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Saturday, September 7, 2002 -- 07:25 p.m.
Oh yeah, regarding Lifter Puller: there is also this.
-Nate
Saturday, September 7, 2002 -- 06:43 p.m.
Another band for me to push on unsuspecting readers: Lifter Puller. I have an excuse this time -- they're from Minneapolis (or at least hit it big there; they formed in Boston), and therefore as a Minnesotan it is my duty to shill Minneapolis acts as often as possible in a vain attempt to try and convince those on either coast that we are in fact a vast cornucopia of enriching pop culture and not simply another blip on the radar in the middle of nowhere in Fly-Over Land. Anyhow, Lifter Puller released two or three albums (I say "two or three" because one of them is supposedly an EP that is impossible or at least very difficult to find), but while they didn't exactly get a whole ton of buzz you can get their stuff on Amazon and despite the fact that they're selling for over $20 I strongly suggest you get Half-Dead and Dynamite at all costs. (Just ignore that one-star review at the bottom of the page; that guy's from L.A. so what does he know?) Once you get that, the aforementioned EP (The Entertainment and Arts) and the just-about-as-good Fiestas and Fiascos, though, your collection will be complete for all time because they broke up in 2000.
But: they did reform for one performance -- live on NYC Jersey City's WFMU about a month ago. And you can listen to it in RealPlayer supersensurround so you can find out firsthand just how odd and (eventually) engaging the vocal and lyrical stylings of Craig Finn are. Rocking out and flailing your limbs are optional but recommended.
-Nate
Friday, September 6, 2002 -- 05:36 p.m.
Now THIS is what ILM should do more of: don't like an album? Don't bother bitching about it -- just ask someone who loves it why they love it. I attempt to do so with Fantastic Damage and London Calling, two albums I usually try not to bring up too often there because they always seem to get shot down.
-Nate
Friday, September 6, 2002 -- 11:07 a.m.
Everybody knows and probably loves the first four Ramones albums -- the eponymous debut, Leave Home, Rocket to Russia and Road To Ruin. As far as the successive albums -- most of them seem kind of hazy as far as critical appreciation and history are concerned. This interview with Johnny Ramone clears up some of that haze (and also makes me wonder if I should give the Too Tough to Die reissue a shot).
-Nate
Wednesday, September 4, 2002 -- 10:23 p.m.
New permalink: Tremble. Yet another smartassed New Yorker who likes Interpol and gays up his bicycle to thwart thieves. Yeah, I know, there's no end to 'em.
-Nate
Wednesday, September 4, 2002 -- 09:59 p.m.
Every music nerd blog is probably going to be saying this shortly, but lemme get my thoughts in:
MISSY ELLIOTT'S "WORK IT" IS INSANE, RETARDED AND THE BEST SINGLE OF THE YEAR HANDS DOWN.
Why?
-References to what I believe are groinal regions bleeped out with ELEPHANT NOISES
-Scratchin' and a bit of "Take Me To the Mardi Gras" (aka The "Peter Piper" Break) colliding with what me and Jody swear is a bit of bleepity from the intro to Blondie's "Heart of Glass". And crazy synth-whistles.
-Backmasked rhymes! Call the PMRC!
-"Love the way my ass go ba-bomp-a-bomp-bomp"; "Take my thong off and my ass go BOOM!" If Sir Mix-A-Lot was dead he'd be smiling down from Heaven.
-"If you a fly girl/get your nails done/get a pedicure/get your hair did." GET YOUR HAIR DID! YES
-Scatting, nonsense babbling, speaking in tongues, flirting with a Jamaican accent, you name it.
-It's not Nelly. (No, I am not swayed by "Hot In Herre".)
This has made my week. Seriously. WORK IT WORK IT WORK IT
(I'm stupid and misheard some lyrics and lost track of others but I fixed that.)
-Nate
Wednesday, September 4, 2002 -- 09:29 p.m.
Well no wonder the White Stripes lost at the VMAs: their video wasn't this.
-Nate
Friday, August 30, 2002 -- 01:03 p.m.
OK, I'm stupid: Eminem won best video at the VMAs, not Nas. Flux and Fred look upon the proceedings with bemusement, horror, etc.
-Nate
Thursday, August 29, 2002 -- 10:44 p.m.
A RAPID-FIRE ASSORTMENT OF FLEETING THOUGHTS
-New Amon Tobin CD on 10.01.02. I believe the phrase is "right the hell on".
-Apparently MTV had their Video Music Awards and Nas won Best Video or something. I can think of plenty worse artists to beat out the White Stripes.
-I know Chuck Eddy said this first but damn it, "Welcome To the Jungle" is 50% DISCO and that only makes it better.
-Downloaded some stuff from that gargantuoid Fun House Sessions box set and I am mystified as to why "Lost In the Future" didn't make the final cut. It woulda fit nicely alongside "Dirt" in the dirge-funk-sludge midsection of the record and it's top-notch creepy 2 AM headache music. Iggy makes a cliche like "I'm standing on the edge of the world" sound like a knuckle-whitening cry of desperation and the sax action on the first take of this song makes the rest of the crazed fusion squonk on Fun House's second side seem empty in comparison - it's got more subtle urgency to it, I think.
-The perpetual struggle: Booker T & the MGs, or the Meters -- who did the definitive Southern soul cover of "Hang 'Em High"? That'll keep ya up nights.
-Now that I've forced the wonders of Radio Birdman on everyone, my next mission is to indoctrinate people in the greatness that is Crime. Weird-ass SF Punk that predates the Dead Kennedys by a couple years and sounds kinda like the New York Dolls -- though my first exposure to their music was a track that sounded like Blue Oyster Cult gone weirdo-sleaze-trash with fucked-up synths and whatnot. I stumbled across their single "Maserati" by sheer fluke while looking for songs to put in my first AotM car mix CD and I was (choose one: blown away/knocked out of my chair/kicked in the butt by awesome). Sadly their MP3 server seems to be down (though there are some MP3s here) but I will not let that end my quest. Their song "Gangster Funk" starts with the line "James Brown, Iggy Pop, Jesus Christ and Red Foxx". And really, what more do you need? (Besides a bloody great huge interview, at least?)
-Nate
Thursday, August 29, 2002 -- 10:21 p.m.
Today, at 10:21 PM Central Standard Time, I have come to the realization that I actually like Andrew WK's "Party Hard". I have no explanation for this. I still cling to my "a whole album of this gets old REAL FAST" opinion, but I CAN'T HELP IT. This is like Ramones + Springsteen + Twisted Sister and there is NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT, DAMMIT.
-Nate
Thursday, August 29, 2002 -- 10:12 p.m.
Happy: Marty Brown seems to think my blog is cool. Sad: he does not hold the same admiration for Blackalicious. Well at least he's not too much of a dick about it.
-Nate
Thursday, August 29, 2002 -- 04:59 p.m.
I suppose my reaction to Ewing's "Thin line between '92 and '02" observation was a bit more Lanierious than I meant it to be. I really think it's more of a matter of "hip" culture being scattered into so many different fragments that it's difficult for the mainstream zeitgeist (oh there's that word I hate using) actually managing to encompass it all. The likes of Squarepusher and the Neptunes and Prefuse 73 and Clinic are far removed from what was going on in 1992, but there aren't really any easy visual signifiers to attach to the progress made in those ten years (Mesh ballcaps? Surgical garb?). I have about a half-dozen shirts I bought at a vintage clothing store a few years back and even though they're gaudy and dated-looking, I'm not sure what the date actually is. One of them is this shimmery synthetic blue short-sleeve Qiana deal with white stitching, and while it's probably from the 1970s, it looks like it could be easily associated with any time between 1958 and 1981. At this time in history our culture seems -- possibly due to cross-demographic trans-generational marketing, nostalgia or artistic pretense -- to be in love with the idea of recontextualizing old themes, which I actually find laden with potential for bizarre postmodernism. Like the afro + tracksuit + skinny wraparound New Wave shades look, or the Mohawk-'n'-Dashiki.
-Nate
Thursday, August 29, 2002 -- 10:03 a.m.
It takes a car ad poster to truly prove to Tom Ewing what I think a lot of people have feared for a while: in matters of pop culture, 2002 isn't tremendously different from 1992. Hrm. Well, Nirvana = Vines; Pearl Jam = Creed; Red Hot Chili Peppers = themselves; Rage Against The Machine = oh damn don't get me started. My god, we're in stasis. Well, except for the whole "enormous changes in rap" thing, but hip-hop fashion ca. 1992 isn't all that easy to mock yet ("Look at that herb, he ain't got no platinum chains! Hahahaha!").
-Nate
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