Michael Berube ponders what the best pop song is and gets many nominations in reply, a surprising number of which I can endorse. (I’d have to choose Big Star’s “September Gurls” for showing that bubblegum can have texture, melancholy and complexity.)
But claiming that he doesn’t acknowledge the divide between rock and pop seems […]
Sweden:British Rock::Canada:American Rock
Discuss.
Matt Yglesias has coined the term "pundit’s fallacy" to describe the pundits’ tendency to mistake what they think is right for what is actually popular and politically savvy. I’ve been wondering if a similar dynamic has taken hold of popular culture criticism. Think of the number of claims you hear that the music industry wouldn’t […]
I’m all for the kind of deeper ideological reading of the Clash that Stephen Metcalf does in Slate. I’m even receptive to an argument that the band performed its authenticity. But I’m wondering where the author comes up with this:
With London Calling, the Clash merged the arty daring and political sincerity of the ’60s with […]
No time for a substantive post this morning, so I just thought I’d round up some MP3 links I’ve seen lately:
The Charlatans have a new album out, though without a US distributor I doubt many here are aware. It’s been billed as a return to form, and listening to it streamed I can say it’s […]
I read it first on Indie C-86 and now the Guardian has confirmed it: The House of Love has reformed. Not the electronica act, but the British indie guitar band from the late 80s/early 90s. I’m excited, less to hear what new material they come up with (though it may be quite good) than to […]
Despite the America-first flyover-zone music populism I’ve often advocated in this blog, I’m also slavishly anglophile in my tastes. I’ve championed Britpop one-hit wonders others ignore or brush off as derivative. I’ve held the postpunk imports dear to my heart. And I’ve lately been filling in the shoegaze and C-86 holes in my record collection […]
I’d written before that an “iPodization” of music culture is chipping away at album integrity as a mode of music production and reception. Now that Apple is marketing its new iPod Shuffle by foregrounding the destruction of old ways of listening to music, the issue might be worth revisiting.
Anne Galloway does just that, considers […]
Much like last year, 2004 hasn’t been a banner one for rock. At least the genre’s fully lost any hegemony it may have once had (take a look at the year-end lists in the papers) and split into two niche markets: adult alternative and NY/SF-centered hipster postpunk-dance. Stalwarts of the former — U2 and R.E.M.- […]
Never one to miss any bandwagon to jump on, I’ve been toying with the idea of starting an MP3 blog. If you’re not familiar with the idea, an MP3 blog posts music files for a limited time, taking off the links as new songs are posted. The idea is something akin to college radio, with […]
I think the awful weather has led me to pull out those 70s punk albums sitting idle. Which in turn has led me to dust off my copy of Griel Marcus’s Lipstick Traces. I find it an odd read, simply because Marcus certainly has a feel for punk and can explicate a Sex Pistols song […]
Via Chuck Tryon, I see that the Telegraph has a list of the 50 Best cover songs. Not a bad list, with some of the obvious choices - Devo’s “Satisfaction” and the Clash’s “I Fought the Law” - as well as some less obvious but still worthy inclusions, like the Flying Lizards’ “Money”.
So, what might […]
Great review today in the New York Times on the Beatles’ Capitol reissues. The issue at hand: all of the Beatles albums have based their CD release on the British Parlophone version. While more definitive, they’re quite different, with different songs and track orders. As the All Music Guide explains,
The Beatles were hardly the […]
The Guardian’s Alexis Petridis reminds me why he’s one of my favorite music critics. This month he’s decided to take every CD released — or at least every on the record labels will send him — to get the pulsebeat of popular music today. The idea is to cut through the glib generalizations about pop […]
While Interpol’s new album seems to be garnering the attention this week, I happened to pick up an album that blows it away: Fade Back In, by the Contrast. They’re not exactly a retro-postpunk band, though at times their songs (like the aptly titled “Functional Punk Pop Song”) have the taut drive of Franz Ferdinand […]