The best thing about the conventional Coldplay narratives is that it made Coldplay really appreciate their fans and reward them for sticking around. Which, in turned, helped their longevity. Pop bands survive when the fans feel like a priority. They give out songs and whole albums for free. They have concerts for free. They create additional ways for the band to engage in their music even when they aren’t touring or recording, whether through creating silly comic books or playing festivals. They handed out souvenirs to their concertgoers. They don’t sell the first rows of their concerts to have attendants find crazeball fans in the rafters and give them a great seat. They’ve always wanted to be the biggest band in the world but weren’t afraid to collaborate and have others join the process, like a Hopkins or Eno. They’ve written great songs for 15 years but they’re getting better at fulfilling their mission: bringing passionate music to the mainstream. There’s just a lot to like about Coldplay and dozens of reasons it’s great being a fan.

Yeah…this album is great

If you had Pono you could totes hear it better.

Every year, there are three things that allow me the joy of realizing the lifeless gray of winter is over. One is when I notice my local DQ has reopened for the season. Two, is when The Masters comes around on TV. And, three is when the first true (and usually most memorable of the year) Spring release, the one that allows me to roll down my car window and sing along to its words as loud as I can while the sun beats through my windshield, and infinitely play on repeat. This album is unmistakably it.
Spring has arrived my friends…

you can agree that coldplay is great, i ain’t agreeing with shit.

I think this is a fair point. A perfect example of this is jezebel’s use of Chris Brown’s admission that he “lost his virginity” at the age of 8 as evidence that he is an asshole, when instead, this is obviously childhood sexual assault.

I think jezebel likes to rip people apart but has a hard time maintaining the standard it sets for others – which is fine, everyone slips. But glass houses and whatnot maybe a more measured approach would be helpful. Then again, gawker etc. thrives on the vitriol of the general public, so, it should be expected.

I think you are confusing me for Miles. He’s the one who likes Saint Pepsi and wrote for Tiny Mix Tapes.

I’m suddenly hungry.

I have an extreme dislike of Jezebel for many reasons. At this point they’ve turned into a bastardized version of a feminist website, almost the extreme opposite of what they were when they started.

That said, if you have a multi-year affair with someone you are, in fact, a dick.

I think you’re going to find very few people who will sympathize with Moore and not think of him as a “dick” these days, but I also do think that in the context of Jezebel being a feminist website, he does make a point. If Kim were the person cheating, would they have shamed her as well? Would it even have been a story? And then I look at another popular indie musician like Mish Way of White Lung, a feminist herself who has also admitted in an article for Salon, “I have cheated on every single boyfriend I have ever had.” It’s a confusing double-standard when you consider that, and I think Jezebel set them up for this knocking by making it seem like cheating is exclusive to just men.

tl:dr; Everyone is a hypocritical asshole.

Find the article where Thruston Moore is as self-aware of his flaws as Mish Way is in that piece and get back to us. I have no idea where you’re seeing this double standard.

Really crappy news, and that’s where the House of Vans holds their showcases. According to the schedule, last night’s show was:

Vans (doors open at 7pm)
Outdoor: Tyler the Creator, X, Cerebral Ballzy, Black Angels and special guest
Indoor: Cities Aviv, TEEN, Gap Dream, Jacuzzi Boys, Jonny Two Bags, Dave Hause – See more at:

There’s also something unsettling about the Austin police hashtagging #SXSW at the end of their tweets.

it’s time we all agreed that stereogum has nothing to do with “indie” culture, and is just another outlet for the rich, corporate entertainment elite to pander themselves in the back and sell garbage to clueless teenagers.

Solid music journalism centered around brief anecdotes with no a/v support and your uncertain memories.

I was really excited when you came on to Stereogum, mostly because you wrote at Tiny Mix Tapes and loved Saint Pepsi, and I mosly aways agree with you. But Coldplay is awful. This isnt some “God” given talent. Song writing I mean. Chris Martin is laying up with an actress who may be th eworst human being on earth. Going to award shows. Dressing like a scumbag. Basically just being a huge asshole. Apposed to someone like lke Ariel Pink or Noah Lennox who are probably listeing to records all day, and being awesome. Between this post and the rest of your obnoxious week in pop post you have let me know you nothing about music or records, And that you’re an awful person. You’re a know nothing asshole and I’m going to fuck your mother if I ever meet her.

GET THIS:
During a brotherly quarrel in the summer of ’95, my younger brother ratted out to my mom that me and my other brother (I’m a triplet) had the Downward Spiral and that there was a song called Heresy with the lyrics “God is dead and no one cares.”
We tried to explain that we were of mind enough to know what he was talking about, but my very religious mom insisted that she see the album and its lyrics. And so we sat there while MY MOM READ THE LYRICS OF THE ENTIRE ALBUM BACK TO US.
It was awkward.
She insisted we destroy it, and we were barred from buying albums cuz she thought we were only gonna be listening to sketchy, anti-God stuff. We never destroyed it, but kept it hidden in a drawer with all our other NIN stuff, and eventually the same went for Marilyn Manson. We’d have friends go to record stores and buy us the singles and imports, and typically we’d have to listen in secrecy.

Man, the teenage years.

Still one of my all-time favorites ever. It holds up quite well after all these years. Doesn’t sound dated at all, doesn’t even sound like anything else. The title track used to scare me… at the time, to my 14-year-old senses, this was disturbing music; not like the dog-and-pony show of Manson and whatnot, but this felt like there was something really dirty hiding behind the corners. Still so goddamn good.
Trent really had a know-how for putting industrial with the idea of songs… and there’s so much dynamic range here; it’s not just one pummel after the other… the songs keep changing, moving. The fucking guitar solo breakdown in Ruiner, for example! The last thing you’d see coming would come.
Masterpiece. End of story.

And anyone else feel that, despite it being electronic, all the sounds on it somehow sounded “organic” or of-the-earth… like you were listening to sounds generated by dirt and worms, not computers?