RE: "If there was a band called “The Fa##ots” you would all be up in arms about it. "
Look, I'm gay, I've been called fa##ot, and frankly I don't see any problem with a band called "The Fa##ots." (FYI, I took out the "g"s because it seems like the comment won't post if it has "offensive" words in it or something.) This doesn't have to be a hypothetical. There's a band called the Queers. It's not a queer-core band, they're not gay, and they got the name long before the term "queer" was re-appropriated. Now, they aren't the greatest band in the world -- they're just a Ramones knock-off. But I'd be pretty pissed off if my fellow gays just decided one day to pressure venues into not booking the Queers.
Re: "If there was a band called “The Fa##ots” you would all be up in arms about it"
Look, I'm gay, I've been called faggot etc etc, and frankly I don't see any problem with a band called "The Faggots." This doesn't have to be a hypothetical. There's a band called the Queers. It's not a queer-core band, they're not gay, and they got the name long before the term "queer" was re-appropriated. Now, they aren't the greatest band in the world -- they're just a competant Ramones knock-off. But I'd be pretty pissed off if my fellow gays just decided one day to pressure venues into not booking the Queers.
Re: "Like, if someone in your case was offended by a band called Nazis, I don’t think I’d try too hard to talk them out of it."
But I'd hope you also wouldn't demand that a venue cancel the show for this hypothetical band -- which appears to be what happened here. This isn't about telling people what they should consider offensive; it's about offended people deciding what bands you can go see.
I'm also pretty disappointed that Stereogum endorsed this silliness too. By this reasoning, Joy Division is a horrible band name -- and obviously it's not a horrible band name. Privileged liberal arts brats love to play victims, and I don't see why we should be endorsing that.
I feel like, if anything, TBYML is underrated, possibly because it had so few imitators. It's a contender for best album of the 90s, and deserves a high place on any list of best rock albums ever.
Has Steely Dan been officially elevated to the status of "influential old bands" with regards to indie rock in the 2010s, e.g., with Mac DeMarco, Destroyer's Kaputt, etc.? Sort of like how Bruce Springsteen was an influential "old guy" fixture in the 2000s (e.g., Hold Steady, Arcade Fire, etc.), Brian Wilson had the same role in the 90s (e.g., Sterelab, Flaming Lips, etc.)?
Very interesting that, after his most outré album, Kanye is making earnest pop songs. Pretty brave, in its own way. Reminds me of 808 & Heartbreak in the sense that I won't be listening to this on repeat, but I get what he's trying to do and he's doing it well.
In the interests of feeling like you're 17 again, here's a video full concert by Sleater-Kinney at CBGB's in 1997: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoCDSngUGmY&list=PLBF0638FE3322957C
Saw them at the Metro in Chicago around the same time -- the video is exactly how I remember them.
I think the more interesting question is: when we look back in 10 or 20 years, what are the albums that we will consider as undervalued at the time? (Discovery and Clouds Taste Metallic are good examples.) This is sort of an impossible task, since you can't know the future until it happens. However, I think you could make some interesting guesses.
I can't believe we're debating the relative merits not-yet-released, hypothetical albums. It's like: in a fight between a unicorn and a hydra, WHO WOULD WIN??
I'm kind of a so-so Pearl Jam fan, but I love "Corduroy" far more than any single piece of "classic" rock. For once, Pearl Jam really beat Led Zep, Neil Young, etc., at their own game, and decisively. Just a mind-blowingly perfect piece of music.
I think he means funny "weird," not funny "ha ha."
See http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/funny:
: causing laughter
: odd or strange
: not well : somewhat ill
Yeah, I'm gay too, and I think it's silly to worry about him saying "suck my cock." People need to save their rhetorical ammo for real homophobia. Besides, I have a hard time finding him very threatening.
Whip-Smart is definitely underrated. "Supernova" would be on my list of 100 best songs of the 90s. It's weird that Exile in Guyville is the only one that ever gets remembered.
As for Whitechocolatespaceegg, I'd say that's a harder call -- quite interesting, but not on the level of Exile and Whip-Smart, though I'd be interested to hear a more extended argument for why it's great. Maybe I should listen to that album again (it would be the first time doing so since the 90s).
It's silly to have a played-on-the-radio requirement for something to be eligible for song of the summer. I mean, people probably listen to internet radio way more than actual radio now anyway, and there's no real real "overground" or "underground" anymore -- it's all one big mish-mash, with artists and sounds moving back and forth (for better or worse). Also, why bother having a poll to pick an "ubiquitous hit," since it'll be pretty obvious what's "uniquitious"? I want to know what the Stereogum community thinks is the best summary song this summer, not what they think will be endlessly played on the radio (which they're probably not even that good at judging anyway).
Great artists tend to be pretty sensitive. I mean, the novelist Claire Messud had a similar reaction during a pretty friendly interview earlier this year, since she felt she was being treated like a "woman writer" rather than just a writer. And just think about *every single moment* of Don't Look Back.
The lyrics to Arcade Fire songs often allude or echo the lyrics of other songs on the album in weirdly poetic ways. For example: compare "Ocean of Noise" & the rising sea metaphore in "Windowpane." For example: all the driving imagery in the Suburbs, or how getting pulled over by the police in "Sprawl I" echoes running away from the police in "Sprawl II." If anything, Arcade Fire lyrics are kind of underrated, partially because they seem pretty lame when heard out of the album's context.
I've been listening to the Afghan Whigs since the 90s, and this album in particular is one of the few from the era that I still continue to enjoy. It belongs in the special canon of records like Yeezus that perfectly capture the very worst of the male psyche, that weird pride-injured combination of arrogance and neediness.
This was a shocking album to hear in the 7th grade. At the time, I didn't really know what to make of it, other than that it was telling me the world was way more weird and horrible than I had imagined. Now, I tend to think of the album as being about a guy trying to get his moral bearings, but failing. To me, these lyrics from "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter" are at the heart of the whole thing:
Hate, hate your enemies
Save, save your friends
Find, find your place
Speak, speak the truth
These are good values. He's trying to convince himself to follow them. But he can't. He basically just keeps on collapsing into being a self-hating mess ("What is wrong with me?"). What do we get out of it? Whatever we get out of any tragedy, I guess. And unlike Yeezus, there's no "Bound 2" to wink and take the edge off at the end.
I'm not much of a Drive-By Truckers fan, but I loved Brighter Than Creation's Dark. It has to be one of the most underrated albums I know. So yeah, that album will "win over prospective converts," as you say -- or at least it won over me.
Ok, on second listen, the album is making more sense. If you're looking for an emotional context, I think it's the feeling of just kind of feeling world weary and not being able to connect to the things you used to love and wanting to get that back. At least that's a clear theme in the lyrics, and I think that's what's going on behind the restless combination of kinda-depressing soft-disco and weird left-turn moves in the music. For a comparison, maybe think of stuff like 808 & Heartbreak or Kaputt. It's Daft Punk's dark-night-of-the-soul record.
Naturally, the marketing campaign for this wasn't, "hey everybody, get excited, and get ready to dance, because Daft Punk is coming back, with an all new album ABOUT DEPRESSION."
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