Re: You Can Do Better

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Coming soon to a thread near you from the Dept Of Bands That Don't Even Exist Yet ...


Posted by: Gonerill | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 5:19 PM
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Ogged you'd never heard M.I.A. before? I find that utterly mystifying. Clearly, I should be making my mixes more mainstream.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 5:21 PM
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That list is pretty stupid, though.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 5:22 PM
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Where would I have heard of her? I don't listen to the radio and I don't whatever else that leads to however else y'all hear of all this stuff.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 5:24 PM
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I'm pretty sure she got a front-page article in the Arts & Leisure section.


Posted by: destroyer | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 5:28 PM
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Her first video was also a huge viral internet thing.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 5:28 PM
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Also one of her songs was used in a Honda commercial, also she made news by being banned from entering the country because Aaahh! Terrorist! plus various other things.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 5:29 PM
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Her first video was Fontana Labs?


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 5:30 PM
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' cock.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 5:32 PM
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Also, her first album Arular topped so so many critics lists in 2005.

It's ok though, so long as you're now listening to "Birdflu".


Posted by: Po-Mo Polymath | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 5:32 PM
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Og, if you read Pitchfork as often as once a month, you'd probably see regular mentions of M.I.A.

Odd tat this thread appears just as I am looking over the Onion AVClub's best music of 2007 and figuring out what to put on my mom's annual "Stay in touch with new music" CD that I make her.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 5:39 PM
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The new M.i.A. album from what I've heard is a lot less enjoyable than the first album. The first album was supposed to be chaotic and jumbled together and full of harsh juxtapositions, but it really wasn't. But the new one is.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 5:40 PM
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Christgau is worthy of endless respect, although the stupid guilty-pleasure pop songs I thought were good this year are entirely different from the ones he thought were good. "Umbrella" is just not a good song in any way. There's nothing there.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 5:42 PM
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Of either list, Amy Winehouse is the only thing I have actually heard, though I think I downloaded the Feist at some point.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 5:42 PM
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12: I dunno, I like it a lot. I'm a huge MIA fan, though.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 5:42 PM
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No, son, that's a transvestite.


Posted by: Hamilton-Lovecraft | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 5:43 PM
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Oh, Christgau hasn't actually contributed anything to this Slate dialogue yet.

Enough of me in this thread.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 5:43 PM
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You know, I've been contemplating a hating-on-MIA post for a while, not really because she's bad, but because (a) she's overrated and (b) a number of people seem to like her in a radical-chic sort of way-- sort of like Che t-shirts insofar as that be bullshit. Not *really* her fault but her music seems to invite it. But I never got around to it and now Ogged yet again has stolen my ideas.


Posted by: FL | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 5:54 PM
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Write it anyway, Labs. The world ought to read that.

But I'll hear no unkind words about Feist.


Posted by: Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 5:57 PM
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Isn't M.I.A. also huge in the UK? Like, headlining festivals and such? ("Bamboo Banga" is on my handclaps mix, which I really need to declare done-for-now and make available for download.)


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 5:58 PM
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Meanwhile, I find M.I.A. fun and Feist exceedingly dull.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 5:59 PM
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18 is correct. 21 is incorrect.


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:00 PM
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M.I.A. is not the thrilling music ever made, but Feist is dull. EXCEEDINGLY.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:02 PM
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I just downloaded and listened to the Feist album and I can't say I see what the big deal is.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:05 PM
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Which Feist album?

As far as I can tell, every song on "The Reminder" is good, and all the songs are different from each other. That's one of maybe twenty albums I've ever heard that I cannot comprehend how anyone would not like it.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:06 PM
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MIA is hardly making the radical political statement she or some of her fans think she is, but yeah, it's fun music. Feist bores the crap out of me. Solidarity, rfts!


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:06 PM
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Well, Amy Winehouse, at least, is neither dull nor forgettable. I mean that as a compliment.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:06 PM
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Just the other day I was listening to the Avalanches and I thought I recognized a Feist sample (even though, chronologically, it would have been impossible). I swooned, and realized that, dull though she may be as a songwriter, her voice is irresistible.

Anyway, if you find her dull, perhaps a remix would suit you?


Posted by: destroyer | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:06 PM
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27: agreed, except I don't.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:08 PM
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28: ah yeah, heard that before. Not bad.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:10 PM
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You kind of have to see Feist live to get what she's about. She can rock out live.


Posted by: Bave Dee | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:11 PM
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You're trolling, rfts, if you expect me to buy that Feist is exceedingly dull. Her voice is lovely. I appreciate that both her ballads and her dance-y pop songs have some gravity to them. Hardly dull.

And those shoulders at 0:26? My god.


Posted by: Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:12 PM
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On the subject of doing better, I point you at the dusted writers' roundups, still in progress, and Brandon Wu's best of 2006, which I mention in no small part because I approve of his practice of posting his best-of for year n at the end of year n+1.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:12 PM
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I'd've guessed that you'd disparage any best-of list that has Joanna Newsom at the top.


Posted by: Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:14 PM
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I really don't understand all the praise for Feist's voice. It seems utterly ordinary.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:14 PM
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Without having read .. thread .. etc., I've never heard of M.I.A. This will not be a surprise.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:18 PM
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I promise I am not trolling. I don't expect you to agree with me. I don't know if 34 is directed to me, but I certainly do dislike Joanna Newsom.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:21 PM
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34 is directed at me, I'm pretty sure. I actually don't have as much of a problem with Ys as I did with her first album or the one performance of hers I saw.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:22 PM
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35: Feist's voice . . . seems utterly ordinary.

It's good to see the deaf community well-represented on Unfogged.

M.I.A. is overrated, but she has her moments. "Boyz" is a great single by any measure. Feist is great if you like twee indie-rock in the Broken Social Scene vein; I find my taste for this kind of thing waxes and wanes. (Saw Kevin Drew the other night though and I think I'm enjoying it again.)


Posted by: DS | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:27 PM
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(And why is the whitebread-ness of Slate's list a surprise, anyway?)


Posted by: DS | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:28 PM
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I used to do a best of movies list -- and I loved the Slate Movie Club feature -- but there's never been any way I could possibly do an end-of-year music mix. It feels punishing to even contemplate staying current with music. I make semi-yearly mixes that are of stuff I've added to my collection in the period, but with no attempt to cover exlusively new releases. The practice praised in 33 I too commend.

Mika, by the way, is awesome, and is definitely my discovery of the year. Ogged's beloved Joshua Clover even says so. Moonbabies' Take Me to The Ballroom is a wonderful song.


Posted by: Wrongshore | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:31 PM
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38: right-o. I have never listened to Ys all the way through. I like the first track a lot, and compared to that, the second track is such a letdown that I inevitably switch to something else.

Susan, Catherine, and I were driving around Northern Virginia in a truck my friend had let me borrow recently, when "Peach, Plum, Pear" came on the mix that was in the truck—which prompted both S & C to start shrieking. It is an easily mocked Björk voice she's got.


Posted by: Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:32 PM
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It's good to see the deaf community well-represented on Unfogged.

Uh huh. Maybe if your ears have known only the bad-to-middling end of indie rock, the fact that she's a decent singer might catch you off guard. I'm listening to "The Park" now, and I guess there's a little bit of nasality to it that someone might consider interesting? But let's not go crazy.

Compare Feist doing "Sea-Lion Woman" to (to pick someone at random) Nina Simone doing it.

It is an easily mocked Björk voice [Newsom's] got.

Please don't repeat malicious slander on the divine Ms. Guðmundsdóttir in my presence, Armsmasher, or I won't be able to take responsibility for what follows.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:35 PM
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Feist is great if you like twee indie-rock in the Broken Social Scene vein

Well, she's in that band. Peter Gabriel is great if you like music in the Genesis vein.


Posted by: Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:35 PM
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Peter Gabriel is great if you like music in the Genesis vein.

This is actually not necessarily true.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:40 PM
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Feist's voice does have a warm sensuality to it, I can see that. Armsmasher should just say "her music is pretty good, but I really want her to be my girlfriend" and then we can have comity.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:41 PM
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This is actually not necessarily true.

I've been a big Genesis fan ever since the release of their 1980 album, Duke. Before that, I really didn't understand any of their work. Too artsy, too intellectual.


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:41 PM
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I never cared much for Feist, nor really for any of the rest of the BSS band super-cluster with the exclusion of the exceptional You Forgot It In People. I really tried to get into some of the later stuff, but I just don't like straight-up indie pop that much.

However, I will say right now that any list of top 2007 singles that doesn't include Battles's "Atlas" in the top 10 or 20 is completely invalid provided the critic even attempted to include indie and/or rock music.


Posted by: Po-Mo Polymath | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:42 PM
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(And why is the whitebread-ness of Slate's list a surprise, anyway?)

It's not "Slate's list". It's a bunch of things written by Jody Rosen. Other people are going to contribute later in the week.

If you guys want to be ahead of the curve, I predict that Estelle will be the next cool British woman to cross over into US success. I like this song a lot. I don't predict anything amazing from her album, though, since it's on John Legend's record label and much of it (including the really good song) was produced by will.i.am.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:42 PM
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Feist is great if you like twee indie-rock in the Broken Social Scene vein; I find my taste for this kind of thing waxes and wanes.

There you go. As to:

Peter Gabriel is great if you like music in the Genesis vein.

You betcha. Well, sort of.

No need for hostility, in any case!


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:43 PM
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I'm pwned by 45.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:44 PM
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"her music is pretty good, but I really want her to be my girlfriend"

Would you ever be his would you be his fucking girlfriend?


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:44 PM
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45: Actually it's probably more likely to be false than true. In my case, for example.

I do like one Peter Gabriel song, the one that was in the film "Mona Lisa". Oddly enough, it was the only song of his that I liked even before I saw that movie, which is one of my favorite films as well.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:46 PM
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45: Sure—the original sentiment doesn't ring true to me. Broken Social Scene songs all sound pretty different beyond a certain meandering quality.


Posted by: Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:46 PM
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I like this song a lot.

Holy Screaming Jay samples, Batman!


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:49 PM
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52: That song is very cool, thanks.

However, the next song by that band I found on Youtube turned out to be one that my officemates and I have been relentlessly mocking for months whenever it appears on public radio, because of its unbearable and possibly unprecedented level of repetition. So now I don't know what to think.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:50 PM
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The Bob Hoskins movie, Ned? I don't remember any Peter Gabriel in that.

Consensus from my music snot friends revolved around Les Savy Fav, LCD Soundsystem, and Baroness, with the Boredoms and Marnie Stern also getting shoutouts. Anyone want to set odds on Baroness (or Big Business) appearing in any Slate writer's 2007 list?


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:51 PM
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43. Ben, come now. Everyone comes up short against Nina Simone. And I only meant that Newsom's voice is easily mocked, as is Björk's—which is not to say Björk should be mocked! I merely acknowledge the philistine attitudes that surround us!


Posted by: Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:52 PM
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possibly unprecedented level of repetition.

How does 13 minutes of Joe McPhee declaiming that he sees you baby shakin' that ass sound?


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:52 PM
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43: Compare Feist doing "Sea-Lion Woman" to (to pick someone at random) Nina Simone doing it.

Sure, but it's a fair distance between Nina Simone and "utterly ordinary."

44: Well, she's in that band.

Eee-xactly.

I have to say, this post prompted me to go looking around and most of the critics' picks look extraordinarily bland this year.


Posted by: DS | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:52 PM
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I really wish Big Business and Big Bear would make an album together.


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:53 PM
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The song linked in 32 was the first thing by Feist I'd ever heard (to my knowledge), and judging by it I have to agree with rfts.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:53 PM
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(or Big Business)

I saw Big Business play between Yowie and Ruins once, and they blew.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:54 PM
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The Bob Hoskins movie, Ned? I don't remember any Peter Gabriel in that.

Soon after the woman he's guarding tells him to look for her friend Cathy, he goes into and out of a couple strip clubs asking around for her in sort of a hopeless way, and "In Too Deep" is playing throughout the scene.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:56 PM
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That's a Genesis song.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:56 PM
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Huh, I've seen (and dragged rfts to!) a couple of other Hydra Head bands shows and had a good time, but if BB sucks live, I won't bother if they swing through Cleveland.


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:57 PM
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62: Aha! Now rfts agrees with someone who himself claims to have no ability to judge or appreciate music, and I can disregard her opinion as well.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:57 PM
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"In Too Deep" is the most moving pop song of the 1980s, about monogamy and commitment. The song is extremely uplifting. Their lyrics are as positive and affirmative as anything I've heard in rock.


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:59 PM
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67: I agree with her. Not her fault.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 6:59 PM
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I liked Jody Rosen's tribute to "Don't Stop Believin'" at the beginning of the article. Just sayin. Not yellin.


Posted by: Wrongshore | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 7:00 PM
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65: Blarf. I know that "Genesis" denotes both the interesting prog-rock band Phil Collins used to be in, and the name used 10-20 years later on a subset of his boring synth-pop albums that sounded exactly like his boring synth-pop albums recorded under his own name. But I really thought that was recorded as "Phil Collins" instead of as "Genesis".


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 7:00 PM
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Pretty soon Ned is going to tell Sabrina to take off her dress.


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 7:01 PM
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68: Try getting a reservation at Dorsia now, you f**king stupid bastard!


Posted by: DS | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 7:01 PM
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70: I did, too, WS. We sang that song in chorus in 7th grade and I have an enormous soft spot for it.


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 7:02 PM
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And even more recently, "Genesis" denotes something not involving Phil Collins at all. Verily, to say "I like Genesis", with no other qualifiers, may actually be a paradoxical statement, unless you just think Mike Rutherford is a musical genius.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 7:03 PM
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Both 72 and 73 make no sense.

Okay, back to work around here.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 7:04 PM
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Genesis became obsessed with its own navel and insisted on telling the tale musically; we all know it if we didn't already. Gabriel independently, not so much. It makes me crazy when people conflate them. Call Phil Collins Genesis if you must, but leave Gabriel to one side. thanks.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 7:05 PM
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Okay, back to work around here.

Murders and executions?


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 7:06 PM
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("Bamboo Banga" is on my handclaps mix, which I really need to declare done-for-now and make available for download.)

Yes. Yes you do.


Posted by: Po-Mo Polymath | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 7:18 PM
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78: I don't think we've got past the denunciation stage yet.


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 7:28 PM
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What does it say that when I look at this "mainstream" list of 25 songs and 10 albums, all I can say is "Jennifer Lopez is some celebrity type, and Kayne West insulted GWB on TV once"? Probably what it says is "I don't listen to music", which is basically true.


Posted by: Nathan Williams | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 7:32 PM
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Welcome to the club, Nathan.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 7:34 PM
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39.1 to 81/82.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 7:43 PM
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What's that, Jesus? You'll have to speak up.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 7:50 PM
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I said, DO YOU HAVE A HEARING AID?


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 7:51 PM
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interrupting serious music talk
funny parody with funny lyrics
they parody themselves not some particular genre or something


Posted by: read | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 7:52 PM
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I think they do some throat-singing in some of their other songs? Makes for an interesting mix.


Posted by: mcmc | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 8:06 PM
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now i feel bad,
it's a very light song very funny
not mocking anything except popular 'love songs'
imitating western music
i shouldn't have posted it
about new music i usually don't get it until it gets old, for example love Evanescence


Posted by: read | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 8:11 PM
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(And why is the whitebread-ness of Slate's list a surprise, anyway?)

I bet this guy knows.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 8:50 PM
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Armsmasher should just say "her music is pretty good, but I really want her to be my girlfriend" and then we can have comity.

Being as this is Ogged's modus operandi.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 8:51 PM
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89: the list is whitebread, not white. Look at the top ten.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 8:55 PM
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Genesis as I define it ends at Wind & Wuthering. Early Gabriel not hopeless. Genesis "arty & intellectual?" Umm..

Ys is an early 70s classic pasta-prog album.

Maybe I'all start looking at current music again, but I've just discovered Dwight Yoakam. Busy,busy.


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 8:55 PM
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91: Essentialist.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 8:57 PM
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now i feel bad,
it's a very light song very funny
not mocking anything except popular 'love songs'
imitating western music
i shouldn't have posted it

No, don't feel bad. I liked it.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 8:58 PM
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91: Essentialist.

No more than Sasha "black people got rhythm" Frere-Jones.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 8:58 PM
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Well, *you* certainly don't have rhythm, young Mr. w-lfs-n. So there's one piece of evidence for Mr. F-J.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 9:02 PM
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So is SFJ black, or not?


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 9:02 PM
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96: no, it isn't.
97: no, he isn't.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 9:05 PM
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Are you claiming to be black, now, Mr. W?


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 9:07 PM
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No, I'm not.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 9:09 PM
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no, he isn't.

Well, that makes his argument sound a bit more condescending.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 9:11 PM
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thank gods
i thought i offended
since you all are experts may be i can find a song
which i can't find, an old song from the 80-90ies
the title of which i don't know, the singer also
just remember some words like
' another ...of coffee-days...
beach..
refrain is" go free, go free, go free?" (gofrey?)
the singer sounds like Erasure, but he is not
and the rhythm is like samba, rumba thing


Posted by: read | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 9:12 PM
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I completely agree about Rosen's list being lame, except that she gives credit to Miranda Lambert, unlike you honky motherfuckers at Unfogged.

I confess that of the first 38 groups named or listed in the of the article, I recognized the names of 8 and can remember hearing music by 4 of them, once in a commercial.



Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 9:24 PM
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M.I.A.'s terrorist group is an indie niche group, the Tamil Tigers, not one of the same-old same-old Palestinian or Northern Irish group. The Tigers have never gotten proper credit for having invented suicide bombing.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 9:29 PM
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The amazing thing about Bjork is that she seems completely independent of genre. A lot of people consciously play at mixing and juxtaposing genres, but each of her things seems to have its own integrity without being an identifiable type.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 9:35 PM
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If there's one thing honkies have irrational scorn for, it's blonde country singers.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 9:36 PM
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And, so, now I'm wondering why, after I paid for several mp3 downloads from amazon.com, and listened to all of them in my library -- now all of them have disappeared from my computer except the couple for which I used the "Amazon download manager". They appear to have completely vanished from my computer, at the same time that I closed Firefox, which was the browser I used to get to the Amazon site and download and pay for the songs. This is not the ideal situation.

At first I thought it was some sort of punishment for taking a couple of the songs and burning them onto a CD, but no, even the ones I didn't move out of the original library have disappeared.

Um....


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 9:58 PM
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Genesis "arty & intellectual?" Umm..

Bob, try googling the quote.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 10:00 PM
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107: That's what you get for listening to music.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 10:01 PM
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How did you download mp3s from Amazon without the download manager?


Posted by: destroyer | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 10:04 PM
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I clicked on them. Then Firefox downloaded them, and I opened them in iTunes.

It didn't force me to install the download manager until I tried to download a whole album.

Now it seems that the download manager is desirous inasmuch as it enables you to keep the songs for some period of time longer than the Firefox session during which the files were downloaded.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 10:07 PM
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I don't quite understand how you did that—none of the links in the Amazon store seemed like they lead to mp3s, just the proprietary download manager file. Did they charge you?


Posted by: destroyer | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 10:11 PM
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I think so. The pending transactions at my bank's website seems to indicate that an amount is being paid to amazon.com which is similar to the amount I imagined the songs cost.

And the entire songs were on my computer for several hours. Then suddenly, the links in iTunes had question marks next to them.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 10:13 PM
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I'd include a link to the YouTube clip of the scene I was referencing (a different scene than the one DS was referencing), but B might click on it, and then she'd have to explain "Sussudio" to PK.


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 10:14 PM
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If I click on the "Buy MP3" button next to the price of the song, it takes me to the "Purchase review" screen, Then I click the "Continue" button, and it takes me to the screen that says "Thank you for your MP3 purchase! You have purchased the song BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB etc."

And the Firefox window pops up and says "You have chosen to open BBBBBBBBBB.mp3. What should Firefox do with this file?" And I tell it to Open with iTunes, and it does. The Amazon download manager isn't necessary.

I just did this again, having installed the Amazon download manager, and it seems like the song actually didn't disappear when I closed FireFox this time.

So anyway, it appears that if you don't install Amazon download manager, even though it tells you you don't have to, your songs disappear. So don't do that.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 10:21 PM
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That's bizarre. But Amazon's mp3 store, with download manager, is kick-ass. Do not be deterred by this tale, people!


Posted by: destroyer | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 10:21 PM
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And I tell it to Open with iTunes, and it does

I think that's your problem. When you tell Firefox to open a file it's downloading, it writes it to a temp directory which is cleared according to your settings (either when you close the browser, or reboot, or x number of days or whatever). You should tell Firefox to save it somewhere and then open it however you like. You don't need to use the download manager.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 10:23 PM
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117: I guess so. But it seems like the same process by which I download songs from websites all the time, and those disappear.

Maybe in those situations the default is to tell it to "save" the file, and in this situation the default is to tell it to "open" the file. Which produce the same result, that is, appearing in Firefox's list of downloaded files and then being opened in iTunes, so it's bizarre that they are two different options both involving downloading the entire song.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 10:26 PM
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If you tell it to "open" it will download to temp and then delete; if you tell it to "save," it will download to where you tell it and not delete.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 10:28 PM
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That means that the song I just downloaded should disappear as well, although it didn't disappear when I closed Firefox.

Dammit, I don't want to pay TWO dollars for A Band of Bees' "Who Cares What the Question Is", especially with this uncertainty now pervading the whole transaction. Our economist friends would tell me that the first dollar is a sunk cost. But I would feel like a moron downloading it again right now.

Will try again in a couple days.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 10:31 PM
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If you already paid for it, I release you to grab an illegal copy to replace it.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 10:32 PM
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Just use the download manager: no uncertainty, and it's much easier.


Posted by: destroyer | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 10:36 PM
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I don't know how to do that. and it may not be permitted from an office computer, which is my only computer. I guess it's suicide again for me.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 10:36 PM
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122: No, it's exactly as easy. Two clicks. Leading me to think there was no point to using it.

123 to 121.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 10:36 PM
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I don't know how to do that.

I do!


Posted by: destroyer | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 10:39 PM
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124: But then one must manually add the track to iTunes, no? Whereas the download manager places it there for you itself.


Posted by: destroyer | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 10:40 PM
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126: No, Firefox has its own little download window, and when it saves something I can just click on "Open" and it opens in the default program, which is iTunes. This is the same whether I had originally told it to "Save" the file or to "Open" the file.

I guess it involves one more click. But no typing or dragging.

125: Thanks! Now I just need Jose Gonzalez's "Down the Line", the Weakerthans' "Civil Twilight" (so far, probably very easy to find), and the entire "Haunted Fucking Gazebo" EP by Grand Buffet.

Now have to go to bed.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 10:50 PM
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here are my favorite albums of the year:

LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
dirty projectors - rise above
Battles - Mirrored
Feist - The Reminder
Lily Allen - Alright, Still...
black lips - los valientes del mondo Nuevo
!!! - Myth Takes
Klaxons - Myths Of The Near Future

I have not got the MIA yet. I went to a show she gave at the Berkeley amoeba over the summer. unfortunately, I didn't actually see her because of the layout of the store.


Posted by: lemmy caution | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 11:00 PM
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Rise Above is excellent.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 11:09 PM
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Those Dirty Projectors songs are too complicated. It's like those death metal songs that contain 35 different parts, none of which turns into a hook because it never gets repeated. It gets exhausting.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 11:15 PM
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130 is right. Slaves' Graves & Ballads is much more tolerable.

Supposedly they're coming to play here in the spring. I'm not very optimistic that it will translate into a good live show.


Posted by: destroyer | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 11:18 PM
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130 is the raving of a diseased mind.

I'm not very optimistic that it will translate into a good live show.

It was a pretty great show when I saw them, although the set was too short (four-band bill). It won't translate into a very good show if the audience is composed of loud assholes, though.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 11:23 PM
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It won't translate into a very good show if the audience is composed of loud assholes, though.

Seems like this would be universally true.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 11:26 PM
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Listening to some cuts off Rise Above, I reiterate my incredulity regarding 130.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 11:28 PM
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Wow, that's an annoying album.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 11:34 PM
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Did you even listen to the transcendent title track, ogged? Or could you just not get past Dave Longstreth's vox?

I am tired of your abuse!


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 11:36 PM
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I felt a little bad for abusing you and listened to the title track. Now I want to beat you up.

I will say, in the spirit of the holidays, that, having seen the Charlie Hunter Trio last night, whose music I found utterly uncompelling upon downloading, but enjoyed very much live, that perhaps other people hear music more in their regular listening as if it were live than I do, and perhaps this is due to the fact that seeing the instruments being played gives me, with my limited musical knowledge, a better sense of the interplay.

There, happy, you little cunt knocker?


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 11:40 PM
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It won't translate into a very good show if the audience is composed of loud assholes, though.

This doesn't bode well. All the best shows I've seen here were the kind of acts with the ability to overpower or harness the loud assholes: Dan Deacon, Matt & Kim, Videohippos, No Age. And I will not speak of Beirut, because Zach Condon is in himself a loud asshole.


Posted by: destroyer | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 11:41 PM
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There, happy, you little cunt knocker?

You can't imagine how much. But you see I only said "I am tired of your abuse" because that line occurs in "Rise Above". Not because I'm actually tired of your abuse, for which you've only whetted my appetite, big boy.

But even if you don't like it, Ned's accusation just makes no sense. The three tracks I listened to again ("Gimme Gimme Gimme", "Six Pack", "Rise Above") don't lack for hooks; most of the variation in the first two, near as I can tell, comes in the tempo at which the same basic thing is played and sung.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 11:44 PM
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WTF is a "cunt knocker"?


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 11:48 PM
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It's a Persian term of endearment with an unfortunate transliteration.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 11:49 PM
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You speak Farsi, Ben? Or whatever weird-ass Lur language Ogged claims to know?


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 11:53 PM
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||

I have been sulky this evening. The Smooth Jazz mix from ben is quite a bit more perfect than it has been before in this mood.

carry on.


Posted by: Wrongshore | Link to this comment | 12-16-07 11:57 PM
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I speak them all.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 12:00 AM
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Oh this is good to know. I've been cranky myself.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 12:01 AM
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144: I do not believe you.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 12:02 AM
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Also The Locust has been good today, but they're not for everyone.


Posted by: Wrongshore | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 12:08 AM
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Ogged might like the music of recently deceased Locust recording artist Cast King (RIP).


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 12:09 AM
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Ben is right about Rise Above. I was listening to it several times a day there for a while, in a way I haven't with any album in a few years.


Posted by: A White Bear | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 12:11 AM
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And seriously, Longstreth's vox make me want to marry him, if at all possible.


Posted by: A White Bear | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 12:13 AM
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Cast King

Good stuff. Thanks, my little cunt knocker.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 12:18 AM
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When does Christagau say that he just can't get excited by the latest third-rate band nobody will ever hear from again?


Posted by: bjk | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 1:19 AM
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my requested song is not found yet
unfogged is not almighty then
but clues are close to nothing, good thing i know the melody


Posted by: read | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 5:39 AM
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I'm listening to Dirty Projectors' myspace page and they sound awesome. 130 is nuts.


Posted by: strasmangelo jones | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 7:27 AM
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Also, I only just realized that Read isn't posting song lyrics.


Posted by: strasmangelo jones | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 7:28 AM
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You could help his family pay for funeral expenses if you wanted, ogged.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 9:27 AM
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M.I.A., of whom I'd never heard before, seems incapable of making a boring song

So, having never heard of M.I.A. before this post, I went and watched some videos and aside from the appeal of watching a hot young woman dance provocatively, all the songs I heard bored me in the exact same way that Gwen Stefani bores me.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 9:38 AM
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You have to be sympathetic to modern dance-pop type stuff, no question, but if you are it's hard to imagine comparing her to Gwen Stefani.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 9:42 AM
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We're gonna rumble today, apo, I can feel it.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 9:42 AM
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re: 158

Nah, I can totally see that. Her stuff really isn't that different from Stefani in places.

Also, fwiw, I don't like it. I tried, I listened to a fair bit of her stuff, and gave it time, but ... no.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 9:46 AM
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Apo, Stefani has no terrorist connection. This is more than just pop music, it carries the attack on America to an entirely new level. It's really cutting edge.

You're such a teeny-bopper at heart, for you everything is just cute girls.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 9:47 AM
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You have to be sympathetic to modern dance-pop type stuff

That might be the problem, yes.

hard to imagine comparing her to Gwen Stefani.

Sounds just like this and this to me.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 9:50 AM
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I had to admit after a while that my enthusiasm for the idea of M.I.A. far outweighed the likelihood that I would ever put something of her's on. In a club, she's great, but for sitting- or driving-around dance music, not my thing.

Maybe I should try her for cleaning the house. That could work. I am someone who frets about not liking music I think is good.


Posted by: Wrongshore | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 9:51 AM
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160: production-wise, in places, but I feel like she has more going on with her voice, if not always her lyrics. I did like the production on her first album a bit better.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 9:52 AM
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||

The under-title description of an article in today's NYT, in the "mail this article to a friend" email is:

The location of the body of a man who President Andrew Jackson shot to death in 1806 is a longstanding historical puzzle.

I'm thankful that doesn't appear in the text of the article.

Not in their idiom either, I guess.

|>


Posted by: I don't pay | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 9:56 AM
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162 has it right with the music/production similarities.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 10:01 AM
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Dammit. Now I have MIA stuck in my head.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 10:02 AM
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Sounds just like this and this to me.

Wait, really? They sound totally different to me. The American songs have what is, to my mind anyway, that angry urban beat--BOOM BOOM boomboom, etc.--you wanna fight, bitch? Well, no, I thought I'd listen to some music--which is totally absent from the MIA songs. This is instructive, actually, because I can't stand 99% of rap/dance-pop and this might be why.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 10:10 AM
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Wait, really?

Yep, really. But I've also discovered that any genre that you don't listen to regularly generally all sounds the same.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 10:12 AM
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But I've also discovered that any genre that you don't listen to regularly generally all sounds the same.

Yup. Like all that goddamn twee indie rock.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 10:15 AM
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Like all that goddamn twee indie rock.

So right.

But apo--rumble rumble--it's not like I listen to dance music and those sound quite different to me.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 10:17 AM
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Nobody wants to fight with me. This blog sucks.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 10:41 AM
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I don't care enough about post-70s dance music to fight about it.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 10:43 AM
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I'll fight with you about the importance of freedom of religion, though.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 10:44 AM
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Tarheels suck?


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 10:44 AM
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post-70s dance music

Ever since real horn sections got replaced by keyboards, the eight-pound baby Jesus has not stopped crying.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 10:46 AM
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175: Where's my knife?


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 10:48 AM
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And how do you feel about synth strings?


Posted by: Po-Mo Polymath | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 10:48 AM
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Tarheels suck?

I may have mentioned that one of the first songs that I taught my children was "Go to Hell, Carolina."


Posted by: Will | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 10:49 AM
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Actually, I do listen to a fair bit of dance music, and they DO sound similar. The sources of that sound are the same.

e.g. US hip-hop [I'm thinking specifically of Timbaland's production for Missy Elliot among other things], bhangra, and UK grime/garage derived beats.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 10:49 AM
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And how do you feel about synth strings?

They should be replaced by horn sections.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 10:50 AM
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Here's a good ep title (by Ed Gein): It's A Shame A Family Can Be Torn Apart By Something As Simple As A Pack Of Wild Dogs.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 10:50 AM
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re: 181

With names? Like 'the Memphis Horns', 'the Muscle Shoals Mofos' or whatever.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 10:51 AM
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The Horny Horns!


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 10:55 AM
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re: 184

Of course!


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 10:58 AM
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I'm naming my sampler "The Horny Horns". Also one of my synthesizers "The Berlin Philharmonic". Not sure which one yet.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 11:00 AM
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Dang. Vaguely pwned.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 12-17-07 11:01 AM
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how have you never heard of MIA

srsly wtf


Posted by: yoyo | Link to this comment | 12-18-07 10:09 PM
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