December 2009
somesongsconsidered:
“One More Time” – Daft Punk...
“Sometimes I see how the brave new world...
Totally Wire'd
aceterrier:
tomewing:
I stopped listening to drone and noise music because I sold out to The Man: it’s good for many things but not for commuting. But maybe 2010 should be when I rediscover this side of my tastes a bit (and try to write about it more).
Wait, it’s not good for commuting? Tastes vary, etc., but some of my favorite commutes have been those in which I just put on a long, gnarled...
Totally Wire'd
Found a box of CDs I hadn’t touched for 6 or 7 years, which seems mostly to consist of CDs I picked up in the mid-to-late 90s. A lot of them are drone, psych, avant-y sort of things - Fushitsusha, Tony Conrad, Alan Lamb, a smattering of improv types - generally picked up on the say-so of The Wire or from people in UK comics and music fandom who were into that kind of stuff.
I remembered two...
“Hands down, end of discussion, no contest, the single shittiest phrase of the...”
– There are some things in Michaelangelo Matos’ A Regrettable Decade in Music feature that are a bit too whiney/cranky/obvious, but oh MAN is he ever on point with this comment on “haters.” (via perpetua)
Let’s also give a special mention to the boho version of this, Eggers-style...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-12-27) →
Fleetwood Mac (11)
The Crystals (7)
ABBA (6)
t.A.T.u. (5)
Nat King Cole (4)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
The Decade in Music Genre Hype →
tumbledore:
Good rundown if you can put up with the disgruntled old person “voice,” which I find to be one of the most unbearable things in the world to read. I get it bro, those darn music bloggers with all their free time and free content and letting people listen to music instead of read about it are almost forcing you to get a real job, sucks.
I just want to be positive for a minute and...
““Looking at all these on paper, it does feel like 2009 was a bit of a...”
– Matt DC on the year’s (UK) #1s in ILM
Stop The Pazz and Jresses
Hold on, TATU’s third English-language album came out LAST WEEK? And I had no idea? Despite both their other ones being AMAZING?
I can consider myself a failure as both critic and Internet perv :(
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-12-20) →
Lady GaGa (16)
Madd Anju (1)
Bing Crosby (1)
The Mayfair Set (1)
Hilary Duff (1)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Amy Winehouse In Panto Attack →
“The star is said to have disrupted a performance of Cinderella on Saturday night, heckling a cast which included TV personalities Anthea Turner and Bobby Davro.
Winehouse reportedly shocked children and parents by shouting “He’s f****** behind you” during the performance and yelling out “F****** Cinders, Prince Charming, marry me”.”
Girls On Top - “We Don’t Give A Damn...
Pitchfork 09
It seems to me I’ve seen far less reaction and outrage about the Pitchfork albums list this year. Am I just looking in the wrong place? What are the main hipstersphere talking points?
The Rage Trilogy
I’ve spent most of this week on FT writing about the Rage vs X-Factor “chart battle” in the UK, from a variety of angles. Almost 3000 words in I suspect I may have gone a bit mental but it’s become a sort of prism through which to focus on a bunch of stuff about the changing meaning of music, sales, and popularity.
Selling In The Name Of: Looking at Rage vs X-Factor as a...
Why yes I am doing last minute Xmas shopping via...
HEY TUMBLR What’s the best non-fiction book you’ve read this year?
Dark Matter Found! (Maybe) →
For 80 years, it has eluded the finest minds in science. But tonight it appeared that the hunt may be over for dark matter, the mysterious and invisible substance that accounts for three-quarters of the mass of the universe.
In a series of coordinated announcements at several US laboratories, researchers said they believed they had captured dark matter in a defunct iron ore mine half a mile...
“F*** you I won’t do what you tell me” are part of the songs lyrics....”
– from the Daily Mail comments page on RATM vs X-Factor, as spotted by ILX. A troll? Perhaps, but a good one.
P-Machinery
It is kind of odd and maybe refreshing that the biggest conversation topic in the UK right at the moment is pop music!
Pitchfork Albums Of 09 Hon Ment →
I would likely to publically apologise for Mr Brian ENO for saying on Twitter that his “death of uncool” piece was wrong and then using it when I was desperate for a lede on a Lindstrom blurb.
(I still think he’s wrong a bit but about the implications of the “stylistic tropics” not its existence, and I liked the phrase too much not to lift and gloss it)
Madd Anju - “Cellular Minutes”: What...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-12-13) →
Girls Aloud (2)
The Ronettes (2)
Darlene Love (2)
Frank Sinatra (1)
Carla Thomas (1)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Very Very Much →
I’m guessing this would be a good thing for people interested in music culture to bookmark.
Mediterranean was created in Earth's biggest... →
Via the excellent linktumblr o-song. I knew this already and I will tell you how: it was in Julian May’s soapy time-travelling sci-fi series The Saga Of The Exiles which I read with intense interest when I was 13. What puny Earth scientists of today cannot yet reveal, of course, is that the sea-forming breach was in fact created by a time-travelling Viking from the future with an alien laser...
Interview with danah boyd →
she being the smartest “social media” thinker I’m aware of, basically.
The concept of control – and who has it – is central to Boyd’s work, and it applies not only to debunking myths about teenage behaviour, but also similar ideas that have emerged about the rest of the web. Unlike some prognosticators who preach unstoppable revolution – including the likes of Chris...
“By mass-producing, mass-marketing, and relentlessly hard-selling sugar water to...”
– How Vevo Makes Google More Like Coca-Cola - Umair Haque - HarvardBusiness.org
Setting aside the merits for a second, because I’m completely unqualified to judge: Does this framing remind anybody of (in their most extremely worded forms) poptimists vs. indie again, complete with requisite...
An analogy
You are a fan of a sports team and for years they win a lot of trophies and then they stop winning and other teams win instead and it looks like they may never win anything again. You can then say:
i. Winning is still important and it sucks that my team doesn’t any more.
ii. I’ve realised that winning isn’t really important after all and to be honest I should never have cared...
Billboard's Top 100 songs of the 00s →
desnoise:
Just reblogging because I had half-expected agrammar to touch on Tom’s passing remark about 2000s r&b/hip-hop, critics, and race, and he didn’t. Now, it’s true there’s very little in U.S. culture that doesn’t touch on issues of race (also, oft-ignored by conservatives and liberals alike, class). And it’s hard to be certain what exactly Tom might be thinking here (quickest way to...
Girls Aloud - “Christmas Round At...
Billboard's Top 100 songs of the 00s →
I find this list - especially the top 40 or so - really fascinating, and not simply because I like about 2/3 of the records in it and adore a good half-dozen.
It’s interesting to me because of the idea - repeated so often I’ve come to lazily accept it without really thinking - that this decade has been particularly fragmented in terms of pop, the music people listen to, and so on.
...
ARE Weapons - “Hey World”: Teen...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-12-6) →
Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas (15)
Justin Timberlake (3)
Dizzee Rascal (2)
Gwen Stefani (2)
M.I.A. (2)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
AnCo be galvanizin'
cureforbedbugs:
But over at the Jukebox Das Racist STILL has more comments (and better ones!), so what.
Not any more!
Checking my email this morning I discover that the AnCo warz have apparently devolved into critics I like and respect taking the most ridiculously reductive view possible of one another and flamewarring on said basis. So no more from me.
Mania - “Money In My Pocket”: Early...
The Kids
Something I think it’s worth pointing out in a conversation about whether “My Girls” is good or not is that writing about having kids and the feelings you have for them seems to be an incredibly difficult thing for pop music to do well. And now I think about it “My Girls” is actually a relatively good shot at it - even as a parent I don’t really relate to it but...
Pop Songs
A quick post to say that the countdown of my favourite 00s tracks I was partly doing on here has now moved wholly to here
Imagine if the internet as we know it now was... →
perpetua:
This Singles Jukebox post is kinda like that, and it is the even-more-embarrassing flipside of this.
Lex is an in-touch crank. He would also have absolutely hated “Teenage Riot”, I grant you.
THE 10 MOST DEPRESSING ‘MY LIFE IS TWILIGHT’... →
existentializzy:
A warning: They are not joking when they say these are depressing.
OK, a couple are sad (as in sad, not saddo) but the intro is the most depressing thing about these. I’m glad I’m a grown-up now but in a way I miss being able to be into something this much.
Roxy Music - “Mother Of Pearl”: This...
“About” is a false friend to pop music. The idea that a song is “about” some...”
– MADONNA – “Papa Don’t Preach” | FreakyTrigger
A wonderful point (and a hard habit to kick as a writer too) in a wonderful post about a wonderful single.
Time for another cup of coffee.
(via bwall05)
I think there is a distinction between “about” and about, meaning understanding the basic plot of...
CD Still Not Dead - Why? →
This means the consumer electronics and music businesses need to think harder about what a ‘product’ really is, and that means working together to nail down technical standards for things like streaming to audio equipment. A book on Motown that finds the nearest speakers and plays the songs to them, for example, is something I suggested five years ago. Rashly, I predicted it would be...