Gossip is the new pornography

Happy belated 40th birthday Sesame Street!

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15 November 2009 • video

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Apropos of nothing, but this is where I’m at this evening. More details TK.

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30 September 2009

As I decided I don’t neglect this blog nearly enough, I started a new one, dedicated to just writing about pop music. It’s here.

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27 September 2009

Last week I asked Gregg Gillis, aka Girl Talk, about crafting his songs, with the above song (“Here’s the Thing”) as the example I used:

When in the process of crafting songs do you realize that it will work to go from Quad City DJs to Kelly Clarkson, via Nine Inch Nails?

I don’t think I figure that out until later in the process. I might be listening to music and hear Quad City DJs and say that’s a classic song and I love that verse or you hear Nine Inch Nails’ “Wish” and realize that guitar riff is perfect and it’s isolated with no vocals over it and it’s very distinct. I can fill that in. When I listen to music, certain things come out. I can go home and sample and isolate those elements. I sample a lot more material than you actually hear at a show or on an album. I sample maybe ten songs for every one song I actually use. Maybe for a day, or a week, or a month, a very long period of time, I work on isolating pieces of songs and quantizing them and cutting them up.

Once I have a lot of them organized, I sit down, and using the software I use live, where I trigger samples and load in loops and change tempos and change different things; some things work together and better than others. From there, I work that into the show. I have new ideas where a new song came out of a new song. Maybe I don’t have too much nineties alternative music in the set so I use Nine Inch Nails’ “Wish” and it goes pretty well with Kelly Clarkson. Every weekend, I try to just integrate new parts into the set, small things each week - maybe a minute or thirty seconds, or whatever. Sometimes it works well and sometimes it doesn’t, but you learn from that at each show. I try to work on everything, the transitions – how one thing flows into another, the peaks and valleys of the set – and slowly, over time, that evolves and takes shape. When I sit down to make an album I realize that this part goes really well with this part and things that became staples in sets become very normal to me because they work well. Other things I may play once and never play them again. I think by the time I actually do the album, it’s almost a juxtaposition of what I thought was the best material I thought from the performances.

You can read the rest of my interview with Gillis here.

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16 September 2009

From The Stranger’s “back to school” guide:

How to Behave at a Music Show

The basic rule of how to behave at a music show is kind of the same rule that governs how to behave everywhere in life (you may want to clip this one out of the paper and tack it onto your wall): Be mindful of your surroundings and the people around you, and don’t be a jerk. It’s that easy! Are other people moshing? No? Then maybe it’s not a good show to be moshing at—maybe you’re at a disco and you didn’t notice. Are other people dancing? Maybe you would like to dance also! Is the show so crowded that you can’t really move without stepping on toes and bumping into hapless spectators? Maybe you should watch it with the elbows then, buddy. Of course, this is not an ironclad rule. You are a special, unique individual—possibly more special and unique than anyone who has ever been to a rock concert!—and you need to express that special uniqueness; you don’t have to conform. Don’t be afraid to be the only person dancing or the first person jumping around and—without malice—bumping into your neighbors (every show needs one first brave soul to get things moving). Just be aware that some people may not want to dance or have you moshing into them, and it would be awfully nice of you to let them enjoy the show in their own special and unique way.

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16 September 2009

The Capital Choir’s website boasts:

The world-renowned Capital Children’s Choir can frequently be seen performing alongside pop and classical superstars and is in constant demand for charity galas and other important events.

Here’s a video of the Choir performing the song “Chinese” by Lily Allen, which might be the cutest four minutes and forty-eight seconds on the internet right now.

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3 July 2009 • video lily allen

While poking around on YouTube, I found a whole bunch of Beatles Cartoons, which I didn’t even know existed. This video to “Drive My Car” is so campy that it’s also a lot of fun.

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22 June 2009 • video the beatles

I’m sure I’m not the only pop music lover that has had this conversation described below, from Sasha Frere-Jones’ great article on Lady Gaga in the latest issue of The New Yorker:

Dedicated fans of popular music have a certain conversation at least once a year. Call it The Question of Endurance. You and your friends are talking about music, and the conversation turns to a popular band. You express support. A friend voices her opinion, maybe as favorable as yours, but appends a qualifier: “I like them, but will they be around in ten years?” You may feel compelled to defend whomever it is you’re talking about, covering the present moment and the future with your positive take. After trying this approach, though, you realize that pop music has no Constitution and doesn’t operate like a de-facto Supreme Court: precedent is not always established, and isn’t even necessary. Pop rarely accretes in a tidy, serial manner—it zigs, zags, eats itself, and falls over its shoelaces.

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24 April 2009

I had just gotten my answers back from an e-mail interview I did with Emily Haines, of Metric (who have an excellent new album out now called Fantasies). I love how the answers to these two (unrelated) questions gel with one another.

Last time I saw your band play was in Seattle in 2007 and if my memory serves me, I thought you said something onstage about putting out your next record on your own timeline. Was that one of the reasons you are self-releasing this record? Other reasons?


We spent a lot of time setting up a new infrastructure for the band which spares us the endless wrangling with record labels that are not forward thinking. We are really excited to finally be in a position where we can do things on our own terms. For as long as I can remember people have been telling us that what we want to accomplish can’t be done. We disagree!

_____

Aside from putting out Fantasies, what are the plans for Metric in 2009? Beyond?


Space travel!

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18 April 2009 • metric

The Saturday Knights - Count it Off.

I really love the video to this song, which was from one of my favorite albums from last year. I only wish there was a censored and uncensored version of it. Still, the Sesame Street-inspired theme reveals just how much fun this record is as a whole.

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18 April 2009 • video the saturday knights