February 2012
Oscars 2012: Bret McKenzie on His 'Muppets' Oscar... →
I interviewed Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Conchords, and we talked about the possibility of him eventually scoring an EGOT.
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The Best Songs by the Beetles
I Want to Hold Her Hands She Says, She Says Why Don’t We Do This in the Road? Norwegian Wool Here Comes the Son Being At A Benefit For Mr. Kite I Saw Her Sitting There Martha, My Deer We Can Work Out Can You Buy Me Love? You Need to Hide Your Love Away Paperback Novel Good Day Sunlight Some Thing A Day In My Life Seven Days A Week La-Da-Di, La-Da-Da With Or Without You Mother Nature’s...
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Skrillex Drops the Bass in Manhattan →
I reviewed Skrillex’s show last night for Rolling Stone. It was pretty awesome! I mostly wrote about the bass drops, which are extremely impressive and exciting in the live context.
alackoflogic asked: How do you divide your music listening between newer and older music? Do you take the hyper-methodical approach ("Today, I will listen to four albums each of music recorded before and after 1985"), or just go with whatever you feel like? I ask because the vast size of your survey mixes suggests, to me, some sadistic levels of contemporary music intake. Or maybe that's just the life...
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WatchNeon Indian “Fallout” This is by far the best song this band has ever recorded. The chorus is a killer, but the really interesting and resonant line is buried in a verse: “Are you still carving out a man, is that the plan?” It plays in to the greater theme of this guy being passive and helpless to his attraction to this person who is attempting to turn him into someone...
Interview: Fluxblog Turns 10 →
I was interviewed by The L about the 10th anniversary of the site and the new series of survey mixes.
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FLUXBLOG 2002 SURVEY MIX →
I am celebrating the 10th anniversary of Fluxblog with a series of survey mixes for each year the site has existed. First up: 2002! 140 songs on 8 discs, with music from Missy Elliot, Kylie Minogue, Wilco, Spoon, LCD Soundsystem, Interpol, Cam’ron, The Kills, The Rapture, Cee Lo Green, Coldplay, Ashanti, Andrew W.K., Sleater-Kinney, Clinic, Sonic Youth, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera,...
January 2012
“In the mid-80s, Michael Jackson used a chunk of his immense wealth to purchase a...”
– I wrote this theory in a Fluxblog post from 2003.
Oh, the things you write and then forget all about for nearly a decade.
“For example, the Lou Reed-Metallica record, that was something I’ve argued...”
– Ian Astbury of the Cult defends Lulu in an interview I conducted with him for Rolling Stone about his band’s new album.
This was a pretty interesting conversation. He’s very thoughtful, and he kinda surprised me by being very well-versed in witch house, of all things. (He kinda slams...
“It’s instructive to picture what this guy would actually look like IRL,...”
– Rob Harvilla imagines the guy Lana Del Rey is singing about all through her album Born to Die. This part of his review made laugh out loud. I really admire the way Rob integrates glib, humorous bits into his reviews in ways that actually advance his ideas about the record. That’s not always...
“Why is pop music the only art form that still inspires such arrantly stupid...”
– Lana Del Rey’s Image on “Born to Die” : The New Yorker Sasha Frere-Jones gets the January 2012 award for accuracy! A commenter wrote in reply to this: “Agree with the sentiment, but actors *act*; musicians create music. We’re not implicitly invited to suspend disbelief with the...
“ALL WATERS: Why are straight women always walking with their hands in the back...”
– Matador Records | Perfume Genius Biography
Mike Hadreas’ song-by-song explanations of each song on the new Perfume Genius record are amazing and incredibly thoughtful. This may be the best bio I have ever encountered, actually.
Paper Trail: Everybody Loves Our Town →
I interviewed Mark Yarm about Everybody Loves Our Town, his terrific oral history of grunge, for Pitchfork. This one has been in the can for a while, and some bits got cut out — I might end up posting a few good outtakes. Mark is a really bright guy and we went on some interesting tangents.
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lookingformyshadow asked: What do you think it needs a good review? How do you do to convince someone to listen or not listen to an album? Do you have a like a basic structure and from that you start writting or you just start writting whatever you want? Is it difficult for you to express yourself? Another question that has nothing to do with this: how imporant is for you the live performance of a band or artist?
“Aren’t Oscarbatory films like The Artist, Hugo, and Midnight in Paris the high...”
– Todd Serencha makes a very good point.
Aziz Ansari Prepping Introspective New Stand-up... →
I talked to Aziz about comedy, Louis C.K., and his angst about the possibility of settling down and becoming a father.
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“We were also asked to write a song for Crown Royale Liquor several years ago....”
– The National Honored to Be on Academy Awards Best Song Shortlist | Music News | Rolling Stone
I interviewed Matt Berninger of the National, and kinda regret not pushing him to recall those “awkward sexual references.”
“It’s fun to viciously insult people,” he says. “And it’s...”
– FX’s bawdy spy series Archer returns | Rolling Stone
I interviewed H Jon Benjamin — that’s a quote from him above — and Adam Reed about Archer, one of the funniest shows on tv. The third season premiere airs tonight, and this post contains a clip from that episode featuring...
“No, the Lana Del Rey imbroglio points at something potentially worse: an...”
– Lana Del Rey Lights Up the Internet
Tom Ewing makes a very important point. Theatricality and reinvention are crucial parts of music and the arts — demanding “authenticity” is reactionary and mostly poisonous to creativity.
“tuneyards?!?!?!?! are you fucking kidding me?!?!?! I’m starting to wonder...”
– Pazz & Jop 2011 results announced (tUnE-yArDs wins)
The Brooklyn Vegan commenter mentality, in a nutshell.
“The head-spinning end result is an indie-rock world that feels like a place...”
– Confuse the Market: Post-Crossover, Indie Retreats
Scott Plagenhoef is ruthlessly on point in his Village Voice Pazz & Jop essay, particularly in this paragraph where he perfectly articulates something I’ve been trying to say since, like, 2005.
2011 Pazz and Jop Albums →
Good news, everyone! The best album of 2011 won the Pazz and Jop critics poll! This is exciting and wonderful and unexpected. Here’s my ballot!
“Given how rich Alwaleed is, it’s not surprising to hear that his life is...”
– THE DWARF-THROWING BILLIONAIRE WHO’S BUYING UP AMERICA: Tales Of The Mysterious Saudi Prince Alwaleed
Stop what you’re doing and read this totally insane article in Business Insider!
“The thing that [Jennifer] Egan does that no other American writer I can think of...”
– Richard Rushfield makes a very good point about Jennifer Egan, who I agree is probably the finest literary novelist working today. This point is really crucial for most all writing — I think it’s very important for writing to engage with a wider audience rather than to self-consciously...
hellohazel asked: I wanted to ask about your thoughts on the idea of "indie music." I am confused by people thinking indie music is a genre because, to me, the word indie is not a genre but a label assigned in the music world to musicians who are currently signed to independent musical labels. So, indie music has no sound or style. The "indie world" has criticized Lana Del Ray for trying to...
“BrooklynVegan is the worst, it just becomes like a rating board for guys to have...”
– Caroline Polachek of Chairlift, interviewed by Pitchfork’s Larry Fitzmaurice.
I’m glad she said this. I think more people need to talk about this, to call it out, because I think there’s this assumption that the indie world is full of nice guys who have evolved beyond sexism,...
WatchReal Estate “Easy” Tom Scharpling and Rob Hatch-Miller continue their music video hot streak, this time with a great performance from Videogum’s Gabe Delahaye. Also: This song is incredibly pleasant!