Crumbler

And this year’s American Music Award for most awkward...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:05:00 -0700

And this year’s American Music Award for most awkward simulated BJ goes to … (photo via)

"On the surface, My Bloody Valentine should be underrated, but they’re not; everyone who aggressively..."

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:40:21 -0700

“On the surface, My Bloody Valentine should be underrated, but they’re not; everyone who aggressively cares about alt guitar music considers Loveless to be a modern classic, and everyone who is wont to mention “swirling guitars” during casual conversation always references this specific album. Loveless sold about 200,000 copies. This is the correct number of people on earth who should be invested in the concept of swirling guitars.”

- Chuck Klostermann, on the ten most accurately rated rock bands in history, in Spin. Hard to argue with that. (via)

“Diamond Heart,” Marissa Nadler. It’s getting...

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:38:42 -0700

“Diamond Heart,” Marissa Nadler. It’s getting late! You should go to bed. And this is the song that should be playing as you drift off to sleep: striking, haunting, lovely.

Novel vs. essay

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:06:55 -0700

Zadie Smith (with a hand from Virginia Woolf) has a smart take on the advantages of each form. Worth quoting at length:

A bad novel is both an aesthetic and ethical affront to its readers, because it traduces reality, and does indeed make you hunger for a kind of writing that seems to speak truth directly. But I also feel, as someone who just finished a book of more or less lyrical essays, that underneath some of these high-minded objections, and complementary to them, there is another, deeper, psychological motivation, about which it is more difficult to be honest. In “The Modern Essay” Virginia Woolf is more astute on the subject, and far more frank. “There is no room for the impurities of literature in an essay,” she writes. “The essay must be pure – pure like water or pure like wine, but pure from dullness, deadness, and deposits of extraneous matter.” Well, yes, that’s just it. An essay, she writes, “can be polished till every atom of its surface shines” – yes, that’s it, again. There is a certain kind of writer – quite often male but by no means exclusively so – who has a fundamental hunger for purity, and for perfection, and this type will always hold the essay form in high esteem. Because essays hold out the possibility of something like perfection.

Novels, by contrast, are idiosyncratic, uneven, embarrassing, and quite frequently nausea-inducing – especially if you happen to have written one yourself. Within the confines of an essay or – even better! – an aphorism, you can be the writer you dream of being. No word out of place, no tell-tale weak spots (dialogue, the convincing representation of other people, plot), no absences, no lack. I think it’s the limits of the essay, and of the real, that truly attract fiction writers. In the confined space of an essay you have the possibility of being wise, of making your case, of appearing to see deeply into things – although the thing you’re generally looking into is the self.

Nation's Music Snobs Protest Predictable Use Of Metallica, Pantera To Torture Prisoners

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:02:08 -0700

Nation's Music Snobs Protest Predictable Use Of Metallica, Pantera To Torture Prisoners:

Personally, I think if you’re going to torture people this days, you’re going to need Animal Collective, Beach House, St. Vincent’s Actor, Vivian Girls and Brazilian Girls. Also Slayer.

Question of the Day

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 09:54:42 -0700

It comes from Live Wrong and Prosper:

Would you allow yourself to be adopted by Sandra Bullock and live with her for four years? Note that she will conduct herself as a rich, football-crazed Southerner who pities you and teaches you “life lessons” the entire time.

Josh L. attempts to answer:

This is how you keep your sanity while Bullock, with her bad blonde dye job and shoddy drawl, hovers around you offering one inane anecdote after another. So you think, “Well, maybe I could ask her to teach me about tornadoes by driving into one? She’ll be sucked into the vortex while I remain safe and sound on the ground thanks to my trusty Anti-Tornado Cement Suit.” Or, “Maybe she can tell me why drinking gasoline is “as silly as a shack on the side of the Great Smoky Mountains” by demonstration?” And then, “Once she’s gone, I could keep her around like Weekend at Bernie’s. No one’ll ever know the difference!” (via)

"The Shins, for me, sum up the decade perfectly. Their journey from a local band in my hometown to..."

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:19:37 -0700

“The Shins, for me, sum up the decade perfectly. Their journey from a local band in my hometown to worldwide indie superstars on the power of an album recorded at 8-bit resolution (!) on a computer in James Mercer’s basement captures the zeitgeist — in fact, it is the zeitgeist. They have been more inspiring to me personally than any other group this decade. And, yes, Oh! Inverted World did actually change my life.”

- Westin Glass, of the Thermals, on the band that defined the decade for him. Nice to see the Shins getting a little end-of-the-decade love.

“Copy Editor’s Lament (the Layoff Song.” The...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:42:07 -0700

“Copy Editor’s Lament (the Layoff Song.” The troubles of my industry — but you can dance to it! (via)

Jeff Tweedy coming to Phoenix!

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:33:38 -0700

Jeff Tweedy coming to Phoenix!:

The Dec. 27 event at the Orpheum will be the first solo Tweedy show I’ve seen since 2003. I loved his solo show — a good mix of Wilco favorites, Uncle Tupelo callbacks, covers and other rarities. So this should be a great way to close out the year.

“Audience of One,” Cold War Kids. During that NPR...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:28:49 -0700

“Audience of One,” Cold War Kids. During that NPR record label roundtable discussion this week, I thought it was interesting which band was singled out as proof you can succeed without Pitchfork’s stamp of approval. It was Cold War Kids, of course, which has managed to pay the bills despite getting crapped on by P4K from pretty much day one. Now here’s “Audience of One,” the first song to leak from a forthcoming 2010 EP. It has that insistent “Hospital Beds” piano going for it, and a certain polite syncopation you can tap your toes to. What it’s missing, though, is noise — CWK on their debut were a cacophony, all booming drums and sledgehammer pianos and Nathan Willett’s mystic Christian howl. I don’t want to undersell it, though: this is a promising start for an EP, as catchy as anything on Loyalty to Loyalty. (download) (via blalocksindierockplaylist / outdoorminer)

What 'The Office' tells us about the places we work

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:45:27 -0700

What 'The Office' tells us about the places we work:

This brilliant series — there are two fascinating posts up so far — uses the interactions of characters on The Office to give you a sort of quickie MBA in the way corporations organize themselves. It’s fantastically cynical — chances are you’re what the author would describe as a “loser.” (It’s not necessarily a bad thing, for reasons he describes.) File this one under “why I love the Internet.” (via)

“Replay,” IYAZ. So remember Kylie Minogue’s...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:57:00 -0700

“Replay,” IYAZ. So remember Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” and how what was ostensibly a love song was in reality a song about how you could not get that song out of your head? Well, IYAZ — a British Virgin Islander who’s apparently friends with Sean Kingston — has copied that trick on “Replay,” which might be the catchiest piece of Top 40 radio I’ve heard this year. A girl has been running through Iyaz’s mind all day, and so that we might understand what he’s going through, he has transmuted her into an earworm. Like all great pop songs, it ends way before you want it to; the chorus has a nice circular melody to it, and at times I’d like to hear it go on forever. Anyway, this is what I’m listening to this morning instead of the new Animal Collective song.

“Cousins,” Vampire Weekend. The studio version from...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:56:46 -0700

“Cousins,” Vampire Weekend. The studio version from the band’s forthcoming follow-up is a bit more vibrant than the live videos made it seem. And is it just me, or do you always forget how much you want to make out with Ezra Koenig?

"‘On the Road’ is what made me want to start touring. I wanted to live like that,..."

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:32:27 -0700

“‘On the Road’ is what made me want to start touring. I wanted to live like that, breezing into town for one night and seeing all your friends, being out late and getting up the next morning and climb in the van and do it again.”

- Ben Gibbard, on his Jack Kerouac/Jay Farrar collaboration, in Rolling Stone.

“Jesus Etc.,” N0rah Jones. This live Wilco cover,...

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:32:02 -0700

“Jesus Etc.,” N0rah Jones. This live Wilco cover, which you can find on the deluxe iTunes version of her new album, is a bit more polished than the one found here. It has an appealing confidence to it; she very nearly finger-snaps her way through it, like she’s Tracy Chapman singing “Give Me One Reason.” But it works in a way that her collaboration with other Americana artists — Ryan Adams, Will Sheff — have so far fallen flat. The reason is that impossibly sexy voice of hers; when applied to a love song as lovely as this, only success can follow.

The best live TV moments of the decade

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:17:54 -0700

The best live TV moments of the decade:

Paste takes a shot at them. Lots of fun memories in here.

“Black Luck, Black Label,” Source Victoria. And...

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:30:29 -0700

“Black Luck, Black Label,” Source Victoria. And while I’m pimping people I like, I want you guys to listen to this song. It’s a great piano-driven ballad by Source Victoria, whose frontman and principal songwriter is personal acquaintance Brendan (brother of So Much Silence frontman and principal blogger Kevin).

The thing is, this track hasn’t been released. Officially, it’s not even finished; the bass part is missing. But Kevin sent it to me because he loved it, and I do too. Source Victoria has a really good album under their belt, but this song just got under my skin last year and stayed there. It starts slow but builds to a nice crescendo; it’s subtle and sophisticated and wonderfully melodic. The real hook starts around 2:10, when Brendan sings the hell out of a heartbroken passage you know came from experience: “When you said goodnight, I didn’t know you meant tonight.”

I hope you like this as much as I do.

Follow Tuesday

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:01:24 -0700

Hey, remember Kiehl? How he was a great co-blogger and then he left me because he didn’t have enough time to devote to a blog? Well, needless to say, he started a blog. It is called “By the People,” which is an obvious reference to my dictatorial style of management at Crumbler. Anyway, as you might expect, it’s fantastic, with links to Alice Munro short stories and Wire quotes and attractive footwear. He tells me he doesn’t plan on updating that much, but savvy Dashboard surfers prize infrequent Tumblrs above all others, so Follow Tuesday him already. (Miss you Kiehl!)

Other people you should follow:

TwentyFourBit is a music news site for people who have already digested the big headlines of the day. Peter finds weird news about bands on their MySpace pages, in the British press, and scores of other places you would never think to look, and he presents it all in a marvelously droll style that puts most mainstream publications to shame. (Also he once hooked me up with a hard-to-find Spoon track, so I’m forever in his debt.)
Hail the Pages Turning is a newish Tumblr by Mikey P, formerly of Boston-based music site BoxOfBoom. A longtime Crumbler supporter, the man has my exact same taste in music, discovered the excellent Britt Daniel soundboard, and looks incredibly attractive in photographs. So do Follow Tuesday him if you would.
Not For Want of Trying. Most music Tumblrs out there exist only to re-post songs that everyone already knows. It’s a surefire way to gain Tumblarity, but isn’t of much help to you brave explorers out there trying to expose yourself to something new. Not For Want of Trying is a wonderful exception to this rule. The anonymous UK blogger manages the difficult trick of posting stuff that I (a) have absolutely never heard of and (b) is actually pretty good! This blog also illustrates the rule that even Tumblrs sound better with British accents. Follow Tuesday him, duh.

Ratatat by Decoder Ring. (via)

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:36:00 -0700

Ratatat by Decoder Ring. (via)

Well you guys, I finally figured out what I’d like the...

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:17:05 -0700

Well you guys, I finally figured out what I’d like the graveside service to look like when I kick the bucket. Everyone please memorize this dance and then, when the time comes, have at it. (via)