| Tuesday, March 27, 2001 10:00p.m. EST |
| hmm. looks like my site got a lil' write-up on page 16 of freakytrigger's birthday commemoratory write-up dealy. which, incidentally, happens to be the same page devoted to ft contributor the pinebox, who definitely has the coolest name on staff. yeah, one thing i have to say about ft/nylpm is that they're one of the few music sites out there that employ a policy of "label-blindness" in judging music. most sites (and people) attend strictly to either major or minor label artists and many deny that one set produces any valuable products at all. so i guess i'm saying i admire their evenhandedness. i know i'm not so unbiased.
my birthday blurb mentioned that i blur the distinction between criticism and. . . something else, i couldn't figure out what from the wording. but i always like to stress that i'm not really a critic, at least not in the same sense as pitchfork or splendid. i'm just a guy who waxes ecstatic about bands he digs, and if my tastes agree somewhat with yours, you may decide to take my recommendations to the store. but what really pisses me off about web indie-music crit is the negativity that's been a part of my experience since i started reading pitchfork 2 1/2 years ago. it's fine to slam the latest madonna or radiohead or u2 because those guys are, to a certain extent, unassailable. they don't have non-musical day jobs. a poor review won't affect their record sales because they have legions of fans that'd shell out $15.99+ for anything with their name on it. i honestly do not see the point of critically trashing a record that no one's going to hear anyway. there's just too much good independent music out there to waste time and space ensuring that people don't go out of their way to locate a sub-par record on a tiny label out of somewhere in arkansas. besides, even if the record does suck, the band was probably trying their hardest and putting a lot of time and energy into the music, and to me that's worth something. mine is a perspective you're not likely to hear too often, since i'm one of those struggling artists who've been dissed and ignored by webzines. but i've got thick skin, and i don't much care about what modem junkies have to say about my music. i know who my fans are, and so do they. ;-) i just feel like a lot of unknown bands out there are being lambasted unfairly, and while i'm not downplaying the importance of high musical standards, i think that all the venom and mockery that characterizes bad reviews is damaging to a lot of the more tender-egoed artists out there who may be very talented. so let's see more support and less gratuitous dissing, all right?
with that in mind, i'll move on to my personal opinion of the latest from bs2000. your enjoyment of this disc will most likely hinge upon whether or not you liked the tracks "organ donor" off dj shadow's "endtroducing" and nigo's "freediving" off his last record. most of simply mortified sounds like some mixture of those two songs, and it's pretty funky and 60s poppy, but a bit campy for my tastes. i did enjoy track #4 though; that little girl certainly came correct with her love for bs2k.
i would also like to state that the only decent song off xtc's 1980 lp black sea is track one, "respectable street." i learned that the hard way. |
| Monday, March 26, 2001 03:25 p.m. EST |
| it's vacation time. i'm bored. so i hope you'll excuse the indie cardinal sin to which i'm about to admit. which is, namely, watching mtv during the daytime. i can report that they still play videos. . . but only shitty ones, and only when no one's watching. the main reason i mention this is that between all the rap-rock, hip-pop and teendreck, i chanced to catch the latest fatboy slim clip for the single "weapon of choice." now the track is nothing special, but the video features christopher walken getting his groove on billy idol-style (y'know, dancin' with himself! bdmp-tss!) in an empty hotel. quite hilarious considering his typical sadistic hardass movie roles. i wouldn't say it's worth watching two hours of standard mtv tripe for, but it was entertaining, and perhaps worth seeking out on usenet.
i bought cds for the first time in about six weeks (don't ask. . .) the other day. i picked up the latest from tortoise, bs2000, the pixies, sweep the leg johnny, rftc, and hellbent. i'll discuss these at length in my next entry, but here's what's fresh in my mind right now: my mom likes tortoise. she's thinking about buying the record for herself. i, personally, am in love with track 8, "blackjack." so bouncy and melodic. . . ahhh, there's aural bliss for ya. the entire record really complements the weather around here right now. tortoise picked the right time to release standards, it simply sounds like spring. also, the pixies' complete b-sides receives my highest accolades; obviously black francis& co. didn't skimp on quality on their non-album tracks. this is my first time hearing most of them, and the record does a great job of encapsulating the band's musical evolution from 1988 thru 1991. plus the cd features the videos for "allison" and "here comes your man," the latter of which i hadn't seen. supernice. more on musical matters later. |
| Saturday, March 24, 2001 07:59 p.m. EST |
| well. . . i'm back in the tarheel state, that's north carolina for the uninitiated, and things are goin juuust southerly. i practiced with lurve today, minus our recently departed guitarist, and things were pretty rawkin, contrary to my expectations. also, the archive is a little screwed-up, but i'll fix it once i get back to california on thursday.
for some reason i've had a killer idea for a shellac music video stuck in my head for the past several weeks. actually i can't take all the credit for it; robert thought up the visual concept but it was my idea to set it to shellac's "squirrel song." here's how it would go:
setting: outdoors, college campus. sunny day, light winds, not a ton of people milling about.
cast: well-dressed student, white, male. does NOT look like an indie rocker. a pack of angry, obviously fake squirrels.
plot: we see the student exit from a building. he is carrying a briefcase. he looks happy, but walks at a brisk pace down a clean sidewalk. in the background, random people do stuff. the scene cuts to various angles of this student walking for about 45 seconds. then, as the first chord of the song begins, we see a squirrel half concealed by some bushes. he seems to be looking for something, or someone. the student continues walking. two more squirrels appear, also keeping a lookout. cut back to the student, still walking, oblivious to what's going on. the squirrels begin to chatter among themselves. soon they form a barricade across the sidewalk, blocking the student's path. he doesn't notice until he almost steps on one of them. there is a tense, frozen moment as we closeup on the student's confused, frightened face and the steely visages of the squirrels. this is during the heavy stop-start bridge part of the song where the drums pound away and the guitar plays that rising arpeggio. then, at the part when albini gets back to riffing, the squirrels attack. they fly up at the student, biting, scratching, gnawing and clawing. blood spurts everywhere. the assault continues until the end of the song, when the squirrels dart back into the foliage, leaving the student's lifeless, bloody corpse festering on the sidewalk.
gruesome, no? |
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