Comments

She Loves You. (And you really should be more grateful for that. Woooooo!)
You're totally allowed to feel that way. Anyone between Gaithersburg and Fredericksburg is allowed to feel that way. It's ridiculous, but have at it.
He respects himself less for answering a question honestly with his own opinion? How does that work?
I couldn't disagree with you more. Everything you just typed is how you'd like to think you'd respond to this situation if you were in it. But the reality of the situation is this: David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen are two of the biggest artists in the history of contemporary music. Their approval IS validation. He was responding to a journalist from Rolling Stone magazine; namedropping two of the biggest rock artists of all time is completely appropriate in that venue and in the context of indicating why you don't care too much if a guy in a shitty band no one north of Gaithersburg doesn't like your record compared to artists who are well-established and world-renowned. As to that whole "maybe the point the writer was trying to make" bit, my only question to you is this: Why should a music journalist writing a review of an album be trying to make any of the points you're asserting he was making? He was asked to write a review of the album. Review the album. What does Reflektor have to do with whether or not Win Butler as an individual or Arcade Fire as a whole is a dork? What do their sex lives have to do with the album they made? What does Win Butler being the same person he's always been underneath the hype have to do with the album his band made? To the extent that any rock band in history has ever been important, Arcade Fire certainly qualifies as important right now. That didn't begin with Reflektor. It won't end with Reflektor (unless they don't put out any more albums). And it isn't harmed by the praise the band has received from David Bowie or Bruce Springsteen any more than it is diminished by Win Butler mentioning that praise. They certainly matter a whole helluva lot more than a bitter music journalist who used to be in a band. So you might want to pretend that nobody gives a shit about that, but people do. You might want to pretend that it's out of bounds for him to mention it, but it isn't. He was asked a question. He answered that question. He certainly doesn't lose any points for not answering it the way you think you would have...
Here's the beginning, middle, and end of this for me: (Whether you like Arcade Fire or not, whether you like Reflektor or not, etc. etc.): One of these people wrote an album review that calls a band with a native French speaker "pretentious" for having lyrics sung in French... And this wasn't some band with a totally unknown backstory releasing their first album. This was a band that has lyrics sung in French by the native French speaker in their band on every one of their albums. A band that hails from a part of the world where French and English are at best co-equal. That person writes for what was once considered a major publication. That person presumably has an editor and likes to refer to himself as a journalist, possibly even a music journalist. So it's safe to assume that he didn't write any of what he wrote out of ignorance. The other person was responding extemporaneously to a question being asked by a journalist from what was once considered a major publication. He is not a journalist and presumably didn't have an editor or a publicist standing between his voicebox and his lips. If I'm assigning "wrong jerk who sucks" points, the music journalist who didn't know Regine is a native French speaker and/or didn't know Arcade Fire is from Montreal, where they likely have many French-speaking fans, and/or decided to equate singing in French with pretentiousness in an English-language publication in 2014 gets ALL the points.
Wait... Did you just grill yourself for double posting? Hahahaha
Richard: I don't agree at all, but that's irrelevant. He wasn't commenting on the quality of the album. He said he hadn't heard it. I'm not sure how that makes him the voice of reason. He has an uninformed opinion that he was willing to express publicly. I'm pretty sure that makes him the voice of asshole.
On the other hand, he went out of his way to shit on an album he admitted he'd never heard because of the format the album was released in... That's worth a little scorn.
So, wait... are you "baiting it for the attention the [commenters on a] buzz blog [will] give [you]" because that's how this post reads?
I think you're missing a central part of her point, though: She agrees with you that lots of vegans are asshole militants. She doesn't want to be either militant or an asshole. She just wants to severely curtail her consumption of animal products. If there is a purpose served by being a vegan beyond the benefits to one's own health and well-being, that purpose is served every single day that she or anyone adheres to this "militant diet" and is only moderately impacted by her having a pint of ice cream periodically. I think the flaw in your argument is viewing the merits of veganism as residing in the militant part of it, which leads to you contrasting "militant veganism" with someone who occasionally strays. That's a really narrow scope. I write this as a militant carnivore: Grimes is 98.75% more vegan than I am and probably 60% closer to adhering than the rest of the world's population (and I'm guessing that number is low). If you're so militant about something that you're willing to get bent out of shape with the people who agree with you on principle but aren't perfect, you're not going to get within shouting distance of convincing someone like me to try vegan food for a whole day. It's missing the forest for a fallen leaf.
It's certainly okay for them to ask... (I'm also willing to bet that they have a section close to the stage where people that are spotted wearing fancy garb get to dance around.)
I guess all the Spotify lovers who were so quick to call Thom Yorke an idiot will be here any minute now to call Beck an idiot, right?
And all of that is almost certainly raising Merge's profile, which benefits the other artists on Merge, and bringing in more money for Merge, which benefits the other artists on Merge. So, since they're signed to Merge, I'm not sure what the problem is with them "proudly wear their Merge badge" and I'm not sure why this being "their accidental major label debut" (whatever that means) is an issue either. Some people in bands make music with the idea that it would be nice if other people heard said music. That can only happen if said music is released to the public and widely distributed. It certainly helps to have major airplay. And California is LOVELY in December. TL;DR: SO?
Wayne Coyne has carved out a lifestyle for himself that allows him to basically do whatever the fuck he wants, creatively, recreationally, etc. If there's anything depressing about it it's that this is the exception in modern life rather than the rule.
"Glynis" for sure. "Effigy" without a doubt. "And there stands R.E.M." But "Iris" (The Breeders' song) still kills and I can't tell you how many times I've said "Oh, c'mon, nobody wants that..." to someone (and then in my head added, "Sister... sister... OH, OH, OHHHHHHHHHH!" We pour hour by hour, man... We pour hour by hour...
Ge-ge-ge-ge-ge-GEORGIA!
"Black, Red, Yellow" over "I Got Id" with "All or None" finishing in the money!
And you know what Kanye West values over his daughter because he's devoted a great deal of time to publicly talking about his daughter and fatherhood? Or you assume Kanye West values "stuff" over his daughter because he's tended to avoid talking publicly about his daughter? I mean, I can tell you're really smart and stuff. And you obviously have an intricate understanding of Kanye West and what he thinks. I'd just like it if you could show your work...
You have a really sad worldview. I'm actually sad for you right now.
"Ok, he’s pretty much created the best rap of all time now. But he’s still a looong, looong way away from ranking anywhere near the best music of all time." If he's created some of the best rap of all time... but hasn't created some of the best music of all time... Doesn't that suggest that you consider rap inferior to great music? That statement seems to reflect more on you than it does on him.
Do you have a Myspace page where we could hear some of your work?
"I cant exactly find him to be either eloquent or sufficiently talented enough to justify that massive idiotic ego of his." Then you're a fucking moron who doesn't know very much about music. People who are in the music industry and sell lots and lots of records seem to think the guy is one of the most talented, sought after, emulated producers of this era. He could probably retire off the royalties of Jay Z songs he's produced alone. But you don't find him talented enough to justify his massive ego. I'd love a link to your website.
Taylor Swift had an awards show?
So, wait... You bought a television just to see this one episode of a television show? Or... will they broadcast the performance they filmed last week at another time and it'll be available for viewing then?
Maybe Kimmel actually... likes Kanye... and... didn't actually think the whole Twitter thing was the worst thing that someone he knows could do to him?
You missed the interesting/important part because you got hung up on somebody basically saying I'm interesting enough as who I am to not have to be fake in order to get attention. Good times.
I would take "Crack Music," "Heard 'em Say," "Touch the Sky," and "Gone" in the Late Registration draft before "Roses" 9 times out of 10. That 10th time, I'm always struck by how much I sleep on "Roses."
I wouldn't make too big of a deal out of this. For obvious reasons, every one of his other albums has had a lot longer to generate sales coupled with subsequent releases... It's kind of a weird thing to even mention in this context. Theoretically he'll release another album in, say, 18 months... More than a few people who don't have Yeezus right now are probably gonna say "Shit, I don't have his LAST album!" when that happens...
Count me in the list of people who love "Yield" and "Riot Act" too. For my money, "No Code" is my favorite Pearl Jam album precisely because it has so much of that "searching" quality you mentioned. I'm excited to get in a car and hear "Lightning Bolt" for the first time, but "Backspacer" has left me more than a little apprehensive. There was so much skippable material on that record it was almost an EP.
Definitely "The Obvious Child," because of that breakdown/buildup sequence. Chills. Every time.
I saw this on FB and was totally gonna share with the "Yeezus just rose again." line. Well played, Claire!
I was in that room. If you thought it was nearly full, you must've been searching with your good eye closed. I was second row off the floor and the floor wasn't nearly full. I was also on an aisle and I wanted to be able to stand up and dance without being right in front of other people, so I moved up in my section. Moving up didn't mean moving to the top row. It meant moving two rows behind the landing at the entryway. There was no one in the row I moved to, no one in the row in front of me, and only two people in the row in front of that, who seemingly also moved back for dancing space. The section I was in wasn't full, nor was the section on either side of me, nor were the sections directly across from me. Now, I'm not saying that the crowd sucked or the place was empty. (Hell, I'm in a band and I'd love to play to that many people.) But what I was specifically responding to, the idea that Thom Yorke is somehow completely out of touch with what small bands go through just because he's in Radiohead. He's also in Atoms for Peace. And you yourself indicated that A4P is a new band with little publicity. If a member of Radiohead and a member of RHCP can create a band that includes a drummer who has toured with Beck and R.E.M. and still be greeted with little publicity, I think that speaks to Thom Yorke's qualifications...
Can you name some "low-level struggling musicians" that you discovered through Spotify?
Atoms for Peace played The Patriot Center at about 1/3 capacity on Monday...
I'm just curious: If you were to create some sort of human-sized scale, have Thom Yorke stand on one side of it, and then you hop on the other side, and that scale was calibrated to only measure your relative knowledge of "the terms of contemporary digital music distribution," do you picture yourself balancing out Thom Yorke or shooting him off the scale in a comical fashion? I'm gonna guess that Thom Yorke has probably had one or two conversations about contemporary digital music distribution with some people who know a little bit about it. But you understand Spotify because, unlike Thom Yorke, you realize that there's a thing called Internet piracy, and you're aware that Spotify has prevented Internet piracy in all forms. So I'm picturing your knowledge dwarfing his... Totally.
His views about a music distribution system don't correspond with yours so you've lost the respect you developed for him because his music is consistently great. Makes sense... Prioritize opinions about the distribution system over the quality of the product.
Do you have any idea how many musical instruments $30,000 could buy?