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Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_XXismYUZs] “The Shrine/An Argument” Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues. Sub Pop, May 3, 2011. I drove up from California to Oregon with an iPod full of music I had never heard before, so I’m processing way more music than I can reasonably write about, but I wanted to say something about the new Fleet Foxes record,…
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In which I roll my eyes twice
Just a couple of articles I wanted to respond to: BBC: Why do people play music in public through a phone? For many, teenagers playing tinny music to each other on public transport on their mobile phones can be intensely irritating. Why do they do it? With mobile phones in many a teenager’s pocket, the…
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Game of Tones
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GsIsV8DyiY] Ahmad Jamal Trio with Gary Burton “One” (1981) Gary Burton’s reflexes in this performance make me so jealous. Ahmad Jamal is actively trying to fuck with him and throw him off, and once he catches on to that, his responses are genius.
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Web Roundup
Posting has been scarce of late due to my normal post-semester crash. Hopefully my brain will be up and running soon. I plan on tackling Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom and Edward Abbey’s Monkey-Wrench Gang this week. In lieu of in-depth thoughts, here’s a potpourri of impressions: 1. Modernism, Music, and Politics [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfBVYhyXU8o] Krzysztof Penderecki’s Threnody for…
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Free Bob Dylan
This Slate piece by Ron Rosenbaum on the cult of Bob Dylan, musical politics in China, and the neverending mystery of the man is one of the best pieces of music writing I’ve heard in a long time. Here’s a taste: And then they twisted themselves into pretzel-like contradictions: Dylan was never really a protest…
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Katamari Fugato
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuAEzTahg9o&feature=youtube_gdata_player] At one point in the summer, my whole house became obsessed with the playstation game Katamari Damacy. One of the many pleasures of the game is it’s witty soundtrack, which features a handful of themes arranged in different music parodies. I’ve been thinking about this particular piece, written as a strict fugue, for the…
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On the death of the audiophile
A couple of thoughts on this NPR article on the disappearance of the audiophile: I’m not sure that I believe in a “golden age” of high-end audio. Music reproduction technology has always trended toward the more convenient and the more personal. Records presented a more convenient and personal way to listen to music than going…
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MOTB breaks down the song “Outfit” by Drive-By Truckers
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addendum
A couple thoughts that I couldn’t work into the earlier post: –You may think I’m being melodramatic, but look at the face of Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz, The Good, The Bad and The Queen) when he talks about Glee: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AXO6qH04fA] –I don’t buy for a second that music being featured on Glee is good for…
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a note of despair
1. glee rex omnis [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Tt2u-S7NTs&feature=related] In the category of computer-aided statistics micronews*, the Official Charts Company (which sounds like a fake name) has stated that the Glee cast has broken Elvis Presley’s record for fastest act to score 20 top 40 hits. That particular “record” may or may not mean anything to you, but it’s…
