February 2010
Last FM Paths
1. Pick an artist.
2. Pick an act in the “Similar Artists” suggestions.
3. Do the same for their “Similar Artists”. (Not picking an artist you’ve picked before, if possible)
4. Repeat until you have a list of 10 artists. See how far away you can end up.
For instance:
Coldplay -> Radiohead -> Beck -> Gorillaz -> Fatboy Slim -> Beats International...
andrewtsks:
ittookseconds:
Five minutes and...
ILM Albums of 09
Swiped from The Lex. Good list!
50 — Gucci Mane - The Burrprint 3D 49 — Matias Aguayo - Ay Ay Ay 48 — Girls - Album 47 — Baroness - Blue Record 46 — Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career 45 — Fall Out Boy - Folie à Deux 44 — UGK - UGK 4 Life 43 — Henrik Schwarz, Âme & Dixon - The Grandfather Paradox 42 — Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest 41 —...
Promotional Message
Stuff continues to happen in the Pop World Cup. Currently underway - i.e. you can still vote in them: all previous songs are accessible on the main site though - are:
Denmark v Holland: The Danes went for a Eurovision entry, Holland for an apparently jazzy pop singer-songwriter (“Tulip Allen” as one wag in the comments has put it)
Cameroon v Japan: Languid stuff from Cameroon with...
All I'm gonna say is that there are some writers... →
maura:
And other things.
COUGH.
This mostly tells me that “literary” is a bad way to frame blogosphere conversation.
Anniversary
Because I was ill last weekend I missed going out for a 10th anniversary of blogging drink. Maybe it’s not something one should celebrate. (Certainly not on tumblr where some of the real vets hang out.) But anyway, yes, from the end of February 2000 to now I think it’s been a rare few days where I haven’t blogged something. On the one hand it’s remarkable - how many words...
Five minutes and thirteen seconds: This is...
Dave Moore figures out the math behind that "how... →
hardcorefornerds:
(via maura)
except he didn’t, because the math is here, and he just listed how the questions don’t particularly apply to him. it’s a statistical survey: it is meant to apply to the general, not the particular. (it’s also, as presented, a gimmick, but that needn’t distract from basic statistical discussion)
look at this fucking histogram:
amongst the ‘millennials’, the...
83. (It's because I don't have a land line, I... →
aceterrier:
(via maura)
45. I’ve never felt older.
I’m torn on this. On the one hand, “generations” are the analysis equivalent of horoscopes and if I never see the word “millenial” again I’d be very happy. On the other hand, I’m delighted to see a research firm actually turn its findings into something engaging people can do as this has been a hobby...
“A lot of the time the first “hostile” reblog I see of something is also the...”
– (via tomewing)
If we’re all OK with me being immodest for a bit, I actually have increasingly made an effort here to not do this. I certainly indulged in a lot of that in my early days of Tumbling, but as this became my primary platform and started to see other people as real people, an effect...
“There’s a lot of incentive and positive reinforcement when you use Tumblr,” said...”
– My Town of Kind! | The New York Observer
My only response is that I appear to follow all the wrong tumblrs.
(via culturefink)
“Witty, positive commentary” = never saying anything of substance. Which is fine! Just not how a bunch of us are wired to communicate.
(via aceterrier)
A lot of the time...
Ted Leo Karaoke Party?!?!?! →
maura:
On Tuesday, March 9 — the official day of release for the new LP/CD/digital album The Brutalist Bricks —
Pfft. No cassette release no credibility. :)
Why I Bought a Turntable Last Weekend
andrewtsks:
psychicpilot:
I’ve always been into music, more so in my 20s than my 30s. But as I approach my 40s in a hell of a hurry, I have been thinking about how fast things are going. I have kept up for the most part with the bands I really like, and I have been exposed to a ton of music that is new to me via Tumblr. But I’m ashamed to admit that I probably haven’t listened, all the way...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-21) →
Black Sabbath (7)
Miss Kittin & The Hacker (4)
Big Daddy Kane (3)
Sparks (3)
Chimora (3)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Joanna Newsom - "Good Intentions Paving Company"
Thanks to all the people who told me their favourite track of ‘10 so far - I am going to try to listen to / write brief notes on all of them. First was this, because 3 separate people mentioned it.
I have never heard anything by JN before and honestly had no opinion on her either way - I think when she first turned up I simply wasn’t playing attention to this kind of music at all. So...
Five minutes and sixteen seconds: This is...
Nostalgia for an age yet to come
Inspired by Marc Hogan’s excellent cassette culture piece, a question:
When the CD is inevitably revived as an indie ltd release format in 10 years time what qualities will its afficionadoes claim for it?
“My father never associated a song with a particular performer, and that was...”
– Elijah Wald, How The Beatles Destroyed Rock And Roll
I’m not just posting this quote about viral marketing in the 1910s for “nothing new under the sun” reasons, though it does remind me a bit of the ‘Big Seed’ principle of virality: Duncan Watt’s idea that basically the most successful way of...
Pop school
We’re fifty days into 2010. What’s the best track you’ve heard so far this year?
“So it’s worth bearing that in mind when we ask what critics are wrong about now....”
– Tom Ewing | How wrong we were about Black Sabbath | Music | The Guardian (via johnmayerwillchangeyourlife)
Other stuff I was thinking of (or which was suggested to me) here: teenpop, Latin pop (Jonathan Bogart’s suggestion and I suspect a good one), and the whole OTHER hardcore continuum -...
Online Notebook: Black Sabbath, Fall Out Boy, and... →
tomewing:
…
But Tom, Lester Bangs fucking LOVED Black Sabbath!
I mean, I don’t know where you got that quote, but knowing Bangs, it may have been intended as a compliment. I mean, if nothing else, he may have been bothered by them very early on, then converted later.
Yeah, I think this is what happened, and had I had longer I’d have talked about that - I kind of nodded to it with...
"Ke$ha's "TiK ToK" holds off the impressive... →
maura:
There are no winners here.
Indeed not!
UK Female MCs: The Playlist →
Want to hear the music from that Guardian article I linked (not my one, the other one!)? The Lex (who wrote it) has put together a YouTube playlist!
Black Sabbath, Fall Out Boy, and critical... →
My new Guardian column. In what’s fast becoming a tradition I’m writing about things I know precious little about and hoping to get away with it.
Also! Unironic Lester Bangs quote!
A Funky New Era →
It is no real surprise that female MCs returned to prominence on the British urban scene last year, just as harsher, male-coded grime beats were supplanted by UK funky rhythms in the clubs. Funky – already widely credited for returning girls to urban raves en masse – has been particularly conducive to the return of Jamaican toasting, given its own close rhythmic ties to soca and dancehall. As...
andrewtsks:
somesongsconsidered:
“100,000...
thevidsarealright asked: Following the kids' tv theme, do they still bother with 'adult' in-jokes/parodies that completely go over the heads of under-5s? Sesame Street was brilliant at this sort of thing and I would hate to think programme makers aren't bothering anymore.
cureforbedbugs asked: How do you find the energy and time in the day to sustain successful, fairly large pop communities without monetary compensation? What keeps you going, and how well can you integrate your "duties" at places like FreakyTrigger and Poptimists (and to some extent Tumblr) into your average work day or home life?
Feed me
I am hungry, hungry for questions. Ask me stuff!
(I have a question from Matt Perpetua waiting but it’s a complicated one and will involve comic-reading revision.)
Will Pop Eat Itself →
It’s been a long time since I read this book but I’m pretty sure its Amazon “Product Description” doesn’t do it justice:
The author is an opera critic and music fan who, in this book, explores the advent of post modernism in pop, suggesting a whole range of parallels between pop today and “high art” earlier this century. Central to this story is an...
Interesting.
screwrocknroll:
a.k.a. Annoying ways I’m becoming a better writer:
Was arguing with a friend yesterday about her use of the word “interesting” in a short piece of writing; this post by Spencer Ackerman reminded me of how utterly empty a word “interesting” is:
A journalistic pet peeve: saying something is “interesting.” That tells a reader absolutely nothing. You owe it to your audience to...
“Fun blogger project for today! Everybody go out and create a subgenre of music!...”
– “After all, chillwave was never really about the beach.” (via joecoscarelli)
The original poster seems to imagine this is some sort of bad thing! Making up genres is one of the few perks we have in this day and age.
“Cue the explosion of the Internet and how it’s been effecting music ever since....”
– Analyzing The End Of Music Television (via gcn)
The way I view it is simple supply and demand. Great supply of music videos (YouTube etc.) meant MTV no longer had a quasi-monopoly over a scarce good. They had to create another in-demand scarce good, and so started to produce their own content...
Proof that writing about music is hard and/or...
aceterrier:
cureforbedbugs:
In the Pop World Cup (follow along!), the soccer/football metaphors are just as useful in getting across how the music works (describing and evaluating it) as a technical description of what the music sounds like.
Yes yes yes. I was actually worried about participating for a while because I almost never watch soccer and when I do it’s on Spanish-language channels...
WHY DON'T YOU JUST CALL IT THE NEW MORRISSEY...
Nate Patrin has found the best anti-Pitchfork quote ever! I am honestly having difficulty thinking of how more arguments could have been packed in.
I will consider it at greater length as I recline in my bath filled with blogger tears.
what must it be like to be the pop critic for the... →
maura:
all i can tell is that it’s definitely an existence where you have to deal with lots of old guys.
POPETIMISM!
1 tag
Rock Critic Rubicon
I am writing a column in which I quote Lester Bangs.
“I’d completely agree Mayer’s major character (and, possibly, musical) flaw...”
– On “Benetton Hearts” And…You Know - Ta-Nehisi Coates
can’t seem to stop typing about this, sorry
(via desnoise)
Sort of reminds me of the argument that develops every year on Big Brother - I’m just being real, I’m just being myself, you people are plastic, etc etc.
Is all...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-14) →
Paul Simon (15)
Siouxsie and the Banshees (13)
Girls Aloud (11)
David Bowie (4)
Die Antwoord (3)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
“He holds him with his glittering eye—
The Wedding-Guest stood still,
And...”
– I have to say reading this I doubt whether Coleridge had ever met a three year old :( 