I'm not okay with this article. What Rahm did was extreme, but no one should be defending Keef. I used to tutor on the south side and Keef was nothing if not the shittiest of influences. Kids really looked up to him because he made it big from a bad area and while he was still young, getting a co-sign from a local hero like Kanye. He whole heartedly condoned violence, got a child pregnant (I don't care if he was under 18, she was too young), and showed no care for how his actions affected the community or anything his affiliates would do. At a time when other young rappers like Chance were pushing against the violence in Chicago, he continued to drag it down without remorse.
While I respect the idea of raising money for the child that died in the hit and run, he has yet to show any self awareness that would lead me to believe he's turned a new leaf.
I'm sure you were trying to be funny in saying you would vote for him, but for someone who often uses this site to promote progressive causes you really come across like the ignorant jerks you often tell off.
I never got the Doors hate. All the other big bands were just as up their own asses as Morrison was. At the very least they had a unique sound compared to other big bands like the Who, Beatles, Cream, or Stones. No other band could commit to how dark their psychedelic sound was and their debut still astounds me how they carry that tone through opposing types of songs like Break On Through, Crystal Ship, and The End. It really comes across as the perfect representation of the bleak, dark, come down of the 60's.
Bonus points because I put The Doors into Pandora when I was like 14 and The Zombies came on. And my life would not be the same without Oddessey and Oracle.
This is much better than Charged Up but still not great. I'm hoping Drake will just drop a new diss track every few days and it culminates in a whole mixtape.
I was not feeling the song that posted with the interview and I really only listened to this because the name, but damn, this is poppin'!
Why isn't there more heavily disco oriented stuff? I know there was a little bit of disco production around after Daft Punk's RAM struck it big, but I don't want disco inspired by a band inspired by the original stuff. I want some beef-ed up, experimental version of the corny ass dance tunes my parents are ashamed they danced to.
I like the fact that Meek has a diss track ready already....
So the way to win a rap beef is pick someone out, write a diss track about them, but hold it until later, talk shit, and once they respond with a rushed together track, put yours out so you look like hot shit.
This exact thing happened when there was a free Tyler the Creator concert in Boulder, CO.
I think it's got less to do with racial unrest than it does with the large, fairly uncontained group of teens and twenty somethings.
I can never read to much about this guy. He's so unremarkable, yet facinatingly so. It's like hearing about a burn out high school friend who scrapes by on making music and you think "good for him."
Also Onion Man on Some Other Ones is great.
Okay, unrelated to the music, but mini-album is just not a thing.
There are already singles, EPs, albums, and double albums. We don't need a ridiculous descriptor like mini-album.
This was surprisingly good. I really don't care for Migos (exception being when real drunk at parties) but they actually sounded great rapping over something so scarce.
I remember hearing horror stories from friends about how shifty Craig was back in the day when he was in Dance Gavin Dance. Which was a shame because I loved/still have feelings for that band. But in the end, Chuck Jonny Craig.
I just got back from that Train wreck movie and (spoiler) there's a Wilco song, which made me realize I very much needed to listen to Wilco. So perfect timing.
I loved her first album but Golden Echo was a huge disappointment. I think it's funny you think it could be looked back on as something that should have been influential because I thought its biggest problem was how badly it wanted to be cutting edge but it came across as a neutered version of experimental pop that was already happening. 90's Music was fascinating though, and her voice is beautiful enough to keep me excited for her next project.
As long as AOTW is getting shook up (FUCK YOU RECORD COMPANIES! My need for quality Tuesday reading is more important than whyever you changed to Friday's!) I wouldn't mind getting a rotation of writers for the feature. I feel like it helps spread the love due to differing tastes and maybe just put another list on the bottom of other writer's choices.
Also, as always, great article Mr. Nelson.
"There’s a pretty cool metaphor for Envy in there, but fuck a metaphor "
Revelatory.
This isn't even music snob shit. I'll admit that one of the most played songs on my ipod the last few months has been Not For Long by B.o.B. and Trey Songz.
But there really isn't anything about Jepson that deserve this level of attention. She doesn't make music that stands out or is above par, she doesn't have an interesting persona or star quality, and she doesn't even have cultural clout.
Someone said it well in another thread: if this were pre-internet times she would have faded to one-hit wonder status a couple years ago and no one would have cared.
To a point I agree with you. People that don't like country should just admit it rather than try to give the genre artistic merit by pretending to like the classics. If it's not your thing, it's not your thing; let someone who's into it critique it.
But I'll back them up that Cash and Hank Williams Sr and Buck Owens are very different entities than Kenny Chesney, Luke Bryant, Jason Aldean, and (ugh) Florida Georgia Line.
I'd say it's fair game to have an affection for older styled country but hate on modern country, because there are plenty of country music fans that don't know or care for older country. A lot of my friends only listen to (double ugh) country radio but fucking hate if I put on Charlie Rich.
I always compare modern top-40 country to modern rock or hair metal. We all know that Led Zeppelin were great, but Three Days Grace and Bon Jovi suck.
Maybe it's just upstate NY but everywhere I go I hear that damn Walk the Moon song. Also this Carly Rae Jepson thing is getting a little creepy Stereogum. It's one thing to strangely push it on us over the internet, but to keep repping her this hard to other musicians, I'm actually starting to think you sincerely enjoy her music. And Call Me Maybe has not aged well.
I'm loving Bully and Desaparecidos, but I'm commenting to address the article about mixradio since I can't comment there.
This "Staff" guy or gal you've got writing for you is a revelation. It really feels like he/she speaks from the heart and can be trusted to have a sincere, unbiased opinion.
Your list is much more in line with my taste, but I feel like it would be easier to classify the band by going 1-4 for their first and last 4 albums.
Honorary #1 spot to Chulahoma.
1) Rubber Factory / Brothers
2) Thickfreakness / El Camino
3) The Big Come Up / Attack & Release
4) Magic Potion / Turn Blue
The 2s and 3s are completely interchangeable to me, but I will always say the 1s are required listening and the 4s are skippable. Rubber Factory is one of the best pure blues rock albums and Brothers is one of the best produced and written rock albums of the century.
"And as it turns out, “Maneater” is a pretty awesome song when it’s done like this."
Are you implying that it's not typically a fucking great song? Because that's just a ridiculous thing to say.
I was really not feeling this song when it first came out but god damn it bangs. Can't say it' makes me as excited for his album as Down On My Luck, but it'll be on my car bumpin' rotation all summer.
Oh man I can't explain how happy this makes me. The first vinyl I ever bought was this guy's first single. Can always rely on him for some summer jamz.
The write up made this seem way more interesting than it was.
The effects were super cheesy, which really wouldn't matter if it weren't that there was obviously some serious money put into it. Plus they pretty much just showed a bunch of really short clips of famous people (honestly not many were even recognizable) and figured interspersing that with random Hunger Games, Divergent, Kill Bill type stuff would make for a spectacle. If there was ever a point I was worried about the 'gum taking money to push some product it would probably be this.
Also, how come we get these lame Kendrick verses on a weak song but we can't get those freaking Captain Murphy/FlyLo and Kendrick collabs?
I'm sorry but all I could think after clicking the 21-pilots article link was how bad I am at imagining what all the Stereogum staff look like.
Next thing you know, Scott won't be a Phil Collins doppelganger.
In honor of how well it went over when I CRUSHED it at karaoke last night, All These Things That I've Done by the Killers.
Or Humpty Dance by Digital Underground.
"If that doesn’t make you pine away over how life is just the endless slipping away of innocence..."
JEEEEEEZ Caitlin. Life's already tough enough when I bury that thought deep in my subconscious; I don't need you saying that shit out loud!
Now I'm gonna have to get drunk and listen to Is This It? to try to regain my youth.
Seriously, I'm bummed that album hasn't gotten more attention on this site. They're one of the only new blues-rock-oriented bands that make me want to listen to their albums rather than just playing the classics. And everyone over at the AV Club was pretty tepid about it too, but I suppose that site's pretty much useless for anything other than TV reviews now anyways.
Brittney Howard can fucking belt, the production's great, they can write a melody with the best of them, and bonus points for doing The Strokes via Alabama Shakes with "The Greatest".
Not trying to gloat, but I definitely called Walk the Moon out as having what it takes to make it in the pop world when this song came out 6 months ago.
Also, I probably said it then and I'll say it again, their song Quesadilla is a jam.
Only checked out a couple tracks so far but it sounds solid. Somehow even more obviously jacking his influences styles (NERD, Kanye) and throwing more jazz chords into it.
SMUCKERS though! The second half of Kanye's verse is what i've missed most about new, serious Kanye. He never would've tried this much goofy punniness on his own stuff. The whole Lexus part screams of young Kanye.
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