agree. compared to that telegraph britpop thing it's a shining voice of reason. also have to give props for juxtaposing darkthrone with ace of base in 10 and 9.
― now I'm the grandfather (dog latin), Thursday, 22 May 2014 08:15 (ten years ago) link
i think AG is like a vietnam vet he has flashbacks and freaks out at any mention of britpop
― dollar rave club (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 22 May 2014 16:51 (ten years ago) link
1994 was pretty sweet and there's plenty of good music mentioned but citing Counting Crows and Cranberries as evidence in your favor is odd.
― christmas candy bar (al leong), Thursday, 22 May 2014 16:55 (ten years ago) link
I dont like posting negative things, but i cant not post this - this is just jaw droppingly wrong and stupid, delivered with the authority of the expert who really has not the first clue. Each wrong headed assumption resting on another, this is easily the worst review ive ever read.
http://thequietus.com/articles/14332-various-hardcore-traxx-dance-mania-records-1986-1997-review
― anvil, Sunday, 25 May 2014 06:19 (ten years ago) link
http://i491.photobucket.com/albums/rr277/kadield/KickDog.gif
― Groovy Wordbender (soref), Sunday, 25 May 2014 09:12 (ten years ago) link
An inherent problem with dance retrospectives is that unless you already happen to have a vested nostalgic or archival interest in the era, it can be hard to find reasons to dip in. While it's not unusual for new ears to get turned on to latter-day rock and pop via oldies radio, compilations and the like, the forward thrust of electronic music leaves a scorched trail that proves tricky to travel back down. Dance fans are not expected to know their history.
lmao what
― My god. Pure ideology. (ey), Sunday, 25 May 2014 09:26 (ten years ago) link
its every line as well of it, you cant even isolate just one line. So authoritatively and definitely delivered! To be so sure, when you have so little clue
― anvil, Sunday, 25 May 2014 09:34 (ten years ago) link
But did you like my other reviews, anvil?
― now I'm the grandfather (dog latin), Sunday, 25 May 2014 10:45 (ten years ago) link
Reminds me of this classic Momus review:
"... this capsule encyclopaedia entry for Charlie Parker at first seems a model of lucidity and concision. Its air of infallible authority, though, is only skin-deep. I just don't accept that Parker's main contribution is in having shifted jazz from 'arpeggionic flurries' to 'chromatisism', and it doesn't help that one of those terms is mis-spelled and the other made up. There's nothing worse than authority trying to blind the reader with science which turns out, on closer inspection, to be voodoo."
― Sausage Party (Bob Six), Sunday, 25 May 2014 10:54 (ten years ago) link
This thread isn't for posting every article that you disagree with.
― dollar rave club (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 25 May 2014 11:19 (ten years ago) link
It's not like the issue is the writer's Controversial Opinions, it's that...he appears to not know very much about what he is writing about.
I mean there are a bunch of downright factual inaccuracies all over it.
― My god. Pure ideology. (ey), Sunday, 25 May 2014 11:34 (ten years ago) link
Well you can ask him, he's right here
― dollar rave club (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 25 May 2014 11:36 (ten years ago) link
I ain't getting into the mix of uk folx arguing dance stuff
I'd have thought that the thread where anvil and I were originally disagreeing about dance music two days ago would have been a better place to repost that. But I guess this thread has more prominence on ILM so I get why he put it here.
― now I'm the grandfather (dog latin), Sunday, 25 May 2014 11:45 (ten years ago) link
1,500 words on "blog rock"? Can do!http://grantland.com/features/blog-rock-clap-your-hands-say-yeah/
― Angkor Waht (Neil S), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 08:38 (ten years ago) link
1,500 good, thoughtful, interesting words imo. This thread needs to get back to baffling, barely literate garbage and clueless rockist trolling.
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 12:57 (ten years ago) link
yeah fair enough, it's not so much the quality of the writing as the topic that made me raise my eyebrows. Carry on!
― Angkor Waht (Neil S), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 13:00 (ten years ago) link
hyden is garbage but i admit i didn't get past the first paragraph on that one
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 13:03 (ten years ago) link
he's a half-decent feature writer but he might be the worst critic out there
― call all destroyer, Wednesday, 28 May 2014 13:12 (ten years ago) link
half of that piece was about him trying to remember where he was the first time he heard tapes n' tapes, it was painful
I don't understand the case against Hyden. Garbage how?
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 13:20 (ten years ago) link
― call all destroyer, Wednesday, May 28, 2014 9:12 AM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
That's half of all his pieces. His excruciating R.E.M. series on the AV Club was 60% where he was when Michael Stipe first started enunciating.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 13:28 (ten years ago) link
If critics were sportswriters, Hyden would be the Bill Simmons.Douglas Wolk=Matt Hinton etc.
― campreverb, Wednesday, 28 May 2014 15:38 (ten years ago) link
I've not read anything else by Hynden but his REM series was a good read I thought, mapping the ups and downs of being an REM fan in a way that chimed with my own experiences (and I'm sure many other readers'). I'm not always a fan of the anecdotal approach - that Colin Meloy Replacement books is a snooze and Nick Hornby's 31 Songs is the pits - but this worked well. And it's not like the piece lacked solid critical analysis either.
― Poor.Old.Tired.Horse. (Stew), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 16:07 (ten years ago) link
reading other people opine/narrate/write long form articles about their own taste is unbelievably boring to meit seems like a poor replacement for conversation too. that's what it sounds like -- a one-sided conversation. would prefer not to read that tbh.
― La Lechera, Wednesday, 28 May 2014 16:19 (ten years ago) link
i didn't mean that to sound so severe -- just that i would rather read music writing that is informative in a way that i can use. i'm sure the personal narrative serves a purpose for the people who read and write them.
― La Lechera, Wednesday, 28 May 2014 16:26 (ten years ago) link
his "critical analysis" tends toward the obvious and unnecessary, and his voice is so dull, his sentences so whatever, and always on some straight white guy rock bullshit
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 16:26 (ten years ago) link
Fair enough, but the 60% 'where I was when x happened' thing is way off. Revisiting the pieces, they're not particularly excitingly written, but they're solid enough, and do a decent job of contextualising the albums. Not a patch of Matthew Perpetua's Pop Songs project, granted, but hardly a candidate for 'worst writing ever'.
― Poor.Old.Tired.Horse. (Stew), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 16:32 (ten years ago) link
mapping the ups and downs of being an REM fan in a way that chimed with my own experiences (and I'm sure many other readers').
It did this for me too, and his experiences didn't strike me as particularly unique or noteworthy; but more to the point, he apparently made no attempt to relate or frame those experiences in a halfway interesting way.
Also, BradNelson OTM.
(and tbf, I wouldn't call his stuff the worst ever...maybe just profoundly unnecessary)
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 16:37 (ten years ago) link
lol you bringing up perp condemned him worse than i could
xpost
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 16:39 (ten years ago) link
how are you defining "straight white guy rock bullshit" in this context, Brad?
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 16:40 (ten years ago) link
lazily
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 16:41 (ten years ago) link
one of his recent grantland thinkpieces wondered for a million words whether coldplay were underrated, overrated, or properly rated
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 16:42 (ten years ago) link
he did one for pearl jam too. i literally cannot think of a worse format for criticism.
― call all destroyer, Wednesday, 28 May 2014 16:46 (ten years ago) link
Just saying for the record that I find Hyden more thoughtful and eloquent than most of the critics out there and I don't really get what Brad's talking about.
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 16:47 (ten years ago) link
i guess i mean he approaches varieties of pop from a perspective thoroughly dyed by rock, or you know, like someone who wrote an interminable history of '90s alt rock for the av club
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 16:49 (ten years ago) link
it's cool i'm obviously just mad about how boring he is
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 16:50 (ten years ago) link
let's say you've been assigned to write a piece about blog rock. ok, not the best assignment, but you could make the most of it. would you let this be your actual critical take on voxtrot?
Now that I have heard several Voxtrot songs, I can confirm that this band is pretty OK and very blog-rocky. Imagine if the Smiths sounded exactly like a Smiths-like band from 20 years earlier, but never made a record as great as The Queen Is Dead that would influence Smiths-like bands 20 years in the future, and you have Voxtrot.
would you find it hilarious/clever to admit that you have only heard one song from the tapes 'n tapes album?
I remember quite liking The Loon’s opening track, “Just Drums.”2 The rhythm guitar part was excellent, the bass was rubbery, and the drum solo in the middle was triumphantly competent. I liked “Just Drums” so much that I don’t think I ever played the rest of the record. No, sir, I was fine with just “Just Drums,” thanks.
would you bore ppl by writing things like this?
For instance, I remember being really excited when I came across the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah album while perusing a CD jukebox at a bar in Madison, Wisconsin. And if you can come up with a blog-rockier sentence than that, I will send you the entire Annuals discography.
it's this voice he uses, sort of a lazy/detached internet commentator type of writing combined with endless amounts of first-person that make me wonder if he even likes writing music criticism.
― call all destroyer, Wednesday, 28 May 2014 16:58 (ten years ago) link
The rhythm guitar part was excellent, the bass was rubbery
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 16:59 (ten years ago) link
the turkey was chewy
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 17:00 (ten years ago) link
listening tapes 'n tapes song is hilarious, not very clever tho
― macklin' rosie (crüt), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 17:01 (ten years ago) link
http://www.syracuse.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2014/05/5_reasons_we_love_to_hate_dave_matthews_band.html#incart_m-rpt-2
comment section is unbelievable
― the portentous pepper (govern yourself accordingly), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 17:13 (ten years ago) link
too much time on ilx
― Look at this joke I've recognised, do you recognise it as well? (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 17:15 (ten years ago) link
imo we should all just read books and never the internet again
― ian, Wednesday, 28 May 2014 17:17 (ten years ago) link
^^truth bomb
― Pentatonic's Rendezvous Band (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 17:23 (ten years ago) link
i'm reading this right now. dude is opinionated as fuck! fuck you, bitch, jackie and roy rule!!
http://www.amazon.com/Biographical-Guide-Great-Jazz-Singers/dp/0375421491
― scott seward, Wednesday, 28 May 2014 17:31 (ten years ago) link
tapes 'n tapes
they are a real band? I thought markers made them up
― ۩, Wednesday, 28 May 2014 17:33 (ten years ago) link
A Guide To Great Jazz Singers should be one of those joke books where all the pages are blank.
― Humorist (horse) (誤訳侮辱), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 17:33 (ten years ago) link
great record
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so-nEdceows
― saer, Wednesday, 28 May 2014 21:57 (ten years ago) link
I know that Ziggy Stardust was like one of David Bowie’s personas, right? I’m digging the cover of this album, he’s standing next to a bunch of garbage with his guitar and wearing an amazing jumpsuit (which kind of gives him a FUPA on the back cover.) The lighting is dim, it looks like it just rained. I think this record is trying to tell me a story. I’m finding the second half of the name of the album a little cumbersome. “And the spiders from Mars.” Wouldn’t it be better just to call it “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust?” Doesn’t everyone always just refer to this album as Ziggy Stardust? No one ever mentions the spiders from Mars, but maybe I’ll feel differently after hearing this album, as I’ve never listened to it! The bottom right hand corner of the back cover says “To be played at maximum volume,” which I appreciate. I like little details like that that make you feel like the artist or the band are talking directly to you, the fan. I don’t know if he thought about it with that much detail, but I’d like to picture David Bowie thinking about some kid sitting in their bedroom in 1972, staring at the picture of him kind of looking androgynous and daring, and calling himself Ziggy Stardust and deciding, “I better tell them to play this at maximum volume, because they need that advice.
― go to evangelical agonizing eternal hell (Karl Malone), Thursday, 29 May 2014 22:59 (nine years ago) link