And so came the tall and wiry man—in wraparound sunglasses and matching black leather gloves and jacket with the misshapen wig on his bald head and the six-pack of Budweiser under his arm—to the fourth-floor office at 625 Third Street, walking in his jerky, crablike way to the office of Jann Wenner, who looked up at the writer he’s heard so much about, shook the visitor’s hand and said, “Well, what have you brought us?”

“Thompson just launched into this rap,” said John Lombardi, who witnessed the encounter. “And he must have talked for nearly an hour without stopping, drinking his entire six-pack, chain-smoking, and taking his wig off and putting it on for no apparent reason and limping around the room—all while talking about his plans to run for sheriff. He kept talking about the greed hogs and the fun pigs, and how he wanted to change the name of Aspen to Fat City.

“And Wenner is sitting back in this high-backed Huey Newton chair he had, and he’s listening to him, and he’s sinking lower and lower in his chair till he’s practically underneath his desk. Finally Thompson goes down the hall to take a leak. All this time nobody had said anything.”

Jann Wenner looked up at Lombardi from his reclined slump. “Look, I know I’m supposed to be the spokesman for the youth generation and everything,” said the editor of Rolling Stone. “But what the fuck was that?”

delaneygibson:

Save the Date for a special show on Monday, April 16th at Zoey’s w/ Joshua Bartholomew! Great night of music and a few surprises ;)

The bright side of moving back to New Art City.

Thanks for the input. Should probably clarify though.

I likely won’t do the full-blown video analysis thing with these particular songs, but I would like to post at least clips so you can hear what I’m writing about. So I suppose this is the better question: is it wrong/unethical to post songs that have been scrubbed from existence (likely because the musicians feel that they’ve improved significantly since making them)? 

Don’t know if that changes the answer, but I really want to post/write about these songs yet can’t shake the feeling that doing so would be extremely mean and self-serving.

Is it mean/wrong/”unethical” to write about songs in my possession that the musicians no longer make available?

shawshanked asked: go to hell, drake

Getting anonymous hate. Wow! Think I’ve arrived / Your page is ominous, empty, intriguing; Mulholland Drive

katherinestasaph asked: 6, 7, 14.

6: most overrated bands.

You’re gonna be disappointed by my answer I’m afraid. I mean, if you want something juicy then I can point to any current or past critical darling: Animal Collective, EMA, Kanye West, Charli XCX, Adele, Beyonce, etc. But the reasons I’m wary of these musicians are complicated and fall way beyond anything the word “overrated” alone can account for.

I plan on writing about this in more detail somewhere down the line, but basically: for better or worse, it’s an absolute neccessity for me to remain ‘above the influence’, so to speak, so as opposed to Henrdik (and I remember many of you expressing that same view as well), I sort of see everything as a guilty pleasure. This is because music badly warped my view of the world. For the longest time I thought my life would improve if only I could surround myself with actual Katy Roses. Of course things are a tiny bit more complicated than that. I learned the hard way that disenchantment + disenchantment =/= happiness and I’m pretty bitter that artists encourage this view, even if it’s indirect/subconscious/not actually their fault.

But the fact that the call can sometimes be coming from inside the house is a real danger precisely because the possibility is at first invisible, and it’s a danger I feel isn’t explored nearly enough when we talk/write about art.

So which bands are overrated? All of them. Even my faves.

In other words, relatability itself is the culprit. Totally overrated. I mean, it’s a valuable quality in art, but also one with hidden dangers that will sneak up on you if you’re not careful. 

7: most underrated bands.

Again because of the toxic influence even objectively talented musicians had on my values. I have an incredibly hard time seeing any of them as particularly better or worse than any other. But no, I’m not gonna waste the opportunity to plug some faves. So: Katy Rose, Emm Gryner, The Ropes, Queen Adreena, Switchblade Symphony, Skye Sweetnam.

But I honestly, really. truly believe that Shakira is the most talented person on the planet. Of course when put that way you’re free to disagree, but what’s more objectively apparent is the fact that there’s a huge discrepancy between Shakira’s sheer talent/mastery of that talent and the praise (or even mere acknowledgement) she gets from the music institutions I follow and respect. Why? Idk but I have a theory. I think since her English crossover, her sound has been exoticized in a way that can be really off-putting. Nowadays it always has to be “Latin American Superstar Shakira!” you know? The fact that she can straight up rock, with absolutely no gimmicks, gets lost in the way her handlers chose to market her here.

But go to one of her concerts. I guarantee you she’ll blow your mind.

14: my favourite film soundtrack.

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. The movie had its problems, and as a collection of songs you can buy/download (a few standouts aside), the soundtrack isn’t much. But the movie uses the songs extremely well which creates this great synergy between the plot and the music. As lame and transparent as this sounds on paper, the music becomes a character of its own, and it’s awesome. 

Also want to cherry-pick some individual tracks from other films (these fall better into the category of “score” which may or may not be synonymous with “soundtrack” idk):

Batman Begins - “Vespertilio”

Lost and Delirious - some song by Yves Chamberland

Deathly Hallows 2: - “Statues”. The students and staff bracing themselves for the Battle of Hogwarts is my favorite part of the entire series. This is only partly because of this song but definitely partly because of this song.

likeapairofbottlerockets asked: Just wondering, what cracks (in Robyn's persona) are you referring to? Though I do get mad about this issue because I really don't like Katy Perry as an artist, I I understand why people like her. I can enjoy her songs occasionally. I just think Robyn is far superior as an artist and that it's kind of a different category of art when you are only a performer and not a songwriter. And I don't think the things that Katy Perry advocates implicitly through her music are great for society.

“There’s a big black sky over my town.” <—Actual lyric from actual Robyn song. A little later there’s this: “I’m in the corner / watching you kiss her.” I suppose technically this qualifies as a rhyme, but it sure doesn’t feel like one. Poets/lyricists rhyme for memorability, but this couplet is memorable for the wrong reason: because Robyn went out of her way to write it. It’s forced, in other words, and there’s little aesthetic splendor in such transparent effort. And after the couplet we get the tacked-on, painfully strenuous “Oh oh oh.”

And this is just “Dancing On My Own.” 

Everything Robyn does sounds forced. This is partly because of her airy, light-as-a-feather tone, but also because everything she does is forced. In fairness this isn’t a Robyn problem, it’s a music problem indicative of current times where artists care more about fame/money/recognition than the actual product they’re putting out. But still. Robyn isn’t a superior pop star. She’s a superior person so she’s granted more critical leeway. If you’re still not convinced, read this. One of Robyn’s favorite subjects is love, a repressive and fallacious concept that needs to fucking DIE. Now who’s bad for society?

I hate to always be the guy defending Katy Perry, or the contrarian who always mocks Robyn. I do like KP a bit more than your average critic, but I’m definitely not saying you’re wrong about her troublesome image. I’m just saying what the original post that sparked this discussion argued: that Robyn and KP are more alike than we think.