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boiledleather

16 Years of Unpopular Pop

boiledleather

This is a collection of the finest non-hit pop songs from the 16 year history of this site. (Well, actually, one legit hit made it through because it fit in nicely.) It’s basically nothing but world-class bangers.
You can experience it as an Apple Music playlist, a Spotify playlist, or as an expanded download version featuring 16 extra songs that are not available on streaming platforms. I’ve marked the bonus songs in the track listing for the download set below.
DOWNLOAD PART 1
Scissor Sisters “Paul McCartney” / In Flagranti “Genital Blue Room” / Spektrum “Don’t Be Shy” / Goldfrapp “Ride A White Horse” / The Silures “21 Ghosts” / Basement Jaxx “Cish Cash” / Rachel Stevens “Some Girls” / Klanguage “Never Over” / Kylie Minogue “Sweet Music” / Annie “Chewing Gum” / Pleasure “Out of Love” * / Architecture in Helsinki “That Beep” / Out Hud “It’s For You” * / Matthew Dear “Don and Sherri” / Bossanova “Rare Brazil” / Enon “Daughter in the House of Fools” / Katy Rose “Rosemary” * / Fox N’ Wolf “Youth Alcoholic” / The Knife “Heartbeats” / Revl9n “Walking Machine” / AG Cook feat. Hannah Diamond “Keri Baby” / GFOTY “Don’t Wanna/Let’s Do It” / Poppy “My Style” / Grimes “Artangels” / White Hinterland “Chill and Natural” / Von Sudenfed “Fledermaus Can’t Get It” / Björk “Innocence” / Justice “DVNO” / Kate Nash “Pumpkin Soup” / Yelle “Tristesse/Joie” / Girls Aloud “Black Jacks” / Veronica Maggio “Gammal Sång” * / Kimbra “Madhouse” / Hemme Fatale “Animal Lover” * / Alphabeat “Heatwave” / Ellie Goulding “Anything Could Happen” / Sissy Wish “Float” / Fight Like Apes “Pop Itch” / Carly Rae Jepsen “Tiny Little Bows” / Brown Eyed Girls “날아갈래” / Junior Senior “We R the Handclaps” / Gameboy/Gamegirl “Sweaty Wet/Dirty Damp” / Muscles “Chocolate, Raspberry, Lemon, and Lime” / Crossover “Extensive Care”
DOWNLOAD PART 2
Sleigh Bells “Crown on the Ground” / Maria Magdalena “CVMC (Cada Vez Mas Cerca)” / Friendly Fires “Hurting” / The Rapture “Whoo! Alright – Yeah… Uh-Huh” / M.I.A. “URAQT” / Ce’cile “Rude Bwoy Thug Life” / Redinho “Playing with Fire” / CSS “Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above” / Spank Rock “Sweet Talk” / Stazi “Love Is Lethal” * / Yellow Note vs. Pukka “Naked, Drunk, and Horny” / Armand Van Helden feat. Spalding Rockwell “Hear My Name” / Cut Copy “Saturdays” / Quarks “I Walk” + / QT “Hey QT” / Peaches “Dumb Fuck” / Heloise and the Savoir Faire Dancers “Odyle” / Tracy and the Plastics “Henrietta” * / Junesex “Gets Close to Mine” / Mouse on Mars “Mine Is In Yours” / LCD Soundsystem “Yeah (Crass Version)” / Ladytron “Destroy Everything You Touch” / Of Montreal “The Party’s Crashing Us (I Am the World Trade Center Remix)” / Futon “Gay Boy” + / Dog Ruff “Jon E Storm” * / Chicks on Speed “Shick Shaving” * / Avenue D feat. Cazwell “The Sex That I Need” / Gene Serene “Electric Dreams” / Vanessinha & Alessandra “Gira” * / United State of Electronica “La Discoteca” * / Planningtorock “I Wanna Bite Ya” / Nouveau Riche “Take Me Home” * / Hilary Duff “Danger” / SEVENTEEN “Change Up” / Britney Spears “How I Roll” / MNDR “Cut Me Out” / Skrillex “Stranger” / Sophie “Lemonade” / Saint Pepsi “Better” / Sky Ferreira “I Blame Myself” / Lolita Storm “Dancing with the Ibiza Dogs” * / Chairlift “I Belong In Your Arms” / Au Revoir Simone “Through the Backyards” / La Big Vic “All That Heaven Allows” / Rework “Not Quite Like Any Other”
* = Not on either Spotify or Apple
+ = On Apple, but not Spotify

My friend Matthew pioneered music blogging waaaaaaaaay back when, and for over a decade and a half he’s brought his vision of pop music to the masses. This two-disc retrospective is Matthew’s Mirror Mirror II, basically — it sums up the Fluxblog aesthetic and declares it worthy of consideration the same way me and Julia’s anthology did for our aesthetic. I think you’re going to see more and more of these kinds of efforts from people with singular visions (or double visions in our case, I guess), as a combination of factors — media contraction, layoffs and job insecurity, and the ongoing transformation of entertainment journalism and criticism into boosterism for the products of the world’s largest corporations — drives veteran critics and writers toward the same kinds of independent expression that helped them get their start in the first place. It’s a bit like what our mutual friend Chris Ott encouraged in one of his very earliest Shallow Rewards video podcasts/jeremiads: “Declare victory and leave the playing field.” When the work you value can’t find purchase, be confident in what it and you have to offer and plant your flag on your own.

(FWIW those playlists really are full of bangers. That opening run on Disc 1 will kick your ass)

nonameinanytongue

boiledleather

If you’ve ever wanted to hear me talk about Marilyn Manson for two hours, now’s your chance! I’m the guest on this week’s installment of Molly O’Brien and Chris Wade’s music podcast And Introducing, where they read and dissect a different rock/pop star’s memoir every episode. We talked about Manson’s book The Long Hard Road out of Hell, written and release at the height of his fame, and we go deep. Listen and subscribe!

Source: SoundCloud / And Introducing

perpetua

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks “Astral Facial” (Live at Siren Music Festival, 7/19/2008)

As far as I can tell, this is a brand new Malkmus original.

This was recorded by NYC Taper, and if you contact the person who runs the site, they will hook you up with a recording of the show.

You can hear the rollercoaster in the background!

perpetua

Thanks to Rob Sheffield for reminding me this song exists. I’d kinda forgotten about it, and I guess Stephen Malkmus has too since this song still hasn’t been released nine years later. But it’s a really lovely one, and I really hope that he finishes it someday.

Stephen Malkmus stephen malkmus and the jicks pavement

ryanhatesthis

mamalaz:
“Luke in the Millennium Falcon A New Hope (1977) // The Last Jedi (2017)
”
I stared at this for about two minutes, full disclosure.

Source: mamalaz

buzzfeed

19 Real Life WWI Heroes Who’ll Inspire You To Find Your Inner Wonder Woman

Source: bzfd.it

buzzfeed

buzzfeed.com

Plant A Garden And We'll Reveal Your Personality Type

How does your garden grow?

Matthew Perpetua, Cates Holderness

buzzfeed

“Matthew, when are you gonna make a gardening personality quiz? There’s a woeful lack of gardening stuff on BuzzFeed dot com the website, and it’s a travesty.”

“That would require me to know about gardening.”

“Okay, fair. But…hear me out…*I* know about gardening.”

“…wanna make a quiz with me?”

“YEAH I DO.”

The Thing You Should Be Reading

Tim O’Neil’s ongoing series of essays on The Hurting about coming out as trans is one of the best things I’ve read in the past year. Tim’s essays shift back and forth between sharp critical writing about topics such as the Star Wars prequel trilogy, the discography of Spoon, and Carl Banks’ Donald Duck comics, and intense memoir sections detailing their struggles with self-defeating rage and despair while obliviously living in the closet into their 30s. Tim also writes a bit about the beginnings of their transition, and one of the most striking things is that in Tim’s writing, masculinity is like this chronic disease that’s being treated. It’s fascinating and very moving, and Tim’s insights into art are incredibly thoughtful and not always predictable. I particularly like how Tim writes about deeply relating to Anakin Skywalker, in part because I totally get where they’re coming from as a person struggling with intense self-loathing, but mostly because I’d never considered that people related to the Anakin of the prequels at all.