My Husband's Stupid Record Collection

adorkability.

that flavorwire article said adorkability.

http://www.remix-ibk.at/image/remix_logo.jpg

Had a look at this blog and the true horror of it isn't really this lady describing punk/new wave greats as "toe tappy" and "peppy" but the realization that 99% of the population would agree and rather read that than any of my late night heavily referenced wordpress posts on the same material

"And who cares if it's "not your thing?"

probably nobody.

"So are a million other things and that's true for everybody."

we are talking about one specific thing on this thread.

"You're not making a criticism with any substance whatsoever."

yeah, you'd have to pay me money or something if you want substance. the word twee is all you're gonna get for free. i'll throw in cutesy too.

also i hate how her husband chimes in at the end of some of the reviews. but i guess that makes it more loveable to some people.

I'm with Scott on this one. This song reminds me of California and surfing, and since we have the windows open and just got ice cream from the ice cream man (choco taco for Alex, chocolate eclair for me...) seems too much like "we had a cupcake party and here are photos" for me to have much interest as a music review.

Sara I mentioned it in the OP. Worst Music Writing thread.

Tbh reading this (or anything) thru a gender politics lens seems like a boring and depressing way to go thru life bt ymmv I guess

yes gender politics lenses suck thank you finally

lol nv i was trying to figure out a response to that ty <3

is the world depressing or is it just these accursed gender politics lenses?

(nb i have not read this woman's blog i am just on the internet right now)

(wearing my gender politics lenses that's why everything looks so boring all the time)

xp

that's 2 of us :D

(actually i read a bit when it started and from title on down, whatever yr opinion, pretending gender isn't in play is...a bit disingenuous, at least)

This is ilx, not the Supreme Court. Why are you being so aggro about scott not liking this woman's blog?

Because his posts are annoying, condescending, and lack substance. I thought I made that clear.

this blog sucks

NV you have a thread dedicated to how bored and depressed you are, bt "lenses" ws an astounding zing, sure

YOU'RE BORING

NV you have a thread dedicated to how bored and depressed you are

― sonic thedgehod (albvivertine), Monday, April 27, 2015 6:35 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you're an asshole

Tbh reading this (or anything) thru a gender politics lens seems like a boring and depressing way to go thru life bt ymmv I guess

worst post of 2015 top candidate right here

congrats on yr first thread albvivertine

Thanks

Had a look at this blog and the true horror of it isn't really this lady describing punk/new wave greats as "toe tappy" and "peppy" but the realization that 99% of the population would agree and rather read that than any of my late night heavily referenced wordpress posts on the same material

― Leonard Pine, Monday, April 27, 2015 5:32 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

normally I'm pretty good at sussing out satire but this post has me stumped

More like 51% of the population ammirite

i love that leonard pine post xp

Is Anthony Fantano the long-lost nephew of Alton Brown? They both grind my gears in the exact same way.

To my shame, I've watched the 1st 30 seconds or so of the Anthony Fantano review of To Pimp a Butterfly more times than I've actually listened to TPAB.

I feel like 70s Woody Allen is more subtle than people are giving credit for.

how does timellison not understand scott at all? I don't get it

although she is not holding a ukelele in any of the pictures i have seen, that's the vibe i get. from the pictures and actually, now that you mention it, the writing. so sue me. it's a uke vibe.

it's true, there is this entire sound/aesthetic that is indie/cute/twee/adorkable that is completely not my thing, and I guess it's fine if it is someone's, but I feel like it's somehow destructive to my own world view! it lacks all the kinds of nuance I am into, and while it is interesting to listen to all records as if they are just kind of some sort of novelty, I can't live that way. so many people take music way too seriously, in so many ways (having a CANON, collecting objects, unquestioningly loving musicians no matter what they release) and that's not really how I approach it, but this is a right-angle approach that isn't about wondering who artists are or digging their works, just kind of assigning a sentiment and moving on

is there any point where the writer actually emotionally reacts to an artist and gets into them?

I read some more of the blog! She liked The Clash and said she'd listen to albums some more. That's something the original run lacked, acknowledgement that this was actually about finding things to listen to again in the future. That's cool.

http://alltherecords.tumblr.com/post/83984052615/black-sabbath-paranoid-1970
http://alltherecords.tumblr.com/post/84084650719/black-sabbath-vol-4-1972
http://alltherecords.tumblr.com/post/84224673809/black-sabbath-s-t-1970

And while I think coke is totally stupid, I’m happy that they’re not actually thanking the Coca-Cola company because that would have been really weird and disheartening and way worse than thanking cocaine.

wow badass

cf. Cheap Trick reviews

there is this entire sound/aesthetic that is indie/cute/twee/adorkable that is completely not my thing,...I feel like it's somehow destructive to my own world view!

has anyone on ilx ever offered a full throated defense of cutesy "adorkable" twee? people here seem consistent in their view that they find this kind of thing nauseating. however, beyond this, there seems to be a lurking suspicion that the sweater vest aesthetic conceals a sinister, reactionary dimension. there was that recent pitchfork piece, "the unbearable whiteness of indie," that charged belle and sebastian and wes anderson with pushing an aesthetic that was prohibitively "white." and it's true: these kinds of things offer the illusion of a "sealed world," where everything is presented just so, and as with any walled garden it's hard to escape the feeling that much is being written out. o'holla here faces a similar double-edged accusation. at one end of things she is criticized for promoting "reactionary gender politics" for reasons that are pretty straightforward. but this accusation is entwined with the observation that she is a "cute" "indie" librarian (no need for scare quotes there - that's her actual job) with an open, candid approach to her material that people have learned to see as false and performative. (cf. "on smarm")

anyway, i think it's interesting that this blog is such a lightning rod. clearly, none of the attacks on her are fair at all, but the semiotics of both the blog and how people have decided to classify it are worth looking at. maybe people don't like that she is approaching the music from this ingenuous perspective, stripping it of its fragile yet elaborate critical context and assimilating it into her own little scrapbook of experiences. maybe this has colonial overtones. finally, i wonder if twee seems more sinister now than it used to because aspects of it have morphed into the almost blatantly fascist "kinfolk" aesthetic.

just want to throw in the words contemporary conformist

has anyone on ilx ever offered a full throated defense of cutesy "adorkable" twee?

iirc nabisco was pro-twee (in & out of ilx)

oh i didn't know he was out

never

I'm joking, Katherine.

my realpost would be "it's a dumb tumblr who cares" but that doesn't really suit the operatic mood of this weirdo thread

it is quite the clown show

http://wiccny.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/cavaleria-Rusticana-pagliacci.jpg

"They dooooon.'t understaaaaaaaaan my fully realised and nuanced Cheap Trick taaaaaaake dowwwwwwwwwnnn....

Katherine!"

at one end of things she is criticized for promoting "reactionary gender politics" for reasons that are pretty straightforward. but this accusation is entwined with the observation that she is a "cute" "indie" librarian (no need for scare quotes there - that's her actual job) with an open, candid approach to her material that people have learned to see as false and performative. (cf. "on smarm")

you're over-reaching and not being entirely accurate in how you are representing what people have said. Nobody on this thread has criticized her, the author, for promoting "reactionary gender politics" -- in fact most of the posters to this thread are taking pains not to make that connection. I think her writing reinforces certain stereotypes and erasures of women as "serious" music fans and participants in weird (for lack of a better term) music communities. And that is my strongest reaction to it, because these are stereotypes I've personally had to deal with.

and I have no idea what you're trying to say with the line:

"an open, candid approach to her material that people have learned to see as false and performative."

Nobody on this thread has criticized her, the author, for promoting "reactionary gender politics" -- in fact most of the posters to this thread are taking pains not to make that connection.

No, but that connection was made, and that criticism was explicit, in several writers' responses when the blog first appeared.

I think her writing reinforces certain stereotypes and erasures of women as "serious" music fans and participants in weird (for lack of a better term) music communities.

I disagree, primarily because of a lack of evidence. I have not seen any writing about this blog that boils down to, "See, women don't really like music, and this blog proves it!" It's always third-hand, projected female opinions of what some imagined caveman sexist music bro somewhere might be thinking. It's female music writers tearing down a woman writing about music because they feel like she's making them look bad in front of men...when no men have actually had the response the women are complaining about/warning of.

t's female music writers tearing down a woman writing about music because they feel like she's making them look bad in front of men...

this is projection, btw

xp sarahell, i was definitely overreaching, and it was kind of shitty of me to spin things people said here into this larger meta-analysis. the stereotype reinforcement element of the blog is pretty clear to me; i guess my only reservation would be assigning responsibility for this to the author. but my post was mostly interested in whether there was some subliminal political reason for people's resistance to the cutesy indie aesthetic -- like when scott said that he saw a lot of people who looked like this woman, and that this was fine!, but still...

This thread.

my friends' stupid quip collection.

It's female music writers tearing down a woman writing about music because they feel like she's making them look bad in front of men...

this is projection, btw

iirc some of the early criticism (on twitter and our worst music writing thread) came out of a bunch of men sharing/liking the blog in a "This is how chicks think about music" way