The news of Whitney Houston’s untimely death happened to come as a facebook update in the middle of my trying to explain to my girlfriend the importance of the grandfathers of electronic music, Kraftwerk, and so I could not believe the coincidence in one of my friends posting this minutes later. It is a Richard X remix of Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” and Continue reading
It’s rare that something I saw on a friend’s Facebook status would compel me so far as to write a post about it. The status in question, among other things, touched on whether or not people still care about Radiohead. Yes, that Radiohead. The one with the skipping, prancing, manic ball of ??? for a lead singer, the one with the spaced-out composer of a lead guitar player, not to mention an underrated drummer. While this is less a question about their earlier material, to what is the appropriate response to the band now that it really feels like there is nothing left.
I was at a wine tasting over the weekend. That sentence is a lot less cool than it sounded in my brain, but nevertheless, Continue reading
Of Montreal is a band that I sort of lost track of after 2007’s Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? From what I’ve heard of the three albums since then, Skeletal Lamping, False Priest and this year’s Paralytic Stalks, I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing.
I am a huge fan of some of Of Montreal’s earlier 2nd gen. Elephant 6 work: Cherry Peel, The Gay Parade, Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies and Aldhils Arboretum. My favorite Of Montreal album to date is Continue reading
Air took us to the moon with their first LP, Moon Safari, and 14 years later they bring us back with Le Voyage Dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon).
I knew the title sounded familiar and it wasn’t until I saw the cover that I remembered my History of Film course in college. Le Voyage Dans la Lune (which can be seen here in its entirety, and it’s all of 13 minutes long so I highly encourage you to watch it) is an early, groundbreaking film directed by the ingenious Georges Méliès in 1902. Méliès was a French illusionist that arguably invented special effects with his “camera tricks,” mat shots, stop action, etc…
Air’s music has often been referred to as “cinematic,” Continue reading
Sharon Van Etten’s third album, Tramp, is an extremely introspective and emotional record. Have you ever walked in on somebody crying their heart out to a close friend of theirs? Instead of the “get the hell out of here!” teary-eyed look one would expect, Van Etten’s raspy yet soothing hum, akin to Kathleen Edward’s folkier acoustic work, welcomes the listener in as if to say “I don’t mind bearing my soul to a total stranger.” The album parks the listener Continue reading
Every time I listen to Government Commisions (Mogwai’s collection of live recordings from the BBC) I get the same feeling. Radio 1 DJ John Peel introduces them in a minimalist, but succinct and no-nonsense way: “Ladies and gentlemen… Mogwai.” My heart starts beating faster, breath shorter. I can feel the little hairs in my ears and the small brittle bones in my eardrum perking up in anticipation. Mogwai.
It all begins and ends with Mogwai. In a mere moment Continue reading
Guided by Voices is a band that you may know by name but have never listened to. If that’s the case, this article will hopefully warrant a listen. I myself hadn’t listened to GBV until a few years back outside of a few tracks of theirs I had on a Matador Records sampler. Since then, they have become my most listened to artist according to last.fm, surpassing Beat Happening and Joy Division a few days ago thanks to my non-stop research over the past week. I wouldn’t consider Guided by Voices my favorite band, but there are reasons why I’ve listened to them as much as I have… Continue reading
Guided by Voices is a band that I didn’t start listening to until about two years ago. Since then, they have become one of my top 5 most listened to artists. Hearing of a new LP to be released on January 16, 2012 had me revved up for two reasons: 1) frontman Robert Pollard had officially disbanded Guided by Voices in 2004, and 2) the new LP, Let’s Go Eat the Factory, was to include the most celebrated GBV roster of Robert Pollard, Tobin Sprout, Greg Demos, Mitch Mitchell and Kevin Fennell who hadn’t played or recorded together since 1996 when Pollard reportedly fired the rest of his bandmates after a falling out with Sprout. Continue reading
As promised, below you will find the Self-Hating Hipster’s T0p 51 Tracks of 2011 thanks to a scramble at my lake house, indirectly motivated by six girls working on their Masters theses. I actually mistakenly published the article about a week ago but quickly made it “Private” so as not to give you readers a glimpse of the SHH in his article underpants. I didn’t realize (stoopit!) what a massive undertaking this article would prove to be as a solo project. I know it’s too late, but I’m hoping that you don’t find it to be too little. I’ve been really busy with my job lately, and in the words of Garth Marenghi, “I’m not Jesus Christ…I’ve come to accept that now.”
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51. Fucked Up – “Queen of Hearts”
David Comes to Life
Fucked Up adds a cute, poppy flare to post-hardcore as evidenced by “Queen of Hearts.”
“Hello, my name is David!” Hi, David. “Let’s be together! Let’s fall in love!”
Stop yelling, David. Continue reading
I consider Russian Circles to be the post-rock band that people who like classical music might be down with. Not because there is an overwhelming use of orchestral pieces or anything, but because there is beauty in every fucking detail. Every sound you hear blowing through your headphones was carefully constructed and recorded to have that very effect. There is nothing that is left up to chance and Continue reading
the self-hating hipster 