More often than not, when Evan comes over to my house after work he'll sit on the couch and tinker with his laptop for at least an hour, and eventually mutter "what will I blog about today…" to which I respond "Me!" When he came over today, I asked what he was going to blog about, and he told me I was going to write the entry today. So either a) he's too hungover to make his brain function properly, or b) he's trying to shut me up - if I want to be written about so much, [...]
1. The Antlers - Hospice The Antlers - Bear Brent: This album grew and grew over 2009 until it was pretty impossible for me to not put this at #1. I was positive I would have phoenix in this spot, but The Antlers hits me on a completely different level. It's not "fun" music but it is an album I can play over and over again, hearing new things. The piano roll on Atrophy always gets to [...]
The news runs all night and all day: in the barber shop, at the proverbial watercooler, on the seldom-watched television that has always lurked in the corner of our living room. In class, I ask my students to search news sites and blogs, and report on all the ways that social media - the stuff of postmodern interconnection - serves our global awareness. At night, my daughter and I find Haiti on the map, and I explain: how the houses were poorly built, how the concrete fell on the people: look, there they are in photographs, [...]
Primal Scream has been around awhile. Formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1982, Primal Scream has explored a lot of genres. Alternative Rock, Acid House, Goth, Indie, Dance...even some reggae. They've got about 15 ex-members, which is always telling in my book. The lead vocalist, Bobby Gillespie, was once the drummer of The Jesus & Mary Chain, but vacated his post in the mid 80's to work on Primal Scream full time after being given an ultimatum by the Reid Brothers of TJ&MC. Following Gillespie's departure from that band, Primal Scream kicked around a few years and were met with lukewarm praise, at best, from the critics. [...]
A few months ago I asked my friend Jessica (or Jet as she is known to her friends), a classical music aficionado, to submit to me a list of the ten worst composers of all time . The entry was something of a hit with readers, who responded quite negatively to our scathing criticism of some of the most recognizable names in the history of music. She provided the insight and I added little off-color remarks at the end of each statement, like an expertly placed cherry atop the world's most delicious sundae. One comment, left by a reader named [...]
I didn't really want to attempt a list of my favourite albums of the decade - the list for this year alone was more work than I needed. Instead, I decided to hit some of the ways this decade dealt with music - how technology has changed the musical landscape further, what globalized capitalism has done to the music industry, and what media convergence did to help out. Then as a second part, I thought I should add some of my musings on the decade as far as my own musical development goes - after all, I became an adult [...]
I realize this is a week late - I apologize. It wasn't just to build suspense; I suppose I decided to get a bit of actual relaxation in when I finally started my holidays four days ago. At any rate, let's dip into what autumn brought for albums. September gave us releases from Sondre Lerche, frYars, The Cribs, The Big Pink, Dragonette, Boys Noize, Yo La Tengo, Noah and the Whale, Sliimy, David Sylvian, Jamie T, The Voluntary Butler Scheme, and surprisingly, Prefab Sprout. Wild Beasts broke through with their sophomore album (being contrary, I thought it wasn't as good [...]
Can't believe it's already been a decade. I'm trying to think about the person I used 2 be back in 1999. I wonder how familiar I am with that bro, or how much I respect him. Theoretically, I have grown up and become a more 'cultured' person with a developed+refined taste in all aspects of life, including my favourite music. Piecing together 'The Best Albums/Artists/Songs/Bands of the Decade' seems tricky, like some sort of existential reflection of urself. I feel like most websites that focus on music create 'best of year/decade' [...]
Michaella Solar-March is one of the coolest people we know. She does a million awesome things really well, like working for Spunk , the terrific record label that distributes bands like Akron/Family and Spoon in Australia, and before that she did an amazing show on a great radio station , and on top of that she also works on this cool thing and writes Grey Gardens , one of our favourite blogs on the whole internet. So we thought we'd capitalise on some of her coolness and get her to write a list of her [...]
The Full List of Big Thoughts From A Small Mind's 2009 Reviews . Hunger There have been many predictions regarding who the Oscar nominees will be this year. Yet the one thing that is usually left out of these discussions is timing. In a year in where the Academy Awards have expanded the Best Picture category to allow ten films, one of the best films of 2009 is not even eligible to compete. Although Steve McQueen's stunning debut, Hunger , hit most theatres [...]
Where were you on the night before the dawn of the New Millennium? Jon Kerr was getting a pit going in Jilly's Rockworld, Manchester. We've asked him to summarise the ten years since then in all things metal in a handy A to Z A venged Sevenfold Not just any Californian metalcore outfit, this lot. A7X have produced a wide range of sounds across their four albums and have developed a global fanbase. From the release of [...]
For Terre Thaemlitz, audio is never "innocent." From Thaemlitz's earliest ambient recordings, through a series of incredible electro-acoustic projects for the Mille Plateaux label, to a current triple-life as producer of astringently political "radio shows," deep house auteur as DJ Sprinkles and K-SHE, and writer/polemicist, Thaemlitz's project has always been to unsettle any putative audience's assumptions of what constitutes knowledge and politics. Thaemlitz is also possibly dance music's finest socio-political commentator. Not to mention her continual "queering of the pitch." With DJ Sprinkles's Midtown 120 Blues somehow managing to be one of the best dance music albums of [...]
Mew 's new album, the rather lengthily titled 'No More Stories/Are Told Today/I'm Sorry/They Washed Away/No More Stories/The World Is Grey/I'm Tired/Let's Wash Away', is one of my favourites of 2009 so far. I was fortunate enough to get get frontman Jonas Bjerre to answer a few quick questions.... Hello Jonas. What are you up to today? I am making a new animation for the live visuals, it's a pretty ambitious one with armatures and play dough and fimo clay, reindeer skulls. I am also drinking coffee and later [...]
Here continues our journey through the top 50 albums of the past decade. 40. A.F.I. - Sing The Sorrow I used to like A.F.I.'s "Decemberunderground" more until my brother revealed something to me. "Decemberunderground is like someone took your average rock album, threw it through Hot Topic, and caught it on the other side. Sing The Sorrow is a distinct sound and it's in your face. Not just anyone can make that album. Only A.F.I. had the production, talent and [...]
Our generation may well end up suffering from culture-based low self-esteem. It is constantly suggested that things aren't quite as good today as they used to be, and our main competitor is America, a country endlessly bigger than our own. When it comes to record labels, the ones that I imagine most people would mention as their favourites are ones that were started in the 70s – Rough Trade or Factory, for example – or American labels – Dischord and No Idea for the punks, Polyvinyl, Matador or maybe even Saddle Creek for the indie kids. Some attention is maybe [...]
I'm a little behind in all things internet lately, but I did get a chance over the weekend to read Nitsuh Abebe's excellent overview of the decade in indie rock over at Pitchfork. It's a terrific read, surveying the various ebbs and flows of the decade in a fairly succinct yet broad (and entertaining) way. As I've tentatively dipped my toe into my own iTunes library in prepartion for some kind end-of-decade rundown (something I probably won't actually post until later in the fall), it really dawns on me what a challenge that really is. With that difficulty [...]
Director : Oliver Parker Release Date : 9 September Review by Robert Haughton We all know the fable of Dorian Gray and our imaginings of a corrupt soul on a canvas can be pretty scary. So Oliver Parker offers up his nightmare and I'm sorry to say it scared me for all the wrong reasons. Dorian (Ben Barnes) is a dapper young man from the country who inherits an estate in London. Debuting in 19th Century society, his beauty attracts the [...]
Band: WHY? From: Cincinnati, OH Sound: half-rapped, half-singsong, pop-inflected psychedelic folk-hop Similar Artists: Subtle, They Might Be Giants, DOOM, Silver Jews, Hymie's Basement, Fog Listen: "This Blackest Purse" A year and a half after releasing the acclaimed Alopecia (EAR FARM's #2 album of 2008 , and one of my personal "top albums ever"... yep, you heard me), WHY? returns with their fourth album, Eskimo Snow . The two records are each [...]
The Love Music Hate Racism campaign was set up in the UK in 2002, with the aid of Unite Against Fascism and the Anti Nazi League, to combat the rise of political parties such as the BNP. Inspired by the 1970s movement Rock Against Racism, it launched with a special gig in Manchester featuring Doves and Ms Dynamite and has gone on to host various events across the country and work with artists such as Badly Drawn Boy, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly and Morrissey. A nationwide Irish wing of the organisation launched this year and [...]
You can't go to Raekwon The Chef. Rae has to come to you. (You waited three years; you can wait a few more minutes.) First we must wade into the swampy darkness and psychotropic vapours of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Pt. 2 's opening credit sequence. Act I, scene one. "Return of the North Star" -- Old man Papa Wu, perhaps delusional, is visited by the ghost of Raekwon, and spouts Pythian babble about good and evil and prophecies of wealth. We fade to the dimly lit confines of a secret [...]
This Week's Other Releases
Cover That Don't Suck
Reuse Recycle Remix - February 8
