Twin Shadow's "Five Seconds" is the closest thing to a song of the summer on that list for me. Here are a few of my favorites from my summer playlist:
Xylos - "Summerlong"
K'naan - "Waiting Is a Drug"
The Very Best - "Yoshua Alikuti"
Friends - "I'm His Girl" (hey, it wasn't around for last summer, so it's eligible!)
Spiritualized - "Hey Jane"
The Mowgli's - "San Francisco"
Cub Scouts - "Evie"
Hot Chip - "Flutes" and "Motion Sickness"
Yellowcard - "Always Summer"
Pomegranates - "Passaway"
Django Django - the entire album, but especially "Hail Bop," "Storm," and "Skies over Cairo"
Sleigh Bells - "Comeback Kid"
Electric Guest - "Jenny"
Best Coast - "The Only Place"
Chester French - "Black Girls"
fun. - "One Foot"
The Plastics - "Stereo Kids"
Said the Whale - "Heavy Ceiling"
King Charles - "The Brightest Lights (ft. Mumford & Sons)" and "Bam Bam"
Passion Pit - "Take a Walk"
CHAPPO - "Hell No"
KO KO - "Float"
Gossip - "Melody Emergency"
Billy Talent - "Viking Death March"
...and lastly, anything that Capital Cities or Jhameel ever release... EVER.
Wow, that got out of hand. I listen to too much music.
It was a cheap jab, but it was half in jest anyway -- the internet really makes that difficult to get across, though, doesn't it? I apologize. I don't bear you any ill will, and I'm glad you don't bear any towards me, even though I came across as a bit of a troll in my first few posts. I look forward to future conversations with you!
Haha, thanks, man. I'm not surprised about the downvotes, though. Two reasons: first, in both real life and on the net, I often come across as a dick because... well, because I am a dick sometimes. But there are two types of people in this world: those who admit that their shit stinks and those that don't. I try to be the former, and I tend to get annoyed with the latter, which is how the everything-is-sexist commentator in that thread seemed to me.
Second, I'm not surprised because it's the nature of this kind of internet rating system. I honestly think it's the worst thing Stereogum has ever done -- it may not be as bad as YouTube, but it's all too similar -- and I've been lurking on this site for at least seven years. By nature, the rating system breeds a culture wherein quips and cheap japes are celebrated while insightful comments that inspire debate, out-of-the-box thinking, or honest assessments that don't accompany jokes are often shown disdain. Yes, the internet as a whole does that too, but the rating system intensifies the effects exponentially. I hope Stereogum removes it at some point, but I'm not keeping my hopes up. After all, creating competition in the comments section results in more commentators, which in turn results in more hits for the site. But it also results in that dreadful, immature culture of quips I mentioned earlier, which eliminates or denigrates most of the genuine and mature conversations that could occur.
No -- I consider myself a feminist because I believe in complete equality of genders, not because I get all up in arms and shout "SEXISM!" when a woman is taken advantage of. Yes, what Coyne did was wrong, and it would've been equally as wrong if Badu were a man. The fact that she's a woman doesn't make me more outraged. She's an adult and she can take care of herself, and implying that just because she has a vagina she's ripe for exploitation is much more sexist than Coyne's actions. IMO (and the opinions of many others in my women's studies classes), what I've said in this pargraph reflects true feminism. There are many who disagree. Great! Dialogue drives the world.
Besides, I have a feeling that Coyne would (or has) disrespected many men in the same way. Being an ass makes you an ass, not sexist.
What concerns me most, as someone who believes that following the herd and conforming one's opinions to a group is deadly to free speech and to open-minded dissention, is that you're telling me what I should be concerned about.
Because there's much more to being a feminist than making every dispute about gender and getting outraged at everything.
Anyway, the video was beautiful. All of the other crap does not affect that one simple fact.
Thought the video was beautiful, and I'm a feminist. Coyne's dickishness is hilarious, but Badu had some very good points... oh well. What's done is done.
Not a bad list... very predictable for NME.
Why does everyone insist upon criticizing it and/or recommending songs that should be on it? Everyone's taste is different. The only reason I care about these lists is to find the handful of songs I might not have heard so I can improve my musical horizons...
I notice a hell of a lot of downvotes for comments that don't deserve them, but judging by the upvotes on this one, at least Stereogum readers can laugh at themselves. That's a quality lacking on too much of the internet.
Love this. I've always wondered what the song would sound like put to music, and there's nobody better than The National! If Matt Berninger had been born into the world of A Song of Ice and Fire, he'd be a minstrel, for sure... whether or not he'd push people out of Moon Doors is another question...
Last year, he was a real asshole to me when I emailed him asking about a potential interview that one of my writers had requested. Ever since I've had a very low opinion of him and have refused to post anything to do with him.
I'm interested in anything Django Django. Their self-titled album is one of my favorite records of the year -- and one of the most consistently good. I'm talking every damn song (although "Default" is actually one of my least favorites, this is a great performance). I highly recommend checking it out if you haven't yet!
Don't believe everything you read. FB chose a few bands out of the hundreds that I've liked without letting me know. Yes, I liked AFI in 2003... and I liked All Time Low in 2007. So what? Everyone's music tastes evolve and change.
Also, my commentary was meant as a criticism of the list not being broad enough (it seems to me like it was slapped together with almost no thought as to the content)... not a criticism of the bands.
So I spent half an hour ripping that and uploading it, and you couldn't even give credit to the page you took it from? Thanks a lot =P
http://www.the-tune.net/download-best-coasts-acoustic-cover-of-the-fleetwood-mac-song-storms-mp3/
Actually, I do know every single one (besides a few of the honorable mentions). That's what happens when you do nothing but listen to music all day. But that's not the point. The point is that the selection is extremely poor, especially with all the better choices out there.
And you seem like a gem.
If that were true, then we'd all still be listening to what Rolling Stone and Blender say and never forming our own opinions. "Established writer" is just a euphemism for someone good enough at sucking up to get a reliable job in the field -- I know a LOT of writers and the "amateur" ones are no worse or better on average than the "established" ones. This was a poorly-written article and I said so. Maybe that's "being a dick" to you, but I just call it "being honest."
Also, seeing as you how you had to go to some trouble to find my website since it's not even on my Stereogum profile, I wouldn't call my posts an "ad." Thanks for checking it out, though.
It's not clear that you like it, you didn't merely "insufficiently praise" it -- you criticized it and did so weakly, and how do you know what I know? I know a few things here and there, and one of them is how to write well. This is one of the worst articles I've read on Stereogum, which is why I took the time to respond to it. Being "pissy" is vastly different from warning readers that it's an insufficient evaluation.
That is far and away and without a doubt the single worst song I've ever heard on this website -- and I listen to everything you guys post.
I'm serious. I like all genres of music and will listen to almost anything, and that made my very soul hurt.
Seeing as you only used the word "blues" once in the entire article, didn't even mention all the memorable tongue-in-cheek lyrics (or any of the lyrics at all), dismissed the kickass music White has made with Danger Mouse and The Dead Weather, and don't seem to have an ounce of real soul in either your writing or your understanding of the southeast culture ("relaxed"? really? that word does not describe this album at all), I would recommend that no-one pay attention to this article.
Plus, I've heard the album, and though it's no masterpiece, it's a hell of a lot better than this weak dismissal.
My biggest issue with Skrillex, and the one that you didn't effectively cover, is a very simple one: he makes music that's more about the process of hearing it than it is about the process of really LISTENING to it. Think about it. There's a big difference. Some people want to hear their music, others want to listen to it. I for one don't derive any pleasure from simply hearing music unless it challenges me to interact with it on an intellectual level, not just a physical one. And this issue doesn't separate him from dozens of other DJs (other than that he's getting really famous for it, so it's more annoying) and artists from any other genre -- except that electronic music has the most. People have all sorts of preferences when it comes to music, but to many of us this kind of music is just, well... dumb, unintelligent, dull-witted, whatever you want to call it.
I know the word is overused, but this is one of the most epic things ever recorded. It has the arena hugeness of peak-era U2 combined with a gospel-choir-singing-to-god aesthetic that, in my opinion, makes the songs more like hymns to the higher powers of music.
It's certainly not without faults, and the scope does get a little overwhelming at times -- it's like lying on your back, looking at the stars, and trying to imagine how far away they are.
But it's one of the better records of the year in meters or in yards.
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