December 2008
MC Tunes vs 808 State - “Tunes Splits The...
I have just turned my out of office autoreply on...
500: 32-46 →
More of my liveblogging the Pitchfork 500. If I updated this more regularly I wouldn’t feel the need to pimp it here! (But it’s surprisingly difficult to get 90 mins uninterrupted writing/listening time…)
Bowing to the inevitable
I have enabled comments on my tumblr.
Clarifica
Obviously all the phuture-R&B stuff worked because it was ALSO emotionally affecting - “We Need A Resolution”, “Oops Oh My”, “Survivor”, “Piece Of Me” are some of the best pop ever because the production and the emotional content align so perfectly. But the emotional content tended NOT to be what was being singled out in the critical writing...
Poptimism: My Part In Its Downfall
I was thinking this morning about the “pro-pop” critical movement of the early 00s (because it is now the late 00s, and soon it won’t be the 00s at all).
What struck me is that there were two* quite different strands of argument at work towards the same aim: (roughly speaking - “How do we get alt.dudes to enjoy chart pop again?”).
Strand 1 was the technological...
Yes More Drama: A Blog →
(via barthel)
Tick VG
because what the internet really needs right now...
pgwp:
piercethenight:
honestly i almost get personally offended when people talk about this year (or any year) being bad for music. there is no such thing as a “bad year” for any type of art. we’re not harvesting a crop here.
This sort of thing was how the Poptimist Wars started! ;)
(I agree in general: “I’m disappointed because I didn’t find the things I was looking...
“Somewhere, Orville Redenbacher’s Gourmet Popping Corn is ruing a missed...”
– The 100 Best Tracks of 2008 | Pitchfork
part two
(via offnotesnotes)
Good pick for #1. #2 is lovely but I’m bored of it. #3 is terrific. #4 is a belter. #5 is OK but I don’t “get” it. #6 is catchy for what it is. #7 is less OK and I don’t “get” it. #8 is...
So Dr. Evil (How Could You Be) →
pgwp:
rendit:
Great discussion in the offnotesnotes comments on 808s, Vivian Girls, Radiohead, the nature of Pop Music. Ya know, your typical Monday morning quarterback stuff.
I don’t know if it’s because the election is finally behind us or if it’s just a typical slow-down period in everyone’s day jobs, but the caliber of interesting music-related blog posts has gone way up in the last two...
“two troublemakers slowing things down with matchlit finger-picking and love...”
– The 100 Best Tracks of 2008 | Pitchfork
50 today, 50 tomorrow, apparently.
(via offnotesnotes)
Most of the stuff I loved didn’t make the cut but for The Veronicas to get into the P4K Top 100 tracks is a victory of some kind for the forces of righteousness (tho I don’t agree w/Tim...
Genericized trademarks, a.k.a. Brand Name Products...
maura:
shorterexcerpts:
saramcpherson:
I know I’m missing some, but I refuse to cheat and Wikipedia it. Anybody have one to add? • Xerox • Sharpie • Kleenex • Q-Tips • Jacuzzi • Tylenol • Xerox • Chapstick • Band-Aids • Ziploc baggies • Saran Wrap • Post-Its • Windex • Tupperware • Wite-Out
TiVo
(Most people I know have whatever DVR came with their cable/DirectTV service. But if they’re...
The Perils of Poptimism (May, 2006) →
tristanjay7:
I’ve been familiar with the term “poptimism” and its transparent (punning) meaning for a while, but I decided to get some sense about the ideology behind it.
THE SEKRIT ORIGIN OF ‘POPTIMISM’ (as far as I’m aware)
Simon Reynolds coined it as a little dig at the “OMG BEST YEAR EVER!!!” tendency that was flourishing on the ILM board and associated blogs in...
500: 17-31 →
For people who were interested in the first part of my ‘liveblogging’ the Pitchfork 500, here’s the second - disco and funk enter the mix, and more on post-punk.
Plum Jam
Firstly, there’s the moment when the man in the song uses a vending machine, and the line goes “I put in the money and pull out a plum”. Now, even in 1978, I don’t remember seeing vending machines that sold fresh fruit! Was that a metaphor? (Laughs) You’ve got me there! I think you’d best ask Paul about that. That’s one that has bemused me for a while.
Troubled Diva asks Bruce Foxton the tough...
Said and done
I nominated my book of the year for the Pitchfork culture round-up thing.
I negotiated a tricky Popular entry.
I won an award for saying clever things at a conference. (There’s a summary of it on my former employer’s website)
Pretty Goes with Pretty: It’s a Matter of Trust →
pgwp:
wrestlingentropy:
Damn. Fucking. Straight. Cutting right to the heart of the year-end list-making matter.
tl;dnr
The problem is a combination of increased expectations - the point of YELs has always been to argue about them with your mates, and now we can all argue with everyone online that’s magnified - and a decline in mystique: we ALSO all now make YELs of our own and are aware...
Watchperpetua:
Question: Were the Vivian Girls deliberately attempting to seem incredibly dumb, annoying and condescending in this video? They collectively remind me of Claire Fisher near the end of Six Feet Under, when she’s regressing big-time and being this totally obnoxious snob. Via Maura, who is correct about their inability to write a decent melody. Which makes this clip pretty ironic, right?...
Tails
Listening to Fleet Foxes again using my “bad ears” - the technique where you imagine someone who dislikes them (but who you really want to like you) sitting next to you while you listen, and you find yourself imagining what THEY’RE hearing. I do not recommend this in general, by the way.
What I’m noticing with FF is how many of the lyrics are about death, sorrow, other...
“Mainstream hip-hop’s recent embrace of the common studio aid seems akin to pro...”
– 808s and Heartbreak | Pitchfork
cosign this 100%
(via offnotesnotes)
Not to mention Blackout! Which is a very recent example of celebrity mindset expressed via vocal trickery.
BTW I have been v annoyed by the reviews of Circus over here, most of which have taken the line “Oh it’s...
Space is the place
808s And Heartbreak is a good example of what I was on about in that P4K column where I was talking about the “test of space”, it’s an album which whether its good or not (& in places sure, “NOT” is the right answer) is totally filling up my context, challenging anything else I’m listening to, rendering ideas like ‘better’ irrelevant. There was a...