August 2009
“What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the...”
– Andy Warhol (The Philosophy of Andy Warhol from A to B and Back Again) (via thischarmingfag) (via douglasmartini)
My vague theory about how America’s class system differs from Australia’s is that while we here have a class system that’s quite impermeable, no one really cares about it (see, for...
Siouxsie & The Banshees, “Arabian...
steveagee:
There’s not a “To Catch A Predator: Sea Otter Edition” is there? I kind of need to know!
Great punchline. Setup at Steve’s tumblr.
Paul F. Tompkins, “Jazz”
I’m...
“There needs to be a countdown clock for muffin decisions at Starbucks.”
– Patton Oswalt (via 24freedinners) (via ryandoescomedy)
Cobra Starship ft. Leighton Meester, “Good...
tomewing:
Taylor Swift - “You Belong With Me (Pop...
A rumination.
One of the reasons Pitchfork has become such a dominant voice in online music talk is tied to the unapologetic fact of their P2K frenzy taking place now, in August, instead of November/December when most media outlets will be running decade retrospectives. This way, Pitchfork sets the terms of the discussion, and the lists and features to come will all be compared with Pitchfork’s whether...
Matisyahu, “Smash Lies”
Not a single...
anokaything:
Why is everyone dying? Do they know something I don’t?
Britney Spears, “Unusual You”
...
Mind you
tomewing:
Mind you, from my perspective there have been probably two years in the entire modern history of popular music where the most interesting, exciting and best stuff has come out on the album format. And even 1966 and 1967 are close. You can make a good case for the early 70s too I guess.
I’d call those two years 1952 and 1953 myself, specially if jazz counts — I think...
Antony & Bryce Dessner, “I Was Young...
Bad Men
tomewing:
existentializzy:
Read the rest of Mark Grief’s astute take on the show here.
I have never watched Mad Men, so I don’t know how accurate Greif is about the show’s plots or acting, but I enjoyed reading this anyway. It was, ironically, persuasive - within that wide subset of persuasion which means “confirming a prejudice you didn’t realise you had”.
What prejudice would that be?
...
Cleo Laine, “Atrocity”
Mark Sinker...
Factoid (downstream)
tomewing:
(And some people do get annoyed at rock for the guitars and at dance music for the repetitive beats!)
I’ve done both, which is why the examples came to mind so readily.
I should say that I wouldn’t consider myself qualified to educate anyone on either mainstream country or modern latin pop; I’m just expressing a slight annoyance that no one besides uh Wikipedia is...
Rosa Ponselle, “A Perfect Day”
Few...
Factoid
barthel:
There is not a single mainstream country song in the Pitchfork Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s.* Not judging, just interesting!
* Unless I missed one. There are songs from Loretta Lynn and Johnny Cash, but they don’t really count. There certainly aren’t any of the ones I’d expect to be there, e.g. Miranda Lambert, Big & Rich, and Taylor Swift.
This strikes me as a major blind spot...
Marc-Andre Hamelin, “Suicide In An...
Percy Grainger, “Free Music #1”
This...
100 Great American Recordings Of The 1940s. →
I’ve finished my summer project of overthinking and overwriting a playlist of American music recorded in the 1940s. I’ve been recommending to people that they skip the text and just play the songs, but of course I’d like people to engage with my ideas, insofar as I have any. Sorry about the purple patches.
It’s part of a series which began as an ill-considered response to...
Mad Libs with the New York Times... →
iusedtobecool:
Here is a helpful guide to writing a proper wedding announcement from the New York Times. I love it for so many reasons. But the first is that they assume people getting married in the city are in their 30s. And second, they get all up in your business. The editor of the Times Wedding Section is like my mother, who is the biggest gossip I know. “What do they do? Where do they live?...
Loretta Lynn & Jack White, “Portland,...
tomewing:
Personas | Metropath(ologies) | An installation by Aaron Zinman mikearauz:
Enter your name, and Personas scours the web for information and attempts to characterize the person - to fit them to a predetermined set of categories that an algorithmic process created from a…
This is a perfect example of the kind of app that is very beautiful, and technically I’m sure it’s...
Juliette Gréco, “Si Tu...
De La Soul, “The Magic Number”
Good...
Blue Monday and You?
fuckyeahbluemonday:
Please share your personal story of hearing “Blue Monday” for the first time. What did you think? Were you already a New Order fan at the time? What did you think of the floppy disk sleeve? Do you think the song has become a cliché?
It must have been around 2001 or 02. I was desperately trying to catch up with anything that had ever been critically praised in rock music, or...
“Each day is a gift. The kind of gift you have to pretend to be excited about,...”
– Morgan Murphy
James Luther Dickinson, “Wine”
Play...
R.I.P. James Luther Dickinson.
There’s been a lot of music-related death this year. This may be the one that ends up affecting me the most personally.
I got into James Luther Dickinson when some year-end best-of list in 2002 had his second album, Free Beer Tomorrow, on it; based on a mention in that writeup, I tracked down his rare and quasi-legendary 1972 debut Dixie Fried and memorized it, then got the followup....
tomewing:
Bounty Killer ft Timberlee,...
Jessie James, “Blue Jeans”
No...
We are going to "run out of sugar," say General... →
fightwithknives:
I like how it is responsibility of the Obama administration to lower tariffs rather than the responsibility of food-production corporations and, you know, citizens to consume less sugar.
Freedom’s just another word for doing whatever the fuck we want.
tomewing:
postpunk:
So here’s an open...
Louis CK, “The Bank”
Probably my...
It's not often I'll applaud a major corporation...
…just on the principle of the thing. But AT&T offering free wi-fi at all Barnes & Noble stores in the U.S. is one of those things that makes you believe in a God.
Now if only Starbucks and Borders would work out similar deals, I’d never do any writing at home.
Feargal Sharkey, “You Little Thief”
...
tomewing:
This is intriguing: is there any particular reason why Abbey Road should marmalise the Beatles’ LP stats to such a degree?
Only anecdotal, but sometimes when I want to listen to about twenty minutes worth of music and don’t feel like anything in particular I’ll play the second side. Apparently I’m not alone.
via crockeronline:
The Carpenters, “Calling...