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Friday, June 21, 2002 -- 11:13 p.m.
A long-time favorite: Ben Hamper -- you might know him from Roger & Me as the assembly-line worker who had a nervous breakdown, left the line and broke down trying to sing along to the ironic strains of the Beach Boys' "Wouldn't It Be Nice" as he drove away -- wrote a column about pop music a while back. It's a great read, and keep in mind this guy used to get hammered and listen to the Angry Samoans and the Dead Kennedys so he's not just some smarmy old guy. Also, his book Rivethead is up there with Mick Foley's Have A Nice Day in my "favorite autobiographies from unusual sources" list.
-Nate
Friday, June 21, 2002 -- 11:23 a.m.
HAHAHAHAHAHAaaaaahaha... gasp... snrk... pfffftsnkkkkkHAAHAHAAAAAA H-H-H-HEH...
"Heaven, I Need A Hug".
HOOOOOOHOOHAAAAAAAaaaahahahahahahahahahagasppantwheeze... HA!
-Nate
Friday, June 21, 2002 -- 11:02 a.m.
I'll keep it short: One, I got a new job since the phone company thing fell through -- doing QA and file processing for the advertising department at my local newspaper. Two, Badgah has an interesting theory on the RIAA/Audiogalaxy/Napster foofaraw (scroll down to 6/20) that, if true, makes me hate the RIAA three times as much. ARGH CRUSH DESTROY ETC. Three, I've listened to DJ Shadow's The Private Press enough times now to realize that, in its own way, is every bit as good as Entroducing -- nothing as mind-boggling as "Building Steam With A Grain of Salt" or "Midnight In A Perfect World" (though "Giving Up The Ghost" comes close), but also nothing as shrug-worthy as "Mutual Slump". I might write a full review of it for Southsidecallbox -- if not, I'll just post one here.
-Nate
Wednesday, June 19, 2002 -- 11:01 a.m.
For the first time in my entire internet-using experience, a spam e-mail has actually led to something I paid attention to. Technically, it was a chain e-mail, but same difference. It was from some band called Trash Heap Heroes -- a band I don't remember anybody in Demorama reviewing -- so I probably got that mail by underhanded means. Anyhow, I'm telling you all this because they included a link to their website, which is one of the most inane things I've seen in months.
-Nate
Wednesday, June 19, 2002 -- 01:15 a.m.
Jon Dolan can be a total schmuck sometimes when he writes, but not this time. Interesting write-up on Minneapolis' #1 And Best Hip-Hop Act Ever Man -- that would be Atmosphere (though alternatives are welcome if they're good enough) -- comparing MC Slug to Richard Hell of all people (and it makes sense to an extent). Too bad it wasn't an interview, though, 'cos Slug can rock that Q and A shit like nobody's business sometimes. Remind me to transcribe the back-and-forth interview between Slug and Aesop Rock from a recent First Avenue in-house magazine, seeing as how it's one of the funniest things I've read in ages.
-Nate
Wednesday, June 19, 2002 -- 12:57 a.m.
Boy oh boy, I do not know what to make of Salon's take on the world of 'electronic music'. Wait, I'm wrong- yes, I do. It's a Cliff's Notes version of every single overview of "electronica" written by an American music journalist since 199bloody6. "The strange triumph of electronic music" (snrk) is both amazingly rote and sometimes-erroneous (Liam isn't the funny-haired guy from Prodigy- Keith is, and whatever it is on the top of his head, it ain't a mohawk), like a primer on a genre that was written five years ago and sprinkled with a couple contemporary references to Eminem and X-Boxes to disguise itself as an up-to-date analysis of The Music What Goes Bleep. There's some mildly interesting theory on why us Oogly Amurkins don't buy Sasha & Digweed albums by the wagonload, but most of it boils down to "like there's no lyrics man" and "The Chemical Brothers don't dance around or do David Lee Roth guitar posturing like the pop superstars the USA demands", and those theories were common parlance long before Wal-Mart yanked Fat Of the Land off their shelves. While reading this article, be aware that the guy who wrote it is also writing a full-length book about electronic music, too. Look out, Simon Reynolds!
It could be worse, I guess. It could be a seven-page interview with Ted fucking Nugent.
-Nate
Tuesday, June 18, 2002 -- 02:22 p.m.
I have no idea who Jeff Hagan is -- only that he wrote a letter to Salon that is the single most brilliant pisstake of Greil Marcus I have ever read. Hats off to ya, Jeff.
-Nate
Tuesday, June 18, 2002 -- 12:16 p.m.
Still not much to say right now, except:
1) As you probably know already, Audiogalaxy is dead dead dead (for the curious, the last song I managed to DL was Shane MacGowan's "That Woman's Got Me Drinking"). But at least it took me less than half an hour to find a decent alternative.
2) I am still writing, though I am mostly saving it for other websites right now.
3) I have owned this CD for quite a while now but I still feel obligated to say this as if I've just heard it for the first time: You need to get the BellRays' Let It Blast right now because it is the greatest unheralded album of the 1990s. That is all.
-Nate
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