Got some ground to cover, but it may have to wait. School has me busy to the 1000th degree, and I am working out a technical error (my Firefox won't ctrl+save files anymore) so I may need to procrastinate updating a little more.
One thing to note: Anybody else find it a little ironically accurate that Pitchfork named decade-old Radiohead albums as their "Best New Music"?
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
April 12th, 2009
This blog post courtesy of the road between San Antonio and Austin, with special thanks to patient, automotively inclined fathers.
Peter Bjorn and John, Living Thing
Am I the only one on board for calling Peter Bjorn & John this generation's Dream Academy? Yeah, that's a weird assertion, I'm aware. I may be the only person who's even thought about Dream Academy in 2009. (Well, except maybe [frontman]) But think about it: very catchy singles deceive fans into disappointment on LPs where weird artistic leanings mask a core melodicism.
Okay, I was born in 1990, so maybe that was just MY experience with Dream Academy. And maybe it's just the accents. But it seems like the same experience we're all getting duped into with PB&J. Their singles are all catchy and melodic, but the albums are thornier, rougher, and dare I say more confusing. Honestly? I wish every band working in popular music was pulling the same trick.
Teaser bits "Nothing to Worry About" and "Lay It Down" were weird, sure - a fact emphasized in the surreal videos for the respective tracks. But they're nowhere near the heights of odd achieved on the album, some of which work perfectly (the smokey organ solo in "Stay This Way") and some of which fall a little short. (The title track seems like a grower, but remains eternally undercooked)
But even the shortcomings are refreshing, because paradoxically, they fall short by setting the sights too high. Post-"Young Folks," PB&J could have cruised along as sweet pop confectioners, or maybe even survived vampirically on licensing from their big hit, like more than a few one-hit-weirdos. (What a poignant observation, given Mix-A-Lot's square-butt McDonalds travesty) Indeed, the path ahead for this trio held no inherent challenges, so the fact that they've put out an album this challenging, unabashedly weird, truly surprising and simultaneously listenable, well, it's something we should all be impressed by.
Röyksopp, Junior
I won't lie: I've already missed two Röyksopp boats. Both of their LPs escaped my high school musicscape. Hence, I'm not coming into this review with the same degree of critical baggage - no questioning of whether [second LP] was a disappointing turn after [first LP]. No fretting about which vocalists do or don't appear. I've got a pretty clean slate, and you know what? I like what I hear.
Powerhouse single "The Girl And The Robot," which justifies the price of admission all its own, is the tale of the shittiest boyfriend ever, belted out over churning electro beats with aching honesty by Robyn, who really steps up to the plate on this one. That will be what draws most people in here, and while some of the rest of the album borders on electrofiller - I'm looking at you, "Silver Cruiser" - there are plenty of highlights. "Royksopp Forever" (where's the umlaut, boys?) skids along on dub beats until its strings reach a fever, at which point a pitch shift takes it all to the next level. Speaking of fevers, Karin Dreijer is a fantastic presence on record, where her patented dark sense of mystery is free to do basically what it did in The Knife - flourish - but with a glossier production to back it up. Lykke Li takes a different tack, getting a bit lost inside the Röyksopp beats rather than taking charge; supplementing instead of dominating.
With vocal skills this good, it's already a strong purchase, but Röyksopp isn't just a duo with good taste in female voice talent. Their beats slide, skip, and pound; their melodies arch and dip into territories at turns glitzy and tragic. Maybe Discodust has just been converting me, but this is solid, solid work. It's a great, addictive little package. Expect the playcount to get disconcertingly astronomical; be wary of your other MP3s getting jealous.
Editorial
To tweet or not to - oh fuck it.
Anyway.
This hubbub over Twitter's value doesn't seem to want to die down. People are still digging in their heels, claiming it's reductive, or foolish, or promotes less thought, or whatever the complaint of the week is. You'd think that after it played a key role in, you know, that election thing we had a few months ago, people would be a little easier on the little guy.
Well, not really a little guy, I guess. Twitter is pretty ubiquitous at this point; it seems like ages past when I was confused by the odd little box popping up alongside my favorite webcomics; now I'm pretty sure everyone from the Dalai Lama to Dick Cheney has participated in "follow fridays," tweeted about their weekend plans, started following a meme account, and rued the technical bumps and glitches along the way.
Everybody except me, that is. That's right: I've just now got one. I wasn't anti-twitter or anything, I just never took the time to start following people and set the whole enterprise up. I've got to say, I like it so far. I follow Aziz Anzari - who wouldn't, after his great Observe and Report Chik-Fil-A quote? And I follow Rob Corddry, whose comedy links and parental insights are oddly rewarding. And I follow the New York Times and Democracy Now, and I follow some friends too, just to keep up with whatever's up.
Like I said, I was never anti-Twitter. I don't understand this backlash against networking. Many of my friends have disavowed Facebook; my roommate even deleted his account. His reasons? "Facebook is inaccurate." He says the profile information on his account was all misleading. I asked him why he didn't just change it. Cue debate.
It's the same with Twitter. Critics say it's all pointless minutia, but it's only pointless if you can't utilize the tech. To wear out a tired cliche, garbage in, garbage out. Twitter is brief, sure, but brevity and idiocy hardly go hand in hand. If a Twitter account you follow just spews pointless trivia, you can, y'know, unfollow it.
It seems like this far out of the 1800's we ought to have figured out the simple lesson: technology isn't inherently anything. Twitter's not inherently trivia, Facebook isn't inherently inaccurate, the internet isn't inherently for pornography and piracy, etc. It's how you use technology that counts, and if you loathe the way it's used, well, you could always do it better yourself.
Oh well, I won't get too pissed. If I need to vent, I can just tweet about this later.
Peter Bjorn and John, Living Thing
Am I the only one on board for calling Peter Bjorn & John this generation's Dream Academy? Yeah, that's a weird assertion, I'm aware. I may be the only person who's even thought about Dream Academy in 2009. (Well, except maybe [frontman]) But think about it: very catchy singles deceive fans into disappointment on LPs where weird artistic leanings mask a core melodicism.
Okay, I was born in 1990, so maybe that was just MY experience with Dream Academy. And maybe it's just the accents. But it seems like the same experience we're all getting duped into with PB&J. Their singles are all catchy and melodic, but the albums are thornier, rougher, and dare I say more confusing. Honestly? I wish every band working in popular music was pulling the same trick.
Teaser bits "Nothing to Worry About" and "Lay It Down" were weird, sure - a fact emphasized in the surreal videos for the respective tracks. But they're nowhere near the heights of odd achieved on the album, some of which work perfectly (the smokey organ solo in "Stay This Way") and some of which fall a little short. (The title track seems like a grower, but remains eternally undercooked)
But even the shortcomings are refreshing, because paradoxically, they fall short by setting the sights too high. Post-"Young Folks," PB&J could have cruised along as sweet pop confectioners, or maybe even survived vampirically on licensing from their big hit, like more than a few one-hit-weirdos. (What a poignant observation, given Mix-A-Lot's square-butt McDonalds travesty) Indeed, the path ahead for this trio held no inherent challenges, so the fact that they've put out an album this challenging, unabashedly weird, truly surprising and simultaneously listenable, well, it's something we should all be impressed by.
Röyksopp, Junior
I won't lie: I've already missed two Röyksopp boats. Both of their LPs escaped my high school musicscape. Hence, I'm not coming into this review with the same degree of critical baggage - no questioning of whether [second LP] was a disappointing turn after [first LP]. No fretting about which vocalists do or don't appear. I've got a pretty clean slate, and you know what? I like what I hear.
Powerhouse single "The Girl And The Robot," which justifies the price of admission all its own, is the tale of the shittiest boyfriend ever, belted out over churning electro beats with aching honesty by Robyn, who really steps up to the plate on this one. That will be what draws most people in here, and while some of the rest of the album borders on electrofiller - I'm looking at you, "Silver Cruiser" - there are plenty of highlights. "Royksopp Forever" (where's the umlaut, boys?) skids along on dub beats until its strings reach a fever, at which point a pitch shift takes it all to the next level. Speaking of fevers, Karin Dreijer is a fantastic presence on record, where her patented dark sense of mystery is free to do basically what it did in The Knife - flourish - but with a glossier production to back it up. Lykke Li takes a different tack, getting a bit lost inside the Röyksopp beats rather than taking charge; supplementing instead of dominating.
With vocal skills this good, it's already a strong purchase, but Röyksopp isn't just a duo with good taste in female voice talent. Their beats slide, skip, and pound; their melodies arch and dip into territories at turns glitzy and tragic. Maybe Discodust has just been converting me, but this is solid, solid work. It's a great, addictive little package. Expect the playcount to get disconcertingly astronomical; be wary of your other MP3s getting jealous.
Editorial
To tweet or not to - oh fuck it.
Anyway.
This hubbub over Twitter's value doesn't seem to want to die down. People are still digging in their heels, claiming it's reductive, or foolish, or promotes less thought, or whatever the complaint of the week is. You'd think that after it played a key role in, you know, that election thing we had a few months ago, people would be a little easier on the little guy.
Well, not really a little guy, I guess. Twitter is pretty ubiquitous at this point; it seems like ages past when I was confused by the odd little box popping up alongside my favorite webcomics; now I'm pretty sure everyone from the Dalai Lama to Dick Cheney has participated in "follow fridays," tweeted about their weekend plans, started following a meme account, and rued the technical bumps and glitches along the way.
Everybody except me, that is. That's right: I've just now got one. I wasn't anti-twitter or anything, I just never took the time to start following people and set the whole enterprise up. I've got to say, I like it so far. I follow Aziz Anzari - who wouldn't, after his great Observe and Report Chik-Fil-A quote? And I follow Rob Corddry, whose comedy links and parental insights are oddly rewarding. And I follow the New York Times and Democracy Now, and I follow some friends too, just to keep up with whatever's up.
Like I said, I was never anti-Twitter. I don't understand this backlash against networking. Many of my friends have disavowed Facebook; my roommate even deleted his account. His reasons? "Facebook is inaccurate." He says the profile information on his account was all misleading. I asked him why he didn't just change it. Cue debate.
It's the same with Twitter. Critics say it's all pointless minutia, but it's only pointless if you can't utilize the tech. To wear out a tired cliche, garbage in, garbage out. Twitter is brief, sure, but brevity and idiocy hardly go hand in hand. If a Twitter account you follow just spews pointless trivia, you can, y'know, unfollow it.
It seems like this far out of the 1800's we ought to have figured out the simple lesson: technology isn't inherently anything. Twitter's not inherently trivia, Facebook isn't inherently inaccurate, the internet isn't inherently for pornography and piracy, etc. It's how you use technology that counts, and if you loathe the way it's used, well, you could always do it better yourself.
Oh well, I won't get too pissed. If I need to vent, I can just tweet about this later.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
April 6th through 11th, 2009
It's pretty difficult to keep up with a year, I'm discovering. I'm already so far behind on so many rad albums and films! Sheesh.
MUSIC
Surprise of the month: Pitchfork gave DOOM an eight. Get your umbrellas; it will be raining fire and sulfur soon; Pitchfork (well, Breihan at least) has been more than unkind to the former MF in the past; it's safe to say we have an apocalypse in our forecast.
Also on Pitchfork, Health's super-rad track got nice words, the Justice-U2 lovechild/hellspawn got suitably kicked in the teeth, they praise the superfun Micachu and the Shapes track, and on the superb new Bat For Lashes single, they make the predictable - but damn accurate - Kate Bush comparison. They also did a sweet little Cobain post. Their linked Paul Anka cover is useful for fans of things that don't make sense and for those who still couldn't figure out the lyrics to "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Oh, and their St. Vincent video gets me all pumped for her upcoming LP.
TMT has sight gags galore. They also report on TicketsNow getting into some deep shit.
DiS has released a playlist of their favorite 40 songs of 09 so far. Maybe I should do something like that? Anyway, a worthy list. They also report on Radiohead vs. the RIAA and adore the promising Horrors.
Been away from Discodust longer than normal. The actual Delphic song is pretty cool, though I'm less wowed by the remix. They hype some rad and worthy Golden Filter remixes. Their CRJ tracks are vintage glory. Oh, and the FM Attack tracks are gorgeous!
FILM
First off, get this while it's there: The Water, a short by BSS's Kevin Drew, starring the ever-wonderful Cillian Murphy. The pacing is *ahem* glacial, but it's lovely nonetheless.
Moon has a trailer! One of my favorites from SXSW, and of the year so far, this trailer should excite moviegoers for this deserving flick.
/Film did my busy work for me while I was out. Highlights working backwards: Scott Pilgrim video blog, stepping up to the plate to defend the kickass Observe and Report, low-budget indie inspiration Hunter Prey's new trailer, and just to make me nervous, a Shadow of the Colossus film. That video game is one of my all-time favorites; screwing up the movie will possibly lead to gray hairs.
Lil Wayne has disappointingly filed an injunction against the documentary about his life.
AICN has a delightful Brothers Bloom trailer, some unkind words for dungheap Dragonball, and a badass new Public Enemies trailer.
WEIRD
Fever Ray on ABC via Pitchfork. It just feels so wrong.
Spike Jonze has a new film coming out. Also, starring Rogen and Samberg, a new Fast/Furious movie.
WORLD
Too much. I'll catch up on this soon.
PERSONAL
I'm in San Antonio suffering a surprise sore throat; time for the hospital tomorrow, whee. Editorial and reviews tomorrow.
2009 FILMS SEEN: 15
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 649 + two albums I refuse to first-listen while sore-throated
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, hanging out on my old desk.
MUSIC
Surprise of the month: Pitchfork gave DOOM an eight. Get your umbrellas; it will be raining fire and sulfur soon; Pitchfork (well, Breihan at least) has been more than unkind to the former MF in the past; it's safe to say we have an apocalypse in our forecast.
Also on Pitchfork, Health's super-rad track got nice words, the Justice-U2 lovechild/hellspawn got suitably kicked in the teeth, they praise the superfun Micachu and the Shapes track, and on the superb new Bat For Lashes single, they make the predictable - but damn accurate - Kate Bush comparison. They also did a sweet little Cobain post. Their linked Paul Anka cover is useful for fans of things that don't make sense and for those who still couldn't figure out the lyrics to "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Oh, and their St. Vincent video gets me all pumped for her upcoming LP.
TMT has sight gags galore. They also report on TicketsNow getting into some deep shit.
DiS has released a playlist of their favorite 40 songs of 09 so far. Maybe I should do something like that? Anyway, a worthy list. They also report on Radiohead vs. the RIAA and adore the promising Horrors.
Been away from Discodust longer than normal. The actual Delphic song is pretty cool, though I'm less wowed by the remix. They hype some rad and worthy Golden Filter remixes. Their CRJ tracks are vintage glory. Oh, and the FM Attack tracks are gorgeous!
FILM
First off, get this while it's there: The Water, a short by BSS's Kevin Drew, starring the ever-wonderful Cillian Murphy. The pacing is *ahem* glacial, but it's lovely nonetheless.
Moon has a trailer! One of my favorites from SXSW, and of the year so far, this trailer should excite moviegoers for this deserving flick.
/Film did my busy work for me while I was out. Highlights working backwards: Scott Pilgrim video blog, stepping up to the plate to defend the kickass Observe and Report, low-budget indie inspiration Hunter Prey's new trailer, and just to make me nervous, a Shadow of the Colossus film. That video game is one of my all-time favorites; screwing up the movie will possibly lead to gray hairs.
Lil Wayne has disappointingly filed an injunction against the documentary about his life.
AICN has a delightful Brothers Bloom trailer, some unkind words for dungheap Dragonball, and a badass new Public Enemies trailer.
WEIRD
Fever Ray on ABC via Pitchfork. It just feels so wrong.
Spike Jonze has a new film coming out. Also, starring Rogen and Samberg, a new Fast/Furious movie.
WORLD
Too much. I'll catch up on this soon.
PERSONAL
I'm in San Antonio suffering a surprise sore throat; time for the hospital tomorrow, whee. Editorial and reviews tomorrow.
2009 FILMS SEEN: 15
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 649 + two albums I refuse to first-listen while sore-throated
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, hanging out on my old desk.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Just so you know
There's a reason I've been silent. Several, really - quizzes, exams, essays, film projects, and the occasional hour of sleep. On the weekend I'll try and wrap up the week.
God I love the Röyksopp and PB&J albums.
God I love the Röyksopp and PB&J albums.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
April 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th, 2009
Man, college doesn't want me to have a blog. Don't even try and hide it, college: essays, projects, film work. You don't care for this blogging enterprise, do you?
Well, too bad for you. Because these last five news days were hella slow, and leant me plenty of room to catch up. (Sigh...)
MUSIC
Pitchfork wins some points for showing The Antlers some love; they're probably going to be on my iTunes soon. The Dougall song hits me in all the right ways, too.
TMT points out that so far, 2009 has been a year without platinum records.
Rich Boy is superdramatic. Also on Fader, the new Trey Songz video is probably the most 2009 thing I've seen all year. Oh, and I really enjoy the new Horrors video; don't be put off by the useless intro: the aesthetic reaches closer to some sort of arthouse snuff film than an "ironic" music video.
God I love illRoots. Kid Cudi ft. Kanye West and Common, CDQ, and damn... damn.
FILM
/Film really brought it while I was out! Working backwards: Vanity fair indulges our collective crush on Tarantino's new project, Inglourious Basterds. Michelle Rodriguez spoils three films at once, including Avatar. Jackie Earle Haley is going to be Freddy Kruger! The trailer for Brüno looks really funny. Also trailering up, The Hangover. There are lots of details concerning casting for Nolan's new film, Inception, and one of my favorite actors - Cillian Murphy - is in talks to join! Magnolia is still being condescending about the Let The Right One In subtitle debacle.
Beware light, light spoilers, but AICN has some audience reactions to Brüno, and they all love it.
IFC rounds up some reviews. Sugar looks GREAT; I hope it arrives here. Apparently, Song of Sparrows is a visual stunner. Same goes for Tulpan. People really dig Adventureland as a coming-of-ager, not a laugh-fest.
WEIRD
Cleverness alert: via BoingBoing, Homer's Odyssey as written on twitter.
Russ Feingold likes Bon Iver.
New Lonely Island video!
WORLD
Democracy Now interiews Tim DeChristopher, a Utah student who posed as a bidder to disrupt an auction selling off land to be drilled for oil. DeChristopher is being charged with two felonies.
They also interview the ever-insightful Noam Chomsky.
SATURDAY EDITORIAL
I checked the Billboard Top 40 today. I don't check it regularly, and in fact, this may have been the first time I've ever checked it; it's not a personal habit. But it was interesting; Flo Rida was at number one, the All-American Rejects at two, and good for them, but damn if I've even mentioned them on this blog before - a blog doing its damnedest to keep up with the year of 2009.
I was making a mix for a friend of 90's music, which is basically a monthly occurrence on this laptop. But this time around I was giving a critical eye to what I put in - Third Eye Blind, Blind Melon, TLC, Alanis Morisette, y'know, those instant nostalgia pieces. But, well, this is hard to phrase: my generation, we were in elementary school through most of the 90s, and our access to "less popular" music was drastically limited. So our 90stalgia is not the 90stalgia of people who liked music in the 1990s, but of people who were learning to color and spell.
That's a challenge for me to wrap my head around, but I'm sure I'm not elucidating this feeling very clearly at all. Let me go for a metaphor. You grow up in City X, from birth until the age of thirteen. City X is, in your memory, the shiniest and nicest place on the planet, where everything is rad. Then at thirteen, you move to City Y, and with a more discerning eye, you note City Y's nuances, oddities, and quirks. But then, when you turn eighteen and take a vacation week in City X, you realize that your memories there were totally backwards and bizarre, which in turn changes the way you feel about City Y.
For me, this decade is defined by acts like Arcade Fire, The Knife, Devendra Banhart, The Decemberists, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Animal Collective, etc. But in ten years, a generation will hear "Dirty Little Secret" or "Shorty Got Low" on the radio and shout, "ahh, that's so 00's!" And me, I'll just feel confused, because both songs are fun, but ancillary to my experiences with the decade.
I guess this realization has challenged a notion of collective experience I have, the notion of a unified pop culture experiencing specific cultural signposts. But maybe decades are composed of separate, distinct subcultures? Or maybe even the smallest groupings are just to help us simplify a hopelessly complicated web of networks, opinions, and experiences.
Or maybe this decade is unique among previous others, specifically in terms of how it can be categorized and remembered? That's a dangerous conceit, and will be far more legitimate if I venture it with half a century's distance, but it's possible. Maybe the rise of the internet, the death of futurism as a unifying concern, and our mutual dissatisfaction with universality has actually given rise to a different intake procedure for media. Or maybe I just know too much about too many fractured subgroups, and I don't have the right perspective to characterize my era.
But that's why, in desperation I visited the Top 40. I thought it might be a refuge, but it was odd. Flo Rida and All-American Rejects hanging out at the top, Pink and Spears lingering in the middle, Kanye West's controversial and very-2008 single somehow grasping on at ten. This is not the top forty I know; these songs don't sound like 2009 to me. But I guess they do, and forever will, to the people who're memorizing their multiplication tables in their attic with the radio on, before they go turn on the Playstation. Wait, no, I guess the Wii?
Man... the 00's.
Week in literal review makes no sense, because this week was a slow news week.
REVIEWS
The Decemberists, The Hazards of Love
Let's get this out there, right off the bat: this is not a new direction for Meloy's rambling band of rastabouts. They've been laying the groundwork for an album like this (that is to say, a sprawling prog-rock opera about shapeshifters and forest queens) since they started plucking strings. Their albums always feature massive narrative set pieces, like pissed-off mariners or wives with feathery secrets. Meloy has simply taken this aesthetic to its most extreme, or rather, purest form. And damn it, on record, it works.
The narrative is better than some possibly confused reviewers (cough) have given it credit for. It's a love story with twists and turns, interesting supporting characters (a raging river included) and a fitting, honest ending. Sonically, it's also really solid; the band uses a blender aesthetic, shifting tones and genres to suit the story's needs. The forest queen is pissed? Lay on the sharp, rocking riffs. A couple recalls a lovely night together? Accordions, strummed country acoustics, and soft vocals. Ghosts are getting their revenge? Children's choir and jarring, percussive strings. People, this is what we call having a wide range.
There's been much ado in reviews about whether or not individual songs stand up. First of all, I'd ask why this matters - what happened, critics, to your desperate concerns about the death of the album artist? It sounds like you're holding the hammer to the coffin's nail on this one. But second, although the songs definitely fit most neatly into their album context, they mostly work like any Decemberists song ever has - self contained scenes with elaborate language, refreshing instrumentation and dramatic sweep. Nothing has truly changed; it's just an evolution.
The album has plenty of badass moments (a particularly fatal agreement with a river, comeuppance for infanticide) and plenty of sonic highlights (any moment belted out by the forest queen, a particular harpsichord melody, and a lovely little interlude) that make it a fantastic piece of music and a high point for the band.
Jeremy Jay, Slow Dance
I can't strictly call this album a grower, but I can ask you to get through your first listen patiently, then go through it again to have a blast. Because the first time through the album, I'll admit, I was thoroughly underwhelmed. It all seemed like a pretentious wreck. But listening a second time, with expectations calibrated, I actually found it really solid.
Take my personal favorite track on Slow Dance, "Gallop." The first time around, it felt simple and forgettable, but the second time around, I picked up a hell of a lot more depth: the way the echoing finger snaps create a deep space within the song, the jangling guitar's faux-drama - it's fun. Titular "Slow Dance" seemed boringly overwrought at first, but now it seems charmingly earnest.
This isn't to say it's a perfect album. The sparse instrumentation sets a specific vibe, but specificity and quality don't always go hand in hand here, and although every song has redeeming elements, there's nothing here to demand that vital second listen, except maybe stellar closer "Where Could We Go Tonight?" Why it's buried at the end, I will never understand. And yeah, sometimes we veer off into the land of the pretentious; Jeremy Jay tends to repeat single words multiple times before shouting "yeah!" on, well, most of the tracks here, and the trick loses its smirking appeal when it becomes too obvious.
But there's emotion and quality on Slow Dance, and if you can make it the end, then run through it all again, it's safe to say you'll be rewarded.
PERSONAL
I have been watching way too much All My Children for my own good. Damn it, David Hayward, you are fucking EVERYBODY'S shit up!
Oh, and try and avoid Röyksopp's "The Girl and The Robot" single, because if you listen to it once, you will end up listening to it literally one hundred times without stopping. Damn you, Robyn!
2009 FILMS SEEN: 15
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 639
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, getting all emotional.
Well, too bad for you. Because these last five news days were hella slow, and leant me plenty of room to catch up. (Sigh...)
MUSIC
Pitchfork wins some points for showing The Antlers some love; they're probably going to be on my iTunes soon. The Dougall song hits me in all the right ways, too.
TMT points out that so far, 2009 has been a year without platinum records.
Rich Boy is superdramatic. Also on Fader, the new Trey Songz video is probably the most 2009 thing I've seen all year. Oh, and I really enjoy the new Horrors video; don't be put off by the useless intro: the aesthetic reaches closer to some sort of arthouse snuff film than an "ironic" music video.
God I love illRoots. Kid Cudi ft. Kanye West and Common, CDQ, and damn... damn.
FILM
/Film really brought it while I was out! Working backwards: Vanity fair indulges our collective crush on Tarantino's new project, Inglourious Basterds. Michelle Rodriguez spoils three films at once, including Avatar. Jackie Earle Haley is going to be Freddy Kruger! The trailer for Brüno looks really funny. Also trailering up, The Hangover. There are lots of details concerning casting for Nolan's new film, Inception, and one of my favorite actors - Cillian Murphy - is in talks to join! Magnolia is still being condescending about the Let The Right One In subtitle debacle.
Beware light, light spoilers, but AICN has some audience reactions to Brüno, and they all love it.
IFC rounds up some reviews. Sugar looks GREAT; I hope it arrives here. Apparently, Song of Sparrows is a visual stunner. Same goes for Tulpan. People really dig Adventureland as a coming-of-ager, not a laugh-fest.
WEIRD
Cleverness alert: via BoingBoing, Homer's Odyssey as written on twitter.
Russ Feingold likes Bon Iver.
New Lonely Island video!
WORLD
Democracy Now interiews Tim DeChristopher, a Utah student who posed as a bidder to disrupt an auction selling off land to be drilled for oil. DeChristopher is being charged with two felonies.
They also interview the ever-insightful Noam Chomsky.
SATURDAY EDITORIAL
I checked the Billboard Top 40 today. I don't check it regularly, and in fact, this may have been the first time I've ever checked it; it's not a personal habit. But it was interesting; Flo Rida was at number one, the All-American Rejects at two, and good for them, but damn if I've even mentioned them on this blog before - a blog doing its damnedest to keep up with the year of 2009.
I was making a mix for a friend of 90's music, which is basically a monthly occurrence on this laptop. But this time around I was giving a critical eye to what I put in - Third Eye Blind, Blind Melon, TLC, Alanis Morisette, y'know, those instant nostalgia pieces. But, well, this is hard to phrase: my generation, we were in elementary school through most of the 90s, and our access to "less popular" music was drastically limited. So our 90stalgia is not the 90stalgia of people who liked music in the 1990s, but of people who were learning to color and spell.
That's a challenge for me to wrap my head around, but I'm sure I'm not elucidating this feeling very clearly at all. Let me go for a metaphor. You grow up in City X, from birth until the age of thirteen. City X is, in your memory, the shiniest and nicest place on the planet, where everything is rad. Then at thirteen, you move to City Y, and with a more discerning eye, you note City Y's nuances, oddities, and quirks. But then, when you turn eighteen and take a vacation week in City X, you realize that your memories there were totally backwards and bizarre, which in turn changes the way you feel about City Y.
For me, this decade is defined by acts like Arcade Fire, The Knife, Devendra Banhart, The Decemberists, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Animal Collective, etc. But in ten years, a generation will hear "Dirty Little Secret" or "Shorty Got Low" on the radio and shout, "ahh, that's so 00's!" And me, I'll just feel confused, because both songs are fun, but ancillary to my experiences with the decade.
I guess this realization has challenged a notion of collective experience I have, the notion of a unified pop culture experiencing specific cultural signposts. But maybe decades are composed of separate, distinct subcultures? Or maybe even the smallest groupings are just to help us simplify a hopelessly complicated web of networks, opinions, and experiences.
Or maybe this decade is unique among previous others, specifically in terms of how it can be categorized and remembered? That's a dangerous conceit, and will be far more legitimate if I venture it with half a century's distance, but it's possible. Maybe the rise of the internet, the death of futurism as a unifying concern, and our mutual dissatisfaction with universality has actually given rise to a different intake procedure for media. Or maybe I just know too much about too many fractured subgroups, and I don't have the right perspective to characterize my era.
But that's why, in desperation I visited the Top 40. I thought it might be a refuge, but it was odd. Flo Rida and All-American Rejects hanging out at the top, Pink and Spears lingering in the middle, Kanye West's controversial and very-2008 single somehow grasping on at ten. This is not the top forty I know; these songs don't sound like 2009 to me. But I guess they do, and forever will, to the people who're memorizing their multiplication tables in their attic with the radio on, before they go turn on the Playstation. Wait, no, I guess the Wii?
Man... the 00's.
Week in literal review makes no sense, because this week was a slow news week.
REVIEWS
The Decemberists, The Hazards of Love
Let's get this out there, right off the bat: this is not a new direction for Meloy's rambling band of rastabouts. They've been laying the groundwork for an album like this (that is to say, a sprawling prog-rock opera about shapeshifters and forest queens) since they started plucking strings. Their albums always feature massive narrative set pieces, like pissed-off mariners or wives with feathery secrets. Meloy has simply taken this aesthetic to its most extreme, or rather, purest form. And damn it, on record, it works.
The narrative is better than some possibly confused reviewers (cough) have given it credit for. It's a love story with twists and turns, interesting supporting characters (a raging river included) and a fitting, honest ending. Sonically, it's also really solid; the band uses a blender aesthetic, shifting tones and genres to suit the story's needs. The forest queen is pissed? Lay on the sharp, rocking riffs. A couple recalls a lovely night together? Accordions, strummed country acoustics, and soft vocals. Ghosts are getting their revenge? Children's choir and jarring, percussive strings. People, this is what we call having a wide range.
There's been much ado in reviews about whether or not individual songs stand up. First of all, I'd ask why this matters - what happened, critics, to your desperate concerns about the death of the album artist? It sounds like you're holding the hammer to the coffin's nail on this one. But second, although the songs definitely fit most neatly into their album context, they mostly work like any Decemberists song ever has - self contained scenes with elaborate language, refreshing instrumentation and dramatic sweep. Nothing has truly changed; it's just an evolution.
The album has plenty of badass moments (a particularly fatal agreement with a river, comeuppance for infanticide) and plenty of sonic highlights (any moment belted out by the forest queen, a particular harpsichord melody, and a lovely little interlude) that make it a fantastic piece of music and a high point for the band.
Jeremy Jay, Slow Dance
I can't strictly call this album a grower, but I can ask you to get through your first listen patiently, then go through it again to have a blast. Because the first time through the album, I'll admit, I was thoroughly underwhelmed. It all seemed like a pretentious wreck. But listening a second time, with expectations calibrated, I actually found it really solid.
Take my personal favorite track on Slow Dance, "Gallop." The first time around, it felt simple and forgettable, but the second time around, I picked up a hell of a lot more depth: the way the echoing finger snaps create a deep space within the song, the jangling guitar's faux-drama - it's fun. Titular "Slow Dance" seemed boringly overwrought at first, but now it seems charmingly earnest.
This isn't to say it's a perfect album. The sparse instrumentation sets a specific vibe, but specificity and quality don't always go hand in hand here, and although every song has redeeming elements, there's nothing here to demand that vital second listen, except maybe stellar closer "Where Could We Go Tonight?" Why it's buried at the end, I will never understand. And yeah, sometimes we veer off into the land of the pretentious; Jeremy Jay tends to repeat single words multiple times before shouting "yeah!" on, well, most of the tracks here, and the trick loses its smirking appeal when it becomes too obvious.
But there's emotion and quality on Slow Dance, and if you can make it the end, then run through it all again, it's safe to say you'll be rewarded.
PERSONAL
I have been watching way too much All My Children for my own good. Damn it, David Hayward, you are fucking EVERYBODY'S shit up!
Oh, and try and avoid Röyksopp's "The Girl and The Robot" single, because if you listen to it once, you will end up listening to it literally one hundred times without stopping. Damn you, Robyn!
2009 FILMS SEEN: 15
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 639
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, getting all emotional.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
April 1st, 2037
MUSIC
Pitchfork, oh how ye have fallen. Today they interview the last living members of Los Campesinos!, in a conversation mostly dealing with their mid-20s transition into a blues/folk style. They also have a free day's worth of music, including three new LPs by the newest band to sign to Young Money, an indie pop act from France called Sun Sun Bubble.
Discodust has uploaded a week's worth of music today, most if which is silence-core. It's a genre worth getting into; there's a particular piece of silence (Kimdritz's "Isoscope Majesty") that is really invigorating, possibly a breakout track for the genre.
HipHopDX is still covering hip hop for some reason, despite most established hip hop bands and labels switching over to the metal genre. Speaking of which, Jadakiss's new album "Dragonfire Axemen" (due sometime in the next hour) is supposedly a tribute to Weezy's classic and revered transition from rap to rock. What a great work that was!
FILM
Wes Anderson's political thriller, The Presidential Ark, premieres on Youtube tonight. Starring seasoned vet and skilled thespian Zac Efron, it supposedly reimagines the events directly following President X3R28's powering-on. Soundtrack by the talented Fred Durst.
McG's new nostalgia picture, 2015 is Snopes! is set for a release mid-tomorrow. Look for a cameo by infamously neurotic method actress Miley Cirus, playing herself immediately before marrying Johnny Depp.
Slumdog Millionaire XII comes out on Myspace Video in a few minutes. Reputedly the best in the series since Slumdog Millionaire VIII, this return to form deals with some the epic serial's less prominent characters, like Douglas, who infamously assassinated Lord Xexthon midway through the love-it-or-hate-it departure Slumdog Millionaire X: X is for Xtermination.
WEIRD
It turns out, cloning still isn't perfect: ten percent of all clones fail to attain standard immortality. Bizarre!
WORLD
No news.
PERSONAL
Oh man, I think I took the wrong Emotion today; I've been kind of melancholy. Oh well. I'll take a different Emotion in the morning.
2009 FILMS SEEN: 29828372372
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 2093290389292872387236273y632
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Internal, sitting comfortably in my cortex.
Pitchfork, oh how ye have fallen. Today they interview the last living members of Los Campesinos!, in a conversation mostly dealing with their mid-20s transition into a blues/folk style. They also have a free day's worth of music, including three new LPs by the newest band to sign to Young Money, an indie pop act from France called Sun Sun Bubble.
Discodust has uploaded a week's worth of music today, most if which is silence-core. It's a genre worth getting into; there's a particular piece of silence (Kimdritz's "Isoscope Majesty") that is really invigorating, possibly a breakout track for the genre.
HipHopDX is still covering hip hop for some reason, despite most established hip hop bands and labels switching over to the metal genre. Speaking of which, Jadakiss's new album "Dragonfire Axemen" (due sometime in the next hour) is supposedly a tribute to Weezy's classic and revered transition from rap to rock. What a great work that was!
FILM
Wes Anderson's political thriller, The Presidential Ark, premieres on Youtube tonight. Starring seasoned vet and skilled thespian Zac Efron, it supposedly reimagines the events directly following President X3R28's powering-on. Soundtrack by the talented Fred Durst.
McG's new nostalgia picture, 2015 is Snopes! is set for a release mid-tomorrow. Look for a cameo by infamously neurotic method actress Miley Cirus, playing herself immediately before marrying Johnny Depp.
Slumdog Millionaire XII comes out on Myspace Video in a few minutes. Reputedly the best in the series since Slumdog Millionaire VIII, this return to form deals with some the epic serial's less prominent characters, like Douglas, who infamously assassinated Lord Xexthon midway through the love-it-or-hate-it departure Slumdog Millionaire X: X is for Xtermination.
WEIRD
It turns out, cloning still isn't perfect: ten percent of all clones fail to attain standard immortality. Bizarre!
WORLD
No news.
PERSONAL
Oh man, I think I took the wrong Emotion today; I've been kind of melancholy. Oh well. I'll take a different Emotion in the morning.
2009 FILMS SEEN: 29828372372
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 2093290389292872387236273y632
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Internal, sitting comfortably in my cortex.
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