That's a priority for you? That he personally curated every single artist at his festival? What about the food vendors? Should he have tried each of those too?
What's questionable about it? Do you like Arcade Fire? If so, you get 30 minutes worth of Arcade Fire for free after SNL goes off the air. I don't know where you place "the middle of the night," but in my timezone, SNL goes off the air at 1 pm. If that's too late for you, you can set your VCR or DVR and watch it later. It's the first episode of the season, so SNL will be unveiling their new cast as well as featuring established players in new roles. I'm not sure what about that is questionable, but I'd imagine that's what has happened on the first episode of SNL every year since SNL went on the air.
In all seriousness, I'm guessing he could hear producers talking in his headphones. I did one of these once (admittedly NOT a nationwide college football telecast) and there were three different people talking. I got sucked into listening to people saying things in English that I couldn't grasp the significance of and then started trying to remember which camera was camera 2 and I completely spaced that there was a broadcast rolling. I wasn't solo and didn't have to field the first question which was good. I was 1,000% NOT ready. I don't think I was looking around like I was on a spaceship the way Em was at the beginning, but I felt as lost as he looks.
I don't know that I would ever describe "typing in a Stereogum comments section" as "raging" but raging lies in the eye, I guess.
Do I think it's presumptuous that Yeezus is trolling? Yes.
Was the VMA performance "controversial?" That's not up to me, but every set of fingerprints on pearls does not add up to a controversy.
Was I "raging" because the song was "old-ish?" Not at all. But I was suggesting that many of those who were scandalized by the performance likely hadn't seen the video upon which it was based. I don't really consider "two months" as "old-ish" unless we're talking about Ben Button.
Was I "raging" because MTV doesn't play videos? No. That's just funny to me.
Yeah, yeah... Kanye's GOTTA be trolling everybody because there's no chance that he thinks the whole "controversy" is bullshit. There's no chance that Kanye has any sympathy for the person at the center of the collective pearl clutching for her re-enactment of 1/10 of a music video that has been out for two months already, right? What's that? Most of the people freaking out about Miley's VMAs performance haven't actually seen the video for "We Can't Stop" yet? That's weird. I don't know why that would be. There's a channel that shows videos all the time...
Oh, wait.
You're objecting to being told you can't take pictures of a show you paid to SEE. You emphasized the word "paid" while de-emphasizing what you actually spent the money for. Did you pay to take pictures of yourself? Or did you pay for access to a venue with a sound system capable of delivering the sound of a band, a safe environment, and a (somewhat) clear sight line?
"Most importantly, none address the fact that for many fans, documenting an event on Instagram or Facebook is a crucial element of the total experience."
So, the artists who want people to actually experience and be a part of the performance by doing things that people have done at concerts for thousands of years (watching, singing along, clapping, etc.) are "patronizing, passive-agressive, condescending, and disconnected..."
While the fans who would rather talk through the show, photograph the show by holding a phone up in front of other people who also paid to see it, or document the performance (they aren't actually engaging with) on social media sites are engaging in "a crucial element of the total experience..."?
What?
I'm sorry, but when the Savages tour was announced, I don't think the shows sold out because people were buying tickets to their local Instagram meetup. At least in theory, the "crucial elements of the total experience" begin and end with: the band(s) showing up, the band(s) performing, the sound and lighting folks doing their jobs, and the venue staff being there to scan tickets, check IDs, and serve booze. The person next to me taking duckface selfies and talking through Feist is no more a "crucial element of the total experience" than chlamydia is a crucial element of sex. And yes, I picked a venereal disease for a reason. People fall asleep next to phones. They wake up next to them (and because of them). They carry them around constantly. They use them on plains, trains, buses, bikes, cars, and skateboards. They use them while using laptops and desktops and tablets. Nothing about them is crucial to any form of life. The word you were looking for is ubiquitous. They're not the same thing.
A few years back, a review of a new Rolling Stones album mentioned that, because of who they are, their releases are always graded on a legacy curve rather a contemporary curve. The reviewer basically admitted that if the album could be given the "Pepsi Challenge" or if we were capable of hearing it as a new album from a new band, the cultural consensus would lead to totally different reviews than having every song stacked up against "Satisfaction". I thought that was a pretty compelling take.
Late to the party, plb102, but I can vouch for this. The one interesting thread I've seen repeated again and again re: #Yeezus (other than people foolishly equating sexual aggression with misogyny) is how wrong his appropriation of sacred civil rights cow "Strange Fruit" is... And it still leaves me scratching my head. The number of people who will hear "Strange Fruit" for the first time because of "Blood on the Leaves" makes that production choice so much more important in a positive way than in a negative way. Similarly, other than generic complaints about Kingdom Come, the only frequently repeated specific complaints were that it sounded "lazy" or "effortless" and pissing on having the first single linked to a Budweiser commercial. I'm still not sure how that's supposed to diminish how awesome "Dig A Hole" is or the excellent, deranged, insistent Rick James sample... But I guess if Jay isn't spitting it in triple time, he's not trying hard enough for some peopel.
Rap like what? I haven't heard Magna Carta Opus Dei yet, so I can't speak to that, but I guarantee you didn't stop listening to rap like Yeezus "back years ago" because it wasn't there for you to dismiss.
Their servers probably crashed immediately... Too many people who didn't like Yeezus immediately because it's not a hip-hop album and don't like Lou Reed because everything he makes isn't a Velvet Underground song must be trying to read this review so that they can comment about how they don't like things that aren't the things they already like.
I'm not sure how describing MCHG as "a more traditional hip-hop record" than Yeezus constitutes a diss. Far from it. If you're describing Yeezus for someone who has never heard it before, one way to approach it is that it's music that happens to feature some rapping. It's decidedly NOT a traditional hip-hop record. Comparatively speaking, MCHG couldn't help but be "a more traditional hip-hop record." It's like pointing out that a Pontiac is "less expensive than a Bugatti."
Yeah, totally... How annoying that a band wants to make the music they want to make without laboring under the expectation that all future releases will be just like their debut album. POSEURS!
I can't imagine anything is gonna sneak ahead of Savages for me, but I've been playing the hell out of QOTSA and The National's new one too... I enjoyed Phoenix and Justin Timberlake, but I don't find myself compelled to put those on too often.
On the other hand, the artist presented this "dumb gimmick" to the band and they agreed to add their "art" to it. So it's entirely possible that:
A) They don't think this "art" is dumb,
B) They don't think this "art" is a gimmick,
C) They don't think this "art" is a dumb gimmick,
or
D) They don't think this "dumb gimmick" compromises their "art" as much as you seem to...
Feel free to sit a few plays out, there Champ...
Who says they're going to play it repeatedly for six hours? Maybe they're gonna play a six-hour long version of it. (It could start with 45 minutes of the piano and strings alone...)
There was also that PA outage... Can't remember which song, but the monitors were clearly working because when the PA came back on the band was still cruising!
That's a really brilliant way to appreciate an artist's work:
Develop "an understanding" of their career after a certain point.
Don't listen to any of their work after that point.
Let the writing of someone you don't know confirm the "understanding" you developed without actually experiencing it yourself.
Your idea of "understanding" is... interesting.
I'm late to this party and obviously arrived because of the "Stream Skrillex Leaving EP" post. I dig your writing and I've been on the record about that in various places, but this piece takes the cake for me. You nailed it, Tom. I was in the "Dubstep, whatever... Skrillex, whatever..." camp without having really heard much more than a few bass drops until Bonnaroo 2012. And I only walked over to Skrillex because he was playing so loud when his set started that I couldn't even hear whatever I wasn't enjoying any more. I was actually about to walk back to my campsite when his set started. I saw him two more times in 2012, also at outdoor festivals (MIA in Philly and Virgin Free Fest in Columbia, MD). As excited as I was about the other stuff on those two lineups (Jay-Z? Pearl Jam? Dirty Projectors? Janelle Monae? Jack White? Alabama Shakes? ALL OF THE ABOVE!), the one thing I knew going in I would enjoy in exactly the "unadulterated fun..." vs. "I have no idea where this set might go but I wanna be there..." proportions you describe was Skrillex. At the end of the day, I've listened to enough music of all genres to have a pretty decent sense of where most songs go. And it's great to see a band you've never seen before and have that feeling of them wrecking a song you've never heard and absolutely rocking out on a chorus. But very few things compare to the experience of dancing until you sweat through your shirt with a bunch of grinning, dancing, sweaty strangers where no one has any idea what's around the next corner, besides more grinning, more dancing, more sweating, and music so loud you can feel all your internal organs. But you said all that. I'm just co-signing...
Pablo Honey is underrated, IMO (though definitely their "least best" album). I've often said that it's a problem of sequencing moreso than content. For those who are so inclined, I'd recommend checking it out in this order:
Ripcord
How Do You?
Stop Whispering
Creep
Thinking About You
You
Anyone Can Play Guitar
Vegetable
I Can't
Lurgee
Blow Out
Prove Yourself
Again, that's not gonna move it up to #3 or anything, but it's a much more interesting album than the sequence they released...
I'm with HartfordTheWhale, though I'm not sure the question is relevant, as subjective as these things are... In this case "best" is really just a substitute for "the one I like the most" and those two streets do not and should not always intersect. I was recently reacquainted with The Whole Love and I was pleasantly surprised by how much more I enjoyed it than my first impression led me to believe. Is it possible that five months or five years from now, I'll think that is better than YHF? Perhaps... That said, as noted, YHF holds up quite well on its own merits because it is chock full of powerful songs, thoughtful lyrics, and great hooks. Why anyone needed a "hit" from Wilco will always be the confusing part to me...
I prefer the look of older Cadillacs to any of the models I've seen in the last ten years... GOP efforts not withstanding, women and people of color in America probably have it better right now than at any other point in our nation's history. Does that make me "suspect" too? I AM wearing a hoodie, after all...
As an African-American male and a feminist, I have no beef with and no skepticism toward Jack White's preference for analog over digital technology. I'm not really sure how one makes the leap to attaching such a preference to some broader societal context, or why anyone would want to; sometimes a saltine is just a saltine... The man likes analog because he thinks it sounds better. He has the resources at his disposal to make that choice. How that factors into your enjoyment of his music is a mystery to me. At least we agree on Steampunk, though, eh?
This is sofa king stupid...
Kanye West doesn't have the right to go to Occupy Wall Street now? Really? And Kanye West is being criticized for something Russell Simmons said? As clear as I can tell, Kanye didn't say a word during that piece, and didn't even nod while Russell was talking about how inevitable it was that Kanye would have to do a media appearance that basically involved him not saying anything.
But I get it, Kanye is an easy target. Kanye is gonna get more pageviews than Russell Simmons. So let's call Kanye out for something he didn't say while doing something that theoretically everyone wanted Radiohead to do last week. #bitchplease
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