Amazon released their list of the 100 Greatest Indie Rock Albums of All Times. As with any “definitive” list, Amazon’s has some flaws, and some seem to stand out like sore thumbs, especially moving from one individual’s taste to the next. As a side note, yes, Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion is a great album and … [Read more…]
Sometimes it can be pretty hard for the press to rapidly pinpoint emo with false-pretenses based upon stereotypes. And then the perfect quote comes along: “‘I’m writing songs that entertain these people, all these people who just want pain,’ Tim Kasher of the Omaha band Cursive blurted during a performance.” Props must be given to … [Read more…]
Last night, Public Enemy’s Chuck D dropped some knowledge at Harvard. Among the many insightful and brilliant things D had to say, one struck me in particular: “People need to write books. People need to write more books, now, more than ever. Write books and the cream will rise to the top.” That’s a bit … [Read more…]
So, for folks who’ve been following along in this blog, I submitted a proposal to Continuum’s 33 1/3 series to write a book about The Promise Ring’s Nothing Feels Good. Series editor David Barker emailed everyone who submitted a proposal today concerning those he picked to make it to the shortlist, the final compilation short … [Read more…]
The 33 1/3 blog released the final list of the nearly 600 potential books on a wide variety of albums that Continuum received after the call for open proposals a little while ago. Needless to say, it’s quite a list. It’s interesting to see what albums people are passionate enough about to fill an entire … [Read more…]
The Stooges founding member/guitarist Ron Asheton was found dead earlier today. The impact of that band on modern music is innumerable, as the group’s chaotic proto-punk had an intense impact on punk and every “alternative” act that is only equaled to The Velvet Underground. As far as the impact on emo, you can look back … [Read more…]
After a bit of a delay, I finally present to you my review for TV on the Radio’s Dear Science,. But I’ve decided to offer up something entirely different in the way of reviews by focusing on the one pitfall of music critique I cannot stand yet find myself using at times: comparison. It’s quite … [Read more…]
So, somewhere through my GRE studies I realized what a monumental task I have of ingesting all the vocabulary. My handy study book has flooded my mind with words, which is quite helpful. But their sentence examples for the words are somewhat… lacking. So I’ve decided to do the only logical thing: write my own. … [Read more…]
Naomi pointed me the way to this excellent piece by Thursday/United Nations’ Geoff Rickly on the MTV Headbanger’s Blog site on my previous post, and it got me thinking about the impact of fashion on culture. Rickly astutely notes the power of the image, and in doing so recalls Marshall McLuhan’s “the medium is the … [Read more…]
George Orwell is alive… and blogging. The Orwell Diaries were created in an attempt to garner interest in Orwell in today’s fast and furious online hub. And it’s apparently working quite well. His descriptions of the everyday mundane certainly aren’t 1984, but they sure show he has an eye for capturing life and the pen … [Read more…]