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…]
On Tuesday, two of the most anticipated indie albums saw their official releases. The National dropped High Violet, an album that put Twitter users into a cumulative tizzy when The New York Times streamed the album in full a few weeks ago. The other album is Treats, the debut by Brooklyn “it” band Sleigh Bells. … [Read more…]
The Green Day-inspired rock opera, American Idiot, is now open for business. And the reviews are good [via The New York Times]: A pulsating portrait of wasted youth that invokes all the standard genre conventions — bring on the sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll, please! — only to transcend them through the power of … [Read more…]
Maybe you’ve seen the new Insane Clown Posse music video. Maybe you haven’t. It’s entirely plausible that you’ve missed the sheer insanity of the “Miracles” music video, considering it’s netted a little more than 400,000 views in close to a week. That’s chump change in viral video terms. Yet the sheer amount of text devoted to … [Read more…]
The New York Times is reporting that Memphis punk-rocker Jay Reatard has died: Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr., the Memphis musician better known by his punk-rock stage name Jay Reatard, has died, his record label Goner Records said on Wednesday. Matador Records, which released Reatard’s 2009 album Watch Me Fall, released this statement: We are devastated … [Read more…]
Singer-Songwriter Vic Chesnutt died this afternoon in Athens, Georgia. There had been unconfirmed reports that he died last night, which proved to be untrue. At 5:27 PM EST, New York Times critic Ben Sisario gave an official word: Vic Chesnutt, a singer-songwriter whose music dealt with mortality and black humor, died on Friday in a hospital … [Read more…]
I mentioned Wale as a saving grace in hip-hop when I critiqued the “death” of hip-hop. Well, tomorrow the D.C.-Metro area rapper will drop his official debut album, Attention Deficit. So, what’s the word on the album? The New York Times‘s Jon Pareles gave the album a pretty good once over, but closed out with … [Read more…]
Caught a glimpse of this yesterday on the web: The Cinemash idea – mashing up two distinct films into a “quriky” 3-5 minute byproduct – is particularly ingenious, and I’m sure it can’t hurt that MSN is behind the thing and able to hire the actors from one of the movies to play the parts. … [Read more…]
I’d been bidding my time, putting off writing about the new musical, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Why? I’m not sure really. The musical sounds interesting enough, and The New York Times gave it a sparkling review. And for such a mainstream interpretation of emo, it’s got the idea of the genre in its current form … [Read more…]