Blog: 24 hour party pooper

Nothing Tunabunny does is accidental. I've listened to the group's new album, Minima Moralia , for the past month and started this review at least half a dozen times. I've embraced it as a new classic and, metaphorically at least, ripped it from the turntable and smashed it against the wall. I think I've come to the point now where I can just accept it for what it is: a document of guarded secrets, plagued with self-doubt but holding its own and wrapped in smirking half laughs. It's an uncrackable [...]

So here's the situation: for the past month I've been struck with the worst writer's block I've had in a long time. There's plenty to write about, and even a good amount of stuff I'm interested in writing about—a necessary, yet often ignored part of the process—but every time I've sat down to produce something I've managed to spit out 10 or 20 lines of garble and not much else. When working without a deadline I tend to over think what I'm doing. I mean, we're talking about writing about music, right? What's the big deal? Hell if I know. [...]

The best thing I did this week so far was throw on the headphones and watch this four-part Harry Partch PBS special. If I could go back in time I would personally thank KPBS-TV (San Diego) for producing this. It's beautiful, inspiring and, for me, borders on the religious. Just wonderful.

Generally speaking, I'm not terribly fond of homage in album art. But this is OK, I think. Marvin Gaye was originally born Gay but switched up the spelling for reasons that no one has ever been able to speak about with any final authority. So there's that kind of pun at work but, further, Gaye's artwork was centered around the classic painting "Sugar Shack" by Ernie Barnes which continues to be best known for appearing in the opening credits of Good Times . Lil B 's art takes the theme but infuses [...]

...at least that's how Mozz put it to one little punter on the way to the gardens in 1984. Please enjoy The Smiths' appearance on the Charlie's Bus segment of TV-AM 's early Saturday morning program S.P.L.A.T.! (Soap, Puzzles, Laughter And Talent). Oh, yeah, that's Sandie Shaw at the end singing "Jeane" (?!) to a bunch of kids.

...It's not very good no matter what you've heard. It's pretty self-parodying but even that doesn't save it. It's mostly just exhausting and boring. If you insist on hearing it GO HERE . (Note: totally not safe for work, church, school, around other people, etc.) And all of you have seen every one of those scratchy, out of focus VHS transfers of old Op Ivy gigs on YouTube so I won't bore you there. Instead, watch the story of the real Operation Ivy . We kick it very, very old school around [...]

No one needs my opinion on the new Washed Out LP so I won't bother but do ya think they could have hired someone who wouldn't totally rip off Roxy Music to handle the cover art?

Several issues, and years, ago Chunklet Magazine ran a feature whereby readers could apply for their very own "Cred Card" issued by, who else, The Bank Of Indie Cred. Earlier this year, the idea was expanded into a 200 page book that quizzes readers in every conceivable area of "indie cred" (samples? "Do you argue with people who follow recipes?", "Have you ever been personally responsible for a band getting fired from a label?", "Has one of your heckles ever silenced the room?"). It's a massively funny and surprisingly broad laugh-fest. As expected, all sacred cows are slaughtered and the [...]

I haven't paid attention to any records in the past two weeks other than David Comes To Life by the ten-years-old-this-month Fucked Up and JEFF The Brotherhood 's We Are The Champions . OK, so only two records in two weeks is very much on the slow side of things and it's not because there weren't other good records that came out. It's just that I care about these more than those and I really couldn't be happier that these two bands, touring together now coincidentally, are really exploding in the [...]

• The FADER - Fucked Up, "Queen of Hearts"

Dangerous Minds wins the blue ribbon for best typographical error . Yep, them dusty 'ol Black Flag boys sure were breaking ground back in the late 19th century. Hardly anyone could stand 'em but no town pokey could hold 'em. They'll always be remembered by their rallying cry: Get In The Wagon! There's gold in them thar hardcore hills!

August 11-14. Watch this handy infomercial and have your mind blown. If you're at work you may take the rest of the day off.

Look, I don't care what you want to name your stupid song but there should come a time in the cycle of writing, recording, releasing and video-making where someone says, "Hey, wait, this title is way too iconic and automatically associated with someone else for us to use." Think "Born In The USA","Back In The U.S.S.R","Blue Suede Shoes", etc. Well, apparently absolutely no one in The Rapture 's camp could be bothered to think at all because here's the troupe's new jam improbably titled "How Deep is Your Love?". And it's not a cover of the [...]

TopShop is trying to sell this hideously gross "festival wear " but the kids in America won't go for this, will they? We know THE MAN can't bust our music! Oh, wait, nevermind...

I always spend too much time thinking about what I want to do instead of actually trying several things until I find what I'm looking for. I'll spend weeks thinking of pieces to finish and post here but many (hell, most) lose their steam after a month or so and I talk myself out of writing them at all. Every now and again I'll spend a few hours fiddling around with layouts and such and convince myself I'm doing very important things . Mostly, though, I read a lot of other writers. There's a lot of good [...]

I'm stretching my legs here. BRB.

A ridiculous amount of music from Sweden has made its way to these pages over the years. I've really got to start paying more deliberate attention to what's happening over there instead of just stumbling across things. For example, how much more gratified would I have been if I had "discovered" Jonathan Johansson a couple of years ago? OK, not much more. Music has a way of finding you when you need it . A quick search of the regular music press shows that his album En Hand I Himlen got some [...]

I had big plans this week (ok, small plans) to "recap" or "report" or whatever on SXSW but the truth is I did a lot of that already here , here , here and here and I don't feel like going back over all that again in such short order. So thank your lucky stars that the folks over at See of Sound have remastered and posted the 1980 (or possibly 1979) documentary Punk in England (reputedly originally titled Punk & It's Aftershocks or, if you [...]

I've been meaning to post this for a long time. Actually, I started to do so before the beginning of the year, even, but I kept putting it off because I didn't know which direction I wanted the narrative to go. I've finally decided to just get it up here because if I wait any longer I'm going to defeat my whole purpose which was always simply to get The Russian Apartments up at 24hourpartypooper. My original story, which I've since decided was too personal, was a long, 1000+ word piece about how I [...]

"And here he was ruined. The frantic praise of the impotent meant recognition- actual somewhereness -to the hipster. He got what he wanted; he stopped protesting, reacting. He began to bureaucratize jive as a machinery for securing the actual-really the false -somewhereness. Jive, which had originally been a critical system, a kind of Surrealism, a personal revision of existing disparities, now grew moribundly self-conscious, smug, encapsulated, isolated from its source. It grew more rigid than the institutions it had set out to defy. It became a boring routine. The hipster-once an unregenerate individualist, an [...]

I've been singing the praises of Atlanta's Neon Christ for what seems like (well, it is, actually) about 25 years. A whole bunch of footage was shot during what was supposed to be the band's final show back in February 2008. No, they've not played since then but I didn't think they'd play that one, either, so hope springs eternal, you know? Anyway, this footage is being worked into a full-length documentary primarily about Neon Christ but also Atlanta hardcore, then and now. If there's any doubt in your mind about my never-ending enthusiasm about this band please [...]

• Neon Christ - Neon Christ
• Neon Christ - Parental Suppression