo reissue (that compared them to "one of big chief's 'we gunna have a party' moments")... yes i can quote FE catalog descriptions from memory.
yeah, I'm glad I never saw that review if it would have prevented me from buying that thing. Really like it, definitely one of the Afrobeat reissues I go back to. Comparing a mid-70s African band to a bad early 90s white funk band? THAT'S RACIST.
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I am by no means an expert on pricing records but I have heard from multiple people that Academy's used vinyl is generally over-priced.
Me, I'm a Used Kids girl at heart.
Not for New York.
I'm a Jerry's dude at heart and was spoiled for years everywhere I went. But I don't find Academy especially offensive. I'd like them to be a little cheaper, but it is New York after all. Comparatively, they're fine.
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Academy is the only place in NY I really shop for records, but there are a couple places around where you can get shit cheaper if you're looking for used "normal" stuff like Bowie, Young etc... records. I think they're pretty crazy high for that shit, but then again I'm from WI.
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To sum up:
Aquarius: praises their stock, they suck
Forced Exposure: trashes their stock, they rule
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As a Frisco boy, I did not find the vinyl at Academy overpriced AT ALL. Maybe for the Midwestern folks among us, but then again I have not set foot in a record store east of Nevada since about 1991 (some place near Dayton, bought the fucking Milkshakes Live in Germany LP (!?) there for $5).
To sum up:
Aquarius: praises their stock, they suck
Forced Exposure: trashes their stock, they rule
And they both secretly like the exact same stuff, and they both sell lots and lots of it with the two different approaches.
I just want the LONG-threatened book of the 90s-era Revolver wholesale store faxes to come out some day. Those were just as savage as any FE review, and they came out every g-damn week. Hell, one fax-writer even got their ass sued by one notoriously humorless Garage "Punk" Fonzie for "character assassination" or some such nonsense.
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I just want the LONG-threatened book of the 90s-era Revolver wholesale store faxes to come out some day. Those were just as savage as any FE review, and they came out every g-damn week. Hell, one fax-writer even got their ass sued by one notoriously humorless Garage "Punk" Fonzie for "character assassination" or some such nonsense.
I somehow forgot about the old Revolver faxes - I remember lamely telling Earl Kuck that I "liked their attitude" when The Candyman started dealing with Revolver. My favorite from the faxes - maybe from the blurb for the "Harmony of the Spheres" box - "In space rock, no one can hear you scream." I didn't know there were threats of putting these in a book, but I double-dog-dare them to do it. Same goes for FE's threats to munge all of the magazines into a book.
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Writing one-sheets/blurbs is the worst part of running a label. Well, seeing reviews posted the day the reviewer got the record might be worse.
Just out of curiosity, what would something like Neil Young's "Harvest" cost in NYC?
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Seeing reviews posted the day the review got the record and the review is cribbed from the one-sheet is the fucking worst. Seeing some other fucking mail order swipe your own write ups is the worst. Seeing some mail order use your review for a write up is the worst.
I havent record shopped in NYC. I suspect that the prices reflect the cost of living in that town. If records are overpriced so is nearly everything else, though you usually can find lots of cheap food in towns like NYC and SF because of the harsh competition. Surprisingly, Frisco's record prices do not reflect the cost of living there. They are pretty much average, and I am talking about just your regular record, not some rarity or a lucky find. Having record hunted pretty much all of the lower 48 and Hawaii, I dont think any region has higher or lower prices. It seems to go town to town and then store to store. And it just takes one store to fold and a town becomes high price (example: When Zero Street fled Lincoln).
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Academy is fair. Sometimes you can find deals.
I've found my share of rare and inexpensive records in Manhattan. Usually in stores that don't specialize in rock music.
Yes, a Black Sabbath, Neil Young or Bowie record will sometimes run around $12 - $17, but you can still find those LPs on the cheap.
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Seeing reviews posted the day the review got the record and the review is cribbed from the one-sheet is the fucking worst. Seeing some other fucking mail order swipe your own write ups is the worst. Seeing some mail order use your review for a write up is the worst.
i apologize to richie if he feels the same, i instructed goner on the chinese burns and manhunt.
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yeah the revolver stuff, jaworzyn's zine and cosloy's cmj greatest hits - all awaiting the anthology treatment
btw to the (very) slight against tumult, i don't follow the label too much but the ovens are one my favorite new band from the past five years so andee has built up a lot of good will in the jfm household on that basis alone
like i said academy isn't overpriced for the city per se, but common records are generally expensive in nyc (i would not blink twice at seeing a copy of harvest for 10). kim's had the same problem, you could get real scores there but i guess hipsters are really lazy about hunting down the first psych furs album.
at any rate, the wfmu record fair shows how far record store pricing in the city deviates from a hypothetical national norm - that's probably why i don't really bother with the record store crawl anymore
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Can't drink wine after record shopping on the intertubes though:
http://www.wineisterroir.com/
Full disclosure: I walked out of Academy with a copy of ZGun and another zine (can't buy records regardless of the price) but was bummed Terroir doesn't open in the afternoon...
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every issue of spin online (http://books.google.com/books?id=CBAN_GTP9B4C&lpg=PA1&lr=&pg=PA22#v=onepage&q=&f=false)
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Everyone is saying Academy is priced fairly for NYC, great, ok.... but my suggestion that it has high prices was in response to a comment that Academy was the best record store ANYWHERE. Doesn't that mean it's fair to compare their prices (& selection & everything else that would make a record store great) even to record stores in the midwest? or south? or anywhere else?
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Yeah, I see what you're saying. It's true, I've never gone record shopping in Pittsburgh, or in Lawrence (home of Love Garden), but it seems unlikely that a shop not in one of the major coastal cities, or Chicago, would have a comparable selection of new and used stock.
The reason Academy's so good for used records is that it's in Brooklyn -- even the Manhattan location doesn't come close to the quality and diversity of their used stock.
Eastside Records in Phoenix is a great store, for instance, but you simply won't find as consistent a selection of great used records because Phoenix just doesn't have a big enough community of record collectors. And if they were to stock, say, the Vinyl on Demand box sets, or the Pan Records and Alga Marghen catalogs, they'd be shit outta luck 'cos no one would buy 'em.
How's this for anecdotal evidence -- this Friday I went to Academy for the first time in about three months and found the following:
Modern Lovers OG on Home of the Hits: $20 (!)
Buzzcocks, Love Bites '80s Europ press: $8
The Dicks, Kill from the Heart bootleg (new): $14
Bad Brains, '81 Demos 7" (new): $7
Circle X 12" (new): $22 (okay, that's not cheap)
...plus the new records by Balaclavas, Harangue, and a buncha shit I had to leave behind for lack of money. A frienda mine found an OG My War and a test press of the Black Dice / Wolf Eyes split for about $12 apiece. I mean, where else? And it's like that any day of the week.
Man, lookit all this free pub for Academy. How embarrassing. Fuck you, Academy! Suck my dikk, putoz!!!
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I like the Manhattan one better. But Loy's right. I'll take the $12 Black Sabbath records if it means I can walk in one day and find Groundhogs' Split and then come back the next and get the Flesh Eaters' A Minute to Pray... and so on and so forth -- all for prices that are better than what you'd find on eBay, Gemm, Musicstack, etc. The Chicago "record shopping experience" entails picking at a skeletal carcass for months on end (although I see that KStarke unearthed a fucked-up copy of that Handgrenades record, which I want, but not in fucked-up shape) and you might be happy coming away with something like finding the Strangeloves LP for $20. In NYC it's raining VU acetates and the cops will actually threaten to arrest rec shop proprietors for refusal to unearth backroom stashes. Also, everyone gets laid. It's actually harder to not get laid than anything here. Actually, nothing is hard here. Just me. Hard as a rock.
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Have fun with this great, buzzy, droney, woozey, blackened, dreamy piece of whatthefuck from Aquarius:
CHINESE RESTAURANTS, THE River Of Shit (S.S.) 7" 6.98
Another band of NY lo-fi new wave noiseniks, the Chinese Restaurants dip one toe into gothy, gloomy, retro wave, and another into something distinctly more angular and punk rock, with muted muddied riffing, pounding minimal drums, and whiney, dramatic vocals, reminding us of groups like the Electric Eels, until all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Barack Obama begins to speak, a sample of a speech maybe, but it's SO random, the band keep chugging along, it almost sounds like you're listening to two different radio stations at once, the best part is the fact that as he speaks, his remarks are peppered with strange moans and groans from the singer, which makes the whole thing seem weirdly warped and whatthefuck.
The flipside is sample-free, and is gorgeously gothic and dirgey, the guitars syrupy and swaddled in crumbling distortion, the main melody, warped and minor key, the whole thing laced with strange swooshes and unexpected bursts of noise and static and glitchy effects, the vocals still frantic and dramatic, the second track ups the energy, pounding a bit harder, getting more punk rock, but still staying plenty snotty and new wave and lo-fi. These guys definitely dwell on the fringe of the current retro cold / new wave resurgence, but fans of releases on Sacred Bones and Captured tracks will probably dig these guys as well...
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Have fun with this great, buzzy, droney, woozey, blackened, dreamy piece of whatthefuck from Aquarius:
CHINESE RESTAURANTS, THE River Of Shit (S.S.) 7" 6.98
Another band of NY lo-fi new wave noiseniks, the Chinese Restaurants dip one toe into gothy, gloomy, retro wave, and another into something distinctly more angular and punk rock, with muted muddied riffing, pounding minimal drums, and whiney, dramatic vocals, reminding us of groups like the Electric Eels, until all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Barack Obama begins to speak, a sample of a speech maybe, but it's SO random, the band keep chugging along, it almost sounds like you're listening to two different radio stations at once, the best part is the fact that as he speaks, his remarks are peppered with strange moans and groans from the singer, which makes the whole thing seem weirdly warped and whatthefuck.
The flipside is sample-free, and is gorgeously gothic and dirgey, the guitars syrupy and swaddled in crumbling distortion, the main melody, warped and minor key, the whole thing laced with strange swooshes and unexpected bursts of noise and static and glitchy effects, the vocals still frantic and dramatic, the second track ups the energy, pounding a bit harder, getting more punk rock, but still staying plenty snotty and new wave and lo-fi. These guys definitely dwell on the fringe of the current retro cold / new wave resurgence, but fans of releases on Sacred Bones and Captured tracks will probably dig these guys as well...
You CAN be all things to all people. Congrats Chinese Obamas!!
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I am ethically obligated to recuse myself from this particular conversation except to say...
(http://fiddledd.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/crypt-keeper.jpg)
RECOMMENDED!
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The guy writes like a second-year in Critical Perspectives, for sure.
Zing!
Seriously, to think the guy's my cousin...
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C'mon that review isn't THAT BAD. If you take away certain unneccessary pompous expressions, it made me want to check the record out, and I haven't got a clue who the band are.
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Yeah, it's a positive review, but aQ's penchant for marathon run-on hyperboles annoy the shit outta me. Plus, as is usually the case with most things non-metal/drone/Finnish psych, they really miss the mark considerably, glowing or not.
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I can only imagine what would have happened if someone like Ian Penman wrote that review. Now, there's someone who's too often a stuck up prick.
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C'mon that review isn't THAT BAD. If you take away certain unneccessary pompous expressions, it made me want to check the record out, and I haven't got a clue who the band are.
The review is TERRIBLY written. Record is "described" as being: lo-fi, noisenik, new wave, gothy gloomy, no wave, angular, punk rock, muted, muffled, pounding, whiny dramatic, chugging, SO random, weirdly warped, gorgeously gothic, gloomy, warped, glitchy, more punk rock, retro cold/new wave, snotty.
HUH. How can it be ALL those things. They add up to absolute null as in IT'S NOTHING.
You CAN NOT be all things to all people.
Blurb/review/whatever does the record and its potential audience a disservice in the name of overdetermined purple prose. Give me Penman or give me nothing.
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The review is TERRIBLY written. Record is "described" as being: lo-fi, noisenik, new wave, gothy gloomy, no wave, angular, punk rock, muted, muffled, pounding, whiny dramatic, chugging, SO random, weirdly warped, gorgeously gothic, gloomy, warped, glitchy, more punk rock, retro cold/new wave, snotty.
HUH. How can it be ALL those things. They add up to absolute null as in IT'S NOTHING.
to be fair - there are at least two songs on the record. it may have a whiff of 90s listserv excess, probably due to a comparable amount of time being put into it - in any case i'm guessing this text is more for sticking up on the wall as the "record of the week" than meaningful criticism.
it's preferable to the vintage vinyl (evanston) school of putting "sounds like MBV" on every indie 12" they carried from 1990-1997, at least.
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C'mon that review isn't THAT BAD. If you take away certain unneccessary pompous expressions, it made me want to check the record out, and I haven't got a clue who the band are.
The review is TERRIBLY written. Record is "described" as being: lo-fi, noisenik, new wave, gothy gloomy, no wave, angular, punk rock, muted, muffled, pounding, whiny dramatic, chugging, SO random, weirdly warped, gorgeously gothic, gloomy, warped, glitchy, more punk rock, retro cold/new wave, snotty.
HUH. How can it be ALL those things. They add up to absolute null as in IT'S NOTHING.
You CAN NOT be all things to all people.
Blurb/review/whatever does the record and its potential audience a disservice in the name of overdetermined purple prose. Give me Penman or give me nothing.
Just once I'd like to read a record review without any adjectives.
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Is the record any good, anyway, or just some americans poaching weirder, and better, european ideas?
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Again?
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C'mon that review isn't THAT BAD.
it's not a review, it's a record store blurb that wants you to buy the record from them.
I do not consider this as "Criticism".
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C'mon that review isn't THAT BAD.
it's not a review, it's a record store blurb that wants you to buy the record from them.
I do not consider this as "Criticism".
I agree. Therefore, it's an even worse piece of writing b/c it's a blurb, disguised via review rhetoric that makes me NOT want to buy The Chinese Obamas record even though I have heard this music and it is good, sounding far more unified and original than the blurview would have one believe.
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well, do you actually buy records at aquarius ? I suspect you don't and you are not in the target audience for that blurb, eh eh
me neither: I still think that loy should have sent me the 7" and I haven't received it, cm'on
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well, do you actually buy records at aquarius ? I suspect you don't and you are not in the target audience for that blurb, eh eh
me neither: I still think that loy should have sent me the 7" and I haven't received it, cm'on
YES LOY C'MON.
I have bought a few things from Aquarius but not via reading blurbs. Let me ask you this: Who could possibly be the audience for those things other than the writer him/herself. Classic I-writing-for me.
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well, do you actually buy records at aquarius ? I suspect you don't and you are not in the target audience for that blurb, eh eh
me neither: I still think that loy should have sent me the 7" and I haven't received it, cm'on
YES LOY C'MON.
oh, the correct spelling of C'MON worked its charms, it seems
thanks meshkalina
I have bought a few things from Aquarius but not via reading blurbs. Let me ask you this: Who could possibly be the audience for those things other than the writer him/herself. Classic I-writing-for me.
I understand you are dissing the practice, me I'm sitting on the fence on this issue
doesn't every writer write for himself in the first place ? isn't that how it should be ? and I'd venture to say that no one actually understands what anyone else means really which is an hideous justification for just throwing a bunch of references to existing bands and genres, like cherries in the cake of mashed tasteless words
and then there is intertextuality and shit
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well, do you actually buy records at aquarius ? I suspect you don't and you are not in the target audience for that blurb, eh eh
me neither: I still think that loy should have sent me the 7" and I haven't received it, cm'on
YES LOY C'MON.
oh, the correct spelling of C'MON worked its charms, it seems
thanks meshkalina
I have bought a few things from Aquarius but not via reading blurbs. Let me ask you this: Who could possibly be the audience for those things other than the writer him/herself. Classic I-writing-for me.
I understand you are dissing the practice, me I'm sitting on the fence on this issue
doesn't every writer write for himself in the first place ? isn't that how it should be ? and I'd venture to say that no one actually understands what anyone else means really which is an hideous justification for just throwing a bunch of references to existing bands and genres, like cherries in the cake of mashed tasteless words
and then there is intertextuality and shit
Every writer writes for him/herself in the first place, but then as the process continues most try to establish some perceived connection w/ some perceived audience. I don't agree w/ no one understanding what anyone else means. Especially if the anyone else is allegedly trying to sell something aside from their critical acumen.
That is only my preferred spelling of c'mon we also have your way plus cummon, cmn, and pooter.
Intertextuality IS shit.
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music criticism criticism:
http://pitchfork.com/features/why-we-fight/7773-why-we-fight-1/
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that was painful to read
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music criticism criticism:
http://pitchfork.com/features/why-we-fight/7773-why-we-fight-1/
Thank god this is going to be a recurring column.
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now this thread will never die
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that was painful to read scan over briefly
And I'm frightened to death of clicking on that video...
Anybody want to see the conspirologist take on Lady Gaga vids? Garnered some 600+ comments...
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Shit just gets better and better.
http://pitchfork.com/features/guest-lists/7786-zola-jesus/ (http://pitchfork.com/features/guest-lists/7786-zola-jesus/)
"Nika Roza Danilova." Sublime!
Morton Subotnick, power electronics, Wolf Eyes... and it sounds like someone's got a titty hard-on for Dominick.
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Shit just gets better and better.
http://pitchfork.com/features/guest-lists/7786-zola-jesus/ (http://pitchfork.com/features/guest-lists/7786-zola-jesus/)
"Nika Roza Danilova." Sublime!
Morton Subotnick, power electronics, Wolf Eyes... and it sounds like someone's got a titty hard-on for Dominick.
i found that piece about 10% as annoying as it could have been. at least she didn't name-drop schopenhauer or the situationists.
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Shit just gets better and better.
http://pitchfork.com/features/guest-lists/7786-zola-jesus/ (http://pitchfork.com/features/guest-lists/7786-zola-jesus/)
"Nika Roza Danilova." Sublime!
Morton Subotnick, power electronics, Wolf Eyes... and it sounds like someone's got a titty hard-on for Dominick.
i found that piece about 10% as annoying as it could have been. at least she didn't name-drop schopenhauer or the situationists.
or Baader-Meinhof...
The Christiane F./X. mythos is a bit off but otherwise pretty good.
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She's got the mascara down, for sure. Geopolitically speaking thazza jungle of signifiers there, although I s'pose it's not impossible to be all those things at once. Cold War-era Berlin is a lot sexier than Soviet Russia, but I guess it's too late to change her name yet again.
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ZJ's new album is a one-and-done. First listen is the last listen. If it was food it'd be a bouillon cube.
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music criticism criticism:
http://pitchfork.com/features/why-we-fight/7773-why-we-fight-1/
Thank god this is going to be a recurring column.
WHY WE WHINE #2
by Theresa Smith, Richdork Music Calumnist
Lester Bangs. Dave Marsh. Richard Meltzer. Greg Shaw. Did any of these people have an iMac? No. That's why it's unfair to bring the quality standards of a bygone era of music criticism to bear on Criticism 2.0(c), founded in a digital paradigm of accessibility, clarity, applicability and availability. Which reminds me, listening to this new Liars album is like slowly being buried under an anthill made of candy canes while Winston Churchill fucks Dorothy L'Amour over an oven full of bubbling Rice Krispie treats. But that's just my opinion. Oh yeah, cassette only.
In this ever-changing global cuntisphere of new and engaging hypnagogic pop, the computer is the ultimate (some might even say penultimate) tool of musicianship, the ultimate tool of listenership, and the ultimate tool of the ultimate tool, you. Computers, whether they be AirMacs, iPhones, Palm Pilots, Blackberries or any other piece of digital technology that weighs less than the nutsack that burbled you into this world upon paroxysms of angry joy, have shortened the intervals (assuming a Riemannian, non-Euclidean perspective on spacetime) between you and your friends, your obsessions, and the dark, murky, reptilian pleasure-seeking region of your brain which, receiving absolutely no feedback from your twill-strangled, bicycle-battered genitals, decides to listen to Ducktails instead.
You are really, really smart. I don't think for a minute that I could artificially fellate your already-engorged sense of self by merely appealing to your status as a tastemaker. You are truly a musical citizen of the world, in a way that makes Marco Polo look like fucking Tom Sawyer. You don't have to live in Williamsburg to know that Surfer Blood is playing at Death By Audio tonight, or offer advice on the best place to grab a slice before seeing Fluffy Lumbers at Glasslands. You have a computer! You don't have to choose between downloading "Space Is The Place" and "It's After The End Of The World"...you can have them both! And if you're wondering which one is better, someone will tell you. Just ask! If Google Answers doesn't satisfy your curiosity, just pick a music-oriented messageboard (they're all pretty much the same) and ask away! Be prepared for a modicum of "snark" at first, but once they realize you're genuinely curious about music and are really doing your best with the limited knowledge you have, even the most hardened, sardonic music board "personality" will take you under their wing and offer tips and advice for snagging the best and most outre rare discs...or pass along some hush-hush download codes! Whether you use them or not depends upon your own carefully considered views on music piracy...but we won't tell! :)
So, in conclusion, we here at Pitchfork write in order to contribute to the Marxist dialectic of music consumerism, which intersects the Hegelian dialectic of music criticism, which...oh shit, my Americano's ready.
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Someone's using their Philosophy degree!
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Someone's using their Philosophy degree!
I'd like to know who.
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(http://hipstersunited.com/images/bloggers.jpg)
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"I have nothing interesting to say about anything, and I'm saying it!"
http://pitchfork.com/features/guest-lists/7819-oneohtrix-point-never/ (http://pitchfork.com/features/guest-lists/7819-oneohtrix-point-never/)
Aranofsky?!
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perfect fit those two short thinkerz
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two $hort
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speed kills was a good mag in the 90s.
still have many of them. also hermenaut was good, but not really music reviews.
your flesh was awesome. something else in this thread made me think of a recent vice piece with
doc dart from the crucifucks. not a review, but certainly good writing. vice used to be alright. this came out after the fall.
here's the thingy -
http://www.viceland.com/int/v16n1/htdocs/the-troublemakers-515.php
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Speed Kills was good. They covered an unusual variety of stuff. I remember one of their earliest issues had a piece on the Red Aunts and also one of the very first articles about Labradford, shortly after they released their first album; and I think the issue came with a Gaunt 7", but I might be conflating two different ones.
Anyway... I'm pretty burned out on this thread but as I was saying to a friend over the weekend, I'm a creature of habit and I just can't resist the pull of bad music writing, so every day after I have my morning coffee and take care of bidness I gravitate to the usual three or four websites for my daily dose of hyperbole, self-delusion, strained metaphors, lousy grammar, purple prose, ass-licking, and Critical Theory for (by) Dummies. This morning's bounty is yet another urgent missive from the expansive mind of Oneohtrix Daniel Lopatin, whose insights into the psychosocial dimensions of boring music leave me reeling with a familiar mixture of stupefaction and delight. Today's Dusted finds the hypnagogic [sic] luminary expounding upon his ten "favorite" records. The man is unstoppable!
http://www.dustedmagazine.com/features/911 (http://www.dustedmagazine.com/features/911)
To those too busy or well-adjusted to read Lope's musings on Double Leopards, Tricky, and Ravel, I offer the following highlight:
2. Christian Fennesz/Ryuichi Sakamoto - Cendre
I'm going to sound like a total Ebert, but this is a masterpiece of modern impressionism and wouldn't be out of place in the ECM catalogue. Zoomed out ecologies with Mahler-esque dissonant activity happening throughout, but not frequently enough to feel imposing or dramatic. In fact, I have no idea what I'm supposed to feel when I listen to a record like this. My Information Architecture professor explained to me that the terms "sunset" and "sunrise" were archaic remnant from a time before astrophysics etc., but has stuck with us because the sentiment is nice and we're creatures of habit. The bittersweetness of pomo's break from that habit, I think, is beautifully depicted on this album. Whereas I think for someone like Debussy, there is a grandeur to nature that is more diametric; it is either celebrated or feared.
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My urologist explained to me that the expression "sense of humor" is an archaic remnant from a time when it was believed that the "humors" or "body juices" controlled human health and emotion, etc., but it has stuck with us because the sentiment is nice and we are creatures of habit. The bittersweetness of homo's break from that habit, I think, is beautifully depicted in Daniel Lopatin's writing.
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Irmin Schmidt once said in a teevo interview that the only reason why musicians are asked to explain their music is to be put in a situation where they - if they attempt to try it - have to embarrass themselves per se cause they simply can't. Undermining the music's potential for revolution. And they do it themselves! Fools! This seems to be applicable to asking music makers about the moola of others too. Every Listed-like column is just there for nerds to feel superior. If the shredder is a retard revolution disappears behind the horizon. AGAIN! WE'LL NEVER MAKE IT THIS WAY, FOLKS! STOP THE FAVE TALK!
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Speed Kills was good. They covered an unusual variety of stuff. I remember one of their earliest issues had a piece on the Red Aunts and also one of the very first articles about Labradford, shortly after they released their first album; and I think the issue came with a Gaunt 7", but I might be conflating two different ones.
Loved Labradford....first album especially! That issue of Speed Kills definitely influenced my decision.
Mail-order'd!
Also...my first Gaunt record!
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2. Christian Fennesz/Ryuichi Sakamoto - Cendre
I'm going to sound like a total Ebert, but this is a masterpiece of modern impressionism and wouldn't be out of place in the ECM catalogue. Zoomed out ecologies with Mahler-esque dissonant activity happening throughout, but not frequently enough to feel imposing or dramatic. In fact, I have no idea what I'm supposed to feel when I listen to a record like this. My Information Architecture professor explained to me that the terms "sunset" and "sunrise" were archaic remnant from a time before astrophysics etc., but has stuck with us because the sentiment is nice and we're creatures of habit. The bittersweetness of pomo's break from that habit, I think, is beautifully depicted on this album. Whereas I think for someone like Debussy, there is a grandeur to nature that is more diametric; it is either celebrated or feared.
Man, I hate this fuck. Good thing he looks like 30% of the people I see every day or I would've taken a bat to his hothouse the first time I saw him on the L train. As a person with a similarly useless college degree, I nevertheless have the courtesy not to foist it on anyone (except you people) to hide my sense of shame at a lack of subsequent professional development, and certainly not as a sham way of justifying the fact that I make music that makes Mike Oldfield sound like John fuckin' Cage. I also love that he seems to think Roger Ebert is some kind of sycophantic hack.
And jesus christ, his music is the fuckin' worst. You know what it sounds like? Hold on, waiting for his Myspace to load. OK, yeah, there it goes. It sounds like what we'd all be listening to in a parallel universe where Led Zeppelin never happened, hippies never became hedge fund managers and someone discovered a way for human beings to make their own food from sunlight by standing perfectly still in the middle of a large field and playing Tim Hecker albums at half speed through bags of marshmallows. This is the music that would be playing if the Mos Eisley cantina was an Applebees. Whatever album this is, it should be called "Music for Airport Security". God damn this fuck.
If I were to write a textbook on how to be an insufferable prick, this would be the abstract:
The closing track on what I think is Sunn 0)))?s greatest record, "Alice" is closer in spirit to Debussy than drone, and is the moment I became a Sunn 0))) lifer. Is that a flugelhorn? What is the difference between that and a French horn? I don?t know. I thought I didn?t like either, and was proven wrong. The rest of the record is the sound of Wagner crawling across an infinitely long kitchen floor for a glass of water. One of the only records from the past few years that has taken on gift-that-keeps-on-giving status on my Winamp player.
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"Perhaps" Lopatin's greatest gift to our cultural life lies in providing bottomless grist for Hillside's mill. Is that a Freudian metaphor? Jeezis, I hope so!
T. Smith, making it all worthwhile again.
[edit:] My second favorite bit, by the way, is the part where he likens the last Sunn record to both Debussy and Wagner. The faun and the Valkyrie! Yin and Yang! Cheech and Chong!
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Fuckin' flugelhorns -- how do they work?!
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THIS JUST IN FROM THE PROFESSOR:
I have concluded that the reception of CocoRosie in the US reflects the denial of a greater feminist issue, an ecological issue, a racial issue, a spiritual issue. If we cannot face that our collective brokenness in these areas is the rockbed of our crisis as a virulent species, then we will continue in our blindness to dismiss our American art revolutionaries who are out in the field, working through exactly these issues. For me Cocorosie?s new album Grey Oceans is perhaps the most important new music coming out of the US this year. It is no surprise that as the sea turns black in the gulf with no end in sight in the midst of the biggest ecological disaster in US history, CocoRosie are the only ones to hit the zeitgeist with an album filled with psychic omniscience, entitled ?Grey Oceans.?
And yet it seems to be the album the indie US press doesn?t want to talk about. Bianca and Sierra Casady paints pictures of lost children across a broken land, feral, elemental spirits who roam the dreamscapes of our world, naming perpetrators, painting their memories, recovering and reclaiming power. They are unafraid to manifest their vision that the application of magical creativity could be a balm for aching souls in a struggling world. They take risks that no other artists in the scene dare to, and the (predominantly white hetero male) music press punishes them for it. In the artistic community, CocoRosie are treasured. Their costumes and visual aesthetics are a vital part of their expression, revealing further illustration of their ideas and their inspirations and creating a striking format for the shamanistic shapeshifting that occurs in their live performances (in many ways they are the feminist branch of a voyage that Animal Collective in their boyish and heralded way have undertaken in parallel) and yet as women Cocorosie are dismissed because their visual presentation frustrates many male writers? abilities to sexualize them. Who are you assigning to think on your behalf?
-Antony Hegarty
HAHAHA at the concept of CocoRosie as some kind of feminist bellwether by which we can measure the progressive unraveling of the patriarchical woolies over the collective Ur-gash of womanhood instead of some fuckin' broads with autoharps who draw moustaches on each other.
According to this guy, CocoRosie's songs are about "feral, elemental spirits who roam the dreamscapes of our world, naming perpetrators, painting their memories, recovering and reclaiming power. They are unafraid to manifest their vision that the application of magical creativity could be a balm for aching souls in a struggling world." So they're somewhere between a rape kit and a Fred Rogers eulogy. As far as making a compelling case for feminine equality, these girls make Eve Libertine look like Sandra Day O'Connor.
About 85% of CocoRosie lyrics are completely unintelligible to me because they sound like they're being sung by harmonizing Weimaraners, and the other 15% sound like they're extended metaphors for road trips and boyfriends. Britney Spears made a movie called "Crossroads" and it's a lot like this. If its soundtrack was converted into Tolkien analogies and played by Muppets, it would be indistinguishable.
"As women Cocorosie are dismissed because their visual presentation frustrates many male writers? abilities to sexualize them." Ha, what?? You think anybody's dick is gonna get confused by a little glitter and some schnozz glasses? No! They're hot broads, you fucking moron. I don't have a dick, but I am pretty sure that face paint and shawls are not some kind of universal cock repellent. Oh wait...I have a vagina! That means I can't be wrong about anything. Sweet! Everyone listen to me!
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Yoko Ono's little blurb is better:
"Grey Oceans by CocoRosie shows us a sliver of a secret ocean of high waves we wish to be part of in our dreams. CocoRosie is the shower we need now in the musical desert. ?God Has a Voice She Speaks Through Me? ? What a line!"
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Yoko Ono's little blurb is better:
"Grey Oceans by CocoRosie shows us a sliver of a secret ocean of high waves we wish to be part of in our dreams. CocoRosie is the shower we need now in the musical desert. ?God Has a Voice She Speaks Through Me? ? What a line!"
Oh, they're all great:
http://stereogum.com/414512/op-ed-an-artists-dialogue-on-cocorosies-grey-oceans/franchises/op-ed/ (http://stereogum.com/414512/op-ed-an-artists-dialogue-on-cocorosies-grey-oceans/franchises/op-ed/)
RECOMMENDED READING
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^Holy shit! And why wasn't I invited?!
Can't recommend this enough. What a gathering! At least 50% of the participating artists are (literally) queer; the others... just kinda gay. I especially enjoyed this remark by the mustachio dude from LeTigre, which I think is supposed to be a compliment:
This is polite musicianship.
It's a mystery to me what Officer Officer Brad "Who?" Truax is doing in there, nestled 'tween the likes of Yoko Ono and William "9/11" Basinski, but hey, his poesy's no worse than Doveman's. Lotsa secret gardens, pagan hula hoops up in that shit.
CocoRosie: RELEVANT!!! PRESCIENT!!! CONTROVERSIAL!!!
(They predicted the oil spill.)
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(And they're going to clean it up, too.)
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(With their vacuum-like vaginas.)
*Tip o' the hat to you, sir.
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The shit just won't stop flowing.
Andrew Beckerman on Oneohtrix in today's Dusted:
http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5797 (http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5797)
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From an ecological standpoint, it would make sense for the CocoRosie girls to attach their labia directly to the Oneohtrix Point Never shithole and vice versa, creating a perfect, symbiotic shit-vacuum.
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i like oneohtrix point never more than most on here, but what is it about this guy/music that causes people to write this way!? is it because he thinks this way about himself?
my review of OPN records would be: "pretty cool synth noises."
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Idiots like Beckerman would probably write like that anyway, but Lopatin's exercises in Remedial Critical Theory invite it more than most. Notice how the tone of that CocoRosie colloquium mirrors that band's "exotic" garden gnome imagery, too. Lopatin's incoherent blabbing about Nietzsche and "memory" and systems theory gives his "critics" permission to do the same. But Keenan is probably more to blame than anybody, for suggesting in the first place that there was more to his work than meets the ear, and indulging Lopatin's sophomoric flights of fuggery. It's funny that an instrumental artist should have such a hard time shutting up.
Highlight from Beckerman's review:
If time eternally returns, where does this actually go to or end up at?
Fuckin' time, where does it go?!
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Jesus, now I have to hear this CocoRosie shit. Has anybody actually heard it? Is it as bad as those write-ups accidentally suggest?
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They exist totally under their own lexicon, sounding as if electronic music was actually conceived in Baroque Europe and classical music in Doo-wop era America. It is these contortionist-like shapes that they form which allows them to occupy that sweet spot on the axis between ancient and ultra modern.
This dude isn't even GETTING PAID! He sincerely thinks CocoRosie is like some kind of blipster dyke Rachmaninoff or something. What the fuck? Is no one tired of this fake Grandma Moses shit already??
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I love this thread. Wrangler & Bull are both on fire.
Perhaps CocoRosie are above the plebian feeling known as "embarassment" but it seems like even they would think this arty roundtable of praise was a little much. "Hey did you see that awesome article about us where a bunch of people were trying to explain why we were good?"
However, I will admit that after I read it, I almost went & checked out Grey Oceans.
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Aha! The chapped vagina behind this article belongs to Pitchfork's own Hemingway of hyperbole, Brandon Stosuy, whose curriculum vitae is conveniently summed up by his initials. I cannot figure out why his bland pixel-pushing is so omnipresent on the internet, except that it makes an excellent base for bean dip.
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I think I'm in love
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I feel like so much great writing about shitty writing is going to waste here. Whet n' Wrang...make this thread a book, please!
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TERMBO: THE BOOK
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I think I'm in love
(http://www.storyofthestars.com/emoney.jpg)
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I think I'm in love
(http://www.storyofthestars.com/emoney.jpg)
THIS IS WHAT I HAD PICTURED IN MY HEAD WHEN I UTTERED THOSE WORDS.
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CocoRosie aren't that aesthetically dissimilar from SeaWorld's 90s theme song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LzrkWfZJdA
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I think I'm in love
(http://www.storyofthestars.com/emoney.jpg)
THIS IS WHAT I HAD PICTURED IN MY HEAD WHEN I UTTERED THOSE WORDS.
Maybe we can be friends after all.
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I think I'm in love
(http://www.storyofthestars.com/emoney.jpg)
THIS IS WHAT I HAD PICTURED IN MY HEAD WHEN I UTTERED THOSE WORDS.
Maybe we can be friends after all.
(http://www.winternet.us/EMPersonal/MoneyEM.jpg)
MY SOUL IS PLEASED!!!
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Highlight from Beckerman's review:
If time eternally returns, where does this actually go to or end up at?
I think Spandau Ballet perfectly articulated this quandry pondered herein when they so insightfully declared,
"I bought a ticket to the world....
And now I'VE COME BACK AGAIN!!"
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(http://www.winternet.us/EMPersonal/MoneyEM.jpg)
Love that Winter is bombing that picture through no fault of his own.
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Beckerman's on fire this week! Dig his take on CocoRosie, from today's Dusted:
I honestly can?t tell whether CocoRosie is interesting or infuriating -- rich kids playing dress up or avant-garde pop weirdos, calculated fakes or genuine humans, or all of these, none of these or what. This sort of ambiguity is sometimes fine if that?s the goal, though to be completely truthful, it seems an awfully empty aesthetic goal to inspire indecision in one?s audience. But forget all the fake arguments about authenticity. The real question concern?s an artist?s genuineness. When you listen to the album, do you get a sense that there is a genuine human who made the artwork.
In the case of Grey Oceans, the answer is a sort-of muddled no. The flash point for a number of people is of course the Casady?s voices, which can be quite beautiful at times, and at other times -- when in baby talk mode -- not so beautiful. Their voices are interesting though, and most criticism is based on no more than personal taste, not any aesthetic argument for or against. Joanna Newsom also gets caught up in these kind of criticisms. For a number who argue against the way they choose to sing, they often found their argument by calling them inauthentic. ?Is it really her voice? Does she actually sing like that?? Who cares? Authenticity is overrated; like I mentioned above, the real question is, is there a genuine human that shines through?
So, I began to think, why are these two criticized for their voices, but someone like Meredith Monk is revered for her weirdness? I think it comes down to the fact that the music that Newsom and CocoRosie make is dripping with melodrama. Voices that in other cases are playful and fun (like Monk?s on Dolmen Music), take on a Serious tone in the Casadys? case. I think people might give them a wider berth if they were just being silly. It?s often the case that Serious Art eschews the silly in the grasp for legitimacy, but so much of the avant-garde is flat-on-its-face ridiculous, and it?s when this ridiculousness is taken seriously that something real is lost. A piece of art can be silly and ridiculous and still make a real point. However, the Serious Art World and the Critical Art World are so divorced from reality that attempts at silliness and humor are seen as frivolous. Because silly needs the real world for it to work. Ridiculous is only ridiculous against the backdrop of the actual world. CocoRosie seem so tied up in their melodrama and their invented world that their inherent silliness can?t find any purchase. So, to many people, it just comes off as grating.
Part of my ambivalence, as well, has to do with the economic climate. Sierra and Bianca Casady come from a privileged background. They spent their childhood moving from city to city with their mother, Christina Chalmers, an artist, and eventually Sierra ended up in Paris training to sing opera, while Bianca ended up in New York City. It?s important to note their economic privilege because the avant-garde world-building that CocoRosie engages on their albums goes hand-in-hand with economic independence. They are rich and therefore get to play with reality
I suppose playing with aesthetic reality is infinitely better than the morally repugnant monsters at Goldman Sachs or BP or the Defense Department who arrogantly think their wealth entitles them to play with actual reality, but the constant theme that ranges over both groups is that wealth insulates these people from having to deal with the real world, and in the case of the ethical monsters, having to deal with the repercussions of their arrogance.
In CocoRosie?s case, this goes back to that issue of genuineness. Do I get a sense of them as genuine humans from the album? The truth is no. They feel like fake people and the album feels artificial as a result. Obviously, in some cases, the artist wants the music to feel artificial and that?s a specific aesthetic choice. If that was the Casadys? choice here, it doesn?t help the music, which, due to the baby voices, already feels unreal, and this just makes it feel more alien. Without any kind of real human touchstone, this just floats out there. It either needs to at least nod to actual humanity or just be off-the-wall insane, but doing neither, it just comes off as fake. Grey Oceans falls in-between the cracks of the extremes, and while still an interesting album, feels too shallow and too Serious.
By Andrew Beckerman
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Haha, yet another CocoRosie/oil spill connection! It's getting to a point where I feel all current music reviews should contain coded BP indictments if they want to be taken seriously. "CocoRosie are emotionally uncontainable, gushing founts of arresting aesthetic creativity, crude promissory notes issuing unctuously forth from a fractured subterranean reservoir of pungent memory and poisonous desire. Grey Oceans is an environmental
disaster plaster of epic proportions, the single most drilling thrilling artistic statement since 1989's catastrophic cathartic release of millions of gallons of oil into Prince William Sound Masque of the Red Death"...etc.
Authenticity is overrated
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It sucks in a way that I simply can't conjure up the energy to read these things, esp. the shit about the CockRosettas. Feels like I'm missing out on something. All this momentum on here is so tempting but it's, like, when I'm lucky - LUCKY! ha! - I make it through one paragraph before my brain takes the emergency exit. I can totally feel it running away. Really! No metaphor here! Well, i guess: fuck it, it's summer, a party week is starting pretty much now and I'm preparin myself for the permant trip that will start in a couple of hours and end monday morningish.
Also, the BOOK should be the first VOLUME in an ongoing TermBIB.
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Saw Eddie Money in '80 in Yuma....
Had two tickets to paradise fer sure
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Also, the BOOK should be the first VOLUME in an ongoing TermBIB.
Can this be grandfathered in?
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2010/06/the_delta_spiri.html#comment-547372 (http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2010/06/the_delta_spiri.html#comment-547372)
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But none of this is half as bad as Nouvelle Vague: "Hey! Let's do cute 'Girl from Ipanema'-via-indie/folk versions of lovable new-wave and postpunk 'standards' so that we can be featured on movie soundtracks, TV shows, and commercials forever!"
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Hate to turn this thread into an all-purpose garbage dump, but this is as good a place as any to share this exquisite piece of political naivete and celebrity self-importance:
http://www.thesoundstrike.net/ (http://www.thesoundstrike.net/)
Apparently Conor Oberst has recorded a song protesting the AZ anti-immigrant legislation. It's called "Coyote Song" and it's about two lovers who are separated by the new bill. Like "Heroes," only with Mexicans! It's really sad! Check itt!
http://www.thesoundstrike.net/ (http://www.thesoundstrike.net/)
The NPR generation strikes again!
You see, the way to strike down an unconstitutional law is... Ah, forget it. Maybe the key to changing fifty years of Republican hegemony in the state of Arizona is embedded in the lyrics of CocoRosie's new single. I give this indie-rock initiative three months before it fizzles out and is completely forgotten.
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Apparently Conor Oberst has recorded a song protesting the AZ anti-immigrant legislation. It's called "Coyote Song" and it's about two lovers who are separated by the new bill. Like "Heroes," only with Mexicans! It's really sad! Check itt!
HAHAHAHAHA check out this fuckin' video!!
http://www.crawdaddy.com/index.php/2010/06/24/watch-conor-oberst-talk-about-the-musical-boycott-group-the-sound-strike-and-sb-1070-immigration-law/ (http://www.crawdaddy.com/index.php/2010/06/24/watch-conor-oberst-talk-about-the-musical-boycott-group-the-sound-strike-and-sb-1070-immigration-law/)
Little bitch made 'em drag a piano out to THE FENCE so he could sing the goddamn song. I found this video over 3 hours ago but put off watching it like I would save the last good beer in the fridge or the nuttiest fireworks for the 4th or the Kim Fowley version of "The Trip" for 4:30 in the morning. It's gotta be a truly pathological mindset that makes me treasure this kind of bullshit so much. Like my heart rate actually went up when I found this.
TOOL TIME!
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http://pitchfork.com/features/columns/7825-the-out-door-5/
In the fifth installment of "The Out Door" we discuss the infamous vuvuzela in the context of noise and minimalism, interview unclassifiable percussionist Z'EV, go over the finer points of just intonation with composer Duane Pitre, and speak to versatile musician and publisher George Chen about the Bay Area underground.
LOL
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http://pitchfork.com/features/columns/7825-the-out-door-5/
In the fifth installment of "The Out Door" we discuss the infamous vuvuzela in the context of noise and minimalism, interview unclassifiable percussionist Z'EV, go over the finer points of just intonation with composer Duane Pitre, and speak to versatile musician and publisher George Chen about the Bay Area underground.
LOL
Vuvvuzela
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http://pitchfork.com/features/columns/7825-the-out-door-5/
In the fifth installment of "The Out Door" we discuss the infamous vuvuzela in the context of noise and minimalism, interview unclassifiable percussionist Z'EV, go over the finer points of just intonation with composer Duane Pitre, and speak to versatile musician and publisher George Chen about the Bay Area underground.
LOL
Hahaha, I LOVE this column!! It really treads a delicate balance between sucking mad intellectual cock and achieving total brain death. In fact, my first-ever column for Negative Guest List is a review of the first "installment" (to use the appropriate plumbing parlance) of "The Out Door". Request it by name!
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I haven't had the guts to click thru on this yet, but from the blurb I read it appears to be Pitchfork's new Klearinghouse of the Kultic, a sort of FOURTEEN DIMENSIONAL "The Out Door". No doubt the non-Euclidean, non-trivial topographies mapped out by these complex linkages will sound out new depths of swamp-ass'd Lovecraftian laff-
insOUTS that should provide fertile fodder for this very thread...
www.alteredzones.com
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http://pitchfork.com/features/columns/7825-the-out-door-5/
In the fifth installment of "The Out Door" we discuss the infamous vuvuzela in the context of noise and minimalism, interview unclassifiable percussionist Z'EV, go over the finer points of just intonation with composer Duane Pitre, and speak to versatile musician and publisher George Chen about the Bay Area underground.
LOL
WAXIDERMY
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http://pitchfork.com/features/columns/7825-the-out-door-5/
In the fifth installment of "The Out Door" we discuss the infamous vulva in the context of noise and minimalism, interview unclassifiable percussionist Z'EV, go over the finer points of just intonation with composer Duane Pitre, and speak to versatile musician and publisher George Chen about the Bay Area underground.
LOL
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did anyone read the fabulous diamonds review up today on dusted? i'm afraid i didn't catch his drift.
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Some critics will describe Fabulous Diamonds as subject to ?Eastern? influences. But that?s bullshit - it?s all about their embrace of monotony, which is a pan-cultural thing. Which isn?t necessarily a bad thing. I?ve listened to this record five times today, and am completely hypnotized by it ? please don?t listen to a word I say.
jesus.... how nugged was the person who gave this dude a job?
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did anyone read the fabulous diamonds review up today on dusted? i'm afraid i didn't catch his drift.
Has he taken piano lessons?
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jesus.... how nugged was the person who gave this dude his name?
Emerrrrrrrrson Damerrrrrrrrron Dammsen Emson Dammel Emme Sonsonsonsonsonsonson Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNn nnnnnn haHEEyamerrrronmerrrrrro n MERR ONNN Daaaaaaaahahhhaaaaaaaaah AAAAAAAHHAAHAhaaaaaarrrr rrrrrrrrrrrrrronnnnnnnnn nnnnnnnn
DAMS DAMS DAMS DAMSEL DAMS
EMMA EMMA ARRGH Y SON
Damerson Dams di Dums / Rums di Dums / Dum Dum Girl.
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The record's overall gorgeousness has a whole lot to do with Cosentino's voice, which hits every pitch with equal clarity and intention of tone.
Mariah Carey - fucking watch out, this girl has a very plain voice and sings dumb melodies in tune.
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"Overall gorgeousness":
(http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/10943194/2/istockphoto_10943194-portrait-of-sexual-girls-in-blue-denim-overalls.jpg)
(http://s3.images.com/huge.63.317253.JPG)
(http://raincoaster.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/overalls.jpg)
(http://www.gridcrasher.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/gemmag1.jpg)
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The Voice ran a dubious suck piece on Wavves / Best Coast last week -- "two great summer records!!!" They, too, found "gorgeousness" in Cosentino's singing, though the writer, to his credit, admits that neither of these kiddos is too bright. Also, they make fun of her for leaving NYC for the west coast after only a few weeks as an intern at Paper.
(http://media.villagevoice.com/5092132.28.jpg)
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An admirable review of the BC record, written by WFMU alum Officer Brad LaBonte:
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5862 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5862)
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"Gorgeous" is seriously overused these days.
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i like the word gorgeous when the pissed bar wench at my work local drawls out her cockney "hellooo gaaaw-jus". she also reckons i have a "gaaaaw-jus deep voice". i think i'm in with a chance there.
i like that dusted review. it's not even worth bothering thinking about best coast. good advice.
it's still killer that the pitchfork reviewer thought her singing is even worth mentioning. she hits the notes confidently. great - she isn't tone deaf! a definite benefit for a pop band i should think.
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Confusing shit. Mishka NYC appears to be some kind of clothing store, but the management maintains this blog seemingly devoted to sucking Cult of Youth's cock:
http://mishkanyc.com/bloglin/2010/08/06/review-cult-of-youth-filthy-plumage-in-an-open-sea-ep/ (http://mishkanyc.com/bloglin/2010/08/06/review-cult-of-youth-filthy-plumage-in-an-open-sea-ep/)
The record is made all the more poignant by the knowledge that COY was able to complete it while (gasp!) addicted to drugs.
***
The headline speaks for itself, I guess.
http://pitchfork.com/news/39688-listen-antony-collaborates-with-oneohtrix-point-never/ (http://pitchfork.com/news/39688-listen-antony-collaborates-with-oneohtrix-point-never/)
***
Not quite "new," but "worth" your "time" nonetheless:
http://pitchfork.com/features/why-we-fight/7824-why-we-fight-5/[url]]]http://pitchfork.com/features/why-we-fight/7824-why-we-fight-5/[url] (http://pitchfork.com/features/why-we-fight/7824-why-we-fight-5/[url=http://)[/url]
***
Personal attacks by musicians on reviewers: old hat. Now witness Still Single's ongoing quest to turn the tables. Yikes!
Nice Face
Immer Etwas LP
(Sacred Bones)
So I?m about four years behind on turning in this review but I?m still dancing around in the Internetherworld doing a little of the dead art known as "research" when I come across the Sacred Bones site. Imagine how proud I was to find, among the promotional text written to peddle this full-length album, this passage: "locks Blank Dogs in the pound, erases ?Psychedelic? from Psychedelic Horseshit, makes purses and boots out of Crocodiles, and, oh I don?t know ? makes a puddle out of Wavves?" This was quoted from my previous review of the Nice Face 7" for Still Single. Sure, if someone wants to punch up their promo copy with an "-ism" pulled from a review that I wrote, have at it, but please try to remember that my name is ANDREW EARLES, not "one writer prone to curmudgeonly ranting" and I don?t understand why anyone would want to use "curmudgeonly ranting" in their promo text, especially when the passage is followed by the claim, "we think this is the cheesiest sentence ever written, even if it was intended as a compliment." Let me get this straight: If I put out some records, and I?m trying to win over potential listeners ? you know, get the Paypal gears a ?turnin ? I should go out and find the cheesiest sentence ever written and blurb it in my descriptive text? This greases the mechanism that separates people from their money? Should I make sure that the comment was written by a reviewer that I clearly disagree with? Now, correct me if I?m wrong, but rants written by curmudgeons ? shouldn?t they read a little differently than lighthearted 27-word descriptions that indicate the writer is CLEARLY FUCKING AROUND? Caleb, do you need a mailing address to direct my W-2 towards? Figured I might get a little kick back or something, seeing as how my writing and the subject of my writing are seemingly worthy enough to take up at least a fourth of the one-sheet for this LP. Tell you what, if you end up releasing the follow-up to this record, I?ll make it much easier for you when it comes time to write the one-sheet. Ok, ready? [Left click] "There is no such thing as a phoned in, uninspired, hook-free version of latter-period Jay Reatard, but if for some unknown reason, listeners are curious as to what that might have sounded like, look no further than Immer Etwas." [Right click] [Right click] (http://www.sacredbonesrecords.com)
(Andrew Earles)
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In fairness, that's actually an attack on Caleb (Sacred Bones). Double yikes.
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Caleb is Drunkdriver.
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Caleb is a monster.
I hear that if you play the Drunkdriver record backwards, etc. What do you think, new thread?
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Man, the harshness of Still Single. I had a rough morning too but I feel better now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjZqZWbmXK4
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Confusing shit. Mishka NYC appears to be some kind of clothing store, but the management maintains this blog seemingly devoted to sucking Cult of Youth's cock:
http://mishkanyc.com/bloglin/2010/08/06/review-cult-of-youth-filthy-plumage-in-an-open-sea-ep/ (http://mishkanyc.com/bloglin/2010/08/06/review-cult-of-youth-filthy-plumage-in-an-open-sea-ep/)
yeah mishka is a clothing brand and one that has always incorporated music (loud shit - punk / hc / metal / hip-hop) into its identity. not surprising that that they write regularly about music on their blog or that its level of writing doesn't meet the standard established by vice (or does it?)
vivienne westwood = original lifestyle brand, bitches
i think andy's screed was a fair one, although probably serving not much more purpose than awkward meetings with sacred bones
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Nothing is surprising anymore, Rob. I was wondering what the connection is between the Mishka blog and COY 'cos they've given the kid a thorough balls massage for each record he's released. Have you heard him? His records are more or less an iMac-enabled tribute to Death in June. The first single sounds good if you play it at 33rpm.
Earles' rant is well written, at least. And he's got a point. But such venom, all 'cos the label called him "curmudgeonly" and didn't use his name in the one-sheet! Still, better venom than sycophancy, I guess.
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Nothing is surprising anymore, Rob. I was wondering what the connection is between the Mishka blog and COY 'cos they've given the kid a thorough balls massage for each record he's released. Have you heard him? His records are more or less an iMac-enabled tribute to Death in June. The first single sounds good if you play it at 33rpm.
i dunno, there were undoubtedly a bunch of zine writers similarly and inexplicably stuck on death in june.... what can you say? opinions are like blogs - everyone has one (or something like that).
anyway the best idea is to send goodstein down and ask them directly:
http://hypebeast.com/2010/08/mishka-lunch-truck/
if he needs convincing, "food offerings will include Vietnamese cuisine from the Mandoline Grill"
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An admirable review of the BC record, written by WFMU alum Officer Officer Brad LaBonte:
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5862 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5862)
"A sunny 2010 take on Belly." Ouch.
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An admirable review of the BC record, written by WFMU alum Officer Officer Officer Brad LaBonte:
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5862 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5862)
"A sunny 2010 take on Belly." Ouch.
HA! That's funny, cause when we played w/them on a show at NXNE, Lisa said 'fuck this shit - it sounds like Belly or something'... it's true. It does. Feed the Tree everybody. Feed the Tree.
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My favorite part of this Robert Ashley review is the strained comparison to Mark E. Smith, but the most telling is his complaint that Ashley's orchestration "sounds far too competent, far too professional for his staggering vision," and that the "mid-level pianos and synths" are too slick (Ashley has been using lame MIDI banks, brilliantly, for about thirty years now).
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5890 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5890)
Elsewhere in the site, this kid explains why US Girls and Xeno and Oaklander are "important," and puts Afropop and late-70s NYC into "perspective." Tell us what it's all about, Marty!
http://dustedmagazine.com/writers/martinmc (http://dustedmagazine.com/writers/martinmc)
***
Have we hit rock bottom yet?
http://pitchfork.com/news/39782-xiu-xius-jamie-stewart-raffles-cup-of-his-pee-for-graveface-records/ (http://pitchfork.com/news/39782-xiu-xius-jamie-stewart-raffles-cup-of-his-pee-for-graveface-records/)
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My favorite part of this Robert Ashley review is the strained comparison to Mark E. Smith, but the most telling is his complaint that Ashley's orchestration "sounds far too competent, far too professional for his staggering vision," and that the "mid-level pianos and synths" are too slick (Ashley has been using lame MIDI banks, brilliantly, for about thirty years now).
[
On the other hand, the "Hamburger Lady" comparison is a good one. On the OTHER other hand, complaining that 4 American Composers is "too Caucasian," is pretty rich. Dusted, uplifting the oppressed!
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On the other hand, the "Hamburger Lady" comparison is a good one. On the OTHER other hand, complaining that 4 American Composers is "too Caucasian," is pretty rich. Dusted, uplifting the oppressed!
Right on both counts. It's not farfetched to suggest that TG had heard the Ashley piece, is it? But yeah, I forgot about that "too Caucasian" bit. That's a riot. How many non-white composers of this caliber has America produced? I can think of... none. I guess a smartass you might say Julius Eastman, but come on.
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Not that it's made explicit by Martin-McCormick or anything, but my guess is he's beating the Jazz = American Classical Music drum. In the name of balance, I'm gonna start writing for Dusted & bitch that Ken Burns never mentioned Henry Cowell in Jazz.
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So much material to work with here. "Dancing about architecture" is "generally credited" to Monk, not Elvis fuckin' Costello. And that's just "A." Enjoy.
http://pitchfork.com/features/poptimist/7848-poptimist-32/ (http://pitchfork.com/features/poptimist/7848-poptimist-32/)
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I'll be the first to admit that Kugelberg is usually entertaining, even when he's full of shit. His nuisance-factor peaked with his project to destroy the meaning of "punk" a few issues of Ugly Things ago. This just strikes me as the sad testimony of a jaded, idle mind. Is this guy rolling in dough or what?!
http://www.furious.com/perfect/genredefinitions2.html (http://www.furious.com/perfect/genredefinitions2.html)
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Another bargain-basement "think piece" from the brain trust at Perfect Sound Forever:
http://www.furious.com/perfect/twinpeaks.html (http://www.furious.com/perfect/twinpeaks.html)
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Ignore the perfunctory review of the first Chinese Restaurants EP (I did) and scroll down to Earles' bizarre indictment of Billy Childish. Smells like bait to me, but who knows?
http://still-single.tumblr.com/ (http://still-single.tumblr.com/)
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(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TEcrjheJtdw/R5i1MQECCMI/AAAAAAAABKY/n52KtDLfF_Y/s400/adrian-monk.jpg)
MONK? (http://www.paclink.com/~ascott/they/tamildaa.htm)
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Yeah, that dude.
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I'll be the first to admit that Kugelberg is usually entertaining, even when he's full of shit. His nuisance-factor peaked with his project to destroy the meaning of "punk" a few issues of Ugly Things ago. This just strikes me as the sad testimony of a jaded, idle mind. Is this guy rolling in dough or what?!
http://www.furious.com/perfect/genredefinitions2.html (http://www.furious.com/perfect/genredefinitions2.html)
You betcha. Haven't you seen those adds for that movie about him
(http://i988.photobucket.com/albums/af1/speaker68/IMG00048-20100820-1005.jpg)
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Holy shit, Kugelberg invented the Internet!!!
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Ignore the perfunctory review of the first Chinese Restaurants EP (I did) and scroll down to Earles' bizarre indictment of Billy Childish. Smells like bait to me, but who knows?
http://still-single.tumblr.com/ (http://still-single.tumblr.com/)
It's cute. Think he even listened to the record?
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He didn't have to in order to write that review. Weird, right? I can't remember the last time I talked to a rabid Billy Childish fan, unless you count AA. It reads like he's trying to ruffle the feathers of a person that exists only in his imagination.
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It's just record-reviewer-as-fashion-police crap, he's revealing his basic lack of interest in music itself by going off on a consumerist-product placement tangent ASAP. Dude has too little time on his hands and too much stimulus. Just plug your ass directly into a computer and start frothing.
Also, FYI, the Childish backlash was ten years ago, friend. He acts like he's the first person to realize that Childish is a riff recycler. I wish more people WERE recycling riffs, and shamelessly too, we'd have more interesting singles to listen to. All people are recycling now is mood or production sound, leaving the musical notes and wot not in about 6th place behind social networking and clever sleeve art and laboriously engineered record scarcity and...and...
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I'll be the first to admit that Kugelberg is usually entertaining, even when he's full of shit. His nuisance-factor peaked with his project to destroy the meaning of "punk" a few issues of Ugly Things ago. This just strikes me as the sad testimony of a jaded, idle mind. Is this guy rolling in dough or what?!
http://www.furious.com/perfect/genredefinitions2.html (http://www.furious.com/perfect/genredefinitions2.html)
I appreciate how most of his writing is essentially list-making with a quick footnote. But whenever he tries to write in an expository style it becomes almost illegibly convoluted with its backtracking, rubber-necked ass-covering and bridge-to-nowhere logical conclusions. Make sense? NOPE, not even when I try to break it down. He is incapable of direct, clear communication. He is a hipster to the bone. But I will credit his obvious intelligence and his ability to hear good music for what it is when it is presented to him on a silver platter.
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I see his points about Childish (and even agree with some of them). The last paragraph is stupid, though.
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It reads like he's trying to ruffle the feathers of a person that exists only in his imagination.
The straw garage turkey.
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That was borderline unreadable. Rock journalism sucks.
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It's also curious that Kugelberg's pub rock/proto punk article seems to be hoping for all of that stuff to get comped PRONTO so that he can avoid getting the knees of his collectible jeans dirty looking for them in the cheapo understock, as he prefers to instead pay $100+ a pop for them in a more civilized, upright milieu.
Some of the better rocker records pre-1977 are never going to be $100+ records no matter how good they are. There's just too many copies floating around, many of them are on major labels or were regional hits in Europe/OZ. Of course, this is the beginning of the process where formerly "common" records suddenly become pretty damn uncommon almost overnight, which is when people realize that their commonality could be more accurately portrayed as lily pads floating on top of an ocean of ZERO.
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Ignore the perfunctory review of the first Chinese Restaurants EP (I did) and scroll down to Earles' bizarre indictment of Billy Childish. Smells like bait to me, but who knows?
http://still-single.tumblr.com/ (http://still-single.tumblr.com/)
... while yer scrolling http://still-single.tumblr.com/ (http://still-single.tumblr.com/)i'd appreciate it if somebody here could explain these quotes from the 'exiles from clowntown' review "Todd Rundgren ref dropped up there" & "that legendary Iggy Pop statue that exists somewhere in Australia"
i get that he thinks the record is worthless even though he's "happy that it exists" but i got no idea what these are supposed to mean.
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the iggy statue is just a reference to stooge worship that was such a large part of aussie rock for awhile, the rundgren thing he's refering to his own writing, SOMETHING ANYTHING(a rundgren album)
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the iggy statue is just a reference to stooge worship that was such a large part of aussie rock for awhile, the rundgren thing he's refering to his own writing, SOMETHING ANYTHING(a rundgren album)
thanks for clearing that up that for me.
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In fairness, that's actually an attack on Caleb (Sacred Bones). Double yikes.
Just reading this now. I am actually the one who wrote the one sheet and website copy for Caleb for this record....so really it is an attack on me. Triple yikes!
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Dunno what's going on at Still Single HQ these days, but the toxicity of their reviews has reached unprecedented levels in recent weeks. The tumblr blog reads like a catalog of pathology, riddled with spite and unearned ill humor. I respect SS's campaign to balance out the PR-positive fluff that passes for music crit in most indie circles, but lately some of this stuff, Earles' and Mosurock's in particular, just reads like the muttering of a bitter, self-deluded drunk. Alone. In the corner of a horrible college tavern.
This week finds Mosurock puzzling over Sasha Grey's aTelecine LP, hinting that the album makes him uncomfortable but also that something about Ms. Grey's foray into musicmaking somehow isn't on the up and up. Read it, you'll see what I mean. What does he mean? Is he hedging against accusations of sexism, or worse, an enjoyment of Grey's extramusical work, on that other forum? Seriously. Try and make sense of this review.
Also, witness Earles' weirdly inapposite tirade on the state of music crit in his review of the (alt-country?) band Tired Old Bones (never heard of 'em), and the insider venom he spews all over a Sleepovers record (ditto). Again: I like negg reviews and I like writers who use the review as a soapbox for talking about other shit. I just find these... weird. Like I'm eavesdropping on one half of an unpleasant conversation between the sort of people I never, ever talk to at a show.
http://still-single.tumblr.com/ (http://still-single.tumblr.com/)
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I agree that the Still Single crew seems to be getting increasingly bitter and strange lately. I don't know if it's review fatigue or what. I appreciate when a reviewer will call something out as bullshit, but those guys seem to delight in shitting all over upstarts who maybe shouldn't have put a record out. On the one hand, it does suck to sit through an opening band that is just not good or interesting at all (I imagine reviewing such a band is similar), but if no one else is writing about that band, why make their one review so negative? Just get rid of the record and move on. It's like they're punishing bands for wasting their time by sending them the record.
Earles in particular seems to have a very high negative-to-positive ratio, and both ends of the spectrum are way over the top. I don't even pay attention to him any more. If he's the guy I think he is (from other websites and stuff), he's got some writing talent, but I don't think my tastes align much with his, anyway. I basically just skip the reviews not written by Mosurock unless I'm already interested in the band. But, you're right, he too seems awfully cranky in a lot of his recent reviews.
My take on the aTelecine review is that he actually liked it and felt it was like a B+ noise record (is that the right genre? I don't know, never heard it) but doesn't want to go on record saying so. I'm not sure why he feels like he can't just say, "Sasha Grey is in a noise band, and their record is actually pretty decent." If he really believed that it "demands to be taken at face value" (I re-arranged those words, but that's what he said), that's what he would write. But, instead, he writes shit like, "It's virtually impossible to separate Grey?s role in this project from her other roles" and "the woman in charge here might have lived whatever is abstracted in the music." Not the two dudes in the band, though?
Also, why does everyone who talks about how much they hate "Entourage" clearly watch the show? How could he know Sasha Grey is the worst thing about the show if he doesn't watch it? Turn off the TV and read a book, shithead!
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My head is buried so far into the sand when it comes to TV that I had no idea Sasha Grey was on Entourage. But that's a valid point regarding writing about having to mention her on-screen work in conjunction with her music. I think that's the case with any persona that dabbles in multiple mediums. Obviously the reviewer wants to give the reader some context, but why can't the reviewed piece of work just be reviewed for what it is, in this case an industrial record, instead of a venture into new terrain, in this case by an acclaimed porn star?
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I didn't think anyone was still watching Entourage. I think it's impossible to ignore her porn identity when dealing with the record. I probably would not have heard the record, or been interested in it, had I not known about Sasha Grey as a porn actress -- a porn actress whose work I enjoy, in fact, and that I think is valuable and challenging.
Her record is quite good, but as I was saying to a friend recently, I think my enthusiasm for the record was probably informed by the fact that I like SG as a pornographer and as a public figure.
The thing about the review is I don't get what Mosurock is saying. He wants to say something, otherwise he wouldn't have reviewed it. But he's so equivocal and apparently conflicted that he winds up saying nothing. There's a touch of fear or discomfort in the notion that the woman depicted on the cover is Grey herself (I'm pretty sure it is) and that the acts depicted are ones in which she has actually participated.
I think the packaging and the sounds on the record don't quite gel, actually. It may be a less extreme example of what happened with that Relay For Death record, where the artist made some cool sounds and then wrapped them in a completely inorganic concept to make the record appear more interesting than it is.
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Yeah, I don't know, it's hard to say, not having heard the record or knowing much about Gray as a pornographer/actress. I saw the "Girlfriend Experience" and then watched some porn clips of her to try to understand what could make a particular porn actress a "star" (and, you know, to watch people fucking). From the stuff I watched, she definitely does stand out and do work that is challenging and (sure, why not?) valuable. She seems to have a definite perspective that shows up even in her porn work, so that's cool, I guess.
I see what you're saying about it being impossible to separate her porn identity from her music, and you know, they're obviously going to be related, especially given what her music is like. But, I don't think they have to be so inextricably linked that it's not possible to review the music straight up. When I listen to Throbbing Gristle, I don't really think about Cosey Fanni Tutti's forays into stripping or porn or performance art, largely because I don't really care about them or know much about it. I don't think that means I don't "get" Throbbing Gristle or can't appreciate their music. Maybe it's somewhat diminished, but I wouldn't say to a huge degree.
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Needless to say, "Sasha Grey" is a pseudonym. If she had wanted to dissociate one career from the other, she could have used another name entirely. I think the idea is that the same person, or character, is responsible for both.
I can get behind the idea of a formalist review -- it's been done -- but in rock music and its offshoots (of which Industrial is one) I can't think of any artist whose public persona isn't part of his or her work. With Jandek, even, the absence of information about the artist was itself an element of his work. So the personhood of the artist is always a factor in its reception, unless you're listening blind. The TG example is a good one. I think Cosey's porno/performance art career seldom comes into play with TG because TG was much more well known, no? Just a hunch. Like, Coum Transmissions probably got a lot more press than she did as a pornographer.
Stumbled across this misery earlier: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/127832-the-new-breed-sasha-grey-atelecine-and-the-new-morality/ (http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/127832-the-new-breed-sasha-grey-atelecine-and-the-new-morality/)
Dunno where to even begin. Just posting that link makes me feel tired.
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She seems to have a definite perspective that shows up even in her porn work.
Do you mean she takes it up the butt?
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She seems to have a definite perspective that shows up even in her porn work.
Do you mean she takes it up the butt?
I mean she takes TWO DICKS up the butt AT THE SAME TIME!
(No, really, I meant THE WAY IN WHICH she takes two dicks up the butt.)
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Also, FYI, the Childish backlash was ten years ago, friend. He acts like he's the first person to realize that Childish is a riff recycler.
i am not challenging this, but why is this some "whoa, what is he on about" concept whereas the endless digs at kugelberg are fresh grist for the mill? btw johan is right about the thinking fellers.
if i have a problem with andy's piece it's that he misuses the phrase "slagging off..." why people are surprised about negativity and (possible) pettiness on writers clearly influenced by forced exposure is kind of beyond me
re: sasha grey, it's pretty clear that she wants to link the music and film she makes into some kind of gesamtkunstwerk - so hence the lack of pseudonym. i personally doubt that her persona is some kind of fabricated character (or perhaps a better way to put it, that her public character is much different than her actual personhood). anyway, if i had any interest in reviewing this record (let alone listening to it), i would do a double review of it and the richardson magazine from earlier this year - it does a good job of putting her work into a (fairly flattering) historical context.
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Rob, it's not surprising that the concept of things being unsurprising plays a central role in your dialectical arsenal, and while this is no more cliche a rhetorical device than any other, it invites an immediate response of, "Who said I was surprised?", which leaves us at a rather boring impasse, don't you think? ;)
Since this is predominantly my thread, for no other reason than that I'm the only fool obnoxious enough to give a shit, I would clarify that this discussion does not pretend any novelty -- it is rather a compendium of shitty writing from the asshole of music criticism, an anal snapshot if you will, of the state of "rock crit." And that, my friend, is the shittiest paragraph in this thread so far.
I like the Thinking Fellers too and I'm positively delighted that Kugelberg has found time to hype 'em twenty years down the line, during a break from cataloguing band t-shirts and blabbing about disco. He is without a doubt the Walter Benjamin of the .mp3 age. Can't wait to read his list of the best cassettes of the '00s twenty years from now.
In re. Sasha Grey, I read your post and then read mine again, and I think we agree completely except in your unn?tigerweiseanspruchsvoll term for this jism cunt's work.
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re: http://www.furious.com/perfect/genredefinitions2.html
umberto eco is a puffed up fool, giving homage to him is a stupid gesture in trying to merge cultures that have no reason to ever cross paths unless to confront head on.
also, hannett's pinnacle is john cooper clarke's snap, crackle and bop not the jj single
says I
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Agreed. Eco's the poor (European) man's Serious Thinker of Big Ideas. In the States, Eco is best known for his novel, The War of the Roses, which spawned a delightfully irreverent film adaptation starring Kathleen Hannah, Michael Douglas, and Sir Daniel Devito:
(http://www.qwipster.net/waroftheroses.jpg)
I think it's sweet that Kuge has found someone to look up to.
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You joking? Eco's big coup is the Name of the Rose. It's a great book. Dude should have stopped with that one. War of the Roses is by some other doofus. In spite of his bloated posturing as a public intellectual, Eco was kinda important in his role as the "poor (European) man's Serious Thinker of Big Ideas" for popularizing a discourse - and in N. America, helping to establish a department in that discourse at the university of Toronto - that actually did facillitate the reception of much "Bigger Ideas".
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Anyway, skimmed the Kugelburger piece, and it's downright dumb. Obviously, Eco is one of Koogie's serious thinkers of big ideas. The K piece is embarassingly baroque in the way that Eco often is.
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^^Sorry, that was a typo. Eco's gargantuan book was skillfully adapted into a lean and nonetheless stirring melodrama starring Beth Midler.
(http://pyleoflist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/aaaarose.jpg)
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(http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/12/07/umberto_eco_narrowweb__300x450,0.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.smh.com.au/news/books/the-armani-of-italian-literature/2007/12/07/1196812998850.html&usg=__pbgj7_-5zFGC6_EIeBhqN6_-7b4=&h=450&w=300&sz=34&hl=en&start=1&zoom=1&itbs=1&tbnid=xBo308Ed0HXjoM:&tbnh=127&tbnw=85&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dumberto%2Beco%26hl%3Den%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1)(http://arts.anu.edu.au/sss/pols3017/Images/Theorists/Umberto_Eco.jpg)
(http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/33/66333-004-840C558F.jpg)(http://i1.trekearth.com/photos/485/eco.jpg)
(http://www.televisionando.it/img/umberto_eco_tsi.jpg)
(http://blogs.cornell.edu/city/files/2009/10/NESSEN_kugeberg_record-300x214.jpg)(http://vivo.cornell.edu/file/n708/hiphop.jpg)
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I much prefer Midler's adaptation of The Gay Science
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZE6EJG9SL.jpg)
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And, hey, do you still want that Human Zoo single?
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Divine Madness is a respectable attempt at an impossible adaptation. Sadly, M. Night Shambalayamana's thoughtful treatment of the life and work of Barthes has fallen into disrepute in light of recent events.
(http://maninblackreviews.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/48signs-movie.jpg)
And fuck, yes, I want that single. I thought I PayPal'd you? PM me the total again, will ya? And thanks.
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And yet, Shamalam's critical genealogy of the flash mob should be applauded for spinning Allan Krapow in his grave.
(http://www.virginmedia.com/images/the-happening-300x440.jpg)
You have been PM'd
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the reception of much "Bigger Ideas".
like, which ?!
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I much prefer Midler's adaptation of The Gay Science
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZE6EJG9SL.jpg)
I have a bette midler lp, don't remind me of that!
alas, I do not have a chinese restaurants single
nor do I have the other one either
sigh
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^^Sorry, that was a typo. Eco's gargantuan book was skillfully adapted into a lean and nonetheless stirring melodrama starring Courtney Love.
(http://pyleoflist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/aaaarose.jpg)
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That does look like Courtney Love, which makes sense since in that film she plays heroin addicted diva Billie Holiday. I just read somewhere in Gothamist that Courtney Love once dated Edward Norton. Love is strange.
More importantly, I've been tryina figure out all morning if Bette Midler was ever hot. She looks kind of hot in that Divine Madness poster, doesn't she? Annoying, but hot. Would?
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nah, bette midler is on the wrong side of camp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2HwloXqo_U
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bette midler is ugly as sin
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http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5989 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5989)
If the record is so inconsequential, why bother reviewing it? If not for reviews such as this, would one even be aware that the record exists? Did the reviewer or the magazine that publishes him time the appearance of this review to coincide with the laudatory review published in Pitchfork the same day? Does the reviewer honestly believe that Young is "co-opting" Sex/Vid's "aesthetic"? Does a "gothic" font and a hazy black and white photograph signify black metal and mysterious-guy-HC any more than it does Goth or plain old doom or any number of other genres? Did the writer miss the obvious pun on Lanois' name? Isn't one of Young's salient characteristics a certain cannabis-scented vulgarity, i.e. old-fashioned hippie bad taste, which rears its head throughout his career in, for instance, his tribute album to Kurt Cobain, the cover to Landing On Water, not to mention Trans, the entire Greendale project, This Note's For You, etc.? Is a seventy-year-old titan of modern music who first made his name in the late sixties, whose first five records have spawned entire subgenres, expected to care about the finer points of "Noise" taxonomy? If Neil Young were to stop making music right this instant, would the public replace him with a thousand GarageBand projects? Can any more than a handful of said projects possibly be any better than this record, which I haven't heard? Can a mediocre Neil Young record possibly be any worse than Pillow Talk or Puerto Rico Flowers? What does Peter Kolovos have to do with anything other than the writer's desire to flaunt his awareness of the outer edges of contemporary improvised music, which awareness can be purchased for about $8.99 a month in the form of a subscription to The Wire? Is Neil Young really stealing bandwidth from more deserving musicians, particularly at a time when the "mainstream" is rapidly fragmenting into legion sub-communities that cater to ever finer interests and consumer fetishes? Does the writer honestly believe that rock 'n' roll (read: Balaclavas, Pissed Jeans, Totally Gay) "inspires us in new forms ... motivates us to rise up against hatred and hypocrisy, something to help us conquer our fears and allow us to thrive once again" or is this a sad attempt at positioning himself as a post-Bangs r'n'r moralist, a true believer? Is this an exercise for a freshman creative writing class? Wasn't this device funnier and more effective when Crispin Glover used it to slander Steven Spielberg?
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Bette Midler's corpus was sexually attractive once upon a time.
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http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5989 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5989)
Well, dunno, for a split-second I thought about all of Mousey's questions but it's just too easy and everybody with half a brain would arrive at the same set of answers. Also, Whet's questions say it all.
Based on this review, the guy really has to have the most immature teenager's conception of what a musician is. One only has to read the first questionsentence of the review to see that. Guess he should know fucking better, being around all those "influential" art/culture peoples. But I'll shut up now and keep on observing someone who clearly hates his job doing his thing. Kinda interesting in a way although sometimes just depressing. Well, I know why I hate writing reviews, like, classic review reviews. I hate that genre. If I did write 'em nonetheless it's very likely I'd end up like Mosurock. Hating my listening habits, clouded brain. It gets to you at some point. It got to him, obviously. He should just read a book, I guess. "No blog updates!" said the doctor! But he can't stop. The Responsibility! Or Whatever!
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Australian genuises discuss the modern condition of rock criticism:
http://messandnoise.com/articles/4089702
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[subject title]"Why I Find It Hard to Write About Music These Days"
[alternate subject title]QUICKDRAW McBLOG
--------------------
rant by C. Weingarten
http://www.ippio.com/video/5358/Criticism-II-Music-Is-Math
--------------------------------
Nothing you haven't thought (if yr a nerd), but quite entertaining nonetheless.
But yeah, a conference for music critics sounds like a shit sundae with a giant dollop of sexual frustration jiggling on top.
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From my local paper:
http://soundcheck.ocregister.com/2010/11/30/waters-wall-revival-a-staggering-masterpiece/40118/ (http://soundcheck.ocregister.com/2010/11/30/waters-wall-revival-a-staggering-masterpiece/40118/)
ENJOY!
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From the "mind" of Emerson Dameron:
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6153 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6153)
Words fail me.
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From the "mind" of Emerson Dameron:
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6153 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6153)
Words fail me.
a heapin' helpin' of straight-up power-electronics sadism
I adore Emerson Dameron. If there existed a prize for terrible music writing, he would not be the recipient of such a prize, but the person for whom it was named. Emerson is the most abhorrent of rockcrit barnacles: indulging himself in the loose, lazy, amalgamated style of modern rockcrit but at the same time depositing a small ream of self-aware snark onto just such tendencies every time he writes. That's what makes his writing an extra-special blend of esoteric dumbfuck and jabs at esoteric dumbfuck, translated into jackass when he wants to show off his bilingual aptitudes. Further proof that the classic paradigm of music reviews as Larger Truths fitted out with anecdotes, slang and evangelizing has filtered down to the lowest common denominator, 20-year old economics majors with email addresses like "xJacKerouac1991x" or "xnotwithabangbutwithawhi sperx" who buy Deerhoof albums on vinyl and think Harvey Wallbanger is a person.
Are my theorist eggheads in the house? (Thurston Moore, Jim O?Rourke, Carlos Giffoni) Are my torture-porn misanthropists in the house? (The Haters, Richard Ramirez, Prurient) Are my hell-yeah, rock-minus-structure meatheads in the house? (Wolf Eyes, Aaron Dilloway) Are there some brilliant and hilarious band names? (Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, Broken Penis Orchestra)
I think this is the second instance of Aaron Dilloway being able to sue this guy for libel. Here's the first:
http://dustedmagazine.com/features/554 (http://dustedmagazine.com/features/554)
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Yeah, Emerson's a comic genius. LOL at "Noise fetishists" paying serious dough for this record on eBay; LOL at "misanthropists"; LOL at "egghead theorists" Giffoni and Moore; LOL at "in the house"; LOL at "I have never heard of Blue Sabbath Black Cheer and I find their name to be hilarious." What to make of the 360-degree turn from his scathing indictment of Noise tape culture in '06 to his sensual embrace of same in the instant review? All I know is, I'm gonna buy/not buy the fuck outta this record!!!
Deerhoof albums on vinyl
Chuckled, hard!
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Perhaps this would be a good time to share one of my perennial favorites, "Notes From A No Fun Fest Girlfriend":
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/i-got-earplugs-valentines-day (http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/i-got-earplugs-valentines-day)
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Wow, doing cartwheels in the Dream House!
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Perhaps this would be a good time to share one of my perennial favorites, "Notes From A No Fun Fest Girlfriend":
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/i-got-earplugs-valentines-day (http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/i-got-earplugs-valentines-day)
"He was actually too shy to ask for my number, but he did have the balls to ask
what time my radio show was."
RUN AWAY LADIES!
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Perhaps this would be a good time to share one of my perennial favorites, "Notes From A No Fun Fest Girlfriend":
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/i-got-earplugs-valentines-day (http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/i-got-earplugs-valentines-day)
"He was actually too shy to ask for my number, but he did have the balls to ask
what time my radio show was."
RUN AWAY LADIES!
(http://www.annyas.com/screenshots/images/1971/play-misty-for-me-movie-trailer-title.jpg)
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Check out this pocket fulla loose change from 2008:
http://pitchfork.com/features/puritan-blister/7393-puritan-blister-40-moving-the-chains/ (http://pitchfork.com/features/puritan-blister/7393-puritan-blister-40-moving-the-chains/)
Opening line is a fine example of the vague anti-qualification of whatevs-ness that christens the standard Pitchfork review. Translated as "I'm not really a dork/I've watched Waking Life at least twice":
Okay, so obsessing about music is my barely manageable primary distraction from whatever complexities life/reality are supposed to involve.
Certain people, conversely, seem to broadcast their approval of NCAA gridiron action as part of an Everyman pose. I drove up to see Black Kids and the Virgins last week in Jacksonville, Florida, and Barack Obama swung through town the next day, appealing to the multitudes by asking: "Are there any Gator fans in the house? I don't know if y'all are aware there's football today." (As if it's not already exponentially fucked-up that our presidential remote control to the nuclear arsenal is called "the football," or that so many cretinous members of our legislative branch claimed to have just talked about football with now-Chief Justice John Roberts during the buildup to his confirmation, or that Patton and Nixon straightfacedly made costly battle plans into, and out of, football analogies, etc.)
OH MAN THE FUCKING IRONY -- MAKE THAT "GRID"IRONY
Musically, college football is awfully lacking. One must either suffer the militaristic and early-twentieth-century marching band stuff of (often sexist/racist) school songs, which always make me think of the Mr. Show skit spoofing them as artless "blustery hoopla," or one must pump one's fists to appropriations of outdated date-rapey anthems by Smash Mouth or dumb hits such as "Who Let the Dogs Out" (which frustrates English teachers, as the preferable utterance is "by whom were the dogs let out?" since sentences ending with prepositions are locutions up with which we'd rather not put).
AAARRRGGHHH
Extended 2000-word feature on this article may be coming to a Negative Guest List near you very soon...
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Okay, so obsessing about music is my barely manageable primary distraction from whatever complexities life/reality are supposed to involve.
Or, "Why pamper life's complexity when the leather runs smooth on the passenger seat?"
The central gridirony of Mr. Bowers' essay is its confession that the writer's inner life was cribbed from a Smiths lyric sheet, then translated into dudespeak (a "think piece" about football, but one that apologizes for itself). Classic displacement, just like Mailer and Plimpton's avowed passion for sports, especially the most brutal sport (boxing). Return [to] the ring, Bowers! (He knows so much about these things.)
Something, something, something, The Economy.
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Klosterman sucks. An embarrassment to Akron, believe it or not.
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Christgau gave Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" and X's "Los Angeles" the same grade: an A-
what is this i don't even
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This review made me laugh out loud. Courtesy of Still Single:
Jason Ajemian & the Highlife ? ?TV/Animals? b/w ?Monsters? 7? (Sundmagi)
These pompous assholes go for some jazzy skronk with a hint of no wave, but they sound more like the combo that backed Mike Myers in So I Married An Axe Murderer than James Chance. The first side sucks more than you can possibly imagine - even one hair on the ponytail of the sax player in the SNL band has more dignity. I?ve heard better music coming spilling out of the Line 6 amp section at Guitar Center. The flip doesn?t start out nearly as horrible, the kick drum has a nice pound and the snare a pleasing snap for these crummy vocalist to lay down his indecipherable shitbag patter over lounge jazz, but once the godawful chorus starts I wanted to go back in time and murder my own mother before she gave birth to me so I didn?t have to listen to the song in the future. The cover has each of the members of the band holding cutesy kid-scribble drawings covering what I can only imagine to be smug, smirking faces. Do yourself a favor and avoid this record, this band?s performances, and any of the members personally. Western Civilization doesn?t need this bullshit. (http://sundmagi.com)
(Bob Claymore)
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Yeah, that fucking guy. In another review he says something like, "I hope the people in this band are all dead." I guess the idea at Still Single HQ these days is to be the most repugnantly cantankerous reviewers imaginable. The writers seem to honestly believe that they're performing a valuable public service by getting free records in the mail, listening to them, and then posting their opinions about 'em -- the nastier, the better. That Claymore review isn't even good writing. I get the sentiment, sort of: there's too much music out there, too much mediocre music; please stop. But this dude and that sad mediocrity Andrew Earles act like it's a personal affront to them that mediocre bands exist. By the by, I happen to like one of the songs on that single very much ("Animals"), though I don't think the rest is good at all. It's clear that the reviewer listened to the record only once and spewed this paragraph immediately after. The kid-scribble drawings are, in fact, drawings made by children, and I think that "Animals" song was actually written by or for kids. Not that I care: fuck 'em. But Western Civilization doesn't need Still Single, either, or most of the records that Mosurock and his crew champion (Pillow Talk, anyone? How 'bout Merchandise? Or the Dead Ghost single reviewed in the same update? Moose himself won't remember that record a few weeks from now), so what's yer point, mister? If I had to guess based on the tone and sentiment of the writing, I'd say the author is about 22 years old; but he's probably closer to 34.
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A friend chided me recently for not even touching on the Voice's Pazz and Jop poll from a few weeks back. Honestly, that shit was so depressing and beside the point that I couldn't be bothered.
Simon Reynolds's ambiguous defense of "chillwave" was... too bad. I like the guy's writing, and I like him personally. Smart dude. I guess I don't fault him for getting wrapped up in that shit as an older guy (I'm an "older guy" too, for the record), esp. in light of, for instance, Savage Pencil naming the Salem record his favorite release of 2010, or any number of seniors over at The Wire citing Rangers (another lame OESB "hypnagogic" outfit, albeit a slightly more tuneful, accomplished one than most) as some sort of aeshtetic breakthrough.
Even more depressing was reading through the individual ballots. My friend Hank Shteamer's, for instance -- dude knows more about improv and jazz than most people, and he's got his ear to the ground. Howinthafuck does he wind up with a year-end top-ten that includes Drake, Kanye West, Die Antwoord and The Bad Plus? The hip-hop/r&b stuff I understand: you will not be taken seriously as a "professional music critic" if you don't pay lip service to hip-hop, even though hip-hop is mostly inconsequential, transient garbage. But The Bad Plus?! Come on, man.
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Imagine the review Jason Ajemian would've got if he or one of his bandmates slept with a love interest over at Still Single?
(http://watchmojo.com/gambling/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/nicolas-cage-bees.jpg)
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Another recent Still Single trend: championing stuff that's not only obscure but also staunchly mediocre. Take for instance Earles' jeancreaming review of the middling Portland psych-jam band White Orange:
http://www.madeinchinarecords.com/ (http://www.madeinchinarecords.com/)
I tell ya, after reading his review and looking at the luxuriant packaging, I wanted to like the fucking thing. It's terrible! No, not terrible -- it's nothing. A perfectly inconsequential record. 18 minutes of undistinguished, strictly "professional" music in the most expensive packaging imaginable.
I think the column has become so entrenched in scene politics that the only records it can safely endorse are those that don't register on ANY scene's radar in any meaningful way, records with no conceivable social baggage attached; or records by artists who are so well-known and so popular that giving them a nod is somehow an act of defiance (see Earles' review of a Belle and Sebastian single that's not actually available except as an enclosure in their most recent LP); or bands whose personal connection to the author is already common knowledge (e.g. Pissed Jeans).
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Imagine the review Jason Ajemian would've got if he or one of his bandmates slept with a love interest over at Still Single?
Yeah, that whole bidness w/ the Puffies record was ridiculous (and it should have been incredibly embarrassing, even chastening, but no).
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what a terrible world
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Imagine the review Jason Ajemian would've got if he or one of his bandmates slept with a love interest over at Still Single?
Yeah, that whole bidness w/ the Puffies record was ridiculous (and it should have been incredibly embarrassing, even chastening, but no).
The "Still Single Review Debacle" is my "I Was On The Cover Of MRR" plaything. I'm glad you tolerate it over here in Whetworld
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Always, sir.
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http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6264 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6264)
You heard it here first, folks: Cheveu is the most interesting rock band since... The Pixies. (or Pere Ubu -- take your pick; it don't matter; none a this matters.)
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http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6264 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6264)
You heard it here first, folks: Cheveu is the most interesting rock band since... The Pixies. (or Pere Ubu -- take your pick; it don't matter; none a this matters.)
"the essence of a Slapp Happy" might be the nerdiest line ever.
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I'll pay money to read hillside_wrangler pick apart that Cheveu review.
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http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/cold-cave-ndash-cherish-light-years (http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/cold-cave-ndash-cherish-light-years)
"I've never read anything like it!"
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Music is so extremely disposable now that it's hard to take any review seriously that claims something will have some great lasting power. And I can't imagine even the writer believes that Morrissey comparison! That said, what do you think of the song they include with that review? I have to admit I think it could hold it's own on the goth dancefloor.
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When did the reviewers' game of "this WILL DEF QUOTE ME be relevant in 10 years from now" start anyway? I mean of course there's major effects (up to overwhelming confusion) on our listening habits caused a) by the sheer amount of archived artifacts of "our" culture and b) "what the 20th century did to 'art' bla" but I can't really remember that, earlier than 7 years ago, every second review you read had this dualistic tone of "probably relevant sometime/probably not". It was just describing the music. Not "just" but you know what I mean.
I'd even say that Meltzer in particular and Bangs on some occasions wrote about music, even the stuff they liked, hoping or supposing it will someday be obsolete and forgotten. That sentiment of "contemporary-ness" is somehow lost. It's pure reference really and all reference is non-innovative?
I'm probably as hysteric as those SS assholes.
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Rock was "disposable" until it was delightfully missived in the first place.
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Everything is grand! Everything is permanent!
(That was for my man Damn.)
Officer Brad LaBonte gave the new Panda Bear an excellent negative review in Dusted. I like Officer Brad. Can't believe it took so long for someone to say what he says here, in one of the "official channels."
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6360 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6360)
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Everything is grand! Everything is permanent!
I have a theory! [Breathe in] You know how Jaques Attali spoke of the heralding function of music regarding society and its organization? What I'm saying now is: pharmaceutics have the exact same function when it comes to criticism.
(http://www.sureviagra.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/generic-viagra.jpg)
Since becoming available in 1998, sildenafil has been the prime treatment for erectile dysfunction
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I'm a big fan of this dude:
http://pitchfork.com/features/puritan-blister/7661-puritan-blister-44/ (http://pitchfork.com/features/puritan-blister/7661-puritan-blister-44/)
Xiu Xiu's suicide-romance can get "too real," though. I was wearing the group's "For Life" t-shirt, the one featuring the limp fist and slit wrist, during office-hours at my day job when a student entered to explain that she'd tried to kill herself and had been in a hospital. The bandages covering her arms were the only violation of her standard all-black wardrobe. (See, music critics, we act like all this shit is just breezy aesthetics, but: similar to how heaps of hood kids are actually being hypercapitalist thug-bastards along to the iciest hip-hop, a segment of the goth population is striving to embody the dorky bleakness of their record collections.) Anyway, she noticed the shirt and stopped me from apologizing. "No," she laughed, "it's appropriate." What I'm trying to illustrate is that Xiu Xiu's whole climate of relentless provocation offers certain folks a kind of, well, permission to acknowledge darknesses that they've been told to repress ever since they first doodled stormclouds instead of sunshines way back in kindergarten, and it can be strangely comforting/freeing.
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Outstanding.
Here's a "fun" game. Guess what band this reviewer is talking about:
With each passing full-length, and the reconstructed evidence of tapes, CD-Rs, and live recordings that?ve filled in the gaps, Brooklyn?s _________________ have been on a slow, dank beeline to an idyllic sound, informed heavily by the blues. Their minimalist compositions carry maximalist aesthetics and a thousand-yard stare intensity, making their music somewhat of a latter-day response to the first few Live Skull records in how both bands accurately document the shattered/frigid/decadent danger and ennui of urban living, or maybe a cool, collected foil to Quintron's zany kneejerk '50s terror mindset. Smokescreen continues the refinements even further, new drummer __________ pulling back from the tendencies of earlier recordings -- here, the resin exuded from their sound merely serves as a grout instead of an agent of suffocation. Under no means should you interpret this as if this band has some stake in normalcy. This is a dark one for sure (all their records are), but it?s not maudlin or emotionally overstated. This long player -- and it is long -- flaunts with convention as a means to an end, but it?s their end, and the band never shows its hand. You get the sense that these four individuals are on a path, and if you?re like me, it behooves you to latch onto their dimly-lit mantra. Score one for _________ going after an established act instead of trying to break a new one, something which I think is a welcome shift across its present body of work. Beautiful silkscreened sleeve.
"Awesome" on "many different levels." =FLAUNT!=
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Rocktober translation:
"Grouty resinous mantras like Live Skull meets Quintron!"
Sounds good to me...
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Does anyone seriously listen to Live Skull these days??
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Is the guy who wrote that review ESL? If you get a good review, but the review itself is horrible, does that cancel it out?
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WHO READS THIS SHIT
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Does anyone seriously listen to Live Skull these days??
dewd...Thalia Zedek?? Helllllow?
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Live Skull comparison as compliment: A+!
Reviewer: None other than Doog Mosurakkkk!!!!!
Band: Religious Knives.
"Can't... copy edit... Must... review... 'Knives LP... Can't.... explain... the BEAUTIFUL silkscreening... long album.... Bernstein's beard.... FLAAAAAAUUUUUNNNNNTTTTTT T!!!!!"
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Live Skull comparison as compliment: A+!
Seriously.
I don't like Religious Knives, but, as with most Sacred Bones records, I'm curious to hear it. Stoked that Ryan is playing with them though. I know he was a big fan.
Bull, did you read Mosurkk's Pop. 1280 review? That was a doozy.
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IS ANIMAL COLLECTIVE THE GREATEST BAND OF ALL TIME??
http://www.thefader.com/2009/01/13/a-rational-conversation-between-two-adult-is-animal-collective-the-great-band-of-our-time-part-one/ (http://www.thefader.com/2009/01/13/a-rational-conversation-between-two-adult-is-animal-collective-the-great-band-of-our-time-part-one/)
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Bull, did you read Mosurkk's Pop. 1280 review? That was a doozy.
Mooseroq: the conscience of a generation.
"Put a little mustard on it."
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For goodness' sake, oblige it with some Termbo insights
http://thoughtcatalog.com/2011/a-review-of-vivian-girls-share-the-joy/
"I wouldn?t expect a dude in Los Angeles or Chicago to understand or appreciate this record as much as me, a girl in New York, who sees Vivian Girls pumping the lifeblood of my city?s longstanding underground musical traditions. Those dudes didn?t see Vivian Girls close down McCarren Park Pool with Sonic Youth in 2008; they didn?t thrash around to their set during the final months of legendary Bushwick venue Market Hotel?s activity in 2010.......... do you understand New York music? How do you not see this as an important piece in its lineage? Do you like The Ramones and Shangri-Las anymore, bro? Or only Odd Future?"
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Well, now I'm sexist
-
Good lord. I'd love to see hillside_wrangler's response to that one. (No pressure, T. Just sayin'.)
The author has a poor grasp of the terms "punk" and "feminism" (not that I give a shit about either); and also "grit," "power," "strength," "underground," "New York," "dark," "burning," "fire," "important," "fuck-it-all," "popular," "ideological," "thoughtful," "matured," "unique," and "interesting."
I'm sure the record's not bad, but it tickles me that it contains a song about "mortality" and the title of that song is "Death."
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That Panda Bear review a couple pages back is fantastic. I simply do not understand the appeal of that guy and his more recent music (see: the last two albums).
-
Infantilism.
Think back about fifteen or twenty years. "Indie" musicians in their twenties were making records like Bubble and Scrape, Soul Food, Goat, Congregation, Cats and Dogs.
Turn back the clock another ten years or so. Purple Rain, Hounds of Love, Pornography, A Hatful of Hollow, Halber Mensch, Dongs from the Big Chair: all made by people barely in their twenties.
Ian Curtis was only 23 when he died.
What happened? Is it the video games? What?!
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Modern detachment
It can render "new music" disposable.
-
Generation Clown
-
Vivian Girls' enlivened blend of '60s girl-group melodies and lo-fi punk enthusiasm came as a welcome surprise] Vivian Girls' enlivened blend of '60s girl-group melodies and lo-fi punk enthusiasm came as a welcome surprise
Is this a carryover from the one-sheet or something? The Other Music blurb above and the idiotic Thought Collection review that okkame linked to both use the word "enlivened" to describe the band. "Enlivened"? The word is "lively."
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"legendary Bushwick venue Market Hotel"
GTFO
-
"legendary Bushwick venue Market Hotel"
GTFO
HA3
-
Good lord. I'd love to see hillside_wrangler's response to that one. (No pressure, T. Just sayin'.)
The author has a poor grasp of the terms "punk" and "feminism" (not that I give a shit about either); and also "grit," "power," "strength," "underground," "New York," "dark," "burning," "fire," "important," "fuck-it-all," "popular," "ideological," "thoughtful," "matured," "unique," and "interesting."
I'm sure the record's not bad, but it tickles me that it contains a song about "mortality" and the title of that song is "Death."
A stellar companion piece to this 2010 classic:
http://www.furious.com/perfect/viviangirls.html (http://www.furious.com/perfect/viviangirls.html)
I am not going to read more than 1/5 of this review, nor will I ever of my own volition listen to this album, but I think I can provide some working definitions of the terms W.B. has singled out within the context of this review:
Punk: badly-played music
Feminism: the defining quality of all music played by women
Grit: power chords
Power: see "grit"
Strength: lots of breakup songs
Underground: mentioned in every issue of SPIN since 2009
New York: lots of reverb and shitty guitar tone
Dark: hinting at the presence of complex emotion
Burning: fuck me
Fire: fuck me
Important: hipster content farm blog fodder
Fuck-it-all: shitty guitar tone and lots of reverb
Popular: hook-oriented
Ideological: pretentious
Thoughtful: see "ideological"
Matured: breakup songs progressing beyond infantility
Unique: blog-friendly
Interesting: fairly unremarkable in the scheme of things
Hate the fact that my status as a lapsed masturbator (it's true, Erick!) probably confines me to the same stalled feminist elevator as the idiot woman who wrote this review. I have to confess, though, I've gotten so inexplicably addicted to this style of journalism that I occasionally troll girly websites like "Jezebel" or Slate's "XX" looking for a fix of hyperbolic vaginal drip. In a perfect world I would get paid mad $$$ to badcop a bunch of cuntrag journos on some post-feminist version of The View. You listening, Oprah??
-
Like manna from heaven('s to Betsy)
-
my status as a lapsed masturbator (it's true, Erick!)
AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
a fix of hyperbolic vaginal drip
whew
-
Like manna from heaven('s to Betsy)
In the spirit of Good Friday I would just like to thank the fine posters in this thread for encouraging my professional development concerning one of the only things I seem to be any good at: being a huge mean dick about stuff nobody gives a fuck about. Your support means so much to me.
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HYPERBOLIC VAGINAL DRIP should be the name of the next Bleak Race opus.
-
HYDRO BALLIN VAGINAL CRIP should be the name of the next Memphis Bleek Race opus.
Maybe yr better at tha rap game than you'd suspect!
-
Like manna from heaven('s to Etsy)
fixed
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[/quote]
Punk: badly-played music
Feminism: the defining quality of all music played by women
Grit: power chords
Power: see "grit"
Strength: lots of breakup songs
Underground: mentioned in every issue of SPIN since 2009
New York: lots of reverb and shitty guitar tone
Dark: hinting at the presence of complex emotion
Burning: fuck me
Fire: fuck me
Important: hipster content farm blog fodder
Fuck-it-all: shitty guitar tone and lots of reverb
Popular: hook-oriented
Ideological: pretentious
Thoughtful: see "ideological"
Matured: breakup songs progressing beyond infantility
Unique: blog-friendly
Interesting: fairly unremarkable in the scheme of things
[/quote]
Perfect.
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Holy shit, the fact that Vivian Girls mean something to some people is EATING YOU GUYS UP. STILL!!
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http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6416 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6416)
Holy shit!
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And I say unto you, brethren of The Rock, these Fresh & Onlys are wicked widdlers of wonder.
-
Yes, but do they Roky roll?
-
This is incredible. The ending especially. And why is it so hard to spell PSYCH!?
-
I know. I've even seen dealers do that -- psych dealers!
-
Huge pet peeve.
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PSYCHE DEALER
(http://www.nndb.com/people/736/000029649/sigmund-freud-med.jpg)
PSYCH DEALER
(http://jetcomx.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/20080220sm_record1_5001.jpg)
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I gotta admit, I would confuse the two of them in public. I'm sure the first one gets laid a lot more, though.
-
Roky, yes, but Rock'n'Roll IS chess, after all. The Fresh & Onlys are the rare breed capable of opening a la Reti, but attacking and ultimately FINISHING with a branding of poise and confidence more consistent with The Latvian Gambit. "Secret Walls" is nothing short of the indie-rock equivalent of Ingmar Bergman's remake of "Footloose".
-
One of them is rarely seen in public so it's not much of a problem.
-
"Secret Walls" is nothing short of the indie-rock equivalent of Ingmar Bergman's remake of "Footloose".
hahaha!
-
One of them is rarely seen in public so it's not much of a problem.
Touche!
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Thankyouthankyouthankyou
If one insists on spotting this elusive breed, a prime specimen, complete with overpricers disease, can be found behind the counter here at this NY hellhole:
(http://www.urban75.org/photos/newyork/images/ny548.jpg)
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Feminism: the defining quality of all music played by women
Correction: Feminism: the defining quality of all music played by women the "critic" wants to fuck.
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Stop the presses!
http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/5015787772/the-neil-michael-hagerty-project (http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/5015787772/the-neil-michael-hagerty-project)
Looks like this thread is gonna pretty much write itself for the next however-long-it-takes.
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^^For the record, I like John and I like his shop. I've gotten some great deals there, and for a long time it was the only place in NYC where you could reliably find every new psych / folk / garage / beat reissue soon after it came out. He and former employee Ramsey Jones (FYU: ODB's older bro, no joke) turned me on to a bunch of cool shit years ago, from the Rubble comps to Los Dug Dug's. And, though few people seem to know it, he stocks a bunch of current punk records and you can sometimes score shit there after it's gone out of print. So, I respectfully disagree.
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Feminism: the defining quality of all music played by women
Correction: Feminism: the defining quality of all music played by women the "critic" wants to fuck.
Feminist
I'd
Like to
Fuck
A strangely fitting acronym
PSYCHE
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^^For the record, I like John and I like his shop. I've gotten some great deals there, and for a long time it was the only place in NYC where you could reliably find every new psych / folk / garage / beat reissue soon after it came out. He and former employee Ramsey Jones (FYU: ODB's older bro, no joke) turned me on to a bunch of cool shit years ago, from the Rubble comps to Los Dug Dug's. And, though few people seem to know it, he stocks a bunch of current punk records and you can sometimes score shit there after it's gone out of print. So, I respectfully disagree.
Sure, he has good stuff but the vibe is unbearable. And it's fucking expensive. Haven't been in since Ramsey (who is the coolest dude ever) was "let go" and I'm not planning to anytime soon.
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By now, anyone reading this has formed an opinion about this release. Obviously, that does not mean that said opinion was formed after hearing all six sides of The Dirtbombs' tribute to Detroit techno. Considering the garage-rock/punk is the second-most homophobic demographic behind hardcore rap, and is therefore responsible for the term "gay" blowing up to simply mean "sucks", I'd bet a little toe that some wildly short-sighted, sound-unheard commentary about this title exists on your nearest knuckle-dragging message boards. So as not to have my intellect sucked out of my eyeballs, I tend to stay away from such online ghettos. I?d like to think the extremely respectful treatments, especially the ones with diva-backing, caused many of the remaining mouth-breathers in that scene to embark on a sloth-like shuffle into the hills, though an open-mind reception would be preferable, despite what may be seen as ?enjoyment? re: my opportunistic aesthetic assassinations.
Wrong. I want this record to be embraced and held high as musical milestone; a singularly-epic love letter to Detroit music history, specifically its crowning contribution to modern music. Certainly some fans? only exposure to the world of techno was (or is?) comprised of the thirty minutes trawling gay clubs for stepped-on blow during the small hours of each Friday, Saturday, or Sunday morning. Some of this sprawling labor-of-love sounds like what it is: A really tight band choosing not to deviate from the original material. Other moments (hours), like the colossal and enigmatic cover of Carl Craig?s ?Bug in the Bass Bin? (show of hands: who owned or owns the Mo? Wax 12? of the original? Yeah, I got lured away from my guitar splooge and into the whole anti-rock epidemic, too), might as well be a rocked-up but forgotten late-?90s post-rock masterpiece, a la the very few the degrees the original sat from such a thing (see parenthetical). Craig programmed one of the essential fart-boxes on the Dirtbombs? version, to boot.
My one issue with this record is not one to worry potential newbies. I don?t know how often I?m going to throw this thing on. I can get down with a fair amount of electronic or electronically-derived rhythmic endeavors (like particular LCD Soundsystem tracks, some Emeralds material, some Fischer Spooner, some late-period Tangerine Dream, some Carl Craig that isn?t covered on this record, some DJ Shadow, etc), but as with most things that go into these ear-holes, it would behoove the maker to fight to the death for something so important, they named a band after it: The Infectious Groove. This package hits about 50% of the time in that department. Then again, this is also a ?listener?s record? with a lot of layers and no shortage of marvel to be had at the tightness of this band. All in all ? bravo. (http://www.intheredrecords.com)
(Andrew Earles)
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Making / buying / reviewing a record of Detroit house and techno covers is a bold statement of one's support of and solidarity with the gay community, even if one never plays it.
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Man, Andrew Earles is the worst, a faggot of the most flaming caliber
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"show of hands: who owned or owns the Mo? Wax 12? of the original? Yeah, I got lured away from my guitar splooge and into the whole anti-rock epidemic, too."
That, after the whole first paragraph, is the best part. An anti-rock epidemic?
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Man, Andrew Earles is the worst, a faggot of the most flaming caliber
As far as I'm concerned, he gets a lifetime pass for making Just Farr a Laugh (still the best tour listening alongside Longmont [see new thread]) and Cimarron Weekend.
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UGHHHHHHH.
I will fight him. Nude. For TECHNO.
Edit: Upon further consideration, he may have a point. My weekend project will be to remove my significant stocks of disco and house music from the bin-ghetto I have isolated them in (labeled only "Friends of Dorothy") and mingle them with the rest of my collection to rub shoulders in a liberated, progressive environment. The pudgy manchildren of my noise section, the so-hetero-it-hurts rock-n-roll p.-in-v. punkers, the, uh, folk... well, they were already rubbin' up anywho... ALL will mingle without prejudice in the depths of my stacks, and who knows what new fun might be found in the deepest recesses now that acceptance is at hand?
Not Harry Partch, though. He's gotta stay in his boxcar.
Queen me.
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"show of hands: who owned or owns the Mo? Wax 12? of the original? Yeah, I got lured away from my guitar splooge and into the whole anti-rock epidemic, too."
That, after the whole first paragraph, is the best part. An anti-rock epidemic?
It was the late nineties, man. Things got really heavy. A lot of us gave up on guitar splooge and bet the bank on UNKLE, mUziq, Mouse on Mars, Squarepusher... you know, Electronica. Some of us made it back alive; others were less fortunate. We didn't know what we were getting into -- we were just kids; we didn't know who we were hurting, or how badly. We forgot all about Husker Du, Superchunk, Drive Like Jehu, and Built to Spill. We sold our souls for a chance to get down and party like we were people of color, only not sexist or homophobic. We lost so many friends and lovers to Earthling, Fatboy Slim, and the Future Sound of London. It was our Vietnam, our AIDS.
-
Earthling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flCUFd65qAw
FUCK YEAH
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Ha ha! I like that song, retarded as it is.
-
Man, Andrew Earles is the worst, a faggot of the most flaming caliber
As far as I'm concerned, he gets a lifetime pass for making Just Farr a Laugh (still the best tour listening alongside Longmont [see new thread]) and Cimarron Weekend.
True. CW is one of my favorite zines ever. Plus, BLEACHY!
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Haha, those top 2 posts are great.
I thought Just Farr a Laugh was merely OK, but yeah, just seeing "BLEACHY!" made that voice go thru my head, so something stuck.
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"This is Christopher Fucking Cross!"
-
"show of hands: who owned or owns the Mo? Wax 12? of the original? Yeah, I got lured away from my guitar splooge and into the whole anti-rock epidemic, too."
That, after the whole first paragraph, is the best part. An anti-rock epidemic?
It was the late nineties, man. Things got really heavy. A lot of us gave up on guitar splooge and bet the bank on UNKLE, mUziq, Mouse on Mars, Squarepusher... you know, Electronica. Some of us made it back alive; others were less fortunate. We didn't know what we were getting into -- we were just kids; we didn't know who we were hurting, or how badly. We forgot all about Husker Du, Superchunk, Drive Like Jehu, and Built to Spill. We sold our souls for a chance to get down and party like we were people of color, only not sexist or homophobic. We lost so many friends and lovers to Earthling, Fatboy Slim, and the Future Sound of London. It was our Vietnam, our AIDS.
... our IDM?
Those people that never came back? They got into Tigerbeat 6, got tech jobs, and now just listen to NPR.
I worked at the import record store when everyone went MoWax. That was the worst, all those post-hardcore dudes listening to the Chemical Bros like it was some revolution. So embarrassing. And despite never owning that DJ Shadow record, I feel like I've heard it more than any other record ever.
That Cornershop song was catchy.
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Bleachy trying to join the army = awesome
Also like the woman who wants to become a jazz musician
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Bleachy trying to join the army = awesome
Also like the woman who wants to become a jazz musician
It was BLUES. Stanky blues, "like a stanky old dog."
-
Turkington's funnier.
Now... get outta my thread!
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They got into Tigerbeat 6, got tech jobs, and now just listen to NPR.
I've seen horrors... horrors that you've seen. But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that... but you have no right to judge me. It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror... Horror has a face... and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies!
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Now... get outta my thread!
Sorry, I'm just jobless, termbo-ing nude in bed, waiting for Soriano to call, and I just couldn't resist.
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Sorry, I'm just jobless, termbo-ing nude in bed, waiting for Soriano to call, and I just couldn't resist.
You sound just like my husband. But the old guy never calls, never calls.
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Man, Andrew Earles is the worst, a faggot of the most flaming caliber
You are a deeply insecure person.
Making / buying / reviewing a record of Detroit house and techno covers is a bold statement of one's support of and solidarity with the gay community, even if one never plays it.
Hahaha, the gay community, at least the dance-oriented aspects of it, could give a shit about anything the Dirtbombs have ever done. It's funny when straight dudes think they need to improve their cred among the more oppressed peoples by practicing this kind of commodified activism dressed up as reverence or something, like they're down with a subculture they know nothing about and would probably feel quite alienated from if they actually spent any time in it. It's sad that this guy needs the Dirtbombs (who generally suck) to be his lens into queer cultural production.
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You should read Mooseroq's hip-hop reviews.
-
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6416 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6416)
Holy shit!
Just got around to reading this. Although brief (too brief), it nevertheless contains some robust specimens of critical fauna: the inverted cliche, the cross-media metaphor, the reclaimed idiom, snaky sibilance, active verb allergy, and of course, "psyche".
To wit:
rough-hewn patina that rusts
This one is a dooz. I think it might actually fall below the threshold of random chance in meaningful clause construction. In this example of the welded cliche, the reviewer has taken a familiar idiom, "smooth patina", and swapped out the first term for its tactile opposite, "rough-hewn". The phrase is now patently nonsensical, because a patina is a tarnish that forms on the surface of bronze and similar metals (thanks, wikipedia), so it is not "rough", nor is it "hewn". From the standpoint of classical logic, this would constitute an instance of ex contradictione quodlibet (from a contradiction, anything follows), which would then permit the usage of "rusts" or indeed any other word under the fucking sun to describe its action. You were handed a free pass, reviewer, but you chucked it into the bushes (while still managing to be wrong: patina, while also a product of oxidation, is not the same as rust.)
bottom string guitar that plays like a noir film
You're just an iamb away from a Billy Joel lyric here, pal. Cross-media similes are always tricky and better left unattempted. And synesthetic descriptions are a well-known profundity hack because of their ability to give a metaphysical bent to the most mundane expressions. "You touch my sadness", "her tears sing like the rain", and similar pablum. Better to say that the guitar line "reminds you" of the soundtrack to a noir film (extra points for naming names), or else isolate the particular qualities of a noir film (aka film noir) that could also describe what you're hearing: e.g., "dark", brooding", "misogynistic", etc.
Dimestore parsons
Reclaimed idiom. Low-rent messiahs, bargain-basement heroes, bedroom evangelists, closet soothsayers, budget icons, two-penny saints, cookhouse proselytizers, et al. I take it "Representative of the aesthetic possibilities inherent in cheap recording techniques" didn't have the same ring to it.
spate of splits, sevens and side-longs
Sssssssibilance!
But unlike some of their Bay City contemporaries, whom hubris alone has forced their more professional sound, blind ambition?s not to blame.
Do they even edit this shit?? Avoiding active verbs is a good way to tone down your opinions, but even passive verbs can be used in counterarguments. So avoiding verbs entirely must be the best strategy for formulating an impenetrable argument. And impenetrable it is, along with a whole lot of other things. To the best of my ability, I decode this sentence so that it reads: "Due to either hubris or blind ambition, some other bands that sound like the Fresh and Onlys have chosen to adopt a more professional sound." We all know that "professional sound" is a euphemism for "selling out", so an even clearer version of this sentence would read: "The Fresh and Onlys have retained the low-cost production values that keep them from reaching a wider audience, while their fame-hungry contemporaries have sold out." What was once a tangle of vague accusations smothered under grammatical whiteload is now a brash, bold accusation (although it still doesn't name names). Let the games begin!
psyche
See below.
littered with art rock pangs
These attempts to develop a critical shorthand (formerly an argot of English and jazz known as rockcrit) are pretty pathetic. The longhand version sounds much better: "At many junctures, the Fresh and Onlys experience a sharp, brief and painful urge to sound like Sonic Youth", or Deerhoof, or whatever the hell he means by "art rock". Which sentence would you rather read?
Roky roll
JESUS
-
Was there really a post longer than a review about The Fresh & Onlys? sheesh.
-
This must be the most serious music ever made.
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/tearist-living-2009-present (http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/tearist-living-2009-present)
Les auteurs:
(http://www.interviewmagazine.com/files/2011/03/21/img-tearist_125435654473.jpg)
Left: ex-No Age; Right: "influenced by The Art of Noise or Artaud," erotic collaborator to Eric Weinheim [sic].
-
that girl's moustache is pretty serious
-
looks like dirt or a bad vein.
"post goth"? man, i didn't even know goth was a genre. i always thought that shit could be put into one of the many synth categories. wtf signifies post-goth?
-
black.
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i didn't even know goth was a genre.
Of the many, many inane comments you've made on TB this one could be near the top.
-
This must be the most serious music ever made.
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/tearist-living-2009-present (http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/tearist-living-2009-present)
Les auteurs:
(http://www.interviewmagazine.com/files/2011/03/21/img-tearist_125435654473.jpg)
Left: ex-No Age; Right: "influenced by The Art of Noise or Artaud," erotic collaborator to Eric Weinheim [sic].
Fuckin A, no motherfucker or fatherfucker in a fucking ironic hat/shirt combo should ever be mentioned in the same breath as Artaud. I'd like to imagine he'd bite that chick's face off.
And this fuckface compares this disposable bullshit to 8 Eyed Spy?!?! This is shitty electronic music, 8 Eyed Spy was a fucking ROCK band. And based on this one song, this shit makes the worst of Wierd-style stuff seem genius.
-
also: WHY ARE INDIE KIDS SO BAD AT PROGRAMMING BEATS?
it's fucking embarrassing listening to this stuff. total car-wreck neck-craning on my part, admittedly.
-
Even better, he drops Gun Club as a reference. I used to see this girl run around Austin. She was in with the theater kids...shocker.
-
This must be the most serious music ever made.
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/tearist-living-2009-present (http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/tearist-living-2009-present)
Left: ex-No Age; Right: "influenced by The Art of Noise or Artaud," erotic collaborator to Eric Weinheim [sic].
What are the odds Rowan Savage could explain what's meant by "manufacture" a "reject, biological"? The closest I can come up with is selective breeding, which is way-pre-industrial. Ugly pea flowers.
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And I say again - the only right direction rock can look is back.
More cover bands/brush-fire conflicts and compulsory military service. less fucking neo glitch pop. less fucking bands PERIOD would be the real mitzvah, but little hope of that.
Also it should be noted that this review is equally as embarassing as the dickheads fawning over the Psychedelic Horseshit remix album. You faggots would listen to Moby if he was on In The Red.
-
That chick with the hat looks like a dude. Gotta be a snip job, or perhaps a small penis that he/she terms a "large clit."
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This must be the most serious music ever made.
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/tearist-living-2009-present (http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/tearist-living-2009-present)
Left: ex-No Age; Right: "influenced by The Art of Noise or Artaud," erotic collaborator to Eric Weinheim [sic].
What are the odds Rowan Savage could explain what's meant by "manufacture" a "reject, biological"? The closest I can come up with is selective breeding, which is way-pre-industrial. Ugly pea flowers.
Yeah, but he gotcha there with that Scientists youtube link. Dude knows his shit.
Super-diggin the way he dropped "Lovecraftian" in that opening paragraph. He's covering all the bases.....grand slam, baby.
What I'm getting out of this review is that this semantics grad student's dream in life is to write for The Wire. Good luck, "Rowan." (I really hope yr not Jon Savage's kid)
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Termbo, officially depressed.
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I hate/love this thread cuz it gets me IRKED with the stupidest things.
Like "Tiny Mix Tapes." What a stupid fucking name.
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Yeah, but he gotcha there with that Scientists youtube link. Dude knows his shit.
Naw, I'm immune to such social engineering. Seems like kind of an odd record for Thin Wrist to put out.
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http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6416 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6416)
Holy shit!
Just got around to reading this. Although brief (too brief), it nevertheless contains some robust specimens of critical fauna: the inverted cliche, the cross-media metaphor, the reclaimed idiom, snaky sibilance, active verb allergy, and of course, "psyche".
To wit:
rough-hewn patina that rusts
This one is a dooz. I think it might actually fall below the threshold of random chance in meaningful clause construction. In this example of the welded cliche, the reviewer has taken a familiar idiom, "smooth patina", and swapped out the first term for its tactile opposite, "rough-hewn". The phrase is now patently nonsensical, because a patina is a tarnish that forms on the surface of bronze and similar metals (thanks, wikipedia), so it is not "rough", nor is it "hewn". From the standpoint of classical logic, this would constitute an instance of ex contradictione quodlibet (from a contradiction, anything follows), which would then permit the usage of "rusts" or indeed any other word under the fucking sun to describe its action. You were handed a free pass, reviewer, but you chucked it into the bushes (while still managing to be wrong: patina, while also a product of oxidation, is not the same as rust.)
bottom string guitar that plays like a noir film
You're just an iamb away from a Billy Joel lyric here, pal. Cross-media similes are always tricky and better left unattempted. And synesthetic descriptions are a well-known profundity hack because of their ability to give a metaphysical bent to the most mundane expressions. "You touch my sadness", "her tears sing like the rain", and similar pablum. Better to say that the guitar line "reminds you" of the soundtrack to a noir film (extra points for naming names), or else isolate the particular qualities of a noir film (aka film noir) that could also describe what you're hearing: e.g., "dark", brooding", "misogynistic", etc.
Dimestore parsons
Reclaimed idiom. Low-rent messiahs, bargain-basement heroes, bedroom evangelists, closet soothsayers, budget icons, two-penny saints, cookhouse proselytizers, et al. I take it "Representative of the aesthetic possibilities inherent in cheap recording techniques" didn't have the same ring to it.
spate of splits, sevens and side-longs
Sssssssibilance!
But unlike some of their Bay City contemporaries, whom hubris alone has forced their more professional sound, blind ambition?s not to blame.
Do they even edit this shit?? Avoiding active verbs is a good way to tone down your opinions, but even passive verbs can be used in counterarguments. So avoiding verbs entirely must be the best strategy for formulating an impenetrable argument. And impenetrable it is, along with a whole lot of other things. To the best of my ability, I decode this sentence so that it reads: "Due to either hubris or blind ambition, some other bands that sound like the Fresh and Onlys have chosen to adopt a more professional sound." We all know that "professional sound" is a euphemism for "selling out", so an even clearer version of this sentence would read: "The Fresh and Onlys have retained the low-cost production values that keep them from reaching a wider audience, while their fame-hungry contemporaries have sold out." What was once a tangle of vague accusations smothered under grammatical whiteload is now a brash, bold accusation (although it still doesn't name names). Let the games begin!
psyche
See below.
littered with art rock pangs
These attempts to develop a critical shorthand (formerly an argot of English and jazz known as rockcrit) are pretty pathetic. The longhand version sounds much better: "At many junctures, the Fresh and Onlys experience a sharp, brief and painful urge to sound like Sonic Youth", or Deerhoof, or whatever the hell he means by "art rock". Which sentence would you rather read?
Roky roll
JESUS
Go to grad school.
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http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6440 - dude gets heavy with the new sea and cake EP:
It could be just me, but I think there?s a certain tendency out there, maybe just a feeling or a spirit in the air, that what people want out of artists over time is not consistency but rather novelty. It seems to be an adjunct to the grand Progressive Narrative of the Enlightenment. Ever since the 18th Century, Science and Reason have been on the march and as the argument goes, by following the dictates of Reason and Logic, we can build a utopia. Look at Science, steadily moving from medieval superstitions to cars, planes and iPhones. If that isn?t progress, what is?
Then the Progress Narrative got broken open by a bunch of world wars, drowned in a 30-year mass slaughter fueled by technology. Sure, we built cars and planes, but we also built efficient death camps and atom bombs and aerial drones. Technology isn?t simply good, and better technology doesn?t make us better humans. Many stopped believing that there was such a thing as progress when it comes to societies or civilizations or eras. There are just different ages or paradigms ? the medieval period had some positives and negatives, just like the current era. Of course, a lot of people ? a majority most likely ? still believe in progress.
I think a lot of this seeps into, at least my, aesthetic evaluations. How does the so-and-so?s second album compare to its first? What about its ninth? There certainly can be dialectical arguments made ? how does an artist?s aesthetic transform over time ? but that first comparison strikes me as a mistake. How does Moonlight Butterfly compare to The Fawn or Car Alarm? That?s the wrong question. If a band progresses at all, they merely follow out their logic of their aesthetic. Look at a group like Yo La Tengo. The kind of 1950s-ish-by-way-of-1990s indie-rock sound that they?ve been playing with since Summer Sun was there since the beginning, and they?re just following the logic of that idea. But expecting some kind of ?every album should be greater than the last? or ?each album should offer something new? is a trap borne of the Progress Narrative.
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ughh what is wrong with people?? more music reviewers need to ape MRR's style...keep their iffy opinions short and sweet and to the fucking point.
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http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6440 - dude gets heavy with the new sea and cake EP:
It could be just me, but I think there?s a certain tendency out there, maybe just a feeling or a spirit in the air, that what people want out of artists over time is not consistency but rather novelty. It seems to be an adjunct to the grand Progressive Narrative of the Enlightenment. Ever since the 18th Century, Science and Reason have been on the march and as the argument goes, by following the dictates of Reason and Logic, we can build a utopia. Look at Science, steadily moving from medieval superstitions to cars, planes and iPhones. If that isn?t progress, what is?
Then the Progress Narrative got broken open by a bunch of world wars, drowned in a 30-year mass slaughter fueled by technology. Sure, we built cars and planes, but we also built efficient death camps and atom bombs and aerial drones. Technology isn?t simply good, and better technology doesn?t make us better humans. Many stopped believing that there was such a thing as progress when it comes to societies or civilizations or eras. There are just different ages or paradigms ? the medieval period had some positives and negatives, just like the current era. Of course, a lot of people ? a majority most likely ? still believe in progress.
I think a lot of this seeps into, at least my, aesthetic evaluations. How does the so-and-so?s second album compare to its first? What about its ninth? There certainly can be dialectical arguments made ? how does an artist?s aesthetic transform over time ? but that first comparison strikes me as a mistake. How does Moonlight Butterfly compare to The Fawn or Car Alarm? That?s the wrong question. If a band progresses at all, they merely follow out their logic of their aesthetic. Look at a group like Yo La Tengo. The kind of 1950s-ish-by-way-of-1990s indie-rock sound that they?ve been playing with since Summer Sun was there since the beginning, and they?re just following the logic of that idea. But expecting some kind of ?every album should be greater than the last? or ?each album should offer something new? is a trap borne of the Progress Narrative.
(http://www.themuddledmonkey.com/Thinker-chimp.jpg)
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"1950s-ish-by-way-of-1990s indie-rock sound"
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more music reviewers need to ape Termbo's style...keep their correct opinions hilarious and unimpeachable and to the fucking point.
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truth. i was just talking about format...termbo reviews have that short+sweet MRR approach, just with better writing.
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I'm just fucking around. But, yeah, this HEAVY THOUGHT going on in these reviews is ridiculous. A review of the The Sea and Cake record is not the time to analyze the last couple hundred years of "Progressive Thought." What the fuck.
I think the thing about Termbo, and mags/websites of the same nature, is that it's written by people who really love the music they are talking about. So we take it personally when something sucks, and we get really fucking happy when something is great. I get the feeling from a lot of these reviews that these people are just discovering a lot of this music, and they are applying their HIGHER education style to r n' r reviews. Hey dudes, put down the Kant and listen to some Back From the Graves.
Also, you don't get the feeling that these people are fun, go to shows, have any connection whatsoever to this "community." And while that outsider semi-objective perspective sounds great in theory, it often results in a lot of misinformation and weird Rudolphian axe-grinding.
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Yeah, the record-review-as-philosophical-investigation is such a joke. I guess we have Lester to thank for that, as much or moreso than Marcus.
You're right about the outsider aspect of this kind of "criticism." I get the sense from a lot of these reviews that the writers don't have a very clear idea of what it means to make music, in the most literal sense, and that they imagine it to be a magical process that involves, you know, Artaud and "fire" and a reckoning with mortality and history or whatever. Music making is mysterious, but not in the way that these guys imagine. It's about lugging equipment around, getting wastered, practicing an arpeggio 'til your fingers hurt, fucking up, scribbling shit in a notebook on the subway, arguing with bandmates, listening to records, trying and failing to copy a song you admire, duct-taping gear, tripping on cables, the temperature of the practice room, having a shitty day at work and then trekking to the studio to get a few hours of recording in, daydreaming, jerking off, listening to your own songs over and over, breaking strings, breaking drumsticks, rewriting lyrics over and over again until they work, editing, erasing, doing it over, etc. etc. etc. until you finally get what you want.
If you come from a DIY background the music-making process is demystified because all that shit is laid bare: you know what a rehearsal studio smells like, you've seen your favorite drummer lug his gear into an illegal shitspace in the middle of nowhere, you've probably recorded something yourself, and you're not likely to buy someone's line of bullshit about how their nth-generation synthcore is "inspired by Ballard," or how it's a commentary on urban ennui and the tension between blah blah blah and blahblahblahblah. 'Cos you know it doesn't happen that way.
The graduate school idea that Serious Art Must Have a Conceptual Hook -- and this is 100% an academic / artworld idea -- has infected not only pop music criticism but pop musicians themselves. So assholes like Tearist or Zola Jesus wind up in an echo chamber with the Lil' Greils and Lesters of the blogosphere where they flatter each other back and forth ("You're important! You're intelligent!" "Yes, and so are you, for noticing all my Big Ideas!") ad infinitum.
Everything Is Serious. Even Britney Spears and Lady Gaga are serious in their unseriousness. Where'd that crock of shit come from? Probably Dylan, or the legion assholes who took Dylan seriously.
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(http://assets.rollingstone.com/assets/images/gallery/084108349b1dfaf7cb40d088052cc2067e0df292.jpg)
The 700,000 Greatest Dylan Songs of All Time, and Why They're the Most Important Thing That Ever Happened, by Jann Wiener, Fugg Farley, Bright Eyes, Jugg Fuckler, Judd Apatow, Fuck Klostermong, David Pricke, That Twat from Scrubs, et al.
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Everything Is Serious. Even Britney Spears and Lady Gaga are serious in their unseriousness.
Yes, but don't forget that Amanda Brown of NNF / LA Vampires / 100% Silk is "deeply invested" in putting female sensuality back into underground music.
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If that means "more tits," I'm deeply invested in it too. But I think it just means lame beats and a Boss line.
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You're right about the outsider aspect of this kind of "criticism." I get the sense from a lot of these reviews that the writers don't have a very clear idea of what it means to make music, in the most literal sense, and that they imagine it to be a magical process that involves, you know, Artaud and "fire" and a reckoning with mortality and history or whatever. Music making is mysterious, but not in the way that these guys imagine. It's about lugging equipment around, getting wastered, practicing an arpeggio 'til your fingers hurt, fucking up, scribbling shit in a notebook on the subway, arguing with bandmates, listening to records, trying and failing to copy a song you admire, duct-taping gear, tripping on cables, the temperature of the practice room, having a shitty day at work and then trekking to the studio to get a few hours of recording in, daydreaming, jerking off, listening to your own songs over and over, breaking strings, breaking drumsticks, rewriting lyrics over and over again until they work, editing, erasing, doing it over, etc. etc. etc. until you finally get what you want.
If you come from a DIY background the music-making process is demystified because all that shit is laid bare: you know what a rehearsal studio smells like, you've seen your favorite drummer lug his gear into an illegal shitspace in the middle of nowhere, you've probably recorded something yourself, and you're not likely to buy someone's line of bullshit about how their nth-generation synthcore is "inspired by Ballard," or how it's a commentary on urban ennui and the tension between blah blah blah and blahblahblahblah. 'Cos you know it doesn't happen that way.
YES
Also, how about that term "Rudolphian?" Not bad huh? Like "not allowed to play in your reindeer games."
Take that, Linguistics program.
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Seeing as how I can't remember how that Tearist song goes AT ALL ten seconds after it's ended (other than the people clapping at the end is sort of a hilarious surprise), I must commend the reviewer for wringing that much blood out of such a barren turnip.
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Pretty much everything in this bio is factually and analytically incorrect. Why did this dude even bother?
http://allmusic.com/artist/royal-trux-p23281/biography (http://allmusic.com/artist/royal-trux-p23281/biography)
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The Tyler, the Creator record promises to inspire no shortage of music critic pontificating:
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/tyler-creator-goblin
If you wanted to be part of the Odd Future party, you had to somehow reconcile your values with the transgressive lyrics that animate their music. Odd Future, specifically the lyrics of Tyler and Earl Sweatshirt, forced us to rethink our valuation of music: Can one truly 'like' a song that is aesthetically appealing but lyrically repulsive? Should the values of artists we admire mirror our own? How does morality inform our taste profiles? Is Odd Future a reflection of or menace to society?
In fact, it's arguably more alarming that so many mainstream rappers aren't more regularly taken to task for their commodity-fetishizing, male-dominating, female-marginalizing narratives that reinforce the myths of the proto-capitalist on a more subconscious level.
The myths of the proto-capitalist!
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I liked the full page review in the new village voice of the new tyler rec. Can't link it right now.
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You'd think after all the rap groups that had come before OFSDGHT$%^#$EWATG music critics would have gotten over the novelty of black people talking about doing violent stuff. You'd think that but you'd be wrong.
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Her body's beautiful, so I'm thinkin rape
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I reckon Andrew Earles is a pretty good read over at Shrill Shingles, maybe more of a 'sophisticate' type than he might've been in his fanzine days, which is unfortunate, but probably inevitable if yr gonna keep at it for what, 15 years?... Anyone got any copies of his old zine, sounds cool?! I've written many a cringe inducing review in NGL, which is why I refuse to send out copies of the mag earlier than..say...issue 14. I think that's when we started to shake most of the gay outta it. Ah, shit, I mean...the 'detritus'.
PS- This thread is an excellent resource for double-checking! More!
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The Tyler, the Creator record promises to inspire no shortage of music critic pontificating:
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/tyler-creator-goblin
If you wanted to be part of the Odd Future party, you had to somehow reconcile your values with the transgressive lyrics that animate their music. Odd Future, specifically the lyrics of Tyler and Earl Sweatshirt, forced us to rethink our valuation of music: Can one truly 'like' a song that is aesthetically appealing but lyrically repulsive? Should the values of artists we admire mirror our own? How does morality inform our taste profiles? Is Odd Future a reflection of or menace to society?
In fact, it's arguably more alarming that so many mainstream rappers aren't more regularly taken to task for their commodity-fetishizing, male-dominating, female-marginalizing narratives that reinforce the myths of the proto-capitalist on a more subconscious level.
The myths of the proto-capitalist!
haha, positive or negative, i'm sure there's gonna be many painful to read reviews coming out...all that over a rap song with the chorus "kill people burn shit fuck school"
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I have never heard a single disturbing line of verse and/or chorus in my life. You say you did? LEMMY RITE ABOUT ITS!
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I reckon Andrew Earles is a pretty good read over at Shrill Shingles, maybe more of a 'sophisticate' type than he might've been in his fanzine days, which is unfortunate, but probably inevitable if yr gonna keep at it for what, 15 years?... Anyone got any copies of his old zine, sounds cool?! I've written many a cringe inducing review in NGL, which is why I refuse to send out copies of the mag earlier than..say...issue 14. I think that's when we started to shake most of the gay outta it. Ah, shit, I mean...the 'detritus'.
PS- This thread is an excellent resource for double-checking! More!
Hey, Brendon! I still owe you some shrill singles. And you owe me a copy of... is it #19? We'll talk.
Moosecrock whined on BCO a few months ago that NGL sounds interesting but he won't read it for fear of being "eviscerated in print by some Termbo member." No joke.
Earles was pretty enjoyable for awhile because he's so cantankerous, but the past several months he's reached the point of incoherence. He's turned into a prematurely senile scold. His views on records read like they were produced by a random opinion generator. Not to mention, what kinda sad sack decides the world needs a 300-page biography about Husker fuckin' Du, takes it upon himself to write just such a book, and then fucks it up?
http://www.amazon.com/Husker-Du-Noise-Pop-Pioneers-Launched/product-reviews/0760335044/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_link_1?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0 (http://www.amazon.com/Husker-Du-Noise-Pop-Pioneers-Launched/product-reviews/0760335044/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_link_1?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0)
The customer reviews are priceless.
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The Tyler, the Creator record promises to inspire no shortage of music critic pontificating:
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/tyler-creator-goblin
If you wanted to be part of the Odd Future party, you had to somehow reconcile your values with the transgressive lyrics that animate their music. Odd Future, specifically the lyrics of Tyler and Earl Sweatshirt, forced us to rethink our valuation of music: Can one truly 'like' a song that is aesthetically appealing but lyrically repulsive? Should the values of artists we admire mirror our own? How does morality inform our taste profiles? Is Odd Future a reflection of or menace to society?
In fact, it's arguably more alarming that so many mainstream rappers aren't more regularly taken to task for their commodity-fetishizing, male-dominating, female-marginalizing narratives that reinforce the myths of the proto-capitalist on a more subconscious level.
The myths of the proto-capitalist!
Yeah, that's awesome. Record reviews are serious bidness!
As for "commodity-fetishizing, male-dominating, female-marginalizing narratives." Narratives? Try "lifestyles!" Who's gonna take "so many mainstream rappers" to task? A white dude at the Voice? Ha ha. Yeah, call those dudes to task, guy. That'll set 'em straight. Turn a buncha horny teenage motherfuckers into Alan Alda. "I'm so conflicted! I LOVE the beats, and Tyler's got a KILLER FLOW, but he says mean things about women! He sez he wants to kill people!" Oh, man.
Anyway, Odd Future sucks donkey dicks, and what do you expect from a bunch of pipsqueak MCs in LA called Odd Future Wolfgang Kill Them All? Art?!
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What happened to talent?
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I blew it out my asshole.
btw, the Voice article raises some interesting points. I think the real "issue" isn't "black" people or "hip-hoppers," it's the fucked-up world-view kids grow up with these days. You can't really think that the endless amounts of hardcore porn and faux-violence kids subject themselves to everyday is leading us down some righteous path. The shit is fucked-up and it's worth talking about. Not in a Tipper Gore kinda way, but in a way that addresses reality.
Then again, I'm sure I could write some long-winded piece about how Tyler's rape fantasy lyrical obsessions are just murder ballads for the 21st century. But I'll let some Wire fuckroid have that one...
What bores me about the Odd Future stuff (much of which I like) is the endless "faggot" shit. I get enough of that in my daily life and on this board from you mongoloids.
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I just read the Voice article on the subway. It's not bad -- it's far more lucid than that tinymixtapes bullshit, and as you said, the writer rightly identifies the issue not as a "rap" thing or a race thing but as an adolescent male thing. At the risk of sounding like and old fuck, adolescence is very different now than when we were teenagers. The sheer amount of porn that people look at nowadays is staggering, and the truth is that most pornography is damaging to the male brain, and damaging to women as a result. And the intersection of porn culture with ultraviolence is pretty troubling.
This discussion reminds me of the Olivier Assays movie, Demonlover.
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how Tyler's rape fantasy lyrical obsessions are just murder ballads for the 21st century. But I'll let some Wire fuckroid have that one...
I think maybe it makes sense to compare them to something like R. Crumb. I dunno that any artist has to justify his id. People have a right to a fucked-up fantasy life, and they have a right to manifest their fucked-up fantasies in their art. I'm not terribly interested in judging other people on that level. Is Georges Battaille or Dennis Cooper any more moral than this Odd Future stuff?
If we agree that there's no such thing as unmediated self-expression, the question is whether you treat lyrics like that Tyler guy's as a symptom of his own fucked-upedness, of his culture's, or both. And the answer is: it depends.
What's the distinction, really, between Crumb and this dude, or Eminem? Is it simply that Crumb is an underground artist read primarily by adults, while hip-hop is a mass-cultural phenomenon that reverberates in the tastes and attitudes of millions of teenagers around the world? I think so, in which case the discussion certainly does have a Tipper Gore "won't somebody think of the children" undertaste, and I'm just not interested.
As a personal aside, I dread to think what kinda shit my son is going to be exposed to when he's a teenager, but I'd like to think that no amount of weird porn or Black Ops garbage will turn him into a date rapist or a Columbine kid, 'cos, you know, my wife and I are good parents.
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"Sophisticated" deconstruction of gut-level music, for fuck's. Just reads like musings by folks who are too young to comment or haven't lived, which is probably the case for some, but for the rest -- the older, the seemingly intelligent or well-read -- it seems self-important and a little parasitic. Bringing the brain into a form that's largely intended to cancel it out. A goddamn thesis on Ikea beach-house lo-fi crummywave. C'mon. But I still think rich white folks who love rap music are ridiculous, so maybe I am, too.
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Musings by folks who are too young to comment or haven't lived, which is probably the case for some, but for the rest -- the older, the seemingly intelligent or well-read -- it seems self-important and a little parasitic.
This sums up 99.9% of all pop / rock criticism and 100% of the shit discussed in this thread. Can't think of a more self-important, parasitic pseudo-profession than "music critic."
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Anyone read Sasha Frere-Jones' review of the new Stevie Nicks album? It's NUTS. I don't care about the stuff he cares about, generally, and he's wrong about shit being "important," generally, but most of the time he's a cogent, even-keeled writer. The Stevie Nicks review finds him blabbering like an unholy cross between Moose and Earles (if Shill Fingers had a copy editor, I mean) and maybe Gina Arnold. There's a panoply of bizarre metaphors to describe her drug addictions, an incoherent paean to SN's "pragmatic decisions" (something to do with her scarves) and "approachable" songwriting style, and an unbelievable quote from Nicks claiming that Fleetwood Mac was booed off the stage when they first started playing the songs from Rumours on tour.
Needless to say, I dongloaded the album immediately.
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Musings by folks who are too young to comment or haven't lived, which is probably the case for some, but for the rest -- the older, the seemingly intelligent or well-read -- it seems self-important and a little parasitic.
This sums up 99.9% of all pop / rock criticism and 100% of the shit discussed in this thread. Can't think of a more self-important, parasitic pseudo-profession than "music critic."
I think it's possible (maybe even easy!) to review records without being any of those things. I don't think these people are approaching the task as a service to others who may be interested in the band or want to purchase the band's record. I think these people should find better ways to spend their time. Like posting on Terminal Boredom, discussing bad record reviewers.
I haven't bothered to read any of the reviews posted, but the general rub for me is that there's a distinct lack of perspective on part of these folks. I feel the same way about the bands they're discussing, though. The music, the reviews, the fans, so on, so forth: It's all profoundly unimportant. It's a drop of piss in a bottomless pail. But it's bandied about in such an effete, snobby manner. Which is why it's hard to even look at it and laugh. Tantamount to laughing at a mentally retarded person. I just feel bad when I read it.
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Anyone read Sasha Frere-Jones' review of the new Stevie Nicks album? It's NUTS.
New New Yorker?
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Musings by folks who are too young to comment or haven't lived, which is probably the case for some, but for the rest -- the older, the seemingly intelligent or well-read -- it seems self-important and a little parasitic.
This sums up 99.9% of all pop / rock criticism and 100% of the shit discussed in this thread. Can't think of a more self-important, parasitic pseudo-profession than "music critic."
I think it's possible (maybe even easy!) to review records without being any of those things. I don't think these people are approaching the task as a service to others who may be interested in the band or want to purchase the band's record.
thats the crux of it these people are very rarely 'reviewing' records what they are usually doing is writing about themselves, their beautiful selves. it's the reviewer not the songs.
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This is gonna sound kinda stupid, but I just think that reviews (and articles etc) about rock and/or roll music, and even other "low-brow" forms, should be fun. Why is that such a crazy idea. Make me laugh, make me wanna hear the record - even just to think it sucks as much as you do.
I like when people relate the music to their lives, but not in this navel-gazing heavy-handed I'm-lying-down-on-my-shrink's sofa, or "This is my dissertation on Iceage."
Reviewing music is dumb, but necessary. I think it can fruitful, for both reader and writer, but it's not a fucking novel. There is no such thing as The Great American Record Review.
but really........It's all Lester's fault.
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http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15427-aesthethica/ (http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15427-aesthethica/)
The idea of "a perfect void" can be heard in Liturgy's complicated relationship with momentum.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA_p2RLfpsk&feature=player_embedded (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA_p2RLfpsk&feature=player_embedded)
...
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Musings by folks who are too young to comment or haven't lived, which is probably the case for some, but for the rest -- the older, the seemingly intelligent or well-read -- it seems self-important and a little parasitic.
This sums up 99.9% of all pop / rock criticism and 100% of the shit discussed in this thread. Can't think of a more self-important, parasitic pseudo-profession than "music critic."
I think it's possible (maybe even easy!) to review records without being any of those things. I don't think these people are approaching the task as a service to others who may be interested in the band or want to purchase the band's record. I think these people should find better ways to spend their time. Like posting on Terminal Boredom, discussing bad record reviewers.
I haven't bothered to read any of the reviews posted, but the general rub for me is that there's a distinct lack of perspective on part of these folks. I feel the same way about the bands they're discussing, though. The music, the reviews, the fans, so on, so forth: It's all profoundly unimportant. It's a drop of piss in a bottomless pail. But it's bandied about in such an effete, snobby manner. Which is why it's hard to even look at it and laugh. Tantamount to laughing at a mentally retarded person. I just feel bad when I read it.
A lot of reviewers are young (not that that is bad) and trying to make a name for themselves/pad the resume. As a result, they over-write and try to sound smart. It has little to do with the music they review and everything to do with creating a writing persona. Thankfully most of these give up a career as music critic after a few years. Some get older and more pathetic. A couple keep on and become good at writing and writing about music. Those folks are people who are gonna be writers no matter what and could write on pretty much anything. Too bad they are in the minority. Anyway, the problem isnt music criticism, it is the people writing. If the same people were writing about food or buildings or cars or New York City, they'd suck at that too.
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didnt really read this thread too carefully, but people who aren't Mark Prindle should probably stop writing about music so much.
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I reckon Andrew Earles is a pretty good read over at Shrill Shingles, maybe more of a 'sophisticate' type than he might've been in his fanzine days, which is unfortunate, but probably inevitable if yr gonna keep at it for what, 15 years?... Anyone got any copies of his old zine, sounds cool?! I've written many a cringe inducing review in NGL, which is why I refuse to send out copies of the mag earlier than..say...issue 14. I think that's when we started to shake most of the gay outta it. Ah, shit, I mean...the 'detritus'.
PS- This thread is an excellent resource for double-checking! More!
Hey, Brendon! I still owe you some shrill singles. And you owe me a copy of... is it #19? We'll talk.
Moosecrock whined on BCO a few months ago that NGL sounds interesting but he won't read it for fear of being "eviscerated in print by some Termbo member." No joke.
Earles was pretty enjoyable for awhile because he's so cantankerous, but the past several months he's reached the point of incoherence. He's turned into a prematurely senile scold. His views on records read like they were produced by a random opinion generator. Not to mention, what kinda sad sack decides the world needs a 300-page biography about Husker fuckin' Du, takes it upon himself to write just such a book, and then fucks it up?
http://www.amazon.com/Husker-Du-Noise-Pop-Pioneers-Launched/product-reviews/0760335044/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_link_1?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0 (http://www.amazon.com/Husker-Du-Noise-Pop-Pioneers-Launched/product-reviews/0760335044/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_link_1?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0)
The customer reviews are priceless.
Cool, email me about that trade. Tell Chuck to send me some more reviews while yr at it, too, and show 'em how it's done proper!
That's a bummer that Mousecock won't read the rag, we could use the SS seal of approval....at least he didn't go w/ the more customary "eviscerated in print by some filthy AUSTRALIAN." Mouthsock: Progressive.
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didnt really read this thread too carefully, but people who aren't Mark Prindle should probably stop writing about music so much.
Prindle should really listen to some newer stuff. I do appreciate his writeups on older stuff (Cows, TFUL282, etc.) but he really is out of touch with records issued after 1999. I mean, yeah, his reviews of shit bands like Tool are funny, but how can you laugh at that?
As for the reviewers: I think the problem is that people writing about music don't know what they actually like. In much of the music writing the reviewer seems to be incapable of recommending the album he's/she's writing about, even if he/she thinks the music is good. Most of the time they will end the piece with sth vaguely analytic like "[the album] is full of remarkably good, accessible songs that have been stretched and fuzzed to the breaking point. Better recording wouldn?t hurt this material at all. It would almost surely make it stronger."
and my reaction is always: "yes, but did you actually enjoy listening to it? will you put it on the turntable again in a year or two? will you look at it later as just another thing to review?". I mean, I know there is a strong need to do year-end lists and to enumerate the strongest material possible but at the end of the day the best records are the ones you spin the most. Simple as that.
There also seems to be a race to write about the newest possible stuff as soon as it is possible, and then claim to be the first one to see some kind of a new trend forming. 20-year olds writing about the evolution of chillwave and how Ariel Pink saves the music industry. One guy even wrote about Sufjan Stevens gig as being a chance for Poles to be better people. True fucking story. And this guy gets paid for his writing.
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I can't stand the numbers.
Math has no place in my rock n roll, unless it's Breadwinner. But seriously, the fucking lists and Pitchdork's endless Top 100 Songs That Should Be in Your Personal John Hughes Movie, and rating music, down to the fucking DECIMAL POINT??
Band: "We got a 6.7 on Pitchfork."
You: "Is that good?"
Band: "I dunno, I think so? Maybe it's bad?"
You: "Maybe you shouldn't give a fuck!"
A nation of accountants.
"I Know! We'll Have Them Write Hit Songs!"
--------
I mean, shit, I think I am a huge nerd for music, obviously. But never once in my life have I stopped to consider whether a record was an 8.3, 4 sombreros (is that good?), 5 middle fingers! holy shit! masterpiece! or, God forbid, GRADING the fucking things like you're still in school. "Hmmm, I dunno, let's give it a B-, vocals are little flat, and the back cover photo is tinted weird."
Talk all the shit you want about this message board but I don't think (hope) most of the people on here don't think about this shit like that. It's already bad enough that I go on and on about $10 records.
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[
Prindle should really listen to some newer stuff.
Agreed.
If only most new HYPED bands weren't so derivative, self important and boring.
These days...its a ton of chaff for a kernel of wheat
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http://www.markprindle.com/hip.htm
i think most of these are based on whatever songs the bands had on myspace, though.
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Yeah...
Loy needs to make him a jump drive or cd-r's full of newer stuff.
Prindle's a metalhead...so Evil Army is a good start
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quoting Mr. Prindle:
"Jacuzzi Boys - Miami trio playing reverb-drenched '60s garage rock, like all those bands on the Pebbles compilations. Passable."
"Homostupids - Overdistorted lo-fi screamy drunk/fun/hardcore/punk. Okay, but I'm unemployed."
And then:
"Japandroids - Canadian duo (guitar/vox, drums/vox) plays loud emotional rock music. Just basic guitar chords, but energetic and moving. Reminiscent of the old Sebadoh/Superchunk days of my youth. This is what emo SHOULD sound like -- emotional! Not pansyish and awful!"
--
And I agree - fuck numbers in reviews. If you can't sum up your thoughts about a record using words only then reviewing is not yr thing, mildly speaking.
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The only numbers I care about are edition $ize and pro$pective future$.
INVE$TMENT ROCK.
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http://wc.arizona.edu/papers/89/111/35_1_m.html (http://wc.arizona.edu/papers/89/111/35_1_m.html)
Gamera Crowns: Tucson's Bad Boy Band
By Loy Acapulco with help from Mark Reynolds
Arizona Daily Wildcat
March 1, 1996
Arizona Daily Wildcat
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Yep, I wrote for my college newspaper. There's also a Bassholes review and something about Richard Hell floating around. I was eighteen years old at the time those were published.
That article was crudely edited and it trails off with that last sentence... but, hey, it was college, man.
[edit]: ... needless to say I wasn't responsible for the title.
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Maybe this doesn't really belong here but WTF - why not...I was just surfing around this Videogum site when I came across this heated debate about the premier band of the Brooklyn Black Metal scene - Liturgy and their "thoughtful" lead singer who has studied philosophy at Columbia. Here is a sample of his "controversial" statements:
Black metal is both an index of the death of the counterculture tradition and a way to to resurrect it. What right do I have to say that? I have none ? but this business of doing things one has no right to do is crucial to my outlook. I think counterculture lost its way when it turned its back on the revolutionary-spiritual-psychosexual-utopian ambition that gave birth to it and settled for a general attitude of ?No.? Impotent gestures of resistance to a system which will obviously always easily digest and extract exchange value from those gestures, the formation of little subcultures where people escape reality by congratulating each other for resembling one another ? that is a dead, or at least very sick counterculture, one that the system has contained. Today the gestures themselves have almost died out. Mostly I just see cynical tribalism and people wanting to seem cool. That goes for almost every subculture, metal or otherwise. The term ?Hyperborean Black Metal? refers explicitly to the explicit nihilism in black metal ? but its real referent is the implicit nihilism in all rock; it refers to subculture identification as such, which in my view is ultimately a social neurosis, a blockage, something bad.
http://stereogum.com/734432/visions-of-american-black-metal-liturgys-hunter-hunt-hendrix-responds/franchises/haunting-the-chapel/
Ok, thinking deeply about "Black Metal"...What's funnier is somebody felt the need to take a stand against this claptrap with incisive arguments about drumming styles and more on that Hyborean metal thang:
You come from a position of privilege. By being young, white, attending an Ivy League school, and aligning yourself with the Brooklyn art scene instead of the metal scene, you essentially flip a switch and get credibility with the "establishment" that people who are not like you will not ever have. Privilege in itself is not a crime and exploiting it is only natural. Your problem is that you seem to not recognize your privileged starting point and behave as if you earned the attention you get from those around you. Just as nobody would have given me and my music the time of day if I lived in the middle of Iowa, nobody would care about you at all if you had a different starting point.
This is not to say that you did not work for what you have -- privilege alone won't take you all the way -- but your behavior is that of someone who believes the hype around them instead of seeing it for what it is. It is ugly, selfish, immature behavior unbefitting someone with your intellect. More than that, your smug marginalization of "hyperborean" black metal combined with this privilege is where the interest in you from the Village Voice, the New York Times, and so many other mainstream publications comes from. The message sent is that black metal did not matter until "one of them" got involved. That is why people hate what has been termed hipster black metal: it waters down the very essence of the art, wipes away its history, and sends an "all-clear!" to the mainstream that it has the approval of people who aren't Neanderthalic metalheads. You have positioned yourself as their emissary. You should be very proud.
http://community2.metalreview.com/blogs/editorials/archive/2011/06/08/an-open-letter-to-liturgy-s-hunter-hunt-hendrix.aspx
I dunno, maybe this is of some import but I kinda doubt it....besides everyone knows that "Black Metal" has mattered since the moment Venom released their Bloodlust seven incher...
(http://community2.metalreview.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/editorials/tbm32.jpg)
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I know some of those Liturgy dudes and they're nice enough, but I kinda hope some actual black metal fan will cut their fuckin' heads off. I agree with the second quote in the post above completely. I've seen the same shit in other scenes as well. It's bullshit.
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People in bands should learn to stop trying to say shit all the time and make everything they do some grand cultural watershed moment and just focus on fuckin' shreddin' instead. This ain't the Paris fuckin Review here.
The drummer of Liturgy is pretty sick though.
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The guy from Liturgy definitely needs to shut the fuck up.
IVORY TOWER BLACK METAL
The drummer plays w/ White Hills sometimes. Like last Wed when they opened for Sleep and I missed it (fuck).
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I feel sorry for Liturgy because they are so obviously victims of being molested as children. It must feel horrible to be a faggot wasting mommy and daddy's cash on getting your interview into the village voice. On second thought they probably just sucked off the jew editors.
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I feel sorry for Liturgy because they are so obviously victims of being molested as children. It must feel horrible to be a faggot wasting mommy and daddy's cash on getting your interview into the village voice. On second thought they probably just sucked off the jew editors.
Whoa. People's parents are paying for the Voice to cover em these days???
As an occasional V.V. freelancer I feel slighted that none of that ca$h is trickling down my way. Last I checked though the editor I work with is neither a jew nor has a knob to suck off...but you certainly sound like you know what you are talking about there, champ.
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Oh wow didn't realize I was in the presence of a distinguished "freelancer" for such a "Mad Relevant periodical." All apologies if I ruffled your scabs, King AIDS.
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come on troll, make a fucking effort.
just got this:
http://www.bazillionpoints.com/metalion-the-slayer-mag-diaries/ (http://www.bazillionpoints.com/metalion-the-slayer-mag-diaries/)
it is super awesome. i don't care much for the later issues but the early ones (i still have #5-8!) where the dude reviews morbid angel, autopsy and sadus' first demos, and chronicles the initial baby steps of mayhem, are priceless.
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shit i missed the other thread. go on.
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KingAids. Ha.
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xwhitehousex is a pretty funny addition to the TB so far
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Would not call it funny as high school sophmore douche stylings. Very controversial.
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Talk all the shit you want about this message board but I don't think (hope) most of the people on here don't think about this shit like that. It's already bad enough that I go on and on about $10 records.
I think you said it yourself there.
Sticking massive price tags (especially in the used market) on records leads some people to think that a higher price tag gives them a right to be hearing "better music" for the more they pay. I'm still younger (I assume) than most of the bros on here but I've yet to really enter the dollar game when it comes to records. I like buying good records, but why the hell would I pay a couple hundred bucks for one good old record when I can use that same couple hundred to buy a dozen or more good new records.
Just because that one old record is $200 it doesn't mean it's going to be better than $200 worth of records released this month combined. For some reason people think that way. I know a couple dudes (who as far as I know aren't on this board) that decided they need to cut back on buying records- so they just buy fewer more expensive records in place of records coming out now that are just as good if not better. That reeks of investment rock right there. Again, I hope this isn't the logic of most people on here, and hopefully I never get that stupid idea in MY head.
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I would hedge my bets and say that most $200 records hold up better than anything that has come out this month. Except if you are paying $200 for garbage like Cold Cave or some mysterious guy hardcore band tape or whatev. Then I would say just take a lighter and burn the $200. It will all even out in the end.
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I really doubt anybody thinks a record is good because it is worth $$$. They like it, for whatever reason, and they are willing to pay the cash. And in my experience, new records don't hold a candle to older records. So buying new
= to buying old, $$$ records.
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Just buy what you like. It's not fucking rocket science.
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I would like to clarify that last statement by saying that I rarely, if ever, pay more than 10 or 15 bucks for any record.
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you don't ever buy records off the wall ?
my first bad brains LP was 40 bucks. gold vinyl.
or what about first printings ? you don't try to go after those ?
i got a joy division single for boo koo bucks. totally worth it.
that being said, i also don't have a problem considering the resale. though i'de never sell those two in particular.
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I find them for 15 bucks or under.
My first Bad Brains LP was $8.
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A record is worth what you're willing to pay for it.
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A record is worth what you're willing to pay for it.
http://cgi.ebay.com/STEPHEN-COLBERT-Charlene-7in-Third-Man-TRI-COLOR-/170659720030?_trksid=p4340.m1374&_trkparms=algo%3DPI.WATCH%26its%3DC%26itu%3DUCC%26otn%3D15%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D967742126329409787
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Exactly.
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I really doubt anybody thinks a record is good because it is worth $$$. They like it, for whatever reason, and they are willing to pay the cash. And in my experience, new records don't hold a candle to older records. So buying new = to buying old, $$$ records.
I'm not so sure about the Book of Genesis angle on record quality - there were tons of mediocre-to-terrible records flying the punk or New Wave or whatever flag; hell, right alongside the Charley Pattons and Geechie Wileys and the like, there were tons of merely-OK blues records pressed up in 1928. The advantage of old records is 30-year-old hype is less likely to fool you, and you're likely chasing the record from an informed perspective. I say this as a somewhat Luddite listener and buyer: I rarely download anything, and I'm happy to take a chance and buy something that simply sounds appealing in a written description, or a good review from someone generally reliable.
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This thread isn't about buying records. That's what all the other ones are for.
This thread is about making fun of deluded elitist assholes that are not ourselves.
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This thread isn't about buying records. That's what all the other ones are for.
This thread is about making fun of deluded elitist assholes that are not ourselves.
Yeah.
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Yeah.
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http://letsgetbent.tumblr.com/post/6669972796/review-human-eye-they-came-from-the-sky
a criticism of the latest Human Eye LP. shit's pretty funny.
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http://letsgetbent.tumblr.com/post/6669972796/review-human-eye-they-came-from-the-sky
a criticism of the latest Human Eye LP. shit's pretty funny.
If you are trying to come across as a cynical know-it-all in a review, it would help to actually know something.
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This site is full of 'delightful missives'.
http://www.collapseboard.com/
It is moderated by Everett True/Jerry Thatcher who used to write for NME and was er..good friends w/ Kurt Cobain, introduced him to Courtney Love on the frontline of the Seattle grunge thing etc. He now lives in Brisbane and whines a lot, both on the web and on stage. Makes Andrew Earles look like a beacon of humility; a staunch feminist.
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this is a pretty good place to start: http://www.collapseboard.com/features/columns/birth-of-an-abomination-beck-and-the-ironic-persona/
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This thread isn't about buying records. That's what all the other ones are for.
This thread is about making fun of deluded elitist assholes that are not ourselves.
<mumbly hangdog teen voice>Okay.</mumbly hangdog teen voice>
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http://feministmusicgeek.com/
I want to know what hillside_wrangler thinks.
Is the work of Ellen Willis any good? I'm reluctant to check out anything that Kathleen Hanna calls a "holy grail."
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http://feministmusicgeek.com/
I want to know what hillside_wrangler thinks.
Jeez, I can't even tell if this is good or bad. I can only get through about 2 lines of this shit before my attention wanders off somewhere else and when it returns, I forgot whatever it was I just read. It's pretty much the same reaction I have to Terry Gross's voice, which automatically becomes ambient noise to me after about 5 seconds of talking. "When Public Enemy started performing in the mid 1980s, they soon became notorious for blah blah blah blah blah blah." Handicapped by these severe limitations, I fought my way through two paragraphs of one review, and this is my exact recollection of what I read:
"Blah blah blah towards the formation of a feminist musical canon that blah blah blah. It's about time we a) think for ourselves instead of letting chauvinist rock critics tell us what to listen to b) admit we love shitty pop songs c) reward smart, literate female singer-songwriters with the success they deserve or d) all of the above. Elastica. In 7th grade I was blah blah blah and he just laughed at me blah blah sarcasm as a defense mechanism. Who gives a big shitty shit what some stupid record store clerk in a small town thinks anyway blah blah Winona Ryder. James Murphy blah blah blah Dorothy Ashby! I have no idea what I'm talking about. Here's a video."
I'll let you know what I think about the whole article if I ever have 4 hours to spend reading it.
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It's the literary analog to staring out a window while absently twining your hair with a finger.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIyRRLBsukw
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIyRRLBsukw
God, I fucking hate that guy. I couldn't even make it the whole way through. Those mannerisms are cringe-enducing. Not to mention "the filthiest, grimiest garage-punk record released this year." Fuck!
Maltodextrin posed the question on Facebook recently, "is there no sound safe from getting labeled 'garage rock'?"
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(or something like that. I'm paraphrasing here.)
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one of the funniest things was the Flex Your Head poster that's hanging on the wall behind the guy. instant punk-cred earning technique.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIyRRLBsukw
God, I fucking hate that guy. I couldn't even make it the whole way through. Those mannerisms are cringe-enducing. Not to mention "the filthiest, grimiest garage-punk record released this year." Fuck!
Maltodextrin posed the question on Facebook recently, "is there no sound safe from getting labeled 'garage rock'?"
\
"The drums really boom and snap" ~ wow
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one of the funniest things was the Flex Your Head poster that's hanging on the wall behind the guy. instant punk-cred earning technique.
Yeah, seems like he learned everything he knows about 'punk' and 'garage' from vice magazine.
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THAT GUY IS THE WORST
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIyRRLBsukw
its like the fall!
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i just bought this record cuz it sounds like the fall!
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the fall: 'everybody being as loud or as messy as possible'
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that bradley needlehead video guy is so funny. he uploads 100s of videos of his head per month. i don't know who told him that it would be a good idea. best part is when he is just sitting there, listening to a song and bobbing his head. there's just something about that head shape.
http://www.infinitelooper.com/?v=4Etduaa4D88&p=n#/174;180 (http://www.infinitelooper.com/?v=4Etduaa4D88&p=n#/174;180)
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Does this count? I thought it was pretty entertaining and spot on.
http://www.collapseboard.com/reviews/cd-reviews/washed-out-%E2%80%93-within-and-without-sub-pop/
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Let them eat sunscreen
I laughed.
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Does this count? I thought it was pretty entertaining and spot on.
http://www.collapseboard.com/reviews/cd-reviews/washed-out-%E2%80%93-within-and-without-sub-pop/
The guy goes overboard but he also sums up my feelings when I hear this shit pretty exactly..
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JESUS, that song is like a Lightning Seeds B-side or something. Fuck.
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JESUS, that song is like a Lightning Seeds B-side or something. Fuck.
Embarassing admission: I was turned on to The Pretty Things via a Lightning Seeds b-side cover of SF Sorrow. A LONG TIME AGO.
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haha!
I got turned onto the Dead Boys via the first Pearl Jam Fan Club 7". They covered "Sonic Reducer." It's actually cool to get into cool shit via uncool shit. I think that's the way it goes for most people.
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I heard a ton of VU covers before I heard the originals: "Sweet Jane" by Cowboy Junkies, "Pale Blue Eyes" and "There She Goes Again" by REM, "Run, Run, Run" by Echo & the Bunnymen. I heard Bauhaus' "Telegram Sam" before I ever heard T.Rex. Sebadoh's "Pink Moon," "Sickles and Hammers," and "Everybody's Been Burned," The Mission U.K.'s and Danielle Dax's "Tomorrow Never Knows," fIREHOSE's "Mannequin" and "The Red and the Black," Martin Gore's covers of Tuxedomoon, Sparks, et al., Rollins Band's "Kick Out the Jams" (on the Pump Up the Volume soundtrack, natch), Siouxsie's covers of Television, "The Passenger," Kraftwerk, Sparks, etc. etc. etc. Also, weirdly, The Damned's covers of "1970" and "Alone Again Or" entered my brain long before the OGs.
Not that any of those are "uncool," exactly. No, wait, fIREHOSE is really uncool.
I wonder how many people were first exposed to The Stooges via EMF? There's gotta be a few out there.
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haha!
I got turned onto the Dead Boys via the first Pearl Jam Fan Club 7". They covered "Sonic Reducer." It's actually cool to get into cool shit via uncool shit. I think that's the way it goes for most people.
The Pump Up the Volume soundtrack. In retrospect, not very good to awful; at the time, a gateway.
"What is this "Kick out the Jams" that Rollins is singing and who are Bad Brains?"
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fIREHOSE isn't cool, but I still like 'em! Turned me onto the same jams. I actually bought fROMOHIO before I got a Minutemen record.
A lot of those covers did the same for me. ALready knew VU but that Cowboy Junkies cover is sublime. Haven't heard it in forever tho.
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If I start admitting how I first heard of some what would I now consider "essentials" I'll get banned.
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Au contraire, mon frere, please "share."
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I was mortified back in 1964 when I had to admit I had learned about Howling Wolf, Little Walter and other race record artists through that namby pamby boy band the Rolling Stones.
I learned about the Stooges through the Birthday Party, I think. That's pretty weird; there seemed to be quite a dearth of knowledge of proto and pre punk back in the early 80's at least for a young teenager.
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"Soul music" via the Afghan Whigs. Pontificating on how Otis Redding was killed "in our backyard". THE SPIRIT LIVES ON.
First wave ska via third wave ska. Shorts with zippers that led nowhere. Terrible fingering sessions that gave no-one pleasure.
Rap music via being a wigger. Taunted by my soccer coach when he finally saw me in street clothes. Asking one of the 3 black kids in my entire high school where I could cop some of his gear (Cross Colors).
THANK YOU TERMBO FOR KEEPING MY CUBICLE LYFE PRETTY (AND THOSE OF YOU WITH LONG-ASS TAKE THREADS FOR MANY AN AFTERNOON ON-THE-JOB LATRINE SESH TRYING NOT TO CHUCKLE WHILST SOMEBODY TOOK A PISS NEXT TO ME).
I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU BUT IT WON'T BE THE SAME.
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I heard Bauhaus' "Telegram Sam" before I ever heard T.Rex.
Me two.
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I was just telling someone a couple days ago how I got turned on to Syd Barrett by an REM flexi-disc cover of Dark Globe that came with my sister's Sassy magazine. I think I was in 7th grade.
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I was just telling someone a couple days ago how I got turned on to Syd Barrett by an REM flexi-disc cover of Dark Globe that came with my sister's Sassy magazine. I think I was in 7th grade.
That's why bands are still doing something of a service on 3-song EPs where the last song is a cover.
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Jack O Fire turned me onto "the blues" back in the day. Discovered the Sonics thru Billy Childish. I owe Estrus so much!
I totally forgot EMF covered "Search & Destroy". This is priceless:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfCu-ToHFeM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfCu-ToHFeM)
From 2001 no less..
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If I start admitting how I first heard of some what would I now consider "essentials" I'll get banned.
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This thread has really evolved.
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at the start of high school i was strictly classic rock, like cream and hendrix and the beatles, the only punk stuff i liked was early descendents and misfits.
then i heard the white stripes. that got me into a ton of the old blues stuff, as well as the 'detroit rock' stuff surrounding their scene, then the older pre-punk / garage stuff. thank you white stripes : )
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Au contraire, mon frere, please "share."
Let's just say I found out about a lot of bands through "The Dead" covers and Nirvana as a young lad.
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Would listening to Antony & The Johnsons / John Jacob Niles suffice for this locker room swordfight?
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I'm sure a lot of people got into punk, etc thru Nirvana especially if you grew up in the 90s...I know I did. No shame here
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I learned about the 70s through songs the Wombats covered.
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"War Pigs" via Faith No More, Crime through Sonic Youth (perfect example of cool via uncool), Wire's "Strange" through REM, Link Wray through Billy Childish, Led Zeppelin via Dread Zeppelin, Syd Barrett's "Terrapin," the TV Personalities, and the Stones' "Loving Cup" through little-known Fells "loverock" side project Lunchbox, "All Along the Watchtower" through Rattle & Hum (still prefer the cover in this case), "She Lives" through Mike Rep, "If You Have Ghosts" through John Wesley Harding, Television through Kronos Quartet, Howlin' Wolf through Half Japanese, Joni Mitchell through Sebadoh. Oh, yeah -- Daniel Johnston through fIREHOSE, too. Basically, everything I really need to know I learned from fIREHOSE. Without fIREHOSE, I'd be a giant, worthless, ignorant piece of shit. Izzall aSSBACKWARDS, mang.
Would listening to Antony & The Johnsons / John Jacob Niles suffice for this locker room swordfight?
I gotta admit that's pretty good.
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Without fIREHOSE, I'd be a giant, worthless, ignorant piece of shit.
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Joan Baez through S.O.D.
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The Creation and Troggs through Bernie Torme.
Love through UFO
MC5 through Blue Oyster Cult (although I didn't know it at the time)
Sun Ra through the MC5
Monks through Fish and Roses
The Standells through Minor Threat
I'm sure there is more, and I am trying to remember if I had actually heard Crime before I heard Sonic Youth's cover or not. My friends and I had been aware of them for a while thanks to Tesco Vee's tireless promotion, but it wasn't like you could find anywhere to actually hear the stuff without a ton of work.
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This is a totally different thread. "confessions of a termbro"
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none of these stories are nearly as embarrassing as learning about bands via termbo.
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"Don't Care / Live Fast Die Young" via Pennywise
"Nothing But a Nightmare" via NOFX
"Smash It Up" via the Offspring
BEAT THAT!
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"Smash It Up" via the Offspring
BEAT THAT!
Batman soundtrack?
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Dinosaur from Wayne's World 2
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"Smash It Up" via the Offspring
BEAT THAT!
Batman soundtrack?
Yurp! Batman Forever to be precise.
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Someone might've mentioned this already but...Misfits via Metallica.
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Also, I'm pretty sure davemartin was the first to tell me about Termbo.
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Also, I'm pretty sure davemartin was the first to tell me about Termbo.
Garage-punk via Matador.
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Davemartin recently told me about the (I think aussie) band Whores...I need to get more info but whenever I search for them I just end up looking at smut.....so thanks!
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Hmm... just looking around for the best place to put reviews on this piece of shit forum. The 1,100 word frank and honest review I wrote of the Stalkers tape was deleted for being promotional crap and spam. SORRY!!!!! Don't get yer fuckin boner in a twist.
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Would had made more sense to post it at New releases. Moderators usually move misplaced posts. Dont get why it got deleted though. Never heard Stalkers but they can't possibly be worse than lot of the crap that been praised over here through the years.
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i never heard them but yeah they can be why not
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i never heard them but yeah they can be why not
I quick myspace check give the opinion nothing special. Not that I gave them a serious chance or anything but I cant see why the post got removed and not moved to New releases
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Got into Sabbath through weed.
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Would had made more sense to post it at New releases. Moderators usually move misplaced posts. Dont get why it got deleted though. Never heard Stalkers but they can't possibly be worse than lot of the crap that been praised over here through the years.
I'm a working music journalist, not a "publicity hack".
The review was part of a collection of material I've been compiling while documenting that particular band over the last four years, and it wasn't all positive, so I don't really consider it "friends-bands-promo".
While I disagree that it should have been removed, I respectfully take note of the moderator's proclivities.
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AYE YI YI
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Got into Sabbath through weed.
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music journalist
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I'm a working publicity hack, not a "music journalist".
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Working music journalist -- cool! Covering such newsworthy subjects as The Stalkers. Not a publicity hack. I disagree with the moderators -- your review definitely belongs in this thread. Please post it again!!! Mods: PLEASE DON'T DELETE THE REVIEW THIS TIME.
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woah is a "working music journalist" trifecta!
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OK- green light to repost. But at this point, who cares.
PERVERSIONS: Listening to the Stalkers FULL BLOWN
Allow me to first give you a marker in history; late summer of 2007. I was shooting what would be my first music feature for PLAYGIRL magazine. The band I was covering is not worth mentioning here, but the opening band, STALKERS, were in the middle of a busy year, releasing singles on One Little Indian and Norton, as well as their first s/t LP. They were awful that night. A sudden lineup change and severe inebriation rendered their set a complete joke. Danny was wearing a leather jacket with no shirt underneath, his thick chest hair matted down with sweat. He made perverted eyes at me over a pair of Ray-Bans, I snapped a photo, and the next thing I knew, I was accompanying them to Leeds and Reading in the UK. So my first photographs of this band were for a male porno mag, if that sets the tone at all.
Since then, they've had 6 different guitar players and 3 different vans. There have been weddings, funerals, i love yous, i hate yous and road tattoos. Every time I want to give up on them, they somehow creep back into relevance. This month, Burger Records released FULL BLOWN on cassette, and it's about time someone did. I'm taking an educated guess that most of these songs were penned around 2009. I was making photographs of these brutes, even though I felt they were lazy and constipated. Adamant that they continue to stay active, I single handedly booked them a 22-city US tour (aka the Meltdown USA Tour), and drove them as far as Albuquerque. This was a cathartic and traumatizing experience. I will not attempt to list the venues they've been banned from.
The three core members and songwriters consist of:
Andy Animal (Vocals)- Picture a long haired G.G. Allin on a motorcycle with some smokin' hot broad on the back. For all his filth and odor, there is a softer, lovable side to Andy. He's the kind of man who can save your soul with a pep talk, rescue injured woodland animals and add a bizarre sensuality to the most revolting of fetishes. He's earned a reputation for smoking, spitting and throwing fireworks into the audience during live performances. When he's on, he sings like a bird. See: Sun's Coming Up (Dollar Record Records). I, too, love the Beach Boys. Josh Styles (Drums)- I already know he's going to hate this review, so I'll just come right out with it. Josh Styles is a mod-snob, nihilist prick. Renowned DJ and great drummer, but at times incredibly snide. One of the best van-fights ever, was after he had wasted a bunch of my expensive french perfume, spraying it on his crotch. Our contempt drove us to a complete silent treatment for two days, only to end in a fit of hysterical giggles when I made a face at him from behind the camera. When it comes down to the real nitty gritty, Josh is the responsible one, and his backbone might be reason these guys have gotten this far. He looks like the guy on the box of Le Petit Ecolier cookies and occasionally plays in an 80s hardcore cover band. Danny Goldshtein (Bass)-This man has a genuine love for cars, girls, surfing, beer, switchblades and the Ramones. Watch out though, he's even creepier than I am with the camera. His unabashed pluck and optimism make for high-energy doo-wop backing vocals that are guaranteed to make you sing along. He walks around like he's walkin those bass lines in his head- all the time. Danny is also one of the most generous and kind people I've met in rock and roll, perhaps balancing out the predominantly acidic personality of the band. Here's where it gets complicated. It's hard to keep faith in a band that has a revolving door policy of guitarists. At the time of recording, Raze Regal and Lefty Flowers were on duty. Raze's squeaky-clean tone and one-note-at-a-time solo style plays well against Lefty's intricate and ringing psych-outs. The songs you hear on the cassette were first recorded in England at the famed Olympic Studios, then again in Portland, OR at Red Lantern Studio and some of the tracks were yet again recorded in New York. That?s a lot of miles.
So about that tape? On the outside, a too-small black square with the words "Full Blown" reduced in the center, and the track listing on the back. Not sure that it's correct, but, you know, details, details. On the inside fold, an array of party/tour photos and a familiar image of Andy behind the window of a police car. Familiar because I took the photo, and I would be flattered if it were credited, but never mind that. In general, I'm not the least bit satisfied to listen to this album in this format, but because I firmly believe that some of these songs are near cult-classics, I will highlight some of the best parts.
It starts off with "Gypsy Kids". This rallying number is an excellent opener, calling to arms the fraternal order of hate-punks who have fought the proverbial good fight. Feels good to think, Yeah! The Gypsy kids ARE alright. "What's the matter, haven't you seen a lady undress before?" (spoken in a heavy british accent), leads us into "Lady Sonia". This was released as a single earlier this year on Oops Baby Records. It's namesake is after a real-life dominatrix who is heralded as a masturbatrix. Things get nice and croon-y when Andy spells out her name and the "La, la, la's" are a nice compliment to the springy guitar parts. The equally kinky "3 Way Weekend" features fantastic harmonies, orgasm noises, and a solid structure that makes for easy listening. Or should I say SLEAZY listening. When dissected, we notice lyrical cues in the verse "You know that I love you" (one), "There's two women on my mind" (two). "Looks like we've got a three-way weekend on our hands" (three). The math isn't that hard, but when the listener catches on, it's quite delightful. When asked about "It's Gone", Josh insists that it simply comes from an angry place, but I'm almost certain I've heard the melody on some obscure freakbeat 45. Either way, I love the hardcore pounding, "It's goooone, it's gone, don't you know it's gone!". What's really gone, is the snarl that's delivered when you see it live. This, however, leaves room for Raze's delicate psychedelic notes. "Feral Children" seems to be the number one favorite. It's become tradition, during the breakdown, for Josh to make a dramatic display of pouring beer all over the ride cymbal and engaging the crowd in participatory smashing. The driving basslines will keep you "running with the dogs" right up to the explosive ending chorus. The controversial "Go Little Sea Lion", is actually about a spiritual journey Andy took to Big Sur spread his brother's ashes. Heavy. Some might think this sensitive turn is a little too soft, but I find the clean chorus "Go little sea lion?" quite refreshing. Sea sounds are fine, even if the seal honks are a bit much. "Maybe I'm Crazy" is mixed off-kilter, and nearly unlistenable, so I would skip it unless you wanna see how weird things can really get.
If you like the idea of a raunchy Bay City Rollers tinged with the velocity of say, The Damned, then this album is for you. Somebody please put this on vinyl.
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Stalkers sucks.
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The review was part of a collection of material I've been compiling while documenting that particular band over the last four years, and it wasn't all positive, so I don't really consider it "friends-bands-promo".
this forum isn't here for you to cut and paste some bullshit fluff piece you did on your friends band. save it for the screenplay
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What are you talking about? This place is like an open mic for "working music journalist" to try out new material. Back to the drawing board Jackie O
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This is a totally different thread.
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The review was part of a collection of material I've been compiling while documenting that particular band over the last four years, and it wasn't all positive, so I don't really consider it "friends-bands-promo".
this forum isn't here for you to cut and paste some bullshit fluff piece you did on your friends band. save it for the screenplay
wait till you read the reviews about some of the terminal boredom bands. fluffy as fuck.
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cool
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Hey what happened to Jackie O's thread? I wasn't done reading it yet. I was just about to learn how KRRAAAAZZZZZYYYYYYY those guys are.
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I'd like to formally petition MOTHER to create a Working Music Journalist child board. Termbo's answer to Folder Rock, if you will.
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Termbo's answer to Folder Rock, if you will.
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photographer and working musical journalist
Brooklyn
well, shit
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Ha ha ha ha ha!
"Not a publicity hack!"
OK- green light to repost. But at this point, who cares.
PERVERSIONS: Listening to the Stalkers FULL BLOWN
Allow me to first give you a marker in history; late summer of 2007. I was shooting what would be my first music feature for PLAYGIRL magazine. The band I was covering is not worth mentioning here, but the opening band, STALKERS, were in the middle of a busy year, releasing singles on One Little Indian and Norton, as well as their first s/t LP. They were awful that night. A sudden lineup change and severe inebriation rendered their set a complete joke. Danny was wearing a leather jacket with no shirt underneath, his thick chest hair matted down with sweat. He made perverted eyes at me over a pair of Ray-Bans, I snapped a photo, and the next thing I knew, I was accompanying them to Leeds and Reading in the UK. So my first photographs of this band were for a male porno mag, if that sets the tone at all.
Since then, they've had 6 different guitar players and 3 different vans. There have been weddings, funerals, i love yous, i hate yous and road tattoos. Every time I want to give up on them, they somehow creep back into relevance. This month, Burger Records released FULL BLOWN on cassette, and it's about time someone did. I'm taking an educated guess that most of these songs were penned around 2009. I was making photographs of these brutes, even though I felt they were lazy and constipated. Adamant that they continue to stay active, I single handedly booked them a 22-city US tour (aka the Meltdown USA Tour), and drove them as far as Albuquerque. This was a cathartic and traumatizing experience. I will not attempt to list the venues they've been banned from.
The three core members and songwriters consist of:
Andy Animal (Vocals)- Picture a long haired G.G. Allin on a motorcycle with some smokin' hot broad on the back. For all his filth and odor, there is a softer, lovable side to Andy. He's the kind of man who can save your soul with a pep talk, rescue injured woodland animals and add a bizarre sensuality to the most revolting of fetishes. He's earned a reputation for smoking, spitting and throwing fireworks into the audience during live performances. When he's on, he sings like a bird. See: Sun's Coming Up (Dollar Record Records). I, too, love the Beach Boys. Josh Styles (Drums)- I already know he's going to hate this review, so I'll just come right out with it. Josh Styles is a mod-snob, nihilist prick. Renowned DJ and great drummer, but at times incredibly snide. One of the best van-fights ever, was after he had wasted a bunch of my expensive french perfume, spraying it on his crotch. Our contempt drove us to a complete silent treatment for two days, only to end in a fit of hysterical giggles when I made a face at him from behind the camera. When it comes down to the real nitty gritty, Josh is the responsible one, and his backbone might be reason these guys have gotten this far. He looks like the guy on the box of Le Petit Ecolier cookies and occasionally plays in an 80s hardcore cover band. Danny Goldshtein (Bass)-This man has a genuine love for cars, girls, surfing, beer, switchblades and the Ramones. Watch out though, he's even creepier than I am with the camera. His unabashed pluck and optimism make for high-energy doo-wop backing vocals that are guaranteed to make you sing along. He walks around like he's walkin those bass lines in his head- all the time. Danny is also one of the most generous and kind people I've met in rock and roll, perhaps balancing out the predominantly acidic personality of the band. Here's where it gets complicated. It's hard to keep faith in a band that has a revolving door policy of guitarists. At the time of recording, Raze Regal and Lefty Flowers were on duty. Raze's squeaky-clean tone and one-note-at-a-time solo style plays well against Lefty's intricate and ringing psych-outs. The songs you hear on the cassette were first recorded in England at the famed Olympic Studios, then again in Portland, OR at Red Lantern Studio and some of the tracks were yet again recorded in New York. That?s a lot of miles.
So about that tape? On the outside, a too-small black square with the words "Full Blown" reduced in the center, and the track listing on the back. Not sure that it's correct, but, you know, details, details. On the inside fold, an array of party/tour photos and a familiar image of Andy behind the window of a police car. Familiar because I took the photo, and I would be flattered if it were credited, but never mind that. In general, I'm not the least bit satisfied to listen to this album in this format, but because I firmly believe that some of these songs are near cult-classics, I will highlight some of the best parts.
It starts off with "Gypsy Kids". This rallying number is an excellent opener, calling to arms the fraternal order of hate-punks who have fought the proverbial good fight. Feels good to think, Yeah! The Gypsy kids ARE alright. "What's the matter, haven't you seen a lady undress before?" (spoken in a heavy british accent), leads us into "Lady Sonia". This was released as a single earlier this year on Oops Baby Records. It's namesake is after a real-life dominatrix who is heralded as a masturbatrix. Things get nice and croon-y when Andy spells out her name and the "La, la, la's" are a nice compliment to the springy guitar parts. The equally kinky "3 Way Weekend" features fantastic harmonies, orgasm noises, and a solid structure that makes for easy listening. Or should I say SLEAZY listening. When dissected, we notice lyrical cues in the verse "You know that I love you" (one), "There's two women on my mind" (two). "Looks like we've got a three-way weekend on our hands" (three). The math isn't that hard, but when the listener catches on, it's quite delightful. When asked about "It's Gone", Josh insists that it simply comes from an angry place, but I'm almost certain I've heard the melody on some obscure freakbeat 45. Either way, I love the hardcore pounding, "It's goooone, it's gone, don't you know it's gone!". What's really gone, is the snarl that's delivered when you see it live. This, however, leaves room for Raze's delicate psychedelic notes. "Feral Children" seems to be the number one favorite. It's become tradition, during the breakdown, for Josh to make a dramatic display of pouring beer all over the ride cymbal and engaging the crowd in participatory smashing. The driving basslines will keep you "running with the dogs" right up to the explosive ending chorus. The controversial "Go Little Sea Lion", is actually about a spiritual journey Andy took to Big Sur spread his brother's ashes. Heavy. Some might think this sensitive turn is a little too soft, but I find the clean chorus "Go little sea lion?" quite refreshing. Sea sounds are fine, even if the seal honks are a bit much. "Maybe I'm Crazy" is mixed off-kilter, and nearly unlistenable, so I would skip it unless you wanna see how weird things can really get.
If you like the idea of a raunchy Bay City Rollers tinged with the velocity of say, The Damned, then this album is for you. Somebody please put this on vinyl.
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i am a professional working musician and producer, not a self publicizing hack, please stop moving my blog posts to "demo tape". thanks in advance.
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What's a "Termbo band?" Jackie O, did you write reviews of 'Aja' and 'Tusk'?
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Loy,
I had a really vivid, fever dream last night featuring you.
Nurse With Wound's song "Dead Roads/Cradle Yr Snatch/Lil' Seed" (featuring Ms CB Schrodd) played throughout the entirety. Probably matching my overworked heart beat. Hell Is For Huskiez. You were sitting in a chair, staring around me. Never making eye contact despite my repeated questioning on things like Mr. Mister keyboards, Broken Flag box set, Phil Minton, and "Arc of A Diver". At least that's what I remember. It's as if I was a ghost you couldn't see. When I woke, I fumbled around with that NWW bassline from the "Dead Roads" song and had a ginger soda. Feeling like I missed a passenger train.
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^ wrong thread, Butchy.
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^ wrong thread, Butchy.
I'M TRYING TO GET BANNED VIA WANDERING AROUND THIS TWITTER FLOPHOUSE LIKE A DELIRIOUS WINO IN HEAT
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_WRfzPDOFQsI/TJ-Kkkaa3dI/AAAAAAAAClI/5xMH2qWM5Fg/s1600/Street-Trash-Vic-Noto-Nicole-Potter-4.jpg)
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Great dream Butchy.
In other news: I would like Jackie O to attempt to list all of the venues they've been banned from, rather than merely teasing us at the end of the 2nd paragraph.
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Butch, you and I gotta get nugged and have a philosophical investigation.
The two times I saw the Stalkers they were completely professional and displayed an utmost respect for the venues' standards and practices. Their agent, publicist, and photographer were, as a whole, a class act -- well-heeled and perfectly groomed. It was wonderful to see them come out to support the band -- they were the most enthusiastic people in the crowd!
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what kind of ginger soda
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Ray-Bans,
road tattoos.
Renowned DJ,
revolving door policy
I took the photo,
This rallying number
psychedelic notes
please put this on vinyl.
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what kind of ginger soda
(http://osmosis-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/ginger-ale-e1271449659657.jpg)
Butch, you and I gotta get nugged and have a philosophical investigation.
The two times I saw the Stalkers they were completely professional and displayed an utmost respect for the venues' standards and practices. Their agent, publicist, and photographer were, as a whole, a class act -- well-heeled and perfectly groomed. It was wonderful to see them come out to support the band -- they were the most enthusiastic people in the crowd!
MissaBull,
I agree with that sentiment. I've got a great story centered around the first time I heard that Broken Flag records box set, too.
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good drink but
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3571/3293847775_b976cc0cf6.jpg)
YO.
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Blue Sky is good pop, as you say in the Midwest. Next time you're in town, you, me, Hughes, et al, grab a fuckload of mustard packets, a bicycle pump and some Avital Ronell and we take the show on the road, i.e. to the fair people of Brooklyn and to Jackie O's house where maybe we can get our picture taken for her website and hang out with the Stalker who looks most like a Peter Bagge character.
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OK- green light to repost. But at this point, who cares.
PERVERSIONS: Listening to the Stalkers FULL BLOWN
Since then, they've had 6 different guitar players and 3 different vans.
three core members
Just a pet peeve. Numerals one to nine (or ten) should be spelled out in full. Mixing it up by spelling it out later in the review really chaffs my ass. Otherwise though- a stellar contribution to this fine thread!
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What are you talking about? This place is like an open mic for "working music journalist" to try out new material. Back to the drawing board Jackie O
STUD DOGS/STALKERS/ELECTRIC SHADOWS et. al. gig at Tommy's Tavern....SUMMER 2002 or '03ish???
NEVER FORGET!!!!
It was the 9/11 of stuff.
Pretty sure you punched me in the face that night, Rich.
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Butch, you and I gotta get nugged and have a philosophical investigation.
The two times I saw the Stalkers they were completely professional and displayed an utmost respect for the venues' standards and practices. Their agent, publicist, and photographer were, as a whole, a class act -- well-heeled and perfectly groomed. It was wonderful to see them come out to support the band -- they were the most enthusiastic people in the crowd!
I will take that backhanded compliment. Thanks, honey. Whoever you are.
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Stalkers fuckin rule. I was just drinkin with Josh tonight in fact. Best dude. Don't expect anyone here to dig em but also this is the same board that initially championed Blank Dogs and Wavves and Fluffy Lumbers and Cold Cave so there's that.
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Blank Dogs and Wavves and Fluffy Lumbers and Cold Cave
None of these bands are tinged with the velocity of say, The Damned.
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What are you talking about? This place is like an open mic for "working music journalist" to try out new material. Back to the drawing board Jackie O
STUD DOGS/STALKERS/ELECTRIC SHADOWS et. al. gig at Tommy's Tavern....SUMMER 2002 or '03ish???
NEVER FORGET!!!!
It was the 9/11 of stuff.
Pretty sure you punched me in the face that night, Rich.
Haha. Man what an epic trip to New York. One of the most fucked up fun weekends of my life. I didn't watch the Stalkers that night, but the singer repeatedly slammed our drummer's head into the concrete, which actually made me like them because I hated our drummer. THat gave me a good week of van jokes.
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also I have no recollection of punching people in the face.
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I didn't watch the Stalkers that night, but the singer repeatedly slammed our drummer's head into the concrete, with the velocity of, say the Damned.
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I got a second hand account, but I heard it went something like this "Andy was wearing a leather jacket with no shirt underneath, his thick chest hair matted down with sweat. He made perverted eyes at me over a pair of Ray-Bans, I snapped a photo, and the next thing I knew, he repeatedly slammed our drummer's head into the concrete, with the velocity of, say the Damned."
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second hand account so who knows if its accurate.
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This thread is magic. It has its own velocity.
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I got a second hand account, but I heard it went something like this "Andy was wearing a leather jacket with no shirt underneath, his thick chest hair matted down with sweat. He made perverted eyes at me over a pair of Ray-Bans, I snapped a photo, and the next thing I knew, he repeatedly slammed our drummer's head into the concrete, with the velocity of, say the Damned."
hahaaaa brilliant. he's a problem child.
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also I have no recollection of punching people in the face.
Whoever Andy beat up is the same guy who punched me in the face when I was running around with the Electric Shadows drummer on my shoulders. I just remember the guy walking around with blood gushing out of his nose asking people why nobody told him he was getting out of line. Though if you ask me Andy did actually tell him that via slamming his face into the floor. Also I remember they didn't actually stop playing while this was happening so Andy was still singing while he was beating on your drummer.
Probably the most fun anyone has ever had at that shithole Tommy's Tavern.
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STUD DOGS/STALKERS/ELECTRIC SHADOWS et. al. gig at Tommy's Tavern....SUMMER 2002 or '03ish???
This bill seems to be missing SOME ACTION.
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STUD DOGS/STALKERS/ELECTRIC SHADOWS et. al. gig at Tommy's Tavern....SUMMER 2002 or '03ish???
This bill seems to be missing SOME ACTION.
Some Action played that night too. Also The WLWL, Weekenders, and Mob Stereo.
Planting the seeds of what would become HIT-MAKING CHART-TOPPING groups like Nice Face, Golden Triangle, Girls At Dawn, Livefastdie!
WHATTA NITE!!!!!! LIKE THE VELVETS IN '66!!!! BUT WAY BETTER!!!!!
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The Stalkers deserve so much more success and recognition than they get. These guys and their agent and publicist have been working so hard for years to break through, and neither the majors nor the elitist, Termbo-snob underground give these guys their due. It's an upside-down world we're living in when scrappy, technically unskilled, poorly recorded, shitty-sounding, unprofessional rock 'n' roll bands like the Homostupids, The Sleaze, UV Race, Cheveu, Pink Reason, Psychedelic Horseshit, Apache Dropout, Circuit des Yeux, The Chinese Restaurants, Times New Viking, Eat Skull, Pop. 1280, Twin Stumps, Personal & the Pizzas, The Hospitals, etc., etc., etc. have labels calling 'em, wanting to put out their records -- on vinyl, no less! -- or worse, are putting out their own records without the aid of a label and selling hundreds, even thousands of copies and going on to get deals with bigger, respected indie labels, while honest, hardworking, professional rockers like The Stalkers languish in obscurity, a full-length studio album in the can with no one willing to step up and release it to the masses. I got a hunch it's Andy's uncompromising punk-rock attitude and bad-boy antics that have crippled this promising outfit's success over the past seven or eight years. If the Star Spangles could do it, so can the Stalkers! They may have missed the early-oughts Strokes/Hives/Stripes zeitgeist by a couple of years, but that doesn't mean those Ray Bans, mod haircuts and Damned-like velocity should go to waste. I hope Jackie's article goes some ways toward finally getting their game-changing record the exposure it deserves.
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Ray-Bans,
road tattoos.
Renowned DJ,
revolving door policy
I took the photo,
This rallying number
psychedelic notes
please put this on vinyl.
you forgot "my expensive french perfume"
anyway this band sounds ok based on the myspace tracks.
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OK- green light to repost. But at this point, who cares.
PERVERSIONS: Listening to the Stalkers FULL BLOWN
Since then, they've had 6 different guitar players and 3 different vans.
three core members
Just a pet peeve. Numerals one to nine (or ten) should be spelled out in full. Mixing it up by spelling it out later in the review really chaffs my ass. Otherwise though- a stellar contribution to this fine thread!
I agree with all of this. Thank you, Sukebe, for helping to raise awareness of this most vexing, and all too common, faux pas.
It is generally ill advised to embark upon a tour of any duration with a bottle of expensive French perfume in tow. In fact, it might be fair to say that expensive perfumes and colognes are best left at home and not in parked vehicles for any length of time -- witness the recent cologne-instigated tragedy that befell rising football star Isayah Muller.
While there's no question that France historically breeds the world's finest perfumers (or noses, as the Frogs affectionately call them), the olfactory arts have made great strides in other nations, including our own. There are presently many wonderful and sophisticated American-made scents available to discriminating young men and women on a budget. Save the expensive stuff for the Governor's Balls, and pick out a nice Sophia Grosjman or even a Banana Republic or Calvin Klein fragnance for the road.
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i thought the rule was that you spell out one through twenty ??? who gives a shitt?????????
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There is some disagreement over the spelling of numerals over ten. Some style manuals prescribe spelling out any one-word number, including, for example, thirteen, twenty, and fifty, while using a numeral for all others (e.g. 21, 100, etc.) But the one-to-ten rule is by far the most widely accepted.
Enthusiast, your lack of enthusiasm for grammar and style disappoints me. Who gives a shit about scales, modes, and the circle of fifths, for that matter? Clearly, one does. And it behooves a "professional writer" of any stripe to mind these matters, as they are her stock in trade. Indeed, the standards of good writing are far more strict than those of good music.
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im a grammar king when it comes to serious writing, like school research papers and articles and stuff. i got a near perfect score on the SAT grammar section. i just dont see its importance in this instance. its a casual online band review. just like most of my posts here are grammatically horrendous but its acceptable because its a message board. to use your analogy, paying attention to strict grammar rules in this circumstance is like paying attention to strict rules of classical composition when playing punk or garage rock. whats the point?
anyway, when i wrote and edited for the school newspaper the rule was always to spell out one through twenty. any numbers 21 and up can be written numerically. i guess my school newspaper isnt the golden example of grammar do's and dont's...
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as long as yuo consistently stick to the style sheet what you are writing for then it is ok.
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The Stalkers deserve so much more success and recognition than they get. These guys and their agent and publicist have been working so hard for years to break through, and neither the majors nor the elitist, Termbo-snob underground give these guys their due. It's an upside-down world we're living in when scrappy, technically unskilled, poorly recorded, shitty-sounding, unprofessional rock 'n' roll bands like the Homostupids, The Sleaze, UV Race, Cheveu, Pink Reason, Psychedelic Horseshit, Apache Dropout, Circuit des Yeux, The Chinese Restaurants, Times New Viking, Eat Skull, Pop. 1280, Twin Stumps, Personal & the Pizzas, The Hospitals, etc., etc., etc. have labels calling 'em, wanting to put out their records -- on vinyl, no less! -- or worse, are putting out their own records without the aid of a label and selling hundreds, even thousands of copies and going on to get deals with bigger, respected indie labels, while honest, hardworking, professional rockers like The Stalkers languish in obscurity, a full-length studio album in the can with no one willing to step up and release it to the masses. I got a hunch it's Andy's uncompromising punk-rock attitude and bad-boy antics that have crippled this promising outfit's success over the past seven or eight years. If the Star Spangles could do it, so can the Stalkers! They may have missed the early-oughts Strokes/Hives/Stripes zeitgeist by a couple of years, but that doesn't mean those Ray Bans, mod haircuts and Damned-like velocity should go to waste. I hope Jackie's article goes some ways toward finally getting their game-changing record the exposure it deserves.
to be clear- i did call them lazy and constipated. the primary function of the review was actually to highlight how much i hated listening to the record on cassette tape. of course i support them and have a vested interest in their success (we're talking YEARS of my life that I will never get back), but I'm through being a cheerleader.
I needed to write down how I felt about it as a sort of closure, so I can move on to better things. There are plenty of other bands I'm covering who sound great, look great and work hard. The Biters from Atlanta, have a great thing going on (glammy power pop), and I do a lot of work with X Ray Eyeballs lately as well. I've seen Pop 1280 a few times and can get into that, and the Pizzas, while comedic, are quite enjoyable to listen to. There's nothing wrong with festering in obscurity.
***I would never have started reading this board if I didn't genuinely like technically unskilled, poorly recorded, shitty-sounding, unprofessional rock 'n' roll bands. Some things should never change. Spin and the Village Voice and all those respectable media outlets i work with would NEVER run any of my photos or writing about punk shit. I like it that way.
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are you sure you arent this guy
http://youtu.be/WIyRRLBsukw
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are you sure you arent this guy
http://youtu.be/WIyRRLBsukw
"thankfully music cannot get you pregnant" quality.
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My band played with the Biters. They fucking suck.
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My band played with the Biters. They fucking suck.
the ladies love them.
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Majority rule, maybe, but my drummer's a lady and she didn't think much of their goofy Rod Stewart hair and black stretch-jean schtick. Wasn't one Exploding Hearts enough?
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to be clear- i did call them lazy and constipated. the primary function of the review was actually to highlight how much i hated listening to the record on cassette tape. of course i support them and have a vested interest in their success (we're talking YEARS of my life that I will never get back), but I'm through being a cheerleader.
I needed to write down how I felt about it as a sort of closure, so I can move on to better things. There are plenty of other bands I'm covering who sound great, look great and work hard. The Biters from Atlanta, have a great thing going on (glammy power pop), and I do a lot of work with X Ray Eyeballs lately as well. I've seen Pop 1280 a few times and can get into that, and the Pizzas, while comedic, are quite enjoyable to listen to. There's nothing wrong with festering in obscurity.
you really don't get it. do you actually like music, or is this just a job? you've had several attempts to explain yourself, you come off as a robot wired for self promotion. every band you've namedropped you have some vested interest in. you show up out of nowhere asking for help with some half-baked book proposal, which seemed like a desperate attempt to kiss ass and use people. we do not know you. we don't want to read any more adjectives about any bands you've "covered," and i suspect the bands themselves would probably prefer you keep your mouth shut.
if you have something to contribute here, please do. otherwise find another water cooler, working girl
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burned
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I wanna be the first to say, welcome aboard the good ship Termbo. I think I speak for all of us -- except maybe Cracker and is shitty, ill-mannered bros -- when I say that it's an honor to have another legit, professional music journalist among us. What I wonder is, why wouldn't Spin or The Village Voice pay for the kind of gonzo, you-are-there journalism that you do for acts like The Stalkers or The Biters? How many "respectable" music writers can claim that they've been embedded with gritty, uncompromising punk rockers like Andy or Clortho's friend? How many Spin scribes even know what a reputable mod-rocker DJ is?
There's a fine line between being a music critic and a publicity hack -- just ask Doug Mosurock, who found that the only solution was to do publicity hackwork free of charge (I can only assume that Other Music doesn't actually pay for reviews...right?). I'm glad to hear that there are still strong writers out there who are able to draw that distinction. And you know what? There's a lot more passion in your writing, as someone who was embedded with the Stalkers for years and gave so much of your own blood, sweat, and tears for the band, than in the musings of somebody with no skin in the game.
Enthusiast, I think Sukebe GG meant well with his gentle correction of Jackie's digital gaffe. We can all stand to improve our writing, and if it helps give Jackie's writing an even more professional appearance, so much the better. Personally, I'd like to see this thread open up into a workshop of sorts for good music writing. Why not?! 250 heads are better than one!
So, guys, please share your music writing here -- I bet we can give those bigshots at Spin or The Face a run for their money.
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to be clear- i did call them lazy and constipated. the primary function of the review was actually to highlight how much i hated listening to the record on cassette tape. of course i support them and have a vested interest in their success (we're talking YEARS of my life that I will never get back), but I'm through being a cheerleader.
I needed to write down how I felt about it as a sort of closure, so I can move on to better things. There are plenty of other bands I'm covering who sound great, look great and work hard. The Biters from Atlanta, have a great thing going on (glammy power pop), and I do a lot of work with X Ray Eyeballs lately as well. I've seen Pop 1280 a few times and can get into that, and the Pizzas, while comedic, are quite enjoyable to listen to. There's nothing wrong with festering in obscurity.
you really don't get it. do you actually like music, or is this just a job? you've had several attempts to explain yourself, you come off as a robot wired for self promotion. every band you've namedropped you have some vested interest in. you show up out of nowhere asking for help with some half-baked book proposal, which seemed like a desperate attempt to kiss ass and use people. we do not know you. we don't want to read any more adjectives about any bands you've "covered," and i suspect the bands themselves would probably prefer you keep your mouth shut.
if you have something to contribute here, please do. otherwise find another water cooler, working girl
yawn. i think it's the other way around sweetcheeks. why don't you get in line with all the other sad-sack "garage" and "punk" bands who want to kiss MY ass and try to use me for a little glimmer of exposure. i'll keep my mouth shut when you choke on a dick. lord knows what YOU do for a living.
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AYE YI YI
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to be clear- i did call them lazy and constipated. the primary function of the review was actually to highlight how much i hated listening to the record on cassette tape. of course i support them and have a vested interest in their success (we're talking YEARS of my life that I will never get back), but I'm through being a cheerleader.
I needed to write down how I felt about it as a sort of closure, so I can move on to better things. There are plenty of other bands I'm covering who sound great, look great and work hard. The Biters from Atlanta, have a great thing going on (glammy power pop), and I do a lot of work with X Ray Eyeballs lately as well. I've seen Pop 1280 a few times and can get into that, and the Pizzas, while comedic, are quite enjoyable to listen to. There's nothing wrong with festering in obscurity.
you really don't get it. do you actually like music, or is this just a job? you've had several attempts to explain yourself, you come off as a robot wired for self promotion. every band you've namedropped you have some vested interest in. you show up out of nowhere asking for help with some half-baked book proposal, which seemed like a desperate attempt to kiss ass and use people. we do not know you. we don't want to read any more adjectives about any bands you've "covered," and i suspect the bands themselves would probably prefer you keep your mouth shut.
if you have something to contribute here, please do. otherwise find another water cooler, working girl
yawn. i think it's the other way around sweetcheeks. why don't you get in line with all the other sad-sack "garage" and "punk" bands who want to kiss MY ass and try to use me for a little glimmer of exposure. i'll keep my mouth shut when you choke on a dick. lord knows what YOU do for a living.
Jackie O, ignore those fucking assholes. Cracker is a piece of collector scum who cares more about records than about the music. I don't know about you, but I got into this forum for the music, to share information (and some laughs) with other music-heads, not to judge people or put them down. Maybe Cracker and those guys are just jealous that you've found a way to make a living doing what you love. You get to tour all over the country taking pictures of bands you love, and make some good money doing it, while Cracker lives in his mother's basement and jerks off all day looking at old dealer lists. I bet he doesn't even have a job.
And Jackie, please read my post above. I don't want you to come away with a bad impression of this board based on the opinions of one or two know-nothing jagoffs.
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yawn. i think it's the other way around sweetcheeks. why don't you get in line with all the other sad-sack "garage" and "punk" bands who want to kiss MY ass and try to use me for a little glimmer of exposure. i'll keep my mouth shut when you choke on a dick. lord knows what YOU do for a living.
This is too good to be true.
Is this Vinnie?
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Whet Bull I'm still waiting for your opus on the entire Kate Bush discography.
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yawn. i think it's the other way around sweetcheeks. why don't you get in line with all the other sad-sack "garage" and "punk" bands who want to kiss MY ass and try to use me for a little glimmer of exposure. i'll keep my mouth shut when you choke on a dick. lord knows what YOU do for a living.
DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHO I AM?
DO YOU?!
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He chokes on dicks for breakfast!
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to be clear- i did call them lazy and constipated. the primary function of the review was actually to highlight how much i hated listening to the record on cassette tape. of course i support them and have a vested interest in their success (we're talking YEARS of my life that I will never get back), but I'm through being a cheerleader.
I needed to write down how I felt about it as a sort of closure, so I can move on to better things. There are plenty of other bands I'm covering who sound great, look great and work hard. The Biters from Atlanta, have a great thing going on (glammy power pop), and I do a lot of work with X Ray Eyeballs lately as well. I've seen Pop 1280 a few times and can get into that, and the Pizzas, while comedic, are quite enjoyable to listen to. There's nothing wrong with festering in obscurity.
you really don't get it. do you actually like music, or is this just a job? you've had several attempts to explain yourself, you come off as a robot wired for self promotion. every band you've namedropped you have some vested interest in. you show up out of nowhere asking for help with some half-baked book proposal, which seemed like a desperate attempt to kiss ass and use people. we do not know you. we don't want to read any more adjectives about any bands you've "covered," and i suspect the bands themselves would probably prefer you keep your mouth shut.
if you have something to contribute here, please do. otherwise find another water cooler, working girl
yawn. i think it's the other way around sweetcheeks. why don't you get in line with all the other sad-sack "garage" and "punk" bands who want to kiss MY ass and try to use me for a little glimmer of exposure. i'll keep my mouth shut when you choke on a dick. lord knows what YOU do for a living.
Where does this "sad sack" line up to ride the long and illustrious coat tails of JAckie O "working rock journalist?"
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yawn. i think it's the other way around sweetcheeks. why don't you get in line with all the other sad-sack "garage" and "punk" bands who want to kiss MY ass and try to use me for a little glimmer of exposure. i'll keep my mouth shut when you choke on a dick. lord knows what YOU do for a living.
DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHO I AM?
DO YOU?!
don't know, don't care!!!
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i think jackie o is legit. i called her out immediately when she said she was traveling cross country to take pictures for her book. i thought of the first rock legend off the top of my head that i would travel to see if in her position, and she already has a date set up to photograph him. nobody is taking pictures of question mark in this day and age for any reason other than love of the music and the man, he certainly doesnt need the exposure and he is far past the age of being a young hipster dude in skinny jeans. if she comes off as being arrogant and more than a little ignorant, well, i think those are good things. i am gonna send her some shit and fully expect to ride her coat tails to rock stardom. i will be waiting at my mail box for the record deals to pour in and watching MTV for our video premiere. or not.
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thank you kindly! i appreciate the warm welcome from you and username: whet bull.
i have no ambition to catapult anyone into stardom or chase rockstars, only to make an accurate and rich document of the fabric that makes up an underground scene in a purely archival and historical sense. it would be easy for me to go back to idly reading and taking notes from this forum from afar, but antagonizing moldy record collectors is too much fun.
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yawn. i think it's the other way around sweetcheeks. why don't you get in line with all the other sad-sack "garage" and "punk" bands who want to kiss MY ass and try to use me for a little glimmer of exposure. i'll keep my mouth shut when you choke on a dick. lord knows what YOU do for a living.
This is too good to be true.
Is this Vinnie?
No, it is Jenny Lens.
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There are plenty of people on this message board who work in the music industry, they just usually don't feel the need to announce it to everyone. They are here merely to participate in discussions about music rather than promote their careers or the careers of the people they work for.
The DEMO TAPE section is a good place to post promotional material after you've established yourself as someone who is participating in discussions and not just here to sell stuff.
And with that, welcome! Not trying to be rude, just sayin how it is around these parts.
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Whet Bull I'm still waiting for your opus on the entire Kate Bush discography.
yes, this needs to happen.
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;)
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Eat my foot.
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Cold cocks for breakfast.
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Cold cocks for breakfast with the velocity of, say the Damned.
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All these years I thought it was Rich who punched me in the face but it turns out it was actually the drummer of the Stud Dogs. My life = shaken to its very core.
Why you guys bein so mean to Jackie? She's alright by me.
Even bought me a beer last week! How many of you guys bought me a beer last week?
Ya see...that's what I thought.
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Seriously though, "sings like a bird."
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Why you guys bein so mean to Jackie? She's alright by me.
She posted a "review" that reads like a one-sheet in a thread devoted to criticizing reviews. I think she got of preeeeeeetty easy. ;)
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Why you guys bein so mean to Jackie? She's alright by me.
She posted a "review" that reads like a one-sheet in a thread devoted to criticizing reviews. I think she got of preeeeeeetty easy. ;)
no shit. i'd like to hear what the rest of Termbro's Warzone Women think about this?
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yeah, yeah, i know i walked right into the lion's den on this one. but for serious, i'd love to know who on this thread is a published critic and has something noteworthy i can subscribe to elsewhere on the internet, besides MRR. if you're shy about "self-promoting", send me a PM.
the tone of terminal-boredom record reviews is familiar and entertaining and all, but i want to see what you people have to show the rest of the world. i wouldn't ask if i didn't already have much respect.
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yeah, yeah, i know i walked right into the lion's den on this one. but for serious, i'd love to know who on this thread is a published critic and has something noteworthy i can subscribe to elsewhere on the internet, besides MRR. if you're shy about "self-promoting", send me a PM.
the tone of terminal-boredom record reviews is familiar and entertaining and all, but i want to see what you people have to show the rest of the world. i wouldn't ask if i didn't already have much respect.
You are one arrogant ass. You come off like you are a good writer. That Stalkers review says otherwise. Everything from comma usage to cliches like "sings like a bird" says that you are at best a C level writer. What you write is promo crap. And if you get paid for it, great. Though, I find it difficult to believe that in a town of writers, anyone is going to shell out cash for your words unless you are writing promo material or shit that can be used as promo material. As Meltzer wrote, music writers are whores for record companies. Very few people get paid to write real "music journalism" say of the velocity of Peter Guralnick. Currently I can think of two music "critics" of worth who get paid to write about music - Byron Coley and Tony Rettman. I can name a handful more who do it for free. Everyone else who I know who writes about music for money either has an academic angle, does the occasional one-off, or is a hack. If you get paid, Jackie O., you are a hack. You aren't good enough to have people come to you for one-offs and you aren't smart of enough to be an academic.
There are plenty of people on this board who have little or no "clips" or have wasted their time on Termbo who write circles around you - Whet Bull, Smiller, denkinger, Young Steve, I Am Not Marty Feldman, Officer Officer Officer Brad X (janis starcunt). None of them would waste their time with idiotic GG Allin comparisons, self-centered asides regarding van fights and expensive french perfume, or phases like "sings like a bird." And if they have no "publishing credits" or have never got paid for their writing, who the fuck cares. Better a virgin asshole, than one filled to the rim with industry cum.
Me? Yes, I can write. And I've been published. I've published others. I have decades worth of writing credits. And I've made money writing and editing. But I don't write about music for money. Not because I feel I am above it, but because I can't lie about shit I hate....and I hate most of the music people get paid to write about. No one is going to pay me to write odes to Hue Blanc or shit on whatever Captured Tracks band is hip this week. I'd rather read California assembly bills and write "entertaining" shit about AB1469 and get paid for it than waste my time listening to the Woodsist catalog and lie about how it is the cutting edge of today's modern underground for five cents a word.
So there you go: You want to come here and promote your career and pretend like you are something more than a music industry hack, go for it. But don't expect a hug. Welcome to Termbo.
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All these years I thought it was Rich who punched me in the face but it turns out it was actually the drummer of the Stud Dogs. My life = shaken to its very core.
Why you guys bein so mean to Jackie? She's alright by me.
Even bought me a beer last week! How many of you guys bought me a beer last week?
Ya see...that's what I thought.
Sorry to disappoint. If you like I can punch you in the face next time I see you. I don't really want to but I'd do it for you.
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Mid-Forii Infomercial
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v221/Bent/ads/cntgraph.png)
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yeah, yeah, i know i walked right into the lion's den on this one. but for serious, i'd love to know who on this thread is a published critic and has something noteworthy i can subscribe to elsewhere on the internet, besides MRR. if you're shy about "self-promoting", send me a PM.
the tone of terminal-boredom record reviews is familiar and entertaining and all, but i want to see what you people have to show the rest of the world. i wouldn't ask if i didn't already have much respect.
You are one arrogant ass. You come off like you are a good writer. That Stalkers review says otherwise. Everything from comma usage to cliches like "sings like a bird" says that you are at best a C level writer. What you write is promo crap. And if you get paid for it, great. Though, I find it difficult to believe that in a town of writers, anyone is going to shell out cash for your words unless you are writing promo material or shit that can be used as promo material. As Meltzer wrote, music writers are whores for record companies. Very few people get paid to write real "music journalism" say of the velocity of Peter Guralnick. Currently I can think of two music "critics" of worth who get paid to write about music - Byron Coley and Tony Rettman. I can name a handful more who do it for free. Everyone else who I know who writes about music for money either has an academic angle, does the occasional one-off, or is a hack. If you get paid, Jackie O., you are a hack. You aren't good enough to have people come to you for one-offs and you aren't smart of enough to be an academic.
There are plenty of people on this board who have little or no "clips" or have wasted their time on Termbo who write circles around you - Whet Bull, Smiller, denkinger, Young Steve, I Am Not Marty Feldman, Officer Officer Officer Officer Brad X (janis starcunt). None of them would waste their time with idiotic GG Allin comparisons, self-centered asides regarding van fights and expensive french perfume, or phases like "sings like a bird." And if they have no "publishing credits" or have never got paid for their writing, who the fuck cares. Better a virgin asshole, than one filled to the rim with industry cum.
Me? Yes, I can write. And I've been published. I've published others. I have decades worth of writing credits. And I've made money writing and editing. But I don't write about music for money. Not because I feel I am above it, but because I can't lie about shit I hate....and I hate most of the music people get paid to write about. No one is going to pay me to write odes to Hue Blanc or shit on whatever Captured Tracks band is hip this week. I'd rather read California assembly bills and write "entertaining" shit about AB1469 and get paid for it than waste my time listening to the Woodsist catalog and lie about how it is the cutting edge of today's modern underground for five cents a word.
So there you go: You want to come here and promote your career and pretend like you are something more than a music industry hack, go for it. But don't expect a hug. Welcome to Termbo.
wasn't trying to start a pissing contest about who is and isn't a good writer. my primary vocation is photography. the journalism aspect to that is incidental, and admittedly comes off more like a diarist. if you think that makes me a hack, well ok. i'm absolutely tickled by your saltiness, and sincerely thank you for the welcome.
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whoa user: cracker beefing is sick, also why read a music review when its 2011 and you can just hear whatever you want on youtube? I write reviews for MRR because i like to give bad reviews to teenagers bands and I like to see my great name in print
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i wrote this:
http://niggerchristmas.myblogsite.com/entry1.html
then, on request i tossed this update together:
http://terminal-boredom.com/forums/index.php?topic=27083.msg563293#msg563293
i also produced this record and video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5463110063919216324 (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5463110063919216324)
this is my latest music blog project:
http://rapingthetapevault.blogspot.com/
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Mid-Forii Infomercial
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v221/Bent/ads/cntgraph.png)
God I love this guy.
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Cracker beefing is an awesome sight to behold. A good writer as well, with plenty of "credits" to his name and too low-key to even bring it up.
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Fuck Cracker
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All these years I thought it was Rich who punched me in the face but it turns out it was actually the drummer of the Stud Dogs. My life = shaken to its very core.
Why you guys bein so mean to Jackie? She's alright by me.
Even bought me a beer last week! How many of you guys bought me a beer last week?
Ya see...that's what I thought.
Sorry to disappoint. If you like I can punch you in the face next time I see you. I don't really want to but I'd do it for you.
That dude getting his face slammed into the concrete a bunch of times was TOTAL PUNK and that is my final verdict on this whole ordeal.
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Fuck Cracker with the velocity of, say the Damned.
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Wow - this thread is A+.
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All these years I thought it was Rich who punched me in the face but it turns out it was actually the drummer of the Stud Dogs. My life = shaken to its very core.
Why you guys bein so mean to Jackie? She's alright by me.
Even bought me a beer last week! How many of you guys bought me a beer last week?
Ya see...that's what I thought.
Sorry to disappoint. If you like I can punch you in the face next time I see you. I don't really want to but I'd do it for you.
That dude getting his face slammed into the concrete a bunch of times was TOTAL PUNK and that is my final verdict on this whole ordeal.
(http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRJ3bUKqi5o-5JTAa4VFA7G8MuhYBJpx2v0lP-lLnb1w9csiABK)
case closed
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i love some judge mathis. fucker is like judge judy, with the velocity of, say the Damned.
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this is my latest music blog project:
http://rapingthetapevault.blogspot.com/
Cool rape song Officer Brad. In 1996 I was 12. Three years later, I started shooting pop-punk bands in new jersey VFW halls and church basements. It's now been over a decade, and I've accumulated photographs from roughly 800 shows.
Must say the photographs I've seen from your personal history and past bands are awesome!
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Did you know he was on the cover on MRR once?
With The Zeros!
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It is generally ill advised to embark upon a tour of any duration with a bottle of expensive French perfume in tow. In fact, it might be fair to say that expensive perfumes and colognes are best left at home and not in parked vehicles for any length of time -- witness the recent cologne-instigated tragedy that befell rising football star Isayah Muller.
While there's no question that France historically breeds the world's finest perfumers (or "noses," as the Frogs affectionately call them), the olfactory arts have made great strides in other nations, including our own. There are presently many wonderful and sophisticated American-made scents available to discriminating young men and women on a budget. Save the expensive stuff for the Governor's Balls, and pick out a nice Sophia Grosjman or even a Banana Republic or Calvin Klein fragrance for the road.
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Did you know he was on the cover on MRR once?
With The Zeros! the velocity of, say, the Damned.
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This thread has become one of the true Termbo classics with Jackie O's contribution. She has a shot at winning the 2011 Plastic Bag Baby Award for best unintentional comedy.
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It is generally ill advised to embark upon a tour of any duration with a bottle of expensive French perfume in tow. In fact, it might be fair to say that expensive perfumes and colognes are best left at home and not in parked vehicles for any length of time -- witness the recent cologne-instigated tragedy that befell rising football star Isayah Muller.
While there's no question that France historically breeds the world's finest perfumers (or "noses," as the Frogs affectionately call them), the olfactory arts have made great strides in other nations, including our own. There are presently many wonderful and sophisticated American-made scents available to discriminating young men and women on a budget. Save the expensive stuff for the Governor's Balls, and pick out a nice Sophia Grosjman or even a Banana Republic or Calvin Klein fragrance for the road.
It was J'Dore, and like the average Termbo penis, it was travel-sized.
This thread has become one of the true Termbo classics with Jackie O's contribution. She has a shot at winning the 2011 Plastic Bag Baby Award for best unintentional comedy.
You're welcome.
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I'm a big fan of this thread and user: Jackie O too! Make sure to check some youtube vids for the group "The Biters", it makes the reading experience much more rewarding and enjoyable! Imagine a Fukushima damaged Plastic Letters. Keep up the good work!
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http://twitter.com/Folder_Rock
http://twitter.com/Folder_Rock
http://twitter.com/Folder_Rock
http://twitter.com/Folder_Rock
http://twitter.com/Folder_Rock
http://twitter.com/Folder_Rock
http://twitter.com/Folder_Rock
http://twitter.com/Folder_Rock
http://twitter.com/Folder_Rock
http://twitter.com/Folder_Rock
http://twitter.com/Folder_Rock
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It was J'Dore, and like the average Termbo penis, it was travel-sized.
My point wasn't so much the size but the value. Glass bottles are prone to breakage, especially around uncompromising punk rockin' bad boys like the Stalker with the matted chest hair, but more importantly, they are an invitation to larceny. Put those two factors together and you have a recipe for tragedy, as we saw earlier this summer in the horrific events that took the life of rising football star Isaiyah Muller.
Your second remark suggests that you are personally acquainted with a lot of Termbo penises. Congratulations! Since you brought it up, please share the names of some Termbo Bands with you you have been embedded. We love some good dish! ;p
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Skifflegaze is pretty much all I listen to anymore.
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I have rubbed body parts with at least one Stalker before.
(http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lor6g0F5zE1qzrrwoo1_500.jpg)
At least these guys never caved too any bullshit fey limpwrist bedroom pop minimal synth garbage. Or fuckin Wavves.
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"It is the song "Bodies" that reverses the prior burial image from one of self/metaphor to universality/corporeality. The song has contrasts that are never partially merged through the narrator's confessions: female/male; pastoral/urban; human/animal; life/pre-life. The music is askew, discordant, abrasive, neither harmonically tonal, nor melodically pleasant. The song is tense: the drums are pushed out front in 4/4 time, the song's one constancy: mimicking and mocking the unborn baby's heartbeat; the guitars are slightly out of tune, massed, both a vehicle for the lyric's implosions, and a metaphor for the lack of resolved epiphanies. There is no anchoring bass guitar. There is no mediation. The language, not to mention the scenario, is a "fucking bloody mess," and "another case of obscenity." The word "fuck" in the song is not energetic, funny, or verbally referential; it certainly does not refer to a sex act. The action is dead and gone ? it's a world of angry, shadowy, lurking adjectives. The word is imperative ? "Fuck this and fuck that" ? but there are no following orders, let alone leaders and listeners. This great song has no life:"
I need to read more reviews of punk songs written in this fashion.
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You haven't truly lived until you've mocked an unborn baby's heartbeat.
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Well Clint it is an apt statement as you have to play notes on the guitar in order to get sound out of it. Lots of notes if you plan to fuckin' SHRED.
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Fuck you, man. I can play any note on the guitar.
ANY. FUCKIN. NOTE. BRO.
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It was J'Dore, and like the average Termbo penis, it was travel-sized.
Your second remark suggests that you are personally acquainted with a lot of Termbo penises. Congratulations! Since you brought it up, please share the names of some Termbo Bands with you you have been embedded. We love some good dish! ;p
Who do you think I am, Pamela Des Barres? I'll save it for my memoirs.
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when is "with the velocity of, say, the damned" gonna become one of those "clowning on bitches," "last sons of krypton" things?
also this thread is entertaining but not even close to plastic bag baby.
what the hell, i thought you weren't able to say niggers on this board?
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Last Sons of Kypton
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n1gger
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I have rubbed body parts with at least one Stalker before.
(http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lor6g0F5zE1qzrrwoo1_500.jpg)
At least these guys never caved too any bullshit fey limpwrist bedroom pop minimal synth garbage. Or fuckin Wavves.
was this in Pittsburgh? think i know that chick with the green hat.
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You can say plural "niggers," you just can't say singular "niggers."
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Last Sons of Kypton
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I have rubbed body parts with at least one Stalker before.
(http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lor6g0F5zE1qzrrwoo1_500.jpg)
At least these guys never caved too any bullshit fey limpwrist bedroom pop minimal synth garbage. Or fuckin Wavves.
was this in Pittsburgh? think i know that chick with the green hat.
Nah, that was in NY.
But do you also know that guy who also has a green hat?
They make a cute couple.
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nigger
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It's not the size of your perfume bottle that matters, but rather how it smells and where you spray it.
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^please note: I am talking only of PERFUME here...get yer minds outta the gutter!
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also this thread is entertaining but not even close to plastic bag baby.
Yup, JO folded too damn easy. More of a neutering than a meltdown.
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NOTHING ON THIS BOARD
NOTHING ON THIS BOARD
NOTHING ON THIS BOARD
And I'm through.
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Because I'm a masochist, I sat all the way through this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIeJ1RNDVWQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player
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Because I'm a masochist, I sat all the way through this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIeJ1RNDVWQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player
One day the tattoo on this prison-broomhandle-disposal-unit's left arm will open up and swallow us all
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also this thread is entertaining but not even close to plastic bag baby.
Yup, JO folded too damn easy. More of a neutering than a meltdown.
she was no kathy, thats for sure.
ps: all iranian women have moustaches....
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last sons of krypton
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LOL @ waxi getting in on the Pitchfork bashing game
http://waxidermy.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=36860 (http://waxidermy.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=36860)
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whatta crumbsucking stupidhead:
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15705-they-came-from-the-sky/
Choice quotes: "As far as modern-day garage rock acts go, Human Eye used to be one that had trouble standing out. They could work up a nice head of steam when they wanted, and their fondness for the stuff of Ed Wood features and other B-movie fare was always charming, but their previous two albums were inconsistent slogs through various levels of fidelity and songcraft."
First sentence is ridiculous. Second one is just annoying. Who the fuck thinks of Ed Wood when Timmy's doing his thing? Squares that's who.
"If the intent with Sky was to create an album that could be the sort of Nuggets-worthy vinyl treasure one would find at a garage sale behind a bunch of dog-eared copies of Famous Monsters of Filmland and a Space Ghost tin lunchbox, mission accomplished."
PRETTY SURE THAT WASN;T THE INTENT ASSHOLE
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Sorry, I meant "scrotum-gargling fuckroid."
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damn what a horribly off base review
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You have to see it more positively! Less douchebags at HE shows.
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David Keenan begins his review of Ellen Fulman Through Glass Panes in The Wire (August 2011)
(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6131/6011890622_484faf4d5e.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/66080945@N08/6011890622/)
davidonellen (http://www.flickr.com/photos/66080945@N08/6011890622/) by Smack77 (http://www.flickr.com/people/66080945@N08/), on Flickr
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whatta crumbsucking stupidhead:
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15705-they-came-from-the-sky/
Choice quotes: "As far as modern-day garage rock acts go, Human Eye used to be one that had trouble standing out. They could work up a nice head of steam when they wanted, and their fondness for the stuff of Ed Wood features and other B-movie fare was always charming, but their previous two albums were inconsistent slogs through various levels of fidelity and songcraft."
First sentence is ridiculous. Second one is just annoying. Who the fuck thinks of Ed Wood when Timmy's doing his thing? Squares that's who.
"If the intent with Sky was to create an album that could be the sort of Nuggets-worthy vinyl treasure one would find at a garage sale behind a bunch of dog-eared copies of Famous Monsters of Filmland and a Space Ghost tin lunchbox, mission accomplished."
PRETTY SURE THAT WASN;T THE INTENT ASSHOLE
HE SHOULD FREELANCE OVER AT STILL SINGLE. CATCH SOME TOILET AIDS WITH THE REST OF THE ADD MORLOCKS. CRUISING.
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Mouseman: Philosopher!
http://www.mausspace.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=668 (http://www.mausspace.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=668)
(http://www.onlineartschool.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/2222282.jpg)
"You know nothing of my work [you pathetic American piece of shit]."
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(http://www.scatrecords.com/images/eeruw4.jpg)
"You know nothing of my work [you crummy fag]."
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"Punk rock is not a mobile for dazzling babies to sleep."
sure?
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5. Subjects to this musical truth include: Madonna, Bob Dylan, Cabaret Voltaire, The Rolling Stones, Nirvana, Johnny Cash, Tangerine Dream, James Brown, The Pink Floyd, The Supremes, Amon D??l II, Bob Marley, Burzum, Mahmud Ahmed, The Bee Gees, Technotronic, Grateful Dead, Duran Duran, The Beach Boys, Hall and Oates, Bon Jovi, Panda Bear, Govinda, Harry Merry, The Human League, Black Flag, Merle Haggard, Ariel Pink, Metallica, R. Stevie Moore, etc. It includes moments, not only from record albums, but also from television programs and commercials, video games, unrecorded performances, jingles, "the head," etc.
As a parody of contemporary radical philosophy, I suppose it's adequate.
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I'm starting to think John Maus is an elaborate prank on the order of Tom Smith's Mothers Against Noise project of a few years back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLVpZme0kRQ&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLVpZme0kRQ&feature=related)
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wow this music is soo goofy and terrible.
i guess we have different sense of humor...this thread usually pisses me off much more than it 'delights' me
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Mouseman: Philosopher!
http://www.mausspace.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=668 (http://www.mausspace.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=668)
Wait wait wait: there's a John Maus-only board? And people sign up to talk about nothing but John Maus?
Re: Ellen Fullman's "topography," she grew up in Memphis TN1, not Hidalgo County NM2, fer chrissakes. And she lives in Berkeley now, not exactly High Lonesome territory.
1. Major urban area on the Mississippi River, best-known to TermBos as "that town where the Oblivians came from."
2. Chihuahuan Desert county, lowest population density in the continental US; best-known to TermBos as "maybe this was smuggled in from Mexico via Hidalgo County. Snort!"
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wow this music is soo goofy and terrible.
i guess we have different sense of humor...this thread usually pisses me off much more than it 'delights' me
The thread was originally titled "More Shit to Shit On." I guess that should have been "More Shit On Which to Shit."
More genius:
http://www.mausspace.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=31 (http://www.mausspace.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=31)
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Wait wait wait: there's a John Maus-only board?
Correction - there's a John Maus-only MAUS SPACE. Please.
I showed this to a friend who said: this is the kind of socio-philosophical theory writing i had to digest in college that made me want to blow my brains out
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I guess that should have been "More Shit On Which to Shit."
i prefer "More Shit Upon Which To Shit"
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Utterly beyond belief!
http://pitchfork.com/tv/#/1/1730-john-maus/2784-live-at-glasslands/ (http://pitchfork.com/tv/#/1/1730-john-maus/2784-live-at-glasslands/)
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Utterly beyond belief!
http://pitchfork.com/tv/#/1/1730-john-maus/2784-live-at-glasslands/ (http://pitchfork.com/tv/#/1/1730-john-maus/2784-live-at-glasslands/)
We live in a very sad world, bad politics of the stage and all.
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More genius:
http://www.mausspace.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=31 (http://www.mausspace.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=31)
The Maus is trying to go City.
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The product focused on in this report is a vinyl record LP released under the label Goner Records. The name of the album is Teenage Hate released by the band The Reatards. This album was reissued in May 2011 after being first released in 1998. The total market encompasses music listeners who own a record player. Of course, people of all ages and generations ? my grandmother, my mother, and myself, for instance ? own record players. It comes down to: who is the modern consumer of records and what type of music does this consumer enjoy?
Finding out who would be interested in buying a record called Teenage Hate by a band called The Reatards is a lot less difficult than finding out who is interested in ?current trends? so to speak. Goner Records most likely did not have to go to great lengths in the marketing of this product. They, however, had to have come up with segmentation variables that divide the total market that I described above into other groups. One segmentation variable is age. The Reatards released records from 1998 until 2005. Generation X, noted for being cynical toward marketing, encompasses those born between 1965 and 1978; these individuals were between twenty and thirty-three years old when the Reatards formed. The lyrical content of Teenage Hate struck a chord when it was first released in 1998 with Generation Xers as it spoke of apathy, slacking, and recklessness. These individuals (who are now older) likely still live a ?punk? life style and espouse these values. Generation Y, born between 1979 and 1994, would be young children and teenagers when The Reatards formed. The legacy of the band lived on through its front man Jay Reatard, who achieved more success and fame in his lifetime than most in the underground spotlight. Jay Reatard had a big following of college and twenty-something age kids and I can attest to this from attending some of his concerts and being around his fans. When Jay Reatard died in 2010, many of these younger fans (Generation Y) became curious about his earlier records. Generation Y became a reliable market alongside Generation X. Another relevant segmentation variable is income and social class. Generation X fans of The Reatards brand of punk rock music certainly are what marketers would consider lower and middle class. I belong to a message board that discusses The Reatards and similar bands and I have found that the more mature people who post on it are typically record storeowners and record collectors who make a livelihood selling their collections. Generation Y fans, on the other hand, tend to come from middle to upper-middle class families and are college students, or full-time touring musicians. The younger fans have more buying power than Generation X did at the same age. Place of residence is yet another crucial segmentation variable for this product. Goner Records is located in Memphis, Tennessee. This is where The Reatards formed and where Jay Reatard laid to rest. Goner Records is bigger nowhere else in the world than in its hometown. There is a thriving underground punk scene and this is highlighted every year when Goner Records holds a festival. This would be an instance of geodemography, which the books states as ?birds of a feather flock together.? Generational Xers and Generation Yers from Memphis gather to listen to live music and purchase records from their favorite bands. Attendees of this festival are ?heavy users? of an album like Teenage Hate. The 80/20 rule would hold true: 20 percent of these purchasers account for 80 percent of the sales of Teenage Hate.
The market that Goner Records primarily focuses its marketing efforts toward is a Generation Yer from Memphis, Tennessee with disposable income. This ?typical? customer shops at the Goner Record Store frequently and purchases records that have been released through the Goner Records label. This customer may be in a punk rock band and is interested in potentially signing a record deal with the label. Perhaps the customer is trendy and buys whatever is new and ?in style? at the store. A broader, more financially promising customer is someone like me, a college student who loved Jay Reatard and who is curious about this type of music.
The targeting strategy that was used by Goner Records was an undifferentiated targeting strategy. They simply advertised the product as is on their own website. They also set up an advertising campaign on Pitchfork Media, one of the most visited music websites on the internet. The advertisements, which just displayed the name of the album, the album artwork, and the release date, were posted prior to release. When Teenage Hate was released, it was reviewed by Pitchfork Media and given a score of 8.6 out of 10, with the distinction of ?Best New Re-Issue.? Positive reviews like this one build hype (free marketing) about the band, the record, and ? importantly for Goner Records ? the label. Any publicity is good publicity for such a small label.
The brand personality of Teenage Hate is rock and roll and shock. What is the perception of a product by a band called The Reatards? Shocking people with an offensive band name and a subversive album title is an attention grabber for sure. The mainstream of music fans will dismiss any attention to this band, but crazy gimmicks like this one are adored by the underground. It is not ?cool? for the average music fan to like The Reatards, but it is, in a very peculiar way, upscale and fashionable to enjoy this type of music in underground circles.
Goner Records positioning statement with Teenage Hate is ?hear young Jay grow from a bucket-basher to a full-fledged punk.? This is a longer statement than usual, but it captures the essence of what Goner Records is really trying to sell: the story of Jay Reatard. How did Jay start making music and what did it sound like? You won?t know unless you buy Teenage Hate! New generation fans do not know what he sounded like when he was a bucket-basher, but they do know what he became. The positioning statement offers a unique product. Nobody else can say they re-issued the first ever album by Jay Reatard.
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Self-published pseudoacademic treatise on music invokes Attali, Deleuze, Boethius, R. Stevie Moore, Ariel Pink.
http://speedyrewards.webs.com/JOHN%20MAUS%20MUSIC.pdf (http://speedyrewards.webs.com/JOHN%20MAUS%20MUSIC.pdf)
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The sweetest irony of Maus' "treatise" is that his avowed insipration, Alain Badiou, writes and speaks with sublime clarity.
Maus misreads the treacherous diction of some of his European philosophical models as a blank check to write torturous, convoluted prose of his own to no apparent purpose, and confuses the purposeful style of his forebears with merely sloppy, idiosyncratic writing, and most notably, banishes certain key prepositions from his writing altogether.
To "ecouter la musique" is perfectly correct French, but "listening music" is simply retarded English, a needlessly ambiguous phrase that could simply be rendered as "music listening" if Maus wishes to cancel the objectifying effect of the "to."
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Somebody wrote a fucking book about this tool.
http://www.factmag.com/2011/07/18/john-maus-and-the-truth-of-pop-considered-in-new-book/ (http://www.factmag.com/2011/07/18/john-maus-and-the-truth-of-pop-considered-in-new-book/)
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"millennial wave of lo-fi pop, assembling his unique and intimate language from synth pop, disco, baroque classical and church music"
gross.
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Wait, this John Maus guy writes? Lawd make it stop.
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This Maus guy. NYC? SF? Providence? Western Mass? Nope: Minnesota, which might as well be Wisconsin as far as I am concerned.
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"millennial wave of lo-fi pop, assembling his unique and intimate language from synth pop, disco, baroque classical and church music"
gross.
Yeah, it sounds like he's gonna touch your weenis with his "intimate language." Funny thing is, synthpop is the only one of those genres his music actually sounds like.
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I'm starting to think John Maus is an elaborate prank on the order of Tom Smith's Mothers Against Noise project of a few years back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLVpZme0kRQ&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLVpZme0kRQ&feature=related)
LOL this is great!
I'm thinking THE SPITS should cover this.
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LOL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dchU2Zf93VU&feature=related
these lyrics are D-U-M-B
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So far this guy sounds like he's a master of key-words but with little coherence. It's like a monkey building an arch and ending up with two columns of keystones that don't connect.
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I like that John Maus album on Upset Te Rhythm. The song "Rights For Gays" is excellent. Frankly, I am shocked the Bull is not a fan. Saw him in Brooklyn though and was fairly disappointed with his execution. I thought I reAd he was born in Western WI or something. Minneapolis is really practically Western WI anyway.
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I have no idea who the fuck you people are talking about.
I'm usually game to click on a link here or there but this looks like real work.
Fuck that.
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Utterly beyond belief!
http://pitchfork.com/tv/#/1/1730-john-maus/2784-live-at-glasslands/ (http://pitchfork.com/tv/#/1/1730-john-maus/2784-live-at-glasslands/)
Best Mr. Show skit ever?
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anything Titannica
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Best Mr. Show skit ever?
As you can see it was worth clicking :-)
(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6145/6014810986_ce7343ce26.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/66080945@N08/6014810986/)
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/66080945@N08/6014810986/)
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(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6030/6014976404_5f5f3b45d6.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/66080945@N08/6014976404/)
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/66080945@N08/6014976404/)
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Utterly beyond belief!
http://pitchfork.com/tv/#/1/1730-john-maus/2784-live-at-glasslands/ (http://pitchfork.com/tv/#/1/1730-john-maus/2784-live-at-glasslands/)
Best Mr. Show skit ever?
I have to admit when he said "hysterical body" I had one of those limp-dick instantaneous orgasms...His music sounds like a decent New Order ripoff or somethin'.
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I have to admit when he said "hysterical body" I had one of those limp-dick instantaneous orgasms...
(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6150/6016654939_fe3d0e6aa7.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/66080945@N08/6016654939/)
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/66080945@N08/6016654939/)
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http://www.thefader.com/2011/08/29/phds-and-dropouts-killer-mike-kreayshawn-and-john-maus-talk-school/
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Maus is doing his Phd. at the University of Hawaii so maybe we should give him a pass...I like the dude in Delorean who's a professional student at the Univ. of Barcelona and reccs. Bartleby the Scrivener and Artaud! Doubt I would like his "band" though...
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v221/Bent/report/bartlebymotiv.jpg)
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Oh, man. Keep going with these photos, please.
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"I mean, there are parallels between Hegel and Beethoven, for instance, in the way that Adorno underlined. The thematic development and the dialectic?the acorn turns into the tree. I like to kid myself that the music I?m doing is for X thought. The parallel is a thought that I haven?t articulated yet. I wouldn?t claim to have succeeded in either [discipline], but in a certain sense, I do feel like I?ve done more with music than I have with the thoughts, with language."
and yet his music sounds like Laura Branigan
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"I was working mainly with the American experimental tradition of music like John Cale, Christian Wolff, Morton Feldman..."
That's cool, it's not like John Cale is Welsh or anything........oh you meant John Cage! Gotcha (silence). What about that guy who had The Outsiders on his reading list. What about that, John?
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The Maus deconstructs R. Stevie Moore and Ariel Pink:
http://www.moorestevie.com/press/maus.html (http://www.moorestevie.com/press/maus.html)
R. Stevie Moore is an index, a diachronic subjection to music through the singular truth of pop; such naked fidelity as his remains considerable. Ariel Pink is subject as well, to the now synchronic singular truth of pop; bringing-forth that it is infinite and always consequential. After the similarity of these chronologically discrete subjects of pop, thinking may place itself under the condition of truth they configure. This means, thinking that truth's wager on how to bring-forth the immediacy of the way of listening called music universally.
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"I was working mainly with the American experimental tradition of music like John Cale, Christian Wolff, Morton Feldman..."
That's cool, it's not like John Cale is Welsh or anything........oh you meant John Cage! Gotcha (silence). What about that guy who had The Outsiders on his reading list. What about that, John?
I am sure he meant Cage too but Cale, despite being Welsh, was a big part of the NY experimental scene.
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"I was working mainly with the American experimental tradition of music like John Cale, Christian Wolff, Morton Feldman..."
That's cool, it's not like John Cale is Welsh or anything........oh you meant John Cage! Gotcha (silence). What about that guy who had The Outsiders on his reading list. What about that, John?
I am sure he meant Cage too but Cale, despite being Welsh, was a big part of the NY experimental scene.
I am well aware of this fact, my friend. Let me have a little fun, please.
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"I wanted to get a Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii." Chuckle hard! Why not go all out and make it the University of Phoenix?
Maus would get laughed out of any serious philosophy or Poli Sci program. A literature or anthropology program might tolerate him were he not an astroundly terrible writer.
See, it's not that Maus' music is so terrible in itself -- what tickles is the chasm between what it is and what he thinks it is. The chasm -- it tickles!
That Be-Bop Deluxe record is pretty damn good.
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Jennifer Kelly delivers again.
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6660 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6660)
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Jennifer Kelly delivers again.
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6660 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6660)
"How appropriate, you think, as you step over a mess of blown-down sticks and leaves, that when the storm finally breaks, Nadler would be there to sing it down softly, folding it like velvet into a memory chest."
I want to know more about Jennifer Kelly. I think she is one half of these siamese twins, the one that has to keep her head at a 45degree angle for life.
http://youtu.be/BkKWApOAG2g
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"I was working mainly with the American experimental tradition of music like John Cale, Christian Wolff, Morton Feldman..."
That's cool, it's not like John Cale is Welsh or anything........oh you meant John Cage! Gotcha (silence). What about that guy who had The Outsiders on his reading list. What about that, John?
I am sure he meant Cage too but Cale, despite being Welsh, was a big part of the NY experimental scene.
I am well aware of this fact, my friend. Let me have a little fun, please.
Just thinking 'aloud', you can have your fun anytime.
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R. Stevie Moore is an index, a diachronic subjection to music through the singular truth of pop; such naked fidelity as his remains considerable. Ariel Pink is subject as well, to the now synchronic singular truth of pop; bringing-forth that it is infinite and always consequential. After the similarity of these chronologically discrete subjects of pop, thinking may place itself under the condition of truth they configure. This means, thinking that truth's wager on how to bring-forth the immediacy of the way of listening called music universally.
Fuck this so hard!
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R. Stevie Moore is an index, a diachronic subjection to music through the singular truth of pop; such naked fidelity as his remains considerable. Ariel Pink is subject as well, to the now synchronic singular truth of pop; bringing-forth that it is infinite and always consequential. After the similarity of these chronologically discrete subjects of pop, thinking may place itself under the condition of truth they configure. This means, thinking that truth's wager on how to bring-forth the immediacy of the way of listening called music universally.
Fuck this so hard!
Maybe this idea has already been floated, but given his complete mumbo jumbo masked as po-mo critical theory combined with what the dude actually sounds like, I can't help but wonder if the whole thing's not a giant put-on. Probably not, but you have to almost, for his sake, hope it is.
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R. Stevie Moore blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Moore blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah musical Spear Of Destiny blah blah blah. When looking at the universe as blah, Moore and Ariel Pink blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah, blah blah, and blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah most important thing ever.
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I can't help but wonder if the whole thing's not a giant put-on. Probably not, but you have to almost, for his sake, hope it is.
it's gotta be. Case in point, two songs posted earlier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLVpZme0kRQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dchU2Zf93VU&feature=related
rollin' on the floors over here.
Best thing Termbo's turned me onto in a while.
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oh and MAUSSPACE.
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I can't help but wonder if the whole thing's not a giant put-on. Probably not, but you have to almost, for his sake, hope it is.
it's gotta be. Case in point, two songs posted earlier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLVpZme0kRQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dchU2Zf93VU&feature=related
rollin' on the floors over here.
Best thing Termbo's turned me onto in a while.
these songs are amazing
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rights for gays
ooohhhh yeaaaaah
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I like the bridge in Rights for Gays. Reminds me of that middle part in "We're Gonna Make It" (Ivy Green).
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I've tried on some of the other songs, but none ring as good as the above two. I'm all for suggestions. Maybe I should log into Mausspace
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5AHmqbjw9Y&feature=related
the concept alone of this is more why i like this one. i guess. "knife hit$"
Right now. Rights for cops, oh yeah...
mthw 1 month ago 16
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^ that one's sorta cool.
I walk around the house singing "Dont Be a Body". My gf hates it.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y516mYOT_9c&feature=related
the vocals. man i am glad i rechecked htis thread
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^ he sounds like Peter Steele (RIP).
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Maybe this idea has already been floated, but given his complete mumbo jumbo masked as po-mo critical theory combined with what the dude actually sounds like, I can't help but wonder if the whole thing's not a giant put-on. Probably not, but you have to almost, for his sake, hope it is.
If it is a put on the people who like his shit will look like even bigger cunts.
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(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6198/6099597696_0b2005e27e.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/66080945@N08/6099597696/)
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I dont bother reading his interviews and shit, but Ive been jamming "Rights For Gays" since that shit dropped. Great song.
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(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XltWe4PZLN4/Td7A3YKsjlI/AAAAAAAALGk/JnDPKzu4eF8/s1600/tmp.jpg)
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I dunno, I think the guy's whole deal is that he's "irony"-free. The trouble w/ doing something like this as a prank is that at some point you have to pull the rug out from under the rubes, give some kind of hint that you're fucking around, otherwise it might as well not be a prank. There's no hint in any of his writing or his interviews that he's having a laugh. Seems like too much trouble just for a few feeble LOLZ.
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This guy isn't even fit to wipe the shit off Tonetta's dick.
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Also, the dude's like the chillwave/minimal synth/hypnogogic version of Liturgy.
(not a compliment)
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I meant the comments here busted my irony meter...can't tell who is being serious...
I mean, he sounds like a very shitty Red Lorry Yellow Lorry...
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I meant the comments here busted my irony meter...can't tell who is being serious...
I mean, he sounds like a very shitty Red Lorry Yellow Lorry...
Never heard them, but I didnt figure they were a synthpop band. I am not being ironic. Im not trying to defend the guy who is obviously a douche, but ya know, I dig synthpop, always have.
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Red Lorry Yellow Lorry are like Sisters of Mercy meets Ministry. Very Serious Synth Musics. I saw them live once in '88, then got the worst flu right afterwards.
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Red Lorry Yellow Lorry are like Sisters of Mercy meets Ministry. Very Serious Synth Musics. I saw them live once in '88, then got the worst flu right afterwards.
Is that causation or correlation?
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Please tell me that there is Maus on Maus.
(http://inlog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/john-maus.jpg)
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_owOIcuY21Gc/TOP5p3ZjeKI/AAAAAAAADZo/jSBoe6bM0oY/s1600/maus-cover1.jpg)
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I meant the comments here busted my irony meter...can't tell who is being serious...
I mean, he sounds like a very shitty Red Lorry Yellow Lorry...
Never heard them, but I didnt figure they were a synthpop band. I am not being ironic. Im not trying to defend the guy who is obviously a douche, but ya know, I dig synthpop, always have.
Fair dinkum...I like RL/YL but really think what I heard of his stuff is extremely subpar...
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"an elliptical confirmation of the other tracks? elliptical suggestions and, for better or worse, a tad more familiar a tad sooner. When you can hear them, Sullivan?s lyrics are geometrical, geological, new-agey without the benefit of bath salts ? completing circles and the like ? but they work best as thematic fenceposts, or promises empty-until-colored."
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/united-waters-your-first-ever-river
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For those who fear to tread in the Pop Punk board:
The peculiar thing about Some Easy Magic is how efficiently it's delivered, how its players work through their songs like a trio of cool session players rather than pack of bloodthirsty punk kids-- especially when considering that most of the wilder bands they've played shows with are easily double their age. But their natural introvertedness doesn't hinder their ability to play simple but exhaustively catchy tunes, nor does it take away from the fact that Some Easy Magic is one of the most enjoyable garage albums of the year, a pure-pop record for the Terminal Boredom set. With as much promise as this record exhibits, it's scary to ponder how good they'll be once they're old enough to drink in the bars they've played in.
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15799-some-easy-magic/
http://terminal-boredom.com/forums/index.php?topic=33841.0
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it's a shame, though not surprising, that all these sites disallow comments on their review pages
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8 Reasons Nirvana's 'Nevermind' Is The Most Important Rock Album of All Time
This week marks the 20th anniversary of Nirvana's magnum opus. Here's why it's better than any of the rest.
September 16, 2011 |
Not the White Album. Not Gimme Shelter. Not Are You Experienced. Not even The Fabulous Little Richard. Those albums are all canonical, and surely there are other very important records in the history of rock 'n' roll that are contenders. But none of them are Nevermind, the breakout album of a previously little-known trio from the working-class logging town of Aberdeen, Washington.
Other albums might have influenced the sound of music in certain ways, might have been important to rock's trajectory. But none of them changed the culture at large so vastly, so roughly and so immediately. Even the hippies of the '60s counterculture weren't influenced and changed so distinctly as those of us living in a post-Nirvana world. In a way, the strange epoch we're stuck with now is both a reflection and a result of the way Nevermind affected us; we are living the chaotic meaninglessness the album prophesied, even more than the shitshow that was the 1990s. If Nevermind was an existential statement, we've been blasted into the apocalypse.
Nevermind was released 20 years ago next week, on Sept. 24, 1991, the result of two separate recording sessions conducted in Van Nuys and North Hollywood, California. Its nice-weather locale defied its intent: scuzzed with the desolate, dispirited lyrics of Kurt Cobain, not yet addicted to the heroin that would lead to his suicide, the album was all grit and dark days. We have lived for so long with the sound and aesthetic of 'grunge' that it's hard to imagine life without it, but back then it was not even invented. All anyone knew was that Nirvana was bucking the rock trend toward hair metal, which was about objectifying women and cocaine and gross excess. Nirvana wore Washington-typical flannel shirts, more necessary for the damp weather of Cascadia than fashion statement. Long before Courtney Love, Kurt Cobain had dated Tobi Vail, a drummer in the riot grrrl band Bikini Kill who spent her free time making feminist fanzines. Their whole existence would soon be a revolution.
In December 1993, my best friend's parents drove us to see Nirvana's last tour, one of the first and certainly most memorable concerts of my young life. Their tour T-shirts featured a glow-in-the-dark seahorse, with a message on the back explaining that the animal is remarkable because it's the males, not the females, who carry the young - a welcome flip for a budding young feminist. At that time, Frances Bean Cobain had been alive for a little over one year. I bought the shirt, but ended up giving it to my good friend Steve Paul, a Nirvana fanatic who hadn't seen the concert. By April, as everyone knows by now, Kurt Cobain was dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A few years later, my friend Steve was killed in a freak accident on a construction site. Everyone who was alive when Nevermind came out and cared has a story or memory associated with the album - it dug itself into your subconscious no matter how old you were.
On Sept. 24, 2011, Jon Stewart will interview the surviving members of Nirvana (and producer Butch Vig) for two hours on Sirius Radio. While the two might seem unrelated, it was in fact a brilliant move to ask Stewart to host: Nirvana's impact was inherently political, and Stewart's humor is inherently Gen X. In honor of the most important rock album of all time, here are eight ways that Nevermind changed the political and cultural landscape of America.
1. Disenfranchised Kids, Winning
The dominant narrative in this country, even now, is that you pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and you will be rewarded with great riches, power and popularity. That is, of course, untrue - something that Nirvana explored in its lyrics. But something unexpected happened: they blew up. Their music resonated deeply with everyone who?d been disenfranchised by the voracious, greedy '80s, and there was a revolution rooted in '60s counterculture and '70s punk rock. Anarchist cheerleaders were suddenly on television, moshing. Nirvana were the depressive weirdos, and suddenly the depressive weirdos were the dominant narrative. Even if you're used to being the underdog, sometimes it's nice to be on top.
2. 'Corporate Magazines Still Suck'
But sometimes you don't want to be on top. The interminable slogan Cobain wore on the cover of Rolling Stone to protest the personal-political concessions his own weary fame demanded of him, 'Corporate Magazines Still Suck' represented the antiestablishment attitude of the band - and the crucial disconnect between his desire for people to hear his music, and his disdain for the tactics he took to get there. Still, Nirvana released its music on major label DGC - and now, in the split-income Internet era, it's rare for even punk-rooted bands to have anti-corporate attitudes (evidence: every car commercial featuring your favorite music). Nirvana was the first to really grapple with this ethical conundrum, and ultimately opened the doors for that one Volkswagen commercial (read: every ad featuring your favorite music).
3. The Rise of the Working Class
Working-class rock music is the best, at least when it's lefty (apologies to my fellow prog rock fans) - two words, Bruce Springsteen. But Nirvana did it different: they didn't aspire to be within the system, ideologically speaking, and so they made it cool to buck a system that would hang you out to dry if you let it.
4. The Rise of Working-Class Fashion
In the same way, they made the grunge aesthetic cool - which meant those of us who'd been clothes shopping at Salvation Army out of necessity were finally in style. It sounds banal, but if you've been that kid, it's absolutely important.
5. Feminism
The aforementioned seahorse tour tee and Bikini Kill association (Kathleen Hanna famously named 'Smells Like Teen Spirit') were but two aspects of Nirvana's foray into the F word. Cobain being an astute and thoughtful man, he was quite aware of the white male privilege he wielded, so peppered feminist talk into his interviews. On Nevermind, even his love songs were about not trying to dominate a woman's body? ?we don't have to breed.? And 'Polly'' A dirge about the rape and murder of a young girl. This dovetailed quite nicely with the decade of the third wave, although it didn't really last - there aren't too many dude bands representing ladies the way Nirvana tried to.
6. Depression Is Okay
Though it would ultimately claim him, Kurt Cobain's embrace of depression was, in fact, vanguard; America was barely talking about the disease before the popularization of Prozac, but years earlier Cobain was writing odes to his own sorrow and letting them live. At the very least, he inspired many a kid to research what, exactly, 'Lithium' does.
7. The Opening Up of a Scene
In the '90s, people were still snobs about not wanting their precious underground culture exposed-but those of us who lived in crappy places, pre-Internet (Cheyenne, Wyoming, right here) discovered a lot of great bands and outsider culture after Nirvana blew up, through Nirvana. Taping 120 Minutes wasn't cutting it, thank you very much. Nirvana introduced a whole new world to its fans in interviews, bigging up groups like Bikini Kill (saved a lot of lives!), Beat Happening (Kurt's K Records tattoo!) and the Vaselines (the original version of "Molly's Lips" is close to a perfect song). Just like they popularized and made cool fashion that less-fortunate kids could afford, they also helped arty nerds stranded in barren cultural environments find a lot of work they could believe in. That was huge.
8. Rock Stars as Progressive Politicians
They weren't the first rockers-come-politicians, nor will they be the last, but you can connect Nevermind's popularity in a straight line to Krist Novoselic's political platform later in life, when he became an elected state committeeman in Washington. In fact, he does that himself, in a 2004 book titled Grunge and Government: Let's Fix this Broken Democracy, which discusses how grassroots movements are the way to make a better country - and a bigger rock band.
http://www.alternet.org/story/152444/8_reasons_nirvana%27s_%27nevermind%27_is_the_most_important_rock_album_of_all_time/?page=entire
200+ comments and counting - dive into the "conversation".
ETA: Can't effin' resist - from the comments:
I have to wonder what a Communist like Pete Seeger and and a profoundly caring progressive like Bruce Springsteen think about Barack Obama today?
If they aren't profoundly disappointed as I am, they are senile.
WE HAVE BEEN BETRAYED BY BARACK OBAMA. WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
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Even the hippies of the '60s counterculture weren't influenced and changed so distinctly as those of us living in a post-Nirvana world. In a way, the strange epoch we're stuck with now is both a reflection and a result of the way Nevermind affected us; we are living the chaotic meaninglessness the album prophesied, even more than the shitshow that was the 1990s. If Nevermind was an existential statement, we've been blasted into the apocalypse.
hahhaa wuut the fuck???
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Gimme Shelter isn't even an album. I love it when somebody is giving a list of definitive items and always lists something irrelevant(in this case listing The Fabulous Little Richard among supposedly top-rated rock records).
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Even the hippies of the '60s counterculture weren't influenced and changed so distinctly as those of us living in a post-Nirvana world. In a way, the strange epoch we're stuck with now is both a reflection and a result of the way Nevermind affected us; we are living the chaotic meaninglessness the album prophesied, even more than the shitshow that was the 1990s. If Nevermind was an existential statement, we've been blasted into the apocalypse.
hahhaa wuut the fuck???
The whole thing is a what the fuck...I shudder to imagine what the effect would be if I were stoned reading this - trying to figure out if it was some stab at parody:
3. The Rise of the Working Class
Working-class rock music is the best, at least when it's lefty (apologies to my fellow prog rock fans) - two words, Bruce Springsteen. But Nirvana did it different: they didn't aspire to be within the system, ideologically speaking, and so they made it cool to buck a system that would hang you out to dry if you let it.
It would take days just to unravel WTF this is about...Asia is or isn't a working class band?! Is Gentle Giant "lefty"?
Julianne Escobedo Shepherd is an associate editor at AlterNet and a Brooklyn-based freelance writer and editor. Formerly the executive editor of The FADER, her work has appeared in VIBE, SPIN, New York Times and various other magazines and websites.
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Let?s pull back to the scope of music that sees release in North America in 2011. That swimming pool is now the size of the Gulf of Mexico, and looks like a Norse god ejaculated a sea of Pepto-Bismol into it. New bands and record labels alike ? and let?s face it, no labels founded after 2006 are going to survive on selling music alone ? proudly suffer under market-driven qualities, or social constructs that encourage the untalented to sally forth with a poor and under-developed showing. To survive, they must egg on the anxious to act without thinking, and engender a public to fear the hurt feelings that result when people become critical of the world around them, because aren?t there so many other problems in the world?
motherfuckin lame state of the union address. there are quite a few lames started after 2006 that rip hard. fuckin' know it all attitudes condensed in to broad sweeping, arm flailing statements are annoying. Total Control review on Dusted. Anyone read the Orcutt review?
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This is easily the best (loong) paragraph about music I've read in a while. Cosmic Hearse on Duran Duran:
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Duran Duran
Guilty pleasures are for chumps. Why should you feel guilt because something gives you pleasure? Why would you cringe in embarrassment when one of your shithead buddies is thumbing through your collection and finds that Rita Coolidge or House of Pain album amongst the rare Corrupted and Paysage d' Hiver RECORDS? I like Duran Duran, well the first three albums anyways. I like their uber-slick cocaine-on-a-yacht pop music, I like how they embody everything cum-soaked and greedy about the '80s. I like their hair, I like their white shirts. If you are my age and male you hated Duran Duran when this album came out. You hated them because every teenage girl in America wanted to be fingerbanged by Simon LeBon and John Taylor, and not you. The very existence of Duran Duran was a giant fingerblock. But listen now, plunge into the hymen tight rhythm section of the Taylor tots. Get the cosmetic keys (to my creations and times) of a haircut named Nick Rhodes all over your face. Snort a huge line of cheap, glassy guitars. Swallow up the loveless, semen-smooth vocals of a douchey dandy named Simon. Ahhhh, now you get it. This album is more evil than Beherit, darker than Bonnie Prince Billy, more lonely and crestfallen than a hundred funeral doom albums. It's the sound of the air conditioned plastic emptiness of the nineteen-eighties. It's blood flecks on an Armani handkerchief, it's the arrival of AIDS, it's the constant fear of Mutually Assured Destruction, it's anonymous sex, it's Patrick Bateman, it's cold legs in a cold city, it's whore's sweat, it's death. It's a whispered lie from the urethra of oblivion. And now I have spooked myself.
http://cosmichearse.blogspot.com/2011/09/duran-duran.html
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This is easily the best (loong) paragraph about music I've read in a while. Cosmic Hearse on Duran Duran:
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Duran Duran
Guilty pleasures are for chumps. Why should you feel guilt because something gives you pleasure? Why would you cringe in embarrassment when one of your shithead buddies is thumbing through your collection and finds that Rita Coolidge or House of Pain album amongst the rare Corrupted and Paysage d' Hiver RECORDS? I like Duran Duran, well the first three albums anyways. I like their uber-slick cocaine-on-a-yacht pop music, I like how they embody everything cum-soaked and greedy about the '80s. I like their hair, I like their white shirts. If you are my age and male you hated Duran Duran when this album came out. You hated them because every teenage girl in America wanted to be fingerbanged by Simon LeBon and John Taylor, and not you. The very existence of Duran Duran was a giant fingerblock. But listen now, plunge into the hymen tight rhythm section of the Taylor tots. Get the cosmetic keys (to my creations and times) of a haircut named Nick Rhodes all over your face. Snort a huge line of cheap, glassy guitars. Swallow up the loveless, semen-smooth vocals of a douchey dandy named Simon. Ahhhh, now you get it. This album is more evil than Beherit, darker than Bonnie Prince Billy, more lonely and crestfallen than a hundred funeral doom albums. It's the sound of the air conditioned plastic emptiness of the nineteen-eighties. It's blood flecks on an Armani handkerchief, it's the arrival of AIDS, it's the constant fear of Mutually Assured Destruction, it's anonymous sex, it's Patrick Bateman, it's cold legs in a cold city, it's whore's sweat, it's death. It's a whispered lie from the urethra of oblivion. And now I have spooked myself.
http://cosmichearse.blogspot.com/2011/09/duran-duran.html
Nice. Every sentence in that paragraph is good and right, especially the first. I'm not sure I see so much darkness in Duran, though, especially not in the first album. In fact, the emphasis on "darkness" strikes one as a defensive apologia for the record, equating darkness with depth. I do believe Duran Duran was more profound than Bonnie Prince Billy, but that's not to say there's no merit in deliberate, self-aware shallowness, in a play of surfaces. Or maybe he means that Duran's hedonism is an appropriately nihilistic response to their times. I dunno.
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Or maybe he means that Duran's hedonism is an appropriately nihilistic response to their times.
That's my take. Fuck everyone and everything else, let's rage!
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I can't say that I understand the appeal or understand why some one might enjoy Duran Duran but I think that's a function of my age group/generation. However, I can see why someone might want to get blitzed to Duran Duran. I probably dislike Bonnie Prince Billy for reasons that are closely related but without the "get blitzed to" factor. Maybe both groups/artists capture or exemplify certain specific time periods. I also enjoyed American Psycho in both formats but dislike the concept of a Patrick Bateman character. Either way, that's a well written paragraph, unlike this one.
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The phrase "hymen tight rhythm section" pleases me.
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funny read, but DURAN DURAN is far from the personification (bandification?) of the societal ills he ascribes to them, pretty much interchangeable with much of the early MTV video roster. at least their music has flashes of darkness/depth.
i think WHAM is a better example of what he's getting at. i'm not sure i'm ready to stomach a listen either tho, whereas i break out the DURAN DURAN at least once a year.
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uber-slick cocaine-on-a-yacht pop music
That doesn't have anything to do with Wham.
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Agreed. Wham! was about health, clean living, dancing and Motown. George Michael was a great pop vocalist, songwriter, and producer. The worst you can say about Make It Big! is that it's a bit lightweight, a bit bubblegum in spots, but it also includes one unimpeachable, timeless pop ballad in "Careless Whisper," a top-notch soul-funk single in "Everything She Wants," and two of the most joyous, exuberant neo-soul singles of the decade ("Wake Me Up" and "Freedom.") Duran Duran is much closer to art-rock and New Wave; they owe everything to Roxy Music (and Japan).
The quintessential Eighties decadents weren't arty at all, were actually '70s bands like REO Speedwagon, Styx, etc., or strictly studio-based commercial pop guys like Robbie Nevil.
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uber-slick cocaine-on-a-yacht pop music
That doesn't have anything to do with Wham.
I'm not talking coke and tinny production (which is pretty interchangeable with other MTV bands), I meant the "societal ills" that he ascribes to DURAN DURAN:
"It's blood flecks on an Armani handkerchief, it's the arrival of AIDS, it's the constant fear of Mutually Assured Destruction, it's anonymous sex, it's Patrick Bateman, it's cold legs in a cold city, it's whore's sweat, it's death. It's a whispered lie from the urethra of oblivion. And now I have spooked myself."
To me, DURAN DURAN doesn't really signify any of these things moreso than any other quintessentially 80s music, it just happened at the same time. There is no lie being whispered. No fear. No apologies.
Whereas WHAM! is an unresolved paradox, it's this innocuous asexual posi tweeny-bopper fashion mall music, but has this underlying secret hyper-sexual pain darkness and complexity bubbling up under the surface. To me it's closer, more representative of how the problems of the 80s unfolded.
Wow, there I go...
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Are you saying Reo & Styx were arty? Haha, really! I sat (& stood mostly, bored) through concerts by those bands, it never registered. I'd say Rush or Yes & of course, Renaissance. Oof! Thank Christ for cheap weed ( Blue Nun wine).
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Nirvana's 'Nevermind' Is The Most Overrated Rock Album of All Time
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Are you saying Reo & Styx were arty? Haha, really!
No, no, exactly the opposite. I think Duran Duran were arty. REO and Styx and Robbie Nevil are closer to the Ugly Eighties essence that reviewer was talking about. "C'est la vie" is pretty nihilistic, delightful as it is.
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Ah, my bad, I wasn't paying attention! You go.
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S/booze, did you happen to catch Yes on their 90125 tour? If so, what'dya think?
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Japan's influence on Duran Duran is certainly obvious (the Sylvian make up and clearly their sound) but for some reason I can seriously enjoy Japan but not Duran Duran. I can't say I ever liked Wham! but maybe there is something at least commendable there.
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I think Japan is Louie to Duran's Larry.
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Haha, Yes.....I did go see them a couple times around 77-78. But I'd go see just about anything back then. Arena's were like free zone sanctuaries; no one was gonna hassle you about getting stoned. And a ticket for most any band was no more than 6-7$
What I had forgotten was that certain bands did tour programs back then. One came in the shop then other day in a collection that was for Yes on the Tormato tour. What a hilarious piece of pretentious twaddle THAT thing was! Reading Chris Squire's "bio" about him going on about being the best bassist of all time was fun though.
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New bands and record labels alike . . . proudly suffer under market-driven qualities, or social constructs that encourage the untalented to sally forth with a poor and under-developed showing. To survive, they must egg on the anxious to act without thinking, and engender a public to fear the hurt feelings that result when people become critical of the world around them, because aren?t there so many other problems in the world?
I do not disagree with this statement.
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Yes gets a bad rap. I love em!
I feel like Japan's influence on Duran Duran pretty much ends at the fashion. It'd be interesting to see what the Duran Duran dudes were listening to at home. I don't really hear too many obvious musical influences in them come to think of it. I mean, sound-wise they're obviously from the 80's but a song like 'Hungry Like the Wolf' seems pretty original to me.
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Yes made 3 near perfect albums in a row and then started to stink...of course im talking about THE YES ALBUM, FRAGILE and their masterpiece CLOSE TO THE EDGE
Jon Anderson is a huge fag and his lyrics make no sense...but goddamn Rick Wakeman and Steve Howe shred!!!!
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they made good fun of Wakeman in that tour PROGRAMME for being a lush.
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Yes made 3 near unbelievably terrible albums in a row and then started to stink...of course im talking about THE YES ALBUM, FRAGILE and their masterpiece CLOSE TO THE EDGE
Jon Anderson is a huge fag and his lyrics make no sense...but goddamn Rick Wakeman and Steve Howe shred!!!!
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I feel like Japan's influence on Duran Duran pretty much ends at the fashion. It'd be interesting to see what the Duran Duran dudes were listening to at home. I don't really hear too many obvious musical influences in them come to think of it. I mean, sound-wise they're obviously from the 80's but a song like 'Hungry Like the Wolf' seems pretty original to me.
I agree: Duran had some pretty OG songs. But I hear the influence of Japan in the vocals, too, and in the band concept generally.
I'm probably in the minority but I rather prefer Notorious (their 1986 album, produced by Nile Rodgers) and their Bond themes to the very earliest material.
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If we're not just going to post shitty writing, I ran across this the other day.
Are We Not Men? We Are Devo! (http://hnn.us/articles/130549.html)
Jefferson Cowie is associate professor at Cornell University. This is excerpted from his new book, Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class (The New Press), due out this week.
Before Francis Fukuyama declared the 'End of History,' before Thomas Frank chronicled The Conquest of Cool, even before Jean Baudrillard determined the futility of dissent, a group of spasmodic oddballs from Ohio tried to make the case that history as we knew it was already over. "Of all the bands who came from the underground and made it in the mainstream," declared Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, 'Devo were the most challenging and subversive of all." If a statement like that about a New Wave novelty act has credibility it is because Devo came early to a question now common: is dissent still possible in the world of postmodern capitalism?
....
For Devo, the common horde of their hometown, Akron, resembled the evolutionary disasters of the Island of the Lost Souls. 'Those mutants were fucked with,' the band explained. 'They looked like people from Akron.' By the 1970s, the city's decline had given it a 'hellish, depressing patina' and the people's 'spirits were depressed; they were desperate'.In other words, they were just ready to go over the edge at any moment.' The shuttered landscape, where the tire industry's glory days once meant sweeping up black rubber dust from townspeople's front porches, served as the backdrop to their innovative video creations. The scene fit 'in with the early twentieth-century art movements'Expressionism, Dada and others that were influenced by those kinds of environments in Germany and England,' explained band member Jerry Casale. 'We had our very own backyard version of it. A rubber version.'
Yet buried in the city's growing rubble was a completely different history: that of Akron's role as the birthplace of the working-class hero. There, in the midst of the Great Depression, dramatic sit down strikes, mass pickets, and guerrilla warfare against the rubber tire magnates of the 1930s made the tirebuilders 'the first to fight their way to freedom,' in the words of one chronicler at the time. The Akron workers' struggles blazed the path for the rest of industrial America to join the leap forward in labor organizing and then the blue-collar prosperity of the postwar golden age.
By the 1970s, Devo could find no traces of such working-class nobility'just militancy regressing to corporate stasis, blue collar fading to grey, 'Solidarity Forever' disappearing into the 'Devo Corporate Anthem.' Working-class activism spawned consumerism, and consumption generated apathy. Industrial and consumer cultures turned out to be as vacuous as the empty tire factories and boarded-up buildings of their hometown. 'Look we are spuds,' explained one of the band members. 'We're very average looking, normal gene pool. In Akron, it's the Goodyear Museum and the Soapbox Derby and McDonald's and women in hair rollers beating their kids in supermarkets. We were products of it and used it.' The band neither criticized nor shied away from the socio-economic failures of the seventies; instead, they took it as fact, and embraced the decline.
....
By the seventies, the autonomous position of critique was gone; there was nothing outside of the system'no leverage, no purchase, no vantage point. If it was subversion, as Cobain claimed, it was subversion without agency, critique without remedy. At the same moment that Bruce Springsteen tried to keep the fires of proletarian romance alive and The Clash urged a 'White Riot' of working-class agency, Devo simply tossed in the towel. The concept of 'real humans' was a moniker of a bygone era and resistance an 'outmoded and obsolete' artifact. 'In a healthy capitalistic world, rebellion is just something else to market,' Mothersbaugh explained.
If surrender to the system is philosophy, Devo proves that it truly leads nowhere. Devo's brilliant performance went too easily the way of Disneyfication (in the form of a later kids show, Dev2.0). Clearly we need a better answer to the question that shaped Devo's work. Are we not humans? Are we not capable of driving our own future? We better learn to be or, as Devo put it, 'We're pinheads all.'
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Yawn. The odor of tenure looms.
Akron/Kent ruled back in the day;
http://westernreservepublicmedia.org/vodshows/notdeadv.htm
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Not in my day.
Sweet link tho!
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Has anyone else been following Sasha Frere-Jones' rapid descent into the land of nonsense? I'm starting to think they guy had a stroke or something.
His latest article on "Black Metal" is... It's not simply that it's stupid (though it is), it just doesn't make plain sense semantically. The article is a jungle of contradictions, half-formed thoughts, bizarre analogies, and free associative blather.
"The quickest way to understand American Black Metal is to imagine that Satan was unable to get a visa and is stuck in Sweden."
That's just the tip of this pathological iceberg. The article deserves to be read as a case study or a cautionary example. I honestly think the poor guy has lost his mind. He's fighting a losing battle with logic and rhetoric and the English language. Maybe this is what happens when you spend so much time listening to stuff like R. Kelly, LeeAnn Rimes, and Lady Gaga and "interpreting" it for the New Yorker's core readership of Upper-Middlebrow bores.
I bought a sliver of his record collection a couple of years back -- pristine first pressings of Birthday Party records and such -- and for this I am grateful. I pray for his quick and complete recovery.
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Sorry, I was quoting from memory. The actual quotation is even better:
"The quickest way to understand the newest wave of Black Metal is to imagine that Satan did not score a visa and is still stuck in Norway."
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This is a slightly separate issue, but I don't understand the New Yorker's approach to covering "pop" music in the first place. Why do they even bother? Who is it intended for? Do SFJ and the New Yorker editorial staff really think that the same people who think Roz Chast is so delightful and "smart" will also want to read about Black metal and New Orleans bounce? No one expects the New Yorker to have catholic tastes when it comes to culture, in fact they expect something very specific, and SFJ's nonsensical blathering about fucking Marnie Stern (SERIOUSLY! MARNIE STERN!) makes zero sense in that. Is the staff sitting around trying to strategize about how to lure in Brooklyn Vegan readers?
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He's writing for people who want to feel like they're up on new things. Anything with enough of an angle to wring four pages out of will do. Marnie Stern & Black Metal are perfect examples.
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His blog post on Shellac today reveals more about Steve Albini's food blog, than it does about his punditry on independent music or analog recording loyalties. Although it's not as in-depth, I prefer Interview Magazine's pop music angle.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sashafrerejones/2011/10/shellac-on-music-food-and-poker.html (http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sashafrerejones/2011/10/shellac-on-music-food-and-poker.html)
I wonder what the Dolores tape from 1987 sounds like.
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The true mark of a music writer's naked attempts at "making it" in the larger writer's realm is a complete inability to actually write about the music in question. They are just quivering for permission to go "off leash", to chase after the first tangent that suggests itself; food, culture, politics, their personal lives. Anything, other than write something that must feel like promotional work: cogent opinions about the, ick, music. The music merely exists to service their pathological narcissism.
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This is a slightly separate issue, but I don't understand the New Yorker's approach to covering "pop" music in the first place. Why do they even bother? Who is it intended for? Do SFJ and the New Yorker editorial staff really think that the same people who think Roz Chast is so delightful and "smart" will also want to read about Black metal and New Orleans bounce? No one expects the New Yorker to have catholic tastes when it comes to culture, in fact they expect something very specific, and SFJ's nonsensical blathering about fucking Marnie Stern (SERIOUSLY! MARNIE STERN!) makes zero sense in that. Is the staff sitting around trying to strategize about how to lure in Brooklyn Vegan readers?
I agree: the New Yorker is supposed to be patrician and mildly starchy; but like Woody Allen, the ultimate caricature of the Upper East Side, middlebrow sophisticate and by extension the magazine's imagined target audience, it fancies itself secure enough in its cultural credentials that it can entertain mere entertainments like baseball and pop music. Once in a while, anyway. Man cannot live on Mahler and Chekhov alone. It's SFJ's job to frame pop music such that it seems legitimate in a New York Times-reviewing-Sgt.-Pepper way.
Plus, TNY's contemporary audience overlaps with that of present-day NPR, i.e., sometime hipsters turned homeowners who went to expensive liberal arts colleges at a time when NO ONE was listening to classical or jazz anymore, when those musics no longer represented "cultural seriousness," at a time when it became culturally acceptable for doctors and architects to blab about Radiohead or Moby at cocktail parties instead of Shostakovich and Schoenberg.
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http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/jim-orourke-old-news-5
Many good ones, but this is the kicker:
Perhaps we should start calling da Vinci the O'Rourke of Renaissance art?
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This site is pretty fun. Guy's got the right idea: a whole blog dedicated to tearing apart "delightful missives" from the usual suspects (Pitchfork, Dusted, TinyMixTapes, TheQuietus, etc.)
http://ripfork.com/about/ (http://ripfork.com/about/)
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The guy is kind of an idiot though, too. It comes out after reading a few.
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This site is pretty fun. Guy's got the right idea: a whole blog dedicated to tearing apart "delightful missives" from the usual suspects (Pitchfork, Dusted, TinyMixTapes, TheQuietus, etc.)
http://ripfork.com/about/ (http://ripfork.com/about/)
thanks! good read. i haven't read far enough into this to tell yet, but i can safely say i don't mind if the guy writing it has his own issues either. just like i could care less if my first gasp for oxygen after being submerged in the ocean was tainted by a slight fart smell. who cares?
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Does anyone have a subscription to Rock's Back Pages? Over 14,000 articles and Audio Interviews to sort through. I'm into it.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/ian-burrell-the-archive-of-great-music-writing-that-shows-paywalls-can-work-6255061.html (http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/ian-burrell-the-archive-of-great-music-writing-that-shows-paywalls-can-work-6255061.html)
http://youtu.be/K13u_yR3zM0 (http://youtu.be/K13u_yR3zM0)
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Whet Bull, what is your take on the band/product descriptions on the Youth Attack webpage. Here's the one for Vile Gash's recentish single:
"If we could see ourselves as others see us, we would vanish on the spot.
On their second vinyl outing released in anticipation of their upcoming LP, Columbus, Ohio?s VILE GASH delivers three ravaged bursts of aggression that seal the deal on man?s need to exert his will, even at his own expense. This is a hideous rotting beast, one drowned in contempt over the fallacies of rational thought."
I think these are supposed to be "funny," but holy fuck!
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Take THAT rational thought. Burned.
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WHY DO I SUBJECT MYSELF TO THIS FUCKING GUY?!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFKoYmiTws4
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WHY DO I SUBJECT MYSELF TO THIS FUCKING GUY?!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFKoYmiTws4
I knew what this was going to be before I even clicked on it. I didn't let myself watch the review because I know that once I start listening to that guy whine, I can't tear myself away no matter how excruciating his commentary gets.
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WHY DO I SUBJECT MYSELF TO THIS FUCKING GUY?!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFKoYmiTws4
I knew what this was going to be before I even clicked on it. I didn't let myself watch the review because I know that once I start listening to that guy whine, I can't tear myself away no matter how excruciating his commentary gets.
Exactly. Like watching a car crash.
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Would I understand this better if I had finished college?
Dusted Reviews
Artist: Supreme Dicks
Album: Breathing and Not Breathing
Label: Jagjaguwar
Review date: Nov. 29, 2011
Let it be known that much work and frustration went into making an abstract quiver out of the ?It?s good because of what it isn?t, not because it?s good? angle used in the remainder of this paragraph. If one dreams of running his very own, profit-turning reissue label, simply read the following recipe/equation and sleep on a mattress stuffed with failed grant proposals. First, take the various nooks and crannies in the 1960s, ?70s, and ?80s that a reasonable person might consider exhausted of reissue-resources, then add both chronological and regional placement but don?t forget projection of the right stylistic surface-stats. Unknowing victims of the ?obscurity/never-released = undeniable quality? con are still among us, if not plentiful.
Though the late-?80s thru the end of the ?90s won?t remain an era immune to the same reissue/retro-bankruptcy certain previous eras and subgenres have suffered or are suffering, the era in question will prove to be a more difficult terrain for the aforementioned hoodwink to gain purchase, though the jury is still out on exactly why this is, or whether it really matters at this nascent stage, namely when we are getting top-shelf projects like Jagjaguwar?s Supreme Dicks reissue campaign, of which this four-CD retrospective Breathing and Not Breathing is the centerpiece.
There?s just so much amazing rock-based music that fell through the cracks that the world may end before anyone is tricked into purchasing a Best Kissers in the World or Green Apple Quick Step reissue box set. Plus, we are amidst a complicating-of-culture via the tightening of the retro-cycle combined with an unconscious (those that don?t know history are doomed to repeat it) or willing (the Arrogance of Assumed Originality) adversity towards the recent (five to 25 years in the past) history on the part of contemporary bands. It wasn?t that long ago that much of this amazing rock-based music was overshadowed by a more popular movement of more mediocre origins, or simply ignored altogether.
But unlike, say, Thee Oh Sees, who have made an entire career out of removing the hooks from Fly Ashtray and Uncle Wiggly songs, no one has gained any recent accolades for a lesser version of the Supreme Dicks sound. The neither new nor weird ?new weird America? debacle of the early ?00s momentarily felt like it might serve up a proper update of the Supreme Dicks? ?thing,? but that chapter of underground rock isn?t even hiding an accidental rip-off of anything found on the beautifully unsettling proper albums, The Unexamined Life (originally released on Homestead Records, 1993) and The Emotional Plague (ditto, 1995). These two records (which are also reissued separately on vinyl) document a creative apex within the band?s discography/career, but more importantly, they document music that sounds unlike anything that came before, might have been made concurrent to, or that has surfaced since. It?s music like this that reverses rock-writer clich? and justifies terms long rendered meaningless by undeserved and over-used applications. Introducing music that really is haunting; that defines mood so perfectly and singularly that writing about it is?REALLY HARD.
So, with referential comparisons out of the question, we?re left with borderline disclaimers to issue, because songs in the upper echelon of the Supreme Dicks spectrum are so sublime that they might be so good that they went over the heads of their intended audience ?back in the day? and this would work towards explaining the level of quiet obscurity that was almost unique to this band. Well, there was the name, of course, which opened the doors to a rather ham-fisted and obvious juxtaposition when presented with the fragile prettiness and (when they were in a frisky mood) a mastery of pop-song craftwork within the context of (and here come a few more terms that have finally found their true audio example) a shambling pace that gives the listener a whole new level of ?loose? that threatens to disintegrate at any second.
On the rare occasion that writers decided to give space to this music, an ?acquired taste? disclaimer RE: the vocals could be counted on. Now that it is 10 to 15 years later, this sort of thing seems an altogether unnecessary punishment for the warbling tenor that used to sometimes sit awkwardly atop this gorgeous skewing of the traditionally known folk-rock format. Acoustic guitar, electric often played clean, and politely-tapped drums have never married pop beauty and frightening moodiness like they do when Supreme Dicks hit a stride, which, upon positive reevaluation or processing at a more advanced age, is the dominating situation across the two aforementioned albums, and the case more often than not during the singles and EP?s that led up to that ?93 to ?95 stretch of very special inspiration.
By Andrew Earles
-
Would I understand this better if I had finished college?
Dusted Reviews
Artist: Supreme Dicks
Album: Breathing and Not Breathing
Label: Jagjaguwar
Review date: Nov. 29, 2011
Let it be known that much work and frustration went into making an abstract quiver out of the ?It?s good because of what it isn?t, not because it?s good? angle used in the remainder of this paragraph. If one dreams of running his very own, profit-turning reissue label, simply read the following recipe/equation and sleep on a mattress stuffed with failed grant proposals. First, take the various nooks and crannies in the 1960s, ?70s, and ?80s that a reasonable person might consider exhausted of reissue-resources, then add both chronological and regional placement but don?t forget projection of the right stylistic surface-stats. Unknowing victims of the ?obscurity/never-released = undeniable quality? con are still among us, if not plentiful.
Though the late-?80s thru the end of the ?90s won?t remain an era immune to the same reissue/retro-bankruptcy certain previous eras and subgenres have suffered or are suffering, the era in question will prove to be a more difficult terrain for the aforementioned hoodwink to gain purchase, though the jury is still out on exactly why this is, or whether it really matters at this nascent stage, namely when we are getting top-shelf projects like Jagjaguwar?s Supreme Dicks reissue campaign, of which this four-CD retrospective Breathing and Not Breathing is the centerpiece.
There?s just so much amazing rock-based music that fell through the cracks that the world may end before anyone is tricked into purchasing a Best Kissers in the World or Green Apple Quick Step reissue box set. Plus, we are amidst a complicating-of-culture via the tightening of the retro-cycle combined with an unconscious (those that don?t know history are doomed to repeat it) or willing (the Arrogance of Assumed Originality) adversity towards the recent (five to 25 years in the past) history on the part of contemporary bands. It wasn?t that long ago that much of this amazing rock-based music was overshadowed by a more popular movement of more mediocre origins, or simply ignored altogether.
But unlike, say, Thee Oh Sees, who have made an entire career out of removing the hooks from Fly Ashtray and Uncle Wiggly songs, no one has gained any recent accolades for a lesser version of the Supreme Dicks sound. The neither new nor weird ?new weird America? debacle of the early ?00s momentarily felt like it might serve up a proper update of the Supreme Dicks? ?thing,? but that chapter of underground rock isn?t even hiding an accidental rip-off of anything found on the beautifully unsettling proper albums, The Unexamined Life (originally released on Homestead Records, 1993) and The Emotional Plague (ditto, 1995). These two records (which are also reissued separately on vinyl) document a creative apex within the band?s discography/career, but more importantly, they document music that sounds unlike anything that came before, might have been made concurrent to, or that has surfaced since. It?s music like this that reverses rock-writer clich? and justifies terms long rendered meaningless by undeserved and over-used applications. Introducing music that really is haunting; that defines mood so perfectly and singularly that writing about it is?REALLY HARD.
So, with referential comparisons out of the question, we?re left with borderline disclaimers to issue, because songs in the upper echelon of the Supreme Dicks spectrum are so sublime that they might be so good that they went over the heads of their intended audience ?back in the day? and this would work towards explaining the level of quiet obscurity that was almost unique to this band. Well, there was the name, of course, which opened the doors to a rather ham-fisted and obvious juxtaposition when presented with the fragile prettiness and (when they were in a frisky mood) a mastery of pop-song craftwork within the context of (and here come a few more terms that have finally found their true audio example) a shambling pace that gives the listener a whole new level of ?loose? that threatens to disintegrate at any second.
On the rare occasion that writers decided to give space to this music, an ?acquired taste? disclaimer RE: the vocals could be counted on. Now that it is 10 to 15 years later, this sort of thing seems an altogether unnecessary punishment for the warbling tenor that used to sometimes sit awkwardly atop this gorgeous skewing of the traditionally known folk-rock format. Acoustic guitar, electric often played clean, and politely-tapped drums have never married pop beauty and frightening moodiness like they do when Supreme Dicks hit a stride, which, upon positive reevaluation or processing at a more advanced age, is the dominating situation across the two aforementioned albums, and the case more often than not during the singles and EP?s that led up to that ?93 to ?95 stretch of very special inspiration.
By Andrew Earles
No
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I've tried to read that Supreme Dicks review five times since this morning and failed to make it through it each time. Thinking about it now I guess it is a good representation of one of their records.
Also, did anyone try to read the Eddy Current singles comp review on Dusted? It made me very sad.
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did that one basically say they are really good because they only do one thing? i think i read it, but that's all i can remember of it
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I've tried to read that Supreme Dicks review five times since this morning and failed to make it through it each time. Thinking about it now I guess it is a good representation of one of their records.
Also, did anyone try to read the Eddy Current singles comp review on Dusted? It made me very sad.
You should try talking to the guy.
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Picturing a sad Dave Martin in front of the computer reading Dusted reviews makes me sad.
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6835
The last paragraph of that review just makes no sense. There's no reason a review of said singles comp should go beyond two paragraphs to begin with. Does anyone edit this shit at all anymore? Make it stop!
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did that one basically say they are really good because they only do one thing? i think i read it, but that's all i can remember of it
Kind of, but it was the part where the dude tried to breakdown Brendon's vocals that really did it.
http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6835
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I should mention that Eddy Current is a master of tone and timbre on guitar; he never does anything flashy, but every note sounds exactly right.
:(
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And I can follow the Supreme Dicks review. I do know Andy, though, so maybe that helps.
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Kind of, but it was the part where the dude tried to breakdown Brendon's vocals that really did it.
http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6835
Yeah that part was just bizarrely off base. I can think of few notable frontman whose voice/presence Brendon's reminds me less of than the people he referenced.
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Why do quotes & apostrophes turn in to question marks when you cut & paste them. WHY?
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Kind of, but it was the part where the dude tried to breakdown Brendon's vocals that really did it.
http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6835
Yeah that part was just bizarrely off base. I can think of few notable frontman whose voice/presence Brendon's reminds me less of than the people he referenced.
Except for Deniz. I think we can all agree that he takes a lot from Deniz's vocal stylings, right?
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I don't know why me and everyone else likes this band so much. They don't do anything special. But they are just perfect. I don't care if they ever make another record. But if they do, I'll toss and turn in bed for nights wondering whether I should listen to it or not. And some mornings I'll be pretty resolute about not listening to it. But then when I finally do, it's like...why is this band so good again? They don't do anything special. But, maaan...this band is perfect. I'm gonna listen to it over and over now, all then toss and turn in bed for the next week trying to reduce their formula down the quark level, only to arrive at the same conclusion as before...that this band is nothing special but also perfect. Anything to keep my mind off killing myself.
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This guy sounds incapable of enjoying the joy he might find in anything. Must be miserable.
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Fly Ashtray is not measurably better than Green Apple Quick Step. That's all I got out of that. Also, GAQS had better hooks than Fly Ashtray, who basically beamed into the future and ripped the hooks from some Oh Sees songs and sold them back to a few hundred fanzine rubes a few decades back. I understand now.
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I think Brenden's vocals are quite "rhythmically poetic," though less so than Mikey's guitar, which is the true "core" of the band if that even exists. I usually don't go near this thread because it pisses me off >:( >:( >:(
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This guy overthought ECSR so much already, so we should not do the same.
Fly Ashtray is not measurably better than Green Apple Quick Step. That's all I got out of that.
Also misleading! Fly Ashtray were way better than GAQS, and I can provide measurements.
Discogs user rating of Fly Ashtray's Clumps Take a Ride = 4.33
23 has / 6 wants
I personally wouldn't mind having that record back for up to $5-6 NM.
It had way too many songs, but there were about two 7"es worth of pretty good songs there.
Discogs user rating of GAQS' Wonderful Virus = 3.00
12 has / 2 wants
More people probably have it, but won't admit it. I avoided 'em 'cos of the name. Heard 'em later and didn't regret that choice.
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You may be using the metric system or something. Both are equally things I don't care about (in feet).
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Neither band is bonerworthy.
But GAQS is bonercrushing.
A better comparison would be GAQS vs. Gnome.
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Your vexation is perfectly understandishable.
It's cute that a hard-thinkin', professional-writin' guy like Earles still hasn't mastered the "adversity"/"aversion" distinction, or "dominating" vs. "dominant."
Musta spent those freshman comp hours "jamming" Wingtip Sloat and Truman's Water on his Walkman, pondering the depths therein.
Never figured Thee Oh Sees for a hookless Shimmy Disc tribute band. I agree that they're more boring than Supreme Dicks, though. I bought a SDs single for fifty cents a couple years ago just to make sure.
Now, who wants to go in on a 20th-anniversary reissue of the first Love Child LP? Sit down, Chuckle Hardy -- not you.
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A better comparison would be GAQS vs. Gnome.
or GAOS vs Inspector Luv and the Ride Me Babies.
not that it's saying much, but Gnome was waaaay better than GAQS.
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I think he likes the Supreme Dicks. If this review helped sell my copy of 'Workingman's Dick' yesterday then all power to him. That Fly Ashtray record would make one decent 7'', max.
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Now, who wants to go in on a 20th-anniversary reissue of the first Love Child LP?
20th Anniversary of The Summer Of Love comp on Shimmy Disc is good. Is that a review?
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http://www.furious.com/perfect/flyingnun.html
The first sentence is a carcrash, and it doesn't get much better from there. Bone-picking tripe. Take this guy's pen/laptop away and give it to some poor kid in Bangladesh. Also, Perfect Sound Forever, when are you going to stop looking like it's 1998. I always think all their articles are old because of the shoddy pre-blog look to their site.
p.s. attn: sloweducation. this guy hates you.
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http://www.furious.com/perfect/flyingnun.html
The first sentence is a carcrash, and it doesn't get much better from there. Bone-picking tripe. Take this guy's pen/laptop away and give it to some poor kid in Bangladesh. Also, Perfect Sound Forever, when are you going to stop looking like it's 1998. I always think all their articles are old because of the shoddy pre-blog look to their site.
p.s. attn: sloweducation. this guy hates you.
Fuck, this thing gave me a headache. I actually think I might agree to an extent with this guy about Flying Nun being somewhat over-praised but I can't say for sure because HE NEVER GETS TO HIS POINT.
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Yeah, exactly. Flying Nun overrated? Sure, show me. Instead he rambles on with nonsensical bits of how terrible and un-faerie-like New Zealanders are. Or something. It's fucking retarded. The only thing I got out of it is that he really hates Martin Phillips from The Chills. Great.
This is the first sentence!
"It is a founding myth of indie pop that it is the end of boredom, historical and a creative year zero instigated by the only pure souls on a hopelessly compromised lump of rock."
WHAT?????? facepalmmmmmmmmmmmmmm napalm
(I mean, I know what he's saying, but I had to parse that shit-heap several times to figure it out. Not a good look at the top of your "piece.")
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i couldn't read more than about three lines because the white-on-black color scheme made me cross-eyed.
-
"
Phillips Martin Osborne's diction is unclear in places, but the sentiment is clear"
He can take a number. Whaddya want! I like the accents!
-
take a squizz at this nigh-unreadable claptrap:
"How did this history become so pervasive? Simply, it was the musicians aided and abetted by critics and fans who have constructed this history which combined with indies' self image of a progressive, hippy-dippy idiot savants singing 'real songs,' colliding with a fracturing national identity, individual psychopathology and economic imperatives to create a pseudo-history."
-
take a squizz at this nigh-unreadable claptrap:
"How did this history become so pervasive? Simply, it was the musicians aided and abetted by critics and fans who have constructed this history which combined with indies' self image of a progressive, hippy-dippy idiot savants singing 'real songs,' colliding with a fracturing national identity, individual psychopathology and economic imperatives to create a pseudo-history."
"Simply?"
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In response to Earles' mongo complaint that the late eighties and early nineties aren't being reissued hard enough:
SHOEGAZE ARCHIVES
Shoegaze. Depending on what side of the fence you sit this is a compliment or a bane. A sound that seems definable only as: ?you know, it?s shoegaze.? Loud, gauzy, melancholic and melodic, it?s appearance in the late 80′s has maintained a steady influence over the entire field of whatever it is we call indie rock ever since, and yet it?s ancestry is only now beginning to be understood. Of course, there was Jesus and Mary Chain, and then My Bloody Valentine, and then Slowdive and Ride. But that?s just the tip of the reverb and distortion iceberg? With that in mind, Captured Tracks is unearthing a whole series of reissues from around the world to investigate this era the same way 60′s Psychedelic and Garage, 70′s Punk, 80′s Post-Punk and Cold Wave and every other nook and cranny of music subculture has been investigated and sprung upon a new generation of listeners. Our aim is not to define whatever it was that Shoegaze was and is, or even if it ever was a ?thing? in the first place, it?s merely to seek out and make available excellent music that?s currently off the shelves. The fact that most of these recordings were released only on CD in the ?dead era? of vinyl in the early 90′s is not lost on it, so many of these releases will be seeing the turntable for the first time ever. From harsh noise to sparse dreaminess and everything in between, we?re tapping the fertile fields of the late 80′s to mid-90′s with full participation from the original artists. Each release will be fully remastered with extensive liner notes and bonus tracks.
Ha ha. I was at the CT site just now trying to figure out if I can skip Snipes' reissue of Nick Nicely in light of already owning the Tenth Planet reissue -- thus keeping th' collection CT-free. I came away with no track listing but a renewed conviction that Sniper needs to hire a copywriter or editor. Come on, people, you can't be professional if you don't know the difference between "its" and "it's."
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"Sprung upon?" It sounds like Sniper's gonna rape an entire generation with this exhaustive shoegaze reissue series.
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"Sprung upon?" It sounds like Sniper's gonna rape an entire generation with this exhaustive shoegaze reissue series.
If it ever was a "thing" in the first place, amirite?
-
Ha ha. I was at the CT site just now trying to figure out if I can skip Snipes' reissue of Nick Nicely in light of already owning the Tenth Planet reissue -- thus keeping th' collection CT-free. I came away with no track listing but a renewed conviction that Sniper needs to hire a copywriter or editor. Come on, people, you can't be professional if you don't know the difference between "its" and "it's."
Took some digging, but I found it:
Hilly Fields
D.C.T Dreams
Treeline
49 Cigars
Beverly
Elegant Daze
On The Coast
The Other Side
On The Beach (The Ladder Descends)
1923
6B Obergine
Marlon (featuring Peter March)
"Marlon" isn't on Psychotropia and appears to be previously unreleased. However, Elegant Daze doesn't have "Remember" or "Everyone Knows". So I guess it depends how bad you want to hear that one song.
-
In response to Earles' mongo complaint that the late eighties and early nineties aren't being reissued hard enough:
SHOEGAZE ARCHIVES
Shoegaze. Depending on what side of the fence you sit this is a compliment or a bane. A sound that seems definable only as: ?you know, it?s shoegaze.? Loud, gauzy, melancholic and melodic, it?s appearance in the late 80′s has maintained a steady influence over the entire field of whatever it is we call indie rock ever since, and yet it?s ancestry is only now beginning to be understood. Of course, there was Jesus and Mary Chain, and then My Bloody Valentine, and then Slowdive and Ride. But that?s just the tip of the reverb and distortion iceberg? With that in mind, Captured Tracks is unearthing a whole series of reissues from around the world to investigate this era the same way 60′s Psychedelic and Garage, 70′s Punk, 80′s Post-Punk and Cold Wave and every other nook and cranny of music subculture has been investigated and sprung upon a new generation of listeners. Our aim is not to define whatever it was that Shoegaze was and is, or even if it ever was a ?thing? in the first place, it?s merely to seek out and make available excellent music that?s currently off the shelves. The fact that most of these recordings were released only on CD in the ?dead era? of vinyl in the early 90′s is not lost on it, so many of these releases will be seeing the turntable for the first time ever. From harsh noise to sparse dreaminess and everything in between, we?re tapping the fertile fields of the late 80′s to mid-90′s with full participation from the original artists. Each release will be fully remastered with extensive liner notes and bonus tracks.
Ha ha. I was at the CT site just now trying to figure out if I can skip Snipes' reissue of Nick Nicely in light of already owning the Tenth Planet reissue -- thus keeping th' collection CT-free. I came away with no track listing but a renewed conviction that Sniper needs to hire a copywriter or editor. Come on, people, you can't be professional if you don't know the difference between "its" and "it's."
Not to mention comma splices and the use of passive voice. Harumph!
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Yeah, exactly. Flying Nun overrated? Sure, show me. Instead he rambles on with nonsensical bits of how terrible and un-faerie-like New Zealanders are. Or something. It's fucking retarded. The only thing I got out of it is that he really hates Martin Phillips from The Chills. Great.
This is the first sentence!
"It is a founding myth of indie pop that it is the end of boredom, historical and a creative year zero instigated by the only pure souls on a hopelessly compromised lump of rock."
WHAT?????? facepalmmmmmmmmmmmmmm napalm
(I mean, I know what he's saying, but I had to parse that shit-heap several times to figure it out. Not a good look at the top of your "piece.")
Yes, I wouldn't mind reading a few well-thought arguments about the label being overrated, there's no way for it not to be overrated with all those releases. But this article is just pathetic and seems to originate from some sort of grudge.
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A well-written grudge can be fine, entertaining at least, but that article is just lazy and solipsist. The Martin Philips stuff doesn't prove shit of that "Simply" desaster and, anyways, the text is missing, like, all possible interrelations between historical data and what he calls pseudo-history - cultural, psychological, historical, economincal, whatever: all. He's way more pseudo then everything he's trying to criticize. It's also hilarious how he doesn't give examples. Is the reader supposed to be familiar with a fucking column Knox wrote 30 years ago for a NEW ZEALAND (other side of earth for me) MAGAZINE? If stuff like this is considered common knowledge, I'm sorry, I will never stain sound talk with my uneducated and unqualified utterings again.
Whatever, maybe this text is just some "part" in the grand act of rescuing the true truth. Hey, maybe it's even a work in progress?!
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Jeez that Flying Nun feature is retarded. Last I checked, Martin Osborne didn't write "Point that Thing Somewhere Else", "Flex", "Randolph's Going Home" nor did he write "Pink Frost". So he should shut up. It's funny how he quotes a Chills lyric but can't figure out all the words
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I just got around to reading the Osborne NZ article in its entirety. It's autistic, and Osborne is evidently incapable of writing a clear sentence. Personal favorite: "My brief is not specific bands." Huh?
I think Osborne is a Kiwi and he's voicing his irritation with the "exotic" treatment that surrounds the cult of New Zealander pop. That's the only way one can explain his comically outsized (and ineffectual) "historicization" of recorded sound in NZ. Second, he seems to view New Zealander pride as fundamentally stupid, which maybe it is, but then his article isn't about New Zealander pride writ large, it's about how Flying Nun sucks.
The other force at work here must be a personal grudge against the Dunedin scene. I agree with him that much of it is "adolescent and unengaging." As a New Zealander, it irritates Osborne that his country's identity in the indie world is defined by bands like The Chills and The Clean. I imagine the music scene there is so close-knit that a guy like Chris Knox or that Phillips chap he so despises, are as annoyingly ubiquitous and revered as Thurston is here. On the other hand, he loves Bailter Space: http://www.furious.com/perfect/bailterspace.html.
As a grudge, it strikes one as "essentially adolescent and unengaging," given that people like Bruce Russell (briefly a Flying Nun recording artist, sure) and the artists on his Xpressway and Corpus Hermeticum labels successfully carved out artistic identities that have little to do with the Flying Nun sound.
A terrible writer and a sad little man, no doubt. He and Andrew Earles would have a real good time together.
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Wire UK Top Ten of Year out today (online)
#9 - Lou Reed and Metallica - LuLu
discuss
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I dunno. Sounds about right. What do you think, meshkalina?
I couldn't find the list online so I'm gonna guess at what the other eight are. The Court of Critical Opinion has ruled that Demdike Stare, Andy Stott or some other representative from Modern Love must appear in every top ten list this year. I'm betting Top 5 (though I think DS came out last year). Something on Sublime Frequencies. Ferraro's most recent thing, with the iPad on the cover. One hip-hop record (but which? Probably something British.) Ahh... That's five. What else? Maybe Let England Shake (why not?) Something involving Stephen O'Malley.
Further down the list there will be something by Shackleton, something involving Mary Halvorson, the Stare Case record, Thurston Moore's solo record. Three more hip-hop selections, one of which will be tangentially related to DJ Skrew. One, maybe two, "dub" records. A section on "bass music."
The Year End Rewind Top 50 is always a bit surprising to read. The top slot last year went to Actress, and three or four years ago it went to Burial. If memory serves, it seldom will go to a non-electronic act or to anything particularly "difficult." There will be a top-ten concession to a massively popular U.S. indie act like Animal Collective or Joanna Newsom (maybe Wild Flag this year), and seemingly arbitrary placings for more out-there stuff (you know, Sightings might appear at #29, in between Polwechsel and Johan Johanssen). Oh, and Bardo Pond might show up in there for no particular reason. Also, the Complete Works of... I dunno, Christian Wolff.
How close am I?
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I forgot The Caretaker.
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Ha ha. I was at the CT site just now trying to figure out if I can skip Snipes' reissue of Nick Nicely in light of already owning the Tenth Planet reissue -- thus keeping th' collection CT-free. I came away with no track listing but a renewed conviction that Sniper needs to hire a copywriter or editor. Come on, people, you can't be professional if you don't know the difference between "its" and "it's."
Took some digging, but I found it:
Hilly Fields
D.C.T Dreams
Treeline
49 Cigars
Beverly
Elegant Daze
On The Coast
The Other Side
On The Beach (The Ladder Descends)
1923
6B Obergine
Marlon (featuring Peter March)
"Marlon" isn't on Psychotropia and appears to be previously unreleased. However, Elegant Daze doesn't have "Remember" or "Everyone Knows". So I guess it depends how bad you want to hear that one song.
Thanks! Looks like I can safely skip the new edition.
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A list of minor quibbles
These terms and phrases gross me out, partly because they've quickly become cliches, but mostly because they're just gross.
(1) gorgeous (fast becoming the "awesome" of critical hype)
(2) beestung lips (admittedly, this one seldom comes up in music reviews)
(3) sunkissed (blecch!)
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I dunno. Sounds about right. What do you think, meshkalina?
I couldn't find the list online so I'm gonna guess at what the other eight are. The Court of Critical Opinion has ruled that Demdike Stare, Andy Stott or some other representative from Modern Love must appear in every top ten list this year. I'm betting Top 5 (though I think DS came out last year). Something on Sublime Frequencies. Ferraro's most recent thing, with the iPad on the cover. One hip-hop record (but which? Probably something British.) Ahh... That's five. What else? Maybe Let England Shake (why not?) Something involving Stephen O'Malley.
Further down the list there will be something by Shackleton, something involving Mary Halvorson, the Stare Case record, Thurston Moore's solo record. Three more hip-hop selections, one of which will be tangentially related to DJ Skrew. One, maybe two, "dub" records. A section on "bass music."
The Year End Rewind Top 50 is always a bit surprising to read. The top slot last year went to Actress, and three or four years ago it went to Burial. If memory serves, it seldom will go to a non-electronic act or to anything particularly "difficult." There will be a top-ten concession to a massively popular U.S. indie act like Animal Collective or Joanna Newsom (maybe Wild Flag this year), and seemingly arbitrary placings for more out-there stuff (you know, Sightings might appear at #29, in between Polwechsel and Johan Johanssen). Oh, and Bardo Pond might show up in there for no particular reason. Also, the Complete Works of... I dunno, Christian Wolff.
How close am I?
1. Ferraro, 2. Rustie 3. Radigue 4. Hype Williams 5. Beach Boys 6. Michael Chapman 7. DJ Rashad 8. Laurel Halo 10. Wall and Rodgers. I think rawk out w/ your cawk out.
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Nice to see that Wall & Rodgers placed so high. That's a really interesting record. I'd never heard Rustie until right now. Sounds pretty good in a degenerate, cracked-out way. As a non-European I wonder what makes this record significant? Rustie sounds like a gay disco version of Ferraro.
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http://www.markprindle.com/ghoul.htm#transmission
this is great !!
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Emerson Dameron: Poon Hound
http://dustedmagazine.com/features/1016 (http://dustedmagazine.com/features/1016)
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Elder statesman waxes profound:
http://dustedmagazine.com/features/1022 (http://dustedmagazine.com/features/1022)
Dig the significance.
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Elder statesman waxes profound:
http://dustedmagazine.com/features/1022 (http://dustedmagazine.com/features/1022)
Dig the significance.
Stephen and I looked out at the surf from the boardwalk. A rainstorm was misting most people off this thoroughfare, as a bonfire burned on the beach, unattended, for whose benefit we couldn?t say. = needs writing tutor, report to Student Services Building for help from fellow undergrad. The surf was coming FROM the boardwalk, etc.
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http://www.dustedmagazine.com/features/1016
Even better. It HAS to be a failed attempt at self-parody?
One problem is that writer has never evinced a sense of humor before this.
"The shame of unintended bed-soiling. The release of orgasm. It?s a powerful juxtaposition. And the Jungian power of ?Wet the Bed? doesn?t end there."
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Whoa. Where do you even begin?
Maybe with this?
"Chavez and a few drinks have me a bit full of myself."
I especially love the writing about watching a movie about someone else having a profound experience. That's so now. Makes me feel gross. Smoke yr own DMT, drink yr own cup o' yage, trip on yr own star blah blah blegh..
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This is the worst, and it underscores all the issues I have with this thing that I do for free, writing about music, because it has to be done.
I am mad. He is lucky.
The days feel long now, for some reason, my psyche?s gift to my person.
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Or, simply:
This is the worst.
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"This is the end of part 1 of this story."
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"...out of the pail."
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We're such dicks.
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We're such dicks.
We are beyond the pail(sic).
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We're such dicks.
We are beyond the pail(sic).
really and truely
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From Pfork top 50 albums list re: tUnE-yArDs.
"Though Merrill Garbus' percussive w h o k i l l pulls from a variety of genres and cultures, when listening to it I kept coming back to Walt Whitman."
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From Pfork top 50 albums list re: tUnE-yArDs.
"Though Merrill Garbus' percussive w h o k i l l pulls from a variety of genres and cultures, when listening to it I kept coming back to Walt Whitman."
Brilliant!
I downloaded that shitt a few months ago, btw, and watched some live vids. Pee-you!
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The days feel long now, smiller; my psyche's gift to my person.
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http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/14498896465/shoppers-silver-year-lp-drugged-conscience-feeble (http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/14498896465/shoppers-silver-year-lp-drugged-conscience-feeble)
I hope I get this right, because to not give Silver Year the praise it deserves would cheat us all.
She is easily one of the most gifted lyricists I?ve read in I can?t remember how long, enunciating tales of the struggle to exist in a world currently in the process of its most dominant groups of humans losing power, and trying to assert themselves wherever they can.
Themes of alcoholism, sexual assault, and social dynamics are balanced with words of strength and reinvention
From Mind Intrusion blog: i cant really make out much of the lyrics (and i dont have a lyric sheet) im pretty sure i heard "hold me down, fuck my mouth" though...
Dreadful writing (and pathetic sensitive-man/"ally" posturing) aside, I must give the Moose credit: this is a very good record. The drummer's a monster. No idea what the supposedly great lyrics are all about (and if they're about "alcoholism, sexual assault, and social dynamics," who gives a shit?), but the band ROARS. The songs on their album all run together and have no titles (they're identified only by number). They've got a nice design aesthetic too. You can stream it in its entirety here: http://shoppers.bandcamp.com/album/silver-year (http://shoppers.bandcamp.com/album/silver-year)
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still single, still shitty
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Re: the Shoppers essay: why fourth gear?
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"Time will only tell if they have written a new page in punk rock, but it seems possible."
ugh.
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I am reading new Paul Nelson book.
One of my charges recently opined, "The progress of the human race is downward."
He is correct.
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Time will only tell what it wants you to hear. Only time will tell if one "super nice" record review has improved the lot of vulnerable women everywhere by introducing those women and their allies to a noisy new punk rock band from Syracuse. Anything is possible, right?
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can anyone whose actually met 'the moose' in person offer their take as to whether or not hes as big a piece of shit in person as he makes himself out to be via his writing? i mean i'd generally try not to judge someone soley based on their crappy internet record reviews, and in what is a decidedly anti-mousrock thread i take this to all be extremely self-evident, but he consistently paints himself to be an utterly joyless, insufferable prick. if you don't like writing about records (that you probably got for free) than don't. it's really that easy. he seems to actively dislike music, and the only time he shows enthusiasm it's in a completely transparrent way, like showing how enlightened or sympathetic he's is to the cause of the battered female. some of the most egotistical (not to mention worst) writing i've ever read.
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I know him personally and he's a pathetic human piece of garbage in real life. Even his closest friends kinda cringe when his name comes up. Seriously.
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I know him personally and he's a pathetic human piece of garbage in real life. Even his closest friends kinda cringe when his name comes up. Seriously.
:o
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Just listened to that Shoppers album and it's merely competent 90s-style indie-punk with that annoying "vocals-thru-amp" sound that doesn't change the entire fucking record. Gimme, I dunno, Trumans Water? or hell maybe even Picasso fucking Trigger. Whatever. Probably decent live.
Future of punk? I'm still sticking with "No Future."
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the thread that keeps on giving!
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Gotta say, I read his reviews because he sometimes recommends good stuff. But lately his writing has been insufferable. His "story" on Dusted was the last straw for me. Pure self-centered shit. And he split it in two parts! Fuck.
That Shoppers album is average. At times it sounds like louder 90's emo.
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Moosey's last Termbo flame out was decent, wasn't it? Does anyone have a link? He should come back and stake his claim. Brain wrestle Loy. Arm wrestle Richie, and maybe mud wrestle me:
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6sZ_Mo86dbw/Ti2SQXq2eQI/AAAAAAAABkA/RtaxCDXMzp8/s1600/Stripes+2.jpg)
Erick Hughes could m.c. His wit is legendary.
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First time I met The Moose was at SXSW. He was buddies with Sharkey and was tagging along with Clockcleaner and Times New Viking on their tour. I had dropped some acid one of the days we were all in Austin and eventually went to see Clockcleaner play some Vice party or something. I was tripping pretty hard and gettin' funky to Clockcleaner's live jams when some group of Mexican girls kept on pushing me. They had no place at a punk show, much less any place in the pit of a Clockcleaner set. I wasn't being unruly, just enjoying myself. I kept on reigning myself in and having to prevent myself from annihilating a group of minority women in public. I was trying to be good. Eventually one of these bitches punched me in the ear. I turned around and they were all with some very large Latino dude with red dreadlocks, his head shaves around the sides and a bunch of facial piercings. Total "alt" douche. Anyway, I fucked him up real bad since people get so bent out of shape about hitting chicks. I went into animal mode, held him on the ground by his hair and literally beat the piercings out of his face, leaving him lying in a pool of his own blood.
People were alternately excited, scared, amused, whatever. Doug was really impressed. He followed me to another bar and kept on telling me how cool it was I beat up someone cause they looked like such a douche. I kept telling him it had nothing to do with what the guy looked like, but because I was punched in the ear. He wouldn't hear it. He kept on talking about the dude's hair. Eventually he bought me a drink for being up such a loser. I reluctantly drank the beer while still trying to explain to the guy that yeah, he may have looked like a douche, but that had absolutely no bearings on my actions.
I have not trusted the dude since, because I just don't dig people who think it's cool to beat up people because they're not as hip as you, especially when your idea of hip is being an insufferable fat piece of shit.
Then the whole Drunkdriver thing happened and dude revealed his true colors to a lot of other people. Unfortunately, nobody has taken his ass out yet. If I were in charge, nobody would be attacked because of how they look, or what music they're into, but people like him, with his fucked up sense of morality would be shot on the spot and left as an example to others.
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First time I met The Moose was at SXSW. He was buddies with Sharkey and was tagging along with Clockcleaner and Times New Viking on their tour. I had dropped some acid one of the days we were all in Austin and eventually went to see Clockcleaner play some Vice party or something. I was tripping pretty hard and gettin' funky to Clockcleaner's live jams when some group of Mexican girls kept on pushing me. They had no place at a punk show, much less any place in the pit of a Clockcleaner set. I wasn't being unruly, just enjoying myself. I kept on reigning myself in and having to prevent myself from annihilating a group of minority women in public. I was trying to be good. Eventually one of these bitches punched me in the ear. I turned around and they were all with some very large Latino dude with red dreadlocks, his head shaves around the sides and a bunch of facial piercings. Total "alt" douche. Anyway, I fucked him up real bad since people get so bent out of shape about hitting chicks. I went into animal mode, held him on the ground by his hair and literally beat the piercings out of his face, leaving him lying in a pool of his own blood.
People were alternately excited, scared, amused, whatever. Doug was really impressed. He followed me to another bar and kept on telling me how cool it was I beat up someone cause they looked like such a douche. I kept telling him it had nothing to do with what the guy looked like, but because I was punched in the ear. He wouldn't hear it. He kept on talking about the dude's hair. Eventually he bought me a drink for being up such a loser. I reluctantly drank the beer while still trying to explain to the guy that yeah, he may have looked like a douche, but that had absolutely no bearings on my actions.
I have not trusted the dude since, because I just don't dig people who think it's cool to beat up people because they're not as hip as you, especially when your idea of hip is being an insufferable fat piece of shit.
Then the whole Drunkdriver thing happened and dude revealed his true colors to a lot of other people. Unfortunately, nobody has taken his ass out yet. If I were in charge, nobody would be attacked because of how they look, or what music they're into, but people like him, with his fucked up sense of morality would be shot on the spot and left as an example to others.
I'm saying this honestly, without any mockery, that you need to hook up with John Milius and write a script based around your life. At the very least you should take some of the stories in your life and do a column about them.
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Tiny Mix Tapes' 50 Favorites of 2011 feature is a tour de force of bad writing. Too many examples to choose from, but my favorite is probably the ungrammatical "meditation" on Derrida and Marx that leads into a review of an ambient drone record (and the reviewer is only talking about the title).
http://m.tinymixtapes.com/features/2011-favorite-50-albums-2011 (http://m.tinymixtapes.com/features/2011-favorite-50-albums-2011)
Everything is grand, everything is significant in 2011.
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I don't think Mososuroaorock is a bad writer. Miserable, maybe. But bad, no. I have no idea what he's like personally. He probably sucks. Most people do. I will say that I don't care about the shit he covers. But it sounds like he doesn't either. I don't know why he bothers.
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To be fair, my judgment is based on the abovementioned link, so I don't know how the rest of his shit reads. And I'm not going to look at any other stuff.
A lot of this thread seems like a witch hunt. And that's fine -- I get it. I understand and agree with the context. Lending any significance at all to most music coming out seems like a thankless and pointless task. That, to me, is the greatest goof. Just ignore it. It sucks. Fine. Flush it. Why honor it with writing at all? Let it pass. A piece on ATP is ridiculous in and of itself. Why? Why? Why? You think Malkumuuuus (or whoever) is reading this? Me neither. G'bye.
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Tiny Mix Tapes' 50 Favorites of 2011 feature is a tour de force of bad writing. Too many examples to choose from, but my favorite is probably the ungrammatical "meditation" on Derrida and Marx that leads into a review of an ambient drone record (and the reviewer is only talking about the title).
http://m.tinymixtapes.com/features/2011-favorite-50-albums-2011 (http://m.tinymixtapes.com/features/2011-favorite-50-albums-2011)
Everything is grand, everything is significant in 2011.
Avant-garde jazz has a tendency to lack emotion
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Avant-garde jazz has a tendency to lack emotion
That's Elliott Sharp's write-up isn't it?From the ones I read it was the only one I understood what he was saying.
Definetely didn't make me want to get the record(and I like my free jazz) but at least it read like human writing.
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(1) I can't say "Gang Gang Dance" without laughing out loud
and
(2) Replica was composed from 80s TV commercials
........................ ..what.
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Tiny Mix Tapes' 50 Favorites of 2011 feature is a tour de force of bad writing. Too many examples to choose from, but my favorite is probably the ungrammatical "meditation" on Derrida and Marx that leads into a review of an ambient drone record (and the reviewer is only talking about the title).
http://m.tinymixtapes.com/features/2011-favorite-50-albums-2011 (http://m.tinymixtapes.com/features/2011-favorite-50-albums-2011)
Everything is grand, everything is significant in 2011.
A cultural studies master's thesis gone amok. And, yes, a masters thesis is almost always a worthless undertaking.
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I can't believe how fucking serious all of this bullshit is. How are you gonna take some Pizza Neon GameBoy New Age music and make a thesis out of it???::::
So I was listening to this bingo troll in his bedroom try and sound like Tangerine Dream. A penis really is a vagina. Music Is Dead. Long live mediafire. White girls with gold chains and digital delay make me breathe again. The future of art/music/art is a bubble chested backstroke in a tepid pond, turd filled....maybe she will let me buy her a drink.
Can I join the fucking club now? Get free/shitty records and be a blogging fucking Gargamel????
THIS IS WHY I LISTEN TO THIN LIZZY AND USE ALL CAPS
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not sure if these two dweebs were mentioned in the other sixty pages of the thread -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoGNPP0bMes
college dorm dorks review records on youtube. ha ha , you'll get a kick out of this stuff. maybe they've already gone viral.
i linked an old one up above because they think a dude sings in beach house. but the archives are good listening.
also, gang gang dance is the JAM !
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the nerd from The Needle Drop was at the record store I went to today. Freaked me out.
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OMG! Finally! The Moose's TOP 30 ALBUMS OF 2012!!!
http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/15086094393/2011 (http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/15086094393/2011)
Wait -- where's EMA?!
WHERE'S EMA?!
How could you forget EMA?!! You picked Sloan but no EMA?! The OBN III but no EMA?! Fucking Silk Flowers and NO EMA?!
Lest we forget:
Erika M. Anderson was once half of West Coast duo Gowns, whose chilling records dissolve under the scorching personal heat of her solo debut as EMA. Nothing so powerful in the singer-songwriter vein has found its way to the marketplace in as long as me, you, or anyone without a bias can recall, a record that intimately carves up troubling lyrical content into pieces of breathy, death-defying balladry, a record that finds an artist (finally) traversing the same emotional minefields as Tori Amos with modern sensibilities and just as daring a sonic template. The nine songs on Past Life Martyred Saints sound as if they were recorded through a sonic microscope, leaving you painfully close to the source of Anderson's tales of hurt, discomfort, and the sunrise that serves to wipe the slate clean for it to happen all over again. She exhibits masterful control over the recording environment, layering guitars, synths, drums and voice into a bruised yet stoic whole, daring you to turn away. Thing is, though, with her Stevie Nicks-meets-Karen O vocals, you won't be able to. An unforgettable new voice, definitely one of 2011's most striking debuts, almost entirely disposing of pretense and delivering as honest and as withering a performance as you're going to hear this year or any other. [DM]
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Eric Cecil, I invite you to consider the style and substance of this review:
http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/15280300156/terror-visions-world-of-shit-lp-fdh (http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/15280300156/terror-visions-world-of-shit-lp-fdh)
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And here's some vintage bullshit from Pitchfork! Did you know that Pitchfork reviewed NWW CDs once upon a time? It happened! And it went something like this:
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/5872-livin-fear-of-james-last/ (http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/5872-livin-fear-of-james-last/)
Same jackass:
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/11790-salt-marie-celeste-she-and-me-fall-together-in-free-death-the-musty-odour-of-pierced-rectums/ (http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/11790-salt-marie-celeste-she-and-me-fall-together-in-free-death-the-musty-odour-of-pierced-rectums/)
Dude is so clueless he thinks Stapleton is "grim." Nice jokes, buddie! Ha ha ha. NWW puts out a lot of albums! LOLz.
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Eric Cecil, I invite you to consider the style and substance of this review:
http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/15280300156/terror-visions-world-of-shit-lp-fdh (http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/15280300156/terror-visions-world-of-shit-lp-fdh)
What a fuckin' asshole! Seriously. I can't even begin...
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Eric Cecil, I invite you to consider the style and substance of this review:
http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/15280300156/terror-visions-world-of-shit-lp-fdh (http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/15280300156/terror-visions-world-of-shit-lp-fdh)
Style: Again, not a bad writer, as far as syntax, word choice, structure, etc. -- but it's dry and preachy, so it sucks. Which covers the substance, I guess.
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Irrelevant-rant-as-review: http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/14830521782/x-ray-eyeballs-sundae-b-w-deja-vu-7-hardly-art
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I'm still not thoroughly bothered by anything this guy does! Wow.
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Eric Cecil, I invite you to consider the style and substance of this review:
http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/15280300156/terror-visions-world-of-shit-lp-fdh (http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/15280300156/terror-visions-world-of-shit-lp-fdh)
What a fuckin' asshole! Seriously. I can't even begin...
I'm with Eric....I don't see what's so offensive about this review or most of Mosurock's stuff....I've seen some real hatchet jobs on the still single site but this is nowhere near that. Andrew Earles is the real culprit
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Phony moralizing re. the artwork aside, there's these two monster "sentences":
This edition comes in a much more tasteful gatefold sleeve, with a simple, discofied layout, and a bunch of pictures of Jay Reatard candidly smiling, pouting, or playing guitar on some stage in the layout ? things which go against the harshness of this record, and which I seriously doubt would have been depicted as such were he still alive.
I guess there will never be the kind of ?greatest hits? activity over a guy who crammed so much recording into a dozen or so years, and that we essentially have the good times to remember of those who no longer with us, but I?m against things which could be construed as altering Jay?s public image, for whatever reason.
That last one makes no grammatical sense. I'm not allergic to bad grammar and syntax per se, but when you combine shitty, ungrammatical prose with airs of serious-mindedness, it becomes laughable -- like Danzig writing an opera, or that cartoon character The Brain, from Pinky and the Brain, who wants to take over the world but can't even reach the kitchen counter.
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I object to the run-on sentences, and the fact that he never discusses the actual music, which of course creates the impression that he never listened to the record.
I almost wish industry-driven entities like Cashbox, and their ilk, were still around. Their reviews were so straight-forward and bottom-line it was like Joe Friday from Dragnet was writing them. They totally lack the personality and manic vision that the best zine-level writers can dish out, but too many indie writers are unapologetically subjective. Pitchfork is the default indie rock version of Cashbox, and it utterly fails at satisfying its most basic mission: acting as a consumer guide. Just the facts, ma'am.
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Another overused word on my personal hatelist: "bliss," and especially "blissed out." Fucking gross, man! And what's wrong with you jagoffs, you "bliss out" over anything! How do you stay alive? How are you able to hold down a job, "blissing out" all the time?
(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1342/1356381809_bcf1282e6a.jpg)
"Oh, god, this Tim Hecker mp3 is transporting me into the 6th dimension. Will I ever return?!"
(http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l0gqe3rqaS1qznri0o1_r2_500.jpg)
"Mmph. Yeah, that's it, that's it. Harder, Sniper, harder."
(http://us.cdn1.123rf.com/168nwm/keeweeboy/keeweeboy0902/keeweeboy090200126/4349331-girl-wearing-headphones.jpg)
"Ahhhhhhh... Slowdive feels just like a tiny little cock...."
(http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/91282/91282,1277458437,3/stock-photo-close-up-of-pretty-girl-in-headphones-listening-to-music-with-pleasure-55926388.jpg)
"Ungh! This new jam is orgasmichjhslkjlkjsahhhh, somebody stop me, I'm losing myself, wanna dance... more."
(http://www.featurepics.com/FI/Thumb300/20081114/Man-Wearing-Headphones-964083.jpg)
"If I concentrate I will come all over this Shins LP."
(http://static3.depositphotos.com/1007959/234/i/450/dep_2342960-Man-Wearing-Headphones.jpg)
"Oh! Ahhahhahahhahhahahha! Emeralds!"
(http://www.visualphotos.com/photo/2x4309858/Senior_man_wearing_headphones_eyes_shut_close-up_KY117018.jpg)
"I'm so fucking old, this Jurgen Muller record sounds like death -- sweet, sweet death."
(http://photobig.kachabank.com/2011072802/5696013-b.JPG)
"Gang, Gang... Dance."
(http://cfs14.tistory.com/image/24/tistory/2009/01/23/11/32/49792c533fba8)
"Oh, man, this beat I just made is bangin'. This beat... I feel so queer. Don't let it stop."
(http://www.radioopensource.org/wp-content/OliverSacks.jpg)
"Hee hee hee, Scriabin, oh my, hee hee hee hee hee."
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Phony moralizing re. the artwork aside, there's these two monster "sentences":
This edition comes in a much more tasteful gatefold sleeve, with a simple, discofied layout, and a bunch of pictures of Jay Reatard candidly smiling, pouting, or playing guitar on some stage in the layout ? things which go against the harshness of this record, and which I seriously doubt would have been depicted as such were he still alive.
I guess there will never be the kind of ?greatest hits? activity over a guy who crammed so much recording into a dozen or so years, and that we essentially have the good times to remember of those who no longer with us, but I?m against things which could be construed as altering Jay?s public image, for whatever reason.
That last one makes no grammatical sense. I'm not allergic to bad grammar and syntax per se, but when you combine shitty, agrammatical prose with airs of serious-mindedness, it becomes laughable -- like Danzig writing an opera, or that cartoon character The Brain, from Pinky and the Brain, who wants to take over the world but can't even reach the kitchen counter.
OK, the second one is fucked. The first one is just there. I don't find it offensive. I don't find him offensive.
Not sure I've ever read Andrew Earles. I guess I don't care!
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Earles is much, much worse. A sad case, really.
I object to the run-on sentences, and the fact that he never discusses the actual music, which of course creates the impression that he never listened to the record.
I almost wish industry-driven entities like Cashbox, and their ilk, were still around. Their reviews were so straight-forward and bottom-line it was like Joe Friday from Dragnet was writing them. They totally lack the personality and manic vision that the best zine-level writers can dish out, but too many indie writers are unapologetically subjective. Pitchfork is the default indie rock version of Cashbox, and it utterly fails at satisfying its most basic mission: acting as a consumer guide. Just the facts, ma'am.
The "subjective" aspect is definitely a huge part of the problem, not just with Moose but with a lot of post-Pitchfork writers. But what bugs me even more is the tendency to write about records as though every release were an event -- not necessarily an Event, if you understand what I mean -- but, you know, the notion that every artist's career follows some kind of arc, and that the music reviewer community's consensus response to a given record is a matter of objective fact in the artist's career. For example:
"[Cass McCombs has] played with folk, grafting bedroom pop flourishes to sonic skeletons just strong enough to support them. He swam through 1980s Brit jangle and deep chasms of reverb. No matter how much mileage he accrued, one constant held firm: His lyrical shell games often kept listeners at arm's length, regardless of how well-crafted and inviting his melodies were. McCombs' songs were addictively opaque-- easy to hear, tough to digest, and even more difficult to describe to your friends over beers.
McCombs' slipperiness seemed as much like a rejection and re-routing of the traditional singer-songwriter tag as it did a refusal to meet a listener halfway, as though the dude were allergic to interpretation or the idea that someone, anyone, might want to peer inside his braincave.
[...]
While Conor Oberst's been saddled/showered with New Dylan hosannas and critical tongue baths this decade, McCombs has fashioned himself a groove as new school rambler and pokerfaced tone poet totally under the radar. It's a space he seems and sounds to have been most comfortable in. Until now."
There's a few very annoying tendencies at work here that have become a commonplace of indie music reviews: (1) A tendency by the writer to assume the mantle of spokesperson for the artist's fans; (2) An assumption that the artist's listeners make up a coherent community; (3) The presentation of a banal opinion as an objective fact; (4) A misguided presumption of intent on the part of the musician ("to keep the listener at arm's length?" What musician thinks that way?)
I happen to think McCombs is a very good songwriter, but I'm completely uninterested in him as a human being. I don't know the guy -- why should I care? And most indie musicians are even less interesting than McCombs, who seems to be a rather intelligent guy with an unusual life. So why write a review of his new record that goes to such lengths to "contextualize" it within his (very short, not very prolific) career, and then ascribe to it all these extra-musical aspects? It shouldn't be difficult for a music writer to describe a record, and yet that's exactly what most of these reviewers fail to do, or deliberately avoid doing. I think it's interesting to analyze music from different perspectives, but that's not what's going on here either -- this is pure speculation and weak mythologizing.
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(http://www.radioopensource.org/wp-content/OliverSacks.jpg)
"Hee hee hee, Scriabin, oh my, hee hee hee hee hee."
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Gotta say, I read his reviews because he sometimes recommends good stuff. But lately his writing has been insufferable. His "story" on Dusted was the last straw for me. Pure self-centered shit. And he split it in two parts! Fuck.
That Shoppers album is average. At times it sounds like louder 90's emo.
I'm listening to it now. I haven't really enjoyed this kind of music for a long time so I'm not a good judge of it. Definitely get the early 90's emo vibe you mention. Maybe a little Vitapup? But I'm digging the drums like Whet Bull said. It's not breaking any new ground, for sure, but there's something to it.
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Another overused word on my personal hatelist: "bliss," and especially "blissed out." Fucking gross, man! And what's wrong with you jagoffs, you "bliss out" over anything! How do you stay alive? How are you able to hold down a job, "blissing out" all the time?
(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1342/1356381809_bcf1282e6a.jpg)
"Oh, god, this Tim Hecker mp3 is transporting me into the 6th dimension. Will I ever return?!"
(http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l0gqe3rqaS1qznri0o1_r2_500.jpg)
"Mmph. Yeah, that's it, that's it. Harder, Sniper, harder."
(http://us.cdn1.123rf.com/168nwm/keeweeboy/keeweeboy0902/keeweeboy090200126/4349331-girl-wearing-headphones.jpg)
"Ahhhhhhh... Slowdive feels just like a tiny little cock...."
(http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/91282/91282,1277458437,3/stock-photo-close-up-of-pretty-girl-in-headphones-listening-to-music-with-pleasure-55926388.jpg)
"Ungh! This new jam is orgasmichjhslkjlkjsahhhh, somebody stop me, I'm losing myself, wanna dance... more."
(http://www.featurepics.com/FI/Thumb300/20081114/Man-Wearing-Headphones-964083.jpg)
"If I concentrate I will come all over this Shins LP."
(http://static3.depositphotos.com/1007959/234/i/450/dep_2342960-Man-Wearing-Headphones.jpg)
"Oh! Ahhahhahahhahhahahha! Emeralds!"
(http://www.visualphotos.com/photo/2x4309858/Senior_man_wearing_headphones_eyes_shut_close-up_KY117018.jpg)
"I'm so fucking old, this Jurgen Muller record sounds like death -- sweet, sweet death."
(http://photobig.kachabank.com/2011072802/5696013-b.JPG)
"Gang, Gang... Dance."
(http://cfs14.tistory.com/image/24/tistory/2009/01/23/11/32/49792c533fba8)
"Oh, man, this beat I just made is bangin'. This beat... I feel so queer. Don't let it stop."
(http://www.radioopensource.org/wp-content/OliverSacks.jpg)
"Hee hee hee, Scriabin, oh my, hee hee hee hee hee."
Hall of fame post here, great stuff!
I am currently blissing out to the new Starving Weirdos album.
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Dave Martin, a man after my own heart. Starving Weirdos are the best. Dig that widescreen soundscaping!
(http://beatbird.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/depeche_mode.jpg?w=285)
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There's a few very annoying tendencies at work here that have become a commonplace of indie music reviews: (1) A tendency by the writer to assume the mantle of spokesperson for the artist's fans; (2) An assumption that the artist's listeners make up a coherent community; (3) The presentation of a banal opinion as an objective fact; (4) A misguided presumption of intent on the part of the musician ("to keep the listener at arm's length?" What musician thinks that way?)
These are the core problems, very succinct. Most of these tendencies also function as excuses for the writer to avoid discussing the music itself, how boring. I think many "intelligent" folks get fed up with their assignments, thinking that their multiple degrees vaults them above merely descriptive-workmanlike prose and into the realms of cultural contextualization. The primary culprit for encouraging this bullshit was Rolling Stone, circa the mid-late 80s. All of their record reviews back then read as either hippie-era hagiography (Dylan/Zappa/Paul Simon/etc.) or junior-year sociology assignments (U2/Talking Heads/The Boss as new avatars for...everything!). The other extreme was the reactionary MRR line of sticking to just a few sentences, which was a justified reaction against bloviating RS-style essayship, at least until the minimalism was itself invaded by subjectivity: "Total crap man, maybe it's just me, but I never liked garage punk. (BM)" I wrote for MRR for over a decade, and tried to strike a balance between the minimal and the expository. Didn't always succeed, but I always felt the record deserved to be described accurately, at the least. In the case of micro-label releases, my review might be the only time the record would be discussed at length outside of the label hype sheet or one sentence in a mailorder catalog.
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Word.
I'm sad to report that the reigning champion of the descriptive-record-review-as-art, Mark Prindle, has retired his website after nearly 15 years of hilarity and insight. Over the years, markprindle.com (http://markprindle.com) served not only as a repository of sharp, honest music criticism, but as an epic work of autobiography and toilet humor. Mark's the only record reviewer I can think of whose work I could describe as "touching." After spending a few hours reading his stuff, one had the feeling of knowing the guy, such was his mania for self-disclosure. The guy has a one-of-a-kind sense of humor that mixes the absurd and the vulgar in a way that could make Lou Reed shoot diarrhea from his dickhole (Prindle hates VU, by the way). He had good rock 'n' roll ears, too, and he didn't front: he never "got" jazz, and never could listen to "experimental" music. He seemed to stop paying much attention to new artists sometime in the early aughts, but it hardly mattered because here was a music crit writer you went to not for "news" on the "hottest new bands," but for unexpected sidelong insights into bands you already know, and for riotously funny, "offensive," self-deprecating jokes.
Over the years, markprindle.com documented the author's long-term relationship with xxxxx, his college girlfriend, then his wife, now his ex-wife, in harrowing detail. It followed Mark's epic bouts of alcoholism and detailed his very real Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, which was likely what prompted him to undertake the first place (he's a compulsive writer, and he wouldn't post a review of a band until he had listened to and reviewed EVERY SINGLE ONE of the band's records). In 2010, Mark's wife left him and he went on a frightening, months-long bender. The divorce came on the heels of nearly two years of unemployment and depression. Then he had to sell his NYC apartment. Then he quit drinking, entered into a new relationship, and found a new job. Then his beloved dog, Henry, died of cancer. At that point, he decided to close up shop. He decided that this 15-year project, like his ex-wife, his ex-apartment, and his departed doggie, belonged to his former life and he needed to move on. Plus, he was sick of reviewing records.
I've met Mark a number of times and I like him very much. He's a kind, honest person who genuinely cares greatly about other people. He also struck me as someone who's very much in his own world and, despite the crazy openness he exhibits in his writing, is really only close with a very small group of people. The sense that one "knows" the guy is, I think, very much an illusion, and I suspect it was the source of many weird encounters for him, online and in real life.
His site was also a magnet for overwhelming nastiness from clueless idiots who stumbled upon his site by doing a Google search for "Pink Floyd," or "Tool," or "U2." The site was a proto-blog of sorts: readers were invited to send in their own comments or reviews, and Mark would post every single one after his own reviews section. Often these reader comments were nothing but a stream of moronic insults from people too dense to pick up on his humor, obsessive fans who took personal offense to what they (often mistakenly) perceived as negative reviews of their favorite bands. The reader comments section of Mark's site reads like a study in music-fan pathology, a proof of John Sharkey's remark that "music fans are the worst people in the world."
Anyway, Mark seems pretty happy with his new life, and I can't blame him for finally shutting the lid on his site, but I will miss his updates immensely and I hope he finds a new outlet for his writing once the muse strikes again. If this sounds like an obituary... well, it is, but I'm also happy for Prindle, 'cos it sounds like he's entered into a very positive new period in his life, and the guy is as decent a chap as I've met.
His final update was cranky and perfunctory but in it he left us several memorable gems, my favorite of which is this passage from his review of a Brian Eno record:
This is pretty interesting: a few minutes ago I was in the bathroom poop-texting somebody (holding the phone up to my large intestine and squeezing in and out in order to tap each letter with my hardened fecal log) when suddenly Brian Eno plopped out into my toilet. "Hay what are you doing" I said, and he said "What? I'm a piece of shit." So I said, "No you made a couple good albums 400 years ago." Then he played one note in my toilet for half an hour.[/]
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I object to the run-on sentences, and the fact that he never discusses the actual music, which of course creates the impression that he never listened to the record.
I almost wish industry-driven entities like Cashbox, and their ilk, were still around. Their reviews were so straight-forward and bottom-line it was like Joe Friday from Dragnet was writing them. They totally lack the personality and manic vision that the best zine-level writers can dish out, but too many indie writers are unapologetically subjective. Pitchfork is the default indie rock version of Cashbox, and it utterly fails at satisfying its most basic mission: acting as a consumer guide. Just the facts, ma'am.
I have never, ever read about music solely as a "consumer guide." I am frankly bored with that type of writing. I don't think of it as writing, anyway. It's cataloging.
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What a stupid thing to say. Sports fans are the worst people in the world.
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Sports fans are the worst people in the world.
(http://gifs.gifbin.com/1233928590_citizen%20kane%20clapping.gif)
That Eno quote is hilarious. I liked the Mark Prindle stuff - that's a bummer.
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I object to the run-on sentences, and the fact that he never discusses the actual music, which of course creates the impression that he never listened to the record.
I almost wish industry-driven entities like Cashbox, and their ilk, were still around. Their reviews were so straight-forward and bottom-line it was like Joe Friday from Dragnet was writing them. They totally lack the personality and manic vision that the best zine-level writers can dish out, but too many indie writers are unapologetically subjective. Pitchfork is the default indie rock version of Cashbox, and it utterly fails at satisfying its most basic mission: acting as a consumer guide. Just the facts, ma'am.
I have never, ever read about music solely as a "consumer guide." I am frankly bored with that type of writing. I don't think of it as writing, anyway. It's cataloging.
No, you misunderstand me. "Product descriptions" are for vendor catalogs, usually a mix of hype, name-checking and faux-insider bullshitting. I'm not referring to the writing style, but to the goal: should you actually spend money to buy this fucking record or not? Is it worth your time? Why or why not? Time = money muthafucka!! Calling it a "consumer guide" is my way of saying to a reviewer: put your fucking nuts on the line, quit horsing around about semiotics or your personal-cum-universal views on social factors related to listening to the record, and tell me if it's worth my sending $18 to Goner or Permanent or Indoorsman or SS or Fusetron, etc etc. This, instead of lecturing me on whatever Foucault-driven minutia that's up your ass that week. If you want to qualify as an actual record reviewer, do your job.
You can make exceptions for guys like Prindle, because then you are spending your time with an entertaining writer who just happens to hang his hat on the record review format, almost as an organizational conceit. Most reviewers who tip over into this approach are just not interesting enough to justify my time, so I default to utility. It's a defensive posture vs. the Pitchfork types, you know what I'm getting at.
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No, I get it. I just don't think record reviews mean very much, especially when the reviewer has an endless line on promos, or he collects records regardless of their quality, or he has some sort of agenda... How often is this the case? Any one of those? All three?
I can remember reading rags like MRR and Punk Planet as a kid and being plenty pissed when I realized how noncommital those folks were in their reviews! Ha.
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It doesn't help that there's not really a ground-zero for musical inspiration right now. You can look back through time & easily see the musical spark travel through jazz, rock, folk, noise, reggae etc but now there are just flashes here & there (maybe Australia is the exception?). Any publication doing reviews & just focusing on a particular genre is gonna be sifting through a ton of uninspired shit. It's not that surprising to be getting an essay on how "man needs to redefine his connection with nature" dressed up as a Youth Lagoon review. Or a reviewer basically talking themselves in to the belief that some new record is a real game-changing, life-changing experience simply because they wish that would occasionally still happen. It really is pretty crazy to re-read the Moose's review of the EMA record in light of it not even making his top 30.
But I will hand it to Still Single - it's a smart filter to review just things on vinyl regardless of genre. Of course there will still be a bunch of shit in your mailbox but at least SOMEONE had to believe it was worth sinking a bunch of cash in to a vinyl pressing. I've been hipped to a few great records this year through that site that I would've been totally unaware of otherwise. I'm glad they started noting when a record is recommended because the endless reviews of mediocre records can get really soul-sucking.
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We could all use a little comic relief and this is worth importing from the JPG thread:
(http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/6422733223/1/tumblr_lmmu9f80Qd1qzz0ih)
(http://i1102.photobucket.com/albums/g457/downtowntragedy/pennant.jpg)
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Doesn't that child look like Ross Perot? Come to think of it, he looks like someone I know, too.
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Meh, maybe not.
(http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/08/0828_seniors_rock_business/image/ross-perot.jpg)
A little "political humor" for you, there. Picture of Ross Perot.
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Shame about Prindle. When the jokes worked he was disgustingly funny. Off to read some Alice Donut reviews.
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such as here, weighing in on "humor in music":
"Apparently there are certain people in our world that don't like novelty music. In the 1950s I would have labeled these people 'communists,' but today I'd go with 'registered sex offenders.' For some reason, these registered sex offenders think that all music should be 'serious,' and that 'joke songs' are worthless once the joke has been heard one time. My response to this line of thinking is as follows: combining the two separate forms of entertainment known as "music" and "comedy" is no less valid an artistic act than what most songwriters do, which is combine the separate forms of entertainment known as "music" and "poetry." Perhaps combining "music" with "political thought" or "social commentary" is a bit more thought-provoking than either, but the person who argues that say, Van Morrison's music is more timeless and worthy of respect than that of Ween or the Dead Milkmen is saying - to me, anyway - that this is a person who takes music a bit too seriously. Certainly there is plenty of horrendous garbage in the novelty subgenre, but what musical category is this NOT true of? I'll be good and goddamned if every "serious" songwriter in the world is worth the cost of the postage stamp it would take to mail his/her latest CD to Hell. If the music's catchy and the jokes are funny, what's the problem? What's wrong with laughing and being happy? The only conclusion I can draw is that registered sex offenders either (a) simply have no sense of humor, because there are PLENTY of hilarious people making music, or (b) for some reason consider music to be something more than mere entertainment -- something life-affirming and desperately *IMPORTANT*. But whatever. The day Pete Townshend stops masturbating to little kids on the Internet and invents an album that cures cancer - that's the day I'll agree with the registered sex offenders of the world that rock music deserves to be taken seriously."
hear, hear.
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man ive been obsessively reading prindle reviews these past couple days. dude is the man! i love how unashamed he is to bash critically acclaimed stuff when he doesnt like it. he listens to music the right way - for the songs!!!! if its a good tune prindle will rave about it, if it aint, then prindle will shit on it, no matter how hip or 'culturally important' or whatthefuckever it is. it is rare to find music critics that really focus on songwriting - most of em are blabbin too much about influences, historical context and whatever. and the dude is funny as shit. he is totally intolerant of any sort of 'jamming'/wanking and loves to talk shit about druggie musicians..
here are some choice prindle quotes, talking shit about some of my favorite music ever...
on Bowie:
David Bowie is a genius for retards.
But he has a ton of fans, so I'm going to try really hard to focus on these records and both describe how they sound to me personally and come to an understanding of how everybody who likes him is somehow not a stupid asshole with ears literally dripping shit all over the floor.
on Beach Boys - Smiley Smile:
When I was a kid, I had a dog named Smiley. He hacked and coughed a lot, much as I'm sure the Beach Boys did while taking bong hits during the production of this album.
on MC5 - Kick Out The Jams:
Singer Rob Tyner sounds exactly like a colored African-American negro, and guitarists Fred "Sonic" Smith and Wayne "Youth" Kramer are certainly crankin' up the volume, but 5/8ths of the material presented herein is just SHIT. I mean in capital letters SHIT. What would you like in your SHIT omelet this morning, kind sir? How about a loud spirited cover of a boring '50sy song -- with atonal FALSETTO vocals!? Or would you prefer an exact ripoff of "I Can See For Miles"? For that matter, how about a second song that is ALSO a complete ripoff of the "I Can See For Miles" chord changes, but played in a slightly different rhythm, almost as if the band members were too stoned to realize they'd written the same song twice? Would you like that in your SHIT omelet? Be sure and save room for some SHIT waffles, made out of a 7-minute by-the-numbers blues song! And if you still have room for some SHIT dessert, how's about an 8 1/2 minute avant-garde music concrete piece about space travel? Thanks for the tasty SHIT meal, Fred "Sonic" Smith and Wayne "The Hedgehog" Kramer!
on the Velvets:
Sitting through this album is like trying to stay awake while driving your car down an endless stretch of highway at dusk while it's lightly sprinkling outside and you know you've got about five more hours to go. In other words, play this CD in your car and YOU WILL DIE.
I don't think I've ever read a negative review of the Velvet Underground before that!!! even though I completely disagree with him its fucking refreshing to see a critic with the balls to diss these seemingly 'untouchable' bands. Go Prindle!!!
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David Bowie is a genius for retards.
Love it.
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Sorry to bother everyone with Mosurock's writing again, but look here:
http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/15712022615/dead-luke-meanwhile-in-the-midwest-lp-moon-glyph
I mean, I know that it's pretty safe to say that Dead Luke isn't the greatest psych artist of this generation or bullshit like that. But at the same time the guy releases his records on small labels, he's not hyped like some teenage summer psych shit like, i don't know, tenth Animal Collective clone band. I enjoyed his first LP. Relaxing, lethargic psych.
But fuck me sideways if this review isn't too aggressive. "Braindead Luke"? "incredibly dishonest, impersonal feel"? What the shit? Does he have some personal gripe with the guy? Was the record forced on him by the gunpoint?
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Probably a good bet that ol' Douglas is writing certain reviews to piss off Termbros. Which is actually pretty funny.
It would be funnier if he changed the name of Still Single to Future Delightful Missives.
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EFFORTLESSLY THUMBING THE UNIMAGINABLE.ORG/STILLSINGLE/LEMONPARTY.ORG
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Sorry to bother everyone with Mosurock's writing again, but look here:
http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/15712022615/dead-luke-meanwhile-in-the-midwest-lp-moon-glyph
I mean, I know that it's pretty safe to say that Dead Luke isn't the greatest psych artist of this generation or bullshit like that. But at the same time the guy releases his records on small labels, he's not hyped like some teenage summer psych shit like, i don't know, tenth Animal Collective clone band. I enjoyed his first LP. Relaxing, lethargic psych.
But fuck me sideways if this review isn't too aggressive. "Braindead Luke"? "incredibly dishonest, impersonal feel"? What the shit? Does he have some personal gripe with the guy? Was the record forced on him by the gunpoint?
I kind of liked this review. So he hated the record; thinks it's phoney. Move on. The review wasn't forced on you anymore that the record was forced on Doug, right?
Alos, Braindead Luke? Zing! Hahahaha.
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I kind of liked this review. So he hated the record; thinks it's phoney. Move on. The review wasn't forced on you anymore that the record was forced on Doug, right?
Alos, Braindead Luke? Zing! Hahahaha.
Point taken.
I just was suprised with the amount of hostility this guy got for a relatively humble record.
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And Luke certainly isn't "braindead" (from all evidence gathered, since I only know Luke personally, I'd say he's far smarter than Mooserock, who I only know from his clueless screed). Seems like a personal attack, but that happens when you don't like a record, I guess.
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Clueless screed and Scrod Pricknee go together.
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I will piss in your face.
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I'm sorry. I wasn't talking about content. I just liked the sound of the words.
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It was just a Mitch reference. That guy shits on faces.
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Yellowgreenred is still consistently good. I don't quite get why he likes certain things (e.g. Zola Jesus, Cold Cave) but he also covers much of the same ground as Still Single and he's a superior writer. Also, he knows his shit and clearly enjoys writing about it. No personal weirdness, just reasonable, well-written criticism. This week he tracked down and interviewed Culturcide -- a commendable move, for sure.
http://www.yellowgreenred.com/ (http://www.yellowgreenred.com/)
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I love that he has interviewed both No Trend AND Kyle Hall. Would love to see that kind of stuff in a print zine, like NGL-meets-Woofah.
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That blog is always the reason behind me checking out stuff like Ford & Lopatin etc. I ignore the shit successfully until Matt writes about it.
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In 2012 the quality of a reviewer is equivalent to his ability to convince you to buy a release on Mexican Summer.
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;D
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http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6888
A nice two-fer here. Taking potshots at ponderous music criticism but still managing to actually talk about the record in a way that doesn't make me want to hate the reviewer or the music.
I still won't buy this Mexican Summer release, so maybe he's not actually a good reviewer?
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http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6888
A nice two-fer here. Taking potshots at ponderous music criticism but still managing to actually talk about the record in a way that doesn't make me want to hate the reviewer or the music.
I still won't buy this Mexican Summer release, so maybe he's not actually a good reviewer?
Maybe you won't buy it because it isn't as good as anything by the Alan Parsons Project?
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http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6888
A nice two-fer here. Taking potshots at ponderous music criticism but still managing to actually talk about the record in a way that doesn't make me want to hate the reviewer or the music.
I still won't buy this Mexican Summer release, so maybe he's not actually a good reviewer?
My man, LaBonte. Jalapeno eyes, that reads to me as mostly a negative review. BLaB is the only music writer saying this shit in a mainstream forum.
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http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6888
A nice two-fer here. Taking potshots at ponderous music criticism but still managing to actually talk about the record in a way that doesn't make me want to hate the reviewer or the music.
I still won't buy this Mexican Summer release, so maybe he's not actually a good reviewer?
My man, LaBonte. Jalapeno eyes, that reads to me as mostly a negative review. BLaB is the only music writer saying this shit in a mainstream forum.
Yeah, it's mostly negative, but what I meant to say was that, while it's pretty clear LaBonte sees through Lopatin's shtick, he's still upfront about the parts of the record that work. The last paragraph read to me as a way of saying, "yeah, this guy's full of shit, but getting down to the music, it's fine, if not particularly memorable." It's easy to knock guys like Lopatin just based on their turgid theorizing but LaBonte handles the actual music. I thought it was a well-written review, and I don't give a shit about OPN either way.
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The wrap-up of that review is pretty lazy. "In the end, it's all good" & "there are far worse things out there". Come on.
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LaBonte can't write for shit. The review under review is filled with meta-writing (writing about what he's writing) characterized by needless first person narration alternating w/ semi-passivity.
Did you really need the whole A. Parsons' back story as one of dozens of examples. If LaBonte's writing was food it would be the gruel served in Third World prisons.
Lopatin's music is awful, unabatedly.
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i gotta say, if the reviews on Dusted or Pitchfork were actually well written little nugs of insight, it probably wouldn't work. the format requires at least 4-5 paragraphs of bullshit to make the page not look completely empty, and they're catering to the whole clued in Wired iPhone gen music dilettantes who think they know everything, and can figure it out for themselves thank you very much. if reviews were straight and to the point, or diverged too far from the pseudo-scholar/research tech speak, the thin facade would shatter and everybody involved would be out of a job. fluff is a sustainable model.
maybe the writing of course the writing sucks, but they're laughing all the way to the bank
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The quality of the writing is secondary to the music covered, most of which is horseshit. Any one of these reviewers could be incredible scribes -- it wouldn't matter. They're writing about cardboard and styrofoam bands.
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Under Review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jdujUF0was&feature=related
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i gotta say, if the reviews on Dusted or Pitchfork were actually well written little nugs of insight, it probably wouldn't work. the format requires at least 4-5 paragraphs of bullshit to make the page not look completely empty, and they're catering to the whole clued in Wired iPhone gen music dilettantes who think they know everything, and can figure it out for themselves thank you very much. if reviews were straight and to the point, or diverged too far from the pseudo-scholar/research tech speak, the thin facade would shatter and everybody involved would be out of a job. fluff is a sustainable model. maybe the writing of course the writing sucks, but they're laughing all the way to the bank
THIS
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i gotta say, if the reviews on Dusted or Pitchfork were actually well written little nugs of insight, it probably wouldn't work. the format requires at least 4-5 paragraphs of bullshit to make the page not look completely empty, and they're catering to the whole clued in Wired iPhone gen music dilettantes who think they know everything, and can figure it out for themselves thank you very much. if reviews were straight and to the point, or diverged too far from the pseudo-scholar/research tech speak, the thin facade would shatter and everybody involved would be out of a job. fluff is a sustainable model. maybe the writing of course the writing sucks, but they're laughing all the way to the bank
THIS
You guys actually think any writers at Pitchfork or Dusted are making any money. I don't think anyone at Dusted gets paid. I could be wrong, but if they do it's a pittance. No reviewers at Pitchfork seem to be getting rich either and the latter--more a "factor in the industry"--hasn't served as a launching pad for any successful writing careers that I know of.
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Come on, man! In what universe is chilling with some Cheetos and watching old Folgers commercials more depressing than listening to an Oneohtrix Point Never record?
Wow.
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i gotta say, if the reviews on Dusted or Pitchfork were actually well written little nugs of insight, it probably wouldn't work. the format requires at least 4-5 paragraphs of bullshit to make the page not look completely empty, and they're catering to the whole clued in Wired iPhone gen music dilettantes who think they know everything, and can figure it out for themselves thank you very much. if reviews were straight and to the point, or diverged too far from the pseudo-scholar/research tech speak, the thin facade would shatter and everybody involved would be out of a job. fluff is a sustainable model. maybe the writing of course the writing sucks, but they're laughing all the way to the bank
THIS
You guys actually think any writers at Pitchfork or Dusted are making any money. I don't think anyone at Dusted gets paid. I could be wrong, but if they do it's a pittance. No reviewers at Pitchfork seem to be getting rich either and the latter--more a "factor in the industry"--hasn't served as a launching pad for any successful writing careers that I know of.
Dusted writers do not get paid.
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People writing for free about music that most people will download. Not exactly a recipe for quality anything.
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The null statement performs no operation.
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Come on, man! In what universe is chilling with some Cheetos and watching old Folgers commercials more depressing than listening to an Oneohtrix Point Never record?
Wow.
The null statement performs no operation.
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Does anyone over the age of twenty five actually take this stuff seriously? Legit confused here. I read that Dusted review and for the life of me couldn't imagine who this guy's audience is beyond dumb college kids who want to feel smart. And we're talking REALLY dumb kids when gems like, "Nor does he craft cheeky juxtapositions, like Heatsick or the 502 video for Teeth?s ?Shawty" pass for insight.
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Does anyone over the age of twenty five actually take this stuff seriously? Legit confused here. I read that Dusted review and for the life of me couldn't imagine who this guy's audience is beyond dumb college kids who want to feel smart. And we're talking REALLY dumb kids when gems like, "Nor does he craft cheeky juxtapositions, like Heatsick or the 502 video for Teeth?s ?Shawty" pass for insight.
College kids don't read anything except text messages and their Facebook pages festooned with typing from people who can't put together a coherent sentence. Even email is so 2007.
A null statement performs no operation; it has no audience. Most everything at Dusted, Pitchfork, etc. is an extended null statement (I realize I'm jumping disciplines here).
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You guys actually think any writers at Pitchfork or Dusted are making any money. I don't think anyone at Dusted gets paid. I could be wrong, but if they do it's a pittance. No reviewers at Pitchfork seem to be getting rich either and the latter--more a "factor in the industry"--hasn't served as a launching pad for any successful writing careers that I know of.
no, i'm not saying the writers are making any money
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I don't think anyone is. Maybe a little at P-fork.
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What's the deal with these null statements? I mean come on, they don't even perform any operations? And speaking of operations, buzzzzzz I think you are about to miss the funny bone.
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I have been thinking of checking out the Ford & Lopatin record because Larry of Blastitude best-of'd it in a simple list wherein he admirably states that he seems to have forgotten how to write reviews and offers no further discussion of any of his selections.
In 2012 silence is golden.
-
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Hmmm. I'm surprised by the antipathy toward the ONP review. I thought it was a well considered response to the record itself and to the hyperbole surrounding the artist. It's true that it fails as a "consumer guide" -styled review but I don't think that's BLB's intent. Anyone reading his review has already heard the record and made up his mind about it. It's a polemic, not an in-depth analysis or reading of the album. I've no quarrel with that. If LaBonte's not the greatest stylist, he is at least an intelligent writer and he says things I wish others would say. I suppose Prof. Mesh is right, though, that a well-considered critique of an irrelevant subject is irrelevant. What about a Matmos review? Does writing one you make you gay? I think it does. What would J.L. Austin think of the EMA record? Who's up for a philosophical investigation of deez nuts?
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A world without music reviews!
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Is 2012 the year that Richie pulls the plug on TB?
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Anyone reading his review has already heard the record and made up his mind about it.
I'm curious why you think that. Because it's a few months old? I haven't heard it and I pay some attention to that neck of the woods.
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What's the deal with these null statements? I mean come on, they don't even perform any operations? And speaking of operations, buzzzzzz I think you are about to miss the funny bone.
Ninety two posts and you presume to speak for the board. Are you a Lopatin fan? Are you Officer Brad La Booty? There are null statements and then there are nulls.
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Hmmm. I'm surprised by the antipathy toward the ONP review. I thought it was a well considered response to the record itself and to the hyperbole surrounding the artist. It's true that it fails as a "consumer guide" -styled review but I don't think that's BLB's intent. Anyone reading his review has already heard the record and made up his mind about it. It's a polemic, not an in-depth analysis or reading of the album. I've no quarrel with that. If LaBonte's not the greatest stylist, he is at least an intelligent writer and he says things I wish others would say. I suppose Prof. Mesh is right, though, that a well-considered critique of an irrelevant subject is irrelevant. What about a Matmos review? Does writing one you make you gay? I think it does. What would J.L. Austin think of the EMA record? Who's up for a philosophical investigation of deez nuts?
I've never heard the record, but I have heard the artist. One and done on some other of his 5000 releases.
I don't think your buddy is a good writer. A polemic needs to be leaner and meaner and definitive. Above all it shouldn't strive to explain how it arrived at its every harsh judgment.
If you want I'll rewrite if for you and it will be half the original length and twice as mean and will not have a first person pronoun on board.
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In 2012 silence is golden.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v221/Bent/mspaint/perv2.jpg)
"Silence is Golden."
-Chief Constable Tomonori Sato.
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Dusted writers do not get laid.
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oof!!!
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Writing about music causes me incredible pain. It's a love/hate relationship I can't break out of.
There's a really great media critic named Robert McChesney. A point he makes in several of his books is the lack of funding journalism receives in America. It's ridiculously low compared to European nations. Public funding for journalism is needed for worthwhile work. Money dictates what gets covered in so many magazines. It's very frustrating. I don't write for any weeklies anymore. If I can't contact the person who runs a particular magazine, I won't write for them.
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We who r about to read salute you!
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Busted writers do not get laid.
[/quote]
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Believe it or no this once used to mean something:
http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop/critics/2011/686054/
Tunayards? Who the hell are these people?
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i liked this one
http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop/critics/2011/1529305/
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Believe it or no this once used to mean something:
http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop/critics/2011/686054/
Tunayards? Who the hell are these people?
What a boring, pointless list. And only 1735 entries? F'in hegemonic bullcrap, this.
Tuneyards = LGBT folk-hop w/ cod-Afro guitars. You should watch one of her live vids; that shit is really something.
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What a boring, pointless list. And only 1735 entries? F'in hegemonic bullcrap, this.
Tuneyards = LGBT folk-hop w/ cod-Afro guitars. You should watch one of her live vids; that shit is really something.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLrWJihcw18
:(
-
It's like Ani DiFranco got knocked up by the entire WOMAD tour.
-
Believe it or no this once used to mean something:
http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop/critics/2011/686054/
Tunayards? Who the hell are these people?
What a boring, pointless list. And only 1735 entries? F'in hegemonic bullcrap, this.
Tuneyards = LGBT folk-hop w/ cod-Afro guitars. You should watch one of her live vids; that shit is really something.
I thought it was a guy. The Wavvvves of 2011.
-
Believe it or no this once used to mean something:
Did someone fuck up the data entry or did whipping boy get counted twice?
http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop/critics/2011/686364/
http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop/critics/2011/1531501/
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What a major prank!
More evidence that no one knows who most of the voters are nor do they care. Even those running the poll.
Rettman and preciouis few others are the exceptions.
-
THURSTON CHOOSES.
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What a boring, pointless list. And only 1735 entries? F'in hegemonic bullcrap, this.
Tuneyards = LGBT folk-hop w/ cod-Afro guitars. You should watch one of her live vids; that shit is really something.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLrWJihcw18
:(
this made me barf in my mouth a little bit.
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I didn't click on that Youtube link, haven't heard Poon-tards, but something here compelled me to read the Pitchfork review of her album... the first Pitchfork review I have read in AGES. I do not know if this is more or less P4k standard issue review action, but mercy me... she has a song about not having enough black friends? She "contends with her brivileged upbringing" or something? WHITE GUILT TO SPILL - CREEP IT IN MY PEE SLIT.
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pOOn-tARdz!
Yeah, man. Serious stuff touching on all the serious issues of the day. It's a bonehead music critic's wet dream: woman of indeterminate gender singing serious / cryptic lyrics about being white, w/ "African" sounds, lots of looping, and aggressively anti-rock. Her album is entitled Whokill, and it's short for "Women Who Kill."
THIS IS SERIOUS!
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Believe it or no this once used to mean something:
Did someone fuck up the data entry or did whipping boy get counted twice?
http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop/critics/2011/686364/
http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop/critics/2011/1531501/
Just noticed this. Ha ha. And the two lists are completely different. Hmmm... Is Wild Flag truly as important as ANDY STOTT?! A hedge fund of musical opinions and stances. Well played, except this entire market is bankrupt so you win NOTHING.
NOTHING
(http://www.jlcauvin.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/crypt.jpg)
(http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/iggyphoto/iggyphoto1102/iggyphoto110200218/8965699-ceramic-shoe-as-a-vase-isolated-on-white-background-intenti)
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What a boring, pointless list. And only 1735 entries? F'in hegemonic bullcrap, this.
Tuneyards = LGBT folk-hop w/ cod-Afro guitars. You should watch one of her live vids; that shit is really something.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLrWJihcw18
:(
There is literally someone in the audience trying to tap their foot to this and missing.
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It's certainly a new way to suck, or probably.
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if this is the future of music I'm gonna get into video games
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if this is the future of music I'm gonna get into video games
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if this is the future of music I'm gonna get into video games
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(http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/tUne_adp.jpg)
(http://damnuglyphotography.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/zola_jesus.jpg)
(http://www.sodapopgirl.net/wp-content/uploads/ema.jpg)
(http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsn65syk4I1qzh56ro1_500.jpg)
HOMELY THEATER OF PAIN, FOR LOY AND BRACE
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http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/8721-maximal-nation/
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I'm hoping "tuneyards" enters the common lexicon as a way to describe fat political girls with mustaches who live in Oakland and wear those legwarmer things. Why would any black person hang out with her
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haha Homely Theater of Pain haha
hee HhEEEEEE
-
the second girl in the Homely Theatre of Pain is actually pretty hot to me.
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STILLSINGLE.ORGASM/BLOG VAMP ROLL CALL
ALL OF THEIR COKE COMES FROM A "BOOKING AGENT"
SERVE YOUR SENSES, FUCK A FORUM
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from pitchforks review of the new Flying Nun comp
Virtually every decent guitar record pressed in the three decades since has owed some sort of debt to the Kiwi jangle pop-- see Galaxie 500's On Fire, Pavement's Slanted & Enchanted, or Yo La Tengo's Painful.
really pitchfork? VIRTUALLY EVERY DECENT GUITAR RECORD? OF THE PAST THREE DECADES??? OWED SOME SORT OF DEBT TO KIWI JANGLE POP?????
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Those are decent guitar records?
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(http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsn65syk4I1qzh56ro1_500.jpg)
HOMELY THEATER OF PAIN, FOR LOY AND BRACE
This a still from Street Trash?
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(http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsn65syk4I1qzh56ro1_500.jpg)
HOMELY THEATER OF PAIN, FOR LOY AND BRACE
This a still from Street Trash?
It's both a still from Street Trash and a promo-shot for a Still Single-approved Blog pop songstress from Montreal. We are spirits, living in a conceptual world. Sometimes I hate being alive.
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Whereas indecent guitar records owe a debt to Psychic and Powerless, Damaged, Generic...
-
Pavement SUCKS
ALWAYS
dont even....I've seen em and heard em....
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
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http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7490324/chuck-klosterman-tune-yards (http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7490324/chuck-klosterman-tune-yards)
Chuck Klusterfuck tries to exert ham-handed dominion over one of the most lithe and elusive species of rockcrit: the on-topic non-review, an exotic alchemical process capable of magically converting begrudging lip service into a work of art (see Uncle Lester's poker-faced crack at Chicago At Carnegie Hall, Volumes I, II, II and IV for a shining example of this format.) Chuck's take is smug, self-congratulatory, and neatly girds the exposed Achilles' heel of lesser music reviewers: the vulnerability that comes with expressing an actual opinion - fragile and enigmatic as it may be - about some music. I've never listened to Poonyards but it can't be much worse than reading this article.
-
wow that was the most useless article ive ever read.
-
wow that was the most useless article ive ever read.
This is genuinely one of the worst, dumbest, laziest pieces of music writing I have ever laid eyes on. If it's indicative of the general quality of his reviews, the man is to music writing what Terry Bradshaw is to sports journalism.
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wow that was the most useless article ive ever read.
This is genuinely one of the worst, dumbest, laziest pieces of music writing I have ever laid eyes on. If it's indicative of the general quality of his reviews, the man is to music writing what Terry Bradshaw is to sports journalism.
Hey! At least Bradshaw was great at something besides sucking. Klosterman is possibly the all time worst. I can't think of a writer that I dislike more.
-
Every moment Chuck Klosterman is allowed to breathe is its own tiny little Holocaust.
Tell me more about the social significane of Nuno Bettencourt, Jo from "The Facts Of Life" and how eating cereal at night makes you edgey. Then light yourself on fire so I can laugh until my ass pukes.
Seriously. This guy is THE FUCKING WORST.
This is A+
-
What a boring, pointless list. And only 1735 entries? F'in hegemonic bullcrap, this.
Tuneyards = LGBT folk-hop w/ cod-Afro guitars. You should watch one of her live vids; that shit is really something.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLrWJihcw18
:(
this made me barf in my mouth a little bit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IyiHjRBsyw
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TUneLeSsYarDs more like
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Not so much music crit. but why waste a new thread on Hank:
Henry Rollins: The Column! Are You Collector Scum?
This is an intense field, and there isn't anyone who collects records in this way who isn't intense as well. These people sometimes are known as collector scum. They don't want their albums autographed because that would put messy ink on their otherwise pristine object of desire. They don't want to meet the band and ask where the next show is, they want to ask how many copies of the Portuguese pressing of their last single were made. Were they satisfied with the poor quality of the picture sleeve's paper? Why is the matrix number the same as the pressing from France? Scum!
The joy of listening to the record often is outweighed by the slightly trembling, moist handed, mouth-breathing ecstasy of owning the item. The rarer, the better. The scarcity of the music not only makes the music itself enjoyable but it also gives the collector a strange sense of superiority.
http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2012/01/henry_rollins_collector_scum.php
Funny thing is he never cops to being one himself...As always, the dude needs an editor.
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They don't want their albums autographed because that would put messy ink on their otherwise pristine object of desire.
the funny thing is this article probably stemmed from some fan turning down the Great Henry Rollins autograph, so he got all huffy and insecure and blogged about it through tear stained eyes
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http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7490324/chuck-klosterman-tune-yards (http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7490324/chuck-klosterman-tune-yards)
Chuck Klusterfuck tries to exert ham-handed dominion over one of the most lithe and elusive species of rockcrit: the on-topic non-review, an exotic alchemical process capable of magically converting begrudging lip service into a work of art (see Uncle Lester's poker-faced crack at Chicago At Carnegie Hall, Volumes I, II, II and IV for a shining example of this format.) Chuck's take is smug, self-congratulatory, and neatly girds the exposed Achilles' heel of lesser music reviewers: the vulnerability that comes with expressing an actual opinion - fragile and enigmatic as it may be - about some music. I've never listened to Poonyards but it can't be much worse than reading this article.
Klosterman receives an atomic suplex.
http://www.nypress.com/article-8054-the-flip-flop-king.html
ATTENTION MITCH
"Coming off as a sex offender is one thing. But Klosterman is worse than that: He?s a one-man prose polluter, a living WMD employing {his} dummy ass-head as a delivery system. And I will forever hate this ass-creature for the pain and suffering he has caused me."
-
heroic.
-
http://www.nypress.com/article-8054-the-flip-flop-king.html
You guys can have all yer rock crit journalists and whatever, but for me Mark Ames is it. The eXile may have been the best paper of my lifetime.
-
Reading that Ames article made my night.
He managed to accurately sum up the feelings I have whenever I see one of Klosterman's paper paperweights in the wild.
-
Loy-
Modern English...Post ATS....crap or audio gold?
-
(http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/4264/bonehead1.jpg)
This is gonna rule.
Nah. Not at all. Looks dumb/bad. One of ya'll hyping this wreck on this here thread/site is most likely (the bootlegger) who is pressing it- and if so, fuck yr fake hype, just send that shiz to whatever tastemaker/s du jour you're feeling these days and let the music stand on its own feet if it's truly worthy of release. Cover art, at best, has the complimentary colors 'going' for it. If you factor in a couple of little nerd-bits (surely the compiler/s would/should comply w/ the 'nerd' part of this reference) such as, say, the Ramones/Saints starting in '74, and perhaps, the (non-punk, but oft labeled as such) eels 'ending' in '75/6, what the *F*, besides marketing/pitchforkness/bs, makes its latter trax proto anything if it ends as late as it does. (yes, i know the Golden Age of music, post- electric, post- rock n roll origins and general-ness, getting to the sub-genre-fication of marketable sound, is the post- psych, pre- punk '72-'75 era but that's another story, far beyond Cle/NY/Oz) Probably nice trax, sure, hopefully, and "proud o' ya", but the image looks very bad in that bargain bin CD way- not in a "i found the Stooges, Groovies, etc. in the bargain bin" like oldsters might say way either. Guessing it's just going to be more overpriced 70's hard rock, however hi-energy/good it could/might be. Cash In / Laugh In. ha. ha. ha.
I realize this is just a message board post, but the above diatribe is so poorly written and so smugly full of shit that it merits inclusion in this thread. Dude had to have been higher than a giraffe's ass when writing this.
-
I think that was his writing sample to join the staff at Still Single. I even kinda understood where he was going but it's a total hatchet job if you haven't even heard the music. What he's trying to get at it is that this comp might just be another overhyped record like that Do What Thou Wilt record that came out last year and ended up sucking for the most part.
-
yes, i know the Golden Age of music, post- electric, post- rock n roll origins and general-ness, getting to the sub-genre-fication of marketable sound, is the post- psych, pre- punk '72-'75 era but that's another story, far beyond Cle/NY/Oz
This is possibly the most nonsensical thing I have read on this board. Literally have no clue what this sentence is supposed to mean. Not 100% sure it's written in English so maybe this makes sense in Violet Times' native language.
"proud o' ya",
This after 200+ words slagging a record he hasn't heard is just unbearably smug.
-
yes, i know the Golden Age of music, post- electric, post- rock n roll origins and general-ness, getting to the sub-genre-fication of marketable sound, is the post- psych, pre- punk '72-'75 era but that's another story, far beyond Cle/NY/Oz
This is possibly the most nonsensical thing I have read on this board. Literally have no clue what this sentence is supposed to mean. Not 100% sure it's written in English so maybe this makes sense in Violet Times' native language.
"proud o' ya",
This after 200+ words slagging a record he hasn't heard is just unbearably smug.
i thought that the fact that english isn't my first language was the reason why i couldn't decrypt what the dude was saying...Good to see english native born speakers aren't doing any better.
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I think I get what he's saying: The compact digital disk under review collects recordings from the prime era for hype-ready "proto" "discoveries" (1972 - 1975) but it is highly unlikely that any of the selections on this disk are bona fide examples of proto- or pre-punk. Judging from the aesthetically challenged, hastily assembled cover art, from the scarcity of as-yet undiscovered proto- rarities, and from the fact that this is probably an unauthorized "reissue," it is more likely than not that the selections contained therein are examples of obscure and mediocre hard rock rather than the far sexier proto- non-genre that the packaging advertises.
I have no opinion on the matter. The comp looks like a Seidr Records "release," which would mean it's French and CD-only and will probably reach, at best, some 300 psych/hard rock collectors. No harm, no foul.
James E is on a mission to become Termbo's most divisive poster. I have no doubt that he is enjoying this.
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I have no opinion on the matter. The comp looks like a Seidr Records "release," which would mean it's French and CD-only and will probably reach, at best, some 300 psych/hard rock collectors. No harm, no foul.
Never mind that. I just saw the thread in the New Releases section. Sue me! I was right about the 300 copies, though. Crisp!
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http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7561092/judging-new-van-halen-album-different-kind-truth
I'll be as straightforward as I possibly can: I don't know what I'm trying to express here.
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http://www.theclustermag.com/blog/2011/12/the-abyss-seapunk-splishsplash-oceangang/ (http://www.theclustermag.com/blog/2011/12/the-abyss-seapunk-splishsplash-oceangang/)
Post-ironic and consciously teen-oriented, seapunk's ocean is a hungry tumblrsphere reveling in the retro-futurism of the 1990s. Its aesthetic influences include 16-bit video games like SEGA's Ecco the Dolphin and Sonic the Hedgehog, 3D screensavers, Lisa Frank, rave culture, bratty teens, anime, and "Bad Boy"-esque pleather ghetto-fab, all rendered beyond the wildest wet dreams of cyberpunk-era Angelfire and Netscape Navigator surfers.
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http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7561092/judging-new-van-halen-album-different-kind-truth
I'll be as straightforward as I possibly can: I don't know what I'm trying to express here.
hahaha, wow, what a load of shit! thats alot of words to say almost nothing, and the few opinions that are expressed are mostly flat out wrong. the only part i liked of that whole thing was this single sentence: To a degree, Dave gets a lifetime pass just for proving that humans like himself can exist in reality.
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I think I get what he's saying: The compact digital disk under review collects recordings from the prime era for hype-ready "proto" "discoveries" (1972 - 1975) but it is highly unlikely that any of the selections on this disk are bona fide examples of proto- or pre-punk. Judging from the aesthetically challenged, hastily assembled cover art, from the scarcity of as-yet undiscovered proto- rarities, and from the fact that this is probably an unauthorized "reissue," it is more likely than not that the selections contained therein are examples of obscure and mediocre hard rock rather than the far sexier proto- non-genre that the packaging advertises.
I have no opinion on the matter. The comp looks like a Seidr Records "release," which would mean it's French and CD-only and will probably reach, at best, some 300 psych/hard rock collectors. No harm, no foul.
James E is on a mission to become Termbo's most divisive poster. I have no doubt that he is enjoying this.
I interpret his scat to mean that since he had no part in the production of this record, his ego stroke demands that he piss on anything that doesn't pass through his filter, first. It's sort of a schoolyard one-upmanship thing I reckon. I've bid and lost on several of the records on this comp over the past several years, bidding based purely on the sound clips in the auction (who needs anyone's opinions on obscurities in 2012 with divshare samples in auctions????) and I'm sold on this. If I can DJ it out, I'm happy.
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http://www.theclustermag.com/blog/2011/12/the-abyss-seapunk-splishsplash-oceangang/ (http://www.theclustermag.com/blog/2011/12/the-abyss-seapunk-splishsplash-oceangang/)
Post-ironic and consciously teen-oriented, seapunk's ocean is a hungry tumblrsphere reveling in the retro-futurism of the 1990s. Its aesthetic influences include 16-bit video games like SEGA's Ecco the Dolphin and Sonic the Hedgehog, 3D screensavers, Lisa Frank, rave culture, bratty teens, anime, and "Bad Boy"-esque pleather ghetto-fab, all rendered beyond the wildest wet dreams of cyberpunk-era Angelfire and Netscape Navigator surfers.
Punk's not dead.
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Can't believe I missed the Bonehead rant above. Amazing.
Was just hit with this lovely press blurb from Sub Pop:
"La Sera?s lyrics are smart but not heavy; phantasmal, like Daniel Johnston attending church every week of his teenage life, but with a bigger sophistication and a shiny, polished fidelity. Lead single ?Please Be My Third Eye? buzzes with an intensity and beauty rarely heard outside the first three Vivian Girls albums. (Not so surprising: La Sera IS Katy Goodman IS one-third of Vivian Girls.) ?I Can?t Keep You In My Mind? is Shop Assistants great ? just a genius straightforward refrain and sympathetic guitars to play it through.
Where the first La Sera album was super-dreamy in its layered vocals, Sees The Light is more direct, more aggressive; almost a soundtrack to a lost drive-in movie classic. This is not an album for half-hearted partakers in the heartache scene: just an all-consuming love for punk as pop and pop as punk. Songs such as ?Don?t Stay? soar away into the stratosphere, solemn and possessed of singular beauty. ?Real Boy? is playfully driven in comparison: like being whisked away to a tropical island, while ?Drive On? is tear-laden and full of hidden menace like a David Lynch film."
I kinda wanted to bold the whole thing.
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This one's for Loy. Short and to the point:
"PRINCE RAMA
Utopia=No Person
NOT NOT FUN
12"
Hare Krishna farmers Prince Rama explore the link between music and utopia with music for exercise routines."
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This one's for Loy. Short and to the point:
"PRINCE RAMA
Utopia=No Person
NOT NOT FUN
12"
Hare Krishna farmers Prince Rama explore the link between music and utopia with music for exercise routines."
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5153CZGJTSL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Every day I'm that much more dead because of labels like Not Not Fun
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This one's for Loy. Short and to the point:
"PRINCE RAMA
Utopia=NO PRINCE RAMA JAMS
NOT NOT FUN
12"
Hare Krishna farmers Prince Rama explore the link between music and utopia with music for exercise routines."
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Well, since Penema ::) posted the press kit blurb - pretty much the opposite of what music crit. should be but of course most of it ends up being fodder for press blurbs anyhow, which may be where that slice came from...Anyhow, I figgured I'd post this lovely piece of self-promotion by the best corporate events band in Ireland. I thought it might be a parody but it is just too sadly real.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYz1lCpTpko&feature=related
Harlequin!
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This is not an album for half-hearted partakers in the heartache scene:
LOLin hard here!
Never get why [tha FUCK (tard)] label/mailo-blurbs get posted here, but this is totally worth it.
[EDIT: Uuugh, seein' Sukebe's post just now - work sucks, doof ah er ahh blaahh]
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Come on, don't try to tell me there's the slightest difference between the Le Sera PR bullshit and 99% of all blog reviews.
THE HEARTACHE SCENE!
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Come on, don't try to tell me there's the slightest difference between the Le Sera PR bullshit and 99% of all blog reviews.
(http://image.lyricspond.com/image/b/artist-blur/album-blur/cd-cover.jpg)
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http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/aaron-dilloway-modern-jester (http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/aaron-dilloway-modern-jester)
According to French economist Jacques Attali, noise is a manifestation of violence. That is, he writes, because ?it disturbs. To make noise is to interrupt a transmission, to disconnect, to kill.? Noise, however, is a term enveloped in multiple interpretations and increasingly a subject of discussion, both within circles of active participators and outside them. Two definitions of the term prevail: the first, as Paul Hegarty recognizes, by way of "a negative reaction, and then, a negative response to a sound or set of sounds"; the second, as a genre-term, used by many to group a particular expanse of music, prototypically exemplified, coincidentally, by much of Dilloway?s work so far.
NOISE AS DIALECTIC AS NEGATIVE REACTION AS PROTOTYPE
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Welcome to second-tier midwest grad school 1988.
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Sometimes I thank Christ for not knowing a goddamned thing
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Past couple days I've been enjoying the shitt out of Warm Voices Rearranged, the anagram record review blog by Brandan Kearney and Gregg Turkington. It's no surprise, considering who the authors are, that the overwhelming majority of these reviews are flamboyantly negative. (I'm especially pleased to see their venomous appraisals of Sonic Youth.) Funny thing is, Kearney & Turkington's technique yields some of the best music writing I've ever read. The premise is that the truth about a record's quality can be found by rearranging the letters in the artist name and album title. Readers may submit requests for reviews. I'm gonna suggest John Maus' We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves. I have a feeling Turk will have a good time with that one. My other request will likely be Swans' White Light From the Mouth Of Infinity. Longer titles tend to yield better reviews, though not always.
My favorites are Thurston Moore's last solo record and that Fiona Apple record with the paragraph title.
http://warmvoices.blogspot.com/ (http://warmvoices.blogspot.com/)
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Sorry, I meant this one, actually:
http://warmvoices.blogspot.com/2012/01/thurston-moore-walter-prati-giancarlo.html (http://warmvoices.blogspot.com/2012/01/thurston-moore-walter-prati-giancarlo.html)
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woah that's great stuff!
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LOL, this is what it's all about. Bro's makin' memes.
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"Anyone buying the vinyl version will miss out hard by not getting the four killer live tracks included only on the CD version. The other day I heard a clerk at a record store tell somebody wryly that "vinyl is back." Really? What I see is mindless clones paying 30 bucks for lame back-catalog bullshit that used to be in the dollar bin for decades before this dubious "revival" began. I can't believe how much money people are payign for this shit because they've been told "vinyl is back." Whatever. Congratulations, record industry. You have found a new wave of materialistic lemmings to wallet-rape. I guess, you know, records are, uh, "bigger" or whatever, so, go for it. All I know is I get to savor the frigidly perfect CD audio with the bonus tracks in my lonely little dungeon, sans all the pops and clicks and "warmth" some of you will inflict on yourselves in the dubious name of analog purity. "
Weasel Walter chiming in on uselessless of the proliferation of vinyl. Thanks bubby. The Noh Mercy review of yours sucked before interjecting this.
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Holy shit, my uncle sent me a copy of "Best Music Writing" for 2O11. There is a proliferation of hashtags in a print book; in fact, the entire first page of the inroduction is taken up by twitter-quotes. There's a terribly written one-and-a-half page metal show review from the Acheron in Brooklyn, a piece on whether Cocorosie is racist that features the word "possible" in nearly every sentence, lots of one-liners encapsulated in parentheses, and I've only been reading it for fifteen minutes. Absolute garbage. My keyboard is broken, once I figure out how to fix it I'll post some of the most absurd portions.
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I don't understand why metal is so big here. I thought this city was populated by adults. Well, and rich kids. OK, never mind.
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I don't believe metal is actually popular in NYC. If it was, there would be more long hair. There is no such thing as hipster metal.
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I feel like there're a lot of heshers here. Maybe I just always see them at bars I patronize. The bar I used to DJ in almost exclusively played metal at top volume on the weekends -- partly to deter yuppies, though I'd be surprised if most of those metalheads weren't from blueblood moneyed families themselves.
BIG CITY AESTHETES TALKIN' THAT TALK
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is someone along the lines of monster magnet, basically hipster metal?
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No. I don't know any hipsters that listen to Monster Magnet. Mostly it's older dudes in their late 30's to 40's who like to smoke large quantities of marijuana who are big Monster Magnet fans, in my experience... and Monster Magnet were great early on.
I never saw many actual heshers in NY. I saw a few scraggly haired mustachioed hipsters in dayglo shorts and shit though.
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Take a stroll into either St. Vitus or The Anchored Inn and tell me there's no such thing as "hipster metal."
In fact, I was at Anchored just the other day and there was some graffiti in the bathroom that said "Metal hipsters are still hipsters." Of course, underneath it, someone wrote, "U MAD."
Brilliant discourse.
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I go to St. Vitus fairly often these days, 'cos it's right around the corner from the place where I record. It's a great bar, done really well. The management loves metal, obviously, so it's a good place to sit down for a beer and hear, for example, The Number of the Beast in its entirety. The clientele is a mystery to me, though. Just a few days ago I took a look around and I didn't see ANYBODY who looked like a metal fan or a hesher. It was mostly low-key, not-quite-hipsters in their early- to mid- twenties. Drew and I were the oldest people there, besides one aging "rock 'n' roll" couple wearing leather jackets and looking goofy. Lotsa cute chicks who looked like they never, ever listen to metal. Overall, the dominant look was kind of post-hardcore, post-vegan, now-working-in-publishing. Like, more or less what I imagine a lot of B.C.O. posters look like. They looked like softies, really, and they looked at me and Drew like they were intimidated or something, which if you know either one of us is pretty funny (though I was wearing a suit and tie.) Later, as I smoked a cig outside I heard a group of young kids talking about "heading back to the Island," so maybe it's all bridge and tunnel kidz from the burbs? Who knows.
I've seen very, very few actual heshers in NYC, except for hipster heshers like that naked No-Neck dude who plays in Malkuth. Maybe that whole scene is beyond underground and below my radar. Maybe it's like the Bronx crust scene, which I wouldn't even know existed if they didn't occasionally play at DDL.
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"Anyone buying the vinyl version will miss out hard by not getting the four killer live tracks included only on the CD version. The other day I heard a clerk at a record store tell somebody wryly that "vinyl is back." Really? What I see is mindless clones paying 30 bucks for lame back-catalog bullshit that used to be in the dollar bin for decades before this dubious "revival" began. I can't believe how much money people are payign for this shit because they've been told "vinyl is back." Whatever. Congratulations, record industry. You have found a new wave of materialistic lemmings to wallet-rape. I guess, you know, records are, uh, "bigger" or whatever, so, go for it. All I know is I get to savor the frigidly perfect CD audio with the bonus tracks in my lonely little dungeon, sans all the pops and clicks and "warmth" some of you will inflict on yourselves in the dubious name of analog purity. "
Weasel Walter chiming in on uselessless of the proliferation of vinyl. Thanks bubby. The Noh Mercy review of yours sucked before interjecting this.
If there is anything more tired than "vinyl is back" types, it would be dullards arguing about the crystal clarity of their shitty disposable CDs. What, is it 1990 again? Cool, sell me your vinyl collection, "Mr. upgrader". And Mr. Walter, please stop ruining records with your shitty, hissy "production".
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I mean, sure, I scratch my head too when I see a $20 LP reissue of Zenyatta Mondatta - but the majority of shit getting reissued on LP weren't dollar bin records & WW knows it.
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He IS right however, about some of these ridiculously expensive "classic rock" reissues of records that have VG 80s pressings sitting in $2 bins nationwide, I don't need to rattle them off. There will be another huge slate of them on RSD in April.
Vinyl vs. CD, however, yawn. That battle is over, and it was the internet that defeated the CD. Vinyl is just on a whole other track.
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Overall, the dominant look was kind of post-hardcore, post-vegan, now-working-in-publishing. Like, more or less what I imagine a lot of B.C.O. posters look like.
You just described the hipster metalhead.
I think St. Vitus sucks. The sound is really good on stage though.
There's a hesher bartendress at Anchored that I have a crush on. I would love to listen to some Sir Lord Baltimore whilst lounging in her bed. Alas......
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He IS right however, about some of these ridiculously expensive "classic rock" reissues of records that have VG 80s pressings sitting in $2 bins nationwide, I don't need to rattle them off. There will be another huge slate of them on RSD in April.
NASH, GRAHAM: Songs For Beginners LP (R1 7204HLP) 17.00
180 gram Rhino reissue of the solo debut from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's Graham Nash, originally released in 1971. David Crosby, Jerry Garcia, Rita Coolidge and Dave Mason all play on this record. Features the hit song "Chicago."
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He IS right however, about some of these ridiculously expensive "classic rock" reissues of records that have VG 80s pressings sitting in $2 bins nationwide, I don't need to rattle them off. There will be another huge slate of them on RSD in April.
sure, some are wholly unnecessary. sadly, many others which seemed ubiquitous throughout the 90s/00s, actually sell quickly and are tough to keep in stock. i think a lot of these new reissue-centric stores actually prefer paying $8 wholesale to make $3 than having to constantly rebuy/restock VG+ copies for $1 to make $5. i've always wondered if the typical newbie vinyl buyer gives a shit about original pressings, or if they'd rather pony up the sucker fee for a clean brand new copy.
i agree GRAHAM NASH reissues are a bit optimistically ahead of the curve.
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I'm all for whatever keeps the doors open. Because my $8 at a time purchases aren't gonna cut it.
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E. Hanlon
tackles fondles the new Frankie Rose album.
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/7029 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/7029)
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Misuse of the word "titular." Hahahahaha
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Guitar chords have been dismantled to focus on stringy sequences of single notes.
It's called an arpeggio. You don't have to be classically trained to write rock crit, but if you're gonna talk about the nuts and bolts of music making you should at least master the basic vocabulary.
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The titular arpeggio!
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Evan Hanlon on FNU Ronnies:
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/7052 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/7052)
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Heh, I started reading that this morning. Stopped when I encountered the phrase "dismantles and recontextualizes its own context" and set my stopwatch for this thread bump.
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That's not such a bad review. I mean, he admits that maybe the record isn't "for him." Which is kind of a stupid thing to say, but that kind of self-awareness is pretty rare.
He admits that he turned the record off cuz it was fucking with him. Sure, that could be the whole review right there. Says a lot, and basically says everything for a noise/rock band. That's almost the ultimate compliment. Also, I like this line "new lows in musicianship notwithstanding." haha I need to get this fucker.
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FNU Ronnies is not noise rock nor does it display anything close to new lows in musicianship. The guy doesn't get the record and he's a clunky writer, although not the worst DUSTED has to offer.
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Thankfully every band on Load sounds like Lightning Bolt.
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The titular arpeggio!
SHOW US YOUR TITULAR ARPEGGIOS!!!!
I think I'm going to start using "titular" as a synonym for "cool." Sounds real eighties in a "tubular" or "dudical" kind of way. "Dude, that's like, totally titular!"
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Thankfully every band on Load sounds like Lightning Bolt.
In all fairness, he only said one song sounded like LB. "Noise rock" is a completely ephemeral term (notice my slash as to not OFFEND anyone).
There was a genuine SENSE OF HUMOR which you rarely see in staid places like Dusted. There's a coupla "big" words but it doesn't have that grad-school thesis feel that so much of Pitchfork writing has.
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The guy doesn't get the record
No shit, that's essentially what the review is saying. And that's why I think it's OK. He's admitting that it might be a bit too much for him. That honesty is refreshing.
Also, I don't mind reviews that are basically the writer trying to get their head around a record. That approach can make for a great review. (also, terrible)
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Yes! I love those " I have nothing to say and I'm gonna say it" reviews.
The reviewer is a tin eared pedant, just not as much as most DUSTED reviewers.
Noise rock is a mostly ephemeral term but some things are clearly noise rock and some are not.
I am not offended by your passionate defense of a DUSTED hack, merely saddened. Yes, that's a lone tear trickling down my jowl.
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Oh God, gimme a break. It's like if somebody writes a critical review of something you love, it's crap (the review). He likes the goddamn record. I didn't realize it was the Sgt. Pepper's of NOISE ROCK. yeeeeeesh........
"tin-eared pedant" That should be Termbo's motto.
p.s. I'm imagining you like Skinhead O'Conner in that Prince vid.
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It's interesting that you are "imagining" me at all. What am I wearing?
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I dunno, but that is an awesome video.
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A fig leaf and a dustbuster stuck in your rectum.
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It's interesting that you are "imagining" me at all. What am I wearing?
(http://capsandgown.com/images/customacademicregalia.jpg)
(http://www.chapsrus.com/pictures/chaps_pics/custom_show_chaps/custom_show_chaps_green.jpg)
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LOL!
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"Easy access," eh?
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"Graduating never felt so good."
"Just preparing you for your entry into the job market, Jonathan. It's rough out there."
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Bruce is correct.
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"Bare with me, Jonny; almost done." *grunt*
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I dunno...maybe Hanlon is 'aving a larf but if this is serious:
It?s not whether or not you appreciate the sounds of destruction (I like my power violence well enough, thank you very much). It?s really about whether or not you tend toward self-destruction as a state of being. And as I consider the modernly furnished room in which I write this, in the button-down recently pressed, I realize that this record is not for me in wholly unprecedented ways.
It makes me feel 16 'cuz I dug that record on first spin...
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"Power violence..." Fuck.
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I like watching the bloated Young Jeezy toddlers in my area squirm when the FNU Ronnies tour CDR hits the airwaves. Followed promply by the last disc in the Goodbye, Babylon box set. I kill you to kill me.
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Thankfully every band on Load sounds like Lightning Bolt.
When I talk I even sound like Lightning Bolt.
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http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14134-city-of-straw/
I and everyone knows Pitchfork is full of shit, "pay to play", caters to indie fags, etc. but giving this Sightings record a 7.9 (.1 away from 'Best Music') when the review is positive ("among one of their best efforts", ha) is just so fucking weak. They must know that the average Pitchfork reader won't be able to handle or "understand" Sightings. Pussy's.
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This turd's been dropping mad poo-bombs on the 'FMU blog for a few months now. Did you happen to catch that he's in Excepter! Oooh!
http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2012/03/poetry-out-loud.html#comments (http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2012/03/poetry-out-loud.html#comments)
His first post was the "best" -- "pop-in-law birthday scrip." Hey, Daddy-O!
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http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14134-city-of-straw/
I and everyone knows Pitchfork is full of shit, "pay to play", caters to indie fags, etc. but giving this Sightings record a 7.9 (.1 away from 'Best Music') when the review is positive ("among one of their best efforts", ha) is just so fucking weak. They must know that the average Pitchfork reader won't be able to handle or "understand" Sightings. Pussy's.
brings to mind this ol' thread: http://terminal-boredom.com/forums/index.php?topic=11461.0 (http://terminal-boredom.com/forums/index.php?topic=11461.0)
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Sweet holy shit: http://adhoc.fm/post/holy-spirit/
Maligned Liturgist's myopic musing on da state of da counterculture in Kickstarter-funded jamboree of delightful missives is a clusterfuck of largely incompatible concepts! Almost too much to endure! But I love the fact that this guy is peddling this shit in cyberspace, on a website that promises to "paint a dynamic, living landscape of the underground music world at large, setting the reflections of professional journalists and critics alongside artists, promoters, and other music-world personalities." Ho de do!
This guy has graced this thread before, yeah? Has his supervisor not yet bent him over a knee and administered a good spanking?
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Was checking if Popmatters was still around and stumbled upon this:
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/post/158156-top-ten-lost-midwest-punk-singles/
Opinions?
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Check out Andrew Earles latest work at Still Single. He seems very pissed off about the mediocre state of today's scene.
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seriously...
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Sweet holy shit: http://adhoc.fm/post/holy-spirit/
Maligned Liturgist's myopic musing on da state of da counterculture in Kickstarter-funded jamboree of delightful missives is a clusterfuck of largely incompatible concepts! Almost too much to endure! But I love the fact that this guy is peddling this shit in cyberspace, on a website that promises to "paint a dynamic, living landscape of the underground music world at large, setting the reflections of professional journalists and critics alongside artists, promoters, and other music-world personalities." Ho de do!
This guy has graced this thread before, yeah? Has his supervisor not yet bent him over a knee and administered a good spanking?
Can't wait to read this. I'm semifascinated by this dude. Like, does he actually believe all this bullshit (sadly, I think the answer is Yes). And, in a way, I respect his utter disregard for, um, reality.
I like the way this dude in the comments kinda breaks it down:
"Interesting and insightful observations, however, this writer in many ways perfectly represents the ambivalent attitude and post-ethical position of the 'black metal' generation, obsessed with 'identity' and elitism as a meaningful response to the culture. Curiously, he does not seem willing to address his own subculture as deeply complicit in capitalist appropriation and marketing of 'individualism' and other neo-liberal horrors. Black metal is deeply complicit in promoting a noxious and incoherent mixture of elitism and DIY, a clear sign of that particular generation's utter failure to understand 'punk culture', promoting a phony neo-aristocracy that is itself one of the very engines of capitalist exploitation of culture. Black metal is deeply complicit in stripping away whatever semblance of a 'counter-cultural' spirit remained in certain 'extreme'music sub-cultures."
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Sweet holy shit: http://adhoc.fm/post/holy-spirit/
Maligned Liturgist's myopic musing on da state of da counterculture in Kickstarter-funded jamboree of delightful missives is a clusterfuck of largely incompatible concepts! Almost too much to endure! But I love the fact that this guy is peddling this shit in cyberspace, on a website that promises to "paint a dynamic, living landscape of the underground music world at large, setting the reflections of professional journalists and critics alongside artists, promoters, and other music-world personalities." Ho de do!
This guy has graced this thread before, yeah? Has his supervisor not yet bent him over a knee and administered a good spanking?
Can't wait to read this. I'm semifascinated by this dude. Like, does he actually believe all this bullshit (sadly, I think the answer is Yes). And, in a way, I respect his utter disregard for, um, reality.
I like the way this dude in the comments kinda breaks it down:
"Interesting and insightful observations, however, this writer in many ways perfectly represents the ambivalent attitude and post-ethical position of the 'black metal' generation, obsessed with 'identity' and elitism as a meaningful response to the culture. Curiously, he does not seem willing to address his own subculture as deeply complicit in capitalist appropriation and marketing of 'individualism' and other neo-liberal horrors. Black metal is deeply complicit in promoting a noxious and incoherent mixture of elitism and DIY, a clear sign of that particular generation's utter failure to understand 'punk culture', promoting a phony neo-aristocracy that is itself one of the very engines of capitalist exploitation of culture. Black metal is deeply complicit in stripping away whatever semblance of a 'counter-cultural' spirit remained in certain 'extreme'music sub-cultures."
Thank god The Baffler is coming back...
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/259919.html
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pretty good overview from chuck eddy http://www.spin.com/#articles/aussie-effect-8-essentials-oz-rock
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pretty good overview from chuck eddy http://www.spin.com/#articles/aussie-effect-8-essentials-oz-rock
Or he got a bunch of freebies from Aztec Music and fleshed it out w/ a couple no-brainers.
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Everything Eddy has ever written feels like he lost interest in the music just before he sat down to write, and just struggles to blurt out bullshit that reads like "enthusiasm" to smirking college kids. Nothing he says rings true with any sincerity. I kept his 500 Heavy Metal Records I Listened To Once book just as an example of how not to write...about anything...it sits right next to We Never Learn, a book that must have been recovered from a dumpster in back of a Planned Parenthood.
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Everything Eddy has ever written feels like he lost interest in the music just before he sat down to write, and just struggles to blurt out bullshit that reads like "enthusiasm" to smirking college kids. Nothing he says rings true with any sincerity. I kept his 500 Heavy Metal Records I Listened To Once book just as an example of how not to write...about anything...it sits right next to We Never Learn, a book that must have been recovered from a dumpster in back of a Planned Parenthood.
Fully endorsed.
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Check out Andrew Earles latest work at Still Single. He seems very pissed off about the mediocre state of today's scene.
I feel like blog should start calling itself Still Curmudgeonly or something. I've learned about some great records I might have overlooked by reading it, but lately it seems to have devolved into a bunch of guys in their thirties complaining about how bands aren't blowing their minds the way they did when they were eighteen.
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Check out Andrew Earles latest work at Still Single. He seems very pissed off about the mediocre state of today's scene.
I feel like blog should start calling itself Still Curmudgeonly or something. I've learned about some great records I might have overlooked by reading it, but lately it seems to have devolved into a bunch of guys in their thirties complaining about how bands aren't blowing their minds the way they did when they were eighteen.
And some terrible music IS blowing their minds. No names. I do wonder if Earles is dogging Outer Spacist for the same reason his cohort ragged a Puffy's record.
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Check out Andrew Earles latest work at Still Single. He seems very pissed off about the mediocre state of today's scene.
I feel like blog should start calling itself Still Curmudgeonly or something. I've learned about some great records I might have overlooked by reading it, but lately it seems to have devolved into a bunch of guys in their thirties complaining about how bands aren't blowing their minds the way they did when they were eighteen.
And some terrible music IS blowing their minds. No names. I do wonder if Earles is dogging Outer Spacist for the same reason his cohort ragged a Puffy's record.
WATCH WHERE YOU STICK YOUR DICK OR BLOGGING FRAGGLE ROCKERS WILL COME OUT OF THEIR CAVE TO HATE ON A PIECE OF MUSIC MAYBE 500 OR LESS PEOPLE WILL BUY. THE INTERNET IS SERIOUS BUSINESS
(http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3151/2989139509_6423a34e43_z.jpg)
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it sits right next to We Never Learn, a book that must have been recovered from a dumpster in back of a Planned Parenthood.
For all the interesting stuff Davidson included in that book, the parts about Alabama Thunderpussy and Supersuckers are visibly longer than both Cheater Slicks mentions. And he wrote how fun releasing records on Epitaph was.
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It's not just him retroactively approval-stamping cartoonish b-team shit like that, it's that the book is borderline unreadable. The whole thing should have been cut 'n pasted into Google Translate just to get all his tortuously invented lingo rendered into "???" that you could blip over.
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It's not just him retroactively approval-stamping cartoonish b-team shit like that, it's that the book is borderline unreadable. The whole thing should have been cut 'n pasted into Google Translate just to get all his tortuously invented lingo rendered into "???" that you could blip over.
After reading about half of it in non-linear fashion, I gave my review copy to Ron House who's barely mentioned in the book. PUNK ROCK IRONY.
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Yeah, the book's a mess. The lingo really seems to be punk zine vernacular used incorrectly. I remember reading the page on Necessary Evils. Things written on that single page (Pallow's drinking stories, the band's drummer flying from a window and breaking both legs, etc.) overshadow nearly the whole fucking book. Weird choice of topics. And one must point out the Spits appearing on the cover and getting mentioned in one sentence only.
As for Still Single, the guys there really seem to ran out of steam around two years ago. Mosurock (didn't he change that surname at some point?) hyping the latest Merchandise LP is just sad.
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curious, how is eric's writing in the village voice, it's blocked from work, and i always forget to look when i get home
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curious, how is eric's writing in the village voice, it's blocked from work, and i always forget to look when i get home
Let me quote a headline of his:
Q&A: Cloud Nothings' Dylan Baldi On "Blog Rock," Cleveland, And Having "Lo-Fi" On His Tombstone
also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVO5OYoZQHc
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curious, how is eric's writing in the village voice, it's blocked from work, and i always forget to look when i get home
The Spits are a "buzzy blast of freaky fun." That's all you need to know.
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One man's shit, one man's gold, etc. etc., just make your fucking case, writers.
I have been re-reading L. Bang's second collection of columns in the bathroom for the last week, and amidst him getting a lot of emerging new wave records totally wrong (and sounding just like a burned-out hippie in dismissing Wire, The Fall, all hardcore/punk post-1980, etc., it's very very clear from his '82 writings that he's already looking past music crit to pay the bills) he can still write with a take that I understand, may not agree with, but it's coherent and defensible. Even arguable. He never hides behind his hipsterism, even if at times that would make his self-torture less tediously subjective and force the focus more on the records.
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This video of Billy Corgan deconstructing tha music biz is laugh out loud funny:
http://video.mashable.com/services/player/bcpid1334694100001?bckey=AQ~~%2cAAABBzUwv1E~%2cxP-xFHVUstjIElcSylrg3oBkxpJs9Nob&bctid=159456774200 (http://video.mashable.com/services/player/bcpid1334694100001?bckey=AQ~~%2cAAABBzUwv1E~%2cxP-xFHVUstjIElcSylrg3oBkxpJs9Nob&bctid=159456774200)1
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This video of Billy Corgan deconstructing tha music biz is laugh out loud funny:
http://video.mashable.com/services/player/bcpid1334694100001?bckey=AQ~~%2cAAABBzUwv1E~%2cxP-xFHVUstjIElcSylrg3oBkxpJs9Nob&bctid=159456774200 (http://video.mashable.com/services/player/bcpid1334694100001?bckey=AQ~~%2cAAABBzUwv1E~%2cxP-xFHVUstjIElcSylrg3oBkxpJs9Nob&bctid=159456774200)1
I couldn't get that shit to play, but I wonder just how douchey it gets? For someone that has been such a willing participant in every level of suckdom that exists in the "entertainment" industry to offer any sort of comment or criticism... It must be really special.
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This video of Billy Corgan deconstructing tha music biz is laugh out loud funny:
http://video.mashable.com/services/player/bcpid1334694100001?bckey=AQ~~%2cAAABBzUwv1E~%2cxP-xFHVUstjIElcSylrg3oBkxpJs9Nob&bctid=159456774200 (http://video.mashable.com/services/player/bcpid1334694100001?bckey=AQ~~%2cAAABBzUwv1E~%2cxP-xFHVUstjIElcSylrg3oBkxpJs9Nob&bctid=159456774200)1
I couldn't get that shit to play, but I wonder just how douchey it gets? For someone that has been such a willing participant in every level of suckdom that exists in the "entertainment" industry to offer any sort of comment or criticism... It must be really special.
There's supposed to be a 1 at the end of the url that didn't get included in the link.
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This video of Billy Corgan deconstructing tha music biz is laugh out loud funny:
http://video.mashable.com/services/player/bcpid1334694100001?bckey=AQ~~%2cAAABBzUwv1E~%2cxP-xFHVUstjIElcSylrg3oBkxpJs9Nob&bctid=159456774200 (http://video.mashable.com/services/player/bcpid1334694100001?bckey=AQ~~%2cAAABBzUwv1E~%2cxP-xFHVUstjIElcSylrg3oBkxpJs9Nob&bctid=159456774200)1
I couldn't get that shit to play, but I wonder just how douchey it gets? For someone that has been such a willing participant in every level of suckdom that exists in the "entertainment" industry to offer any sort of comment or criticism... It must be really special.
He basically thinks that fame/recognition has replaced being paid to be an artist, and that artists are giving away too much for free. Then he has all these theories about how artists should use social media to get fans to support them deeply and pay up. It's weird watching it, he seems convinced he's figured everything out.
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This video of Billy Corgan deconstructing tha music biz is laugh out loud funny:
http://video.mashable.com/services/player/bcpid1334694100001?bckey=AQ~~%2cAAABBzUwv1E~%2cxP-xFHVUstjIElcSylrg3oBkxpJs9Nob&bctid=159456774200 (http://video.mashable.com/services/player/bcpid1334694100001?bckey=AQ~~%2cAAABBzUwv1E~%2cxP-xFHVUstjIElcSylrg3oBkxpJs9Nob&bctid=159456774200)1
I couldn't get that shit to play, but I wonder just how douchey it gets? For someone that has been such a willing participant in every level of suckdom that exists in the "entertainment" industry to offer any sort of comment or criticism... It must be really special.
He basically thinks that fame/recognition has replaced being paid to be an artist, and that artists are giving away too much for free. Then he has all these theories about how artists should use social media to get fans to support them deeply and pay up. It's weird watching it, he seems convinced he's figured everything out.
He is also wearing a teenage girl's bucket hat.
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This video of Billy Corgan deconstructing tha music biz is laugh out loud funny:
http://video.mashable.com/services/player/bcpid1334694100001?bckey=AQ~~%2cAAABBzUwv1E~%2cxP-xFHVUstjIElcSylrg3oBkxpJs9Nob&bctid=159456774200 (http://video.mashable.com/services/player/bcpid1334694100001?bckey=AQ~~%2cAAABBzUwv1E~%2cxP-xFHVUstjIElcSylrg3oBkxpJs9Nob&bctid=159456774200)1
I couldn't get that shit to play, but I wonder just how douchey it gets? For someone that has been such a willing participant in every level of suckdom that exists in the "entertainment" industry to offer any sort of comment or criticism... It must be really special.
He basically thinks that fame/recognition has replaced being paid to be an artist, and that artists are giving away too much for free. Then he has all these theories about how artists should use social media to get fans to support them deeply and pay up. It's weird watching it, he seems convinced he's figured everything out.
He is also wearing a teenage girl's bucket hat.
What a knob. I remember reading about him claiming that he had invented some new way of playing guitar that was going to revolutionize the instrument and music itself, and how he was pronouncing himself some sort of latter-day Chuck Berry. D-O-O-S-H.
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New juice for the ass parade.
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/7145 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/7145)
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curious, how is eric's writing in the village voice, it's blocked from work, and i always forget to look when i get home
The Spits are a "buzzy blast of freaky fun." That's all you need to know.
Like it or leave it, this is how Eric writes and always has written. And it doesn't always translate well to a 300-plus page book. But I've always thought it was a god representation of who that guy is and how he feels about the music in the book. That doesn't mean its above criticism, but I think it comes down to a matter of taste rather than simply being good or bad. For better or worse, you're not going to calm down his writing. It can be exhausting to read to 300 pages of the Crypt Records catalog, but it would also be tedious to read 300 pages of a straightforward factual chronicling of the careers of Nine Pound Hammer and the like. I liked the book well enough.
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New juice for the ass parade.
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/7145 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/7145)
"At best, a compilation will always be a singles club, a subjective rounding up of solitary songs. At worst, it?s just another solipsistic memento mori. This is a congenital issue, of course."
I stopped reading after these first sentences, thanks.
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I almost made it to the end. "Curatorial" meet janitorial.
Welcome to DUSTED where "solipsistic" is the New Thang.
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Even as a huge fan of New Bomb Turks and probably 98% of the bands covered in the book, We Never Learn stinks - it's just plain bad writing and or/editing. I would totally be into reading 300 pages of Tim Warren, though.
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I would totally be into reading 300 pages of Tim Warren, though.
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I would totally be into reading 300 pages of Tim Warren, though.
Tm Warren himself, sure. That style in general, not so much.
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New juice for the ass parade.
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/7145 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/7145)
"At best, a compilation will always be a singles club, a subjective rounding up of solitary songs. At worst, it?s just another solipsistic memento mori. This is a congenital issue, of course."
I stopped reading after these first sentences, thanks.
"They arrived as a one-off or b-side, and divorced from any full-length they shall remain. " lol or wtf I don't even know anymore
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He's writing about his DUSTED bosses Mosurock and Earles.
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Do Dusted writers get paid?
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I think only about twelve people on Earth get paid to write anymore, approx.
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I would totally be into reading 300 pages of Tim Warren, though.
Tm Warren himself, sure. That style in general, not so much.
I'm talkin' 300 single-spaced pages inna Crypt-liner notes-stylee. It's like a rollercoaster as prose poem. Sign me up, daddio.
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Do Dusted writers get laid?
Isn't it obvious from their writing that the answer is "Chortle!"
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New juice for the ass parade.
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/7145 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/7145)
"At best, a compilation will always be a singles club, a subjective rounding up of solitary songs. At worst, it?s just another solipsistic memento mori. This is a congenital issue, of course."
I stopped reading after these first sentences, thanks.
"They arrived as a one-off or b-side, and divorced from any full-length they shall remain. " lol or wtf I don't even know anymore
It's especially LOL/WTF since the whole point is that these tracks are now together on a full-length. The whole review's an incredible stream of nonsense. Suitable for framing.
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Wait, did I make that terrible joke before? Fitting, this ennui. Breeds xerox personalities. Endless loops. Moby-us strips. He has a small weenis.
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http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=20495#.UC4vDaOkwue
Ginn's playing has been compared to Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy, not only by Rollins, but also by critics. Certainly no jazz critic would make the same assumption. Ginn is a master of free improv and these releases show his prowess as a would-be jazz player, but there is no way in hell that his sound or technique could even come close to Coleman or Dolphy. Ginn is not working in the same medium, nor is he trying to assume the same soul or spiritual heights that either of the aforementioned players aimed for.
hmmmmmmmm
The distorted guitars and atonal feedback of players like Sonny Sharrock and James Blood Ulmer reign supreme in a sludgy Black Sabbath riff. In fact, if Ginn could be compared to anyone, it would be these two players. Though his style and technique isn't as advanced as theirs...
Uhm, yeah!
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jazz's sound would seep into punk music through a series of '90s punk-free jazz collaborations between Henry Rollins, Sonic Youth, and other groups.
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Punk is no stranger to jazz.
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But the essential link to get from jazz to Black Flag comes in the visage of Lou Reed and John Cale , whose band The Velvet Underground did more on the band's first two records than any other American group of the '60s to change the face of experimental music. Their eclectic blend of atonal noise, subtle pop and garage punk was fueled equally by R&B, John Cage, LaMonte Young and the solos of Ornette Coleman.
(http://new.assets.thequietus.com/images/articles/7147/John_Cale_1318330132_crop_550x571.jpg)
(http://tattoos-101.tattoofinder.com/files/henry-rollins-01.jpg)
(http://www.magnetmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/ornette_chair360b.jpg)
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the essential link between jazz and black flag is "not being a fucking idiot".
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also, John Cale is eye fucking the photographer. and thus "YOU".
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A mook masturpiece. A tard de force. Etc. Opening line teaser: "Can the canny bring the uncanny?"
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/7319 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/7319)
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This made my morning....
"I'm listening to the opening track of the new Swans release. Until the title is enunciated, via trance-like and chanting vocals, it's a decimator; conjuring a rainbow of horrors. But when the word "lunacy" gets repeated, over and over, along with lyrics about ?killing the truth,? the message feels overwrought. The track's made smaller by deterministic definition - which may have seemed necessary per its oracular perch at the start of this nearly two-hour epic. A happier elemental marriage happens with "Mother of the World." The three entirely instrumental minutes at the front are effective, a sort of scaled-down Death Metal, and cousin to some of Glenn Branca's work. The juxtaposition of off-key, atonal noise emanating from someone's mouth with emphatically repetitive music is unnerving, as in, what the hell are they going to do NEXT?? The track ends up morphing into brilliantly cracked, Gothic cabaret.
Should I mention the fact that I've been recently immersed in Holocaust studies? Would someone who hasn't be experiencing the horrific visuals and ideas suggested intermittently to me by The Seer, the two CDs (three LPs if you get the vinyl edition) of which took 30 years, per Michael Gira, to manifest. Gira, who helped create the seminal post-rock movement and whose early music had a lot in common with No Wave, has shared that the album is "the culmination of every previous Swans album as well as any other music I've ever made, been involved in or imagined. But it's unfinished, like the songs themselves. It's one frame in a reel. The frames blur, blend and will eventually fade." "
http://www.foxydigitalis.com/foxyd/?p=37136
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A bravura performance. That review is the culmination of every previous Swans review that guy has written, as well as any review he's ever made, been involved in, or imagined. But it's unfinished, like the album itself. Did I mention I've been immersed in a toilet overflowing with shit?
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Actually this made me think that the reviewer has actually never listened to any Swans at all, until now. Nor any Death Metal or Glenn Branca.
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He's getting death metal mixed up with doom, I bet.
Branca? I dunno... some sorta record reviewer Mad Lib wildcard effect.
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Ofttimes, whilst I peruse a critique of any exceedingly dithyrambic harmony, sprightly opuscule, or good-humored greasy spoon, I envisage the epistolarian spasmodically seeking recourse with www.thesaurus.com within each and every sentence.
Really, though....Don't some writers just reek of having another browser open to an online thesaurus at all times?
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Can we get more pictures of John Cale auditioning for and extra in the underground gay bar scene in "Far From Heaven" please? I like a little losing with my cruising.
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(http://www.zoilus.com/documents/cale_2003.jpg)
"Fyrwherlergwygyltrdygh."
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(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c2/John_Cale_-_HoboSapiens.jpg)
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Not sure this comment relates to the general theme of this thread but whatever - I DO WHAT I WANT!
I spent a solid hour sampling some tracks from a certain websites recent "best albums." The website's name rhymes with 'pitchfork.' I've completely lost touch with youth culture - was I ever in touch? I have no idea when this happened; all of the critically well received material sounded like absolute shit. I very simply didn't understand the appeal. Is everything sample based? Do all white electro bands rap now? Is the MIDI pad the new plastic recorder?
What have I become? What am I missing? :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(
(http://www.folkmusician.com/images/9577.jpg)
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"...it?s a decimator; conjuring a rainbow of horrors."
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pitchfork review of
country teasers - full moon empty sportsbag
Good music doesn't always need to teem with willfully aesthetic and venerable ambition. For every Jim Morrison and prog-rock band, bound on one side by megalomania and on the other by ineptitude, there's a flagrantly idiotic band like The Stooges or The Sex Pistols, more concerned with having a guitarist who uses his instrument as a rowdy projectile than with having liner notes based on a Mabuse triptych and Das Kapital. Pussy Galore were a good band not because they were satirical, but because none of them knew how to play their instruments. And that is hilarious. Not many people can relate to the classical sublimity of guitarist Christopher Parkening, but everyone can relate to the thought that guitars sound crazy when you hit them on things.
That was my pre-Secret Weapon Revealed at Last philosophy. Now I'm starting to wonder: Is dumb, improvisational noise-rock an essential component of modern music, or is it merely the remarkably infantile and incomprehensible product of some kids who taught themselves make-believe chords between episodes of Punk Planet USA?
When this conflict hits the courts, let the noise-rockers pray that The Country Teasers have not been subpoenaed. The Scottish band had some quirky records back in the late 90s, the sort of music that easily offended patrons believe is cutely offensive, but difficultly offended ones find vapid and tiresome. While 1999's Destroy All Human Life had a penury of memorable songs, it did at least have a Tammy Wynette cover and some vaguely political satire to obscure the ineffectiveness of the band. The new album offers no such reprieve.
The first song, "Success", like most of the album, belongs to the Dr. Demento school of disaster; these are either terrible songs or terrible parodies of terrible songs. This iteration may make interesting conceptual art, but it isn't very good music. (The song is so bad it made a Pitchfork reviewer invoke Dr. Demento.) It's a bedraggled, clumsy piece that tries to conglomerate noise, garage, and pop, and essentially fails at all of them. Sample lyric (if I heard correctly): "Anna Kournikova was thirteen years old when she entered the world of sex/ I mean, success." After interrogating that line for some time, it's unclear whether it's supposed to be entertaining. If so, is it intended to be entertaining on its own, or making fun of people/bands that think that line is entertaining?
If you're anything like me, you probably didn't finish reading the preceding paragraph because you didn't care anymore. It's true that their former albums were comic rejoinders to the sort of people that don't recognize them as humorous, but this album, when it's tolerable, simply did not amuse me. If I couldn't possibly fathom the uproarious comedy because it's making fun of people like me, well then, I guess I despise it even more. Some songs, like "Harry Wine 2", are at least familiar as poor fa?ades of better rock. The guitar riffs are rarely sustainable for more than five seconds, though some do make it to eight. I'm fairly certain "Todtill" involves only one chord. This may sound like a clamorously ideal melding of Scottish country with Japanese noise, but it's delivered more like one-third of the chorus of a Rancid song. After I heard it for the first time, I thought to myself, "Why isn't my stereo working?" Then I realized I was so bored that I'd started to mentally efface my faculty for listening.
The most complimentary sentiment I can muster is that this album has horrific production. Even then, however, many albums have worse. I realize this was a particularly ostentatious review, written by some haughty upstart who thinks he knows about music, but I honestly think I could make a better album than this, even though I currently suffer from poor eyesight, bronchitis, and a sizeable gash that precludes the use of my right hand.
3.1/10
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a sizeable gash
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Welsh for "You were supposed to tell me before you came!"
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Another hitmaker from the Still Single stable:
Burgeoning through a capricious gaze in the late ?80s, the Dead C.?s tempered rise to legacy is currently testing the glass ceiling of the underground. If you, as I, were also born with the moon in post-punk, early Dead C. records were beyond the pale by the time you came of age. However, recent years have offered respite in reissue format, with the exception of Operation of the Sonne, a title which I happen to covet. In the spirit of the popular opinion garnering interest, whittled on down to cliche, if I had a penny for every time the Dead C. was referenced, the price of this original pressing would increase in tandem and still no transaction would transpire. Good thing I thought that one through first. Guess who didn?t?
How do I explain Yek Koo? You know how people like to say, ?Blondie is a band?? Well, Yek Koo is a sucks. And Love Song for the Dead C is an exceptional example of the inevitable meretricious collateral seen in the long program of new waves and their wakes. At best, this album was a prepaid party favor at a particular online fundraiser?s end game ? the mixed-message installation art show, ?Touching Them Touching Me ? A Love Song for the Dead C.,? by artist Helga Fassonaki, who performs as Yek Koo. In addition to funding the album, contributions went to a hyperreal reconstruction of Empire Tavern, a bar in New Zealand in which the Dead C. played early shows, and a ping-pong table ? not sure. The closing was a separate event; three nights of bands billed as a ?three day performance series,? with a subtitle I will drop as gently as possible, ?Trapdoor Fucking Exit.? Three enviable nights regardless, as the Charalambides and notable kiwi ?migr?s Brian and Maryrose Crook of the Renderers played. I could have smoked during the ?drunkenly stumbling,? lackadaisical, free-form guitar with occasional percussive gestures and bathtub chanting that is the basis of the recording I am supposed to focus on here, as previously captured with a Dictaphone to vinyl.
As tributes go, Love Song for the Dead C fails diametrically. If meant to honor the band in form, it does so by picking up tenets at the surface: improvisation, a guitar, not using a recording studio, applying them with the cadence of a narcoleptic doing homework. Surely uncomplimentary to a band that finds even Yo La Tengo?s cover of ?Bad Politics,? the Dead C.?s most accessible song, subpar. If we view Fassonaki?s work, the album and installation in total, with the pretense of the Dead C.?s philosophies at hand, refractions of mimicry and idolatry overwhelm, which couldn?t be farther from their ultimate endorsement of a new musical language. The only thing that keeps Love Song for the Dead C from a complete wash is its bookends, two versions of a traditional Persian love song, first in Farsi, then in English, and we have to agree that they are love songs because they are love songs. But it?s a cheap device, and ultimately an undermining, because it provides the final nail in the radical contingency of naming coffin. The identity of the work is in the identification. Trapdoor Fucking Exit ? a tautological misstep.
In a statement of the artist?s intent, Fassonaki is compared to the role of a hagiographer, that she is depicting the lives of saints, here with the Dead C., in part one of a consecrated (God forbid) series. For good measure, it is also offered that she is commenting on delusions implicit in fandom. This choose-your-own-adventure style thesis is as damning to the popular opinion of contemporary artists as her album is to a working understanding of the subculture it aims to endorse, or critique, or worship, or emulate, or whatever. Yet we find the sublimated motive to forge a link between herself and the band tenuously achieved. Installation photographs depict Fassonaki with a seat at the bar she commissioned, the exacerbated double of the Empire Tavern. Although the program text available online fails to mention this, it is where the Dead C. recorded the closing side to Operation of the Sonne. I hope it is not too self-serving to suggest that there may have been more effective means to an end here. 288 copies, still very much available after months in release. (http://www.emeraldcocoon.com)
(Elizabeth Murphy)
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That is Beth from TNV.
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Yeah but she's burgeoning through a capricious gaze.
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too much time with a prank call comedian(?)
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Ha, and wow.
Some of us were born with the moon in post-punk; others of us were born with a thesaurus in our mouth and an English teacher's ruler up our ass.
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Sven Jolly.
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The gift keeps on giving, I red-circled these:
the exacerbated double
the radical contingency of naming coffin
bathtub chanting
the inevitable meretricious collateral
refractions of mimicry and idolatry overwhelm
Could you speak to me after class? Thanks....
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That is Beth from TNV.
That's too bad. I like her band.
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The gift keeps on giving, I red-circled these:
the exacerbated double
the radical contingency of naming coffin
bathtub chanting
the inevitable meretricious collateral
refractions of mimicry and idolatry overwhelm
Could you speak to me after class? Thanks....
perfect
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"Bathtub chanting"
I got time for that one.
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Actual serious q.
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I'm not sure either. Did Whet Bull lock his own thread?
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Huh. I didn't lock it. Weird.
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Hacked by Still Single cabal (whose cohorts include Pitchfork, Dusted, etc.) whose recent claims include that smart people know that "Rocket to Nowhere" is Mike Rep's one good song. Invaluable resource those dimwads who get paid what they're worth.
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Damn
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Huh. I didn't lock it. Weird.
Maybe you accidentally locked it while you were sitting at your desk at the law form of Dewey, Cheatam and Howe, splooging over barelylegal.com?
aiiiieeee condios
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I was wondering about this too - I just thought the thing from Miss TNV was so bad that it rendered all future 'missives' obsolete.
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unlocked?
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Chuck Eddy and Chuck Klosternan got caught in the summer of '69 position.
In Saginaw, Michigan.
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Chucks! Hard!!! Eee.
Saggin?
Naw!
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Andrew Breckerman, from a review of some bullshit or 'nother:
Having an interesting aesthetic is nice and being able to work in nostalgic styles can be exciting for both the artist, who gets to resurrect something, and the audience, who gets to hear familiar music that fills a hole.
Then again, one man?s hurdle is another man?s raised piece of wood.
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Mosurock vs. Frere-Jones, Round 1:
Picture a big white wall of rock music-based noise. There is motion and activity behind it, actions you?ll never see but can only sense, because that wall is opaque. And that is the long and short of this writer?s take on the debut album from METZ, a Toronto trio given a gold star of sorts, via large indie label record contract, merely for showing up.
Perhaps a lack of fresh Canadian content drove Sub Pop to sign this band. And perhaps a lack of insight has driven at least one well-employed music critic to proclaim the METZ album one of the best records of 2012. One must wonder what else that man listened to this year. From my vantage point at Still Single, METZ has made a record at the very tip of the canon that?s fully interchangeable with just about any other noise rock band?s output, and that has been bested by at least a dozen records in the past 10 months, all of which do some variation on the same thing (windmilling guitar, pummeling rhythm section, indiscernible yelling of the same phrases over the top, over and over, all just to be heard over the din and scrape). In an interview with said writer, the band members recommend friend rock bands from their scene whose records I could barely get through, like The Soupcans. It feels like I?m in bizarro land, reading that sort of praise. If I can?t trust the tastes of the people making the music, what does that say about their music on its own?
Of course, you?re not me, and you?re not forcing yourself to get through three and a half crates of promo vinyl a week. You also might be younger, and haven?t been hit about the head and shoulders with this sort of edgy, down-picked rockarollapunkawallop for the past two decades and change. Thus begins the whole ?well, why don?t you listen to [this band] or [this band]?? argument, a canard I am going to acknowledge and move away from. The generational divide looks terrible from this side, and really, the only way it can be broached is if younger people take an active interest in the past.
There is no kick inside this sound for someone like myself, and that?s all I can really say here. Clocking in at just under a half-hour long, METZ has made a record that fills every cubic centimeter of space with unrelenting noise, somewhat indebted to Fugazi in the magnetism bestowed upon the trio dynamic, but mitigated with a dunderheaded simplicity that favors the clashing chord and the indiscernible lyric nonsense belted out against it over innovation or the thrills that new ideas can bring. One could liken this sort of performance to the buffering in a streaming video, in that their songs extend time in an unpleasant manner. Thirty minutes of METZ feels more like hard work than fun playtimes, and the sameness of the venture underscores the futility of whatever it is they?re trying to accomplish, which falls somewhere between ?artist defending bowel movement on a gallery floor? and ?third demo tape by an up-and-coming new band.?
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Mosurock vs. Frere-Jones, Round 1:
Picture a big white wall of rock music-based noise. There is motion and activity behind it, actions you?ll never see but can only sense, because that wall is opaque. And that is the long and short of this writer?s take on the debut album from METZ, a Toronto trio given a gold star of sorts, via large indie label record contract, merely for showing up.
Perhaps a lack of fresh Canadian content drove Sub Pop to sign this band. And perhaps a lack of insight has driven at least one well-employed music critic to proclaim the METZ album one of the best records of 2012. One must wonder what else that man listened to this year. From my vantage point at Still Single, METZ has made a record at the very tip of the canon that?s fully interchangeable with just about any other noise rock band?s output, and that has been bested by at least a dozen records in the past 10 months, all of which do some variation on the same thing (windmilling guitar, pummeling rhythm section, indiscernible yelling of the same phrases over the top, over and over, all just to be heard over the din and scrape). In an interview with said writer, the band members recommend friend rock bands from their scene whose records I could barely get through, like The Soupcans. It feels like I?m in bizarro land, reading that sort of praise. If I can?t trust the tastes of the people making the music, what does that say about their music on its own?
Of course, you?re not me, and you?re not forcing yourself to get through three and a half crates of promo vinyl a week. You also might be younger, and haven?t been hit about the head and shoulders with this sort of edgy, down-picked rockarollapunkawallop for the past two decades and change. Thus begins the whole ?well, why don?t you listen to [this band] or [this band]?? argument, a canard I am going to acknowledge and move away from. The generational divide looks terrible from this side, and really, the only way it can be broached is if younger people take an active interest in the past.
There is no kick inside this sound for someone like myself, and that?s all I can really say here. Clocking in at just under a half-hour long, METZ has made a record that fills every cubic centimeter of space with unrelenting noise, somewhat indebted to Fugazi in the magnetism bestowed upon the trio dynamic, but mitigated with a dunderheaded simplicity that favors the clashing chord and the indiscernible lyric nonsense belted out against it over innovation or the thrills that new ideas can bring. One could liken this sort of performance to the buffering in a streaming video, in that their songs extend time in an unpleasant manner. Thirty minutes of METZ feels more like hard work than fun playtimes, and the sameness of the venture underscores the futility of whatever it is they?re trying to accomplish, which falls somewhere between ?artist defending bowel movement on a gallery floor? and ?third demo tape by an up-and-coming new band.?
TOO BORING SUMMARIZE
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Ooooh! I can't wait to read Sasha's retort in The New Yorker! LULz.
I've said it before: SF-J musta had a stroke in the past couple years, 'cos his writing gets crazier and stupider every time I read it.
It's more fun to watch Moose's and Earles' minds deteriorate, as they fume over the sorry state of Rock and find solace in Milk Music, Merchandise, and this:
(http://madeinchinarecords.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/wo-cover-530x524.png)
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Ooooh! I can't wait to read Sasha's retort in The New Yorker! LULz.
I've said it before: SF-J musta had a stroke in the past couple years, 'cos his writing gets crazier and stupider every time I read it.
It's more fun to watch Moose's and Earles' minds deteriorate, as they fume over the sorry state of Rock and find solace in Milk Music, Merchandise, and this:
(http://madeinchinarecords.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/wo-cover-530x524.png)
What the fuck is that picture? King Dude? Regardless, I think if your review blog is causing you to hate music then maybe it's time to let your blog go. I don't believe that getting older means you need to start hating everything. Besides, everything those guys like is just as derivative as everything they slam.
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There has to be a good, funny, interesting rockwriter somewhere.
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I can't even imagine how awful I would feel if I had to spunk out five paragraphs and callous my fingers on a thesaurus in the name of a Ty Segal record.
I would probably start crying, but that would mean I'd have something resembling a soul, which would preclude me from that sorta writing about that sorta record.
Intellectualizing these dimestore darling groups is flagrantly fucking absurd. And somehow fitting.
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^^^That's some band from Portland called White Orange. Earles was eatin' their goo last year. Maybe it was a joke, but it weren't funny and it didn't make sense so I haftoo assume it's serious.
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I hated reviewing from day 1 but felt it was an area needing service at the time. No longer. I just check out what people are saying the day something comes out or those with advance copies or actual clips or whatever. What's the point of a record review? No offense to anyone, but seriously. We don't need blacksmiths er phone booths er Blockbuster Video neither. It's dead. Not writing about music, but the canned record review section. An anachronism. A dead horse. The dodo. Fin. Fucking die already*.
* I still scan the TB ones. I'm super old and there are wide grooves in the synapses. What's your excuse?
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The best review writing was done by people who weren't comfortable with what they were supposed to be doing and were often writing self-loathing, often funny, half true autobiographies disiguised as record reviews. Try and track down some Phonograph Record Magazine back issues.
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I'm fine with (and aware of) historical greats. I just think the time has passed.
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I'm fine with (and aware of) historical greats. I just think the time has passed.
My post was just a general observation. I know you know. I still like Coley's writing.
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Agreed. Always been a big Coley fan. He should stay away from video commentary, or at least I shouldn't watch it. Otherwise he's been pretty impressive considering the years in the bank.
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Agreed. Always been a big Coley fan. He should stay away from video commentary, or at least I shouldn't watch it. Otherwise he's been pretty impressive considering the years in the bank.
I just started a thread w/ a few of his reviews--of possible TB interest--from recent WIRE UK. He says more in 50 words or less (and it's almost always funny as well) than anyone at Dusted/Pitchfork/Still Single can say in a thou. And the latter are NEVER funny, save unintentionally.
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I just started a thread w/ a few of his reviews--of possible TB interest--from recent WIRE UK. He says more in 50 words or less (and it's almost always funny as well) than anyone at Dusted/Pitchfork/Still Single can say in a thou. And the latter are ALWAYS funny, always unintentionally.
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I just started a thread w/ a few of his reviews--of possible TB interest--from recent WIRE UK. He says more in 50 words or less (and it's almost always funny as well) than anyone at Dusted/Pitchfork/Still Single can say in a thou. And the latter are ALWAYS funny, always unintentionally.
No they really aren't. Often it's just tedious and Lex Dexter level empty long windedness. BOATZONE
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Dude is right (in a roundabout way) about METZ though. They suck.
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That Metz review would have been okay had it ended at the halfway mark.
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That Metz review would have been okay had it ended at the halfway mark.
where is your Coley thread ?
i wanna see those wire reviews.
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A friend of mine mentioned this release today & I wasn't familiar. He described it as "phenomenal in the worst sense imaginable", so naturally I was curious to get a taste;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2miWpNIrSos&feature=relmfu
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A friend of mine mentioned this release today & I wasn't familiar. He described it as "phenomenal in the worst sense imaginable", so naturally I was curious to get a taste;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2miWpNIrSos&feature=relmfu
T. Rettman gets to the heart of the matter in this incisive piece of music journalism:
http://swingsetmagazine.com/2009/06/matt-krefting-interview/#more-59 (http://swingsetmagazine.com/2009/06/matt-krefting-interview/#more-59)
Oh, wow, dude likes Chappelle's Show and Whitehouse. Paints his nails. Maverick!
"You gotta be pretentious to be taken seriously." -- Elisa Ambrogio
To be more precise, that's all you gotta do to be taken seriously by these lightweights. Lodger? Wow! Yeah, enigmatic.
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A friend of mine mentioned this release today & I wasn't familiar. He described it as "phenomenal in the worst sense imaginable", so naturally I was curious to get a taste;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2miWpNIrSos&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h31g59cnKk4
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I have since encountered more folks familiar w/this cd & to the person they had nothing but vexed hyperbole to spew about this thing. So I gotta get a copy. There must be mountains of them in a warehouse (or basement/spare bedroom) somewhere, why can't I find this for a 1$?
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Here's the Moose's well considered opinion:
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5151 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5151)
S/booze, you seem bemused by the rec. What's your take?
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Also, what're the odds of Meatus Murder ever seeing a vinyl reissue, y'think?
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Not bemused yet, all I've seen/heard is that "the making of" piece on YT that had me hilariously aghast. Me & a bud who works in another local record shop were talking about records that make customers ask "who"? There's the obvious culprits (such as The Shaggs), but he was saying he brings this cd in & everytime it plays, the "who" question is followed by "why"?
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Thanks for the SS review link Whet Bull, but I couldn't abide that. Just getting through the 1st sentence almost gave me a case of the nappies. Too early for a zizz. I'll assume he bought into it.
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As for Meatus Murder, I'd be down w/that on vinyl. What a great release! I had contact w/them when it was initially around & getting airplay on WFMU, even traded copies of SB cd's for MM ones, but never knew anyone involved. And the email corro was done anonymously on their end. So if you have a lead, hit me w/a pm.
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i'm just reading this book of Raymond Chandler letters and this quote reminded me of this thread:
"It is wrong to be harsh with the New York critics, unless one admits in the same breath that it is a condition of their existence that they should write entertainingly about something which is rarely worth writing about at all. This leads or forces them to develop a technique of pseudo-subtlety and abstruseness which, when acquired, permits them to deal with trivial things as though they were momentous."
7th May 1948!
Concise.
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There's a great Chandler quote here that translates well to the whole Pitchfork, Dusted, Still Single scribe set;
"The English may not always be the best writers in the world, but they are incomparably the best dull writers".
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There was a time in this country, a long time ago, when reading wasn't just for fags and neither was writing. - Idiocracy, Pvt Bower
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"That wasn't written, it was rotten"
Roland Woodbe
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Everywhere I go I am asked if universities stifle writers. My opinion is they don't stifle enough of them - Sam Esh
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Last time I saw Sam Esh he was reading a Korean newspaper upside down at the bus stop.
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http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/7465 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/7465)
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http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/7465 (http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/7465)
Woulda been passable review if he cut himself off after the first paragraph. Why people need to mention social media in reviews (and other writing not specifically about social media) is beyond me and telling of the writer's own empty existence.
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The typical vaporwave track is a wholly synthesised or heavily processed chunk of corporate mood music, bright and earnest or slow and sultry, often beautiful, either looped out of sync and beyond the point of functionality or standing alone, and sometimes with a smattering of miasma about it.
http://dummymag.com/features/2012/07/12/adam-harper-vaporwave/
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Brace yourselves:
http://arthurmag.com/2012/11/15/arthur-returns-to-life-december-22-2012/
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Brace yourselves:
http://arthurmag.com/2012/11/15/arthur-returns-to-life-december-22-2012/
I never bought an issue, but some of the stuff was okay. Always enjoyed Coley/Moore column, whatever it was called. Not great, but MUCH better than most of what's in this thread. Even if they are FUCKING HIPPIES.
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I never bought an issue
Um, nobody did. It was free.
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I never bought an issue
Um, nobody did. It was free.
Not if you live in Montana and, I assume, many of the other so-called fly-over states.
Re-boot includes a $5 charge for each issue with the promise of less ads.
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Fair point. I forget what it's like to live in a "cultural backwater." I kinda miss it. But Montana is pretty extreme. Hats off.
Arthur was cool for awhile. Not perfect by any means, but as a freebie at the record store, it was worthwhile. For a minute there, it was everywhere ('cept for Montana).
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Now, they will be spearheading the "Brooklynization of America."
Bring some kultcha to you yahoos out there in the boonies.
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do i have to send review copies to thurston now, as well?
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I always just sent mine to Coley. Thurston referred to me as "crazy" to a mutual friend, though he's never met me. Very flattering.
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Fair point. I forget what it's like to live in a "cultural backwater." I kinda miss it. But Montana is pretty extreme. Hats off.
Arthur was cool for awhile. Not perfect by any means, but as a freebie at the record store, it was worthwhile. For a minute there, it was everywhere ('cept for Montana).
Living in a cultural "frontwater" really doesn't seem to be doing you much good.
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It's useful to think of Arthur as the West Coast's answer to Vice (print edition).
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Fair point. I forget what it's like to live in a "cultural backwater." I kinda miss it. But Montana is pretty extreme. Hats off.
Arthur was cool for awhile. Not perfect by any means, but as a freebie at the record store, it was worthwhile. For a minute there, it was everywhere ('cept for Montana).
Living in a cultural "frontwater" really doesn't seem to be doing you much good.
It's not the state, it's the HATE.
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Is there still a free print version of Vice?
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There is, though I never see it anymore. The online ed. is where it's at.
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I figured all the good stuff just went online. The print version has got to be about 85% ads now anyway.
Arthur was decent, we actually used to get it here once in awhile somehow. Bull Tongue was the coley/moore column.
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http://arthur.bigcartel.com/product/arthur-issue-1
MATT HOFFMAN "chapter length" article...?!?!
I might NEED a back issue, right here.
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Coley is cool, but Moore is insufferable.
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Yes, I always sent to BC only.
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That is a good policy.
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I wonder if Thurston is fucking Yoko.
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Thanks for ruining this sushi buffet
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Is that Thurston's pet name for her?
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You lacist!
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In blatant defiance of this thread's intent, here is a funny, incisive, utterly pointless but completely true and entertaining, slice of music-ish writing.
Oh how we laughed....
"As an inverse to how Kissinger?s winning of the Nobel Peace prize rendered Tom Leher?s career no longer relevant, Whitney and Michael?s deaths have given GG?s demise a dignity that he would have found repellent. How low can a punk get? Pretty low. My view of the state of punk is the same as my view of the State of Israel; entirely indefensible but I don?t want it to die. And both are like the music of Lana Del Rey; sure I?ll make fun behind closed doors, but get me in the bar and I?ll take positions no sane man could support just to remain, in my mind, in stark opposition of the stupid, stupid faces of the naysayers. My god, I?ll defend ?90s era Bad Religion before I concede the point. What point? Any point. That?s what being a punk is about.
I was once asked, after GG Allin?s death, if I wanted to try out to sing for the Murder Junkies. I was threatened with bodily harm for making some Johnny Thunders crack and asked if I liked rape rock. That?s not my story. I?m just establishing my credentials.
Listen, it?s late and you?re the only paying customer here, so please don?t let me bring you down. I know I rolled my eyes when you said Nina Simone was the first punk, but you have to understand; giving the souls of black folk the unasked for validation of a Minor Threat t-shirt is a sucker?s game. One you should stop playing at the exact moment you stop pretending to enjoy Greil Marcus. But I?m here to serve you, not insult you, not shave you with my eyes, not rearrange the letters of your neck tattoos so that they no longer spell out the names of all the line cooks who have died on your watch, but instead say something true like: ?Given the choice between getting all the pussy in Gainesville while actually Being in the Moss Icon reunion and President Obama being re-elected and National service being instated therefore ensuring a genuine rebirth in civic pride and actual community rather than the half assed insular compromises of house shows and bike clubs, I don?t actually know what I?d choose. Probably the tan lines and Sub Springsteen sing alongs of the Against Me! pool party. Sorry. PS. Not really sorry.?
So let me get you another drink. No, we don?t have Lonestar. Yes, I know where you first had it.
I may just be a bartender and a journey man in bands forever destined to be slandered in the pages of Jersey Beat, but I hope you believe me when I say my soul is so lofty that it could be a misunderstanding of Bad Brain?s intent, it could be free and not just another god, another master. I know the high keening pain of the Ethan Hawks thought foolish and pretentious by the world, and rightly so, but made tragic, not by being noble or good but by the existential unfairness of a James Franco coming along, doing exactly what we were so justifiably mocked for but, through the fickleness of a capricious God, being taken seriously, being felated by the admissions departments of a 1,000 Ivy soaked institutions. I feel that pain when I watch anyone, doing anything. I want what they have, even if what they have is less than me. Life is profoundly unfair. Like Andrew Eldritch on his sword cane cross, I want so much more.
The greatest three minute punk story is the career of Vic Godard. Vic Godard, who only nerds and Dan Melchior sidemen remember. Vic Godard, who wrote ?me and my shadow, ill at ease? summing it all up and then going jazzbo before no one?s eyes. Vic Godard who was never cool like Joe Strummer or, hell, even Elvis Costello. Sure, they all turned their knees inward but Joe was a rocker and Elvis was just a terrible clown waiting to become more terrible, waiting to be a TV host, a fucking songwriter, while Vic Godard was just a weirdo who couldn?t understand why playing Cole Porter wasn?t punk. What a wonderful, useless jerk. Vic Godard was the best of all the punks and then he became a postman because he was too good for this world. He had to deliver the mail because jocks and phonies rule. And his rise, his comeback, his goddamned ascension from the depths was doing the backing vocals on a song from the soundtrack to Empire Records. I look to Vic Godard as beacon of, well, not hope, obviously, but a respectful resignation. An attainable worth. I look to him because, living on the outskirts of the wrong Bushwick (not the gilded utopian Pretoria of the Morgan stop) I have terrible mail service. I know that he would see me though. He would deliver my limited fanclub edition blue vinyl Discharge seven inches promptly and he would wipe the sweat from my brow and say so sweetly, so nasal-y?
?I recognize you. You too will always have to have a job.?
Look, you?re young, approximately, and you have so many goodish years ahead of you. You may have expressed the ?no? of punk in your dissertation, but your eyes, your watery, watery eyes are the ?yes? of a Punk Planet punk. I know you still vote and you still vacillate in your behavior towards cops. I?m not suggesting you follow my example. If you have a choice, for the love of god, don?t listen to Vic Godard. Listen to Black Flag like you, if that tote bag is telling the truth, already do. There is a winner?s circle, even in a loser?s subculture, and you should set your, well, I was going to make some sort of fixed gear joke here, but how many harmless completely apolitical hobbies can I mock without exposing myself as utterly gutless to hate anything that matters? So just, you know, walk in that direction. I have an unflappable faith in you, loathed customer I just met. I know there?s a Joe Strummer mural in your future, a Please Kill Me entry written in gold leaf, a Real Life Rock Top Ten with you, spring lamb of positive hardcore, as both the number ten and the number one. You can be Jacob and I?ll be Esau, even though we?re both vegetarians, you can have my birthright and I forgive you. Of course I do, you?re just like me at my age. You?re my Patty Duke image in the doorway. And, just like Patty Duke, you?re a punk."
http://zackcelebration.tumblr.com/post/36081887683/my-submission-to-the-greatest-3-minute-punk-stories
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"The world just wasn't ready for the mirror the [Afghan] Whigs held up."
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I had to work during this, but may I submit:
http://www.vice.com/read/we-saw-this-nude-beach-and-roky-erickson?noredirection=true
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I had to work during this, but may I submit:
http://www.vice.com/read/we-saw-this-nude-beach-and-roky-erickson?noredirection=true
Classic lazy bro move: interviewing the GF for an "outsider's" perspective instead of taking the time to organize his own well-considered observations into a readable, insightful article. Completely superfluous in the way only Vice writing can be. From the approximately 7 Vice articles I've ever read to completion, I'd say they've really cornered the market on the interview as a form of boring intellectual debasement masquerading as edgy juxtaposition: "Ask a bum about nuclear physics", "Ask a schizophrenic about Obamacare", "Ask an Ethiopian about Grateful Dead bootlegs", etc. While there's some life in this concept, it's deployed so lazily that any amusement is largely accidental.
Girlfriend crit fits the basic model of Ask X about Y (unrelated). In this case, as in most, the dude's got his twat blinders on and thinks everything his broad says is brilliant and funny and genuinely believes the whole world should be nutting over the fact that she hates corny-ass monster-mash psychobilly and loves oregano on her pizza. But hey, I read the whole thing, so it must be working on some level. Here's my all-time favorite piece of girlfriend crit (which I may have previously mentioned in these pages): http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/what-i-cant-hear-you (http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/what-i-cant-hear-you)
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vice used to be good at one point. known for it's humor and clear writing. its gone down hill over the years for the obvious reasons.
the lame bro slant to the articles which you've traced back in time actually goes even further back to a magazine called Bigbrother, which used to do the same thing. except, funny.
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HB: Check out the docu. on Rocco, Big Bro. et. al.: The Man Who Souled the World
This article (http://www.avclub.com/articles/was-hardcore-meant-to-grow-old,88913/) started with:
In We Got Power!, an excellent new photo-and-essay book ...
so I kinda just skimmed it but it seems pointless as the AV Club can at times ("23 movies where....who cares")...Code Orange Kids? Crappy screamo, n'est?ce pas?
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http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/7503
dude cites hegel in a review of the donnie and joe emerson reissue.
"Dreamin Wild is an odd mix of the music of the era: fairly soft, jangly, AM Gold at its core but also branching out in bits and specks into the rest of the decade in a way thats -- please forgive the high-mindedness (I know no other way to say this) -- Hegelian. What I mean by this is that Hegel's idea of Spirit -- to paraphrase and bastardize -- had to do with these kind of mass cultural ideas playing out in actual humans, and as actual humans live their lives, the contradictions inherent in these ideas would play themselves out as well. (To make it clearer, all ideas, when played to their logical conclusions, eventually contradict themselves -- it's why cultures eventually fall apart.)
As noted above, liberalism contradicted itself as the left-leaning order split itself asunder in the '60s and '70s, thanks to civil rights and such ripping the New Deal Coalition in half."
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I generally don't mind the application of high theory to so-called low culture but if you are going to invoke Hegel in a record review you first have to remember to always include the apostrophe in "thats" (sic)
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I generally don't mind the application of high theory to so-called low culture but if you are going to invoke Hegel in a record review you first have to remember to always include the apostrophe in "thats" (sic)
Ha!
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Hegelian: The Emerson Brothers, Spencey Dude And The Doodles, Cumstain, George Benson, Vitamin X
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Not exactly criticism, but still suitably pseudish and mystifying. From the Matador blog:
"To celebrate the release of TURN ON THE BRIGHT LIGHTS: THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION, the IFC in New York are hostng a very special event on Monday 3rd December, the eve of the record’s digital release*. A screening of rare footage from early Interpol performances and music videos will be followed by a roundtable discussion about TOTBL and it’s position in the musical landscape of the early 2000s, featuring Sam Fogarino and Daniel Kessler from the band, Pitchfork founder Ryan Schreiber, Other Music co-owner Josh Madell and moderated by NYU Professor Amanda Petrusich. This promises to be a special evening and will also be your first chance to get your hands on the record itself in all it’s glory."
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Hegelian - David Welsh, Eric Moore's Godz, Nudge Squidfish, Sam Esh, Kevin Failure, Psychedelic Horseshit, KC Jammers, Ronald Koal, Jenny Mae, The Donovan Tapes (lfw) . . , and that's just Columbus (partial).
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"Dreamin Wild is an odd mix of the music of the era: fairly soft, jangly, AM Gold at its core but also branching out in bits and specks into the rest of the decade in a way thats -- please forgive the high-mindedness (I know no other way to say this) -- Hegelian. What I mean by this is that Hegel's idea of Spirit -- to paraphrase and bastardize -- had to do with these kind of mass cultural ideas playing out in actual humans, and as actual humans live their lives, the contradictions inherent in these ideas would play themselves out as well. (To make it clearer, all ideas, when played to their logical conclusions, eventually contradict themselves -- it's why cultures eventually fall apart.)
As noted above, liberalism contradicted itself as the left-leaning order split itself asunder in the '60s and '70s, thanks to civil rights and such ripping the New Deal Coalition in half."
Raise your hand if you spent time in a state university liberal arts program and cannot put a name and a face to this voice. I can. His name was Anthony and he was a philosophy grad student with a nest of Carrot Top hair who wore the same Magnetic Fields shirt every day. When he talked he sounded like Crispin Glover doing Kelsey Grammer impressions through a leaking intake manifold. His favorite band was The Boredoms. He looked a lot like Mo Tucker.
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Hilarious.
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I looked at the wikipedia article for "hegelian" and I'm more confused than I was when I entered.
University students should be shot.
I got yer philosphy degree in my pocket, 8$ - 500 mcg
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U could enroll and then shoot them like the Va Tech guy!
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The online place that sold that dude his guns is based in Green Bay, and my buddy worked for the company at the time. They actually sold to some other mass murderer right around the same time as well.
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Everything is falling into place.
By the way, if you are confused by someone like Hegel (who isn't?) Wiki isn't going to clear up anything (although contrary to what many believe its not a bad starting point for many less complex subjects.
The way the kid applied it in the review wasn't bad.
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http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/green-bay-store-that-sold-to-virginia-tech-gunman-closes-n25rl06-159767385.html
Sold guns to three mass shooters. Total pieces of shit otherwise, as well, from what I've heard.
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The way the kid applied it in the review wasn't bad.
i just thought it was funny that he actually said "i know no other way to say this - hegelian." as though that is not only the most natural thing in the world, but the ONLY way he can think of to describe something.
what a knob.
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I agree with this too. The kid learnt a Cliff's Notes version of Hegel and was eager to apply it.
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http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/17387-bish-bosch/
I would have a lot more respect for this review and the site in general if they'd actually given this record a "score" somewhere between 3 and 4. Because let's face it, the review is pretty much a straight up pan. But they don't have the courage or any conviction, so the reviewer has had to find ever more veiled and subtle (but not really) ways to say "I don't like this record". It's fucking insulting.
I mean - "at the center of it all is a middle-aged man wailing" is somewhat true in parts, though really the mention of age is only there to make him sound ridiculous. ("Picture your dad yelling about stuff and calling it art, weird huh?") Also slipping by the editors of this ostensibly positive review - "sound(s) like a parody of what people probably think of when they think of "avant-garde."" I'm guessing that what this writer thinks of when he thinks of "avant-garde" is more of a parody than anything on this album is.
Other highlights include the suggestion that the reason why there's been so much time between the late period SW records is because "Scarcity creates demand", and that it "reinforce(s) the idea that he is careful and deliberate, and in turn, the idea that his music is not just product, but that purest of things which cannot be rushed: Art." Yeah. I'm sure he spent the first 5 1/2 years after "The Drift" came out just watching the money pour in, and then finally threw this thing together just when the public was BEGGING for more.
Then there's the suggestion that the more scatological content of the record is "pandering" by deliberately making a "contrast between the brainy and the base". As if the dirty jokes on the record are ONLY there to draw a contrast with the "serious" (and therefore humorless) music. As if we haven't been putting dirty jokes in our "serious" art since at least Chaucer.
Finally, the kiss of death:
"The danger is to pretend that the music exists somewhere above us, or, like a carnival ride, is something we have to be This Smart to understand...Walker is an artist that people-- fans and non-fans-- seem bent on "getting," as though there was anything to "get" in the first place."
Is there any clearer way to say "I don't understand or enjoy this even though I know I'm supposed to and it makes me feel dumb" than that? Nobody would ever claim that anything about this music is easy to understand (or "get"), but it's not as if anybody's trying to hide anything either. You don't have to figure it out, because people have pretty much gone out of their way to explain the references in and backgrounds of these songs. You can put a small amount of effort into reading about it if you're interested. "Getting" it may enrich your experience of the album, but let's face it, it won't necessarily make you like it. And this guy don't like it. Which is totally fine! Just have the balls to say it.
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^ Extra points for referring to "turn-of-the-century music," from the last century, pert-near twelve years into the current one.
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I agree with both of youse. Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Webern, Berg -- ha ha, no. Those happen to be the four most famous composers of the early 20th C, but they don't got shit to do w/ anything except the writer's inferiority complex vis a vis seemingly everything. (There's been one or two more composers in world since then, not that it matters.)
Yeah, this guy really resents Scotty Dubz, or his audience, rather (it's a review of an imaginary audience's response to the record and not of the record itself). And he's just plain wrong about the economics -- cultural or monetary -- of this thing. There was approximately ZERO demand for Tilt when it came out, and it probably lost money for Fontana. And after that I think everyone assumed it was a weird one-off from this fucking guy.
Also, it just isn't that hard to get this stuff! I guess it's a difficult pleasure compared to Best Coast or Interpol, but c'mon... Guy's just lazy and resentful.
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(http://i.qkme.me/36eghs.jpg)
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I agree with a lot of that guy's words about Scott Walker. I don't think that review's all that embarrassing.
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I just read The Wire interview. A peculiar fella, sure. Does he really think about his lyrics that much, or is he actually a lazy fuck?
There's a hilarious and all-too-true Wolf Eyes review too. Seems like someone has slightly unstuck the stick out of thee ass of said pub.
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He's lazy and stupid and a charlatan. The whole thing's a prank at the expense of Wire mag.
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Send me mp3 of Beesh Boosh. I will get back to you. I like The Walker Bros "The Sun Aint Gonna Shine Anymore." They aren't really bros!
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He's lazy and stupid and a charlatan. The whole thing's a prank at the expense of Wire mag.
Way to put words in my mouth, court jester.
To unquestionably think the dude is some brilliant artist is just as slavish and, ungentlemanly, as licking every drop of cum from the carpet.
I think his "appeal" is that he is inscrutable, and it could go either way, perhaps in the same musical work.
Are we really going to trudge down the "legitimate" artist trail again? I just think it's interesting. Both in an interesting way and a "what a crock of shit" way.
AND THAT'S WHY IT'S INTERESTING.
I personally would love to see many other artists portrayed and profiled with such due diligence and detail. It's nice. I LIKE ART.
[Also, keep in mind, I feel like the last human on earth who gives a fuck about song lyrics.]
Are there musicians that I think are more interesting than Scott Walker? Well, yes, there are. But that doesn't mean his art is less, or that I think it's shit. (although speaking of shit, I've got body horrors that would make his dick shrivel)
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Here's a f'rinstance: If I have to read one more time how he recorded a percussion track of a guy punching a side of beef (or pork, depending on your "local" source), I'm gonna scream like bloody hell. Who fucking cares; that's like sub-Haters shit straight from '82.
But, reading about his monk-like ability/desire to truly "sit" with a song, his song, sometimes only a few lines of lyrics, for years on end, I find sorta-kinda fascinating (if pretentious and possibly just dumb).
Guess which one gets the most press?
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Keep in mind, I'm not a Walker nut, nor am I against the man.
I have not heard the new album, but I have read the interview.
I don't care if it's "good," really. Hell, I'm just glad people can still be riled up by a "rock" album.
Still, I'd rather read about Blixa Bargeld chewing up and spitting out the Theatre of the Absurd, honestly. Something even more pretentious but far more visceral.
I kinda wanted him to come in halfway thru the interview, dressed circa 1980, and lop off Walker's head with a broken guitar.
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I don't think anyone "unquestionably thinks the dude is some brilliant artist."
I also don't think his work can easily go either way (genius or bullshit) because the evidence is right there -- there's a shitload of music and ideas and work on those records. It's palpable. It's dense. It isn't conceptual art. There's a very high level of craft, an attention to detail that commands respect even if one doesn't particularly enjoy it or wish to listen to it often.
I also don't think he's inscrutable. He's not obfuscatory. In interviews he's plainspoken and self-aware. And his music is very lucid, I think. It's immediately apparent to me that this isn't a Jandek or Arthur Doyle or even a John Cage situation where it's entirely possible that, hmm, maybe someone's pulling the wool over my eyes.
Even in those cases I just mentioned one's gotta wonder, what would be the motive? As you rightly pointed out a long time ago, I, Whet Bull, absolutely mistrust artists and their motives. I just don't see an angle here, just as I don't see any particularly good reason for a person to devote his entire life and stake his legacy on a juvenile prank, which ignoramuses have said about Cage. There's better ways to make a living, and SW I don't think particularly craves celebrity or attention.
With Walker, since his music is so unusual, I'm interested in his process -- how does someone arrive at a record that sounds like that?
The slab of meat business: first of all, it happened in the studio, not on stage. Of course he's aware that it's being filmed, and of course he realizes it's absurd. But it also reminds me a bit of Josef von Stroheim's humorous sadism, his insistence on using real shit for the sake of verisimilitude.
As far as working on the lyrics over a long period of time, this is something that poets and even prose writers sometimes do, and it doesn't strike me as pretentious or wrongheaded. I think it shows in some of those lyrics. There's a lot of deliberation involved. It ain't punk. Some people work like that, and I can relate to it in a small way. I like careful, considered stuff, I like precision. Talk Talk worked the same way but on a less ambitious scale. It's the opposite of how Mark E. Smith or Bukowski work, and it yields vastly different results. Walker himself has said that he's slow. There's a vestigial midwestern humility in his bearing, and I don't think he makes a big deal of his process -- he's answering the interviewer's questions.
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With Walker, since his music is so unusual, I'm interested in his process -- how does someone arrive at a record that sounds like that?
This is exactly what I am saying.
But, I will say, regarding most of your other points, it is completely reasonable to speculate on whatever the fuck you want ot about this guy. Why not?
Yes, he is very plainspoken in the interview about his process. This is what I am referring to above.
But to act like he is unaware of his "audience" or "critics" is disingenous. Of course he doesn't have to care, he probably shouldn't care, but you cannot just abolish this facet of his art and the way the world receives it. After all, he does care how the world receives it. Unless he truly believes he is blessing us all with his genius (and I don't think the thinks that, except for perhaps a stray moment in the sauna, or picking his nose).
I guess I'm saying that, here, with Walker, it is in fact, maybe not necesssary, but certainly interesting and perhaps elevating to view his work outside of just "Is it a good album?" And that includes his "image." It's all one thing. I think he's hyperaware of that. I don't begrudge him. I also think he takes his music very seriously, which of course is a double-edged sword (and yes, please do not tell me of all of his scatalogical dirty jokes! craaaaazy).
There's also a lot of posturing by his fans, which undeniably affects things a bit; let's call them the petit avant-garde.
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I don't think anyone "unquestionably thinks the dude is some brilliant artist."
As someone who has waxed nigh-book-length about that twat from Tears For Fears, you know this is untrue.
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As far as working on the lyrics over a long period of time, this is something that poets and even prose writers sometimes do, and it doesn't strike me as pretentious or wrongheaded. I think it shows in some of those lyrics. There's a lot of deliberation involved. It ain't punk. Some people work like that, and I can relate to it in a small way. I like careful, considered stuff, I like precision. Talk Talk worked the same way but on a less ambitious scale. It's the opposite of how Mark E. Smith or Bukowski work, and it yields vastly different results. Walker himself has said that he's slow. There's a vestigial midwestern humility in his bearing, and I don't think he makes a big deal of his process -- he's answering the interviewer's questions.
Sorry I'm replying in bursts, but this is just patronising. "This is something that poets and even prose writers do." Damn, man, just slap me in the fucking face why don't you.
I used to write (gasp!) quite a bit of poetry. Some of it extremely considered. Apparently, unless you were a former crooning star, nobody could care less. Fine.
But to think that Scott Walker's lyrics are more considered than someone, like, say Al Johnson of US Maple, is selling a whole lot of people short(y).
I mean, you wanna talk about lyrics, that's a whole 'nother game. You're defending someone I'm not even attacking. I'm just poking around the wound as it were.
Bukowski and Mark E. Smith, what do they have in common? (also who the hell would equate Jandek or Arthur Doyle w/ Scott Walker? these are strange examples)
I also wanna point out that without a doubt that the majority of the greatest lyrics in rock history come from someone who at one time or another was a "punk."
Maybe that's my bias, but I'll reel off a list of names that'd put any folk-fuck or neo-opera cocksucker outta business.
From Vic Godard to the guy from Drunks With Guns, don't fuck with the punxxxx/...
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As someone who has waxed nigh-book-length about that twat from Tears For Fears, you know this is untrue.
Now that I would like to read! And I'm assuming Orzabel De La Quintana
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And there really ought to be a band called The(e) Wound Pokers if one doesn't already exist
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-- there's a shitload of music and ideas and work on those records. It's palpable. It's dense. It isn't conceptual art. There's a very high level of craft, an attention to detail that commands respect even if one doesn't particularly enjoy it or wish to listen to it often.
You could say the exact same thing about a Dave Mathews Band record.
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-- there's a shitload of music and ideas and work on those records. It's palpable. It's dense. It isn't conceptual art. There's a very high level of craft, an attention to detail that commands respect even if one doesn't particularly enjoy it or wish to listen to it often.
You could say the exact same thing about a Dave Mathews Band record.
"Bish Bosh"? More like Hogg Wash. Shitt Bash?
http://youtu.be/Hki1_z-t4aY
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I don't think anyone "unquestionably thinks the dude is some brilliant artist."
As someone who has waxed nigh-book-length about that twat from Tears For Fears, you know this is untrue.
It's the "unquestionably" that I disagree with. But you're right, somebody must think so, right? Probably a lotta people do. And they're moorons (i.e., cretinous Arabs, I just coined that).
I guess I just don't know too many of these late SW superfans I mean, I know they exist. I'm friends with a couple people who're really into it, but I'm probably the most obsessive among us.
I guess what I mean is that this seems to be a conversation about Walker's audience, as I said before, and not about the record. I agree with you that it's not just about the music, man, that context is a huge part of it, and there's a production-reception feedback loop at work, Walker's public image, etc. It's just that the Pitchfork review and much of the conversation you and I are having is predominantly -- almost entirely -- about stuff outside the work. You haven't even heard the new record, and neither has Cecil! And that P'fork guy could have written that review without even playing the record. This is ironic, I think, precisely b/c Walker is so insistent on the materiality of the sounds on the record -- that's real shit, not corn syrup. I mean, go listen to it! The record is full of weird sounds, sounds we haven't heard before. No joke. It's a really intense listening experience, and it's highly musical.
I mention Cage and Doyle and Jandek because those are artists whose M.O. lent itself to "are they fucking with me?" kinda speculation, not because they sound like each other or like Walker. Take Jandek. Originally one of the core "issues" in the discussion of his music was, Is this "real" or is it a prank? Is this guy sincere? Is he the owner of a completely original, sui generis style or is he just an asshole or an idiot or an incompetent or a conceptualist whose real medium isn't his music but rather the record jacket and the meta-narrative of anti-stardom and broken-genius and the Maverick Artist In Isolation?
Some people believe Cage is a charlatan and a manipulator and a highbrow P.R. man (and they've probably never listened to his Sonatas and Interludes or his percussion ensembles or read any of his books.)
Mark E Smith and Bukowski are two guys whose work is defined in part by their inability to shut up. I love them both, but they just type type type and that's partly the point and sometimes there's gold and sometimes there's corn and sometimes there's nothing. They're spontaneous writers who produce A LOT of work, and it's mostly of very high quality compared to most but there's nothing sculptural or precise about how they operate, as I see it.
Walker and Mark Hollis and a few others are very good at shutting up.
Unlike me. And you.
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-- there's a shitload of music and ideas and work on those records. It's palpable. It's dense. It isn't conceptual art. There's a very high level of craft, an attention to detail that commands respect even if one doesn't particularly enjoy it or wish to listen to it often.
You could say the exact same thing about a Dave Mathews Band record.
Correct. And then the question would be, what does the DMB record aspire to do? Is it a worthy aspiration? And does it succeed?
But what's that got to do with this?
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Sorry I'm replying in bursts, but this is just patronising. "This is something that poets and even prose writers do." Damn, man, just slap me in the fucking face why don't you.
I used to write (gasp!) quite a bit of poetry. Some of it extremely considered. Apparently, unless you were a former crooning star, nobody could care less. Fine.
But to think that Scott Walker's lyrics are more considered than someone, like, say Al Johnson of US Maple, is selling a whole lot of people short(y).
I also wanna point out that without a doubt that the majority of the greatest lyrics in rock history come from someone who at one time or another was a "punk."
Maybe that's my bias, but I'll reel off a list of names that'd put any folk-fuck or neo-opera cocksucker outta business.
From Vic Godard to the guy from Drunks With Guns, don't fuck with the punxxxx/...
Patronizing how? I was responding to you saying that maybe it's untrue or it's dumb that Walker spends so much time polishing his turdz, like maybe that's not appropriate to rock lyrics or something.
I'm not comparing Scotty Dubbz to any of yr favorite punques, mate. It's just a diff'run approach with a different end. I got no vested interest in "punk" or in neo-opera (*?). I don't wanna listen to Diamanda Galas at th' pub (although...) and I don't want 'em playing no Electric Eels at my fucking funeral, either.
You know what really sucks? The blues. Man, that shit is terrible.
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Vic Godard? Seriously?
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My point about the DMB is that it's on the exact same level. Let's level the playing field. How long does Mr. Mathews spend on his lyrics? How many Hallmark cards does he have to buy before he nails it?
By you bringing up Jandek etc. you are suggesting that I am saying that Walker "is trying to pull on over." OH GOD NO. That's one of my least favorite approaches to art. I NEVER say shit like that, and it's my fault if that wasn't clear (although I think you crammed those words in my mouth). I hate that, a lot, and I've railed against it many a time on thee Forum.
What I'm saying is: Is it worthy of such attention/respect/admiration/dick-sucking? Is he really wrestling with these heavy themes? Is the art visceral? Does it nail you in the fucking gut? Shit like that. Does it justify its own existence, essentially.
You say "You haven't heard the record." I haven't been talking about the record! Not one damn thing! The meat-punching is from the last one and bandied about like some kind of transgressive brilliance by a buncha dipshit boring "journos."
Nothing I've said is about the record itself. Pretty sure what we're talking about is beyond the record itself, which is a completely worth subject. I'd love to hear the record. Send me a fuckin' download, and maybe I'll send you a delightful missive-slash-book report.
I think it's funny that you keep on talking about Walker's fans as if they are the Other. News for you, mang, it's YOU!
Go back to the last page and you'll find me not judging Walker at all, merely mentioning his "peculiar" nature. You immediately "attacked" me for that (it's OK, I'm a big boy).
You came out swinging with a response that wrapped both me and The Wire up in a nice little "Screw you, dummies" bow.
It's part of your genius.
p.s. I think you are sort of wrong about MES. He has far more precision than you give him credit for ('specially early Fall). Bukowski is a completely different kind of writer to me; I still find these odd comparisons (and I didn't even go to college!).
FINALLY, I will highly recommend your Lawyerly (that's people who practice law and stuff) services with a caveat that you stop mentioning motherfucking John Cage in this thread.
kizzes....
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Patronizing how?
The way I read that sentence is: "E, people think about stuff before they write it. You would know this if you had any clue about writing. Can you even wipe your own ass?"
I don't want 'em playing no Electric Eels at my fucking funeral, either.
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klGs5uNdoQ4
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klGs5uNdoQ4
Visceral, indeed. Man is a scientist of pain.
XOXO
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Now that's a man who can punch a side of beef.
And he don't need know contact mic to record it neither.
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http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/37111084945/hot-guts-edges-lp-blind-prophet
Story: Entitled fuck likes the 7"s, receives the LP, hates it and then decides it's necessary to revisit his "body of work as a writer" to locate the origin of his praise, just to show how HURT he is to have to write the following negative review of a band he really thought could be "the future of heavy music". The killer? Not only is the LP garbage, he decides the band's "former potential" has been swept under the "terminal rug" by "those who don?t know about those who didn't know about those who didn't know about those who didn't know about those who didn't know about musical history".
You know that horror/paranoia film device typified by a character weeping through some blubbery realization that the aliens or STD-zombies (a la Cronenburg) or suited-up conspiratorial evildoers or werewolves ?got Robert, too!? before narrowly escaping their own demise? Well, ?they got Hot Guts, too,? and by ?they? I am referring to the befuddling mass of forgotten-by-February bands who are unknowingly impersonating $1 Mission U.K. and Gene Loves Jezebel cutout LPs because of the unhappy accident of someone in a position of something (not a musician) realizing that ?cool? audiences have been in a state of suspended animation for the last few years, allowing for the act of trying to squeeze a little more mileage out of 80?s unremembered nostalgia. It?s hard to say if the music fuels the morons or if the whole debacle is reversed, but that?s a chicken-or-the-egg debate that leads nowhere but straight to the couch ? in time for a ?Forensic Files? marathon.
(http://dystopianworld.com/simplemachinesforum/Smileys/default/suicide.gif)
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Haha what the fuck.
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Typical Andrew Earles mix of verbosity, false cynicism, labored metaphor and falling flat humor.
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That is a fuddled mess. I really like that Hot Guts 7" - maybe its a different band :-\
unknowingly impersonating $1 Mission U.K. and Gene Loves Jezebel cutout LPs
What bands sound like the Mission these days? Even all that Cold Cave stuff was always going for a much more raw sound...
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Hot Guts new album is tasteful goth/synth pop with actual songs and it's not some unlistenablely lo-fi crap.
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Earles.
Yeesh.
Permanent Collection ? Newly Wed Nearly Dead LP (Loglady)
This thing needs to be prosecuted outside of its only unit-shifting factor: Permanent Collection began as a solo project for a Young Prisms member (?Fuck it, I can make even more forgettable music with Permanent Collection ? I mean, there?s some stuff that?s so insipid that it doesn?t even fit with Young Prisms?). Here we go: One full-length album and it?s nothing but a big scary problem. There was a time, not that long ago, when I had successfully convinced myself that a great hook was a great hook regardless of what sonic and stylistic sandwich it happened to be found in.
Those days of optimism have passed, and they have nothing to do with getting older, or more jaded/bitter, or an increase in cynicism on my part. It is a statistical truth that there is less innovation-via-inspiration and forward-movement than ever before in rock-based music originating from the actual underground and its increasingly-present partner in crime, the underground of inaccurate assumption. Otherwise, logic would automatically and naturally keep a band like Permanent Collection from reaching any stage of development beyond that of a 10th-grader?s pipe dream. 2012 is in its final month, which means that the Jesus and Mary Chain have retro-robotically and faux-nostalgically saturated the fields as a primary impetus for band-creation, starting with turds like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and The Warlocks (or ?Borelocks? as my drunken ass got ejected from a club for yelling bak?n?da?day) more than a decade ago. Shoegaze has been a fervent throwback concern even as the original bands of that era were winding down fifteen years ago, and in each calendar year since, its range of representation has swollen and shrunk between bedroom concerns and genuine movements enough times to damage the very foundation of the sound itself. It?s come close to the margins but has never really vanished.
I?m really trying my hardest, but as we creep towards 2013, I cannot fathom why any band operating within the socio-cultural parameters at hand would consciously desire to spit up something that sounds like JAMC, Spacemen 3 (one of the most overrated bands of all time), first-wave shoegaze, or C86-oriented toothy jangle. Whatever fills the void, these starting lines should remain off-limits for an indefinite amount of time. In fact, if I found myself as the man on Shot-Caller Mountain, any band that forms and releases an album that owes a noticeable debt to any of the aforementioned would be committing an offense punishable by gear confiscation and a forced career move into a non-musical field. I?d go ahead and cut out the 5-to-10 year middleman of creative bankruptcy and give them positions where they were going to end up anyway. ?But I?m not interested in being a social worker!? Ok, I got bartending and ?Small Green Business Owner?? whatever that is.
And this band is from San Francisco. Whoever is running the show there, the source of whatever fills the void where ?the fire in the belly? or inspiration or ?the coming from the right place? and all that, can probably swing a bat and hit whoever is accepting free Bricolage CDs as payment for filling mail orders at Slumberland. Shit, probably lives with ?em. It could be the bass player! Remember those quotes inOur Band Could Be Your Life in which a prominent source relates at career juncture defined by ?we couldn?t believe SST knew who we were and wanted to put out our record?? Here, then, is the band that?s not waiting for a call from Scion, not waiting for a reachout from Hardee?s/Carl?s Jr about TV spot bed music, but constantly hitting refresh on their inbox for worf from the label that has survived the last seven years by taking such a ?ride hard, put away wet? approach to every meaningful morsel that somehow remained in shoegaze/dream-pop/noise-pop that the shit might as well be public domain at this point. How is such a stats-driven musical concept even possible? Oh, by the way ? HATED IT!!! Clear vinyl. (http://www.theloglady.com)
(Andrew Earles)
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On the strength of his Big Star releases from the early 1970s and a host of live performances he gave during the latter half of the 1970s, Alex Chilton had rightly become a rock connoisseur's darling and an inspiration to independent-label bands throughout the United States. Despite all this favorable attention, he would not return to the studio until 1980. Sadly, this release is a dreadful disappointment. Production values are among the worst this reviewer has ever heard: sound quality is terrible, instrumental balances are careless and haphazard, and some selections even begin with recording start-up sound. Chilton's false-start vocal on "Boogie Shoes" is simply left in without correction. Many of the songs here stop dead or fall apart rather than ending properly. Instrumental playing is universally slipshod and boorish, and vocals are sloppy and lackluster. A cover of the Lonnie Mack hit "I've Had It" contains vocals that, without exaggeration, sound like a group of tavern inebriates trying to sing. An attempt to burlesque Elvis Presley's vocal excesses in "Girl After Girl" misfires badly. A few of Chilton's songs here, such as "My Rival" and "Hook or Crook," aren't bad in their own right and would have been listenable had they been performed and produced better. Regrettably, this album cannot be recommended under any circumstances.
by David Cleary
All Music Guide
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Wow. That isn't a joke?
If not, it's fun to imagine the guy listening to the album and getting all annoyed and frustrated with it.
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On the strength of his Big Star releases from the early 1970s and a host of live performances he gave during the latter half of the 1970s, Alex Chilton had rightly become a rock connoisseur's darling and an inspiration to independent-label bands throughout the United States. Despite all this favorable attention, he would not return to the studio until 1980. Sadly, this release is a dreadful disappointment. Production values are among the worst this reviewer has ever heard: sound quality is terrible, instrumental balances are careless and haphazard, and some selections even begin with recording start-up sound. Chilton's false-start vocal on "Boogie Shoes" is simply left in without correction. Many of the songs here stop dead or fall apart rather than ending properly. Instrumental playing is universally slipshod and boorish, and vocals are sloppy and lackluster. A cover of the Lonnie Mack hit "I've Had It" contains vocals that, without exaggeration, sound like a group of tavern inebriates trying to sing. An attempt to burlesque Elvis Presley's vocal excesses in "Girl After Girl" misfires badly. A few of Chilton's songs here, such as "My Rival" and "Hook or Crook," aren't bad in their own right and would have been listenable had they been performed and produced better. Regrettably, this album cannot be recommended under any circumstances.
by David Cleary
All Music Guide
I think I actually agree with all of this, except for the last sentence.
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Good point, it is technically correct.
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The first two sentences rub me raw. It's fake historical context and it has nothing to do with the record. And "this release is a dreadful disappointment"? To whom? To the author? Was HE personally disappointed with it at the time? Or did he check with people who actually bought it at the time? Is he disappointed in it now, twenty or thirty years later, and if so, on what basis? It's pure bullshit that says "I was there" except it doesn't, 'cos he wasn't, so he relies on this omniscient tone: "IT WAS DISAPPOINTING." Who at the time wrote or said it was disappointing? I'm going to guess NOBODY. 'Cos nobody cared. And those who did didn't expect anything at all, and certainly not something terribly different from this.
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I just assumed he borrowed Richie Unterberger's time machine.
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If squares liked that record, I'd hate it.
In a perfect world, copies of Like Flies on Sherbert are never in their sleeve. They're always atop the sleeve, which is atop the receiver, the rec itself having been played recently at some sorta bacchanal. Or the whole kit/caboodle's on the floor. Realistically, dozens upon dozens of this one are filed away neatly in clean and gracious rumpus rooms of whoevers around the country.
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Great rec. I'm drunk.
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Earles.
Yeesh.
Permanent Collection ? Newly Wed Nearly Dead LP (Loglady)
This thing needs to be prosecuted outside of its only unit-shifting factor: Permanent Collection began as a solo project for a Young Prisms member (?Fuck it, I can make even more forgettable music with Permanent Collection ? I mean, there?s some stuff that?s so insipid that it doesn?t even fit with Young Prisms?). Here we go: One full-length album and it?s nothing but a big scary problem. There was a time, not that long ago, when I had successfully convinced myself that a great hook was a great hook regardless of what sonic and stylistic sandwich it happened to be found in.
Those days of optimism have passed, and they have nothing to do with getting older, or more jaded/bitter, or an increase in cynicism on my part. It is a statistical truth that there is less innovation-via-inspiration and forward-movement than ever before in rock-based music originating from the actual underground and its increasingly-present partner in crime, the underground of inaccurate assumption. Otherwise, logic would automatically and naturally keep a band like Permanent Collection from reaching any stage of development beyond that of a 10th-grader?s pipe dream. 2012 is in its final month, which means that the Jesus and Mary Chain have retro-robotically and faux-nostalgically saturated the fields as a primary impetus for band-creation, starting with turds like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and The Warlocks (or ?Borelocks? as my drunken ass got ejected from a club for yelling bak?n?da?day) more than a decade ago. Shoegaze has been a fervent throwback concern even as the original bands of that era were winding down fifteen years ago, and in each calendar year since, its range of representation has swollen and shrunk between bedroom concerns and genuine movements enough times to damage the very foundation of the sound itself. It?s come close to the margins but has never really vanished.
I?m really trying my hardest, but as we creep towards 2013, I cannot fathom why any band operating within the socio-cultural parameters at hand would consciously desire to spit up something that sounds like JAMC, Spacemen 3 (one of the most overrated bands of all time), first-wave shoegaze, or C86-oriented toothy jangle. Whatever fills the void, these starting lines should remain off-limits for an indefinite amount of time. In fact, if I found myself as the man on Shot-Caller Mountain, any band that forms and releases an album that owes a noticeable debt to any of the aforementioned would be committing an offense punishable by gear confiscation and a forced career move into a non-musical field. I?d go ahead and cut out the 5-to-10 year middleman of creative bankruptcy and give them positions where they were going to end up anyway. ?But I?m not interested in being a social worker!? Ok, I got bartending and ?Small Green Business Owner?? whatever that is.
And this band is from San Francisco. Whoever is running the show there, the source of whatever fills the void where ?the fire in the belly? or inspiration or ?the coming from the right place? and all that, can probably swing a bat and hit whoever is accepting free Bricolage CDs as payment for filling mail orders at Slumberland. Shit, probably lives with ?em. It could be the bass player! Remember those quotes inOur Band Could Be Your Life in which a prominent source relates at career juncture defined by ?we couldn?t believe SST knew who we were and wanted to put out our record?? Here, then, is the band that?s not waiting for a call from Scion, not waiting for a reachout from Hardee?s/Carl?s Jr about TV spot bed music, but constantly hitting refresh on their inbox for worf from the label that has survived the last seven years by taking such a ?ride hard, put away wet? approach to every meaningful morsel that somehow remained in shoegaze/dream-pop/noise-pop that the shit might as well be public domain at this point. How is such a stats-driven musical concept even possible? Oh, by the way ? HATED IT!!! Clear vinyl. (http://www.theloglady.com)
(Andrew Earles)
All he needed to say was "This band blows." I actually agree with the sentiment, though still wonder why some people need three hundred words when three will do.
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Flies always got panned. I remember Coley loved the hell out of it, and that's why I picked it up, it certainly wasn't a critics choice outside of him. Then again, mainstream critics are deaf as fuck and always have been. An all-time top 10 rnr album for me.
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I'm not saying the opposite was true. I dunno why this made me so cranky yesterday -- I had a long drive up from Virginia, listening to the Neil Young records that AMG thinks are shitty or "inessential," and I got to thinking about this mode of music crit, where the review starts off with a knowing, sometimes condescending bit of historicism to frame the record. It almost always rings false. It certainly has nothing to do with how or why the artist made that record. Usually, it strikes me as a bit of conjecture on the author's part, or maybe a second-hand opinion or "historical context" cribbed from yet another reviewer with no empirical basis. I don't mind this sort of talk from an older record store clerk. Like this time years and years ago when a fiftysomething record store dude told me how when he was growing up, T.Rex was considered music for chicks, or teenybopper stuff. I buy that, and I also know that this guy is talking strictly about his own experience as a rock fan, talking to his buddies in the same town who were also rock fans. I also got something out of that remark, because it made me think about what Bolan represented to rock fans in the seventies, which is something I frankly hadn't thought about (and didn't know I cared about), and it shed light on the way some of the music I was listening to at the time would be regarded by younger listeners twenty years later. This AMG / Pitchfork kind of historicism is different because it pretends to objectivity and its purpose is to craft a coherent narrative out of the unknowable, unpredictable flow of the artist's life. It homogenizes the character of listeners and rock fans into a boring lumpen mass in the author's image, and it turns that lump into the subject, the protagonist of the story. It reminds me slightly of a sometime trend in academia called "reader response criticism," or reception theory, which emphasized the subjectivity of the reader, often to the detriment of the text under examination. The reader-response school of criticism was mostly regarded as horseshit by critics who believed in the priority of the text.
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Mainstream reviewers always go for absolutes/the sweeping gesture, when in reality the only kind of review that's worth a fuck (as a purchace/non- at least) is a highly personal one from a reviewer you've built a "relationship" with. That's why (as Carducci pointed out ad nauseum/correctly) these jokers were more interested in sociological or political impact than the essense of the music. It's also easier to state why you think Dylan was "important" politically than to write words that accurately express why the Stooges sound good, most of these folks are/were dullards.
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Here's some awesome rock writing for yiz by Andrew Earles:
http://www.spin.com/articles/blame-nirvana-40-weirdest-post-nevermind-major-label-albums?slide=1
sample entry - TJSA #4
Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments - Bait & Switch (American, 1995)
Fronted by former Great Plains founder/songwriter/wailer Ron House, TJSA were part of Johan Kugelberg's American Recordings-financed campaign to shove what he saw as high-quality underground music through the muck of the major-label system. This full-length's 37 minutes of metallic, sardonic punk-rock antagonism is one big shit-eating nod to the no-name buzzsaw-guitar bands found all over the Killed By Death and Bloodstains compilations that documented turn-of-the-'80's DIY punk. Probably the ugliest record released on a label that also put out Slayer and Skinny Puppy.
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Here's some awesome rock writing for yiz by Andrew Earles:
http://www.spin.com/articles/blame-nirvana-40-weirdest-post-nevermind-major-label-albums?slide=1
sample entry - TJSA #4
Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments - Bait & Switch (American, 1995)
Fronted by former Great Plains founder/songwriter/wailer Ron House, TJSA were part of Johan Kugelberg's American Recordings-financed campaign to shove what he saw as high-quality underground music through the muck of the major-label system. This full-length's 37 minutes of metallic, sardonic punk-rock antagonism is one big shit-eating nod to the no-name buzzsaw-guitar bands found all over the Killed By Death and Bloodstains compilations that documented turn-of-the-'80's DIY punk. Probably the ugliest record released on a label that also put out Slayer and Skinny Puppy.
Had a good time reading that whole list. Saddened that Barkmarket didn't make it. Somehow.
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Here's some awesome rock writing for yiz by Andrew Earles:
http://www.spin.com/articles/blame-nirvana-40-weirdest-post-nevermind-major-label-albums?slide=1
sample entry - TJSA #4
Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments - Bait & Switch (American, 1995)
This full-length's 37 minutes of metallic, sardonic punk-rock antagonism is one big shit-eating nod to the no-name buzzsaw-guitar bands found all over the Killed By Death and Bloodstains compilations that documented turn-of-the-'80's DIY punk. Probably the ugliest record released on a label that also put out Slayer and Skinny Puppy.
Had a good time reading that whole list. Saddened that Barkmarket didn't make it. Somehow.
The list is interesting, but I don't agree in the slightest with what I highlighted. I'm also not sure if he meant the cover or the overall "feel" of the record when calling it ugly, but I also don't agree with either version. The list certainly is making the rounds though so expect more Earles through the looking glass features to come.
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I don't like that TJSA recap at all - I don't think it gives any sort of feel for what the record's like. He hyperventilates all over this stuff, it's embarrassing. Still, a fun list to run through.
The weirdest thing by far about His Name is Alive is that it was the Elvis Hitler dude. And they were 4AD shit from Michigan.
Forgot about how many people suddenly "tried shoegaze." Kinda like how many tried shitgays. Hmmmm...
The weirdest is actually V-3. What do I win? (Steel Pole Bath Tub's kinda weird, too)
(Haven't heard it in years, but I used to really like "Wolverine Blues")
Major labels actually put out some good records at that point when you think of it. Huh.
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This list is a trip. I think all these albums sold for, like, $8.99 new at Tower when I was growing up. It also reminds me how much radio sucks now.
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Here's some awesome rock writing for yiz by Andrew Earles:
http://www.spin.com/articles/blame-nirvana-40-weirdest-post-nevermind-major-label-albums?slide=1
sample entry - TJSA #4
Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments - Bait & Switch (American, 1995)
This full-length's 37 minutes of metallic, sardonic punk-rock antagonism is one big shit-eating nod to the no-name buzzsaw-guitar bands found all over the Killed By Death and Bloodstains compilations that documented turn-of-the-'80's DIY punk. Probably the ugliest record released on a label that also put out Slayer and Skinny Puppy.
Had a good time reading that whole list. Saddened that Barkmarket didn't make it. Somehow.
The list is interesting, but I don't agree in the slightest with what I highlighted. I'm also not sure if he meant the cover or the overall "feel" of the record when calling it ugly, but I also don't agree with either version. The list certainly is making the rounds though so expect more Earles through the looking glass features to come.
Yeah excpect more now that SPIN has shit canned its hard copy presence and isn't paying most of its writers. It'll be like Still Single except you get aq coffee cup and a pillow emblazoned with the Spin logo.
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He almost managed to reference Helmet every time! "Blasterpiece"!
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It is a funny list. Funny how much out and out scuzz ended up on major labels and then dying on the vine. A conspiracy of sorts?...Reminds of running through the used CD bins in the late '90s...Is Trenchmouth worth checking out?
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...Is Trenchmouth worth checking out?
Not really....
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Ha ha. No.
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OK Richie if you're at Now's That Class Friday night you can work Earles into your intro.
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Ha ha. No.
And you say that as a huge Portlandia fan?? ;D I had the idea that Trenchmouth was some sort of pop-punk stuff but he throws out Gang of Four so...How about the Medicine stuff??
Some of that stuff is decent but it was always like...oh, the major label turd by xxx. The Melvins stuff is solid I seem to remember so it is interesting to hear that they had so much control. Didn't realize that Bakamono was on a major. The first time I heard the term "math rock" was when someone gave me that CD and said "the bass player sounds like he is doing algebra on his bass..."
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Old band used to play shows with trenchmouth, I always liked them. Don't know about the album, have a 7" I like alright
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I like Trenchmouth!
vs. The Light of the Sun and that other one.
Awesome live.
It's not really math-y at all. It's like a DC take on The Pop Group.
Their buds and labelmates Candy Machine were a fantastic fucking band. Their first album and the major-subsidiary one A Modest Proposal are super-underappreciated (and CD-only which doesn't help :/ - but they have a bunch of great singles). It's way closer to classic post-punk -- or Ron Johnson Records stuff more accurately -- than sweater-rock indie or thick-glasses math.
Maybe people should go back and listen to some of that stuff. Might sound better to them now. Me, I'm a dork and have always loved that shit.
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And Armisen's drumming is sick. Dude could play.
here's a couple cool Trenchmouth cuts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4rddAVvnv8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiGZg131YSc
and they actually did some cool dub shit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAhfMBTmZ9Q
Post-Trench were The Eternals who have some good shit; less angular/noisy rock and more on a dub tip, but still w/ the punk aggression. I have a 12" I like by them.
I dunno. Maybe it's corny, but it sounds like music with a purpose. A goal. Feeling. Time was put in. Shits were given.
That's in short supply "these days."
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I was glad Boredoms sat at #1 there, but a better list could be made.
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I like Trenchmouth!
Really good band. The Eternals, too. "The Broadcasting System" and "Rawar Style" are two LPs everyone should pick up. Unique band. The only things similar that come to mind are New Wet Kojak (that guy from Girls Against Boys) or, I don't know, Brainiac?
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OK Richie if you're at Now's That Class Friday night you can work Earles into your intro.
i like this idea!
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Ha ha. No.
And you say that as a huge Portlandia fan?? ;D I had the idea that Trenchmouth was some sort of pop-punk stuff but he throws out Gang of Four so...How about the Medicine stuff??
Some of that stuff is decent but it was always like...oh, the major label turd by xxx. The Melvins stuff is solid I seem to remember so it is interesting to hear that they had so much control. Didn't realize that Bakamono was on a major. The first time I heard the term "math rock" was when someone gave me that CD and said "the bass player sounds like he is doing algebra on his bass..."
Sukebe, the Medicine record is a good one and I think Andy's description is pretty accurate - shoegazey stuff with long nods to power electronics. (And the drummer from Jon Wayne.) I don't find that one to be a surprising major-label item, since Loveless was moderately successful and Rick Rubin was not some greying old hippie. I'd forgotten about Ethyl Meatplow, who I had the misfortune of seeing live with the vastly superior Steel Pole Bathtub.
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OK Richie if you're at Now's That Class Friday night you can work Earles into your intro.
i like this idea!
I like it too! Too bad I'll probably just be getting out of work as TJSA hit the stage and unleash their "sardonic punk-rock antagonism" on the crowd.
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Here's some awesome rock writing for yiz by Andrew Earles:
http://www.spin.com/articles/blame-nirvana-40-weirdest-post-nevermind-major-label-albums?slide=1
sample entry - TJSA #4
Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments - Bait & Switch (American, 1995)
This full-length's 37 minutes of metallic, sardonic punk-rock antagonism is one big shit-eating nod to the no-name buzzsaw-guitar bands found all over the Killed By Death and Bloodstains compilations that documented turn-of-the-'80's DIY punk. Probably the ugliest record released on a label that also put out Slayer and Skinny Puppy.
Had a good time reading that whole list. Saddened that Barkmarket didn't make it. Somehow.
The list is interesting, but I don't agree in the slightest with what I highlighted. I'm also not sure if he meant the cover or the overall "feel" of the record when calling it ugly, but I also don't agree with either version. The list certainly is making the rounds though so expect more Earles through the looking glass features to come.
Yeah excpect more now that SPIN has shit canned its hard copy presence and isn't paying most of its writers. It'll be like Still Single except you get aq coffee cup and a pillow emblazoned with the Spin logo.
Have to admit I'm glad to read something that effectively breaks the mold of "Ke$ha's "Die Young" Controversy" and "Nirvana Reunion Track: The Studio Version". Two years ago they had, I dunno, 200 employees and lord knows how many freelancers busying themselves in Tribeca. Now, after being purchased by Buzz Media (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzz_Media (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzz_Media)) they have been reduced to an editorial team of 25, but I've only seen 8 full timers at their new, much smaller office. Charles Aaron and former Parts & Labor drummer Chris Weingarten are holding it down I guess. I still hate the redesign of their site.
Welp. Friday night, and it's vodka and cigarettes for me.
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Fuckin Weingarten needs to gimme a job.
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That Spin website is a clusterfuck.
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i got A job for jackie!
and its a clusterfuck
TJSA killed it
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From The Quietus, a review describing the new Broadcast LP as "non-diegetic sound designed as diegetic sound that the film's audience can only experience non-diegetically." Favorite bits: "There's the ontology" and "There's the politics." There's also an obscure pun in there that I can't quite figure out but that the author thinks is obvious. "Free rein"?
http://thequietus.com/articles/11257-broadcast-berberian-sound-studio-review (http://thequietus.com/articles/11257-broadcast-berberian-sound-studio-review)
And here's a priceless gem from the Pitchfork archives, in which the reviewer takes on a classic Ornette side and concludes that Ed Blackwell was a "typically unreliable" drummer and that Scott LaFaro's death in a car accident a few weeks after this session did not compromise his playing on the album.
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/1545-ornette-with-ornette-coleman-quartet/ (http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/1545-ornette-with-ornette-coleman-quartet/)
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i got A job for jackie!
and its a clusterfuck
i love a good clusterfuck, got any more openings??
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And here's a priceless gem from the Pitchfork archives, in which the reviewer takes on a classic Ornette side and concludes that Ed Blackwell was a "typically unreliable" drummer and that Scott LaFaro's death in a car accident a few weeks after this session did not compromise his playing on the album.
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/1545-ornette-with-ornette-coleman-quartet/ (http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/1545-ornette-with-ornette-coleman-quartet/)
"When you wander the streets of New York at night alone, every street urchin and clammy prostitute will eventually sidle up to you and relate some story about that wild year when he or she was an avant-garde jazz luminary. You just have to politely smile, pay for the dope, and explain that playing no music while living in total degradation is not avant-garde." - Wow, this Alex is really "street," huh? With knowledge like that, he must have been Jimmy Garrison's drug buddy!
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Maybe he ran into Charles Gayle one time. But Mr. Gayle is hardly an urchin, and certainly not a prostitute.
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Whenever I think one of these yawps can't get any dumber the next level of the cellar appears. Is that guy describing NYC or the Joker-era mean streets of Gotham City?
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I'm puzzled by "pay for the dope." What dope is he talking about? Does he buy dope FROM clammy prostitutes and street urchins, or FOR them? Or are lowlifes interrupting his own streetwise, hard-knocks transaction between the author and his dealer, to talk about free jazz? Is free-jazzing easy?
Also: "Any review that uses [the term "avant-garde"] should be ignored," followed by "Ornette Coleman is among the handful of true avant-garde artists."
This is my favorite Pitchfork review of all time.
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The re-animation of Herbert Huncke.
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I'm still trying to parse the double negative here: "...playing no music while living in total degradation is not avant-garde." The urchins are non-musicians? Maybe the review is an abstract work, and the interpretation is up to the reader.
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Deadly missive-translator sniping: http://www.thestoolpigeon.co.uk/features/news/an-a-z-guide-to-music-journalist-bullshit.html
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Check out this gem:
http://jakec.tumblr.com/post/35684152103/i-know-its-a-lot-more-than-just-being-bored
A hipster ponders punk and sexism therein. It's hilariously off the mark with some really, really bad examples given (shit likee Japandroids, Titus Andronicus, etc.).
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Check out this gem:
http://jakec.tumblr.com/post/35684152103/i-know-its-a-lot-more-than-just-being-bored
A hipster ponders punk and sexism therein. It's hilariously off the mark with some really, really bad examples given (shit likee Japandroids, Titus Andronicus, etc.).
Oh man.
The Black Keys played here on the 31st and in the days leading up to it, my various feeds were clogged with friends not only excited to hand over an absurd amount of money to see them but went as far as proclaiming them one of the best bands in the world, when in fact their music portrays an almost pathological hatred of women and glorifies the kind of 80s hard rock machismo that Kurt Cobain died trying to dismantle, and I was not surprised to find that the reaction to telling those people that they were endorsing a band on the same ethical level as Nickelback was generally the accusation that what I was saying constituted a hipster pose and really I just didn?t like ?em because they?re popular.
The more upsetting thing with this sort of view is that people can't take music as what it is anymore- music. The need to expand the evaluation of a band to include every aspect of the band's context and every member's dirty laundry just shows that people are simultaneously so caught up in the processes of defining themselves by the products they consume (music being a product) while still being worryingly self-conscious about how they themselves come off. I'd agree with all the people telling him he's taking a hipster pose, because his resulting distress is just proof of my second point.
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Check out this gem:
http://jakec.tumblr.com/post/35684152103/i-know-its-a-lot-more-than-just-being-bored
A hipster ponders punk and sexism therein. It's hilariously off the mark with some really, really bad examples given (shit likee Japandroids, Titus Andronicus, etc.).
Ewwww.
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The Black Keys played here on the 31st and in the days leading up to it, my various feeds were clogged with friends not only excited to hand over an absurd amount of money to see them but went as far as proclaiming them one of the best bands in the world, when in fact their music portrays an almost pathological hatred of women and glorifies the kind of 80s hard rock machismo that Kurt Cobain died trying to dismantle,
Remember, kids, Cobain died for your sins!
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The more upsetting thing with this sort of view is that people can't take music as what it is anymore- music.
Anymore? It's been like this for decades. Check out the hilarity in the margins of "Rock and the Pop Narcotic" some time.
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The Black Keys played here on the 31st and in the days leading up to it, my various feeds were clogged with friends not only excited to hand over an absurd amount of money to see them but went as far as proclaiming them one of the best bands in the world, when in fact their music portrays an almost pathological hatred of women and glorifies the kind of 80s hard rock machismo that Kurt Cobain died trying to dismantle,
Remember, kids, Cobain died for your sins!
I can't fault anyone who takes pot shots at the Black Keys. My hatred of them would be considered well known if I were well known.
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Take that Black Keys!
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The more upsetting thing with this sort of view is that people can't take music as what it is anymore- music.
Anymore? It's been like this for decades. Check out the hilarity in the margins of "Rock and the Pop Narcotic" some time.
Yeah, I realize that book gets mixed reviews around but its simple points in that regard (rock-crit as sociology) were pretty revelatory to me when I originally read it...
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I spent the past month watching Sons of Anarchy, part of the pantheon of male wish fulfilment entertainment along with Entourage, Californication, and almost every other television show ever made.
great, thats cool. thanks for the info.
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VV Pazz and Jop 2012 Best Album
Frank Ocean wins!
Smashing Pumpkins, Scott and Charlene's Wedding, Lower Plenty, Mount Carmel, FNU Ronnies, Cheater Slicks, Michael Des Barres, Mad Nanna, Insane Clown Posse and a host of others tie at #710 - not last place
I couldn't bring myself to look at the singles.
Here is your compass:
http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop/albums/2012/
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Would love to know who voted for ICP.
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Just find them on the scroll, click on LP title and all will be revealed. Tony Rettman voted for The Chris Robinson Brotherhood. Slow day at the colege today.
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I'm not sure if this is actually a botched review or a mangled press release...
http://www.skopemag.com/2013/01/24/what-would-igy-do-bloody-good-time
It's still one of the worst things I've ever read. At 6:30 AM. On a Tues. Before coffee.
ALSO: More fun to be had via social media and John Reis:
"...so, my band night marchers (NMers to you and i) just put out a record and I have been doing some late night ego surfing while the wife and kid are asleep. It's my job, right?! anyhow, i really appreciate the excuse to reconnect with the underground media via tooling for warm fuzzies to help me sleep at night. As you already know, i am more than a bit out of touch when it comes to the "what's and the who's" shaking in the subterranean digital realm. But as the president of a very successful record label it is not only my narcissistic, fishing for validation (the artiste) but the savvy acumen of record exec (business) that fuels my digi-quest. So here dear friends is my findings. Blog Reviewz!
Skope Mag http://www.skopemag.com/- this blog has aids.Undoubtedly produced by the modern day equivalent of the major label interns and college radio program directors of the 90's (you know, my only reference point). cut and paste bio's and links of albums. Geez! Skope Mag (ha! mag!) is a shitty web domain to park your eyes. please die.
Portable Infinite http://portable-infinite.blogspot.com/: ugh! infinite yawn! lots of lame ass promo photos and band bios. cut and paste. cut and paste. cut and paste. I wish they hated the record because the thought of someone who could muster a digi-turd such as this liking my music would make me reconsider what the fuck I am doing. the eunuch of blogs.
Music Insider Blog http://blog.musicinsidermagazine.com/: if the last was the eunuch of blogs this one has constant, putrid, diarrhea. A blog aggregator that collects other people's work (or lack thereof) and put's it into one big smelly toilet. Who are these fucking people? Imagine the retarded , cousin of Mark Zuckerburg using hacked, Soviet software to create digital warehouse filled with digital cutouts.
Punktionary http://www.punktionary.com/ the name alone should tell you that this is obviously the work of someone who has never seen himself naked. Probably the result of one too many craft beers (2) and getting dumped by an online girlfriend. Punktionary goads me into hating the human race. more cut and paste whack off with a nice Facebook interface that allows other over 30 year males that live with parents to have up to the minute reminders that there is one other person out there worse off than themselves. science gone wrong.
until next time. thanks for reading BLog Reviewz." - SWAMI
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the name alone should tell you that this is obviously the work of someone who has never seen himself naked
hahahha
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http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/17726-mbv/ (http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/17726-mbv/)
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People are fucking crazy.
http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/9055-mbv/ (http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/9055-mbv/)
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People are fucking crazy.
http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/9055-mbv/ (http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/9055-mbv/)
The internet really is just bad pot.
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Indeed.
Mosurock's anguished paean to Cheater Slicks (not garage!!):
http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/42409121308/cheater-slicks-reality-is-a-grape-lp-live-vol-2 (http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/42409121308/cheater-slicks-reality-is-a-grape-lp-live-vol-2)
Wotta fruit.
(I love the new record, but that's besides the point.)
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http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/17726-mbv/ (http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/17726-mbv/)
I don't think this is that bad necessarily. A little overblown sure, but that's to be expected considering the subject. And they're right about Third Eye Foundation.
But this last sentence is annoying as fuck: "That it's this successful in spite of it all is something we never had a right to expect."
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People are fucking crazy.
http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/9055-mbv/ (http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/9055-mbv/)
The real new/old mbv: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsDwynKAFPo
Read that backwards for effect.
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A little overblown sure
Ya think? This dude's life and his approach to hearing were changed by Loveless. How about this:
That's how My Bloody Valentine's deeply destabilizing queasiness, amplified here to a frightening degree, has always struck me: There's a rush of feeling inside their music so intense it creates a kind of paralysis. Music swirls and moves in and out of phase, voices float by, half memory and half anticipation, and you're never quite sure how all the parts fit together. You get lost in it, and if you're wired a certain way that mixture of desire and confusion is easy to map on to the wider world. For 22 years, the only way to get there was through Loveless and its associated EPs; now there's another path, one many of us never expected to find.
MBV = Beethoven's Ninth, the Sistine Chapel, 2001, Shakespeare's Sonnets, and one awesome, full-body orgasm, all rolled into one.
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Yeah, I guess. I see what you're saying, but I would find that a million times more cringeworthy if he was talking about Beach House or Real Estate or Gated Community (that's my new band).
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People are fucking crazy.
http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/9055-mbv/ (http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/9055-mbv/)
As stated elsewhere, I still think Loveless is a great record, and I was curious to hear the new one. The PF piece above is just embarrassing. I know it's just Pitchfork, but what editor could even sit through a first reading of something like this, much less push it out for the world to read?
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http://m.vice.com/read/we-saw-this-church-whip (http://m.vice.com/read/we-saw-this-church-whip)
Not a criticism of Beverley -- I'm glad she says what she does here. Unbelievable. It's only a matter of time before that stupid asshole Mushcock gets someone beat up for no reason.
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http://m.vice.com/read/we-saw-this-church-whip (http://m.vice.com/read/we-saw-this-church-whip)
Not a criticism of Beverley -- I'm glad she says what she does here. Unbelievable. It's only a matter of time before that stupid asshole Mushcock gets someone beat up for no reason.
I find that huge US flag much more offensive...
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http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2013/02/advice_for_aspiring_music_writers.php
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http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2013/02/advice_for_aspiring_music_writers.php
Agree with the content, just blown away by the fact that VV doesn't have an editor (?) or proofreaders who could correct the simple grammatical errors that litter the "article."
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http://m.vice.com/read/we-saw-this-church-whip (http://m.vice.com/read/we-saw-this-church-whip)
Not a criticism of Beverley -- I'm glad she says what she does here. Unbelievable. It's only a matter of time before that stupid asshole Mushcock gets someone beat up for no reason.
This girl who sings in a band here and lives at the local feminist punkhouse is making a big stink in the comments of that article. Is this really the kinda shit that college teaches kids? It seems like there is some kind of link between higher education and that kinda thinking. Columbus is home of the More Than Music fest, and is real big on "safe spaces." Also one of the largest student populations in the country. That kinda shit is also big along the upper east coast where there is tons of universities and in the bay area, which is very educated.
Anyway, makes me happy I'm just poor uneducated trash.
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Doesn't everyone who passes through a "hardcore scene" (even some indie + etc.) go through the PC spanking machine? I know that college students (who are the root of many sorts of evils) help fuel it and may even be the biggest source, but I was "schooled" on all of this while I was in high school.
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This is great:
Welcome to punk in the online age, where apparently hardcore bands from Tampa need to answer to an aging Brooklyn-based indie-rock record reviewer who clearly feels the need to preemptively punish young up-and-comers in the wake of the still painful Drunkdriver internet-driven implosion.
The PC crowd drives me nuts. I'm friends with some of the PC punk kids around here, but they're totally ridiculous.
When did punk become so safe and boring?
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http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/55095/Pissed-Jeans-Honeys/
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http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/55095/Pissed-Jeans-Honeys/
"Trending punk albums" on the right basically sums this whole shit up.
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Doesn't everyone who passes through a "hardcore scene" (even some indie + etc.) go through the PC spanking machine? I know that college students (who are the root of many sorts of evils) help fuel it and may even be the biggest source, but I was "schooled" on all of this while I was in high school.
I'm still getting spanked by it. Turns out that might be my kinda masochism.
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I don't know Loy. Sounds like this "parking lot talk" could be mundane writer lingo for fist fighting. You'd better watch out, this guy sounds like trouble.
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_L_zpbbiSEAk/TQMNe9JZ-rI/AAAAAAAAAQ8/keUCq58A0V8/s320/seabass.jpg)
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I dunno, I choose to assume that TR is just constiptually f'(ree)-arting at the same level as (perhaps a 'peg' above) Talibam!
And you know what?
I think you're in on it!
This is Kaufman theater for the sub-250-copies-pressed crowd!
Amirite?
Now... get in the ring!
I mean, he's only got 200 lbs worth of underground... aren't you like 350-ish?
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Revelation Records
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I mean, he's only got 200 lbs worth of underground... aren't you like 350-ish?
I'm pushing 400 these days, but it's evenly spread out throughout the ol' corpus, so I look "imposing" but not "fat."
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http://m.vice.com/read/we-saw-this-church-whip (http://m.vice.com/read/we-saw-this-church-whip)
Not a criticism of Beverley -- I'm glad she says what she does here. Unbelievable. It's only a matter of time before that stupid asshole Mushcock gets someone beat up for no reason.
This girl who sings in a band here and lives at the local feminist punkhouse is making a big stink in the comments of that article. Is this really the kinda shit that college teaches kids? It seems like there is some kind of link between higher education and that kinda thinking. Columbus is home of the More Than Music fest, and is real big on "safe spaces." Also one of the largest student populations in the country. That kinda shit is also big along the upper east coast where there is tons of universities and in the bay area, which is very educated.
Anyway, makes me happy I'm just poor uneducated trash.
A lot of people probably haven't viewed the world through that lens before they get to college, then they're exposed to it, and, without much critical though, latch onto these new fangled ideas. So there might be a link insofar as students are exposed to the ideas at college, but the onus is on the individual to process the ideas and come up with their own conclusions. Laziness is rampant, intellectual laziness probably even more so. Blame the student, not the system!
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I mean, he's only got 200 lbs worth of underground... aren't you like 350-ish?
I'm pushing 400 these days, but it's evenly spread out throughout the ol' corpus, so I look "imposing" but not "fat."
You carry it well. No one would guess it, but I'm pushing 180 myself.
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Oh don't worry, I will never stop blaming the education system in this country. The students may be fucked, but so is the system!
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Long-form music crit is out! Pitchfork sold out!
http://noisey.vice.com/blog/how-online-advertising-is-killing-music-journalism
I actually think the savior of music writing lies in VICE's model, and I'm not just saying that because I like to write for them. In 2006, VICE launched Virtue, a full service marketing and branding agency that connects advertisers to a huge market spread across multiple verticals including Noisey (music), VICE (news), Motherboard (technology/science) and The Creators Project (art/events). Each channel is consistent with VICE's off-kilter style (allowing it to retain its racy, informative, new age, and satirical content), while providing advertisers a highly targeted demographic over multiple verticals. Future success of publications like VICE will depend on their ability to produce quality content, thereby growing their readership and retaining their journalistic integrity.
I figured it out the other day: Vice is a CIA front!
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http://www.collegemagazine.com/editorial/2026/Before-It-Goes-Mainstream-Top-10-Hipster-Bands (http://www.collegemagazine.com/editorial/2026/Before-It-Goes-Mainstream-Top-10-Hipster-Bands)
Can't tell if satire or a perfect example of college newspaper writing. Love the links though.
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http://www.villagevoice.com/2013-02-27/music/the-ascent-of-men/
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http://www.villagevoice.com/2013-02-27/music/the-ascent-of-men/
I'm only two paragraphs in and this is one of the worst things I've read in a while. I love that there's a hyperlink to "sellout dad rock". Also, how is it a surprise that anyone likes Tom Petty?
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http://www.villagevoice.com/2013-02-27/music/the-ascent-of-men/
Jesus christ, how could you pose for that picture
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Some have beards.
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In fact, they're kinda bummed they're not playing Bonnaroo?and can't, having already committed to a show here in New York. It's with Black Flag, at Greenpoint's storied punk venue, Warsaw. The Men don't regret agreeing to the show with the punk stalwarts, but they can't decide how it reflects on them.
They cut themselves off before they can get too down about it.
"Dude, it's cool," Greenberg assures the rest of the guys. "It's Black Flag."
"storied punk venue, Warsaw" b/w "oversized picture-frame architecture is weird, why are these people watching negative approach?"
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http://www.villagevoice.com/2013-02-27/music/the-ascent-of-men/
Jesus christ, how could you pose for that picture
Travesty!
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http://www.seattleweekly.com/2013-03-06/music/punk-rock-is-bullshit/
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Was just about to post this. Hilarious.
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http://www.seattleweekly.com/2013-03-06/music/punk-rock-is-bullshit/
I always loved this story about John Roderick.
At the Hurricanes' third show, Jonathan Poneman from Sub Pop approached Roderick to talk about signing the band. Weeks of negotiations followed, and the deal fell through. "At one point, when we were getting into a heated discussion about how much he was going to give us to record, I put my feet up on his desk and my hands behind my head," Roderick later said. "I was like, 'Let's talk turkey.' And he was apparently really offended by this."At this point, Poneman apparently became uninterested in putting out any music by the band.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Western_State_Hurricanes
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I thought I was finished and then there were 3 more pages. Zzzzz....
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I guess I'm a screaming closet queen cuz I usually read Michael Musto's column in the Village Voice every week. He's delightfully bitchy!
But fo' real, it takes about 2 minutes and he is pretty funny.
Here's an amusing tidbit from this week that may provide some humor to the average Terminal Boredom message board peruser:
"...Tommy Boy Records vinyl party on the upper level, a rec-room-style space where hundreds of albums defiantly filled the shelves. The invite said that if we brought some old vinyl, they might play it, but the DJ had no idea what to do with my 45 of the original glamazon, Divine, singing "You Think You're a Man." After 40 minutes of waiting, I grabbed the single back -- it's worth money -- and fled. You think you're a DJ?"
Mighty Mouth should send him all the Laurice and Grudge stuff.
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Doug Mosurock reviews
Spray Paint Doug Mosurock: http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/44858380945/spray-paint-s-t-lp-s-s
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Erick? Michael Musto? That guy is horrible. Horrible. Shame! I'll thumb wrestle you over it.
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He's no Simenon but he funny when he make fun of the people! People stupid!
Heeeeheeeee
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I once commented to my then-girlfriend how much I hated Musto as we were filing out of a movie and one of the patrons in the theater tried to lay into me about being homophobic. Michael Musto's not gay. Referring to someone as "gay" implies that they've human impulses, that they have a pulse, a dick, a lust for flesh beyond their own -- maybe that they even want to scratch someone's heart. He meets none of those qualifications. He's basically the E! Channel masquerading as a sentient being.
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Hmmmphh.
You probably wouldn't have played that record either.
Booooooooo
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Nominating Musto as a columnist and a rep for gay NY culture's tantamount to people like us vetting etc. as etc. He's Sarah Jessica Parker. He's the first person to complain about "Midwesterners ruining my city" when he's one of myriad reasons this place is Similac 'steada breastmilk.
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Michael Musto should have a column in Maximumrocknroll.
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Doug Mosurock reviews Spray Paint Doug Mosurock: http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/44858380945/spray-paint-s-t-lp-s-s
I guess it is quite obvious around here to point out how self-important this dude is...but seriously who died and left him arbiter of worthy vinyl offerings?
I don?t much follow anything that S-S does anymore, apart from a newsletter that comes through my inbox wherein Scott Soriano tells the world how poorly everything is going for his label. Join the club! I used to get S-S records to review because I bought things of interest that he was selling, but since we both pretty much receive the same records now I don?t often, if ever, need to do that, and he decided that it wasn?t worth the press I might give him anymore to submit records to Still Single (that or more likely some other ethical debates we?ve been on opposite ends of, which has generated a tension that no one wants to address directly). I have also read what Scott thinks of my writing, and assuming that his stance hasn?t changed, this is more about his expectations of me than mine of him.
This "tension" certainly would never cloud his critical "review", now would it?
Scott?s not the only one who stopped sending in physical releases; I lost the Siltbreeze account last year (which is understandable and has been explained, no hard feelings whatsoever)...
"Lost the account"? They say that a lot on Mad Men....
(http://i50.tinypic.com/2s9vuhu.gif)
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http://www.seattleweekly.com/2013-03-06/music/punk-rock-is-bullshit/
I always loved this story about John Roderick.
At the Hurricanes' third show, Jonathan Poneman from Sub Pop approached Roderick to talk about signing the band. Weeks of negotiations followed, and the deal fell through. "At one point, when we were getting into a heated discussion about how much he was going to give us to record, I put my feet up on his desk and my hands behind my head," Roderick later said. "I was like, 'Let's talk turkey.' And he was apparently really offended by this."At this point, Poneman apparently became uninterested in putting out any music by the band.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Western_State_Hurricanes
You don't FUCK with Sub Pop!
(http://24.media.tumblr.com/9313cfb117a95aa72c1063587e636e88/tumblr_mjbf2avgo71rccpkso1_1280.jpg)
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http://www.seattleweekly.com/2013-03-06/music/punk-rock-is-bullshit/
I always loved this story about John Roderick.
At the Hurricanes' third show, Jonathan Poneman from Sub Pop approached Roderick to talk about signing the band. Weeks of negotiations followed, and the deal fell through. "At one point, when we were getting into a heated discussion about how much he was going to give us to record, I put my feet up on his desk and my hands behind my head," Roderick later said. "I was like, 'Let's talk turkey.' And he was apparently really offended by this."At this point, Poneman apparently became uninterested in putting out any music by the band.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Western_State_Hurricanes
You don't FUCK with Sub Pop!
(http://24.media.tumblr.com/9313cfb117a95aa72c1063587e636e88/tumblr_mjbf2avgo71rccpkso1_1280.jpg)
Good for Poneman - "weeks of negotiation" and feet on my desk would diminish any passion I may have had for signing a band. And I don't even run a label......but if I did........
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The AV Club pumps out a lot of stuff that is just fodder for the comments section:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/has-the-vinyl-revival-gone-too-far,93610/
Because, The Gambler, ya know...
daddy still has a flat top
i wanna see a Venn diagram of self diagnosed gluten sufferers and people who exclusively buy vinyl. i think it would just be a circle.
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A topic feverishly debated in the non-music section not so long ago..........http://terminal-boredom.com/forums/index.php?topic=36049.0
The AV Club pumps out a lot of stuff that is just fodder for the comments section:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/has-the-vinyl-revival-gone-too-far,93610/
Because, The Gambler, ya know...
daddy still has a flat top
i wanna see a Venn diagram of self diagnosed gluten sufferers and people who exclusively buy vinyl. i think it would just be a circle.
[/quote
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Borderline-unreadable jive from the Koog, from his forthcoming book. "Informative"? I guess, insofar as his opinion of BFTG and lesser comps means anything to anybody.
http://www.furious.com/perfect/60spunkcompilations.html (http://www.furious.com/perfect/60spunkcompilations.html)
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Borderline-unreadable jive from the Koog, from his forthcoming book. "Informative"? I guess, insofar as his opinion of BFTG and lesser comps means anything to anybody.
http://www.furious.com/perfect/60spunkcompilations.html (http://www.furious.com/perfect/60spunkcompilations.html)
Unbearable. Take the "borderline-" off "unreadable jive" for the win. List itself is semi-interesting (to a dork like me), but not particularly illuminating. The whole "article" spends much time saying nothing.
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I say readable jive, but I generally enjoy reading his stuff and find his various projects interesting.
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Unraveling the conceptual and existential quandaries relative to '60s garage-punk comps: boring. Who knew? (Everyone but the author.)
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I didn't know where to put this but....here
http://www.randomhouse.ca/hazlitt/blog/rock-and-roll-so-boring-its-making-kurt-vile-seem-interesting
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I didn't know where to put this but....here
http://www.randomhouse.ca/hazlitt/blog/rock-and-roll-so-boring-its-making-kurt-vile-seem-interesting
Can't get this to load, very interested in reading it.
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Works for me maannnnnn. 8)
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I didn't know where to put this but....here
http://www.randomhouse.ca/hazlitt/blog/rock-and-roll-so-boring-its-making-kurt-vile-seem-interesting
Can't get this to load, very interested in reading it.
Ok, someone e-mailed this to me. It certainly belongs in this thread. Supremely confused ramblings and sweeping generalizations that get forced into an absurd conclusion. Not to mention that he cites Violent Bullshit in what seems to be a positive light.
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Not to mention that he cites Violent Bullshit in what seems to be a positive light.
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Friends, I give you rising shit-crit supernova Rowan Savage (!):
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/pharmakon-abandon (http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/pharmakon-abandon)
Want more? Dig in!
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/writer/rowan-savage (http://www.tinymixtapes.com/writer/rowan-savage)
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Want more?
No thanks!
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I know Mosurock's been done to death here, but this one is exceptional, even for him and the rest of the Still Single crew.
Prince Rupert?s Drops
Run Slow LP
(Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)
RECOMMENDED
True story: I was working at Kim?s Video in 2002 in an assistant managerial capacity. My boss went on tour with Andrew W.K., leaving me to run the second floor for a month on my own. One day in, and I was told to fire two of my employees on the grounds that they were stealing from shop inventory. They weren?t the most pleasant people to work with, and I will never forget the confrontation that I had to moderate between one of them and the store?s notorious owner, Yong-Man Kim, who broke his perp from defiant and argumentative to sobbing like a toddler inside of five minutes, due in part to Kim smashing a shelled walnut open with his bare hands in front of said supplicant. Do you know how hard it was to stifle my laughter at the absurdity of all this? Either way, it meant that I had to hire and train two new people straight away, or else work their shifts myself. Pulling 11 hours at Kim?s is not recommended, then or now, so I literally chose the first person who came in with a resume ? one Leslie Stein, then-art school undergrad, now Fantagraphics-published cartoonist, and the frontwoman of the band Prince Rupert?s Drops. Were I not to have hired her, would she have started this band? Would any of us had the good fortune to know her at all?
PRD initially started out under the name The Woods, just as ex-Meneguar fellows Woods rose to prominence, so these folks ? ostensibly the remnants of the Broke Revue following their dismissal by Dan Melchior ? conceded, with a late ?60s sounding name and a very promising demo, from which two ofRun Slow?s eight tracks were sourced. That was 2006 or so, and following a record deal gone sour, we finally have a release by this fine Brooklyn outfit. I throw the term ?fake psych? around here a great deal, because it is warranted, and for all I can tell, the remainder of the releases on this East Village Radio-spawned record label BBiB will fit that bill (NOTE: THEY DO), but their inaugural platter is inarguably the real thing, a verytrippy, slightly uneven work with an astounding pedigree and ear for the past. You don?t hear bands these days flying the freak flag while so ably melding the nuances of the Small Faces, Fairport epics and Crazy Horse in their own brand of magic. Their provenance of starting out where the Broke Revue left off proves how much of an effect guitarist Bruno Meyrick-Jones had on that group?s sound after all, and the songs written in the intervening years, amidst some lineup changes and added instrumentation to fill out their sound, seem to take that direction and merge it with the large-format acid country stompers of erstwhile Brooklynites Oakley Hall. Here?s a band where you can actually hear the record collections of its members coming through in fully digested, non-obvious ways, the result of years of influence filtering down into some really wonderful songs. Run Slow finishes out a little less strongly than it starts, but continuity aside, this is a wonderful, organic, human sounding record, and I dare anyone to step up with a song as deeply tripped out and disturbingly engaged as ?Plague Ride.?
(http://beyondbeyondisbeyond.com)
(Doug Mosurock)
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His life is even more tiresome than his prose.
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You're totally right about everything.
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VERY impressive rhetorizing. Cinch for TB's Lex Dexter Endowed Chair of Ennui.
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haha Rocky point is high-larious and on da nose and I shoulda though o' that
JUDGE HARSH GETS THE NO-PRIZE
(and maybe the gasface?)
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Piling on the Moz got pretty tired years ago, but then he goes and writes this. About this band. This entire thing is just wrong, on every level.
"Yi - Punk Memories 7"
RECOMMENDED
Second single from this Oakland trio capitalizes on a moment of ?punk? stupidity that dominated the beginning of my year, and uses it to their advantage, making a ramshackle and awesome little record out of concerns and gripes that pits melody against a willingness to explore that most bands of their stripe couldn?t fathom. There?s a catchy little lament for the rogue renal calculus called ?Got A Stone,? and a sidelong breakdown/exploration of the phaser pedal called ?Junk Memory? that seems like it?d be more at home on New Alliance or Happy Squid in 1982 than anywhere today (a good thing, this short circuiting and wandering off). But the meatiest statement here is ?Just Quit Punk,? poking fun at the deadly serious ball ache put forth by those poor motherfuckers in Merchandise/Church Whip, and their label buddy, and all these unwitting mens? rights saps arguing about whyyyyyyyy they had to name their tour ?Raping The East? this past winter. Rather than listen to people who were hurt by those words, they threw a tantrum, stamped their feet on the ground and held their own, got Vice to publish maybe the most humiliating, career-ending article in that magazine?s history, got their ties slashed and van defaced by angry women, and have tried to slink back out of the light of such self-styled controversy after having alienated all of the women and some of the more compassionate men out there who might have once been fans. Yi tells ?em: ?What?s got your goat to ruin my fun? I don?t let no one question me or my over-the-top hyperbole. I just quit punk because no one understands. I gave all my records to friends and then I resigned from all my bands. If I had known the PC police were back in force to ruin the scene I would not have bought all these zines. It?s not fair how you censor me. You and your mob are oppressing me. You take words too seriously, so I just quit punk and you?ll miss me.?
Indeed. These sort of personal politics, framed against music that?s as fun as it is abrasive, haven?t been in season for quite a while, and it?s great to hear them return. There?s a lot going on within Yi?s music and you?d be dumb not to find out more. Also, this record includes a thank-you list which is a real wealth of information ? good people and bands out there that these guys love. Going through that list would blow more than a few minds, so I suggest anyone looking for ideas grab this one down and do some searching, though maybe not in that order, since the 99 copies pressed of this one are pretty much gone. Ex-Caged Animal, yo (RIP C.A. Crew). Paste-on sleeve, total DIY job. Excellent record that reminds me of Harriet The Spy meets the Urinals. Wish they?d do a 12?."
Earles, on the other hand, must be taking a class in experimental writing (he sure as hell ain't teaching it). Only explanation for his nigh-illegible nonsense, also, the '90s called and they wish you'd stop referencing some of its most forgettable bands.
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Earles, on the other hand, must be taking a class in experimental writing (he sure as hell ain't teaching it). Only explanation for his nigh-illegible nonsense, also, the '90s called and they wish you'd stop referencing some of its most forgettable bands.
Yes, Still Single had a recent review of his that I read twice to see if I'd missed him actually talking about the record. Do record reviewers get "You Are Not Lester Bangs" interventions?
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http://www.tinymixtapes.com/delorean/paris-1942-moe-tucker-alan-bishop-sir-richard-bishop
Outside a few links on the internet, little has been said about Paris 1942, and besides the occasionally excited blogger, reception seems pretty negative. User ?teenagegurls? from the terminalboredom.com message board calls it, ?ready-made recipe for the worst music of all time.? Same forum, ?panama fist? says, ?add this to my ?no one actually listens to? category.? User ?frankie teardrop? simply calls it ?fag crap.? But it?s when ?Whet Bull? says that Moe Tucker is ?Velvet Underground?s LVP (Least Valuable Player)? that the sort of fear regarding lack of traditional rockist value is succinctly articulated.
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Ha ha! That's great.
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It's kinda funny 'cos I adore Sun City Girls; I just don't really care for that record. Funny to be cast as a rockist.
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http://www.tinymixtapes.com/delorean/paris-1942-moe-tucker-alan-bishop-sir-richard-bishop
Outside a few links on the internet, little has been said about Paris 1942, and besides the occasionally excited blogger, reception seems pretty negative. User ?teenagegurls? from the terminalboredom.com message board calls it, ?ready-made recipe for the worst music of all time.? Same forum, ?panama fist? says, ?add this to my ?no one actually listens to? category.? User ?frankie teardrop? simply calls it ?fag crap.? But it?s when ?Whet Bull? says that Moe Tucker is ?Velvet Underground?s LVP (Least Valuable Player)? that the sort of fear regarding lack of traditional rockist value is succinctly articulated.
That's goofy. I wonder if the writer also knows about the record they made w/ the Residents.
(i like the Paris 7" more than anything on the lp.)
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..........striking the fear in ?panama fists? and ?teenagegurls? everywhere.........
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This one's just a headscratcher. I have zero interest in contempo garage, and zero investment. I see where he's coming from disliking a lotta that shitt, although I still don't get who the Fonzies are. I haven't seen a rockabilly slickster / 1965 doofus at a show since the nineties. I checked out this group's bandcamp to see just what in the hell he was talking about and, sure enough, it sounds decent but completely unexceptional, rote stuff that I'd had my fill of nearly twenty years ago during the LAST revival.
http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/57132699042/the-ar-kaics-she-does-those-things-to-me-b-w-i (http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/57132699042/the-ar-kaics-she-does-those-things-to-me-b-w-i)
I'm guessing they're buds or something; who the fuck knows. DM became a study in pathology a long time ago.
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(http://mylovelyquotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Famous-William-Shakespeare-Quotes-about-Life-and-Idiots-150x150.jpg)(http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3213/2691827544_c68789ea5e_z.jpg?zz=1)
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Mosurock less full of shit than usual except for the Purling Hiss comparison:
http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/61472479311/mordecai-college-rock-lp-richie
And he may have completely redeemed himself for me with the rendering of this ultra-great sentence:
"There?s a drawing of what looks like a damaged, furious cartoon baby on the front cover that will stare through the back of your head."
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http://www.tinymixtapes.com/delorean/paris-1942-moe-tucker-alan-bishop-sir-richard-bishop
Outside a few links on the internet, little has been said about Paris 1942, and besides the occasionally excited blogger, reception seems pretty negative. User ?teenagegurls? from the terminalboredom.com message board calls it, ?ready-made recipe for the worst music of all time.? Same forum, ?panama fist? says, ?add this to my ?no one actually listens to? category.? User ?frankie teardrop? simply calls it ?fag crap.? But it?s when ?Whet Bull? says that Moe Tucker is ?Velvet Underground?s LVP (Least Valuable Player)? that the sort of fear regarding lack of traditional rockist value is succinctly articulated.
That's goofy. I wonder if the writer also knows about the record they made w/ the Residents.
(i like the Paris 7" more than anything on the lp.)
That's pretty funny.
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http://m.noisey.vice.com/blog/miley-cyrus-is-punk-as-fuck
"As someone who has wasted his entire life in punk rock—both real and bullshit, I can authoritatively say that Miley Cyrus is the most punk rock musician around right now."
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Although I really don't doubt this:
Have you been following the punk scene over the last decade? Most of the bands are made up of washed up dads who?ve been playing the same songs since 1997 and won?t leave the house to play anything but a huge festival with a guaranteed offer upfront. Miley could show up at Riot Fest and put every other performer there to shame.
'cuz The Replacements ain't punk and punk died in '97!
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http://thequietus.com/articles/11457-iceage-you-re-nothing-review
"North American punk rock is currently in rude health, most obviously evidenced in crossover terms by Iceage's Matador labelmates Fucked Up."
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I just dropped the author a little note. Lately I find myself enjoying The Quietus, even if I do find myself puzzling over their breathless praise of Factory Floor.
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http://pitchfork.com/tv/youtube/15-docs/1000-ct5-captured-tracks-special-day/ (http://pitchfork.com/tv/youtube/15-docs/1000-ct5-captured-tracks-special-day/)
Lots of interesting tidbits. A referendum on the current state etc.
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"hip"
Z. Cole Smith is so in right now.
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http://www.buzzfeed.com/alexnaidus/pieces-of-evidence-that-punk-is-dead
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That Celine Dion jacket is an A+.
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That Celine Dion jacket is an A+.
I can't find it online but this reminds me of a great pic of Jello Biafra wearing a leather jacket inscribed with Bee Gees, Kenny Rogers and other dire MOR dreck - possibly on the 1st issue UK punk mag Punk Lives.
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I remember an interview with Vic Reeves where he said his old punk uniform was safety pinned-in flares and a leather jacket with Mozart, Handel and Vaughan Williams painted on the back
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http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9750765/haim-days-gone-indie-rock-death-rattle
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"Alt Rock"??
I hate to stoop to physicalism but dewd:
(http://a.espncdn.com/i/columnists/hyden_steven_m.jpg)
Other article by him:
"Twenty years later, why Counting Crows' August and Everything After is as meaningful as Nirvana's In Utero."
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Someone forgot to pay the internet bill at Dusted: www.dustedmagazine.com (http://www.dustedmagazine.com)
Or maybe generating one-sheet fodder for indie labels isn't as lucrative as I thought.
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Guy from Pitchfork makes a series of videos with himself talking about independent music, is hilarious for all the wrong reasons:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJvIi_GZo1c
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Brandon Stosuy is a bottomless well filled with horseshit. Love 'im! Check out his appreciation of "that one part" in Dino Jr's cover of "Just Like Heaven." The gold is in the final paragraph -- brings to mind a young, jive-talkin' Mike McGonigal.
Dinosaur Jr.
"Just Like Heaven"
1:47 - 1:56
By Brandon Stosuy
When Dinosaur Jr.'s cover of the Cure's "Just Like Heaven" appeared as the A-Side of a three-song 7" in 1989, I was just starting high school and coming out of junior high days that included a lot of Minor Threat, Youth of Today, and 7 Seconds. I was a vegetarian.
But I don?t want to make it sound like I was a completely humorless hardcore guy. My older sister (and New Jersey) made sure I was an expert on hair metal. And my childhood friend Moss and I listened to Metallica, Queensr?che, Megadeth, and (wait) King's X. I'd also met a bunch of kids, including a girl I was interested in, who loved the Cure, Joy Division, New Order, and the like. But coming from a background in hardcore and punk, I definitely took music a little too seriously, and I tended to be dogmatic in the way teenagers who don't know anything about anything tend to be dogmatic. I didn't really find any room for humor or playfulness in my music at that point because I mostly saw it as a place for revolution and aggression.
[...]
The ferocious, shouted "YOU!" at the 1:47 mark, and the distorted metal guitars that surrounded it, is the big moment. It finds J. Mascis and Lou Barlow showcasing their background in the hardcore band Deep Wound (the ridiculous video for the song features a puppet wearing a Deep Wound t-shirt) and, of course, reminded me of music I'd been listening to, and seeing live, before high school. More importantly, though, this forceful "YOU!" was connected to my favorite band?s cover of the most romantic song for outsiders I knew at that time. Very simply, and kind of goofily, it showed me that the beautiful and the terrifying could coexist in the same breath. From the noise and grindcore I discovered in college to the Dennis Cooper I studied in grad school to the recent Paul McCarthy installation I want to check out and the Peter Sotos books I?m reading, this is something that went on to inform my listening habits and life in profound ways. It also helped me lighten up a little [yeah, right!].
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Just ghastly.
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sounded alright to me that... i understood it at least.
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Guy from Pitchfork makes a series of videos with himself talking about independent music, is hilarious for all the wrong reasons:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJvIi_GZo1c
"but they never had the guts to ask each other out...hahahaha" oh man hilarious.....BEEN there right guys.
I feel very uncomfortable watching this video. So thanks.
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sounded alright to me that... i understood it at least.
Me too, but I've enjoyed his writing for decades. Seemed straightforward, maybe doddering/old man talk but that's what he is, no?
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yeah it's just his style to be bubbly fannish in a very 70's way...and then end with a stab at the liberal pc cult that lives in his head. His libertarian leanings and rose-colored glasses regarding the Eisenhower 50s can really be grating but he was a serious music archaeologist since way before TermBo existed. I guess I should try to read his take on Lou...
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yeah it's just his style to be bubbly fannish in a very 70's way...and then end with a stab at the liberal pc cult that lives in his head. His libertarian leanings and rose-colored glasses regarding the Eisenhower 50s can really be grating but he was a serious music archaeologist since way before TermBo existed. I guess I should try to read his take on Lou...
I enjoy that aspect I guess. He comes at everything with a bit of a different perspective, and that's where his main value lies. He's one of those "writers" that can spin endless blocks of text and that's where it gets numbing for me...
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Guy from Pitchfork makes a series of videos with himself talking about independent music, is hilarious for all the wrong reasons:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJvIi_GZo1c
Oh boy. Here he gets up close (so take a big step back) and pulls open the curtain on this whole thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpMYd24B5VY
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This just about covers it--
The melifluous aupacity rises above the instictual cast off of exoneration that convenes the instigations with a savvy for the quintissential end and all and be all of letting this one scrape by the semantics of being on top and affirmative action and a call to the availability of some prime candidadcy. Let this one get you sucked up into a world that is more insignia riddled that pulp that wild berry fruit smoothie that launched the day when everything was done and said like the paying the baying sounds of the Bayonette as rthe musketeers of musical libations that are sure to yurn to the prong into throngs as the unions of good music demand an up close and personal. Hit the number dispense well head of time and stand is line as this soap box semantic of pulpit shaking anomalies is rising to the valour of riding out the coat tails of something that will boost your ego. Sunshine came softly through my window today.
http://newmusicalreleases.wordpress.com/2012/10/15/hiding-in-plain-sight-by-the-cringe/
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"Aupacity" is not even a word, unless the author is coining a portmanteau from "audacity" and "opacity," which would be "aupacious" indeed.
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Great add, though, so many words & so little meaning.
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its gotta be a joke/troll. or someone on speed who hasn't figured out that amphetamine prose is still not where it's at.
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For a second I thought it was parody, but there's a bunch more where that came from -- that's just the best/worst example. Here's a goodie:
http://newmusicalreleases.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/yvette-process/ (http://newmusicalreleases.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/yvette-process/)
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For a second I thought it was parody, but there's a bunch more where that came from -- that's just the best/worst example. Here's a goodie:
http://newmusicalreleases.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/yvette-process/ (http://newmusicalreleases.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/yvette-process/)
This reads like a Mad Libs-style cut up where a dude put a bunch of big words into a hat and just randomly pulled them out. Must be a boner buster to spend so much thesaurus-time on something that would be lucky to get a D in a freshman comp class.
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For a second I thought it was parody, but there's a bunch more where that came from -- that's just the best/worst example. Here's a goodie:
http://newmusicalreleases.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/yvette-process/ (http://newmusicalreleases.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/yvette-process/)
This reads like a Mad Libs-style cut up where a dude put a bunch of big words into a hat and just randomly pulled them out. Must be a boner buster to spend so much thesaurus-time on something that would be lucky to get a D in a freshman comp class.
I just read this. There's almost an ESL feel to it, it's so poorly written. But as if the ESL speaker/writer got a hold of a lit theory glossary at some point.
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For a second I thought it was parody, but there's a bunch more where that came from -- that's just the best/worst example. Here's a goodie:
http://newmusicalreleases.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/yvette-process/ (http://newmusicalreleases.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/yvette-process/)
This reads like a Mad Libs-style cut up where a dude put a bunch of big words into a hat and just randomly pulled them out. Must be a boner buster to spend so much thesaurus-time on something that would be lucky to get a D in a freshman comp class.
I just read this. There's almost an ESL feel to it, it's so poorly written. But as if the ESL speaker/writer got a hold of a lit theory glossary at some point.
I was thinking something similar. It reads like it was written in a foreign language and then run through a shitty translator. I still think it's a joke. It's just too weird not to be. Sunshine came softly through my window today.
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The lit-theory glossary is the common denominator 'mongst a lot of these Missives. I corresponded briefly with a kid who writes for TMT and I was amused to find that he regards the sort of "C minus" comp-lit writing that TMT indulges as "almost academic," considers theirs a mission to elevate the discourse of music criticism by injecting it with these juvenile stabs at Frankfurt / semiotic / Lacanian / Derridian- style criticism. The effect is a bit like a very dry, unfunny version of Pale Fire.
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If anything, it needs to lower its brow. Concisely tailored wordage with compulsory references to cocks and dirty pigs and Corky and pissfisting Hondurans. And whether you like the record, maybe employing a thumbs-up/thumbs-sideways/thumbs-down methodology.
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Hey, this guy's a real auteur! I personally think his mondo derrida prose stylings would be perfectly suited to reviewing porn flicks. In fact, I'm not convinced the excerpt ibid. isn't about porn.
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Everything's about porn.
Think abou tit.
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Even porn?
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Porn is about Zola Jesus.
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Porno Jesus
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Didn't know where to put this as it is perfectly fine esp. if you enjoyed the gunk punk book cuz Davison is all up innit. But what is up with MTV Iggy?
http://www.mtviggy.com/articles/icon-why-teengenerate-matters-and-why-they-still-think-they-dont/
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But what is up with MTV Iggy?
http://www.mtviggy.com/videos/a-mark-sultan-elevator-surprise/
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MTV still exists? Huh. I kinda forgot all about it these past few years. Used to love/hate it.
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Poked around a bit but I'm not sure what that site's connection is to MTV or Iggy or is it even I Pop?? Many pages of horrid horrid bands though...
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Poked around a bit but I'm not sure what that site's connection is to MTV or Iggy or is it even I Pop?? Many pages of horrid horrid bands though...
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2011/10/mtv-iggy-brings-global-music-to-stateside-listeners.html
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http://www.popmatters.com/post/158737-stooges/
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Fuck
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I was gonna ask if that was the Mendelsohn of 'Creem' etc., but it's not. This guy is much worse.
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http://www.popmatters.com/feature/177633-the-best-noise-rock-of-2013/
According to Popmatters the best noise rock of 2013 was Savages, Iceage, The Men and The Flaming Lips.
"Finally, honorable mention nods go out to Hunters? Hunters, Crime & the City Solution?s American Twilight, and Speedy Ortiz?s Major Arcana?quality LPs that, for reasons of limited space or reluctant genre constraints, do not appear on the list below."
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These guys are terrible.
http://www.popmatters.com/post/142194-ramones/
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Hey, this guy's a real auteur! I personally think his mondo derrida prose stylings would be perfectly suited to reviewing porn flicks. In fact, I'm not convinced the excerpt ibid. isn't about porn.
Late to the pile-on, but you're right: we need a pairing of obtuse pseudo-academic prose with porn images, the obverse of this: http://pornhubcommentsonstockphotos.tumblr.com/
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Hey, this guy's a real auteur! I personally think his mondo derrida prose stylings would be perfectly suited to reviewing porn flicks. In fact, I'm not convinced the excerpt ibid. isn't about porn.
Late to the pile-on, but you're right: we need a pairing of obtuse pseudo-academic prose with porn images, the obverse of this: http://pornhubcommentsonstockphotos.tumblr.com/
Thanks and blessings for sharing that Tumblr.
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The whole of this review:
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18877-the-gories-the-shaw-tapes-live-in-detroit-52788/
I can't decide if I am more upset about the simple factual errors or the Mick Collin's "Detroit Rock mythos that he'd never stray from" bit
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Same Jason Heller who writes this thing (http://www.avclub.com/article/punk-turned-in-on-itself-in-1995-and-out-came-the--200819)? It's gotta be, right?
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Same Jason Heller who writes this thing (http://www.avclub.com/article/punk-turned-in-on-itself-in-1995-and-out-came-the--200819)? It's gotta be, right?
Folks tell me it is the same guy.
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Always amazed how many people on this forum regularly read Pitchfork, always sharing the links, etc. Pretty lame, can't imagine it's very fun or interesting unless yr into crummy music. There are plenty of other places to find out about new releases so it seems even more like a waste of time and life than if that wasn't the case. Does not compute.
========================================================
Came here to share these reviews of the first three Stooges albums that i saved awhile back but still haven't gotten around to reading. At a glance, they seem positive. Interesting, but quite a few classics got good/decent reviews while the records themselves sunk like stones for various reasons.
Can't recall where i copied 'em from so long ago, maybe the Stooges forum? Enjoy...
THE STOOGES - The Stooges (ELEKTRA)
ED WARD (ROLLING STONE 1969)
As we all remember, in 1957 it was conclusively proven that there exists a casual relationship between rock and roll and juvenile delinquency. This record is just another document in support of this thesis.
The Stooges, formerly the Psychedelic Stooges, hail from Ann Arbor, Michigan, where, in case you've never been told, they do things high-powered - high-powered music, high-powered doping, high-powered f***ing, high-powered hyping. The Stooges used to share a house with another local band whom they greatly resemble - The MC5. The picture on the cover of the album shows the Stooges to be four nice middle-class kids gone-wrong wearing brand-new synthetic leather jackets and pouting at the camera in a kind of snot-nosed defiance. They don't look all that bright, althought they may be college dropouts, and I'm sure all the high school kids in the area dig the hell out of them. Three of them play guitar, bass, and drums, while picturesque Iggy sings in a blatantly poor imitation early Jagger style. The instrumentalists sound like they've been playing their axes for two months and playing together for one month at the most, and they just love wah-wah and fuzz just like most rank amateur groups. The lyrics are sub-literate, as might be inferred by the titles: "No Fun", "Not Right", "Little Doll", and "Real Cool Time". This last is the monument of the Stooges artistry: "Can-uh Ah come ovuh/ Tognat-uh?/We will have a real cool tam-uh...". Their music is loud, boring, tasteless, unimaginative and childish.
I kind of like it.
Granted that the Stooges are all I have sadi them to be, how can I explain this away? Well, it is caertainly an understatement to say that they have a marked lack of pretension. They are a reducto ad absurdom of rock and roll that mighthave been thought up by a mad D.A.R. general in a wet dream. They suck, and they know it, so they throw the fact back in your face and say "So what? We're just havin' fun". They emit a raw energy reminiscent of the very earliest British recordings - ever listen to the first two Kinks records? - and while there is ample reason to put them down, the fun is infectious, and that's more than you can say about most of the stuff coming out nowadays.
The album itself is, I am told, far better than the Stooges are in person, where they rely heavily on visual effects and loud freak-out scrapings of guitar strings and bashing of amps. Producer John Cale, a former member of the Velvet Underground, has squeezed everything he could out of them, and he has done a fine job. The only place the album falls down, it falls with a resounding thud. "We Will Fall" is a ten-minute exercise in boredom that ruins the first side of the record. The rest of it - well, when something is as simple as the Stooges' music, it would take an artist to ruin it.
So, cats and kitties, if you want to have a real cool time, just bop on down to your local platter vendor and pick up the Stooges' record, keeping in mind, of course, that it's loud, boring, tasteless, unimaginative, childish, obnoxious...
FUNHOUSE The Stooges (Elektra)
CHARLIE BURTON (ROLLING STONE 1970)
Ah, good evening my good friend. Good evenning and welcome to the Stooges' Funhouse. We are so glad you could come. Oh, do not be alarmed, dear one, if things should seem a trifle unusual...or, as the natives say, "oh-mind"...at first. You'll doubtless get used to it. Perhaps, you may even begin to...like the things you see.
Why do you look so pale, my friend? Why that's only tenor saxonphonist Steve MacKay vigorously f***ing drummer Scott Ashton, dog-style. Steve is the new member of the band, you know, but like Iggy and the rest of the boys were saying, he really fits in, n'est-ce pas? How smart he looks in his new black leather jacket. and that swastika on Scott's lapel. How killer...how terribly, terribly killer.
And tha man over there? The one being slowly whipped with the long, curly tendrils of that young lass' hair? Why, that's none other than Don Galucci, who produced the Stooges' latest album. He was the producer of the song "Louie Louie" by the Kingsmen, you know. Here. I have the original words to it written down on this piece of paper. Perhaps you would like to read them.
Oh, thank you, Mr. Galucci. Please do put on the new Stooges record. It would be so nice for our guest to hear.
Mercy! "Down On The Street", what a super killer jam! That is why I love the Stooges so, you know, and why I have stayed here at the Funhouse with the boys for so very long. They are so exquisitely horrible and down and out that they are the ultimate psychedelic rock band in 1970. Don't you agree?
Don't laugh. You mustn't laugh. The new record is much more sophisticated than their first. And you cannot deny that they are the best Detroit area rock band. Why, Iggy was just telling me when he plays with other Detroit and Michigan area bands, that he feels, not like the King of the Mountain, but King of the Slag Heap! King of the Slag Heap! How super oh-mind, no?
Do you think you might like to...see Iggy? Well, all right. But you must take care not to disturb him. When Pop is really "Jonesed", there's really no telling what could happen. His scars do take so long to heal, you know, and he is so slight, sometimes I can't help worry about him, but can you blame me?
He should be behind that door, in that room. Perhaps, if we're lucky, he might be spreading peanut butter upon his phallus. Why, sometimes he'll lock himself in there for dyas screaming "I feel all right!" at the top of his lungs until he passes out. And then, it is said, before he can arise again, a 14-year-old girl must perform oral intercourse upon his comatose body. Oh! He has heard us! Do be quick, my friend, before he can get it together to react! Heavens! What a close shave, eh, mon ami?
Ah, no, you mustn't be leaving so soon. There is so much you have not yet seen, so many things strange, killer, and oh-mind. Well, if you must, then I suppose you must. Sometime soon you will pay us a return visit, all right, dear one? Thank you for stopping by ever so much.
You. Out there. What are you doing? Do you long to have your mind blown open so wide that it will take weeks to pick up the little, bitty pieces? Do you yearn for the oh-mind? Do you ache to feel all right?
Then by all means, you simply must come visit us at the Stooges' Funhouse. I know the boys would look forward to seeing you. In fact, they'd be...simply delighted.
IGGY AND THE STOOGES - Raw Power (Columbia)
DAVE MARSH (CREEM 1973)
Raw Power is the best high-energy album since Kick Out The Jams, and it sometimes makes me think that Iggy and the Stooges could kick their ex-Big Brothers' butts in the right kind of alley.
I can't believe this is the same Stooges. No longer the group you love because that put out so much despite their limitiations, this band is tremndously powerful and, with the aid of skillful production, the noise-raunch power tremble of complete esctasy that Kick Out The Jams hitherto represented all by itself, is finally realized IN THE STUDIO. Consider that, boob-a-la - it's like staging an air raid on Hanoi in Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
Iggy kicks it loose from the beginning. The guitar charge is just like the old Five guitar work, tremendous bursts of apocalyptic interstellar energy, limited only by contemporary technology, harnessed to a strong, if unsteady backbeat. Bassist Ron Ashton pulls down the sound, melding it into something almost Earthly, just like a great jazz bass player does, while the rest of the band accelerates beyond everything that's been recorded, or played live, or even dreamed of, in years, so hard and so fast that if Iggy wasn't the singer you'd wonder whose record this was. It's like they o.d.'d Pete Townsend on Quaalude and acid, forced him in a 1965 time warp and made him keep all the promises he made in "I Can't Explain".
By the time the second song, "Raw Power", comes on, you're startled, so busy trying to figure out what this meta-metamorphisis portends you can't quite believe that the record is doing it all by itself, so you look around the floor but no, not there and then Iggy screams: "Raw Power got a healin' hand/Raw Power can destroy a man/Raw Power is a boilin' soul/ Got a son named rock'n'roll" - which for once is not some kind of call to the demiurges who guard rock'n'roll to come out and visit us but a simple statement of irrefutable, pristine fact. Like the songs on the first Stooges' record, which had titles like "No Fun", "Real Cool Time", Little Doll", and "I Wanna Be Your Dog", RAW POWER is just the eye of the Ig roving around the street, putting down what he sees, not mincing words or trying for fluidity but letting it ooze, rough and, uh raw, splat, screeeeeeeeeee: "Look in the eyes of the seventh girl/Fall deep in love in the underworld/You're alone and you've got the shakes/So've I baby, but I got what it takes" And "Raw Power" so help me god, begins with an authentic belch, a true-to-life burp - which is, like farting, a form of truly RAW POWER and it goes like this: urgggllllpppppp. I swear.
Now comes the part for people who never liked the Stooges. Whatever Stooges fans think about them, they are almost legion. "Give Me Danger" is the real Iggy ballad, the one El Pop kept threatening us with when he did tunes like "Ann, My Ann" and "Dirt". But this Iggy ballad is the one where you can't make out the lyrics, because of the guitars, which is o.k. because the guitars are like Jimi Hendrix jamming with John Fahey. You are absolutely not going to believe this song, or some of the other guitar here (by James Williamson, who switched places with Ron) until you hear it, and then it might take you a week; that's how long it took me and I heard 'em in London only last summer.
Now, this is the part that you won't believe at all, as if you're gonna believe when I tell you how great this record is anyway, but afterwhile you look at the titles and you begin to wonder what the f**k is this record about? Now, I am not saying that Iggy has made the first dementoid concept album , or some avuncular nonsense like that, I'm just going to tell you what this album is about and you can believe it or not: RAW POWER is what happens if you watch the Viet Nam war live on the TV every night, and that is the central fact of the culture you live in, for ten years (or more). Look at these titles: "Hard To Beat" (Kissinger'd buy that, even); "Search And Destroy", for which no explanation is necessary; "Death Trip", ditto; "Penetration", a sort of behind-the-lines excursion...
Maybe Iggy was imagining - that's a big maybe, but what the f**k - that he didn't beat the draft after all, in fact, he went to Viet Nam and got his legs and arms shot off and came back a crippled, quadraplegic junkie who got himself atomic-powered limbs and set out to avenge the destruction he had to endure. And the way he does it is to write this song about how he got f***ed up, see, with these lines: "I'm the world's forgotten boy/The one who searches and destroys". And then singing about his fantasy after he got shot, his dream while he was bleeding almost to death, which is that Madam Diem showed up and and sucked him off and then f***ed him in ways he hadn’t thought possible:”Love in the middle of a fire fight”.
Now you might think this is totally ridiculous, and you’re absolutely right, but that’s what this album makes me think about and I ain’t even told you about the long songs yet.
Everyone talks about how we need a band that can hold the decade in the palm of their hand and spitshine and polish it, but the Stooges just come out and do that, and with their feet they do a merry little gallows jig, too. RAW POWER is like a great James Bond book that never got written, but it’s concept are all here. Like when the Stooges play their own version of “St. James Infirmary” called “I Need Somebody”, where Iggy is bad as Howlin’ Wolf pounding Mick Jagger on the head with a forty pound stack of Yma Sumac records.
And all the while Iggy just keeps singing, in his best Frank Sinatra voice (the one used to sing “The Shadow Of Your Smile” when the amps blow up in the middle of a set): “I need somebody bab-uh/I need somebody to…/I need somebody bab-uh/Just like you”. He ain’t singing about “I need somebody too” like every dorkoid in the world could sing about how we’re all lonely and s**t, he’s singing about how he needs somebody to do something so unapproachable you couldn’t – he couldn’t – imagine what it even is or how to do it, if you knew.
Then “Death Trip”. “Baby want to take you out with me/Come along on my death trip”. Real-ly. Death to the death culture and all that rot as David Bowie taught him to say. Iggy immerses himself in all the rage of being so f***ed up, and more appropriately, f***ing YOURSELF than anyone can imagine and then he sings, like a love song:”I’m with you and you with me/We’re going down in history”. And he ain’t talking about no blow job, neither. He’s talking about going down in history, like Hitler, like Rasputin, like every mangled dictator and dog-eared mass murderer there ever was, if you’ll just come along on his little death trip – here, step inside. Stab, stab.
I’m tempted myself. Only a truly diabolical mind could have made the best album of the 70’s, of course, and Iggy apparently has it because he’s summed everything up and it took only nine songs to do it. And he didn’t have to write any songs about being/wishing he was cosmic, or a star or some bullshit.
Step inside the Fun House, home of the O-Mind, and we will all have a real cool time, AC/DC and RAW POWER alike.
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Also, i know there are many zine scans scattered about the web, but does anyone know of one or more sites that are "better" / have a bunch / etc. all on one site that they can link here? It'd be great if there was a specific site that functioned kind of like a Discogs site and had 'em all. (If only that were possible, right?) Been eyeballin' a few of the few i have lately looking for info on certain things, soooo much good info, tons not ever on the web.
I recently saw the Pig Paper on Internet Archive if anyone's interested, going to explore that site (and zine!) a bit more soon.
EDIT: I just made this thread so that can perhaps be a landing point http://terminal-boredom.com/forums/index.php?topic=41101.0
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Always amazed how many people on this forum regularly read Pitchfork, always sharing the links, etc. Pretty lame, can't imagine it's very fun or interesting unless yr into crummy music. There are plenty of other places to find out about new releases so it seems even more like a waste of time and life than if that wasn't the case. Does not compute.
look whats coming in issue 2 of their print zine
(http://i.imgur.com/BBpVSQ1.png)
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Haven't made it through all of this yet, but oooh boy.
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/the-trouble-with-contemporary-music-criticism
I did, however, skip to the end:
[As you may have noticed, this piece takes its inspiration from Walter Benjamin’s Theses on The Philosophy of History. Although Benjamin also uses the analogy of the mechanical Turk to develop a critique of naïve historicism/progressivism, it is worth noting that we have significantly amended the logic of that analogy for our own purposes. If you haven’t read the original already, you should… preferably while listening to Daft Punk.]
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http://pitchfork.com/features/ordinary-machines/9351-hashtags/ (http://pitchfork.com/features/ordinary-machines/9351-hashtags/)
I'm fairly content to imagine that reading past the second paragraph must be something like shredding a pile of asbestos with my bare hands and eating it. In fact, I only made it through the subheadline and already I feel obligated to take a cold shower with the dirtiest washcloth I can find. If culture-jamming is anything like windjamming then I'm in, but I suspect it's an irony-free adjective used primarily by bespoke-shaved condo bohemians and/or Juxtapoz readers and it means whatever the sophisticated, self-aware, bigger-budget version of drawing penises on Newport ads in the magazines in the dentist's waiting room is, and if that's the case, somebody owes me a lotta back pay, understand?
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Culture-Jamming is vandalism's older, squarer, less fun brother
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Cult-jamming
(http://i.imgur.com/p2SIbJG.gif)
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http://crumbler.tumblr.com/post/87321590093/the-oral-history-of-music-tumblr-2008-2014
&
http://barrybailbondsman.tumblr.com/post/87348843820/the-oral-history-of-music-tumblr-2008-2014
&
http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/87559947196/no-really
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http://crumbler.tumblr.com/post/87321590093/the-oral-history-of-music-tumblr-2008-2014
&
http://barrybailbondsman.tumblr.com/post/87348843820/the-oral-history-of-music-tumblr-2008-2014
&
http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/87559947196/no-really
What's music tumblr? (And, no, I don't want to read the article.)
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I opened all three links but had to stop reading each one as soon as I encountered the word(?) "tumblr." I guess speculation/pontification re: the preciously packaged future of music "journalism" is a bridge even my precocious ass is hesitant to cross. Apologies to everyone.
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eh, not to worry too much, vowels are overrated....pretty soon we'll be back to communicating in grunts and hisses..."igggggggggg nnnnnnwblm grrrrrrrtttttttt!"
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I opened all three links but had to stop reading each one as soon as I encountered the word(?) "tumblr." I guess speculation/pontification re: the preciously packaged future of music "journalism" is a bridge even my precocious ass is hesitant to cross. Apologies to everyone.
I made a valiant attempt at reading these and still couldn't finish any of them - so good work bailing straight away. This is basically a foreign language to me and I have no desire to drop out of knowing about new music. I wouldn't have guessed it would be the WAY music is consumed/talked about/etc that would make me basically stop caring. It's times like these where I take comfort in the thought that there's always the option of dedicating the rest of my life to classical music.
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(http://blogs.citypages.com/gimmenoise/Chuck_Klosterman_Head_Central_Alley.jpg)
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Can't relate to that tumblr article at all. A passion for music just another thing to put on these gimps CV' s and to "grow" out of? For good or bad, I'm a lifer and music's been a consuming passion for 30+ years, to the detriment and neglect of other areas of my life, esp as regards the pursuit of money / taking a 'career' seriously. Outside of periods of serious illness, depression, OCD (of course!), bereavement and relationship (and employment) turmoil it's always been THE thing for me. (Well that and hanging with my lovely, and very patient, wife).
I can do politics, sports, comedy, movies as well (to an extent) natch, but nothing'll ever be cooler to me than (to name just a few) Alex Chilton 1975 or Subway Sect 1978 or Jim Shepard 1996. Just total artistic and aesthetic perfection. I just wanna listen to and read about and talk about music. And find out about and hear more and more .Most other of life's pursuits feel like a waste of time in comparison. Which probably means i'm fucked. But, so what?, fuck it.
"The hole I dig is bottomless, but nothing else can set me free"
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the whole of this:
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19375-obn-iiis-third-time-to-harm/
I honestly wonder if he has ever actually heard any of the bands he name drops here and if he actually thinks the OBN IIIs sound like them or even "feel" like them?
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Minsker is the p4k's garage rock guy nowadays, he writes their "rock" column, Shake Appeal. It's valuable, I guess, because it puts some pretty unknown bands (he wrote about Yi recently for example) to the indie-mainstream mouthbreather public. But on the other hand, his writeups are always so fucking lazy that it's impossible to read through them. He will always just reach for the nearest cliche and end the text on that.
This one's pretty good though:
"Third Time to Harm isn't unmatched in its thrilling-yet-troglodyte outlook?it pairs well with the Timmy's Organism album Raw Sewage Roq, which had similarly sketchy gender politics paired with muscle-headed barroom rock'n'roll."
Sketchy gender politics? Where did that come from?
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Minsker is the p4k's garage rock guy nowadays, he writes their "rock" column, Shake Appeal. It's valuable, I guess, because it puts some pretty unknown bands (he wrote about Yi recently for example) to the indie-mainstream mouthbreather public. But on the other hand, his writeups are always so fucking lazy that it's impossible to read through them. He will always just reach for the nearest cliche and end the text on that.
This one's pretty good though:
"Third Time to Harm isn't unmatched in its thrilling-yet-troglodyte outlook?it pairs well with the Timmy's Organism album Raw Sewage Roq, which had similarly sketchy gender politics paired with muscle-headed barroom rock'n'roll."
Sketchy gender politics? Where did that come from?
I think it comes from their love of boobs. "Bouncing Boobies" on that Raw Sewage Roq LP and that Comedy Central free download thing had an OBN IIIs song that went on about boobs and the latest Bad Sports last album was called Bras too.
My main beef is that I honestly can't think it is possible that anyone who has actually listened to the OBN IIIs and think that they sound like Van Halen (or any of the other 70's rockers name checked there.) He needs to have his fuckin' ears cleaned out. It is also amazing to me that there isn't anyone else there in a sort of editorial capacity that would say "hey, wait a minute. I don't think this holds any water."
This review is so embarrassing that it SHOULD be buried in that Shake Appeal gheto where they exile everything remotely rock.
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"The current landscape of garage rock is overrun by bands who find heroes in Sabbath and the Stooges..." Man, I wish that was the case.
Less Donavan, brittle indie pop and attempts at cloning VICE-era Black Lips PLZ.
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It is also amazing to me that there isn't anyone else there in a sort of editorial capacity that would say "hey, wait a minute. I don't think this holds any water."
I think it's pretty much established that all popular music review sites don't have any editors doing anything but are run by bunch of college friends just throwing their ideas around or hiring mercenaries to cover stuff they themselves don't have a clue about. Pitchfork started as the former and is now the latter. It's funny that they were and are shit at both.
My real contribution to this thread would be Andrew Earles, the man, the myth, the meltdown. Seriously, he fucking explodes every single time he reviews something on Still Single. I know, that column is dead and Mosurock can cry about not getting stuff from ITR or Siltbreeze all he wants but just look at this shit:
http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/81359436038/action-swingers-miserable-life-b-w-losing-my-cool
"Unlike the Live Fast Die 7?, I know why this came to exist. So long as Ned Hayden has a recording of an argument through the basement stairwell with his mother, he will find a way to commit it to vinyl and promote it through delusional word-vomit in the worst backwaters of the message-board/comment-section wasteland. I feel sorry for all of the ESL students who still believe this band?s legacy to whiff of something like ?legend?, though I don?t feel sorry for a label that calls itself ?Total Punk? when I should be a better person and stop poking at lumbering targets."
The guy is writing a Jay Reatard bio if I'm not mistaken. Is he having a nervous breakdown?
edit: No wait, his book is "Gimme Indie Rock: 500 Essential American Underground Rock Albums 1981-1996". Guess Action Swingers didn't make the cut.
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http://thequietus.com/articles/15274-coldplay-ghost-stories-review
Brilliant concept piece, if the concept is "Steven Wells with an IQ of 73"
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"The current landscape of garage rock is overrun by bands who find heroes in Sabbath and the Stooges."
People literally have no idea what the "garage" label means anyway. How does Sabbath sound like American kids doing Brit Invasion? How is "Funhouse" a "garage" record? This is beyond the obvious poor labelling of the band reviewed and the current (ugh) garage influences, which are exactly as you say.
Rock writing has been basically DOA for many years, but it's still fun watching these self-important hacks puke up on themselves.
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It is also amazing to me that there isn't anyone else there in a sort of editorial capacity that would say "hey, wait a minute. I don't think this holds any water."
My real contribution to this thread would be Andrew Earles, the man, the myth, the meltdown. Seriously, he fucking explodes every single time he reviews something on Still Single. I know, that column is dead and Mosurock can cry about not getting stuff from ITR or Siltbreeze all he wants but just look at this shit:
http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/81359436038/action-swingers-miserable-life-b-w-losing-my-cool
"Unlike the Live Fast Die 7?, I know why this came to exist. So long as Ned Hayden has a recording of an argument through the basement stairwell with his mother, he will find a way to commit it to vinyl and promote it through delusional word-vomit in the worst backwaters of the message-board/comment-section wasteland. I feel sorry for all of the ESL students who still believe this band?s legacy to whiff of something like ?legend?, though I don?t feel sorry for a label that calls itself ?Total Punk? when I should be a better person and stop poking at lumbering targets."
The guy is writing a Jay Reatard bio if I'm not mistaken. Is he having a nervous breakdown?
edit: No wait, his book is "Gimme Indie Rock: 500 Essential American Underground Rock Albums 1981-1996". Guess Action Swingers didn't make the cut.
Said something virtually identical about Earles on another thread after reading that review.
http://terminal-boredom.com/forums/index.php?topic=41952.msg752694#msg752694
I mean he can like what he likes and all that but does he really need to submit torturous overwrought bollocks like that, and does Mosurock really need to print it? Has he got embarassing photos of DM or what? The guy clearly needs psychiatric help and shouldn't be encouraged in his ravings. Or maybe, as the insufferable Robin Williams says in 'Good Morning Vietnam' : "there's never been a white man more in dire need of a blowjob in this world". Hey, wasn't 'Blow Job" an Action Swingers song?!
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Mosurock's standards are getting really low fast also. Here's his review of MOB LP: http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/89514044111/m-o-b-s-t-lp-r-i-p-society
He almost immediately gets called out on not doing any research and getting people's names wrong and he reacts with this gem:
"EDIT: what did you expect? A lifeless, go-nowhere, first-thought record gets reviewed on the only merits it has, lifelessly, sessile, knee-jerk. There are 2,899 other reviews on this Tumblr, and about 2,500 actually respond in kind to what was provided for review. I reviewed about 15 records last week, here and elsewhere, and this was the worst of them. Sorry boutcha, Australia. Find someone else to scapegoat."
Yeah, no Australia. Can't be bothered to read the presskit. I wrote nearly 3000 reviews here, why are you scapegoating me?
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I like that MOB rec.
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LOL, "sessile." An ever-evolving monument to arrogance and stupidity. Endlessly entertaining. Etc.
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I really like that MOB rec.
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"sessile."
Yes?
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He's also a bit racist. Is Mosurock even a real surname? It sounds like a name Godzilla would give to one of his kids or something.
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"sessile."
Yes?
Ha ha.
Found two more outposts of dubious music writing while searching in vain for even one less-than-hysterical review of EMA's new record. The pub surrounding this record is beyond my ken. How many publicists does it take?
http://www.thevpme.com/2014/03/31/review-ema-the-future-is-void/ (http://www.thevpme.com/2014/03/31/review-ema-the-future-is-void/)
"A towering album of huge significance."
http://www.thefourohfive.com/review/article/ema-the-future-s-vold-139 (http://www.thefourohfive.com/review/article/ema-the-future-s-vold-139)
"Masterpiece."
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http://www.thevpme.com/2014/03/31/review-ema-the-future-is-void/ (http://www.thevpme.com/2014/03/31/review-ema-the-future-is-void/)
"A towering album of huge significance."
I had to stop readying after this bit.
The static filled rush of album opener ?Satellites? referencing the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain may not so long ago, have seemed a tad paranoid in this brave new post glasnost world. However, given Russia?s recent annexation of Crimea it now seems hugely prescient, even more so given that it was written pre -Snowden and pre-the NSA global surveillance disclosures
That mp3 on soundcloud sounds like it was mastered loud as hell.
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Those reviews read like random-educated-sourced babble from your favorite local street paranoid yelling after a wind-blown Burger King wrapper. Lots of random salients in the spew. But unlike actual vomit, nothing sticks.
Every review should have a thesis. Defend it. Reveal your bias in the process. Never try to guess the "true" meaning behind non-literal lyrics. Don't directly compare the record to more than two other bands. Listen to the entire record at least twice on two separate days. And if you feel like you are burning out on writing reviews, stop writing. Just stop. Don't get bitter, don't go meta, don't ramble about the last burrito you ate, don't write off entire genres just because you are a burnout. Just shut up and go away.
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Great post.
don't write off entire genres just because you are a burnout.
Unless you're writing about ska or hypnagogic pop.
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Great post.
don't write off entire genres just because you are a burnout.
Unless you're writing about ska or hypnagogic pop.
You're not really writing of ska are you? Not the original Jamaican pre-reggae life-affirming phenomenon as practised / innovated by Prince Buster, Skatalites, et al? D'you mean 'ska revivalists'? Even in that regard, I hope you're not including the Specials?!
(BTW, like yer 'icon'. I've got that Jesus Lizard 7" somewhere. Great sleeve!)
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(Yeah, don't have that single but love the sleeve. It's taken from a Luftwaffe squadron logo apparently.)
I meant the shitty pseudo-ska. Friend of mine blasts the worst contemporary ska imaginable, hence my frothing.
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Pretty standard for a free weekly these days, I s'pose...click-bait pointless lists, but starting with:
"10) Jim Morrison Was the Original Punk "
followed by a lot of pointless navel gazing and ending with a championing of NOFX, Epitaph and the Warped tour...
http://www.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2014/08/05/why-la-is-more-punk-than-new-york
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I didn't finish it (had to stop at "mosh pit"), but did the by-line say that the author was in high school? I sure hope so.
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I didn't finish it (had to stop at "mosh pit"), but did the by-line say that the author was in high school? I sure hope so.
you missed the grand finale with OFF! being the number one reason. Let's put OFF! on a bill with Hank Wood.....and MADBALL
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http://www.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2014/05/21/10-reasons-why-1994-was-the-best-year-for-music
She must temp at buzzfeed or something
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That La Weekly shit was in the hard copy when I was there last week - coincidance?
http://bernalwood.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/san-francisco-of-the-early-1990s-is-alive-and-well-and-open-for-business-at-thrillhouse-records/
(from the comments)
Anyone remember Epicenter Zone on Valencia north of 16?th street?
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Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?
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That La Weekly shit was in the hard copy when I was there last week - coincidance?
http://bernalwood.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/san-francisco-of-the-early-1990s-is-alive-and-well-and-open-for-business-at-thrillhouse-records/
(from the comments)
Anyone remember Epicenter Zone on Valencia north of 16?th street?
Thrillhouse used to be a joke of a record store, like Mission Records before it. Unlike Mission Records, Thrillhouse managed an Act Two: an excellent record store! They are really quite useful now, and always worth a stop. And the food options around there haven't descended to curated yuppie shit yet, so it's a great trip out of Greenpoint Bedford the Inner Mission. The only main aspects left of 16th St from the early 90s are the liquor stores, the SRO hotels still full of paroled child molesters, and the Roxie theater.
And the article gets it wrong about Epicenter's decline. The main bummer effect of the Burst Pipe Affair (the lawsuit was handled by the insurance companies anyway, just one suing the other to recover losses they paid out to the clothing store) was no more live shows due to the risk. That hurt the volunteer base, the community outreach aspect, and the store's visibility. Dot Com Bubble One was the final nail in the coffin, signaling the beginning of the end of the casual cheapskate boho punker in SF, so finding halfway competent bodies for shifts became impossible. The store did close in the black though, thanks to the two final coordinators, Liberty and Kate.
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Read what you have only read about... Andy Earles' Gimme Indie Rock!!!
(https://fbexternal-a.akamaihd.net/safe_image.php?d=AQBhllekSp6NHrnH&w=484&h=253&url=https%3A%2F%2Ffbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net%2Fhphotos-ak-xap1%2Fv%2Ft1.0-9%2Fs720x720%2F10461344_10154574961270243_483914213359155986_n.jpg%3Foh%3Dbb183c2f958b1b6d0a333628eff94995%26oe%3D546EFD8A%26__gda__%3D1416525746_7ad35642d7ad321bd0e51649f9e439e3&cfs=1&sx=0&sy=172&sw=537&sh=281)
buy it now (http://www.goner-records.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=13129) (real good price, actually).
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SHIT, no Big Stick in the thing. Never mind.
Yes I would count their 2 12"s together as an album.
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FOR a limited number of firstie-gen (I did not!) copies of my new book that I will sign, personally inscribe to each new owner, and ADD AN ERA-APPROPRIATE 7? BY A BAND W/ ALBUMS COVERED IN THE BOOK, PRICE!! Then, as a good reason to bring things back down from all-caps mountain, a back issue of The Cimarron Weekend #00005 from 1997/98 so recipients get the very first thing I (co-)wrote that had a cover price as well as the most recent (this late development also applies to everyone who has already placed an order). Price: $30
Interested? E-mail andrewearles@gmail.com and include your name and any instructions re: the inscription, as well as a stated desire to participate in this special, limited time offer, then I will reply with my Paypal e-mail (not the same!!). I should have a Paypal shopping cart active here by the weekend or early next week, so please accept my apologies for the “welcome to 2003!” ordering process at the moment.
Seems like it's better to just order the book from Goner and throw in a 7" of your choice. It'll be cheaper, too.
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Why is this book getting tagged already as "controversial?"
Does Jad Fair get outed as a kiddie-diddler or something? Man Sized Action were actually closet Nazis? Christmas only celebrated Chanukah? Thinking Fellers weren't actually unionized? Inquiring minds wanna know.
I'm not against this book by any means, would love to read it. (so someone let me borrow their copy) Maybe Earles is trying to be the Chuck Eddy of indie rock? Now that's a life goal if I ever heard one.
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Controversy is mostly over the term "controversial."
I've just begun perusing and am quite frankly enraged.
I mean, really.
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Have at it:
http://www.factmag.com/2014/10/01/the-story-of-uk-diy-131-experimental-underground-classics-from-1977-1985/
131!!
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Can you guess who wrote this gem?
"I never had a chance to see this Long Island band when they were around, playing fourth of five on some dismal bill at Lucky Cat or wherever (they started up right when I was in the midst of job depression/not going out/moving away from the Williamsburg/Greenpoint area), and by the time I felt like going out again, they?d vanished. It?s taken them the past five years to finish it and close out all remaining activities, and the one-time, 500-copy press run of this is apparently close to gone. It?s cool to finally hear this, though ? able re-enactments of early ?90s U.S. shoegaze pop, with milky vocals and jagged jangle, drums nobly trying to prop up the guitars in a battle for headroom and balance in each song, and a real strong sense of confusion in all the guitar/feedback tracks swarming around. There?s one song I really dislike (?Best Deli,?) which sounds really queasy to me, recalling the worst of both Hana Foods and their horribly-named sexist sandwiches..."
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Whet Bull? ;D
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https://soundcloud.com/aaron-siddi/68-comeback-bullmoose
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Can you guess who wrote this gem?
"I never had a chance to see this Long Island band when they were around, playing fourth of five on some dismal bill at Lucky Cat or wherever (they started up right when I was in the midst of job depression/not going out/moving away from the Williamsburg/Greenpoint area), and by the time I felt like going out again, they?d vanished. It?s taken them the past five years to finish it and close out all remaining activities, and the one-time, 500-copy press run of this is apparently close to gone. It?s cool to finally hear this, though ? able re-enactments of early ?90s U.S. shoegaze pop, with milky vocals and jagged jangle, drums nobly trying to prop up the guitars in a battle for headroom and balance in each song, and a real strong sense of confusion in all the guitar/feedback tracks swarming around. There?s one song I really dislike (?Best Deli,?) which sounds really queasy to me, recalling the worst of both Hana Foods and their horribly-named sexist sandwiches..."
Initials D.M.?
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Horribly-Named Sexist Sandwiches is the name of my new tumblr. It's all pics of various different sandwiches spread apart to look like female genitalia.
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Horribly-Named Sexist Sandwiches is the name of my new tumblr. It's all pics of various different sandwiches spread apart to look like female genitalia.
You haven't provided link to SS. Is it him or not??
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Horribly-Named Sexist Sandwiches is the name of my new tumblr. It's all pics of various different sandwiches spread apart to look like female genitalia.
You haven't provided link to SS. Is it him or not??
Yep, Mosurek. (Mozzer?). Still check in on SS, just not so often lately. Sounds real jaded these days. Would be taste-maker / 'gatekeeper' who's painted himself into a corner? Not getting the freebies from the 'cool' labels so much these days? Or getting the respect he feels he deserves? His huff after getting called on his useless review of M.o.B. LP on R.I.P. Society was a hoot. Just caught up with the new London punk. Earles is worse though.
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http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/9608-the-liturgy-manifesto/
And we explore how his band, Liturgy, went from a depressive, Ivy League dorm-room solo project, to the lightning rod of the heavy metal community
http://consequenceofsound.net/2015/03/album-review-liturgy-the-ark-work/
Imagine black metal heaven, as oxymoronic as that might be. This isn?t Alighieri?s vision of hell or the old Scandinavian paradise of Valhalla. No, here?s a place where shimmering golden gates tower high above and reach infinitely across a cotton white and idyllic cloud paradise. Only it?s completely empty. There?s not a soul to be found. On their third album, The Ark Work, Brooklyn?s Liturgy valiantly vies for an eternal residency in such a place.
http://www.vice.com/read/liturgys-rap-metalocalypse-666
RAP METALOCALYPSE
But for those who don't jerk off over original Mayhem pressings, Liturgy has always been an awesome (albeit brainy) band that makes awesome records.
I loved Korn as a kid, but I don't feel like I'm above rap-metal. I was a huge Bone Thugs-N-Harmony fan when I was little?and Three Six Mafia and stuff like that, too. That's always been kind of with me. And I felt if I were to change the vocal style of the music, I would want to use that kind of triplet-flow language because it reminds me so much of liturgical chanting and things the super occults would chant.
Now there's like Migos and Kendrick Lamar, and triplet flow is all over the place. Interestingly, I planned on doing this for the new album before those guys blew up. It took a long time to write this record. As I was working on it, I saw A$AP Rocky come out with songs quoting Bone Thugs' flow. That older style is so popular and now it has a weird resonance with rap that's happening right now, which I didn't intend to reflect. And at first I was weirded out by the similarities, but now I think it's kind of cool.
The main reason is that I liked it, and I wanted it to sound that way. Also, I didn't want to scream anymore. It's kind of bad for your throat.
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Liturgy is next-level bullshit.
I try to listen to them to hear what these other people are hearing and my only conclusion is that these other people are easily susceptible to the brilliantly effective subliminal brainwashing encoded in the grinding digital shitstorm. That Cunter-Killer Jimi Hendricks Gin guy was the top student in his CIA mind control class.
I've seen them play. Makes Iceage seem thrilling. And it's not heavy.
Next record, Cunter Splendix adds drum n' bass beats and is crowned Galactic Emperor by those well-respected metalheads at Pitchfork Margarine Zine.
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Liturgy is next-level bullshit.
(http://i.imgur.com/r04NZA5.png)
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I dunno why it's funny to me but that dude from Liturgy is the product of this marriage:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2ByGHwisHL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
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^ I know, it makes a perfect kind of sick sense, doesn't it?
Liturgy is next-level bullshit.
(http://i.imgur.com/r04NZA5.png)
HAAAAAAA
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^ I know, it makes a perfect kind of sick sense, doesn't it?
Liturgy is next-level bullshit.
(http://i.imgur.com/r04NZA5.png)
HAAAAAAA
This is a record sleeve waiting to happen.
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Seemingly on-point if too generous take on the new Liturgy shitpile: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/20313-the-ark-work/
The lyrics quoted are so bad, I am left speechless.
Last sentence of the review: "This is the flip side of grandeur: When you stretch it out far enough, it becomes difficult to distinguish from terminal boredom."
Hmmmm.
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According to the latest WIRE UK, "The Ark Work courts absurdity to such an extent that you might find hilarity the only reasonable response."
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I like the record. It's preposterous, inane, and good. Synth-horns, glockenspiels, mongo rap. What's not to like?
Now that this kid has outed himself as a troll, I can't help but like him. None of the press reactions cited above qualify as Delightful Missives in that they don't slather him in purple prose; but they reveal the stupidity of the music press in that Pitchfork, Wire, et al. bought into this kid's nonsense in the first place and took him seriously when he published his ridonk dissertation on black metal. As if black metal were anything but preposterous and inane in the first place.
As a relentless assault audience patience, good taste, good measure, intelligence, I dig it. Opening track is called "Fanfare," LOL.
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The Wire also likes the record.
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Seemingly on-point if too generous take on the new Liturgy shitpile: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/20313-the-ark-work/
The lyrics quoted are so bad, I am left speechless.
Last sentence of the review: "This is the flip side of grandeur: When you stretch it out far enough, it becomes difficult to distinguish from terminal boredom."
Hmmmm.
When you name your child and spell their name incorrectly, in this instance Jaysun (urggh!!) they will spout this kind of diarrhea
Recurring themes pop up, like alpine flowers dotting a mountainside.
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I like the record. It's preposterous, inane, and good. Synth-horns, glockenspiels, mongo rap. What's not to like?
Now that this kid has outed himself as a troll, I can't help but like him. None of the press reactions cited above qualify as Delightful Missives in that they don't slather him in purple prose; but they reveal the stupidity of the music press in that Pitchfork, Wire, et al. bought into this kid's nonsense in the first place and took him seriously when he published his ridonk dissertation on black metal. As if black metal were anything but preposterous and inane in the first place.
As a relentless assault audience patience, good taste, good measure, intelligence, I dig it. Opening track is called "Fanfare," LOL.
Was just talking about this w/ slowed last night.
I think dude is aware that his shit is ridiculous but I also think he believes what he's doing is 100% legit genius.
No way homeslice went to all the trouble to make such a shitstain of a record for the sake of "trolling." Internet's affected ye all's brains. Yes, I'm aware that the concept of "trolling" is pre-interent (hello Andy Warhol and/or Damien Hirst and/or Flipper and/ or millions of purposefully-shitty bands).
I mean, I would've bet money that user:Whet Bull would like the album. That's a no-brainer.
Basically, I get the feeling he was told his entire life that everything he does is precious and brilliant and then one day he discovered heavy metal, and we all have to pay the price.
Also, he should probably dedicate the album to ProTools. or at least get a sponsorship.
Finally, you can appreciate the album as some sort of obtuse art statement, but tell me if you put it on in six months and truly enjoy it. Not saying it's impossible, just saying that maybe you need to go on a silent retreat in upstate New Hampshire or something.
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Except for the 10 second or so snippet in that TV show The Black List (where Peter Fonda was their drummer) I have never heard this band.
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http://www.heyreverb.com/blog/2015/04/08/denvers-fast-growing-party-rock-scene-soaks-crowds-in-beer-riffs/102468/
I fucking hate anything related to music here.
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Related to this thread, Jessica Hopper has a book out of her music criticism. It's got a pretty humble title:
The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic
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Who's going to release the ltd ed mimeograph, And I'm The First Guy to Shit On It?
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Hunter Hunt Hendrix: To me, the work really has three aspects, which I associate with music, art and philosophy, respectively. The music itself goes along with a philosophical system. It?s sort of a cross between psychoanalysis, Christianity, German Idealism, and the Upanishads. I?ve been developing that a lot more since the last record. The song titles are named after archetypal characters that represent important aspects of the system, like "Kel Valhaal," and, "Reign Array." Then, there?s the career of the band itself, which is as much as a part of the work of art as anything else. The relationship to the Internet, and the music industry, the flow of trends, and the contradictions between making money playing music, and paying attention to a broader historical context: It?s like process art, or performance art. I?m interested in approval and humiliation, connection and disconnection, the ways that emotion and identification translate across the Internet.
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Hunter Hunt Hendrix: To me, the work really has three aspects, which I associate with music, art and philosophy, respectively. The music itself goes along with a philosophical system. It?s sort of a cross between psychoanalysis, Christianity, German Idealism, and the Upanishads. I?ve been developing that a lot more since the last record. The song titles are named after archetypal characters that represent important aspects of the system, like "Kel Valhaal," and, "Reign Array." Then, there?s the career of the band itself, which is as much as a part of the work of art as anything else. The relationship to the Internet, and the music industry, the flow of trends, and the contradictions between making money playing music, and paying attention to a broader historical context: It?s like process art, or performance art. I?m interested in approval and humiliation, connection and disconnection, the ways that emotion and identification translate across the Internet.
I went on an internet date with this dude a few years ago. No favors were exchanged, but I did get to hear all about the three pillars of the Kabbalah and the time he curated a month at Issue Project Room. Needless to say, I walked home that night.
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Self-identified as ?gothic doomgaze,? it would be easy for Seattle trio Ka to slip into the played-out aesthetic of a metal-shoegaze hybrid band, but their spooky, aloof nature and loose composition evident on their debut single, ?Peg,? denote a fresh take on heavy shoegaze. The ritualistic, driving percussion, distortion, and shrill guitars that emerge on this track are reminiscent of Amon D??l II. However, Ka?s aura is colder, and their music carries more seriousness and genuine intensity.
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I misread the generic biomarker in the above quote as "gothic dogmaze", which I thought was a wonderfully idiosyncratic way of saying "confusing and full of shit" until I looked closer. How absolutely disappointing. Is "-gaze" the musical suffix-equivalent of "-gate"?
WATERGAZE
WHITEWATERGAZE
BENGHAZIGAZE
BRIDGEGAZE
DEFLATEGAZE
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Gay people write like this. Don't make fun of gay people. Or lesbians, for that matter.
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Gay people write like this. Don't make fun of gay people. Or lesbians, for that matter.
that's really xenophobic dude
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are reminiscent of Amon D??l II. However, Ka?s aura is colder, and their music carries more seriousness and genuine intensity.
Yeah Amon Duul II, you fuckin fakers, stop fooling us with your false intensity.
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Self-identified as ?gothic doomgaze,? it would be easy for Seattle trio Ka to slip into the played-out aesthetic of a metal-shoegaze hybrid band, but their spooky, aloof nature and loose composition evident on their debut single, ?Peg,? denote a fresh take on heavy shoegaze. The ritualistic, driving percussion, distortion, and shrill guitars that emerge on this track are reminiscent of Amon D??l II. However, Ka?s aura is colder, and their music carries more seriousness and genuine intensity.
Is that an extract from the Hooper? Sure hope I never have the misfortune to encounter the 'Seattle trio' Ka based on this 'evidence'.
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Even pardoning the dismissal of Amon Duul II -- perfectly fine to treat 'em with irreverence, but the write-off reeks of Internet Krautrock spoils -- that review would serve as a perfect time capsule of rockwriting in 2015.
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WATERGAZE
In to it!
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Does anyone know who runs or contributes to the Fuckin' Record Reviews site?
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No but, they hazed a funny on FB today...
Fuckin' Record Reviews
Dear Mr. New Christs,
Thank you for your prompt comment. There seems to be a misunderstanding, however. Fuckin' Record Reviews (FRR) is not inquiring about purchasing a copy of "Face A New God" - that's Jon Storey of Bucketfull of Brains in 1986 who's asking. FRR's mission is to celebrate the subunderground music zines of yore, and to that end we clip fuckin' record reviews and other bits to post at our tumblr (and occasionally Facebook). The purpose of this endeavor is to share excerpts from these long lost publications, as many in the modern world have no idea of the value zines had in transmitting information about bands and records to suburban American basement dwellers of the time. We typically post record reviews, but last night we tossed up Jon Storey's request about those hard to find (even then) copies of New Christs and Screaming Tribesmen records from the bottom of a random page in Bucketful Of Brains.
As for linking to Citadel Wealth, that too was purposeful. Although we were unaware Citadel Records has a Facebook site, FRR typically engages in serial mislocation tagging for our fans' amusement. It's entirely possible that FRR is the only one laughing though, and as is often pointed out to us, we may indeed be the ones being laughed at.
Yours in zine remembrance,
Fuckin' Record Reviews
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Does anyone know who runs or contributes to the Fuckin' Record Reviews site?
Yep. Betcha know him, at least his face. He's been at Ballroom shows.
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Dave Hex?
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Not criticism per se but....1,000 bucks a week on weed? "Rock star"? Why did every Mars Volta song try to sound/look/act like the MC5 playing Gold??
"I Used to Spend $1,000 a Week on Pot Because I Thought Smoking Made My Music Better. I Was Wrong."
http://www.vulture.com/2015/06/rock-star-explains-why-he-quit-smoking-pot.html?mid=facebook_nymag
I?m a big Grateful Dead fan, but there are aspects of the Grateful Dead that I love now that I don't smoke that are the opposite of what I used to like. Now I find myself being like, "Just gimme the goddamn hook!" When I was smoking I could probably listen to Infrared Roses on repeat. This is awesome! This is great! I mean, it's not bad. It's interesting, it's a cool adventure in art, but now I just find myself wanting to listen to the core of the song, the core of what someone is trying to communicate. Because I was such a pothead, I was not really communicating all that much other than just being long-winded and trying to be difficult for the sake of being difficult. A lot of the stuff I cringe at, you know, 'cause as a kid I always gravitated to that trippier stuff. I only got into shorter, more direct stuff like Kiss and Cheap Trick later on.
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Does anyone know who runs or contributes to the Fuckin' Record Reviews site?
Yes
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Not criticism per se but....1,000 bucks a week on weed? "Rock star"? Why did every Mars Volta song try to sound/look/act like the MC5 playing Gold??
"I Used to Spend $1,000 a Week on Pot Because I Thought Smoking Made My Music Better. I Was Wrong."
http://www.vulture.com/2015/06/rock-star-explains-why-he-quit-smoking-pot.html?mid=facebook_nymag
I saw that. It's either a straight-up lie (no one can smoke anywhere near that much in a week) or all his money stupidly went to "handlers." If you're in a well-known band like that people smoke you up every night anyway. Weren't they junkies? Maybe talking about the other dope and swapping it out so there's less perceived stigma? I swear they were trying to cop in Green Bay one night. No clue, hate the band & etc. Hopefully this swamps his "career."
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Does anyone know who runs or contributes to the Fuckin' Record Reviews site?
Yes
No. But quite the nostalgic small-closed-circle love-in clique thing going on there, right? (Actually I enjoy reading that site, but there's too much of 'consensus' going on there IMO. Where's 'Hungry Beat', or 'Scared To Get Happy' or 'How To Seduce Your Rapist' or 'Simply Thrilled Honey' - or any Brit fanzine for e.g.?).
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It's one guy posting reviews from 'zines he owns. Is that a "love-in"?
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The last live review ever?
I saw these guys at a theater In '73. The acoustics were perfect...Absolutely blew me away (the mesc didn't hurt either)
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http://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/blog/this-shovel-falling-sounds-exactly?utm_source=noiseyfbuk
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It's one guy posting reviews from 'zines he owns. Is that a "love-in"?
Oh, okay. I made the mistake of thinking FRR is a bigger deal than it is. I'm not in your clique / bubble. Fair play to the guy who runs it. I like the site. It was just an observation based on the amount of Byron Coley et al reviews up on there. I like his stuff - and a lot og stuff up on FRR - but it does seem to reflect a new orthodoxy on critical opinion for the post Lester Bangs years. Just be good to see someone kick over the traces / statues. Kick a few sacred cows. I'm old and bored and I'd rather read someone telling me my taste is shit and THIS is what I should be listening from now or catch up on from the past. Also, some of the records we get excited about on here sell like 300 copies which blows my mind and represents a very smal sub-set of a sub-set. Would be great if it all wasn't so self-referential. But if the alternative is Pitchfork, fuck it.
Still get a little twinge of excitement, though, when someone like Times New Viking ot Kurt Vile or the Sleaford Mods threatens to "crossover" and someone understands what the hell I'm talking about down the pub.
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http://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/blog/this-shovel-falling-sounds-exactly?utm_source=noiseyfbuk
I thought this is one of the best things Noisey's ever published, and I mean that.
Fuckin' Record Reviews guy is a sweetheart, a lifer and also my unoffical Uber driver, so leave him alone, you bastards.
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It's one guy posting reviews from 'zines he owns. Is that a "love-in"?
Oh, okay. I made the mistake of thinking FRR is a bigger deal than it is. I'm not in your clique / bubble.
Neither is the guy who runs the site, really. I randomly met him a couple weeks ago.
Think I understand what you mean re: Coley and the "new orthodoxy." And I've never been fully sold on his writing, but... Is there a better living rockwriter? A legitimate question. I haven't read any of his work from the past few years, but in terms of breadth, insight, humor -- character -- I can't imagine there's a lot of competition these days. Even from his cohorts in Wire. The bar's pretty low now. Gonna be a rough game o' limbo in another ten years.
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I think the accusation of "orthodoxy" might be tied to the current prevailing tastes in certain circles -- the idea that most aging punk rec-collector white males with obliquely "out" interests have come full circle and returned to the school of Forced Exposure. Byron's obviously its best-known alum. But who the fuck else writes about everything from jazz to bluegrass to punk to psych to etc. with the same knowledge and humor and, y'know, fun? Yeah, he's too much the Meltzer acolyte much of the time... Can only assume that's not an issue in recent years. Maybe I'm wrong.
To me, the best part of FRR isn't the history or context or even the bands covered but the writing. A lot of the reviewers, most of whom have moved on or just never cared to continue, could say more in one sharp paragraph than anyone today could do in a fucking 5k-page novel. When was the last time you read anything even slightly above totally horrendous copy on one of the bigger music blogs?
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FRR has posted kind things about my writing on multiple occasions, and while I've been accused of having the taste of a middle-aged beardo, my corporeal form is in fact that of a 28-year-old woman. The guy makes a point of keeping up with new music as well as new music writing. I have no thoughts on how this relates to Coley but wanted to put that out there.
Namaste,
Miranda
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Interviews of our time. I'm ready for bed. Goodnight cognac-stained baritones.
http://www.papermag.com/2015/06/premiere_circuit_des_yeux_make.php
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Think I understand what you mean re: Coley and the "new orthodoxy." And I've never been fully sold on his writing, but... Is there a better living rockwriter? A legitimate question. I haven't read any of his work from the past few years, but in terms of breadth, insight, humor -- character -- I can't imagine there's a lot of competition these days. Even from his cohorts in Wire. The bar's pretty low now. Gonna be a rough game o' limbo in another ten years.
Coley at least has remained somewhat "valid" in the interim when talking about his "peers," and while there are warts all over his "work," clear the smoke and it's easy to see he actually set out to provide a service, and an accurate-as-possible (given the workload) one at that. So yeah, I definitely agree with the above.
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(http://s9.postimg.org/jy0gk0tcf/rancidx.jpg)
DEFINITELY NOT PUNK!
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I haven't read it, nor am I ever going to, but someone alerted me to this article recently: http://pitchfork.com/features/pitchfork-essentials/9724-astral-traveling-the-ecstasy-of-spiritual-jazz/
Thanks, Kamasi Washington.
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I haven't read it, nor am I ever going to, but someone alerted me to this article recently: http://pitchfork.com/features/pitchfork-essentials/9724-astral-traveling-the-ecstasy-of-spiritual-jazz/
Thanks, Kamasi Washington.
Pitchfork will gut every single aspect/genre/subgenre/movement of music to feed the content beast. Will be fun to watch a 21 year old kiddo pretend to be into Gregorian chanting next year.
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Pitchfork culture's strip-mining of new age must've been -- and maybe still is -- puzzling to a number of geezers on the left coast.
Such a strange game of cat/mouse.
Good is shit. Shit is good. Nothing's safe and everything's gone topsy-turvy.
Any calls on when the "vinyl is back" bubble will burst? I want to guess within five years, but I don't really have any idea.
I looked at the new issue of Wire a couple days ago. Aside from a review here or there, I'd never read it in earnest. There's something surreal about Wire. It's like the contributors have managed to build a reputable pub on nothing -- it's about nothing, covers nonsense, stands for nothing. Doesn't explicitly purport to do otherwise. Maybe does so implicitly through its seriousness. Or something. I can't articulate it. I have no idea. It feels like a clothing catalog for improv and experimental and process-music folks. Though I guess it's hard to talk about discrete, vaporous bullshit in concrete terms anyway. Who wants a coffee?
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Pitchfork culture's strip-mining of new age must've been -- and maybe still is -- puzzling to a number of geezers on the left coast.
Such a strange game of cat/mouse.
Good is shit. Shit is good. Nothing's safe and everything's gone topsy-turvy.
Any calls on when the "vinyl is back" bubble will burst? I want to guess within five years, but I don't really have any idea.
I looked at the new issue of Wire a couple days ago. Aside from a review here or there, I'd never read it in earnest. There's something surreal about Wire. It's like the contributors have managed to build a reputable pub on nothing -- it's about nothing, covers nonsense, stands for nothing. Doesn't explicitly purport to do otherwise. Maybe does so implicitly through its seriousness. Or something. I can't articulate it. I have no idea. It feels like a clothing catalog for improv and experimental and process-music folks. Though I guess it's hard to talk about discrete, vaporous bullshit in concrete terms anyway. Who wants a coffee?
Keep an eye out for The Loki Label/Termbo 15 on THE WIRE's "Charts" page coming soon.
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It feels like a clothing catalog for improv and experimental and process-music folks. T
Yes! I've never quite been able to put my finger on it, but yes.
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After the demise of FE I bought the Wire on subscription for many years. 2 main reasons - it covered the broadest musical spectrum reflecting my musical tastes and was easily available in the UK. It was, to use the excruciating epithet, a 'no brainer'.
While I was happy to have the music I loved covered to some extent (though like replacing John Peel with John Peels son, never to any satisfactory degree) it's true that it was - and when I occasionally pick up a copy these days still is - lacking in some respect as outlined by others above. I'd put my finger on this thus - Wires roots in the early 80s were as a contemporary jazz magazine that also covered a bit of modern classical. It was a high street newsagent magazine with all the attendant staidness that would imply to distinguish it from a fanzine. FE was a fanzine from start to finish with no commercial considerations imbued with a caustic sense of wit, humour and irreverence at its core. Although The Wire and FE could both cite passion as a shared value Wire certainly couldn't claim the 1st three qualities. In fact apart from a few writers (of whom Coley is ironically one!) the tone has always been very dry.
An acquaintance of mine still refers to the Wire as the Mutual Masturbator which given it's 'jazzmag' roots is neatly ironic.
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this might've already been posted, perhaps even in this very thread:
https://web.archive.org/web/20040810064854/www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/c/coltrane_john/live-at-the-village-vanguard.shtml
definitely deserves another look
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https://web.archive.org/web/20040810064854/www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/c/coltrane_john/live-at-the-village-vanguard.shtml
For fuck's sake. That would only pass muster in a middle school newspaper. "Very creative, Ryan. I'm sure one day you'll be a millionaire."
In other news, comparing The Wire to Forced Exposure is bonkers, and not the good kind.
Charlie mostly nails it. Regardless, I've read some great stuff in there over the years (bought it every month for about 5 years in early-mid 2000s, now maybe a few times a year), and have certainly been turned onto shitloads of weird music through its pages. You'd have to be illiterate and deaf for that not to happen. Or have zero sense of curiosity maybe.
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https://web.archive.org/web/20040810064854/www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/c/coltrane_john/live-at-the-village-vanguard.shtml
that cat got some scooby doo writing skills man
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I should have added that I actually like the Wire and still buy it for the reason Eric does/did. It's still got some great writing and has likewise turned me onto some great music. FE did leave a huge gap though that's never been filled. Still chasing up those Mauve Sideshow LPs they raved about. And cant believe Borbetomagus are being spoken of negatively here!
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https://web.archive.org/web/20040810064854/www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/c/coltrane_john/live-at-the-village-vanguard.shtml
Well they have finally done it, for the first time in my life I actually feel like reading made me dumber.
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Not music crit but still apropos I think of this thread and certainly crystallizes something I've been struggling to define in these post/nu/wave SJW/HyperLiberal pandering to anyone within one's earshot.
From the guy who runs the label that was being backed by the rich evil dude who jacked up some HIV drug after he bought the copyright for it. My italics.
"I think Capitalism as a whole can be pretty gruesome and Pharma especially. But I am starting to wonder where all the patients that have been denied access to Daraprim are. And--obviously-- my first duty is to my bands and artists. To make them feel comfortable about being on an ethically responsible label. Their comfort and perception of safety can even trump reality. I live to serve art. I always have. And art is 99% perception."
A little backstory if you care:
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2015/09/geoff_rickly_co.html
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Just ridiculous. Reach out to a wealthy financial backer with corporate ties and an acknowledged unscrupulous past one day. Then blame the tiger for his fucking stripes the next. When did the world become such a lousy PR stunt?
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"Imprimis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company based in San Diego, announced today that it has made an alternative to Daraprim that costs about a buck a pill?or $99 for a 100-pill supply." - Forbes Selling a generic version of D that isn't quite as effective, but effective enough.
The shitty music guy seems to be implying via the quote from SE that he's become skeptical that this 550% price raising isn't really affecting that many sick people and therefore isn't that big of a deal. Daraprim is small market, but most of the market would DIE without the medicine.
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He has a point, I mean I don't know anyone who is hurt by the high price, so it must not be a real problem. Just like I don't know anyone who has been hurt by famine or kids in Africa being forced into being soldiers, or mad cow disease or AIDS. Come to think of it I don't think the Holocaust happened either, its all liberal propaganda.
Its a basic truth of science, if you cant see it its not real. Every two year old knows this.
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you really don't know anyone affected by AIDS? I guess that is totally awesome - I probably have the same reaction my parents would have if I say I never knew anyone with poliio
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As much as I think he's an idiot I appreciate he makes it so public for all to see.
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you really don't know anyone affected by AIDS? I guess that is totally awesome - I probably have the same reaction my parents would have if I say I never knew anyone with poliio
I bet you got really excited about cracking that joke since yesterday.
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you really don't know anyone affected by AIDS? I guess that is totally awesome - I probably have the same reaction my parents would have if I say I never knew anyone with poliio
Honestly no one directly that I know of, but at 40 I am sure I do it's just not something talked about. It is pretty amazing looking back that AIDS is not the death sentence it once was.
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I should have added that I actually like the Wire and still buy it for the reason Eric does/did. It's still got some great writing and has likewise turned me onto some great music. FE did leave a huge gap though that's never been filled. Still chasing up those Mauve Sideshow LPs they raved about. And cant believe Borbetomagus are being spoken of negatively here!
Mauve Sideshow--now there's a BAND! Shame those records are on the pricy side these days, I could use 'em myself, as well.
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One of my dead friends starred in a pretty good film. American Fabulous.
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http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/10-of-the-best-debut-albums-of-2015
10 Of The Best Debut Albums Of 2015
A debut album is a statement of intent. At their very best, they introduce an artist or band to the world, tell us what they're about and kick-start their career. Some say the album is dead. At NME we disagree. Each week we bring you a handpicked selection of the very best new releases and 2015 has been BIG.
In the second of four blog posts that look back over an incredible year in music, we hone in on the debut albums that have set our pulses racing. With so many album reviews on NME.com, we armed ourselves with Windows 10 on the lightning-fast Surface Pro 3 tablet, a device Microsoft promise can replace your laptop.
In no time at all we'd collated the ten debut albums that had our writers dishing out the highest marks. Thanks to a neat feature on the new Windows web browser Edge, we snapped multiple web pages to one screen and used the Surface Pen to draw all over them, circling and highlighting the heavy hitters; 9/10 reviews for Jamie xx, Spectres and former Late of The Pier frontman Sam Dust, whose debut solo album as LA Priest has been pumping out the office stereo since its release in June.
We also fell for the new reading view. One-click and your web page eliminates all the faff, letting you read full articles in a distraction free layout. It meant the only thing taking our attention away from our Courtney Barnett review was the album itself, which we streamed via Groove Music ? the Windows 10 digital streaming service with an online music catalogue of over 38 million tracks. Hefty.
Of course, distraction is always going to be an inevitable part of web browsing. Surfing through Wolf Alice articles, we found out the grunge wonder foursome had just announced a string of 2016 tour dates. In less than five minutes we'd bought tickets and used digital assistant Cortana to email our gig buddy, add the date to our calendar and set a reminder for the morning of the show, which isn't until March. All good though, Cortana works across all Windows 10 devices, so even if we're out and about the reminder will pop up on our phone. Nice one.
http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/the-5-best-collaborations-of-2015
Holy hook-ups and hilarious guests, these are the collaborations that defined 2015
A good collaboration can work wonders. A sure shot of inspiration from another musician?s world, it can change an artist?s sound, boost their career and be a right laugh in the process.
NME Windows 10 Prodigy Sleaford
In the third of four blog posts that look back over an incredible year in music, we rifle through the hook ups that won our hearts. With so many features, reviews and videos to look back over on NME.com, we armed ourselves with Windows 10 on the super-fast Surface Pro 3 tablet, a device that Microsoft claim can replace your laptop.
We put it to the test and used new Windows web browser Microsoft Edge to build up our long list. It was big. We researched album reviews, YouTube videos, Wikipedia pages and band bios all for reference.
You?d think we?d run out of battery or grind to a halt. But two hours in and we were still at 71%. The system is designed to handle multi-tasking by balancing memory and processor resources efficiently. So we carried on, gliding from tab to tab like Sleaford Mods on a pub crawl. Juiced up and eager to keep the party going.
NME Windows10 Virtual Desktop
As we worked, we used the Surface Pen to annotate articles, highlight key points and take screen grabs and cut-outs. We also listened to tunes on Microsoft's streaming service Groove Music, which has an online music catalogue of over 38 million tracks. Pretty soon we had our top five. Getting a job done has never been so lolz.
Getting a job done has never been so lolz.
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Lundborg's exegesis of Slip Inside This House is the best Rock writing I have ever read. Not that I understand it.
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LA Weekly on the cutting edge again:
UNPOPULAR OPINION: SOCIAL DISTORTION HAS ABSOLUTELY NO REDEEMING QUALITIES
Yet somehow, Mike Ness? pain burns in the heart of every punk-rock uncle with a receding-hairline pompadour. His rant about how easy it is to be punk nowadays on Live at the Roxy is an unwitting caricature of a lecture every punk under 40 has heard around closing time, sandwiched between furious debates about the real meaning of "straight edge" and wandering tirades about how annoying Bad Brains? reggae songs are.
Yeah, grandpa. I get it. You had to walk uphill both ways through six feet of snow to be into punk rock back in the 1800s. You're way more legit than I am. Your tired Sailor Jerry ripoff tattoos mean so much more than mine.
All of this would be forgivable if it weren?t for Ness? bizarre sense of self-importance. People clown on Danzig all the time for his level of self-seriousness. But Ness dwarfs Danzig?s lack of self-awareness by leaps and bounds. He?s built a career out of being Orange County?s answer to Billy Idol, sans any of the talent or panache. Idol has always had his tongue planted at least partly in his cheek, without veering into total self-parody.
http://www.laweekly.com/music/unpopular-opinion-social-distortion-has-absolutely-no-redeeming-qualities-6387463
You ain't got no panache, Mr. Ness, ya hear that?
What Price Mike Ness?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOzgPhjWEvk
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The thing is...pretty much every word is correct. It's the lowest of low-hanging fruit, though.
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https://www.michigandaily.com/section/arts/mc5-music-notebook (https://www.michigandaily.com/section/arts/mc5-music-notebook)
You should listen to MC5, Detroit?s lost ?60s punk band
Um, MC5, your punk is showing.
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In regards to the Mike Ness thing, my major gripe with (paying) rock journalism is that it's pretty useless. Why are you writing about Mike Ness' ego? It's a waste of print. There are a lot of really vibrant and underfunded acts worth covering. Most can't or refuse to pony up the PR pay-to-play price of entry. In moderation and certain instances -- Bangs' review of the Chicago at Carnegie Hall triple LP comes to mind -- irreverence is effective and funny. Unfortunately, it seems to be the default style nowadays, with none of the charm and wit of the Noise Boys.
Some clown wrote a long piece on why Austin sucks for Vice a while back. It's all I heard about in the city for months. It was a total waste of time and brain cells I'd rather kill with alcohol. But it served its purpose: it brought eyeballs to the site and their advertisers.
Journalism is pretty dead as a career option. Robert McChesney and the CounterPunch folks have been covering this in-depth. It's unfortunate. This type of stuff is what you're left with.
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http://tamuceasttexan.com/1217/ae/a-limited-legacy/
It?s no secret that Jerry Lee Lewis is the weakest of the original Rock and Roll Hall of Famers and of the original lineup of legends created by the Rockin? ?50s. This cover-heavy 10-song collection of hits suggests that although Lewis was still an accomplished artist with a mastery of his chosen instrument (the piano) and a harbinger of great artists after him like Guns N? Roses and Elton John, his reputation as the worst legend of the ?50s is well-earned.
Track for track, Great Balls of Fire is largely recommendable. The title track is an obvious classic, as is Lewis? second-biggest hit ?Whole Lotta Shakin? Goin? on.? Ballad ?I?ll Make it Up to You? is right there with them, further proof that it was when the straight ahead rockers quieted down that they were at their best. And Ray Charles classics ?What?d I Say? and ?You Win Again? are great no matter who?s covering them, even if they lack the emotional soul punch of their forebears. Even a Chuck Berry cover (?Sweet Little Sixteen?) and Rockabilly tunes ?Break Up? and ?Drinking Wine Spo-Dee O?Dee? pack a solid punch, though they lack guitar fireworks and significant lyrical content when compared to the late ?50s competition.
Unlike other ?50s innovators, though, Lewis has a couple of potential misfires. ?High School Confidential? still has the base rhythm section honed, but its chorus is a bit too repetitive to be recommended, which is truly saying something in an era where repetition was used as commonly as drinking water. ?Breathless? suffers the same fate while earning its namesake with some irritatingly weak vocals from Lewis, whose delivery is wimpier than a house made of foam as he slurs his way through lines like ?If I can love you let me squeeze.? Clever.
As a forebear of Rock and Roll, Jerry Lee Lewis deserves some measure of respect from all music lovers today. He probably deserves his spot in the Hall of Fame. He definitely deserves his merit as one of the integral building blocks for modern music. But does he really deserve to be considered one of the greatest artists of all time simply because he happened to live in an era that predates us? Probably not. Lewis may have been one of the great Rock pianists, but his songwriting needed the same thing his vocals did: a little more effort behind it.
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Jesus that's really, really bad. And to drop lesser lights like Chuck and Ray on top of it...at least his piano playing influenced GNR and Elton John...
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http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/17978-sheer-mag-cant-stop-fighting/
Sheer Mag's best new music entry includes references to Bolano's 2666 and the femicides in Ciudad Juarez.
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http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/17978-sheer-mag-cant-stop-fighting/
Sheer Mag's best new music entry includes references to Bolano's 2666 and the femicides in Ciudad Juarez.
"What can a punk rock song do about it? It?s a voice, and Halladay is determined to fight."
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That sheer mag one isnt near as bad as most others recently posted
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it's not a terrible article... it is talking about the music, blame the song if you don't like the references to Juarez.... i mean i personally would feel/be totally exploitative if i did a pop song about that because it is absolutely not my tragedy to write about but that doesn't mean sheer mag don't have a right to, i don't know enough about the band to say.
also if you pull lyrics out of the context of a song then they can often sound silly and trite too, like "Paloma walks at night from the maquiladora / Eight days later, no one has saw her", but it might be quite different when you hear the song.
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^I agree
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the writings ok. their music is fucking shit tho.
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I don't like the music currently but I kind of like the band if you see what i mean? like i feel like if i heard them at a different point i might love it, and it's definitely not lame like most stuff is.... just i don't like it ha
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admit i never heard them before i clicked that link.
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I don't like the music currently but I kind of like the band if you see what i mean? like i feel like if i heard them at a different point i might love it, and it's definitely not lame like most stuff is.... just i don't like it ha
wow, i know exactly what you mean and feel the same way!!
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Nothing quite like the culprit giving the autopsy: http://noisey.vice.com/blog/is-the-album-review-dead
O delicious irony, you tire me so.
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Had never read that Paranoid review before. Thank you for sharing.
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40 years on, we finally have the ammunition to blast our old-school King Crimson-listening West Valley hesher friends! The Ramones are art! Fucking art...and they are all DEAD!
The myth, idea and the iconography of the Ramones has taken on a life of its own, and when that kind of thing happens, artistic achievement can be obscured (M?torhead and the Monkees are two other superior musical acts whose musical achievements were overshadowed by a T-shirt and a myth). Even if you?ve never bothered to take the Ramones seriously, take a moment to appreciate Ramones as a deeply intentional attempt to change history with an idea and make history by executing that idea masterfully. Like Pet Sounds, the innovation, the execution, the desire to meet a moment in time with a monument in music, was not an accident.
So let?s take this 40th anniversary to remember the Ramones before they belonged to Hot Topic and asinine cameos in Vinyl, before they had outlived their art for the sake of the road dollar, before they left this incarnation for unpredictable and remarkable future adventures.
Let?s honor the Ramones by honoring Ramones, an album so conceptually staggering that it put the brain on alert, so well executed that it made the body feel at peace with the universe, so full of childish melody that it rocked us like a happily loud cradle, an album that was an absolute triumph of grace and simplicity and art that it is one of the greatest pop rock albums of all time.
But he's kinda right too...
The Ramones? Debut Album Is Still the Best Punk Record of All Time
Tim Sommers
http://observer.com/2016/04/the-ramones-debut-album-is-still-the-best-punk-record-of-all-time/
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Way to bring Pet Sounds into it, Tim ::)
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Coley n the gang were making fun of that dude like 30-40 years ago already. How hard is it to "get" the Ramones?
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Coley n the gang were making fun of that dude like 30-40 years ago already. How hard is it to "get" the Ramones?
Coley doesn't 'get' Bo Diddley. How 'hard' is THAT?
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Who cares? I do remember buying my first Bo Diddley record based on a Forced Exposure review, so there's that. Are you Tim Sommer? Or are you just his jealous twin?
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Nice work man, that's the review that got my to buy my first Bo LP (Beach Party)!
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I believe he was a full-on pig, by the way. Still wish he wouldn't have taken a downturn right before I was gonna get to see him (and he died shortly after). I know he was supposedly "awful" for years, but I still wanted to hear for myself. The main condemnation seemed to be a "rap" he did about the proper way to cook a pig that "went on for like 10 minutes." Sounds awesome, in theory.
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I saw Bo Diddley with Ron Wood in the 80's and it was pretty good, or at least my vague memory of it seems to indicate as such.
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Finally had an encounter w/ Cosloy's fave punching bag, Luke Winkie: http://www.avclub.com/article/how-did-neutral-milk-hotel-legend-get-so-out-hand-235206
What a bunch of dogshit. And that's outside of the album being discussed (which I don't hate). The writing is sub-par and having a paragraph-long quote from Brandon Stosuy is rich. Still don't get why that dude has so much pull.
Winkie: "My very first paycheck from the Round Table Pizza I worked at in high school went to an Etsy shop that made custom Vans with the In The Aeroplane Over The Sea album cover delicately painted on each shoe. It is, without a doubt, the most embarrassing purchase of my life."
Congrats, also the most embarrassing sentence!
This just in -- Neutral Milk Hotel are not gods.
"Years later, I caught Neutral Milk Hotel on their reunion tour and watched them hawk posters and T-shirts in a venue offering $6 Bud Lites. It was good and cathartic but also the final confirmation that Neutral Milk Hotel was made of mortal men, with mortgages and tour riders and a willingness to break silence if the price was high enough. Their flesh and bones were on full display for a demographic who spent a decade trying to convince themselves otherwise. No plans for future music, no new interviews, no new interpretations or explanations. The mystery ends with a cash-in."
Looks like NMH broke omerta. I bet Stosuy knows some hitmen who could put some heavy slippers on Mangum for you, Winkie.
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Finally had an encounter w/ Cosloy's fave punching bag, Luke Winkie: http://www.avclub.com/article/how-did-neutral-milk-hotel-legend-get-so-out-hand-235206
What a bunch of dogshit. And that's outside of the album being discussed (which I don't hate). The writing is sub-par and having a paragraph-long quote from Brandon Stosuy is rich. Still don't get why that dude has so much pull.
Winkie: "My very first paycheck from the Round Table Pizza I worked at in high school went to an Etsy shop that made custom Vans with the In The Aeroplane Over The Sea album cover delicately painted on each shoe. It is, without a doubt, the most embarrassing purchase of my life."
Congrats, also the most embarrassing sentence!
This just in -- Neutral Milk Hotel are not gods.
"Years later, I caught Neutral Milk Hotel on their reunion tour and watched them hawk posters and T-shirts in a venue offering $6 Bud Lites. It was good and cathartic but also the final confirmation that Neutral Milk Hotel was made of mortal men, with mortgages and tour riders and a willingness to break silence if the price was high enough. Their flesh and bones were on full display for a demographic who spent a decade trying to convince themselves otherwise. No plans for future music, no new interviews, no new interpretations or explanations. The mystery ends with a cash-in."
Looks like NMH broke omerta. I bet Stosuy knows some hitmen who could put some heavy slippers on Mangum for you, Winkie.
God, I couldn't even hate-read it the whole way through...
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So he wrote an article to prove that he liked the record before others and that the people in the band are people. Groundbreaking stuff.
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http://arstechnica.com/the-multiverse/2016/05/car-seat-headrest-is-an-ideal-product-of-the-bandcamp-generation/
Basically if it wasn't for the 'digital revolution', this guy/band would not have been able to release a record that sounds like 90's indie rock.
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http://observer.com/2016/06/for-the-love-of-mike-love-its-time-to-destroy-the-legend-of-brian-wilson/
"Go see the current touring version of the Beach Boys.
The band is made up of able, passionate and credible musicians: Jeff Foskett, Scott Totten, John Cowsill, Brian Eichenberger, and Tim Bonhomme are all committed and credible cats with an honest and real devotion to the songs, sound and legacy of the Beach Boys..."
Listen, I?ll come out and say this: I vastly prefer the current Beach Boys to the Brian Wilson touring experience. Brian?s band is amazing, and they play his compositions and his arrangements with loving detail, but there is no escaping the fact that at the center of the stage is a man who often looks like he doesn?t want to be there, like he?s just a sad ghost inserted into the middle of the world?s greatest Beach Boys cover band. Every time I see Brian Wilson, I leave depressed; but every time I see the current Beach Boys, I leave elated."
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I saw Bo Diddley with Ron Wood in the 80's and it was pretty good, or at least my vague memory of it seems to indicate as such.
Saw Bo in the early 2000's playing a free, unannounced show at a bar as a warm up for a blues festival he was playing the next day. Felt very lucky to be there. He did all the Chess classics; he seemed to know what the fans want to hear. There were a few off key moments (a funk song, a cheesy rap), but for the most part it was rad. Got to meet him and he was pleasant. His wife was hawking autographed pictures that looked like they were from the mid-80's. Who do you love?
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Saw him at 2003 at the Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez. Exact same show.
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I imagine this site is going to a treasure trove for this thread.
http://clrvynt.com/
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A cross-post from Waxidermy (again). I can't believe this is real. I also can't dislike the guy too much, because he seems genuinely nice and happy. Then again:
https://youtu.be/I4kkjmRLOzM
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A cross-post from Waxidermy (again). I can't believe this is real. I also can't dislike the guy too much, because he seems genuinely nice and happy. Then again:
https://youtu.be/I4kkjmRLOzM
The 2nd video...he seems genuinely amazed that one of the shop's proprietors could play a record WHILE ALSO MANAGING THE STORE. Has this guy been in a coma? He's just tickled by pretty much everything.
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A cross-post from Waxidermy (again). I can't believe this is real. I also can't dislike the guy too much, because he seems genuinely nice and happy. Then again:
https://youtu.be/I4kkjmRLOzM
I'm on live leak pretty much everyday and have never cringed as much as I did watching this video.
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A cross-post from Waxidermy (again). I can't believe this is real. I also can't dislike the guy too much, because he seems genuinely nice and happy. Then again:
https://youtu.be/I4kkjmRLOzM
Totally went down this wormhole at work today. Fucking amazing.
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A cross-post from Waxidermy (again). I can't believe this is real. I also can't dislike the guy too much, because he seems genuinely nice and happy. Then again:
https://youtu.be/I4kkjmRLOzM
The 2nd video...he seems genuinely amazed that one of the shop's proprietors could play a record WHILE ALSO MANAGING THE STORE. Has this guy been in a coma? He's just tickled by pretty much everything.
Manager + DJ = Neat
This guy may be on a spectrum of some sort.
The banality of his observations and enthusiasm is plain odd.
I like him.
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A cross-post from Waxidermy (again). I can't believe this is real. I also can't dislike the guy too much, because he seems genuinely nice and happy. Then again:
https://youtu.be/I4kkjmRLOzM
As far as record collectors go, I like this guy more than the type of guy who would drop $1k on a private-press 3rd-rate Grand Funk ripoff or the kind of guy who would buy 30 copies of the same Damned single.
I almost want to send him a bunch of free records.
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Totally insane. Can't believe that guy has over 20,000 subscribers.
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I don't understand the concept of essentially writing a shitty record review and then speaking it into a camera that also is way too close to your goofy face.
Crap graphics, stupid opinions, no skills with da words, questionable overall aesthetic. Inspired by The Needle Drop??
Oh well, it's slightly better than an unboxing video. That shit is one of the signs of the apocalypse.
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I don't understand the concept of essentially writing a shitty record review and then speaking it into a camera that also is way too close to your goofy face.
yeah, cannot fathom the impulse to do this?!?
monetization?
mental health probs?
over inflated self importance?
all of the above
just another sign of a sick society spiralling its way down the shit can
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Yeah, but... He doesn't really have any attitude at all, so it's somewhat endearing. In a way. He's like an adult toddler navigating the wild & wooly world of vinylz.
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He's just a picaresque hero wandering thru this crazy world we call home.
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i get that he's endearing and indecently innocent. i just don't get the why
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Whatever, he's probably a former day trader trying to redeem his soul with vintage media. Yawn.
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entirely plausible
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Going after the ASMR market maybe?
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The comments on that video are pretty cool
do you know if fools garden recorded there music on vinyl. ? couse I really want them on vinyl but I am really new in the community PLEAS HELP
So true what ur saying. I think they overprice way more at FYE then B&N. Urban outfitters is actually cheaper then both which is surprising. I buy almost all my new records from Urban outfitters. I went to this one vintage record store where I live & believe it or not they were selling new records & the prices were higher then B&N, FYE & Urban outfitters all together! I literally had bought a FKA twigs album for $19.98 that day & the vintage record store was selling the same one for $25.00! I mean that's just wrong! I don't buy a lot from B&N or FYE. I mostly buy from urban outfitters & Amazon. It's probably the most cheap it's gonna get unless you go to discogs & get used vintage records or something in that range.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/fashion/jazz-age-lawn-party-michael-arenella.html
For Mr. Arenella, music is a full-time job. His band plays 60 weddings a year, and so much of his time is spent transcribing 78 r.p.m. recordings by hand and practicing. When he relaxes, he does not put on sweatpants, nor does he even own a pair. ?At home I?m generally naked,? he said. (He also doesn?t wear underwear.)
At 6 feet 1? inches tall, he is built like a strongman with broad shoulders, and most of his vintage-look clothing, including the white cotton suit he was wearing, must be custom-made.
?I?ve been starting to dress like this all the time,? said Steven Wong, 29, a dancer who performed at the festival. ?I don?t have a girlfriend now, but I would like her to be into the ?20s. All the girls I like are into the ?50s.?
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I imagine this site is going to a treasure trove for this thread.
http://clrvynt.com/
Hey now, that sure didn't take long.
Ladies n' germs.......Gerry Signfield!!!!
http://clrvynt.com/ginger-neutral-noise-music/
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How about Power Pop man? The Raspberries are at least as annoying as Hijokaidan...well, their fans certainly are...grating...on and on about the genius of Badfinger...
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Some Jeff Foxworthy-level stuff going on there.
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Many similarities between power-pop guys and noise guys. Toss hardcore people in there, too.
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I wish death upon whoever wrote this and their editor.
http://www.music-news.com/review/UK/12096/Album/Slow-Down-Molasses (http://www.music-news.com/review/UK/12096/Album/Slow-Down-Molasses)
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But time and social change have been rough on the Beach Boys. Their best-known hits (say, ?California Girls,? ?Help Me, Rhonda,? ?I Get Around?) are poems of unenlightened straight-male privilege, white privilege, beach privilege. It is hard to imagine that they helped anyone toward self-determination or achieving their social rights. Brian Wilson?s great integrative achievement as a songwriter and producer was absorbed in bits and pieces by others?Paul McCartney especially?but it mostly worked for him alone. In their rhythm and humor the Beach Boys sound squarer all the time compared to Motown, the Beatles, and the Stones, and a lot of Phil Spector. Of course, it comes down to individual songs.
http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/10/26/looking-for-the-beach-boys-fifty-years-later/
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"I see, and is this hotel next to a beach? I see. Well, that's fine, but it's just that my girlfriend and I were raised with...you know...beach privilege."
Nothing says "privilege" like being the fat, schizophrenic beach boy. Status! Glamour! Success!
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Carl on cream Tele, Mike in a bathrobe?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjhHB4J_TCI (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjhHB4J_TCI)
Amazing, thanks for this.
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In which Dusted writer Jennifer Kelly tries to pit the various female members of Major Stars against each other for some reason. Feminist conundrum indeed.
http://dustedmagazine.tumblr.com/post/152865662204/major-starsmotion-set-drag-city
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Good lord...just to highlight the idiocy:
You might also question how Kate Biggars, in a fairer world, a perennial contender for top-ten placement on ?Women Who Rock? lists, feels about these easy-come-easy-go bandmates, all younger and more overtly decorative, none able to manipulate even a single effects pedal, let alone the set that Biggars works, two-footed, while thrashing her whole body in thrall to the song. It?s a feminist conundrum, certainly, that one of the bands that has showcased a genuine female threat for the longest also pads its roster with eye candy, but there it is, our imperfect world again.
As a Major Stars and TV fan in general, I don't think I have thought for one second about their relative attractiveness as I click through live videos, searching for one with good sound...Are the seven other people who still care about Twisted Village that shallow?? More than pitting them against each other, he's accusing Rogers of pandering and public humiliation of his SO...
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Good lord...just to highlight the idiocy:
You might also question how Kate Biggars, in a fairer world, a perennial contender for top-ten placement on ?Women Who Rock? lists, feels about these easy-come-easy-go bandmates, all younger and more overtly decorative, none able to manipulate even a single effects pedal, let alone the set that Biggars works, two-footed, while thrashing her whole body in thrall to the song. It?s a feminist conundrum, certainly, that one of the bands that has showcased a genuine female threat for the longest also pads its roster with eye candy, but there it is, our imperfect world again.
As a Major Stars and TV fan in general, I don't think I have thought for one second about their relative attractiveness as I click through live videos, searching for one with good sound...Are the seven other people who still care about Twisted Village that shallow?? More than pitting them against each other, he's accusing Rogers of pandering and public humiliation of his SO...
He is a She, not that matters that much as idiocy is gender neutral. Also, I happen to know for a fact that every Major Stars singer is a fucking effects pedal virtuoso.
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Good lord...just to highlight the idiocy:
You might also question how Kate Biggars, in a fairer world, a perennial contender for top-ten placement on ?Women Who Rock? lists, feels about these easy-come-easy-go bandmates, all younger and more overtly decorative, none able to manipulate even a single effects pedal, let alone the set that Biggars works, two-footed, while thrashing her whole body in thrall to the song. It?s a feminist conundrum, certainly, that one of the bands that has showcased a genuine female threat for the longest also pads its roster with eye candy, but there it is, our imperfect world again.
As a Major Stars and TV fan in general, I don't think I have thought for one second about their relative attractiveness as I click through live videos, searching for one with good sound...Are the seven other people who still care about Twisted Village that shallow?? More than pitting them against each other, he's accusing Rogers of pandering and public humiliation of his SO...
He is a She, not that matters that much as idiocy is gender neutral. Also, I happen to know for a fact that every Major Stars singer is a fucking effects pedal virtuoso.
What a strange, reckless review. My girlfriend was the OG piece of 'eye candy' employed by the band; she is puzzled by the speculation contained therein.
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Good lord...just to highlight the idiocy:
You might also question how Kate Biggars, in a fairer world, a perennial contender for top-ten placement on ?Women Who Rock? lists, feels about these easy-come-easy-go bandmates, all younger and more overtly decorative, none able to manipulate even a single effects pedal, let alone the set that Biggars works, two-footed, while thrashing her whole body in thrall to the song. It?s a feminist conundrum, certainly, that one of the bands that has showcased a genuine female threat for the longest also pads its roster with eye candy, but there it is, our imperfect world again.
As a Major Stars and TV fan in general, I don't think I have thought for one second about their relative attractiveness as I click through live videos, searching for one with good sound...Are the seven other people who still care about Twisted Village that shallow?? More than pitting them against each other, he's accusing Rogers of pandering and public humiliation of his SO...
Speak for yourself, like I'm gonna waste time going to see Major Stars just to see Wayne Rogers and some old lady....gimme some EYE CANDY!
Anybody here heard this new LP?
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Good lord...just to highlight the idiocy:
You might also question how Kate Biggars, in a fairer world, a perennial contender for top-ten placement on ?Women Who Rock? lists, feels about these easy-come-easy-go bandmates, all younger and more overtly decorative, none able to manipulate even a single effects pedal, let alone the set that Biggars works, two-footed, while thrashing her whole body in thrall to the song. It?s a feminist conundrum, certainly, that one of the bands that has showcased a genuine female threat for the longest also pads its roster with eye candy, but there it is, our imperfect world again.
As a Major Stars and TV fan in general, I don't think I have thought for one second about their relative attractiveness as I click through live videos, searching for one with good sound...Are the seven other people who still care about Twisted Village that shallow?? More than pitting them against each other, he's accusing Rogers of pandering and public humiliation of his SO...
He is a She, not that matters that much as idiocy is gender neutral. Also, I happen to know for a fact that every Major Stars singer is a fucking effects pedal virtuoso.
oh duh, just spaced on that but it kinda makes it worse...and looking now, voila!, it's gone...
http://dustedmagazine.tumblr.com/post/152865662204/major-starsmotion-set-drag-city
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Good lord...just to highlight the idiocy:
You might also question how Kate Biggars, in a fairer world, a perennial contender for top-ten placement on ?Women Who Rock? lists, feels about these easy-come-easy-go bandmates, all younger and more overtly decorative, none able to manipulate even a single effects pedal, let alone the set that Biggars works, two-footed, while thrashing her whole body in thrall to the song. It?s a feminist conundrum, certainly, that one of the bands that has showcased a genuine female threat for the longest also pads its roster with eye candy, but there it is, our imperfect world again.
As a Major Stars and TV fan in general, I don't think I have thought for one second about their relative attractiveness as I click through live videos, searching for one with good sound...Are the seven other people who still care about Twisted Village that shallow?? More than pitting them against each other, he's accusing Rogers of pandering and public humiliation of his SO...
He is a She, not that matters that much as idiocy is gender neutral. Also, I happen to know for a fact that every Major Stars singer is a fucking effects pedal virtuoso.
oh duh, just spaced on that but it kinda makes it worse...and looking now, voila!, it's gone...
http://dustedmagazine.tumblr.com/post/152865662204/major-starsmotion-set-drag-city
I let her know how fucked up I thought it was and I think some other folks did as well.
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Social Justice Warrior!
*Rock Band Edition*
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Social Justice Warrior!
*Rock Band Edition*
Not sure why I found that a bit revolting for a minute. But if you write dumb shit then I just might point it out. And if you use social media to promote the dumb shit that you wrote and then don't respond then I will keep pointing it out.
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Damn Dave, just a joke!
I realize everyone's on pins n' needles these days.
For the record, I agree with your take for the most part. It's also without a doubt easier to write a letter to the editor these days. But there are no editors! Just empty desks.
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Social Justice Warrior!
*Rock Band Edition*
Not sure why I found that a bit revolting for a minute. But if you write dumb shit then I just might point it out. And if you use social media to promote the dumb shit that you wrote and then don't respond then I will keep pointing it out.
Your fingers must be damned tired then...jk jk...I'm totally on board...if I need rock eye candy...
(http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0001/327/MI0001327457.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)
============DREAMY~~~~~~~~~
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Damn Dave, just a joke!
I realize everyone's on pins n' needles these days.
For the record, I agree with your take for the most part. It's also without a doubt easier to write a letter to the editor these days. But there are no editors! Just empty desks.
No worries, I think of Termbo as my safe space so I knew it was, I was truly surprised that it bugged me. Jeff Dahl: rocker's conundrum!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0batOaruEA
i wish these guys were the only music journalists
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I really cannot even bear to read this right now....
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/dec/15/protest-songs-hip-hop-punk-black-flag-trump
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Good lord...just to highlight the idiocy:
You might also question how Kate Biggars, in a fairer world, a perennial contender for top-ten placement on ?Women Who Rock? lists, feels about these easy-come-easy-go bandmates, all younger and more overtly decorative, none able to manipulate even a single effects pedal, let alone the set that Biggars works, two-footed, while thrashing her whole body in thrall to the song. It?s a feminist conundrum, certainly, that one of the bands that has showcased a genuine female threat for the longest also pads its roster with eye candy, but there it is, our imperfect world again.
As a Major Stars and TV fan in general, I don't think I have thought for one second about their relative attractiveness as I click through live videos, searching for one with good sound...Are the seven other people who still care about Twisted Village that shallow?? More than pitting them against each other, he's accusing Rogers of pandering and public humiliation of his SO...
Speak for yourself, like I'm gonna waste time going to see Major Stars just to see Wayne Rogers and some old lady....gimme some EYE CANDY!
Anybody here heard this new LP?
Yes - just listened to it
Great stuff I've come to expect from them
I didn't hear the album before this one but I think that I like this singers voice better than Sandra's half of Return to form
I'm not sure if she's the same singer on the second half of Return To Form - but that was some great singing there... "The space you know" etc
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On an unrelated note I wish that somebody would please reissue luxurious bags' frayed knots
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http://www.avclub.com/article/exploring-weird-lo-fi-world-devo-core-249888 (http://www.avclub.com/article/exploring-weird-lo-fi-world-devo-core-249888)
The Mentally Ill are hardcore now
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Not criticism per se but there is no "commodification o'Punk" thread so...
A NEW VAULT BY VANS COLLABORATION CELEBRATES THE PUNK SPIRIT OF THE SUBURBS
...the clean design and price point of the line doesn't immediately scream ?punk,"...
....
It was in this latter area that Youth of Today formed, led by a charasmatic and self-proclaimed "physically fit, morally straight" frontman Ray Cappo (now a prominent yogi, going by his Hindu name Raghunath) and friend John Porcelly. The band stood out with both their clean living ethos and look. In defiance to punk's nihilism, Youth of Today furthered the idea of abstaining from drinking, smoking, and taking drugs, outlined in Minor Threat's song "Straight Edge," almost branding with punchy, anthemic songs, and a look that replaced the leather jackets, boots, and wild hairstyles of punk, with varsity jackets, hooded sweatshirts, shaved heads, and high top sneakers.
...creating some of the strongest branding in punk...
http://www.papermag.com/a-new-vans-collaboration-celebrates-the-punk-spirit-of-the-suburbs-2309692300.html
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Key Punk Rock Marketing Terms:
"Defiance"
"Rebellion"
"No B.S."
"In Your Face"
"Attitude"
"Strength"
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Just sent to me during a discussion of there being a market for nearly any reunion:
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/arts/music/blog/20863338/majority-rule-and-pageninetynine-announce-benefit-reunion-tour
Opens with:
"While D.C. has its rightful place in shaping the sound of hardcore punk as we know it, I'd argue that the Northern Virginia post-hardcore scene of the late '90s and early '00s is as important a musical period as any."
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Just sent to me during a discussion of there being a market for nearly any reunion:
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/arts/music/blog/20863338/majority-rule-and-pageninetynine-announce-benefit-reunion-tour
Opens with:
"While D.C. has its rightful place in shaping the sound of hardcore punk as we know it, I'd argue that the Northern Virginia post-hardcore scene of the late '90s and early '00s is as important a musical period as any."
unfortunately, they may not be that far off. if you were an uninformed stranger and were to talk to only the 20-26 year old "hardcore" kids that lived in my town (before the all moved to philly), you would assume that pageninetynine were one of the most important "diy" bands of the last 3 decades (behind INFEST?). i have no doubt this fandom will go the way of charles bronson worship.
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Just sent to me during a discussion of there being a market for nearly any reunion:
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/arts/music/blog/20863338/majority-rule-and-pageninetynine-announce-benefit-reunion-tour
Opens with:
"While D.C. has its rightful place in shaping the sound of hardcore punk as we know it, I'd argue that the Northern Virginia post-hardcore scene of the late '90s and early '00s is as important a musical period as any."
unfortunately, they may not be that far off. if you were an uninformed stranger and were to talk to only the 20-26 year old "hardcore" kids that lived in my town (before the all moved to philly), you would assume that pageninetynine were one of the most important "diy" bands of the last 3 decades (behind INFEST?). i have no doubt this fandom will go the way of charles bronson worship.
You're a bummer. Do you like anything?
Your whole scenario- "talk to only the 20-26 year old "hardcore" kids that lived in my town (before the all moved to philly)"- reeks of jealousy and haterism. Who exactly are you talking about? This is a super narrow demographic you've profiled here.
The dude you project your ire upon (you are clearly hating on a single person) is probably living life- having fun, liking bands, no doubt sexing RIGHT NOW while listening to paragraph99 while you are rockin' Bruce's "Glory Days"
Dumb bands are important to dumb people for all sorts of dumb reasons. Complaining about it 15 years after the fact is dumb.
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Just sent to me during a discussion of there being a market for nearly any reunion:
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/arts/music/blog/20863338/majority-rule-and-pageninetynine-announce-benefit-reunion-tour
Opens with:
"While D.C. has its rightful place in shaping the sound of hardcore punk as we know it, I'd argue that the Northern Virginia post-hardcore scene of the late '90s and early '00s is as important a musical period as any."
unfortunately, they may not be that far off. if you were an uninformed stranger and were to talk to only the 20-26 year old "hardcore" kids that lived in my town (before the all moved to philly), you would assume that pageninetynine were one of the most important "diy" bands of the last 3 decades (behind INFEST?). i have no doubt this fandom will go the way of charles bronson worship.
You're a bummer. Do you like anything?
Your whole scenario- "talk to only the 20-26 year old "hardcore" kids that lived in my town (before the all moved to philly)"- reeks of jealousy and haterism. Who exactly are you talking about? This is a super narrow demographic you've profiled here.
The dude you project your ire upon (you are clearly hating on a single person) is probably living life- having fun, liking bands, no doubt sexing RIGHT NOW while listening to paragraph99 while you are rockin' Bruce's "Glory Days"
Dumb bands are important to dumb people for all sorts of dumb reasons. Complaining about it 15 years after the fact is dumb.
your username checks out
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and yeah bro, pg.99 are fucking lame. and yeah hardcore tours about "friends" is gay as shit.
i once accidentally bought a CLIKATAT IKATOWI lp and puked in my mouth.
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gay as shit.
You don't have any friends, do you? Homophobia is part of your problem. You and Wattie are two peas in a pod.
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You're a bummer. Do you like anything?
yup
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k79FsrT7Fnw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSbC-eqDFIE
not gonna be bated into replying into anymore of your shitposts. at least on this thread.
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Dag. Wish I could chill with you guys at the bar. Internet fights are so fucking weird. Two dudes who would probably laugh about it in person get so ugly "here". Don't take that shit to bed with you. There's probably a new kind of cancer in there. Peace.
P.S. Used to have have friends that were way into pg.99 (sp?). Not my bag exactly, but I felt like I could feel like they (the band) meant it. That was cool.
P.P.S. Remember City of Caterpillars?
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what i took away from this ao post is that you need to talk about bands u like because someone somewhere in the worls mihgt be having sex rn
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im siding with the guy that doesnt like the exploited
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read this the other week and came across the bookmark, thought i'd share. Classic May 1986 New York Magazine article that broke NYHC to normies (way more entertaining read than you might think, especially if you're aware of but aren't keen on the players in the NYHC scene)
Also can be filed under: tales of a doggystyle groupie.
or
Natalie Jacobson lore
https://books.google.com/books?id=4eYCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA38&dq=vine+walks+onto+the+dance+floor&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiSosXEvqzUAhXMRSYKHRm0BuQQ6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=vine%20walks%20onto%20the%20dance%20floor&f=false
they don't make humans like this anymore
(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS4sPcvyxvEiV9C1JZlL_ouU2RsDZJrGEillBVfK5MLjioJJJBrcQ)
EDIT: also can be filed under, first tier punk explotation at its finest and most judgemental and titillating.
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i was doing some hate reading at work and came across this nugget on a shitty site, for a shitty album, put out by the current shittiest punk band out right now
"it’s worth remembering that in underground music, noise (harshness, ugliness, discord) often functions as a method of gatekeeping."
::crying laughing emoji:::
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https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2018/01/12/577063077/the-grunge-gold-rush
Decent NPR article, with Termbro Larry Hardy popping up (5,000 bucks to just hep someone to a band!)...No mention of Inger Lorre of the Nymphs pissing on Tom Zutaut's desk in the Geffen offices though...The Phoenix Sun Times article about the Meat Puppet bros. is quite a read also. So glad Cris survived all that...
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/shooting-star-6421612
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http://thequietus.com/articles/14291-warpaint-review (http://thequietus.com/articles/14291-warpaint-review)
Gross. To think the reviewer didn't even get paid to write like this. I saw Warpaint open for Depeche Mode last year. They had some nice textures but no songs to speak of. A mystery (except not).
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most aren't but some of the Baker's Dozen features are exceptional, like Mika Vainio
http://thequietus.com/articles/16131-mika-vainio-favourite-albums-pan-sonic-pansonic?page=1 (http://thequietus.com/articles/16131-mika-vainio-favourite-albums-pan-sonic-pansonic?page=1)
Keiji Haino - A Challenge to Fate
Keiji Haino is a big blues fan. Some years ago, when I was in Tokyo, he invited me to his home, and it's filled with records. I've never seen someone have so many records like he has. He is a really fanatical collector. The walls are covered with record sleeves. He has a massive collection of blues. It's all over the place. He listens to a lot of classical and a lot of ethnic, traditional music from around the world, all kinds of stuff. This was the first album I heard from him, A Challenge To Fate. On the first track, he's only clunking his walking stick and screaming. I used to live in Barcelona, and I was listening to this track very loudly one night, and the neighbors called the police because they thought someone was getting killed in my apartment. Since I bought this album, I've been collecting his releases. I have about 70 at the moment. There's a couple of them I still don't have; he has released a lot. I like many things that he does. He has been doing stuff with only some tone generators, very minimal...
... There's something in his approach where he can often make the simplest things work. He has one whole album where the only thing he plays is a snare drum and nothing else. It's about one hour of playing with the snare, but it works for me.
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I reckon the Quietus has my favourite music writing at the moment. Obv there is some shit, but really the standard of writing is amazingly high on the whole; and they tread the line between intelligence and pretention very well.
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read this the other week and came across the bookmark, thought i'd share. Classic May 1986 New York Magazine article that broke NYHC to normies (way more entertaining read than you might think, especially if you're aware of but aren't keen on the players in the NYHC scene)
Also can be filed under: tales of a doggystyle groupie.
or
Natalie Jacobson lore
https://books.google.com/books?id=4eYCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA38&dq=vine+walks+onto+the+dance+floor&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiSosXEvqzUAhXMRSYKHRm0BuQQ6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=vine%20walks%20onto%20the%20dance%20floor&f=false
they don't make humans like this anymore
(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS4sPcvyxvEiV9C1JZlL_ouU2RsDZJrGEillBVfK5MLjioJJJBrcQ)
EDIT: also can be filed under, first tier punk explotation at its finest and most judgemental and titillating.
"I wasn't doing much," she admits. "Just crying a lot and listening to Agnostic Front records."
Classic line, thanks for sharing.
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The Quietus publishes some very good writing -- I always enjoy Ned Raggett's work, for instance -- but their reviews are strictly garbage, and the example above is not only tone-deaf and dumbass in its attempts to discuss "sexiness" apropos of this nondescript band, but it reads like the author is a ringer paid for by Rough Trade or whomever (which isn't true, of course.)
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The Quietus publishes some very good writing -- I always enjoy Ned Raggett's work, for instance -- but their reviews are strictly garbage, and the example above is not only tone-deaf and dumbass in its attempts to discuss "sexiness" apropos of this nondescript band, but it reads like the author is a ringer paid for by Rough Trade or whomever (which isn't true, of course.)
"Mof Gimmers" is an A+ nom de guerre, almost exceeding a FIGHTING BASEBALL level of brilliance
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C0qbiIPUAAAAobx.jpg)
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The Quietus publishes some very good writing -- I always enjoy Ned Raggett's work, for instance -- but their reviews are strictly garbage, and the example above is not only tone-deaf and dumbass in its attempts to discuss "sexiness" apropos of this nondescript band, but it reads like the author is a ringer paid for by Rough Trade or whomever (which isn't true, of course.)
Yes that's probably fair, it is the articles rather than the reviews that are usually strongest.
Im just defending the website as a whole, because its probably the best music writing we've got at the moment! And an ethically run organisation, done for the right reasons. And, inevitably, they are currently struggling finacially, and I'd be sad to see it go
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read this the other week and came across the bookmark, thought i'd share. Classic May 1986 New York Magazine article that broke NYHC to normies (way more entertaining read than you might think, especially if you're aware of but aren't keen on the players in the NYHC scene)
Also can be filed under: tales of a doggystyle groupie.
or
Natalie Jacobson lore
https://books.google.com/books?id=4eYCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA38&dq=vine+walks+onto+the+dance+floor&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiSosXEvqzUAhXMRSYKHRm0BuQQ6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=vine%20walks%20onto%20the%20dance%20floor&f=false
they don't make humans like this anymore
(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS4sPcvyxvEiV9C1JZlL_ouU2RsDZJrGEillBVfK5MLjioJJJBrcQ)
EDIT: also can be filed under, first tier punk explotation at its finest and most judgemental and titillating.
"I wasn't doing much," she admits. "Just crying a lot and listening to Agnostic Front records."
Classic line, thanks for sharing.
She's so pretty. Does anybody know what happened to her? My guess would be a big switch from dating guys who bought her a "cheeseburger".
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most aren't but some of the Baker's Dozen features are exceptional, like Mika Vainio
Wish they would just put 'em all on a single page though - having to click through each entry means I pass on most of them.
Do page clicks even matter anymore.
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to websites that are still trying to make money off of ad rev, yes
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That is somewhat the vibe, sure. Maybe it's the fonts? Still beats The Wire. Ppl forget that the best approach to music crit is to let the peen, cooch, or butt do the writing while the "mind" goes on vacation. Record-dude mind is paste anyhow. Just look at Sasha Frere-Jones, or David Keenan! (Chicken or egg, I s'pose, with them two.) If only Sprague Dawley would leave the Bermuda triangle for once and try his hand at it.
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I strive to build a world where the Velvet Underground would be more popular than the Rolling Stones. Or where Ariel Pink is as popular as Ed Sheeran.
Outside of the Black Crowes, what was the last band to ape the Stones? VUs: The band that launched a thousand and all that...including his crappy band.
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That interview's amazing. He's completely right about everything! Bowie: underground in the '70s! Ariel Pink: the new Bowie! NYC Cops: a protest song for Amadou Diallo!
Dude's lived in a wealth bubble his whole life so it should come as no surprise he's this smart and insightful.
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https://g.co/kgs/7VVqjL
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update from planet brunch
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/t-magazine/sunflower-bean-julia-cumming-vintage-shopping.html?hpw&rref=t-magazine&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well
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Opening line: "On a chilly March afternoon in Williamsburg". All I needed to know.
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I admit this entry is not altogether fair because the author is not a music critic or journalist but an artist who posts occasional reviews on his personal website. I post it here because I'm taken aback by the extent to which he credits the artist and the label, the time he devotes to listening to the record and drafting his review, and the ends to which he goes to frame the record as a serious artistic statement.
http://johnzacharopoulos.info/hh (http://johnzacharopoulos.info/hh)
Mosurock reviewed the same record recently in terms that seem designed to suggest his complicity with the project, which is unsurprising given his m.o. (note that he gives the record a "recommended" tag.)
http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/174392796366/gabi-losoncy-hh-lp-kye (http://still-single.tumblr.com/post/174392796366/gabi-losoncy-hh-lp-kye)
One has misgivings about Lambkin's project generally and to a lesser extent about Good Area specifically. When Kye started out I enthused about what I thought was Lambkin's fresh approach to musique concrete. Over time he released more and more records that seemed to me increasingly low in craft and content and excessively reliant on... well, not even concepts per se, but on the audience's faith in the existence of a concept to be sussed out. This seems too easy and I can picture Lambkin, Losoncy, et al. giggling at the perversity of records such as this. Given the jokiness at the heart of Lambkin's prior work, including the Shadow Ring, and his close ties to artists expert in playing the genius-or-goof guessing game, it's hard not to be suspicious. These artists' willingness to work in the realm of the purposely enigmatic, their predilection for paper-thin sonics (while swearing that these are "psychologically dense"!) and their refusal to commit to a statement of purpose of any kind, all add up to bad faith. This game is as old as field recording itself.
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For the record, it seems fairly obvious that "HH" stands for "Harry Houdini." Or it should. The artist is in handcuffs. She either slips out of them or she doesn't: OK. So what?
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I thought that long review was pretty good - gives a good idea about the sound of the record, along with explaining the mind-set that someone needs to adopt to enjoy it. It also makes me feel better that stuff on Kye seems to go over my head (with some exceptions, Melchior has a couple interesting records on Kye, and I dig that Call Back The Giants nautical record)
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People still review records? I thought that was the job of public relations outfits.
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I thought that long review was pretty good - gives a good idea about the sound of the record, along with explaining the mind-set that someone needs to adopt to enjoy it. It also makes me feel better that stuff on Kye seems to go over my head (with some exceptions, Melchior has a couple interesting records on Kye, and I dig that Call Back The Giants nautical record)
He writes well and I respect that he endeavors to describe the sound of the record, which is unfortunately rare in pop music crit (Mark Prindle was militant in this respect but of course he's retired now and he probably would not have reviewed a Kye release).
I don't think Kye stuff is over your head; that's exactly my point. I think the writer there is bending over backwards to give the record the benefit of the doubt, and the artist is relying on this because it's part of the bargain we strike with experimental music that you take the music on its own terms and you don't dismiss something because it sounds like noise, or like nothing at all. The trouble arrives when the artist neglects or refuses to indicate, even tacitly, what those terms are in the first place. A work of art can be open, and a work of art can have many meanings, and a work of art can be hermetic; but true art, art that operates in good faith, however "minimal" it might appear on first impression, tends to have a certain weight and density that I find to be missing here and in much of the non-McPhee Kye catalog. There's enough intentionality here -- the cover photo, the title, the presentation of the record -- to suggest that there is more to this record than there truly is. In other words, it's a trick, or a joke, and not a very serious one at that, and the audience's relationship to the record depends entirely on its desire to be in on the joke. Making music and not making music are both perfectly respectable life decisions. So are: being a magician, a con-artist, a thief. I sense that the parties involved in the making of this record haven't made up their minds which of those they prefer, and the result is an unbecoming flakiness. They partake of every "out" available to an underground, experimental sound artist at this stage in history, and the result, at least to me, is unsatisfying and contradictory, because they're just being coy (or they don't have a clue). These field recordings are neither beautiful nor well-executed nor clear, because they're raw and lo-fi; there is no music whatsoever on the record, because we live in a post-Cagean era; the artist's intention doesn't matter and can't be located anywhere in the art-object itself because intentionality doesn't matter; these recordings might not be what they appear to be, or they might, and you'll never find out because... Art, man. It seems daft to suggest that the same listeners who can grasp and enjoy the work of TLASILA, Scott Walker, Red Crayola, Francisco Lopez, Michael Snow, John Duncan or Bas Jan Ader, might not have enough brain to get this. As if!
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Agreed. That's why the review made me feel better about not liking this stuff, I don't want to go through the mental gymnastics the author does to enjoy this or find some sort of meaning/artistic intent in it. Which as you point out, might not even exist.
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Get your punk MBA!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5LsQQ795uw
90s SKATEPUNK IS DEAD? NOFX, Bad Religion, Pennywise, The Offspring
"Offspring was not a legitimate punk band like Green Day."
Professor!! :(
https://www.discogs.com/Various-The-Big-One/release/1302071
Not dead enough...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jAvFsJH4NA
Bad Religion - "The Profane Rights Of Man"
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I've seen punk MBA before. 1994 was nuts: all you ever heard blasting from car stereos was The Offspring, Green Day and Weezer. 24/7. Different times.
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This is the opposite of what this thread is about:
http://www.blastitude.com/NYCSHOWREPORT.htm (http://www.blastitude.com/NYCSHOWREPORT.htm)
Written by Daniel Di Maggio when he was a teenager. I found it again last night having not read it in years and took great pleasure in its subversive wit.
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Checking in for the first time in a long time. I miss this thread