Comments

Ah, god, that voice can soothe even the worst of times. Help us, Bill Callahan, help us get through this surprise cold snap at the end of March.
Only one band per day on the Festival Republic Stage? That must be the loneliest stage in the entire world. Or, they are giving those bands a nice 8 hour set to finally try out the Jazz Odd-Eye-See they've been dreaming of.
I should come back here more often, cause I missed Mans guest blogging. Great job Mans! Sorry this is so late.
Still can't get enough of that tune-yards song. And the Wrens tune is an astonishing treat. Thanks!
My one word would be "bad." But in the Micheal Jackson, Bad Seeds, flirtatious "oooooh, you're bad" sense! The best bad that can be!
Oooooh I like it! Always getting higher until the end when she finally admits it, that's an interesting way to keep a simple and repetitive melody intriguing.
It's the Battle of Britpop Round 2, Rumble of the Mumblers! In one corner wearing the blue, red and white Union Jack trunks we've got Liam the Dre-am, the Mancunian Mauler, bringing brawn and bawdy brawling all while slouching in a stance not fit for a fighter but also not to be taken lightly! And in the other corner wearing the Stanley Donwood designed brown, white, red, burgundy, and sickly yellow trunks we've got Thom the Professor, the Oxford Ox, whose scintillating smarts will sack any sucker sorry enough to step into the ring with him! One night only! Glastonbury 2011!
A video on MTV means selling out? Not a chance! They're just getting a good spot in line to be on the new Beavis & Butthead reboot!
Was it just my imagination, or was the little scamp wearing the wheel shoes? Cause if so that fall must have busted up those shoes pretty bad. I mean, he's probably gonna have to buy a whole new pair, poor little guy.
A Wrinkle in the Ocarina of Time. It's a bit of a stretch.
I'm definitely old enough to know that tune, sadly. And though it made me angry as well, I seem to recall it being a monster hit and the whole world falling in love with it, line dancing to it so long that they lost all geometric perspective and found themselves suddenly in a world of achy breaky cubism. Maybe it was that he brought line dancing into the living rooms of America? Which trend Beck thankfully put to bed in the Where It's At video. All praise be to Beck.
Just one question, maybe all you Billy Ray fans out there can help clear this one up: what exactly did Billy Ray Cyrus do to piss the whole world off? This is all before enabling Hannah Montana, of course, because I know exactly what BRC has done to piss the world off lately.
Aldomania! Boy is it nice to meet other curmudgeons on the world webbings.
So you have no room for Back That Azz Up in your life? Bummer.
You should absolutely be tooting that horn like Miles on Bitches Brew (the real # 1 drug album), cause that Verve comment was solid gold. And though I didn't say anything in the post, I did upvote it multiple times from multiple computers.
No, see, the challenge is getting the marble to descend the steps without falling off the edge. And also the marble needs to simultaneously ascend and descend at the same time, that's also a little bit of a challenge.
Careful, Playmobil Joy Division! A one-year-old who gets his little hands on that band will tear them apart...again.
For real on this. Putting Kind Of Blue on the list at all is sort of depressing. Wasn't it recorded during a relatively clean, post-heroin/pre-cocaine binge era in Miles' life? And the music itself isn't particularly druggy at all, unless you consider anything related to jazz as such because it doesn't have lyrics and pop song structure. Clearly the NME editors are a bunch of philistines.
but but but but what about the 1-2-3 Flip (tm)? That was certainly better than whatever the Backstreet Boys were calling "dancing" at the time. I can't believe I'm actually arguing this point. I guess someone has to stick up for the integrity of ex-Disney Dance-A-Thon backup dancers.
Stereogum (and Internet) commentators, look upon [their] works, ye mighty, and despair! I know that I do. Oh that death rock boy and his endless drags certainly had his moments.
I kind of like that it took so long for this to happen. Mostly I think it's because the DVD releases of Beavis & Butthead don't include all of the video commentary, which leads to a more difficult internet-preservation (thank the gods). And so it makes them feel more special and of the time when it really did happen. And though I say that, I am happy that this post exists as well because truthfully I'd forgotten most of these funny moments, and this little internet preservation is giving me lots of happiness. Thank the gods for internet preservation!
Not that I ever won any of the original Gum Drops anyhow. Now it is only a confirmation of what I knew in my heart: online contests ain't for you, son.
So now I've gotta log in when I'm at a conference supposed to be learning about how to bettah myself professionally just to upvote one in a million win-this-facebook comments? Think before you post nextime, Mans! And for the record, I like to air guitar Salt Peanuts.
You don't HAVE to go see him, you know. Although that will change the tone of your deathbed proclamation to one of bitter vindictiveness. Hell no you didn't see that Mangum character live, even with the chance to, not after what he pulled...
Every time Ariel Pink stumbles around the stage and yells at me to shut up and listen, I'll be quiet. But when he starts playing, I'll be talking again.
The London Suede?! Is it finally Brett and Bernard sharing the stage together! Or just a reunion of Suede 2.0?
To avoid a gentlemanly bow-off in the comments here, I will say only that this means a lot to me, coming from you, Mans. Respect is duly returned.
I think you'll have to ask the girl in the video if the song is over yet or not, because she officially owns it now.
This is definitely a cover, and is definitely The Best. There are plenty of lyrical spoken languages out there, and there was once a Radiolab show where they talked about musical language, and that when broken down you can hear different phrases and melodies in everyday speech, and so this was sort of an equivalent for Sing Language, in that it turned so perfectly into a wonderful dance to the song. Sure, I know she's hamming it up with the hair flips and the hip shaking (and bonk we're going to have to fight over her because I think I'm in love now too), but the attitude and the graceful hand movements...oh she truly signs in beauty. So good!
Self-awareness runs deep these days, and given the popularity of such great satire as The Colbert Report, I wonder how it is affecting the evergreen idealists of the liberal arts school freshman classes? Are they already jaded and dismissive of wide-eyed dorm room lessons about activism and integrity? Someone needs to do a Never Been Kissed style infiltration of the young'uns and report on this very important topic. Just whoever does so must be careful not to have it become a Back To School style descent into one-liners and Robert Downey Jr.
There will be no justice in britpop heaven if the reunited Pulp tours in the states when Blur never even got close.
Steven Drozd NEED NOT APPLY. You didn't actually lose that arm, buddy. And besides, a pair of flaming lips can easily turn into a flaming drum kit and/or stick.
Jesus but I'm coming off as bitchy today. Must be the snow makes me cranky. I like the song, I'm glad Stereogum shared it today, and I'm going to bed now until it all melts.
I'm loving the guitar part in the coda of the song, a sort of 21st-century jangle. Or maybe there should be a new term for it? Jangle was the morning 45 years ago. Let's try out "jingle" instead. No, that doesn't work, it's even older and it implies baking soda ads on the radio. E-Jangle 2.0? iJang?
It's amazing to read that someone with a career as long and loved as PJ Harvey still lacks confidence to write certain types of songs. You can do it PJ! If I could, I would encourage you with a postcard. If that would help.
Sometimes in my crankiest drunks, I will rail against the idea that music in the modern world is ever divorced from commerce, that if it is anything more than a hobby, it is a job and should be used to make money, as much money as you can! But in my sober reflections, it becomes clear that I am describing exactly what Weezer does with all this Raditude business. So the moral of the story is: don't listen to drunk talk. It's all empty philosophy and slurred come-ons.
Oh, I like a good cover, and I think they are perfectly relevant. The more music I listen to, the more I think that voice is as important as originality. A song can still resonate emotionally as long as the musicians feel something about the tune, whether they wrote it or not. If music is a form of storytelling (and I think in many ways it is), then a good song is a good story and a good story deserves to be retold. There will always be subtle differences, just because different singers come from different times and different places, so I always appreciate hearing them.
I LIKE this one! And the brief horn intro at the beginning, why that's something reminiscent of one of the Wagner operas, most likely in the Ring cycle, or my god is it from Tristan und Isolde? Hopefully this comment will win me all the smugvotes. Speaking of, considering that this is the Stereogum comment boards, shouldn't there be three options for rating: upvotes, downvotes, and smugvotes, for those comments so delightfully smug that they out-smug all the rest?
Two years of NSFW videos! Clearly this is more than a trend, and with MTV preoccupied with broadcasting Jersey Shore (something that is far more offensive than anything here), I can't wait for one of the premium cable channels to pick this up and start airing videos. I'm thinking Cinemax. 11:30 on a Friday night. Double Feature: Emmanuelle and Alternative Nation? It was only a matter of time before these worlds collided.
I agree with all of these points in theory, so the only objection I can make is in purely subjective: to me, it felt like her reach exceeded her grasp. It just didn't feel like she was comfortable on the album. With that said, as a MIA fan I am REALLY looking forward to her next album, if she continues with this style and can grow a little more into it. But I wholeheartedly agree that the backlash was intense, and to anyone who says that this is a career killer...come on.