November 2009
National Banger Week
It’s tracks of 2009 consideration time - tell me something you think I might have missed out on. My taste in modern popular music is generally fairly straightforward viz.
beats
amazing noises
unfettered capitalism
monster hooks
but I am happy for only some of these to be represented. Any ideas?
Big Bird, Meet Dick And Jane →
Criticism of Sesame Street from The Atlantic, 1971 (via brokenbottleboy). This piece now feels wrong, of course, because Sesame Street is so beloved and so manifestly successful - and also because the piece is rather dry and dour and suspicious of the show’s easy charm.
But I still liked this paragraph:
we could make clear to children that writing is an extension of powers they already...
"Psycho-acoustic recording techniques" →
“Plaintiffs are not likely to succeed on the merits because Defendants’ website markets and sells an entirely different sound recording than that copyrighted by Plaintiffs.”
BlueBeat says it “independently developed [its] own original sounds” that consist of “entirely different sound recording[s]”through a technical process it calls...
JAY-Z ft ALICIA KEYS - "Empire State Of Mind"... →
“What makes “Empire State of Mind” so undeniable is its innate magnetism— we can’t help but drool over a big hook and even bigger ego, regardless of metropolitan affiliation. Maybe there’s something about the whole concept of the “New York City anthem” that’s always going to resonate with and, to borrow a word, inspire us. It’s not that...
“If you imitate a person you admire, the best you can possibly hope for is to...”
– Nice quote from Donald Judd via the Jonathan Harris lecture that’s floating around.
Jonathan Harris . World Building in a Crazy World . Imitation
(via heyitsnoah)
And what’s the best way of “locating the inventiveness”? - almost certainly through the trial and error of...
“Pop, or at least the sort of pop that gets written about, exists in a state of...”
– Tom Ewing (via 67752)
Good grief, where did that get dredged up from? (rhetorical qn: it’s on my site somewhere) I still agree with the cultural cringe stuff but the specific example of Beatleness wasn’t well thought out.
One of the things that’s interesting about the Beatles is...
Pet Shop Boys - “Two Divided By Zero”:...
Cookie Monster - “C Is For Cookie (Larry...
October 2009
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-10-25) →
The Rolling Stones (7)
David Bowie (7)
Dam-Funk (5)
The Beatles (2)
John Cale (2)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
I am off to CHICAGO today, until Friday. Here is a...
“I feel like that Fisher-Price record player was the defining thing of my life.”
– Pitchfork: Guest Lists: Memory Tapes
So jealous he had that and all I had was the lously Fisher-Price cassette player. On the other hand, I could make my own a cappella songs. I was really into MC Hammer and r&b.
(via desnoise)
Oh wow, he likes The Book Of The New Sun - good for him! (There...
brokenbottleboy:
Don’t Think Twice (Messengers...
To those of you who work with music on
What music improves your productivity the most?
Pandora And Authentic Taste →
I was still contriving a narrative about my tastes, even if I didn’t necessarily share it with anyone. Still it is a very seductive idea, that our taste is like a fingerprint, a snowflake, and that when we find out fully what it really is, we see at last, concretely, how ineffable our soul is. We listen to Pandora, click the thumbs up or down to approve songs, let the formulas work their magic,...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-10-18) →
Duran Duran (40)
Ross Diana (1)
Wu-Tang Clan (1)
Jerry Butler (1)
Norihiko Hibino & Cynthia Harell (1)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
EDIT: This is my Pitchfork review doing a number on my last.fm stats :) Not that DD don’t deserve a 40-play session every once in a while.
abbyjean:
and ding! already been called humorless and over-analytical. i may need to pull out a bingo card for this.
It’s the stuff that “doesn’t need to be analysed” that’s ALWAYS the most interesting anyway!
