other music hyperbole? or are they all that

speaking of esoterica, did you guys know that Focus made a record with P.J. Proby? what a weird world we live in.

https://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13102781_10154768458532137_4653451238411083435_n.jpg?oh=5f00512a44e0dcd92dcdef547b3117f4&oe=57E3F187

Yeah, WMass pizza leaves a lot to be desired...but coming from Chicago, pretty much all east-coast pizza tastes like cardboard to me.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, May 10, 2016 10:16 AM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'd be happy to recommend some NYC spots, but I like fancy pizzas in particular.

― Evan, Tuesday, May 10, 2016 9:28 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hate to drag this thread into the banal, but there is a lot of bad street pizza in NYC today -- I can see someone going into a typical place or even a Ray's and wondering what the fuss is about. You need to hit up a place like Joe's in the West Village for a genuinely good slice, and then there are also lots of great fancy/margherita pizza sit-down type places. The average level of pizza though is pretty bad. Still better than a lot of the US.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN1mKiQbi4g

man alive, I recommend place in Flushing on Roosevelt, right off the 7 train exit at its most Eastern.

i haven't lived somewhere with good pizza since i was a kid in connecticut. i was lucky enough to live in a town with a big Italian population and all the pizza places were run by people who had escaped new york and moved to the country and they all made great pizza. the same was true of Danbury back then too. the last time i went to Modern in New Haven it brought those memories back. so good. not fancy, just awesome. i spent years in bad pizza places. but what the hell there are always trade-offs. it looks like this here!

https://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/l/t1.0-9/13179029_10154764589327137_7586087492182133175_n.jpg?oh=85db4911f1f261d9ee5aad171e01fd92&oe=57A531E9

good clam chowder anyway. and good local kielbasa if that's your thing. lots of old Polish people!

western MA is rad and really the pizza is not abysmal. mimmo's in northampton is better than pretty much any place where i ate growing up in ohio

i lived in wilkes-barre pennsylvania for a year...oof.

magik markers and supreme dicks tomorrow in northampton.

that facebook post seemed like it was getting close to making a point about encroaching monoculture in recorded music (or something)... but in the end all i'm getting out of it is shitty gatekeeperism... not sure i buy the argument that "preview mentality" leads necessarily to dilettantism or less thoughtful/open-minded/rigorous music consumption. needs some words about declining attention spans in this modern age, listicle culture, etc. all the vague consumptive patterns the poster laments as being endangered are still very much alive and in fact more accessible to people who don't live in new york or whatever thanks to the internet.

yes, fuck "preview mentality," god forbid consumers spend their money (which they no doubt have unlimited amounts of) on things they enjoy

what's wrong with dilettantism

like, I read things like "the concept of taking chances as a consumer seemed to diminish greatly" and think "hmm, whatever could have caused this shift in consumer spending behavior? I know, SHEEPLE!"

also, it's entirely possible to discover new sounds, bands and artists via previews, or streaming, or whatever. if the curiosity wasn't there before that's the underlying problem, not the fact that iTunes exists

also talking about an audience for sub-sub-sub-genres that will pretty much always be miniscule...

that facebook post seemed like it was getting close to making a point about encroaching monoculture in recorded music (or something)... but in the end all i'm getting out of it is shitty gatekeeperism... not sure i buy the argument that "preview mentality" leads necessarily to dilettantism or less thoughtful/open-minded/rigorous music consumption. needs some words about declining attention spans in this modern age, listicle culture, etc. all the vague consumptive patterns the poster laments as being endangered are still very much alive and in fact more accessible to people who don't live in new york or whatever thanks to the internet.

― lute bro (brimstead), Tuesday, May 10, 2016 1:56 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otmmmmmmmm

there is nothing wrong with dilettantism

at any rate, well done on a polemic about actually talking to other people about music instead of the insular uncreative internet that ensures that I never, ever want to talk to you, about music or otherwise

(if I actually know this guy then sorry, but this is really not a good look)

No but this is happening right on the heels of apple deleting people's rare mp3s, replacing them with more mainstream tracks of the same name

― Treeship, Tuesday, May 10, 2016 6:27 AM (5 hours ago)

underappreciated treeship posts

ILX response to that fb post is p much 2016 in a nutshell

including the digression into pizza talk

(swallows suicide pill)

Nothing wrong with pizza talk.

i lived in wilkes-barre pennsylvania for a year...oof

I once drove way out of my way to go to old forge, pa (which is more or less in Greater Scranton-Wilkes-Barre) which has its own super special Old Forge style of pizza found there and only there. But it wasn't that good, to be honest.

Other Pizza

maybe an esoteric pizza shop will open where Other Music was.

other pizza x-post!

pizza kinda beats john zorn.

i have no idea what they sold there....

CDs are great for slicing pizza, after all.

No but this is happening right on the heels of apple deleting people's rare mp3s, replacing them with more mainstream tracks of the same name

― Treeship, Tuesday, May 10, 2016 6:27 AM (5 hours ago)

underappreciated treeship posts

― da vinci beaver testicles (contenderizer), Tuesday, May 10, 2016 1:47 PM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tbh i like the black key's carnival of light a lot better

as far as the viewpoints of the FB post and brimstead and katherine's reaction, i guess i don't think it's binary...people always want it to be one or the other....but technological and sociological revolutions don't really work like that, there are both good and bad consequences, new opportunities can be great but they can also result in things of value being lost

if 2016 were characterized by "maybe try not to be a dick and think through the implications of your polemic" it'd be a much better year

esoterica of a used bin-ia

...i'll work on it

show tonight at Replay across the street. I'll be open until 8 in case you need records.

Details
Doors at 7pm Music at 8pm sharp!
Bucket T - Thurston Moore / Conrad Capistran / Willie Lane
Matt Krefting - Matt Krefting
Rump Roast - Adam Langellotti / Shannon Ketch / Ted Lee + Special Guest

Not sure if I can make it, thanks

https://blogthehum.wordpress.com/2016/05/18/not-to-speak-ill-of-the-dead-but-on-the-demise-of-other-music/

which of their top all-time sellers surprise you?

http://www.othermusic.com/blogs/top-sellers

right this second I have no idea who Kruder and Dorfmeister are.

I've never heard K&D, BUT I specifically remember them being huge there. They had the one record that looked like a Simon & Garfunkel album and I remember seeing it there and it being a big thing. Hard to remember Other Music opened during that late 90s illbient electronica era. Not sure I get how something like Nite Jewel could sell more than some of Stereolab's biggest albums though!

Any ideas as to why LCD Soundsystem doesn't show up on that list?

i don't know why i think of other music as being more avant weird or whatever. that list is pretty pitchfork-y. you can totally listen to all that stuff on spotify, no need for a brick & mortar shopping spree.

just a guess, but wouldn't most of that stuff from the 90's have been cheaper at Tower across the street?

My memory is that it wasn't (or I would have been shopping at Tower more, as I was poor and bought a lot of CDs in the 90s, and did go to Tower) but I'm open to correction. OM (and Kim's) had all sorts of strange stuff show up in their used sections: basically people buying something odd, not liking it, returning it, so were a really reliable source of cheap new weird CDs. OM never seemed to have any sort of distinctive aesthetic. They did French pop when everyone else did, etc. In NYC, the 90s stores that actually seemed to have a personality were Downtown Music Gallery and Rockit Scientist, as I recall.

sure they sold plenty of weird stuff, but the broadly popular will always be on the best seller list

deffo on the used sections

I'm surprised that Eureka is on there but not Insignificance or Bad Timing. also, Cobra and Phases but no ETK???

i imagine a lot of the best sellers were things they were able to sell at competitive prices -- i can remember getting matador stuff for pretty cheap there, for example ...

Pitchforkiness wasn't quite a thing yet when a lot of those records were big!

(and Spotify CERTAINLY wasn't)

It was more like Chickfactorness at the time...

i think the only time i was really kinda sad that a record store closed was when 3rd street jazz closed in philly. i loved that place. this article makes me nostalgic cuz they mention jonathan demme. he would come into the corner store i worked at every day when he was filming beloved. i would talk to him about how awesome he was. http://articles.philly.com/1997-12-19/news/25555198_1_stores-jim-donio-vast-musical-knowledge

Also was Tower records stocking labels like Thrill Jockey and Drag City and Touch & Go in the late 90s? I honestly don't remember, but my vague sense is that I would buy major label stuff (except for small label straight-ahead jazz like Blue Note and Riverside) at Tower, and indie stuff at OM, at least in the late 90s/early 00s. I do also remember that later on I copped an attitude that buying the new Bonnie Prince Billy or something was a waste of an OM trip and uncool.

"Pitchforkiness wasn't quite a thing yet when a lot of those records were big!"

there were plenty of proto-pitchfork pioneers in the 90's. believe me.

"Also was Tower records stocking labels like Thrill Jockey and Drag City and Touch & Go in the late 90s?"

most definitely.

Tower was great in the 90's. then it got progressively less great.