Used to work at a place where he was a regular. Very nice dude. He asked about Tei Shi when I was playing her and I've always hoped he would collaborate with her because of that and then also give me royalties anyway love a princess cat
Same. The new one is, weirdly, like a Disney-fied version of that original. (And by that I just mean the style of the illustration, as opposed to... whatever.)
their albums, since Wild Onion, have always had a split between these easy songs and some messy rippers, and I hope that's still true. They're too good at being brash to give it up outright.
the fact that Annie/Carrie dated is, I think, adding to the perceived drama of all this. i'm surprised (and impressed/happy) that that has not really been brought up.
Twin Peaks are probably one of my favorite rock bands working today, and the live show is just so good. I think their name has kinda hurt them, even if it got them headlines in the beginning. I know I avoided them for a bit because of it.
I feel this. After a (short) lifetime of pop music, I don't know why I gravitated to the White Stripes, but their rawness made me uncomfortable. I remember feeling physically weird, almost ill, listening to this album while I waited in the car for a very long time as my mother tried to convince the electric company to keep our power on until her payday. My brother bought it for me after I got hooked on White Blood Cells.
Anyway, now that same kind of rawness makes me feel at ease. So, thanks Jack White!
I know this was a ~joke~ but, as someone who works in a space that is often photographed and put on social media, I'm 100% positive this employee has chosen to hide her face so that she's not plastered all over the internet without consent.
I guess Shyguy has a chip on his shoulder about Jonah's status as a fashion boi? Pretty well-documented that dude has his finger on the pulse of streetwear, especially smaller skate brands.
Also, I hate him as an actor. But he's been making interesting fashion choices. This totally authentic statement of my lack of bias means that my opinion and statements are correct. So!
I was always a fan of the Drums, but I have to say I'm constantly impressed and surprised that he's managed to become so consistently good? Abysmal Thoughts was a great record, and I'm really into this track. His voice remains one-note, but it's a note I don't mind.
I have so little patience for the amount of hype he's gotten, especially on this current cycle. His lyrics are so mediocre and... sometimes... bad? But they're held up as this stoner philosopher BS, as if that's a good thing. I'll throw it on in the background and be fine, but all it takes is a vibe for that.
Yeah, I wanna love him. He has a few great songs — mostly off his first two solo albums — but listening to an entire album is a bit much. I think his writing is tremendous, but his vocals and delivery remain too same-y throughout his work.
I think "L'Inconnue," as beautiful of a song as it is, kinda kills the flow of the album — especially after the groove of "Lemon Glow." And I love and listen to the album often. It's the first song of theirs that I'm quick to skip in the context of a full-album listen.
This is good and I actually really like this show? Could be a holdover from my high school fascination with the Dark Tower series, but the show draws from almost all of King's work, providing for little easter eggs to find among the wholly worthy standalone story the show is creating.
This is all good and correct. I have to add, cynically, that when Stereogum (&the other site) were starting out, the bloggers were either self-employed or writing for free, and shortly after that, advertising online was a simpler game that was more sustainable for paying employees. Now, these sites that started the blog buzzband era have become large productions that must sustain investors and staff, and covering exclusively indie artists is not going to provide that kinda money. Folding pop artists into the fold gets more clicks, it allows for the smaller stuff to get written about, too. You may argue that there are artsier sites that still focus on what could be called underground music, and certainly smaller/niche artists, but a lot of those sites, if they're not single-staff blogs, are sites that also cover fashion, or are even predominantly fashion outlets. (V-Files, Paper—that world). And fashion ads pay a lot of money. That's not something that Stereogum can rely on.
Was this engineered by Rudy Van Gelder, or just recorded at his studio, I wonder? Van Gelder's name is (rightfully) used to sell jazz, so I'm surprised it wasn't more prominent in the things I've read. But, maybe Coltrane's name is big enough. Either way, this album is good. Was afraid it was going to be a throwaway, cash-grab kinda thing.
Honestly. It's also disingenuous that the review talks about these R&B singers being sidelined by their male peers/bosses, and then proceeds to use Kanye's actions to dismiss the song most destined to be a sleeper hit.
In recent album rollouts, the site went on and on about Bjork not being defined by her male collaborators. Here it seems that they've assumed Teyana Taylor had no say at all in the direction of this album, and that "WTP" was entirely Kanye's idea, and in doing so posits that legitimate and dichotomous views cannot be held and expressed by a single artist.
Pitchfork is understandably at the whims of the public demand for narrative, and being owned by Conde means that they must get clicks. I have friends who work there (and I have written there!) and there is tremendous pressure to produce traffic. But other sections of the site are dedicated to these kinds of takes. They should be relegated there; the reviews should be, at most, similar to that Girls review.
Anyway, I'll be listening to Album on my way to work, so.
Isolation is probably the album I've listened to most this year. I thought I'd over-listened, so took a break, but when I came back to it a few days later, it was just as infectious as I'd thought at first listen. Really excited to see her future.
I forget about YYYs for six months, and then I fall back into a hole of their EPs and first three albums. (I can get into a few Mosquito tracks, actually, but haven't given it much of a chance...)
After reading this piece, and falling back on down that rabbit hole, I remembered driving around the back roads of my no-fuck town listening to a burned copy of Fever to Tell, the "fog" of Y Control forever associated with the fog that forced me to drive so slow and listen to that album on repeat. I was listening to burned discs of the Strokes and Interpol, too, and it now strikes me as obvious that they drove me to seek out NYC. Yeah Yeah Yeahs especially: their uniquely understated, undeniable coolness offered something so rare in Ohio.
In that sense, New York has been disappointing. I mean, to be real, I was never the kind of person who was going to go out to those early shows, to get all sweaty and bruised in crowds full of close strangers, but I always wanted to be. But, here I am, sitting in Brooklyn after another week of a life that could be lived in Ohio, looking to a rock band for an edge I've never been able to find in myself.
This is undeveloped and overwrought, but I just wanted to jot down to strangers the strange mix I'm feeling, of nostalgia and a longing for a more exciting future, before I nod off and out into another humdrum seven days.
Thanks Karen O! PS Brian Chase is one of the best drummers of the past two decades.
"i don't take advice from people less successful from me" is a real troubling line...
also, "i put my hand on a stove to see if i still bleed"?????/???
this reminds me of a Perfume Genius song, the slow build to the crazy climax, and I can appreciate the restraint in brevity. Super excited for this album.
Ya, I agree. And though this album is less of that, her voice and singing style kinda prevent her from dodging it altogether. Tom's Broadway reference is apt in that it still describes her voice. There's no real heft to it; it doesn't ground any of the songs. I think the increased amount of rapping probably has something to do with that, a conscious break in the sometimes tiresome singing.
Hum. They had an interview with Mackenzie and a very positive review from one of their best and well-known critics.
But, maybe it's impossible to do both.
I know Panda wasn't involved in it, but the latest EP might be a good sign. I mean, it's an extreme departure from Painting With, and maybe as minimal as pre-Sung Tongs stuff. To be honest, I wouldn't want a whole album of that. But hopefully some of that spirit seeps into the next album.
As for this set, it was mesmerizing. I was slightly baffled and impressed that Pitchfork, who hasn't given AC love in a long time (with the except of solo Panda Bear material), was willing to book them as headliners.
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