music

216 posts

Crate Digging #5 – That Was Then, This is Twee

The Vaselines

Twee. I know, I know. Today, “twee” is often a pejorative term, a dismissal of people and objects that embody a particular mixture of hip nerdiness and self-conscious cuteness. “Adorkability,” if you will. Twee is Zooey Deschanel playing ukelele with Joseph Gordon-Levitt while kittens chase bubbles across her bedroom. It is a polka dot dress with a sweetheart neckline, a hand-knit cardigan, a teacup purchased on Etsy. Twee (or “indie pop”), however, is also a genre of music that deserves our attention. Indie pop began as an exercise in quiet rebellion and became a bonafide musical movement which ultimately, affected much of the music to come after it.  Continue reading →

The Sounds of Mardi Gras

Happy Mardi Gras! In New Orleans and other Carnival-celebrating cities, today is a daylong party. By the time this posts, I’ll already be walking the avenue — my group and I are hitting the street (and the bottle) at 7:30 in the morning.

But for everyone who’s having just another Tuesday, I put together a primer on some of the omnipresent songs of Carnival in New Orleans. They never get old, and I hope they bring the Carnival spirit to wherever you are. Continue reading →

Canadian Music: Beyond the Bilge

Look, we’re sorry about Snow. And Celine. And Avril. And we tried to stop Bieber. Really, we did! But the little man is like some indestructible combination of Godzilla and the Lucky Charms leprechaun. Oh, yeah, right, Nickleback. Ok, they were on purpose – it seemed funny at the time. However, that is no reason to assume Canada is a musical wasteland of soul-patches and mirrored sunglasses. There are good Canadian artists. There are, in fact, great Canadian artists. Better, there are many great Canadian artists. A veritable cornucopia of…alright, I’ll stop. But seriously: there’s lots.

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Random Musings on Brave New Waves, Best Canadian Music Program Ever

There was nothing like BNW for going to sleep by, you’d be lulled nearly to sleep by some lull in a 10 minute long instrumental sound painting only to be woken up violently when the song switched to loud chaotic noise. This happened about once a night or so.  – posted by Space Coyote at 5:40 AM on February 2, 2007

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It’s a Shame About Whitney

I was very sad to hear about Whitney Houston’s death. It was touching to see the outpouring of grief from the public, media and other performers.  Or was it?

The majority of her hits and film success were ’85 through ’95. For the last twenty years we (the general population, media included) have pruriently waited to see the Whitney train come off the rails, and it did – several times.  A disastrous marriage, a drug bust, public misbehavior, and misfired comebacks were all gossip page features. The tabloids and the main stream outlets jumped on every opportunity to show photos of her wasted and videos of her of her attempted comebacks.  We laughed at her incoherent interviews and quotes about drugs.  Comedians specialized in portraying her at her worst. I don’t remember other “A” list performers being particularly vocal defending her or working to give her another chance. Continue reading →

Crate Digging #3 – Ladies and Gentlemen, Black Flag

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If you have ever wandered past a skate park, rock club or a seedy neighborhood in your town, chances are that you have seen Black Flag’s stark, iconic logo scrawled on the surface of a wall, skate deck or t-shirt. If you are older (or just like hanging out with old punks), you have probably encountered a number of poorly-done tattoo replicas of the band’s Ray Pettibon-designed logo on sagging biceps. The band, like the logo, has become an indispensable insignia of punk anti-authoritarianism and underground culture for marginalized kids everywhere. A quarter century since they disbanded, Black Flag continues to have a strong influence on the worlds of punk, indie, and metal music. Continue reading →