January 2010
74 posts
2 tags
“The Grammys are the Grammys of awards.”
– From my friend Matt Hannum. Well said.
—Lucas
Doppelganger Week
So everybody on Facebook has been posting pictures of celebrities that look like themselves as part of this week’s meme du jour, Doppelganger Week. Apparently, I look like George Costanza. Great. Anyway, it got me thinking about musical doppelgangers (I’m not doing the umlauts), songs by artists that sound shockingly like more famous ones (often by design). Here are a few ones of...
“For her choice of dress, Palmer was accused by gossip writers and commenters at...”
– Amanda Palmer’s Armpit Hair Attracts Hail Of Online Criticism - Jezebel
So, I don’t read Jezebel, but my roommate does, mostly in a Schadenfreude kind of way. She told me about this yesterday, so I had to go read the whole thing for myself.
Amanda Palmer? Amanda Palmer?! Fame whore?...
You, too, can be underpaid for writing about... →
AOL is trying its most ambitious super-content project yet with freelance content site Seed.com: offering 2,000 $50 assignments on SXSW bands for its music site Spinner.com.
[…]
Those selected will be sent the name of a band with instructions to research them, interview them and write up a 1,000-word Q&A based on a template format. Some questions will be provided. The writers also...
Oh. Well, if you put it that way ... →
(via maura)
barthel:
“V*****e W*****d’s whole “appropriation” thing is a marketing technique. They are deliberately baiting you. If what you want is for them to not be successful, you should stop talking about them.”
Picture me, very sheepish. Generally, I really don’t get in a lather over anything — but I still stand by the two jabs from Hopper’s piece that I called out...
“Pitchfork could’ve used the “best new music” tag for good with...”
– This tweet from Garrett Martin inspired this conversation between Maura and myself:
Me: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13859-stroke-songs-for-chris-knox/ Me: talk about a dick move Me: no Best New Music for something that could do someone some good Maura: sigh Maura: well Maura: it’s not...
“… Vampire Weekend are still very much an indie-rock band—something their...”
–
- Jessica Hopper (via Eric Harvey)
Hopper’s fantastic review of Contra — concise, to the point — is full of so many OH BURN moments, I had trouble picking the best one. Then I read the clause above. (Runner up: “If this all makes Contra seem like a fuckless episode...
Welcome to the future, everybody.
In some cities, the demand for tickets was really overwhelming and we’d like to apologize to anyone who was locked out of the pre-sales. In particular, we know that many people encountered issues when attempting to purchase seats to the Radio City Music Hall and Royal Albert Hall shows. We have been in touch with promoters and Ticketmaster to confirm that the number of tickets we had been...
“Ms. Rhodes won the approval of the judges and was sent on to Hollywood, and...”
– Can We Talk About The ‘American Idol’ Barney Girl For a Moment? - ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com
Oh, Dave Itzkoff. You’ve gone and asked the bajillion dollar question, haven’t you?
It’s weird, I totally can’t express the myriad thoughts about The Problems With Gen X and Gen Y...
Is Indie Dead? :: Paste →
Well, okay, everyone’s going to be beating this to death for the next 48 hours or so (in between juvenile jokes about the iPad name and whinging about the State of the Union address, I guess) — and after speed reading (look, it’s kind of boring and TL:DNR in parts), I think I’ve decided that Rachael Maddux thinks this topic is more important than it actually is — a...
WatchThe saddest song I’ve ever heard. Cordaro Hardin sang and rapped to a Tampa jury after being convicted of the murder of two men.
Happy Wednesday!
(HT: my sister, Elise, who tracks death row cases in Florida…she’s always got some cheerful thing to pass along!)
—Lucas
in the style of @1000timesyes
The Magnetic Fields/Realism: Imaginary songs for imaginary people leading imaginary lives.#2.0
In other words: well, that was 33 minutes and 17 seconds I’ll never get back.
xoxo, michaela, not amused.
“The exhibition tells the band’s story in 25 rooms spread over 30,000...”
– Mamma Mia! ABBAWORLD theme park opens in London - Yahoo! News
Coming to New York later this year, claims the article. CANNOT WAIT.
xoxo, michaela
“Unlike the dramatic suicide of Elliott Smith, whose moody and mellifluous songs...”
– Remembering Vic Chesnutt: More Intelligent Life
We can all be a bit possesive about these kinds of things, I suppose — but this statement is a bit overly dramatic, no? After all, not everyone rates a lengthy (and deserved) obituary in the New York Times.
<3, michaela
Watchalyssadehayes:
If I made the poster for this film, it would say: There’s a new sheriff in town…. and he’s DOWN WITH THE CLOWN.
Juggalos made a western film. Oh lawd….. Meet me at the saloon at high noon for a Faygo.
BIG MONEY RUSTLAS. Starring: a bunch of unknown wild west juggalos and juggalettes.
I can’t believe I live in a world where this exists.
—Lucas
cold waves →
This is a blog about a compilation that is being released on Angular Records in early 2010. It is called ‘Cold Waves and Minimal Electronics Vol.1’. Two years in the making, this compilation is a definitive artefact of the lost genres of Coldwave, Synthwave and Minimal Wave. It has been compiled by Pieter Schoolwerth (Wierd) and Joe Daniel (Angular).
Well, this is certainly a good way...
TicketMaster And LiveNation Get Approval As One... →
Why I’ll never be going to another rock show, even at a lot of small venues, ever again. Seriously. I mean, I understand that everyone needs to make money, but ugh, this is not a good scene. Seriously, I can’t even enumerate the number of times in the past few years I’ve just said “FUCK IT!” to a show after seeing the price of a ticket go up by more than a third after...
2 tags
RIP Geoff Workman
You might not know the name, but if you love rawk then the guy probably engineered some records you love, including Shout at the Devil, The Cars’ first one, and Queen’s Jazz. He passed away on Thursday according to his Facebook page.
In the rock music critical world, engineers get little to no attention, and yet they’re absolutely essential to the process. We’ve...
The new-ish math: (Pazz + Jop) - GAPDY = Neko Case... →
maura:
This version of the Pazz & Jop albums chart takes out votes from any person who put (G)rizzly Bear, (A)nimal Collective, (P)hoenix, (D)irty Projectors, or the (Y)eah Yeah Yeahs on their albums ballot. In this alternate universe, the top five albums are by Neko Case, Raekwon, the Avett Brothers, Mos Def, and Maxwell. Also, three metal albums ascend to the top 10, while Girls and...
The Year of Too Much Consensus →
imaginarychrisb:
perpetua:
This is an extraordinarily depressing essay by former Voice editor/professional contrarian Chuck Eddy. It’s like a guy who used to be principal of a high school getting really angry about the outcome of his old school’s student council election.
If 2009 was ”The Year of Too Much Consensus” because of its Pazz and Jop results, what was 2008? In 2008, there were 577...
You guys! I finally go around to fixing the template and made a header image. FINALLY. Hopefully this will be easier to read now and stuff. Feedback appreciated!
xoxo, michaela
“None of which is to say that people who “like” these bands don’t ACTUALLY like...”
– Matt Lemay nails the lo/glo/bro-fi movement and its relationship to notions of hype and “authenticity,” though he’s a lot nicer and more respectful than I would be. I don’t doubt that plenty, if not most, of the fans of this stuff like it, but to me, the rise of micro-niches...
The Life and Death of Alan Carton, 23, the... →
(via @1000TimesYes)
And amazing, unlikely and completely tragic tale — and a reminder that behind every anonymous voice on the internet — believe it or not — is a real, live person. Well, most of the time, anyway.
You’ll be missed, Alan.
xoxo, michaela
All·Idols 2009 →
I’d forgotten how much fun it is to sift through the Pazz & Jop ballots this way. Seriously. And don’t you kind of want to openly mock the people who are at both ends of the centricity list? (via Maura & Seth Colter Walls in The Awl)
xoxo, michaela
"But for a sizeable minority of young people who... →
(via maura)
The creators of Mamma Mia have a Spice Girls musical under their sleeves. In theory, this is a great idea, but um, see my last argument about subjecting pop songs to the modern musical theater treatment. Then again, if they get the fab Kerry Ellis (she’s got a remarkably Elaine Paige-like voice for someone so young) or the surprisingly good Sheridan Smith for the impending (if,...
“A couple of years ago Rollins went to see Van Halen on their reunion tour. “And...”
– Henry Rollins on depression, standup and why he carries a knife - Times Online
Preach it, Hank.
xoxo, michaela
3 tags
Reports: Apple to Stream Your Music →
Oh, yeah. So that’s totally what Apple wanted Lala for.
xoxo, michaela
3 tags
“I think records were just a little bubble through time and those who made a...”
– On gospel, Abba and the death of the record: an audience with Brian Eno | Interview by Paul Morley | The Observer
Dammit if this interview doesn’t push all my buttons: Eno, Morley, highfalutin’ discussions of … esoterica. And, I love that BriBri has hijacked the buggy whip...
Rock Band Opens to Musician Submissions →
Just FYI. I’m not convinced this is a good idea — I mean, to the point that I’m considering selling t-shirts reading EDITORIAL JUDGEMENT IS DEAD at this point, you know? ‘Cause even if it takes 20-40 hours to edit your own track for submission as a Rock Band jam — for a studio rat who’s self-recorded, engineered and mastered their own album, converting one song...
Susan Boyle Shut Out of Brit Awards - ArtsBeat... →
Oh burn? When Pixie Lott’s nominated over you? Probably.
xoxo, michaela
Annie — I Don’t Like Your Band
Where...
3 tags
'Austin City Limits' to air first-ever hip-hop... →
(via Nick Hennies)
Please clarify what’s more offensive: the overall tone of this story’s reportage, or the comments.
I admit, one of the things that makes me more blazingly angry than anything, ever, is people who dismiss hip-hop with a cavalier, dismissive wave without knowing that the hell they’re talking about.
xoxo, michaela
3 tags
Suede reunite -- well, at least one version of... →
This is one of those cases where I’m all ‘hmmm…hmm.’ Other friends are excited as hell, planning their Euro jaunts, etc., but maybe because I was so deep into Suedeworld at one point — and for a very long time, counting the wild-ones mailing list that I ran for over a decade — that I’m less jazzed than I thought I might be. I can’t say I’m...
via summeranne: Ted Leo covering “Joey” by...
When it rains it pours: RIP Dannie Flesher →
Wax Trax! co-founder Dannie Flesher has passed away. I probably don’t need to reiterate for y’all that label’s profound influence on the industrial scene et al. Today has been kinda crappy, no?
—Lucas
RIP Jay Reatard. I don’t really know what...
SFJ: Neil Patrick Harris is going to be a guest judge? He’s like Ryan Seacrest with less teeth and more ideas.
BG: Listen, I can’t have this entire chat be you gushing about Neil Patrick Harris.
SFJ: Yes, you can.
(and later)
SFJ: Tonight’s guest judge is Victoria Beckham, who is too thin. She is reminding me of the aughts already and her husband and that time he tried to talk and I can’t...