Monday's a bit scattered sometimes. You know how it is. First some reading material, new tracks follow. Cedric Bixler-Zavala (aka that guy Cindy went to elementary school with -- I could post incriminating pics of him with a Morrissey pompadour, but that would just be evil, wouldn't it?) of The Mars Volta talks about his iTunes playlist with the NYT. It's nothing too suprising, knowing Mr. Bixler-Zavala's preferred aesthetic, with shout outs to Mammatus, Feathers, and Nick Cave's new film -- but it's always nice to hear what musicians are listening to.
Crank up the hype machine: Evangelicals interviewed in Pitchfork. Remember, we told you how rad they are first! We're only kind of kidding.
Could this be the most pathetically annoying music column of all time? I mean, if Mr. Berrier is trying to be ironic, he's failed miserably; if he's sincere, it's terribly grating. I mean, we've contended for ages now that, like it or not, Pitchfork Is The Man now, but seriously, we've never quite whinged on the topic quite so ... annoyingly. (Chuck Klosterman vs. Corey Feldman? What an odd comparison!) This may be why I never went to work for newspapers... Sometimes that sense of journalistic entitlement demonstrated by mostly-print journalists can feel so odd at times. Still, I suppose I should be happy that old-guard (read:print) music critics are taking music bloggers seriously, or something. Um, did this piece have a point? Let me know if you find it floating around in the muddle.
Speaking of which, I hate it when an article in the NYT brings aspects of the Austin scene to our attention. I mean, we know that there's a big alternative art scene on the East Side (in fact, two friends have a rather lovely studio not mentioned in the article), we just didn't realize that it was quite so chic! That's what we get for being a tad too insular, I suppose! Anyway, it's a nice feature, rather impressionistic in tone though -- it gives you the odd impression that San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, and Marfa are all cozily near each other, which I'm here to tell you, they're not.
John Darnielle reveals a whole lot (and maybe more than some music listeners are willing to know, really) about the genesis of The Mountain Goats' Get Lonely in a piece for the LA times. I remember reading about Goats' King of Prussia misadventures in Peter Hughes' tour diaries last year; the connection between the desolate tone of the album and those bleak three days really, really cracked open the album for me. Speaking of, it's a weird criticism, but we're really not the biggest fans of the typeface used on the cover (especially after the possibly pointed use of recognizable and well, pretty 4ad typefaces on the previous three releases), though the pitch black gloss inner sleve and the tiny credits on the outer sleeve on the vinyl edition speak volumes. Nicely done there.
Speaking of Nick Cave ... we got a nice promo from Brassland in the mail the other day from Aussies Devastations. We think they sound like a nice cross between The National and er, yeah, Nick Cave (they're probably WAY sick of that comparison) -- maybe with a smidge of the Afghan Whigs/Twilight Singers vibe as well. But the use of acoustic guitar throughout, somewhere in the middle of the mix, calls to mind the kind of goth peddled by The Cure and Echo and the Bunnymen. As a whole, their debut album, Coal, isn't nearly as consistent as say, the self-titled debut release from The National -- but really, how can you not love a band with a delicously wrong and mellow song called "Sex and Mayhem"?
Devastations -- Sex and Mayhem
Speaking of Australia and 4ad, then -- the lastest band to totally sneak up on us out of the shadows is Wolf & Cub. Somehow we missed the flurry of excitement over the Phones remix of their track "Thousand Cuts," so we don't have that for you, but here's a couple winners from their new album Vessels, out today on Dot Dash in Australia and New Zealand and 4ad in the rest of the world on Sept. 2nd. A goodly amount of the album is blues-y psych and glam-tinged stompy rock dripping with fuzzed out feedback over a sassy rhythm section -- as demonstrated in "This Mess." Other tracks are neat-o, desolate soundscapes dripping with spiky feedback, bizzaro keys and beats, and ... the occasional digeridoo -- as demonstrated by "Condundrum." Really, how could we not love that combination of sounds?
Wolf & Cub -- This Mess
Wolf & Cub -- Conundrum
Just for fun, a few remixes and etceterata:
Dntel -- Rock My Boat (feat. Mia Doi Todd)
Ladytron -- Destroy Everything You Touch (Archigram Remix)
The Knife -- We Share Our Mothers Health (Radio Slaves Secret Base Mix)
The Gossip -- Listen Up! (A Touch Of Class Remix)
Hot Chip -- Colours (Fred Falke Remix)
Crank up the hype machine: Evangelicals interviewed in Pitchfork. Remember, we told you how rad they are first! We're only kind of kidding.
Could this be the most pathetically annoying music column of all time? I mean, if Mr. Berrier is trying to be ironic, he's failed miserably; if he's sincere, it's terribly grating. I mean, we've contended for ages now that, like it or not, Pitchfork Is The Man now, but seriously, we've never quite whinged on the topic quite so ... annoyingly. (Chuck Klosterman vs. Corey Feldman? What an odd comparison!) This may be why I never went to work for newspapers... Sometimes that sense of journalistic entitlement demonstrated by mostly-print journalists can feel so odd at times. Still, I suppose I should be happy that old-guard (read:print) music critics are taking music bloggers seriously, or something. Um, did this piece have a point? Let me know if you find it floating around in the muddle.
Speaking of which, I hate it when an article in the NYT brings aspects of the Austin scene to our attention. I mean, we know that there's a big alternative art scene on the East Side (in fact, two friends have a rather lovely studio not mentioned in the article), we just didn't realize that it was quite so chic! That's what we get for being a tad too insular, I suppose! Anyway, it's a nice feature, rather impressionistic in tone though -- it gives you the odd impression that San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, and Marfa are all cozily near each other, which I'm here to tell you, they're not.
John Darnielle reveals a whole lot (and maybe more than some music listeners are willing to know, really) about the genesis of The Mountain Goats' Get Lonely in a piece for the LA times. I remember reading about Goats' King of Prussia misadventures in Peter Hughes' tour diaries last year; the connection between the desolate tone of the album and those bleak three days really, really cracked open the album for me. Speaking of, it's a weird criticism, but we're really not the biggest fans of the typeface used on the cover (especially after the possibly pointed use of recognizable and well, pretty 4ad typefaces on the previous three releases), though the pitch black gloss inner sleve and the tiny credits on the outer sleeve on the vinyl edition speak volumes. Nicely done there.
Speaking of Nick Cave ... we got a nice promo from Brassland in the mail the other day from Aussies Devastations. We think they sound like a nice cross between The National and er, yeah, Nick Cave (they're probably WAY sick of that comparison) -- maybe with a smidge of the Afghan Whigs/Twilight Singers vibe as well. But the use of acoustic guitar throughout, somewhere in the middle of the mix, calls to mind the kind of goth peddled by The Cure and Echo and the Bunnymen. As a whole, their debut album, Coal, isn't nearly as consistent as say, the self-titled debut release from The National -- but really, how can you not love a band with a delicously wrong and mellow song called "Sex and Mayhem"?
Devastations -- Sex and Mayhem
Speaking of Australia and 4ad, then -- the lastest band to totally sneak up on us out of the shadows is Wolf & Cub. Somehow we missed the flurry of excitement over the Phones remix of their track "Thousand Cuts," so we don't have that for you, but here's a couple winners from their new album Vessels, out today on Dot Dash in Australia and New Zealand and 4ad in the rest of the world on Sept. 2nd. A goodly amount of the album is blues-y psych and glam-tinged stompy rock dripping with fuzzed out feedback over a sassy rhythm section -- as demonstrated in "This Mess." Other tracks are neat-o, desolate soundscapes dripping with spiky feedback, bizzaro keys and beats, and ... the occasional digeridoo -- as demonstrated by "Condundrum." Really, how could we not love that combination of sounds?
Wolf & Cub -- This Mess
Wolf & Cub -- Conundrum
Just for fun, a few remixes and etceterata:
Dntel -- Rock My Boat (feat. Mia Doi Todd)
Ladytron -- Destroy Everything You Touch (Archigram Remix)
The Knife -- We Share Our Mothers Health (Radio Slaves Secret Base Mix)
The Gossip -- Listen Up! (A Touch Of Class Remix)
Hot Chip -- Colours (Fred Falke Remix)
posted by cindy hotpoint at 2:08:00 PM
9 Comments:
sorry, but i find the nytimes link not working to the austin article; i receive their version of an error message.
re: distances in texas
while traveling and meeting people last week (read: parents) in east lansing (go spartans!), we found when we said we were from el paso that they immediately offered the point that they had either traveled to or knew people from...wait for it...houston! this then served as our cue to reply that el paso was on the new mexico side of the state and was, in actuality, closer to los angeles than houston. usually they couldn't grok that fact.
in addition, they commented that we didn't "sound" like we were from texas. dang!
it should be working now, thanks for letting me know it was broken!
yeah, that's about typical. if people don't know about "the whole houston on one side, el paso on the other, 14 hours away" angle of texas, it tends to break their brains when you try and explain it.
el paso, the furthest eastern 'burb of los angeles! (;
The blogging vs MSM article was HILARIOUS... I like how he was really angry and serious and (even though it had NO point) that all flew out the window when he mentioned how he enjoyed the Rascal Flatts concerts he gets to go to because of his job. I doubt that ANYONE in the 'blogosphere' cares if they are refered to as MSM... I don't think people decided to start blogging so they could be cooler than print critics....... what I think blogging DID do was make it so that only people with talent (read= people like Chuck Klosterman, and Joel Stein) in the print world get attention and every standard hack like this guy get ignored. Hopefully blogging will effect print media in the long run (if at all) by forcing the people who are putting the money up to get better writers so their magazines don't suck so bad (THIS MEANS YOU SPIN! I haven't read recently but last time I checked you sucked). I would like to buy a good magazine.
totally agree re: get lonely's typeface. funny.
re: that roanoke column
sad, but when columnists are of a "certain age," whether 85 or 35, they revert to type: witheringly craven with examples that harken back to their own experiences during their "age of rebellion."
that back-handed slight to kids now who could not pick out klosterman (while using the dated feldman as the proof) is strange. so is the condescending explanation of MSM.
overall, he's using what i call "the goonies exemplum." basically, he refers to things HE remembers from HIS time in the sun. klosterman is now; feldman is well...i don't know what, but throughout this column the writer cobbled what amounts to a pitiful rhetorical argument against the future of the internet, bloggers, and electronic media.
patch is correct. blogging and electronic media will save print, but only if print realizes that it is now the frill, the adjunct, the carry-along pocketbook edition of what is fast becoming the real thing.
to quote the bard through queen gertrude, "the lady doth protest too much, methinks."
-Hamlet (III, ii, 239)
"The role of the reviewer/critic/journalist appears to be relevant to those who care about the culture necessary to produce great art and the context in which it can be measured, however subjectively."
Er, did I misunderstand, or could this be accurately paraphrased as "only nekulturny neanderthals ignore critics??"
FiL (a/k/a Tharg)
having lived in the roanoke area a few years ago, i can tell you that the roanoke times is pretty much a terrible newspaper. just imagine that the rest of the newspaper, where they report on real events in the world, is as poorly written as that music article.
Great tracks! Thanks.
your music links are not found
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