Comments

unregistered33 -- OK, so you don't know what harmonies are, and you think all musicians can identify chord progressions by ear. Thanks for confirming you're just making all of this up as you go along.
Not sure why I even jumped in this. The #1 problem with pop/indie music criticism sites is they're primarily geared toward people who don't know how to talk about music. Go ahead and walk up to anybody who's discussing a rock and roll song with a single vocal track and ask them what they think of the "harmonies". I'm sure they'll assume you're referring to the guitar, because, hey, Moonlight Serenade!
Once again, if you're using dicitonary.com as a reference for musical terminology, it shows you really shouldn't be participating in the conversation. If the word "harmony" is used to mean "literally all of the sounds playing at the same time" then there is no difference between the word "harmony" and the word "song". Once again, I encourage you to link me to a single example of a musician using the word "harmonies" to refer to the entire instrumental backing track. If it's such common usage, surely you can find one example?
ifeelpretty's assessment looks right too (though I haven't grabbed a guitar to figure out the chords, I'll take his word for it). He also doesn't mention harmonies, because he appears to actually know something about music and recognizes that the Tame Impala track doesn't have harmonies (at least not in the snippet featured in the Youtube video). Honestly, why would you log into a website just to argue with strangers about stuff you don't understand?
unregistered33 - I agree with Adam Stevenson's assessment, but he doesn't mention anything about harmonies, so what are you talking about? If you can find me a single example of a musician ever using the word "harmonies" to refer to the instrumental underneath a vocal, then you will have made your point.
boozm - Literally nobody ever uses the word "harmonies" to mean "all the notes happening in a song at the same time", particularly in an argument about vocal melodies. Whatever dictionary.com tells you, there is absolutely no way that a person talking about "harmonies" in a pop song is referring to the guitar and bass playing underneath the vocal. The word simply is not used that way.
Gonna go out on a limb and say the reason he dissed Our Lady Peace is because they're Our Lady Peace.
White people don't need to feel guilty about Columbus, but they should feel guilty that they continue to throw parades for him. Likewise, white people don't need to feel guilty about minstrel shows, but they should feel guilty that they continue to produce and enjoy 21st century versions of them.
I'm not saying Clifton is wrong or that he isn't entitled to his opinion, but it's so funny to see how much white people LOVE it when a black guy shows up to disagree with another black guy's claims of racism. I can't remember the last time I saw a comment log 27 upvotes (and counting) in such a short span of time.
Swift and her people are having this exact conversation right now, only it's more like, "Why isn't this video trending as much as Miley and Lily's? Maybe it's too early for the backlash but hopefully it's coming."
You're 100% correct that there's no harmony on the Tame Impala track. I love it when people downvote and correct the guy who knows what he's talking about.
Aw, I had a feeling SG wasn't going to let me post ALL those pictures. haha
Even Britney herself did the serious/mature eponymous album, as all pop songstresses must: http://img2-2.timeinc.net/people/i/2013/sandbox/news/131216/britney-spears/britney-jean-600x450.jpg It is something all pop songstresses must do at some point: http://www.glistsociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/janet-album.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1b/Mariah_Carey_-_Me_I_Am_Mariah_%28Official_Album_Cover%29.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/62/Dionne_Warwick_%E2%80%93_Dionne_%28album%29.jpg/220px-Dionne_Warwick_%E2%80%93_Dionne_%28album%29.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mandy2.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5b/Sheryl_Crow%2C_album.png/220px-Sheryl_Crow%2C_album.png http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chercher.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/21/Beyonc%C3%A9_-_Beyonc%C3%A9.svg/640px-Beyonc%C3%A9_-_Beyonc%C3%A9.svg.png
What kind of fancy top-of-the-line CD collection do you have that they're all worth ten bucks?!?!
Because the DJ won't stop talking over the intro. I've requested "Walking Contradiction" four times this week but I can never hit the pause button at that exact moment between when the DJ shuts up and the first verse starts.
Obviously I know I'm in a minority on that point, but it still surprises me. I'm happily trapped in a luddite mentality of only spending money on stuff I can hold. I actually have bought digital files before, but pretty much always regretted it and wished I had hard copy.
I buy CD if the LP version is unavailable/overpriced/poorly-made. I also still buy all my hip hop on CD because it's what I like to listen to in the car. The idea of spending money on a file is still mind-boggling to me.
This is a pretty standard move. I predict the next album will be titled simply "Taylor" and will feature a "mature" "back to basics" approach complete with b&w portrait on the cover.
Obviously Corgan comes off like a bit of a shit most of the time, but Jimmy and D'arcy were both addicted to really nasty drugs. Anyone who has a heroin and/or crack addict in their lives knows they're not the sort of people you can hitch your horse to. I have addict friends who I wouldn't even want sleeping on my couch when they're using, let alone entrusting my multi-million dollar business to. Corgan *was* the Pumpkins, whether Kim Thayil likes it or not. It's been that way since the beginning. The fact that the Pumpkins suck now is really a typical middle-aged rockstar slump story; I doubt it has much to do with the departure of the old bandmates, whose creative (and sometimes even performative) input was always minimal.
It's true that Soundgarden never made a shitty record, but they definitely made a bunch of overlong records, and that can be directly blamed on the democracy of the songwriting process. There's pluses and minuses to every band dynamic.
I mean, look, I don't care what a band chooses to do with their time and their legacy. But it's delusional to believe Pavement reunited to "give the people what they want". Nowhere except in movies do groups of people get together and decide to devote months of their lives to the vague desires of "the people"... and honestly, even if people *did* do that sort of think, Stephen Malkmus kinda seems like the last dude on earth who would do it. Can you really picture him saying, "We gotta give the people what they want, guys! Who's with me?!" The Pavement reunion was a payday and Pavement took it. I'm not going to slag them off for that, but it's pretty plainly true.
Let me get this straight. “People might read [that thing Grimes said] and think its a cool thing to emulate" but it's the wiki editors who "are doing the world a disservice"? What about the person actually said it?
Quick reminder that Save Ferris once got a 9.5 from Pitchfork. We're not talking about an authoritative critical voice here.
Fair enough. Had trouble watching with much interest, to be honest.
Why do people assume she owns that house? The hipper neighborhoods of LA are full of beautiful houses occupied by young actors, musicians, and bartenders.
Did she really just say that the coolest feature on her smartphone is that it lets her hear local radio stations?
Of all the nasty things said about Kix on this site, the implication that Bing is their fanbase's preferred search engine may be the nastiest.
Great point. If anything it shows just how much the goalposts have shifted since 1997, which is way more interesting (to me) than a discussion about when Oasis peaked.
I didn't realize people on this site were so touchy about typos. I'll make sure to bring in a proofreading team for all future comments.
Ouch. Seems kind of unnecessary to not only quit Death Cab, but also announce out of the blue that he would never join the Darkness.
"Fuck slow, adult shit. Oasis rules." - Shit Adults Say
At least it's a nice change of pace from the riveting daily updates about Arcade Fire's cover song choices. You haven't lived until you've heard five iPhone recordings of a song I'm told is "Been Caught Stealing".
You haven't seen the Black Skinhead video, have you?
Rick Rubin has a lot of talent, but he has a tendency to make RICK RUBIN RECORDINGS rather than getting out of the way and letting the band sound like themselves. Sometimes this can really work. For example, the Mars Volta's first album sounds like a recording of a much more interesting band than the one that actually toured to support it. And his decision to pare Tom Petty's sound down to syncopated drums with minimal strumming and overlays gave songs like "Walls" and "You Don't Know How It Feels" a much fresher feel than anyone expected. But in cases like this, all I see is Rick behind the glass, stroking his beard and cranking the RICK knob up to 11. Just a really really weak recording.
Agreed. The best way to figure out which guitar is right for you is to buy all of them.
Am I missing something, or is this really an article about how bad the customer riffage is at Guitar Center? I have a video of a soundguy yelling CHECK! into a bunch of microphones while the drum tech just keeps hitting the kick drum over and over. Pretty awful hell-on-earth level stuff. Where can I send it?
I'm realizing that Stereogum is all about fervent, but selective, positivity. Say something nice, you get an upvote. Say something in any way negative, you get a downvote... unless you say it about Minnie Driver(?!). Regardless, Damian Abraham's deferred 11th grade "weed phase" is still really really embarrassing, you guys.
Only if two guys kicking the shit out of their roommate constitutes gang activity.
Hey, look, I'm glad weed is increasingly becoming legal and above-ground. No one should be punished for using it. That should go without saying at this point. But goddamn, potheads are the lamest people in the world. Honestly, is there anything more embarrassing than a grown ass man who just discovered weed for the first time and wants everyone to know how stoked he is about it? Cringes all around.