January 2011
vickyj asked: Of all of the songs that came out this year, which had the best closing line?
The Game Shocked By Runaway Success of 'Purp and... →
I interviewed the Game for Rolling Stone. Really cool guy. Yes, he actually said “F-pound-C-K no,” that is a precise transcription.
WatchSleigh Bells “Rill Rill” At long last, a “Rill Rill” video! They pretty much nailed it. Nice bandolier, Alexis!
The Decemberists Score Their First Number One... →
When I wrote this earlier I was astonished to learn that the Decemberists had managed to sell nearly five times as many copies of their new album in its first week than their previous record in its first week. Also, 65% of the units sold were digital albums, and Amazon was selling it for $3.99, which has to account for a pretty huge chunk of the overall sales. When Amazon do these deep discounts...
“MP: Why did you decide for that song to be the title track?
DB: I wanted there...”
– My interview with Destroyer’s Dan Bejar specifically about the song “Kaputt” is up on NPR’s The Record blog today, the first in a new series of artist interviews called Singled Out. The bit quoted above is an outtake from the interview. Please do read the whole thing!
Destroyer - There's A World Underground
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2011 looks to be Dan Bejar’s year. After 15 years of recording as Destroyer and contributing songs to the New Pornographers, Kaputt is on track to become his breakthrough success, at the very least in terms of critical consensus. This collection is a primer on Bejar’s Destroyer catalog, covering essential tracks from the back catalog going back to 1998’s City of...
“I play a character named Violet. It takes place at a liberal arts college on the...”
– Greta Gerwig on her role in Whit Stilman’s upcoming movie Damsels in Distress. I was just thinking about how rarely I get excited about movies, but here I am, extremely excited about a movie.
WatchRural Alberta Advantage “Stamp” I’m kinda lukewarm on this song, but this is a brilliant music video. Subtitles provide the interior monologues of two fans — a nervous fanboy and an aspiring groupie — who nearly connect while watching the band play in an otherwise empty room. It’s very funny and clever.
WatchDestroyer “Kaputt” “I was trying to cast in such a way that, during the fantasies, there was some sort of odd feeling that something wasn’t right. Like, all the people singing and dancing in the desert are men. And, with the girls in the first part, I picked young actresses that looked more like baby sitters than models— someone a 12-year-old boy would really...
Largehearted Boy: Book Notes - Bryan Charles... →
My good friend Bryan Charles recommends songs by Sloan, Liz Phair, Jets to Brazil, Pavement, Aaliyah and Cher over at Largehearted Boy. Check it out.
Winner of Belle and Sebastian Contest is... →
I interviewed this kid yesterday about winning the Write About Love contest. Doree pointed out to me shortly afterward that he was born the same year the band got together! I wonder if that was part of the reason Stuart picked him.
App of the Day: Precorder for iPhone →
My old friend Jason Rosoff co-created this app. I’m really proud of him! Go buy it if you’ve got an iPhone and need this sort of thing.
“Kanye West is the Don Draper of hip-hop: the arrogant, ostensible alpha-male sad...”
– Good work, Josh Timmermann. I don’t see Pusha T as Pete Campbell, though. If we’re being real, the Pete Campbell analog in contemporary rap is probably Drake. Someone else needs to unpack the Nicki-as-Peggy thing because that is totally on the money.
“Altered Zones is invariably called Pitchfork’s “sister site,”...”
– Here is a key passage from Simon Reynold’s excellent essay Leave Chillwave Alone. It resonates with me in a big way because yes, I am indeed a person who writes for Pitchfork who is definitely attached to a lot of pre-internet ideas about consuming music. At the same time I’m one of the...
“The melancholy final moments of Contra are also that album’s most moving,...”
– Eric Harvey’s essay about Vampire Weekend and Arcade Fire in the Village Voice’s Pazz and Jop poll coverage is wonderful. After reading this paragraph I went back to this song, and for reasons only tangentially related to what Eric wrote here, it hit me in this very emotionally powerful...
The Loud Family - Exponential Existential Horror...
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There are some great bands who get screwed over by history simply by ending up on the wrong record labels. Scott Miller has been in two of them. Game Theory was on Enigma in the ’80s, and to this day legal hassles prevent those records, seminal college radio hits at the time, from being reissued. His second band, the Loud Family, was on Alias Records and though things turned...
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Trish Keenan's Mind Bending Motorway Mix
This was passed along to me today:
Trish made a mix for a friend of mine not long ago, and he’s shared it as a fitting way of remembering her. http://rapidshare.com/files/442571226/Trish_s_Mind_Bending_Motorway_Mix.zip He says: Before she went to Australia Trish sent me a mix CD of bonkers pop music she compiled, I never thanked her. Its called Mind Bending Motorway Mix and I want to...
Broadcast - The Message Sent Was Of Discontent
DOWNLOAD IT! Trish Keenan, the singer of the British electronic pop group Broadcast, died this morning from complications of severe pneumonia. If you were not familiar with Trish and Broadcast, I strongly recommend downloading this compilation of the band’s music that I originally posted in September. This is a great loss for art pop and electronic music.
Colour Me In / Come On, Let’s Go /...
Sales Numbers for Selected Pitchfork Top 50 Albums... →
Nielsen Soundscan figures as of 1/12/2011, compiled by Eric Harvey.
50 Wavves – King of the Beach (18,563) 49 Wild Nothing – Gemini (8,773) 44 Kylesa – Spiral Shadow (7,778) 43 Tame Impala – Innerspeaker (15,101) 42 Drake – Thank Me Later (1,219,473) 39 Best Coast – Crazy For You (48,296) 38 Rick Ross – Teflon Don (541,299) 35 Gorillaz – Plastic Beach (385,454) 34 Crystal Castles – Crystal...
Top 5 Prince Album Sides
1) Purple Rain side 2 “When Doves Cry” / “I Would Die 4 U” / “Baby, I’m a Star” / “Purple Rain” 2) Sign O the Times side 3 “U Got the Look” / “If I Was Your Girlfriend” / “Strange Relationship” / “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man” 3) 1999 side 1 “1999” / “Little Red Corvette” / “Delirious” 4) Purple Rain side 1 “Let’s Go Crazy” / “Take Me With U” / “The Beautiful Ones” / “Computer...
Imperial Teen - Take It Like A Man, Boy
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Though Imperial Teen debuted to some acclaim in the mid-90s, the band has become fairly obscure over the past decade. I’m sure a lot of it is the unfortunate by-product of label politics — they started out on a major in the 90s boom but ended up as a low-priority act on Merge — but I think you could make a more cynical argument that the band’s overt queer...
Imperial Teen - Take It Like A Man, Boy
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Though Imperial Teen debuted to some acclaim in the mid-90s, the band has become fairly obscure over the past decade. I’m sure a lot of it is the unfortunate by-product of label politics — they started out on a major in the 90s boom but ended up as a low-priority act on Merge — but I think you could make a more cynical argument that the band’s overt queer...
Beyoncé featuring Vanness Wu “Crazy in...
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“Is there a twee noise band called Sonic Uke(s) yet? If not I claim it. Imagine...”
– Text from Todd this morning. I guess someone beat him to this name, but this is a great idea.
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Vinyl Sales Increase Despite Industry Slump →
I wrote this item based on this big packet of data from Nielsen SoundScan. I really geeked out over that stuff, let me tell you. Here is the specific data for top vinyl sales in 2010, for your information.
Top Ten Vinyl Albums, 1/4/2010 - 1/2/2011 1. The Beatles Abbey Road (35,000) 2. Arcade Fire The Suburbs (18,800) 3. Black Keys Brothers (18,400) 4. Vampire Weekend Contra (15,000) 5. Michael...