JAKE CLELAND

Remind me to tell you about the time I saw Foo Fighters and it...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:20:12 -0500

Remind me to tell you about the time I saw Foo Fighters and it was the worst gig I’ve ever been to, and how the first band I ever saw live was Nickelback.

If you wanna talk to Skrillex, that’s his number on...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:56:00 -0500

If you wanna talk to Skrillex, that’s his number on deadmau5’s shirt. (via @thefader)

alexandra-ewing: Also I am maybe too excited by the idea of...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:45:48 -0500

alexandra-ewing:

Also I am maybe too excited by the idea of returning to the land of JJ and Emily in tomorrow’s episode.

Maybe it’s because I’m older and at least slightly more stable than I used to be but it felt like Skins 1&2 had a subtlety about contemplating the teenage condition which later series increasingly lack. “Psycho Support” right down to the crooked ‘T’ is so on-the-nose that it feels more like they’re mocking the seriousness with which kids consider their own maladies which, for a show that felt so therapeutically identifiable in younger years, is really disappointing.

The best gift I got on the weekend was one of the three best...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 12:37:05 -0500

The best gift I got on the weekend was one of the three best gifts I’ve ever gotten. It’s not the gifts themselves that’re objectively extraordinary but what they mean: thought and care. In chronological order they are: A whiteboard, a black jacket, and an issue of Playboy from April 1979. Last year just before Christmas I went into this little bazaar on Chapel Street with the girl I was until recently dating and I found this stack of old Playboy magazines from the 70s. I’ve been fascinated with 70s magazines since reading old issues of Rolling Stone earlier last year so I called her over - she was looking at old flasks - and showed her. Months later, no longer dating, she went back and bought it. Writing that out, it doesn’t seem that significant, but it feels remarkable.

It’s really affirming when you’re cared about by people you find admirable because if they like you, then you must be alright.

"Pitchfork originally gave the Flaming Lips album Zaireeka a scathing 0.0/10 in a review that also..."

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 12:25:06 -0500

“Pitchfork originally gave the Flaming Lips album Zaireeka a scathing 0.0/10 in a review that also derided all Flaming Lips fans.[25] The review has since been deleted, and Pitchfork now praises the album.[26]”

- Pitchfork Media#Criticisms

I will go to bat for Pitchfork in most cases, which is easy to do given that the arguments against are often pretty childish, but this is my least favourite thing about the site and I think it’s indefensible. It just seems bizarre to actively deny evidence of the growth of the publication from one that privileges the fan’s voice into one that makes an attempt to offer serious, professional music analysis and commentary. If there was one thing to come out of that n+1 piece from a while ago, it’s that Pitchfork’s history and progression is immensely fascinating for anyone with an interest in how to write music criticism. I can only assume that history is being stripped to make it seem like the site was always the machine that it is, which seems impossibly vain, and the casualties of that vanity are some really entertaining writing. At least we still have Partie Traumatic.

Hey did you guys happen to catch Ryan Schreiber’s cameo in...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 12:15:06 -0500

Hey did you guys happen to catch Ryan Schreiber’s cameo in this week’s Portlandia?

Beyond hungover.

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:44:03 -0500

Beyond hungover.

A fun thing for me to do is to append sentences - usually dumb jokes - with the phrase “he...

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:10:14 -0500

A fun thing for me to do is to append sentences - usually dumb jokes - with the phrase “he said, the barrel of the gun resting on his lips.” Like “‘Hey that dude Anonymous was a pretty prolific writer lol,’ he said, the barrel of the gun resting on his lips.” Try impending suicide to lend your unfinished novel the gravitas you’re looking for, is what I’m saying. #lit

HRO X LDR X NYT

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:06:00 -0500

beckylang:

“The New York Times is allegedly one of the ‘last authentic content farms’ in the game, writing long ‘pieces’ with serious words that ‘sound important and authoritative’, which is why they NAILED IT by calling Lana Del Rey ‘a skinnier Adele.’ ”

“Say what you will about the New York Times, but at the end of the day, fattie hating sells papers. ”

LOL-ing at work 4real.

The best thing about HRO is the critique of the media in general.

via Interweber

NAH THE BEST THING IS THE RELENTLESS MISOGYNY. AT SOME POINT SATIRICAL SEXISM JUST BECOMES SEXISM.

I think you more need new jeans that aren't acid wash and 70% elastic, than a hair cut.

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:52:11 -0500

DEFINITELY

I need a haircut before Saturday.

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:30:19 -0500

I need a haircut before Saturday.

"If I had to move, I would move to Melbourne."

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:07:00 -0500

“If I had to move, I would move to Melbourne.”

- Chairlift’s Patrick Wimberly, to me, this morning, on the cold balcony of a hotel in Parkville.

Sadcore

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:58:09 -0500

jennpelly:

I meet a friend for dinner. He asks, “How do you feel about Lana Del Rey?”

I am wakened by a ping at 2 a.m. A friend asks, in a text message, “LDR?”

I go to work: LDR.

I check Tumblr. LDR.

airgordon: One Week // One Band: One Week // One Band: One Year oneweekoneband: Apologies for...

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:47:59 -0500

airgordon:

One Week // One Band: One Week // One Band: One Year

oneweekoneband:

Apologies for briefly interrupting Dave, but it was a year ago to the day we kicked off this blog series on showcasing our musical passions with a post onThe Replacements’ Bastards of Young — and now we’re here, fifty-two weeks & bands later!

It’s only a year of hopefully many more to come, so we’ll keep the festivities down for the moment, but I just wanted so say it’s been a pleasure and a privilege to talk to (and meet!) so many wonderful & talented people. Editing this blog has been a blast and hopefully we’ve done our tiny part in showing music writing’s alive and kicking in 2012.

There’s a number of great writers lined up for the coming weeks — stay with us as OWOB continues to evolve and grow, whichever exciting place that may take us to. I’ll let you know when the NYT feature comes in… ;)

Thanks to Dave, Mark and Britt for helping spread the word; thanks to all the Tumblr comrades that have been there from the start: Brad,Michael, Andrew, Isabel, Katherine, the tireless Jonathan & the rest of the crew; thanks to each and every contributor past, present and future for his/her much-appreciated efforts; thanks to Jeffrey for technical assistance, virtual but nonetheless hearty hugs to the brain trust of Jeremy, Dan andJake (BFFs!); and of course, most importantly, thank you for reading.

THANK YOU, FRIENDS.

— Hendrik

A_HEART_THAT_GROWS_SO_BIG_IT_EXPLODES_INTO_GLITTER_AND_BLOOD.GIF

Hey that’s my name.

"The Global Mail is a philanthropically funded, not-for-profit news and features website. Our mission..."

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:26:05 -0500

“The Global Mail is a philanthropically funded, not-for-profit news and features website. Our mission is to deliver original, fearless, independent journalism. We will strive to inform, provoke, expose — and entertain. Our audience is our only agenda. We have no advertisers to answer to, nor shareholders who seek to profit. And our generous philanthropic benefactor has no interest in what journalism we produce. What The Global Mail produces will be the evidence of that.”

- The Global Mail - About

Last night a new journalistic endeavour launched in Australia. It has noble goals and a solid foundation. This is why it’s interesting.

If you don’t like me for me, then I gotta live with it...

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:17:05 -0500

If you don’t like me for me, then I gotta live with it ‘cos I can’t be nobody but the Smash.

I confess to a disconnect with any sort of dubstep scene. The most obvious and popular is the...

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:36:00 -0500

I confess to a disconnect with any sort of dubstep scene. The most obvious and popular is the mainstream, bass-heavy down and dirty dubstep that’s been crassly titled ‘brostep’ by purists - about the stupidest thing one can be among music - that’s captured the robot hearts of the era’s yoof. That’s more my younger sister’s bag. The other side of the coin is that which the purists are trying so hard to stake and preserve as “real” dubstep, like the earlier stuff from the likes of Burial, Skream et al., or, if you ask James Blake, James Blake. A friend of mine recently said that the success of dubstep is just the desire for the reemergence of the rave scene, which seems fine to me. I mean, I wasn’t there but I have watched some Charlie Brooker and my understanding is that a certain sect of people regard the 90s rave scene as the golden era of electronic music, and you can always tell who these people are because whenever somebody says ‘rave’ they become distant and sullen as they talk about the old days like a shellshocked vet. The loud noises, the effusive camaraderie; yeah, it’s a real neat comparison. So I don’t really know how to qualify dubstep except subjectively, at least when it’s presented on record, which I think might be an inadequate format because I suspect so much of what’s meaningful only comes out in a group setting. I didn’t really get Skrillex until I was riding in a friend’s car back to my place from this swanky soiree to pick up my ID - the novelty of getting carded has worn off - and sorting through a stack of burned CD’s, and he said, “Put on the Skrillex one.” Hesitant, I did anyway, because I was just thankful to get a lift although I did later give him the warm sixpack of CUB’s finest I’d been keeping in my room. Riding along the empty highway, the bass vibrating our masses, I got a glimpse of the good stuff the kids go for. We were one, our conscious and corporeal selves as wobbly as the bass. We weren’t just listening to dubstep; in that moment, we were dubstep.

As you can imagine, and as you’ve probably experience, this sort of transcendent revelation is hardly inspired by headphones and an iPod. You’ve really gotta feel it, with as many people in close proximity as possible. Otherwise it just sounds like so much noise. On that most righteous of notes, a couple weeks ago I was at one of the small, overcrowded clubs near my house that decidedly cater to the newly post-high school scene and the 30 year olds looking to pick them up, and the Skrillex remix of Benny Benassi’s “Cinema” comes on. As per the above, I’m unaware of any sort of ‘dubstep dance’ so I was shocked and excited to find myself not feeling self-conscious while vacillating between something like an acid-high ape at an 80s disco and an epileptic cyborg. Probably to the great embarrassment of everybody around me, but if you can adopt a mentality of solipsism when you hear that bass drop, the rest takes care of itself. This is absolutely the most necessary thing to have ever been written about Skrillex. This is the Skrillex review that needed to be written.

Four Year Strong - ”Wrecked ‘Em? Damn Near Killed...

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:38:19 -0500

Four Year Strong - ”Wrecked ‘Em? Damn Near Killed ‘Em”

There are certain teenage artefacts that’ve been welcomed through the pearly gates of critical consensus which you can winkingly champion while being safe in the knowledge that you’re still cool or something. It’s the desire for this sort of acceptance that conjured the dread spectre of ironic appreciation and galvanised its rule in the mid-to-late aughts (or naughts, if you’re a glass half empty kinda gal) by attempting to justify the worth of pop culture ephemera by its mockability. There’s slightly more to it than that, but that’s essentially it, except that never truly satisfied because any conflicted self-regarding trendy spinning “See You Again” in 2007 still had to do it in secret because the struggle to reconcile its transparent conceit with how fucking good it sounds would inevitably show on the face of the one who put it on, resulting in immediate excommunication, although also awakening the same conflict in those fortunate (or unfortunate, given their previous self-assurance) enough to be within earshot. In the comic Phonogram there’s a group of antagonistic sorcerers called Retromancers and one day I’ll write the spiritual sequel penning Poptimists in a similarly analogical way, except they’ll be gallant knights ushering in a new era of glorious earnestness, but tune in next week for their fall from grace! So a group of critics come out of an outcast adolescence and battle through the post-adolescent gauntlet for a sense of identity by casting off everything that was previously meaningful and come out of it realising that scarcity and obscurity are basically irrelevant to something’s meaning, which is why putting on “Dammit” or “Killing In The Name” at any twentysomething party anywhere in the Western world will make you the most magnetic person there, but still doesn’t give an automatic pass to the rest of the music that appears on the same tangent. That is to say, it’s a shame Four Year Strong never made it through those gates, because this is one hell of a jam.

LMFAO - ”Party Rock Anthem” I originally thought...

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 18:57:16 -0500

LMFAO - ”Party Rock Anthem”

I originally thought of this as dystopian but actually it perfectly encapsulates my vision for the New World Order.

supcakes: Have you ever seen a bunch of people dance to dubstep? Because I did last night and it is...

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 18:41:02 -0500

supcakes:

Have you ever seen a bunch of people dance to dubstep?

Because I did last night and it is one of the funniest things I have EVER seen in my life

Yeah but the thing is, they were probably having a way better night than you. Really, I think making fun of people dancing is a crazy low thing to do yet it goes unpunished because everybody’s had a phase where they’ve stood in the corner of a dark room exhaling and rolling their eyes because they’re afraid of a non-existent consequence. It’s the domain of the insecure against those unashamed of self-expression, and if everybody just stopped doing it then there’d be nothing for anybody to be afraid of in the first place.