December 2008
5 posts
1 tag
Holiday Music From Your Friends
Let it be known: I have no love for Christmas music. Every year I sigh and roll my eyes as radio stations and retail stores start playing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” the week after Halloween. I am sick of the same old songs with the same old sentiments winter after winter. I firmly believe that holiday music is more “product” than “art.” Now, with that being said, let it also be known that,...
1 tag
Recent Discoveries – Surf City / Bubblegum...
The contradictions continue. Just weeks ago I expended untold amounts of brainpower theorizing about the future direction of music criticism, staking my own claim to the realm of “intimate knowledge.” So now, I bring you some thoughts on two new acts I’ve recently discovered, proof that I am indeed still “with it” and can keep up with whatever the kids are listening to these days.
Surf City’s...
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Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
OR: “The Illusion of Authenticity”
The story goes something like this: dude plays in band, suddenly breaks up with band and girlfriend, feels like life is falling apart, moves home to Wisconsin, spends winter in remote cabin in the woods, records album about it, becomes famous.
Most people who have listened to Bon Iver in the past year have read or heard that story before listening to a single...
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Once More on Criticism, Toilets
One of the biggest factors in understanding contemporary mass culture–which is inextricably bound to internet culture–is the role of the spectator or the “audience.” Now, I don’t pretend to know much about art history, especially when it comes to more “classical” art that you can’t put the word “pop” in front of (thank God for Wikipedia), but I think the way that art functions in the 21st century...
3 tags
The Dreaded List, 2009 Edition & 2008 Edition
December 31, 2009:
Last year, I posted my year-end list at the beginning of December, mostly in an effort to not appear as though I was taking cues from anybody else’s list. Sure, as both a critic and a reader of critics, you never want to be accused of being derivative (just like musicians), but on the other hand, it’s kind of a fondles fear. Of course I read other people’s...