OMG! On Sunday, M.I.A. posted da “truff” about that New York Times profile on the blinged-out N.E.E.T. blog. So what is the real truth behind Lynn Hirschberg’s article? Well, it’s not all that different than what Hirschberg wrote – just tossed up on a tacky, borderline-annoying site and made to look profound. Which is exactly … [Read more…]
The word “terrorist” pops up seven times in Lynn Hirschberg’s New York Times profile of M.I.A. Within the context of the article, “terrorist” appeared to be something of a default word for M.I.A.: whereas others fill spaces in their sentences with “um” and “like,” M.I.A.’s consistent re-hashing of the term made it seem weightless. Later … [Read more…]
The New York Times‘ ArtsBeat blog has confirmed the death of Big Star singer and guitarist Alex Chilton: Alex Chilton, the mercurial if influential rock musician, whose work spanned an eclectic gamut from the soul songs of the Box Tops to the multiple incarnations of his pop band Big Star, has died, The Commercial Appeal … [Read more…]
I knew OK Go cemented their names in the viral video history books when one of my professors said their video for “Here It Goes Again” was one of the big events in YouTube history. So, when their original video for “This Too Shall Pass” was blocked from blog embeds, I figured something was amiss. … [Read more…]
It was indeed “A Decade Under The Influence.†But while Taking Back Sunday could string together a few solid hits drenched in a post-hardcore milieu and cut with pop sensibilities, chances are no one in the band could have predicted how influential emo would become in the aughts. The presence of the word in the … [Read more…]
I’d heard of Kuma’s Corner for months and have craved their metal-themed hamburgers and pretzel buns for many a month I’ve lived in Chicago. Tonight, I set out for the famous metal bar and was able to snatch a spot before the looming crowd grew larger than the small room had space for. And I … [Read more…]
A lot has been said about Adam Lambert’s performance on the American Music Awards Sunday night. With all the hubbub of his “racy” performance, what’s most surprising about the entire escapade and commentary in the days since the show is that there is commentary in the days following the show. And it’s still going strong. … [Read more…]
Oh, the many wonders of Goggle: [googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9005367754264973286#] With all the video sites out there, I tend to forget Google video exists, but they’ve got some great stuff. Like John Carpenter’s They Live, a fantastic cult movie that seems as ingrained in today’s society as the 80s. The protagonist is a wandering, jobless American who just … [Read more…]
Well, I haven’t gotten out to Warped just yet, but even so, it seems that I got the jump on the New York Times with my piece on the whole scrunk thing for The Phoenix. Ok, perhaps that’s a huuuuuge overstatement, but Jon Caramanica did notice the combination of electronics and screamo as sure as I … [Read more…]
In a good-natured piece in one of the many blogs run by The New York Times entitled, “‘Emo Lincoln’ Gets the Flickr Treatment,” Noam Cohen and Robert Mackey point out how the the following photo of Abraham Lincoln is tagged with the words “emo” and “punk” (as well as, curiously not mentioned in the article, … [Read more…]