C. Aguilera - Genie in a Bottle [Instrumental]
Tell me this isn’t fit to be in Warp Records circa 1993. I’ll admit, the piano is annoying, but the rest is just great!
The best part of my day today was getting these two in the mail this afternoon.
I got a shipment of 2 out of 3 books that I ordered from Amazon without realizing that not only had I randomly matched cover designs but publishers as well!
Both books are from New Directions.
I haven’t read either but the left one is recommended by a friend, and the right one was recommended 2 years ago by a person on the internet who I don’t know but who was so on the mark about So Long, See You Tomorrow that I couldn’t stop ignoring his advice.
Hope everyone’s got something good to read!
The Sound - “Winning” (1981)
Ok, so I don’t know if you’ve noticed how this word “winning” has been so thoroughly dragged through the mud and deconstructed of late that I cannot imagine anyone other than a complete prick wanting to deliberately employ the thing. This is an egregious wrong, and it seriously needs to be rectified right away. This is the kind of word to which we each need culturally unfettered access at all times. Thus I urge us all to make the effort to incontrovertibly demonstrate that this word “winning” is, ultimately, more closely associated with words of integrity and, dare I say it, compassion than with words of narcissism and oppression.
Looking for inspiration for participation in such a noble endeavor? Blasting this lead track from The Sound’s 1981 sophomore platter, From the Lion’s Mouth, should do the trick nicely. Especially in our current moment, as scads of hipsters sink into the embrace of their inner goth, this song provides, as Andy Kellman so alliteratively opines, “a dash of cold water in the faces of all the bands that were wallowing and withering away at the weeping well.”
If you’ve yet to familiarize yourself with The Sound, it’s only surprising to the extent that, until the last few years, what would otherwise be your second-or-third favorite post-punk band somehow remained below nearly everyone’s radar. See, this is another wrong you can now make your mission to rectify. Start with their 1980 debut, Jeopardy, and work your way forward.
Autoreblogging The Sound.
One of my proudest discoveries during college. Enjoy!
holy fucking shit.
best book. best guy.
Album and singles cover images for Roisin Murphy’s 2007 LP, Overpowered. Conceptualized by Scott King and photographed by Jonathan de Villiers. Featuring clothing by Gareth Pugh, Givenchy and Viktor & Rolf.
Love. This. Shit.
The songs, the videos, the outfits, all work together to create that magical sense of wonder and fantasy that I crave from pop music.
Check it:
Me: man, I love this part of winter (referring to the nice crisp weather outside as we walk) Rafe: you mean spring?
Ahhhhhhhh yes. Bike is getting a tune up this week. Then some new locks. I am not renewing my unlimited subway pass for April.
After reading the article in the NY Times about how kids are using twitter and facebook instead of making blogs and seeing how people on tumblr feel so much ownership and belonging to the ecosystem around here I can’t help but respond.
Basically, it’s all the same thing.
The Internet has created a low cost publishing platform. This platform was first used to create websites to communicate something about themselves or stuff they liked. Then people started updating their websites regularly, it became a habit. Naturally, blogs followed. Reverse chronological ordering was the most convenient way to do this. Blogging services lowered the barrier of entry even more by allowing people to do this without any web expertise.
Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook walls, Profiles, etc. are all basically an extension of this idea.
Before social networking existed as a tangible service, social networks naturally formed on the internet. Web rings were networks of similar websites, I had people on livejournal that I followed and who followed me. Our relationships to each other weren’t as well-defined as they might have been on facebook but I think back to 6 or 7 years ago and remember that on livejournal I had a profile page, that had a list of other journals that I read and then my journal page which had posts and comments on it. No different than the facebook wall and profile pages. The text boxes were big so I was naturally motivated to write a lot. Posting pictures was kind of a pain because you had to upload them somewhere reliable and that usually cost too much effort or money so I didn’t do it as much.
I’m trying hard to see where the innovation is in all this new stuff but I just can’t find it. All I see is new branding and marketing around the same old stuff people have been doing on the web for ages. The only difference is a continuously lowered barrier to entry which is naturally making having an online persona the social norm.
That’s probably the biggest change I can definitely say has come to pass.
I am trying to gain consciousness of the things that others have made easy for me to do on the Internet and think about what I want to do that someone hasn’t imagined yet or hasn’t made easy to accomplish. That’s where exciting things lie.
The line between passing a copy along or making something of your own has always been this thin. Making new stuff will always remain more difficult.
Dear iTunes,
Thanks but no thanks. If you can’t do it right, I’d prefer if you didn’t do it at all.
David
whatever messy look
Disco Inferno - The Last Dance
My favorite new “old” band of the past year. When will they reissue The Five EPs? That needs a 10.0 already.
(via postpunk)
ooh I like this! It’s got that special post-punk something where the guitars and drums jangle together but not in a lame way. A serious, and sincere way.
Waldschattenspiel | Image | BoardGameGeek
Really want this game, anyone know where I might get it from?
Straight dope.
No, no, my friends. I do not have a life-changing piece of hardware to announce. But magical and wonderful things can get done when a day is spent in solitude.
Website update: http://www.musicismath.net
Primarily this: http://www.musicismath.net/2010/year_in_music.html
I’m clearly still really fond of my floating divs. I’ll try and update the mix I have on there as well. That thing is like a year old or something.
Artist(s): Aphex Twin
Song: Xtal
Album: Selected Ambient Word ‘85-‘92
Sometimes you reblog without listening. This is one of those times.
This is a track I can literally hear just by thinking about it.
So many wonderful feelings attached to it through almost a decade of knowing it.
Life Without Buildings - “The Leanover” (2001)
Between the impressive guitar work, a bassline that is both subtle and yet clearly there, and just really neat drumming, there’s enough to like about Life Without Buildings. But as the song builds and lead singer Sue Tompkins breaks down her shouty singing (that most people either love or hate) and settles down into “should i wait for you?”, something becomes painfully clear; you are listening to Sue’s freakin’ diary, an emotional, stream-of-consciousness look into her mind and soul.
One of the most disappointing moments in my life was when I found out that this band had broken up and I would never see and hear Sue scream “Look back and say that I didn’t!” at me.
The shorter/faster live version of “The Leanover” is one of my favorite songs ever. Days like television, days like television, duh duh duh duh duh days like television—the face of you!
This is doing it for me right now. It’s a beautiful river of music that reminds me of the infinity of rock songs that I will hear forever.