January 2011
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-1-30) →
Grateful Dead (20)
Vampire Weekend (13)
George Michael (12)
Dave Mason (8)
Mott the Hoople (5)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
My Top Ten Things About Lists
This is spinning out of this v good post by Sabina, aka minimoonstar.tumblr.com. I would have reblogged but I don’t think you can “read more” a reblog and I fear I may need this function.
10. I dunno about essentialism but I do know that the first thing I ever did with music beyond listen to it was make a list of it, filling a sheaf of computer paper my Dad brought home with a...
“There’s definitely a strain of male-identified rock criticism which is hugely...”
– This is a comment I made the other day on an article by Rhian Jones at Bad Reputation about female- and male-identified ways of writing about music. It has tangential relevance to the ET quote from jakec, I think, and how people hero-ize individual opinion.
(Obviously some people LOVE reading stuff...
“Most music critics are reading other music critics to find out what they should...”
– Everett True (via jakec)
Most music critics are talking to other people on the Internet who they are friends with, more like. Sorry, most PEOPLE are doing that. And if you’re a music critic there’s a decent chance those friends are music critics! And if the places you hang out on (and...
Memories Of Fleetwood Mac Fandom →
Can’t reblog cos it’s a reply but this is a lovely piece by Erika Villani about teenage fandom, go and read it. Whether or not you like Fleetwood Mac.
This is urgent -- make a fuss about it →
Oh, BTW, if you saw this yesterday and signed the petition then you probably want to know that the woman in question has NOT been deported. Though she still faces an appeal which needs to be successful if she’s not going to face deportation (& probably death) in the future.
I mean for all I know the petition had nothing to do with it, and god knows a bunch of people on the Internet...
1 tag
tristn:
Disco Inferno - The Last Dance
My...
“Like Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, Randy Newman constantly explored Americana...”
– AMG song review of Randy Newman’s “Sail Away”. I am not sure “Newman’s love of America shines through, albeit somewhat tongue in cheek” is really what I get from this song.
Mojo Jojo →
The Mojo magazine stuff I was talking about earlier this week, in charty form.
This is urgent -- make a fuss about it →
It's Not Just The Birds Who Might Get Angry →
“What level are you on?” a woman asked me on the train to New York.
“I’m on level 12. I just can’t get past it. I’m thinking of giving up.”
“Try pressing the bird again in flight, it pops into three.”
I tried that and it worked. After being stuck and at the edge of despair I was now able to move on. Not that it was it was an important...
“Super-premium reissues of individual albums don’t simply tempt fans, they offer...”
– Be grateful to the Grateful Dead by Tom Ewing (via tristn)
Someone on Twitter challenged me which conceivable superpremium edition I would actually buy and TBH I couldn’t think of one. Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld with a REAL ACTUAL ever growing brain maybe?
1 tag
Two Polls 2010 aka Cluster Analysis
CAUTION: LISTY
Here are the Top 50 tracks from the ILM poll and the Freaky Trigger readers’ poll (also including the Poptimists Poll). All that really links these polls is that I happened to found both ILM and FT so there’s a kind of root sensibility that still might bubble through each. Tracks unique to a Top 50 have been bolded, though a fair number actually surfaced lower down on...
Liveblogging the Slow Leak Of Lady Gaga’s “Born... →
dyfl:
Gaga is releasing the lyrics one snippet at a time to a ton of different online news outlets — Perez, Gaga Daily, Billboard, Popjustice, Rolling Stone. As stunts go, this is totally hilarious and kind of inspired in a make-something-out-of-nothing way.
Grinning.
Superpremium Pop →
My latest Guardian piece, about high-end reissues and box sets: and probably the only comparison you’ll find me making between George Michael and the Grateful Dead in which I come down on the Dead’s side.
Big thanks to Rob Mitchum (@robmitchum on Twitter) for helping me with a quote!
3 tags
Fuckyeahwelladjustedthirtysomethings
Every now and then the facade of affable music fans, politics wonks and meme jockeys cracks and I get a reblogged glimpse into the seething venom pit of teenage life Tumblr-style.
And at those times I find myself thinking: Tom, you whinge at yourself far too much. Being an adult is great.
“Van Tol and about 200 other tasters were guinea pigs for a group of Dutch...”
– ‘Bug Mac’ and lovely ‘grub’: food of the future (via treblekicker)
BUG MAC this is my neologism of the day
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-1-23) →
ABBA (23)
Keri Hilson (13)
The Waterboys (11)
Lindsey Buckingham & Stevie Nicks (11)
Tom Tom Club (10)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Moar Mojo
I have been doing some STATISTICAL ANALYSISISING of Mojo covers which I will post on FT tomorrow.
Acts who have NEVER had a Mojo cover (& I am surprised by this): Elvis Costello (totally their demographic), The Byrds (even MORE totally their demographic), Madonna (OK not at all surprised), PRINCE!!! (WTF), Stevie Wonder (shameful) (no wait Lil Stevie was on their Motown Special cover I...
Pub Quiz Time
FIVE acts who released their first LP this century have been given MOJO front covers (UK edition). Without cheating by looking at the website, how many can you guess?
“This is a debate in all corners of the internet: Where is our history (via...”
– Long & interesting post about mixtapes and the rap canon on notrivia.
I have been thinking about this a bit recently. Not the mixtapes question, or the digital preservation one even, but the idea that the internet hardens the canon, not loosens it.
That was the idea back in the heady days when...
“Jack Kirby. The most underrated writer in comics. At best a guilty pleasure, at...”
– http://www.hypergeek.ca/2011/01/interview-exploring-the-weird-worlds-of-al-ewing.html
I have had this conversation so often with Al in the pub and it’s great to hear him banging this particular drum in an interview! (Also - awesome to see him getting interviewed, of course)
Meanwhile, In Davos... →
rocketsandrayguns:
tomewing:
Your correspondent’s economy was on the verge of a Chinese-style episode of overheating when another panellist, with a marginally lower boiling point, went over the top. This discussion is taking place “on the moon”, he colourfully observed. The 10m additional unemployed workers in developed countries would be surprised to hear that all was for the best in the...
Meanwhile, In Davos... →
Your correspondent’s economy was on the verge of a Chinese-style episode of overheating when another panellist, with a marginally lower boiling point, went over the top. This discussion is taking place “on the moon”, he colourfully observed. The 10m additional unemployed workers in developed countries would be surprised to hear that all was for the best in the best of all possible worlds, and...
bombshell
Jimi Hendrix: Are You Experienced? (Experience Hendrix/MCA, 1967) ***** (Blender, 2005) Try to hear this bombshell debut as an English pop record—only two of the 11 skillfully placed tracks, three titanic bonus cuts and three fascinating B-sides run over four minutes, and hooks abound. You could hum these tunes. Yet humming definitely doesn’t capture their essence, a roiling sea of guitar that...
“i’m not a big fan of dis-privileging lyrics, esp since it seems to...”
– - mordy on ILX
I think the “sense of shame” point is pretty good.
I have a bad case of Impostor Syndrome today, which probably explains this run of posts.
“deej is right: avoiding cliche is the most important part of any kind of...”
– - “difficult listening hour” on ILX.
Massive guilty conscience over the last paragraph. This is the thing I most beat myself up for in my own writing, btw.
It’s also why I like (good) forums and communities so much - you can start with the lazy thing that has a tiny bit of the...
“7. Build an argument, don’t just list stuff.
8. Think hard about every...”
– http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=85486#unread
Lots of good advice in this ILX thread on writing reviews and criticism.
Why And How Digital Music Has Failed →
Digital music is at an impasse. Digital music has failed to reach its three key objectives:
1 – to offset the impact of declining CD sales,
2 – to generate a format replacement cycle and
3 - to compete effectively with piracy.
My immediate thoughts: you don’t have to be a freetard to see that goals 1 and 2 essentially conflict with 3. Even paying consumers, oddly enough,...
this one's for the vacant: Reblog with your Blog... →
fleetfootedfox:
the-madame-hatter:
ah-shuh-lee:
cupcakes4nickel:
Fabulous and Immune to Your Judgement
Because well, obviously.
Get ready, pop it, let’s go.
I just really like Kid Cudi.
from the hips
both that, and my domain (atmyworst) come from a cursive song by that title, which talks about shooting from the hip, both in the sense of being impulsive, and in the sense of being...
I Guess It Would Be Nice
perpetua replied to your post: Two things I had never knowingly heard before today
Wait, YOU never heard Faith in full? That is jaw-dropping.
Haha I know! I feel like an indie fan who’s never heard the Velvet Underground. Obviously I knew the hits, I’d just never listened to that whole album. I liked it! Though the production was a bit thinner than I’d anticipated somehow - the...
Keep On Trucking
markrichardson replied to your post: What did you hear from the dead and did you like it?
I heard Europe ‘72, cos I’m writing about the gargantuan box set of all the concerts from that tour they’re making (note “writing about” not “reviewing” here!) and I thought I should get some idea of what kind of thing went on. I am finding early 70s rock amazingly...
Two things I had never knowingly heard before...
- Anything by the Grateful Dead
- George Michael’s Faith LP in full
Rock criticism - it’s an education!
Album Bling
It’s a help me with examples for a column post! I’m looking for examples of super-premium album reissues - things like that David Bowie Station To Station thing which was 90 quid for 5 CDs, 3 DVDs, vinyl etc. The whole reissue/box set as objet d’art idea too (Pixies’ Minotaur for instance). You will have my immense gratitude, of course.
Any particularly good examples?
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-1-16) →
Kelis (17)
Janelle Monáe (13)
Britney Spears (12)
James Blake (12)
Rihanna (11)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Moar Gamifying →
Yahoo! is ratcheting up the inter-neighborhood competition in San Francisco by installing interactive, 72-inch touch screens at 20 bus stops and encouraging people to play against crosstown rivals in live head-to-head social games. The four games range from visual puzzles to trivia competitions. Each neighborhood gets 100 points for a win, with the leaderboard updated in real time...
“Whether or not you think it succeeds, a record this minimal and considered...”
– - Tom Ewing on James Blake’s self-titled LP in Poptimist #35
I’ve been trying to figure out a way to write about this record and keep coming up short. I often find this is the case with albums I enjoy right off the bat. It’s much easier to pontificate on all the reasons you DON’T find music...
Everything's Gone Green →
New Poptimist column about process, iteration, Eno, James Blake. The process used to write the column was my usual one when I’m stuck for a topic: go back over a couple of weeks worth of Tumblr and Twitter and Last.fm, find things that seemed to want to talk to one another, let them accrete other things Katamari-style, try and draw a thread of argument through them all.
This is my favourite...