DELICATE, EXQUISITE-MINDED, AND YOUTHFUL, AND AT THE SAME TIME ODDLY RETICENT

click for stream
I've been down this street a thousand times this week.
Nordpolen: Skimret

That Death Cab review made me sad. Ben Gibbard sounds... really sad. I mean, I guess we knew that already from the songs, but there's just this frank resignation in his press these days, particularly his Paste cover story. He's not some Dionysian suicidal drug addict, either, which makes his tone that much more relatable. He's just a guy who got almost everything he ever wanted and realized he'll still never have everything he ever wanted-- most likely nobody will. A smart, literate, slightly melancholy but generally decent, well-meaning, and careful guy. Boo hoo, right? Well, yeah.

The Explorers Club review was a bummer, too, only cause I really like a few of those songs but just can't stop hearing them all together as really good Beach Boys covers but with less of the original feeling, less spark. It's hard to put my finger on.

Things that make me have facial expressions lately:

Dancing is something you do alone in your room at three in the morning.
Stephen Colbert

The Game Source cover

"American Cutie" ???

"the two manliest actors of the 20th century"

new torture documents

"the waning power of race in the dirty dirty"

obama's appalachian problem

"I think the fear of letting a band get too big too fast, lest they stunt their growth, stems from a..."

curious george. i hope we look back on this someday the way we look at people being afraid kennedy would defer to the pope.

A NOT PARTICULARLY CLEVER WAY OF RAISING JOHN MCCAIN'S AGE AS AN ISSUE

Like it was the backs of their eyeballs you looked at while they were hearing music you couldn't hear.
Hot Chocolate: Heaven Is in the Backseat of My Cadillac

I can see why Chuck Eddy, Matthew Perpetua, Mike Barthel, Tom Breihan and others might be less enthused than I am about No Age's Nouns, and it's clearly not just critics' natural tendency to be skeptical of what somebody else rated extremely highly. The recurring focus on No Age's role in LA's the Smell scene (they're more popular than Mika Miko because they've put out better records, guys) should rightly raise suspicions about whether that's what people are seizing on here, the process rather than the music. For me, though, as someone approaching Nouns from a perspective that's ridiculously steeped in recent indie and probably less conversant about No Age's supposed 1990s soundalikes than any of those dudes, thinking about Nouns in terms of 1990s indie rock is missing the point. I see No Age more as part of a fascinating movement that includes Liars, Deerhunter, Beach House, High Places, and others, all of whom share an interest to some extent in both punk ideals and ambient aesthetics. You listen to "Keechy" the way you might listen to Markus Guentner, not the way you listen to Dinosaur Jr. (or the way I do, anyway). When a band like Sebadoh gets loud and noisy, whether on a Gaffney song or at the end of "Brand New Love", they're rocking out. When No Age are noisy-- which there's admittedly less of on Nouns than on Weirdo Rippers-- it seems to me that they're better enjoyed for their textures, for the way they encourage perceptual drift and let us get lost in those little fuzzy tendrils of feedback and distortion where music and noise intersect (but without giving up on pop's melodies or communicativeness... or punk's emphasis on provocation and independence, if you're into that sort of thing). I haven't heard an album that does this better all year, and although an argument could certainly be made for Pavement's Watery, Domestic EP, I don't think I'm being nostalgic.

IF YOU CAN'T ANNOY SOMEBODY, THERE'S LITTLE POINT IN WRITING

Their shit don't stink and their kids don't bleed.
Blessid Union of Souls: Hey Leonardo



Gotta die with money 'cause I wasn't born with it.
(via fluxtumblr)


Dude, Zengerle, psychoanalytical gobbledygook isn't good political journalism. Gail Collins is no more qualified a mind reader than any other armchair pundit. Clever writing doesn't make it relevant.

Wow, the Guardian on Jonathan Richman: "The Bostonians." I'm makin' it Katrina (y'all drizzle).

OK, I want them to get on with it, too, but I hate finding out that things I thought I knew just ain't so. Remember that anti-flag-burning measure that Hillary supported in what was supposedly a pander? Richard Cohen at the Washington Post just based a column on it two years later, using it to show how Clinton would do anything to win. Somehow, he didn't know (and I definitely didn't know) that the measure was a defensive move to give red-state pols cover while also evading a constitutional amendment. More importantly, Obama supports it, too! Cohen had to issue a correction. Bob Somerby has the scoop:

COHEN (2/12/08): My Feb. 5 column was critical of Hillary Clinton for supporting a bill to make flag burning illegal. I have since learned from a reader that Barack Obama also supported that bill.

Then again, dumber:

Earlier in the campaign, questions were raised as to whether Barack Obama was raised as a Muslim as a child. Obama seemed to have put the questions to rest by stating unequivocally that he has always been a Christian and was never raised as a Muslim. Daniel Pipes collects a substantial amount of evidence that Barack has been less than forthcoming on this issue

These are the alpha dogs of the week.
Teenage Fanclub: Hang On

Shorter James Kirchick: People who think the Iraq war was doomed from the start are just like Osama Bin Laden. Key quote: "[Matthew Yglesias] echoes Osama bin Laden when he argues that Islamist anger against the West is a justified response to foreign powers that 'occupy Muslim land.'"

Well, QED: If Bin Laden said something, then it's clearly false. I'm pretty sure Bin Laden believes in a monotheistic god, too, but whatever.

Funnier:

Chris Matthews: Let’s bring on Tim Russert here. Tim, don’t you think this election is just like a great FOOTBALL GAME?

Tim Russert: You said it. A real barnburner, Chris.

Howard Fineman: Jesus.

Tim: You know, it reminds me a lot of when my dad, BIG RUSS, and I watched Bills games together. Just one of those real back-and-forth games. You had Jim Kelly, the great, All-pro quarterback. And you had Thurman Thomas, the wonderful running back. Those were real competitions. And that’s what we have here. A REAL competition. With Barack Obama, whose this sort of great, unpolished talent. Very much like Vince Young, the quarterback down in Tennessee.

Chris: I agree. I think he’s just like Vince Young, right down to the gay throwing motion. This REALLY is astounding. I’ve always said politics is just like football, and it’s showing here.

Tim: Actually Chris, you have deviated from that platform on occasion. I have a quote here that YOU gave to MSNBC just two months earlier where you said, quote: “I think this election is just like a GREAT HEAVYWEIGHT BOXING MATCH,” unquote. So you said boxing match back then, and now you’re saying football. How do you reconcile those two positions?

Chris: HA! That’s amazing, Tim! God, you’re just like a GREAT TENNIS PLAYER! Always volleying back and forth with all kinds of moves. It’s amazing! Let’s bring on Senator Clinton here for a moment. Senator Clinton, don’t you think you’re just like BILL BELICHICK?

just got back from London-- well, like, more than a week ago! british library (magna carta!), british museum (rosetta stone! like, the headless parts of the parthenon!), the tower of london, the national gallery, the national portrait gallery, the tate modern, hyde park... saw but didn't pay to really do: westminster abbey, st. paul's, the globe theater, buckingham palace. went to all manner of pubs, gastropubs, and indian restaurants. rough trade east. more pubs. some not good but perfect english guitar band. boris and growing within walking distance of our first accommodations, in bloomsbury. junior boys and morgan geist and kelley polar (and metronomy...) at the former millennium dome, the "indie" building next to the venue prince played, a mall-like place that's indoors but feels like it's outdoors like (i'm told) las vegas, dinner and pints with friends, out to oxford one day, the bird pooping on us right away but the day turning out awesome with stops at a great little sandwich shop and the pub where clinton didn't inhale and the pub where tolkien and lewis must've walked around making people call them by their initials and the guy from bristol who told his oxford law student gf "i've picked up some tourists!" and saw can live in 1973 even though he looked way too young but on the other hand he didn't seem to realize how cool that was.

was going to say, sorry this is so short, but jeez. i would like to thank my non-guest, rain!

I'M ELVIS PRESLEY IN THE SEVENTIES

Are you hiding from yourself, or am I just plain ugly?
APB: Something to Believe In


Shirts and skins. That's the framework the Daily Howler's Bob Somerby applies to people who are political news junkies, and it goes for liberals and conservatives alike. We human beings like to be told our side is right. We also like to ignore facts that fail to provide the tingling thrill of confirming our worldview. Somerby writes:

There are times, when you run a web site, when you’re stunned to discover the following fact: Readers have agreed with you down through the years only because they enjoy your conclusions. They’ll yelp and howl about the vile ways the words of the shirts have been misstated. But when someone misstate[s] the words of a skin, they’ll invent endless ways to support that.

Just another girl that broke my heart before I met you.
Lullatone: The Bedtime Beatbox


I was talking to a wise pundit the other day about politics, and this person said to me that Bob Somerby is "crazy." And I said the person was probably right. What I failed to add is, "So what? That's the point!" Josh Marshall, E.J. Dionne, Nicholas Kristof, Bob Herbert, Kevin Drum, The New Republic, Salon, Slate, The American Prospect, Washington Monthly... all make the rational decision not to talk about the role of the press corps in American politics, whether in covering up McCain's gaffes or in exaggerating Bill Clinton's pleasingly r-word Jesse Jackson remarks. Speaking the truth is a statement against interests.

Somerby goes on:

TO THE WORDS-IN-THEMSELVES: Once again, here’s Frank Rich, quoting two of the statements in question. We post this again for a reason:

RICH (4/6/08): Really, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton should be ashamed of themselves for libeling John McCain. As a growing chorus reiterates, their refrains that Mr. McCain is ''willing to send our troops into another 100 years of war in Iraq'' (as Mr. Obama said) or ''willing to keep this war going for 100 years'' are flat-out wrong.

We’ll skip the part about shame and libel—but there you see two of the criticized comments. And Rich is right about those remarks: They plainly aren’t what McCain said.

What did we notice, when we watched Josh [Marshall] on yesterday’s TPMtv report? The gentleman spends almost five minutes defending the criticized remarks. But he never repeats the remarks he’s defending! Readers, when you see work like that, you know two things: First, you’re being viewed as a rube—and second, you’re being run.

This is how Hannity treats his viewers! Down through the years, the shirts have always lustily cheered when we’ve mentioned that.

AN INTERPRETIVE PRINCIPLE: Once again, here’s the basic Q-and-A in question. You may think McCain is dreaming of something that just cannot be. But he plainly didn’t say that he wanted a hundred-year war. When he spoke about that hundred years, he was expressly describing a peacetime situation:

QUESTION (1/3/08): President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years—

MCCAIN: Maybe a hundred. We've been in South Korea. We've been in Japan for 60 years. We've been in South Korea for 50 years or so. That'd be fine with me as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed. Then it's fine with me.

You may think McCain is dreaming here. But he plainly didn’t say that he was “willing to send our troops into another 100 years of war in Iraq.”

youtube link (embedding disabled by request)
What part did I play in making you who you are?
Britney Spears: Lucky

SAD AND HAPPY, BUT I'D RATHER BE CONTENT

I'm in so deep I'm swimming with sharks.
Lucky Twice: Lucky

April Fool's?

Drug use increasingly glamorized in rap music, according to new study of 2-decade trends

UC-Berkeley researcher finds 6-fold increase in drug mentions, dramatic jump in positive 'framing'

Berkeley, CA, April 1, 2008 – Rap music has gone from an art form that largely warned against the dangers of substance abuse to one that often glorifies illegal drug use, according to the first systematic social science study of the genre covering nearly two decades. The study is published in the April 2008 issue of Addiction Research & Theory, a peer reviewed scientific journal.

“Positive portrayals of drug use have increased over time, and drug references increased overall,” says study author Denise Herd, Ph.D., Associate Dean of Students, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley. “This is an alarming trend, as rap artists are role models for the nation’s youth, especially in urban areas. Many of these young people are already at risk and need to get positive messages from the media.”

Dr. Herd and her team sampled 341 lyrics from the most popular songs in rap between 1979 and 1997. Each song was categorized in terms of its drug mentions, behaviors and contexts, as well as for its attitude towards drug use and consequences. Rap genres were also categorized, and drug-type mentions were coded and analyzed.

The researchers found that songs with references to drugs increased six-fold over this time span. Songs exhibiting positive attitudes toward drugs and the consequences of drug use also rose exponentially. Drug types mentioned changed significantly, and references of using drugs to signify glamour, wealth and sociability increased as well.

“This indicates a shift from cautionary songs, such as those that emphasized the dangers of cocaine and crack, to songs that glorify the use of marijuana and other drugs as part of a desirable hip-hop lifestyle,” says Dr. Herd. “This is alarming because young children are exposed to these messages. I don’t think this is a story we as a society want them to absorb.”

The change in references and drug portrayals was dramatic. Dr. Herd found that, of the 38 most popular songs between 1979 and 1984, only four, or 11%, contained drug references. By the late eighties that number had increased to 19%. The numbers continued to increase, and 69% of rap songs after 1993 mentioned drug use.

While songs early in rap history that mentioned drugs were generally cautionary tales about the dangers of crack, base or powdered cocaine (i.e., “White Lines”), mentions of marijuana and “blunts” (marijuana-stuffed cigars) doubled between 1979 and 1997, with many songs portraying the drugs as glamorous rewards of the hip-hop lifestyle (“The Chronic”).

Correct me if I'm wrong, but according to Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton's essential Last Night a DJ Saved My Life (page 234, in fact!):

The scene was far more druggy than today's rap stars prefer to remember, and along with pot-- modern hip hop's drug of choice-- plenty of less innocent pleasures were enjoyed. In between sixties heroin and eighties crack, the Bronx whizzed along on cocaine, which was then held to be non-addictive. Hence names like Kurtis Blow and Coke La Rock, and the fact that Melle Mel's record "White Lines" actually started life as an ironic celebration of cocaine, with the "Don't do it" message tacked on for commercial reasons.

So what's changed isn't rap, but the business environment.

If anyone's to blame, then, it's the record industry executives. Or guys like BET founder Bob Johnson, who got rich airing commercial music full of drug references, all the while canceling valuable news programming.

Or blame the rappers. Yeah. Fine. Won't somebody PLEASE think of the children?

(mp3) (stream) (via This Recording)
"Scattered over dawn's highway bleeding," I suppose.
Spiritualized: Don't Hold Me Close

THE MOON CAME OUT, PRETENDING TO SHINE

I'm a soulja, but not like Soulja Boy.
Jonathan Richman: Egyptian Reggae (Live) (via No Age)

Juvenilia, or:
Fun With the Wayback Machine
(Part Three of A Potentially Recurring Series for When I'm Too Busy/Sleepy/Boring/Lazy/Vain/Ridiculous for to Write Much)

Pavement is a great, mostly unheralded indie rock group. I first heard about them through their close association with Blur, and their influence on Blur's self-titled album. They gained the most promincence a few years back when the song "Cut Your Hair" from the album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain began to get airplay and even appeared on Beavis and Butthead. Since then, the band has continued to improve its style with the great album Brighten the Corners. I don't know what to say about these guys other than to tell you to go out and buy any one of their albums because they are an awesome band. To hear some of their stuff, follow the link on the bottom to hear Pavement in REAL AUDIO!

(me, 1997 or 1998)

Imagine someone who has somehow learned English only, innocently, in a Jonathan Richman accent.

It's not bad, 'cause it's weirdly passionate. Not "authentic," just real. And thumbing its nose?

No one to answer to but that jerk you might turn into next week without knowing it.

WELL, WELL, WELL, VELOCITY BOY

The American president Americans have been waiting for.
Sentridoh: Forever Instant


Juvenilia, or:
Fun With the Wayback Machine
(Part Two of A Potentially Recurring Series for When I'm Too Busy/Sleepy/Boring/Lazy/Vain for to Write Much)

Weezer is the only band I loved in 7th and 8th grade that I still love today. They're amazing, absolutely amazing. Half of the songs are the story of my life, the other half are the story of my dreams (whatever the hell that means). Basically, these guys rock. For those of you who don't own their second album, Pinkerton, c'mon, buy it, it's awesome (just like the first one, shown below)!

(me, 1997 or 1998)


Embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past.
Blur: All Your Life

The reason for this recent stroll down memory lane, aside from the fact that I drive myself crazy enough writing paid assignments these days (so the prospect of a multi-hour, thoughtful blog project is less practical/appealing than it once was), is a note from a polite person yesterday who says he remembered a cheesy, godawful recording I put on MP3.com in 1999 or 2000. It was a six-minute dirge called "Don't Fade Away," which I wrote about college graduation and performed outdoors at my high school with my friend Phill Daniel (for some kind of battle of the bands, but we weren't actually competing because Phill organized the thing). Anyway, as a music critic I was way too embarrassed, self-conscious, and paranoid to send even a friendly-seeming correspondent such a totally crappy track (off-key vocals, wanky guitar solo, ridiculous emoting, goofy beat programming, sampled strings!, conga drums!), but somehow I found myself on the archive site at archive.org, looking at my old MP3.com page.

When I did this, I noticed something totally random. I had only two links to "Other MP3.com Artists". One was to my friend Matt's Klunko IDM project. The other was to a lo-fi project called Lackthereof, by a guy named Danny Seim. Lackthereof. Danny Seim. These things seemed familiar to me. So I did some Googling.


mp3 (zshare)
We don't never say shit, we the Blue Man Group.
Jazz Butcher: Susie

Forkcast, Oct. 3, 2007

At a Menomena live show, it becomes head-slappingly apparent how vital Danny Seim's drumming is to the Portland band's fractured, loop-based pop songs. Starting even before Menomena made their startlingly good 2003 debut, I Am the Fun Blame Monster, Seim has released seven solo albums under the moniker Lackthereof. 2004's Christian the Christian was the first to receive proper distribution, and now a follow-up, My Haunted, is on the way via Portland label FILMguerrero.

Full circle, like Cheerios.
Quiet Village: Victoria's Secret & other songs (something of a Silent Movie preview, I guess) [possibly NSFW at the VERY end!]