By almost all current definitions, emo clothing is characterized by tight jeans on males and females alike, long fringe (bangs) often brushed to one side of the face, dyed black, straightened hair, tight t-shirts which often bear the names of rock bands (or other designed shirts), studded belts, belt buckles, Chuck Taylor All-Stars, skate shoes, or other black shoes—often old and beaten up—and thick, black horn-rimmed glasses.[5][2][6][7][8][9] Emo fashion has changed with time; early trends included haircuts similar to those worn by the Romulans and Vulcans in Star Trek, tightly fitting sweaters, button-down shirts, and work jackets (often called gas station jackets).[6]
I really can't think of a better use for footnotes.
Thirty years ago, everybody thought the future would be horrible in a shadow and steam-vent, post-apocalyptic urban blight, Blade Runner sort of way. Idolator delivers the bad news that the future will indeed be hellish, but more in the way of being locked in a pink-walled room and forced to watch TRL 24 hours a day:
To summarize: In two years, there will be no record stores, nobody will be making any money, and every movie-going experience will be interrupted by teenagers playing full-length Ashley Tisdale songs on their Nokia. Does that count as a depression?
OK, but at least I'll be able to get Dashboard Confessional on my video iPhone, right? Somehow I feel like this is relevant, but damned if I could tell you why.
The video for the new Yeah Yeah Yeah's song, "Down Boy," is up. It's a pretty good video--suitably wild, if a little raw--and a fantastic song. It sticks to the same sort of riff-mad sonic slaying that made their last record so amazing, but totally grits up the production, like the producer turned all the knobs to diiiiirrrrrrty. Watch it:
I have been listening to music.What music, you ask?Well, in a surprisingly well-written review, Pitchfork recommended some flaky French disco duo, Justice, and, remembering how atrocious last year’s number one album pick, The Knife—also in the European electronic vein—was, I decided to check out the train wreck.Guess what? It’s worth listening to, a sort of Williamsburg remix of Nintendo 64 backing tracks into ironic-but-not-exactly-kidding, hot-shit, tight jeans dance record. Don’t believe me? Don’t have a clue what I’m talking about?Yeah, ditto.Fortunately the whole album is online.“Genesis” and “DANCE” are strong, but you will really want to listen to the final track, “Stress.”
The new Queens of the Stone Age, Era Vulgaris, totally brings back 1993, but in a surprisingly not annoying way. (Meaning it's not Audioslave, thank God.) It’s no Songs for the Deaf, mostly because nobody bangs the tubs like Dave Grohl (seriously—dude can pound), but gosh it makes me want to dig out my copy of Alice in Chains’ Dirt and think about moving to Seattle (but ditch the flannel and have awesome biceps). Everybody together now, “Lemme show you the riff to ‘Come as You Are!’”
Minus the Bear is disappointing live, or at least they were last time I saw them at some former Firestone-Tires-turned-club in Orlando, FL.But I got a chance to hear most of their forthcoming record, Planet of Ice, and it’s as spaced-out and sharp as ever; one of the guys in the band used to be in Botch, I think (no, I refuse to look this up; what—it’s not like you don’t have Google yourself), and the band’s technical chops and elegant algebra-core approach makes sure you don’t forget this (presuming, you know, that it’s true). This is what would happen if a bunch of really smart metalheads who also liked U2 and Death Cab for Cutie got together and jammed until it hurt, or maybe if Dillinger Escape Plan started a melodic side project.
While we’re subtracting, I’m still not entirely sure what to think of Minus Story.I usually go for the light and fluffy, pop-tinged indie folk, but My Ion Truss just hasn’t been settling quite right with me.It’s not altogether unpleasant, but so far, it’s one of those dates you don’t mind but at the end, all you think is, “Well, let’s just be friends.” Maybe friends with benefits?
Back to the Fork, they point us toward the new Menomena video, which is rather stunning (see for yourself below). Dig the slow-motion childhood funness! I felt about the same way I feel about Minus Story about Menomena’s first record, I Am the Fun Blame Monster, but I’m pretty certain their latest, Friend and Foe, is my favorite record so far this year.
The best single I’ve heard, though, might be the new Iron & Wine track, “Boy With a Coin.” Everything Iron & Wine has put out is good, but their last album, The Woman King EP, is seriously the best thing since ratty, overgrown full beards, which, for you all hipsters out there sporting the untrimmed-bushes look, Sam Beam like totally invented. Honestly, I’m nearly ready for goatees to come back. Wait, ew. No I’m not.
I've been updating the music post all day, but this deserves a full post. The long-awaited (well, by me, anyway) new Travis Morrison record, All Y'all, has a release date--July, once again on Barsuk--and there are two new songs on his MySpace page (only one of which will appear on the record). The album track is really good. Better, I think, than most anything on his first solo record. Stereogum has a fun interview with Morrison about his day job as a programmer at the Washington Post.
Have you heard the leaked track from the new Interpol album? No? Well, now you have. Pretty great, eh? Our Love to Admire drops on July 10, the same day as other hipster icon Spoon's new disk, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. Don't let the name trouble you, though. I've heard it, and the music is much better than the title--actually their best in years, I'd say.
Addendum: I completely forgot to mention this a few weeks ago, but the new Feist album, The Reminder, is sweet and coy and smart and altogether lovely--pretty much everything a boy could want, I'd say. It's a flirt of an album--equal parts frivolous and secretly melancholy. Pitchfork agrees, although if anything, they underrate it. You'll want to watch the video for single, too; it's not the album's best track (that would be "Sea Lion Woman"), but wow--take look at the choreography in this. I'm (musically) smitten.
Addendum, Again: Holy mid-90s guitar-geekery! The new Smashing Pumpkins song leaked! And man, it's a big fat timewarp to freshman year in high school. Oh lord, this is serious: I have a bizarre urge to drink Surge, watch MTV, and listen to Green Day. Fun fact! Billy Corgan used as many as 24 separate guitar tracks on some songs on Siamese Dream. That's what oh-so-many years of reading friends' subscriptions to Guitar World will get you.
Addendum, More!: Speaking of exuberant choreography and big fat timewarps (via Unfogged):
The whole all-girl thing—it was weird. Here, a girl steps on my toe, apologizes profusely. Elsewhere (like, say, Dan Deacon at the Silent Barn last Saturday), boy elbows me in the face, responds, "Oh well, I'm a douchebag" and turns back around. Here, people used the word "concert" and "club." Elsewhere, this was a "show" and a "gallery." Here, one girl beside me truly thought she was being clever by hollering, "Free Bird." Elsewhere, she would've gotten a beating—and I would've thought about delivering it.
For whatever reason, I did not expect Frog Eyes to be good. But they are!
Meanwhile, Catherine points us to Le Loup, who is also quite good. Am I the last one to realize that there's a new Interpol album coming out?
Update: And this video for "Mistaken For Strangers" by The National is pretty good too, though I might be biased because it makes me feel a little more comfortable about my own thoroughly under-decorated Brooklyn apartment (the video was shot in the BRK pad of the director/singer's brother).
So it sounds like the second Dismemberment Plan show might have been even better than the first. 23 songs! A double encore! I dearly loved the show I got to see, but I'm kinda jealous...
It’s nice to be back in town, which, in comparison to even the most laid-back, residential parts of Brooklyn feels suburban, even Southern, like the sleepy, sunny small-town Florida I grew up in.Cars clutter the roads and most of the city is designed for driving rather than foot traffic.A few months ago, this seemed perfectly normal, a basic convenience, even a right.Now it looks like a luxury.I can see why longtime New Yorkers take issue with car ownership, especially the hulking SUVs that lumber down so many suburban back roads.It’s appalling to the shoe-and-subway ethos of much of New York’s population.It reminds me, in some ways, of the in-the-city snobbery residents inside the District displays toward those in Virginia and Maryland—a combination of genuine pride in one’s city and justification for/reaction to paying higher rents for smaller apartments and higher crime rates.(I run into the same city/boroughs snootiness in New York, of course, but so far it seems less common than similar city/suburb sentiments in D.C.).
This song played at DC9 last night after the Dismemberment Plan show.I guess they knew I was there.
Second reaction, after time for reflection: Yes, still completely awesome. Maybe even more so.
Brief summary: Set was appropriately heavy on tracks from Emergency & I (the band's best and most loved album); all the major songs got played: "Girl O'Clock," "Life of Possibilities," "Time Bomb," "Pay for the Piano," "You are Invited," "Ice of Boston," "Doin' the Standin' Still," "The City," and, of course, the ultimate live indie dance song, "Gets Rich." Ass-shaking galore. Only song I would've liked to see added was the rarity "The First Anniversary of Your Last Phone Call."
As per tradition, the kids crowdedonto the stage for a big happy dance-a-long to "Ice of Boston." Inter-song banter included obligatory (but very worthwhile) thanks to J. Robbins and references to his son's disease as well as discussion (and sampling/sharing!) of "porn cake." This would be a cake with a scantily clad (PG-13) lady on it. No kidding.
Set lasted about 1:40. To sum up: Indie rock + dancing + porn cake = total musical awesomeness. I had a couple of drinks, but the buzz tonight was pure nostalgia for the band that threw the hip-shakinest, most crazy-fun indie rock dance parties in the country for a solid decade. Fun doesn't even begin to cover it.
I'm probably the first conservative pundit ever to have something positive to say about Nine Inch Nails -- but of course, not too positive.
What to make of Trent Reznor?
Since the release of "Pretty Hate Machine" in 1989, Mr. Reznor, the frontman and creative force behind the gloomy techno-rock outfit Nine Inch Nails, has raised hell with parents by serving as an icon to sullen teenagers whose taste in clothes runs to black, black and more black.
With his virulent, profanity-laced tirades against Christianity, suburban conformity and whatever else irritates teen outcasts at any given moment, he has become an established voice of rage for the juvenile and surly, teaching a new generation of rebels how to be "different" (just like all the other "different" youths).
Now he's back again with "Year Zero," another foray into angst and attitude, flipping off and showing off with Bush bashing and religion trashing. It ought to be easy to dismiss Mr. Reznor as no more than another grumbling rocker cashing in on the perpetual disaffection of youth -- except that he also happens to be one of the most uniquely talented musicians in mainstream music.
I don't particularly understand it myself, but the new Modest Mouse album, We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank, is freaking fantastic. I mean, holy crap. Modest Mouse is usually so mediocre...
There are a couple of ways to answer this. First, and most obvious, is "all of them." Having every album at your finger tips ought to be enough, right? Seems self-evident. Maybe it is. More in a moment.
Second, I think you could say that enough is having every album you know you want. It would be a complete collection of all the songs you are conscious of being interested.
To expand that a little, you could also say it's every album you could possibly want. So, I know that I don't like country or dirty South rap, but within the general spheres of music that sometimes have an interest in (all sorts of rock, independent hip hop, jazz, some orchestral music, experimental and electronic music), having every possible album, updated on a rolling basis, might be enough.
Finally, I think you could make the case that it's not possible to have enough, that enough is only achieved when you're completely satisfied with your musical options at any given point--which, at least for a picky, anxious listener like me, is borderline impossible. I have more than 10,000 songs on my harddrive, and I more or less meet the second criteria--having every album I know I want--but I'm still often dissatisfied with my choices. And that's why I'm a restless devourer of new music and music reviews, why it's not abnormal for me to go through more than a dozen new albums in a month, and why I'm pretty much constantly searching for great new music. There's no such thing as enough; there's only temporary satisfaction.
Most of what I wrote here, I should note, holds true with any number of things: movies, books, TV shows, blog posts, magazine and newspaper articles. In the internet age, when content seems to bubble up from the pores of every surface around us, it's easy to become addicted to everything new, to feed on the slough of new content being piped into your cable modem. The cheapness and abundance of it all encourages us to devour more of it more quickly, to be satisfied for shorter and shorter periods, for enough to get, not closer, but further away as we have more.
I know that this makes me look like a completely generic tussle-haired fifteen year old emo-goth, but the new Bright Eyes EP is really, really good. And let me tell you what's even better: the leaked tracks from the new Nine Inch Nails record. Say what you will about Conor Oberst, but the fact remains: He's an incredibly talented songwriter, and his brand of ultra sincere, urban smart-kid folk rock is one of the best things happening in guitar-based rock today. As for Nine Inch Nails, well, Trent Reznor is one of those guys who you don't have to like--no doubt he's abrasive and difficult and off-putting--but he's also pretty much a genius. Quite simply, no one else sounds anything like him. Sure, there are ripoffs aplenty, but not one can summon the utterly enveloping, intricate layers of noise and sound that Reznor puts together, and more importantly -- no one can do it in a way that's also so surprisingly accessible.
And, while we're on the topic of electronic geniuses, I managed to hear an early release of the new El-P album, I'll Sleep When You're Dead. It's higher order geek-thug android hip-hop--as meticulous and insane as his much-hailed Fantastic Damage, which, if you haven't heard... well, just listen to "Fantastic Damage" on MySpace and prepare to have your brain scrambled. As an added electro-genius super bonus, the album has a track with Trent Reznor called "Flyentology." You can hear it, and watch a certifiably nutso Adult Swim-produced video for the track, here.
