Urb busts back against Pitchfork’s takedown of Idolator fave Steve Aoki’s Pillowface mix CD with a screed that manages to zing the entire city of Chicago in the process. Urb’s argument, such as it is, hinges on the idea that if Internet faves Justice had released a similar mix CD, Pitchfork would have been all up in that shit, but because of Aoki’s rep as a trustafarian faux-celeb DJ, he gets an automatic bad rap. Perhaps. But then again, regardless of your feelings on its merit, Justice is also occasionally known to record and release music–that thing we’re still supposed to care about–whereas Aoki’s main contribution to the wider culture seems to be providing a reason for the continued existence of the Cobrasnake and Last Night’s Party. [Urb]
Categories:
Uncategorized
Uncategorized
Why is the photo of Steve Aoki DJing with Lindsay Lohan but BEING GUIDED BY JESUS not attached to this???? Also: at least Aoki can mix, unlike Peter Hook.
It’s interesting that this guy is using the word “hipster” as if it carries positive connotations at all anymore.
The “indie” revolution began in ‘05? I thought it was ‘02 when The Rapture’s “House of Jealous Lovers” was supposed to be The Vanguard. Come to think of it, does anybody listen to those blokes anymore? As for the URB article, there was a conflict of interest since the author was colleagues with Aoki. He also mistakenly made one PFM review to be indictive of the entire P4ork site which has very diverse views. However, I agree that it’s unfair for the PFM writer to focus more on Aoki by the company he keeps instead of his mix. The Benihana Boy still hasn’t impressed me though.
@AL: this blogpost by Luc Sante is instructive: [ekotodi.blogspot.com]
@Jon Williams: Hook’s “DJ set” was one of the most riveting pieces of bad theater I’ve ever seen
@AL: Ditto. “Hipster” is an insult nowadays.
@SuperUnison: Hagiography?
Someone had to ask.
Also: “Pillowface and His Airport Chronicles” = “Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water” Are hipster DJ mixes the new rap-metal?
Hey, PBR doesn’t taste that bad! Really. Or wait, was that why I quit drinking? Oh…
Double-hey — doesn’t one of those girls over at Jezebel do the nasty with Aoki on a regular basis? Surprised you didn’t go for the cross-promotional editorial opportunities there.
@Michaelangelo Matos: Hook’s continued existence in general is one of the most riveting pieces of bad theater I’ve ever seen.
BTW, it seems that the greatest offense of Pillowface is that it’s no FabricLive offering and the tracks are already WAY stale. It’s like, Hits of the Blogs TWO YEARS AGO (which is not surprising, the way that Glazer goes on and on about how great 2005 was — I seem to remember spending most of it wasted and unhappy, but…). But, you know, I’m not surprised that Glazer had to play the Carlos D card too. That SO didn’t help at all, did it?
I’m also vaguely puked-out by the fact that the cred-raising track award goes to Refused. MEH.
@Cos: Started off as a term for an idolizing biography of a saint. Kind of has evolved to take on a perjorative connotation with respect to glossed over, misinformed, or overly simplistic historical narratives. First heard it from a friend who was doing quality assurance on a videogame about WWII, he was talking about being complicit in American hagiography.
@the rich girls are weeping: PBR is fantastic when shotgunned. Unfortunateley, 1 in 3 times I’ve shotgunned PBR, I’ve thrown up almost immediateley. At the very least, it competes well with MGD for the cheap beer crown.
Wasn’t this the same guy who was doing No Knife reissues in the late 90s?
Hey, No Knife is cool, but this transmogrification of Dim Mak to Disco Buddyhead.com is purty funny.
@the rich girls are weeping: The story goes that the Jezebel bled all over Aoki during lights-out sex.
@SuperUnison: In some interview or other I seem to remember James Murphy saying one of the things he liked about DJing over performing with LCD Soundsystem is that you were kind of like a cook, ie: semi-anonymous, and kind of in the background. That you could just concentrate on playing things that make people happy, and not worry about people staring at you all the time. That people could forget you were even there, and that that’s a good thing.
It seems like a really healthy way of looking at DJing to me.
I can kind of understand where the DJ-as-brand thing comes from, and it’s certainly a useful phenomenon for promoters, but wow can it be unhealthy.
Also, is there ever a good time to post that video of Aoki taking a piss (literally) while DJing, instead of putting on a 10 minute track and leaving the booth for a few like a sane person?
If there is a good time, it seems like now would be a good time.
@Cos: how about Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness? Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars? You’re just not looking at it the right way.
As the writer of the silly thing that inspired Urb’s spirited retort, I’d like to think that my review is bringing the electroclash blog world together in support of their hibachi overlord, since (as they’ve noted) I am actually denigrating their entire scene by pointing out that this mix is balls on a Ritz.
To be fair, if I could go off-menu @ any Benihana’s in the US, I’d have Mickey Avalon guest-drop on my mix like a bird with the shits.
The cd’s not bad if you enjoy standard mixtape fare, including tracks from Justice (how terribly cutting edge) and the seemingly requisite foreign-language track.
What the Urb review fails to mention is that (via The Cobrasnake’s site) there exists the option to purchase this cd bundled with a pillow so that your knees don’t get tired from all the lip service.
Also contributing to the continued existence of Last NIght’s Party: Tits.
It was an interesting time for Steve, as he was right at the cusp of impending fame.
No no no no no.
Here’s a test: when calling someone “famous,” ask yourself, “Has my mom/uncle/whoever who knows popular culture mostly peripherally ever heard of this person?” If not, they aren’t famous. Period. Steve Aoki isn’t famous.
The whole piece comes down to “I’m trapped in a bubble and I can’t get out”–the bubble being a place where people outside of the music-blog world who even have a clue who Steve Aoki is, and I say this as someone who has enjoyed occasional Dim Mak titles despite thinking, “What a stupid label name.”
hahaha omg “But this was the norm for the time, pre-Daft Punk Coachella revolution and the rise of Ed Banger.” LIKE THE STORMING OF THE BASTILLE, IT WAS
In Defense of Steve Aoki (or) Why you should never move to Los Angeles ever ever ever.
OMG INTERPOL BASSIST CARLOS D LANDING ON THE COVER OF URB: A MAJOR CULTURAL EVENT COMPARABLE ONLY TO DAFT PUNK AT A SO-CAL FESTIVAL JUMPSTARTING THE BIGGEST MUSICAL REVOLUTION SINCE THE INVENTION OF THE LUTE
“Dance music” has come back into “vogue?” Did someone in the Netherlands decide to release a 10th Anniversary edition of Mitsubishis?
Full disclosure freelance contributor etc. etc., but (a) this is article/gripe #1,418 depicting Pfork as a monolithic Arcade Fire-toadying hivemind instead of, I don’t know, a publication with a wide variety of writers, some of whom have unique opinions (CRTL+F “Raposa” not found); and (b) Pfork was praising non-indie dance music well before ‘05 (Kish Kash: 9.1; The Present Lover: 8.0; Metro Area: 7.8). Jeez you guys.
They gave “Kish Kash” a 9.1??? That album is terrible.
b-b-b-but ‘05 is when the revolution began, Nate! how dare you forget.
@Audif Jackson Winters III: You’re fired.
“Indie rock was peaking as well (in 2005), with LCD Soundsystem and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs reaching creative peaks, newcomers Bloc Party and Arcade Fire getting folks wound up, and Interpol bassist Carlos D landing on the cover of URB…”
If this sentence’s intention was to make me stop reading the post, then job well done.
@bright_wings: well at least unlike me, you were able to get through “It was as inevitable as an embarrassing blog photo after a night of free Sparks:”–aka THE FIRST SENTENCE.
@Maura Johnston: yeah, anyone writing that sentence w/a straight face needs to step back and think a little before accusing anyone of insularity
“Urb’s argument, such as it is, hinges on the idea that if Internet faves Justice had released a similar mix CD,”
My problem with this argument is that Justice wouldn’t put out this mix (which is rather the point, no?). They wouldn’t. This is not a set they would throw down. And I have every extant recording of a DJ set of theirs, their BBC Essential Mix and that rejected Fabric thing to back me up.
Aoki’s tracklist reads like what the faceless hack of an indie DJ plays at your favorite hipster dance party two weekends a month! I’m not a great DJ or anything, but shit, man, I can and have done better than this.
I’d be more forgiving if it were just an mp3 he passed along to Discobelle or something, but he wants people to pay for this? For realz?
Urb is just trying to stay relevent with the “kids” man…for the kids! The kids like this Last night’s part / cobrasnake stuff right? RIGHT!? We must defend Steve rich-boy dj man!
This is the same magazine that put She Wants Revenge on the cover of their next 100 issue a few years back. Not in touch much?
@Ned Raggett: Heh. Well, I think with them it’s the same as the Chemical Brothers. The quality of the music is in inverse proportion to the famousness of the guest vocalists.
PS: I tried reading the article but it made me want to spork my eyeballs. Maybe I will try again later when I have proper eye protection.
I actually came across Aoki because I kept wondering, “Who is this ridiculously dressed back up man to the bearded ridiculously dressed man?” Lo and behold, I learned he was the dj for every party! EVERY!
I admit I love looking at scenester photos because relating what goes on in them strikes shudders from anyone in my family who remembers the 80’s and is like, “why the fuck do they want to bring that back,” and I’m like, “It’s irony dad! It’s ART! OR SOMETHING AND THEY DRINK PBR BECAUSE IT TASTES TERRIBLE AND ISNT THAT FUNNY!!!!!”
We had like, a two hour discussion on this alone. Why hipsters drink PBR.
The sooner the tribe of cokehead fashion students who have elevated this bullshit either die off or go to rehab en masse, the better. I remember seeing a great (probably rockist, but fuck it) quote from someone (maybe Craig Finn?) a year or so ago about how the DJ-as-brand phenomenon is bullshit because it’s a way to have attention for being a performer without having to put yourself out there at all. I live in LA and I have to say that Aoki embodies this perfectly. The pitchfork takedown of him the other day was about as gratifying as any bad review I’ve read on that site. Urb’s defense of him was, at best, Diablo Cody-esque in it’s lazy, inept hagiography and the depth of how impressed it was with its own wit. Urb itself seems insufferably shallow as well. (If indie rock HAD peaked in 2005, it would have been with bands that Urb doesn’t deserve to share the same universe with.) Pitchfork can be insufferable, but I feel like they are genuineley coming from a place of intellince and passion. Urb looks like some unholy marriage of Nu wave and the Axe Effect.
“This is about a 13 year old in Wisconsin who will wear American Apparel for the first time in 2008, and for the first time, she’ll feel like she’s worth something.”
@markp: “This is about a 13 year old who moves from Wisconsin to model for American Apparel for the first time in 2008, and for the first time, she’ll feel like absolutely nothing.”
@Cam/ron: Ewww!
” Thrive (a quintessential old-school electronica label)”
I actually quite enjoy PBR, if I’m forced to drink cheap, corporate American beer. Beats Bud!
Thanks for the Sante link, btw!
steve aoki: no talent required
[lolhipsters.blogspot.com]
I think my question is, who would actually pay for this CD of two-year old tracks that are freely available over the Internets?
Steve Aoki reminds me of Fergie: there is nothing theoretically wrong with either of them, but the actuality achieves a level of apocalyptic cluelessness I can’t stand behind.
@The Mozfather: If you don’t think there’s something theoretically wrong with the idea of Fergie, then I just don’t know what to say.