Everything Was Terrible & Nothing Was Not On Fire |
Shit music reviews. |
I rather like Surfer Blood. Like any fan, I was disturbed to see this, that he’s alleged to have beaten his gal, and that he plead guilty before obtaining a “plea and pass” agreement. It’s hard to know what really happened between them (you ever have a bad fight? bet you have), but from what I understand,”plea and pass” means that you plead guilty in exchange for entering a rehabilitative program (e.g. drug rehab, anger management, community service) that eventually exonerates your charge.
So, he’s guilty of battery then, against his girlfriend, until a few months from now? Was it more complicated than that and taking a plea-and-pass was smarter than fighting the charge? Sure doesn’t sound like he was beat up by his girlfriend. Just heard one of their newer tracks on KEXP.org. Hard thing to shake.
My friends in EULA got themselves a nice write-up over in richdork (I can’t help it!), good stuff, new track.
Joe remixed “Offspring Are Blank” by Dirty Projectors. Because why not?
Click the link below.
This is a fantastic remix, a real tribute to the tune, it sounds like he’s pointing out things he loves about the original while taking you on a wild little ride into new territory. Ride that wave!
I’m told Not Blood Paint’s record release show will be March 8th at The Collapsing Hole. And KNTRLR will be opening (I play guitar and bass in KNTRLR sometimes).
Deep thought: “Painters” is like “burners,” but even more awesome. AMIRITE?
A new spin on “Breathing Underwater” coming in the form of MNDR’s remix
I’m always interested in remixes, and this one is pretty dang good. I’ve had a thing for MNDR and them big freaking glasses ever since I saw her in Mark Ronson’s wild electro-dance video masterpiece, “Bang Bang Bang,” which you must go watch right now if you’ve never seen it.
Lots of remixes don’t bare a lot of resemblance to the original tune—they don’t have to, for sure! But often I find myself listening to what sounds like bullshit. This isn’t one of those. More coming up, something more local.
Light blogging while I catch my breath, there’s a number of local releases and performances I saw and heard to tell you about, hot things on the way, I’m behind the gun on some day job work, and I’ve been rehearsing a lot for my own act, we’ve got a show in Brooklyn coming up very soon (2/28). Also: kntrlr is back on the war path. We’re opening for Not Blood Paint’s record release show at The Collapsing Hole on March 8th, put that on your calendar for sure.
If you slow down the song “This Is Hardcore,” you’ve got the whole recipe to Portishead right there.
I’m always hesitant to say broad things like, “the way we listen to music now means we get it like this and we like it like that,” and so on and so forth. Hard to prove. Tris took at stab in his critics poll’s final update, writing about how folks this year seemed to prefer filling out the poll questions pertaining the things they liked, rather than the opposite in years past:
The popularity of the categories has shifted over time, and it’s gravitated away from the nasty stuff. For instance, Worst Song of the Year used to be a guaranteed crowd-pleaser, but this year, only about 15% of voters bothered to list one. Even Young Upstart and Hoary Old Bastard — two-decade cornerstones of this Poll — drew tepid responses. Either you are all Mormons now or the Spotify revolution has kept displeasing stuff out of your ears. Or maybe you’re all just swell individuals. That’s probably it.
I certainly hear far less shit that I hate than I used to. In fact, I go out of my way to scan the radio for what’s new and horrible in top 40 popular music whenever I’m driving. It gets the blood boiling on your way to rehearsal, it’s healthy. Also, my God has hip-hop gone through some amazing metamorphoses while rock seems to have gone nowhere, other than further into hip-hop and electronica, following envelopes pushed and doors opened by the top-charters on HOT97.
But something else I notice anecdotally and from time-to-time, is that some Big Thing will come to town that lots and lots of people care dearly for, from a collective past they share as fans that I just wasn’t apart of—I think social networking and a diaspora of media may contribute to this. Or I’m just fuddy-duddy. Get off my lawn.
Seriously, remember when Pulp came to New York last year, and everyone went ape shit? All the pictures from the live show on the various networks, people gabbing on and on about it. There I am… “who is Pulp?” just in utter disbelief at the attention surrounding something I’d never heard of. “You know, that ‘Common People’ song? Dude, you never heard that?” Of course I’ve heard their one-hit wonder, you prat, how was I supposed to know their name?
Since then I picked up This Is Hardcore, and I rather like it. I can enjoy Jarvis for about 30 minutes, and then for the next 15 I want to punch the thing that is playing his music until it stops. I can only take so much. You can see a big influence for David Albarne’s singing on a tune like “Dishes.” And in a lot of this music. “Party Hard,” tell me that doesn’t sound like a Blur song. Yes I know Blur came later, relax. That’s my point.
The new big thing like this that I’ve never heard of but a whole lot of people have is Swans. Seems like I just missed this one. Should I check out swans?
Cold Fur have released a blistering new track off their upcoming LP Altamont Every Night, which I’m very excited about. This is just hair-raising, this tune. This is what I was raving about a couple weeks back, which I’d seen over at Maxwell’s. The new record gonna be good.
It reminds of Danzig, but I like this better, fun rambling gloomy doomy tunes. They use the term crossover to describe themselves… I’d advise against…
James Damions review of Star Beat Music’s 1 year anniversary show last week. I was pulling the last minute rehearsal routine and had to skip it. I’m surprised at his lack of interest in Hilly Eye, but I wasn’t there, so what do I know.
