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Posts Tagged “on the blogs”

burning questions

Does Indie Need To Be More Influenced By Janet Jackson?


Fluxblog proprietor Matthew Perpetua has a plea for all those indie musicians out there who want to make music that can be described by the terms "limp psychedelic folk, faux-Animal Collective bullshitting, [or] lame-ass attempts at mimicking the Jesus & Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine": Get new influences, please. He takes his first such shot across the bow of schmindie today, launching a series called, simply, "Your New Influences" that asks musicians to think about what makes great songs tick, even (especially?) if said tracks venture far beyond the usual lump of guitar-drone goo. His first suggestion is a great one—Janet Jackson's fire-breathing 1989 track "Miss You Much," which he's recommending because of its Jimmy Jam/Terry Lewis production, because Rhythm Nation 1814's overall aesthetic can be gleaned from just one listen, and because it's a firecracker of a song. More »

1:45 PM on Wed Jul 2 2008
By Maura Johnston
1,041 views, 28 comments

Latest by n/a: Oh, I don't think they've pigeonholed themselves since the age of 12, but it's easy to work yourself into a rut. I think this is all fake controversy, actually, although it has illuminated a little about what people think more »

Admittedly, there's a bit of conflict of interest here (Maura's engaged to the author, I consider him a friend), but we would be out of line if we didn't at least mention J. Edward Keyes' rumination on the career arc of the National, who he's followed since their earliest days, and the remarkably interesting discussion of digital-age listening habits going on in the comments. [17dots]

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they write letters

Kanye West (And His Caps Lock Key) Are Ready To Let You Know What Happened At Bonnaroo

It's been 10 days since Kanye West's dawn set at Bonnaroo, and surely I wasn't the only person wondering just when Kanye, who's no stranger to using the Internet to silence his critics, would respond to the angry online chatter. Oh boy, has that day come: He's put up a blog post defending himself, and during its writing Kanye was apparently "typing so fucking hard I might break my fucking Mac book Air!" (Ah, Kanye, you always know how to get the product placement down.) Some heavily capitalized highlights, after the jump. More »

9:15 PM on Tue Jun 24 2008
By Maura Johnston
1,961 views, 22 comments

Latest by n/a: @loudersoft: But after he realized things were fucked, he could've just done the show to keep the fans from waiting longer and had it out with the organizers afterward. If he's really about the fans. I love 'Ye's music, but more »

The latest person not singing for Velvet Revolver: Panic Channel frontman and former MTV VJ Steve Isaacs. "I got an odd email congratulating me about singing for the Velvet Revolver guys, which took me by surprise cause, well... I'm not." Um, duly noted? Who's next to come out of the "No Velvet Revolver for me, but hey, I still exist" woodwork? My bets are on Isaacs' former bandmate Dave Navarro, Sebastian Bach, or Jesse Camp. [Steve Isaacs via Blabbermouth]

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Former New York Times music-biz reporter Jeff Leeds resurfaces on Sasha Frere Jones' blog at The New Yorker, and the two discuss a few topics, including the current state of the art/commerce divide. This quote from Leeds, in particular, resonates: "I always think of music as Patient Zero in all the disorder that is changing everything in entertainment and media, including, by the way, newspapers." SFJ says that if the e-mails keep coming, he'll keep posting 'em, and surely I'm not the only one who hopes that this conversation stretches for a while. [Sasha Frere-Jones]

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FYI Anyone who's spent the last 24 hours feverishly looking for some thread between Kanye's three videos for "Flashing Lights" can stop, as the man himself has revealed that the two that came out over the last week are 100% unofficial: "I shot 3 vids for flashing lights cuz I ain't like the first 2. I loved the 3rd one that I released with Spike and hit the world with that. I actually had Sam Speigal , Spike's brother and co-orchestrater of THE TOUR MUSIC, do a remix 2 the scary one 2 make the music fit. I planned 2 put it on a DVD later this year. No rant's here just an explanation of why yall getting those other vids rt now that I ain't approve and why I ain't finna post neither on my blog. So I hope whoever leaked them got the shine they was looking 4 cause that's all they'll get now." Also, in that same post, he lets his readers know that he's still crafting a response to Jon Pareles' review of the Glow In The Dark Tour in his head. Which ran on May 15. Can you say "incoming"? [Kanye UniverseCity]

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help wanted

Courtney Love Tries To Break Alt-Rock Stranglehold On Female Bass Players

After lots of delays, Courtney Love is seemingly ready to start rehearsing for the recording of her new album and its subsequent tour. But she needs a bass player, and so she's turned her MySpace blog into her own personal Craigslist because the dude she wanted originally, who, uh, worked with Plant/Page, is currently on tour with Goldfrapp. Are you that man? I ask if you're that man because she doesn't want a chick bass player for reasons that she's keeping secret. (I'm hoping that it has something to do with the way the "chick bassist" went from trope to joke during the last decade's alt-rock boom of 10 years ago, but I fully expect to be disappointed.) If you feel like applying, the ad—complete with suggested musical influences—is after the jump! More »

8:50 AM on Fri May 30 2008
By Maura Johnston
671 views, 4 comments

Latest by narymary: My former band mate, a female bass player, once auditioned for some incarnation of Hole and got pretty far along in the process. The thing that stopped her from pursuing it further was when Ms. Love informed her she would more »

?uestlove emulates Kanye West's superconspicous-consumptionish blogging style, only with a bit of a populist twist. Sample entry: "i realized how spoiled i've gotten in the past few years with my "one scuff and throw em out" steeze with my kicks. remember when mom and dad made you wear your sneaks until the sole could speak several languages?" [okayplayer.com via Nah Right]

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Questions, Questions From the "statements that I pretty much agree with 100% file, so there's not much else to add to them" file comes Ryan Catbird's rumination on the "all music should be free" model: "I still think the more important question is: 'What if an artist that hasn't already built a career on the label system released their work directly, gave it away for free, retained their rights, etc. Would it matter?' The answer, sadly, to that one is "no, it doesn't matter." Myriad small unheard-of bands are out there posting their albums for free every day, but there's still no good way for them to get heard. For all the chatter about how new technology/Music 2.0/viral marketing etc. has the power to 'break' new artists, there are precious few examples of this actually occurring." A related thought that's probably an extension of my "future of Coachella" post : Is the push for free recorded music going to result in mass music culture turning into something that's even more fossilized than classic-rock station playlists, which at least add one or two new artists to their rotation every year? [F.U. & The Blog You Rode In On]

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Ah, remember last April's post on the 1970 Josie & The Pussycats tie-in album? Well, the excellent music blog PopDose has taken its own look at the record, complete with MP3s from the album and Hanna-Barbera YouTubage. [PopDose]

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Sultry Swedish singer Lykke Li gets mixed up with Digitalism, the Field, Hercules & Love Affair, and Gui Boratto on this mini-mixtape by the Hood Internet. [The Hood Internet]

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A black metal cooking blog that seems to be heavy on the dessert options. Because when you're having a dinner party, there's no better way to end the night than with "traditional cupcakes inspired by untraditional black metal" (pictured—check out the cream cheese sea of woe!) or molasses cookies that are "entombed by ginger." [The Black Oven via PTW]

4 comments

semi-official statements

Kanye West Will Not Be Your Michael Jackson (Whatever That Means)

Kanye West had a change of blogging heart after Friday's outburst at Entertainment Weekly's Chris Willman, who had the nerve to give his show a B+. The blog-happy MC deleted his exhortation that Willman off himself from his rebuttal post to the EW review sometime Saturday, possibly out of the fear of stoking bad karma. And yesterday, he put up an "I ain't mad at you" post that explained his onstage tantrum in Houston Friday night, absolved the rest of the EW staff from his wrath and coined a new phrase that invokes the King Of Pop: More »

10:00 AM on Mon May 5 2008
By Maura Johnston
537 views, 6 comments

Latest by zaky: People who use '2' instead of 'to' should not be allowed to be rich. more »

Say what you will about the tendencies of music bloggers toward the "hipper-than-thou," but the Hype Machine doesn't lie: A lot of them also think Chris Martin is 100% dreamy. [Hipster Runoff]

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Jennifer Love Hewitt raps for bread, Barney Rubble shows off his MC skills, and other awkward synergies between hip-hop and marketing. [Touch via ProHipHop]

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R. Kelly continues his quest to be King Of Singing "It's The Remix" by adding a few verses to Mariah Carey's "Touch My Body." It's probably best for all involved that his wide-reaching remixing style means that the song's "I'd best not see this clip on YouTube" line is nowhere to be found in this new version. [Prefix]

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I haven't had a chance to watch all of Miss Rap Supreme yet, but Brandon Soderberg's writeup makes me want to finish off the episode currently on my DVR: "The fact that 'Miss Rap Supreme' literally follows episodes of 'Flavor of Love' and the fact that the brilliantly corrective egotrip dudes are making this show, make me think it really is designed as a kind of antidote to the awfulness that is 'Flavor of Love'. On one show we see a member of one of the greatest and most significant rap groups of all-time clowning himself beyond belief, one another show (if it's anything like last season) we'll see old rap legends giving advice and generally coming out looking pretty good." Perhaps unsurprisingly, "My Neck, My Back" singer Khia is coming off like the crazy one, but I suspect she'll be told to step off soon enough. [No Trivia / pic via VH1 Blog]

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Critic-slash-songwriter-slash-academic Franklin Bruno has launched a new blog where he's trying to review 365 recordings over the course of 2008. Among the material he's covered so far: a Talking Heads bootleg from 1976, Curtis Mayfield's Give, Get, Take and Have, and—of course!!—Vampire Weekend. [nervous unto thirst via tinyluckygenius]

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