the self-hating hipster

Sun Kil Moon – Among the Leaves

Mark Kozelek made his name during the early 90’s as the leading man and singer/songwriter behind Red House Painters. Since the Red House Painters’ disbanding in the late 1990’s, Kozelek has continued to release acclaimed albums under the guise Sun Kil Moon. Kozelek’s latest installment as Sun Kil Moon, Among the Leaves, comes 20 years after the RHP’s epic debut Down Colorful Hill. With the possible exception of the confused Modest Mouse cover album Tiny Cities, he has a critically untarnished record. Sun Kil Moon is Continue reading →

Tags: Admiral Fell Promises, Among the Leaves, boxing, cats and martinis, Down Colorful Hill, Elaine, hipster, Mark Kozelek, Peter Collopy, Red House Painters, Red Poison, Sun Kil Moon, Sung-Kil Moon, Sunshine in Chicago, That Bird Has a Broken Wing, That Was the Greatest Night of My Life, The Moderately Talented Yet Not So Attractive Middle Aged Man, The Winery, Tiny Cities, Track Number 8, UK Blues

Azerrad – Our Band Could Be Your Life

17 May

Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 by Michael Azerrad

Our Band Could Be Your Life is probably the most compelling book on music that I’ve read since Simon Reynolds’ Rip it Up and Start Again. Published in 2001, Michael Azerrad was the first to sing the praises of an era of music largely overlooked: the American independent scene from 1981-1991. Our Band Could Be Your Life documents thirteen bands in particular: Black Flag, The Minutemen, Mission of Burma, Minor Threat, Hüsker Dü, The Replacements, Sonic Youth, Continue reading →

Tags: 3-Way Tie for Last, Atomizer, Bad Moon Rising, Beat Happening, Big Black, Black Flag, Brown Reason to Live, Bug, Bulldozer, Butthole Surfers, Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat, Damaged, Daydream Nation, Death Valley '69, Dinosaur, Dinosaur Jr, DIY, Double Nickles on the Dime, Dreamy, Eight Miles High, Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge, EVOL, Flip Your Wig, Fugazi, Goo, Guy Picciotto, Hairway to Steven, Henry Rollins, hipster, Hootenanny, Husker Du, Ian MacKaye, In My Eyes, indie, International Pop Underground Convention, jam econo, Jamboree, Kill Yr. Idols, Let it Be, Locust Abortion Technician, Margin Walker, Metal Circus, Michael Azerrad, Minor Threat, Mission of Burma, Mudhoney, Nervous Breakdown, Nevermind, New Day Rising, Nirvana, Our Band Could Be Your Life, Out of Step, Paranoid Time, Project: Mersh, Psychic...Powerless...Another Man's Sac, Rembrandt Pussyhorse, Repeater, Rip it Up and Start Again, Seven Songs, Signals Calls and Marches, Simon Reynolds, Sister, Songs About Fucking, Sonic Youth, Sorry Ma Forgot to Take Out the Trash, Steady Diet of Nothing, Superfuzz Bigmuff, Sweet Thing Ain't Sweet No More, The Minutemen, The Replacements, Thurston Moore, Touch Me I'm Sick, Vs., What Makes a Man Start Fires?, You Turn Me On, You're Living All Over Me, Zen Arcade

Passion Pit’s ‘Take A Walk’ Wanders in the Wrong Direction

15 May

Passion Pit’s first LP Manners exploded onto the east coast music scene in 2009. The Kidz Bop electro-twee of Manners is sweet enough to rot teeth at times, but several of the tracks are mercilessly catchy and were played on repeat in my apartment. Passion Pit’s sophomore record Gossamer is due to be released this July but unfortunately, the debut single ‘Take A Walk’ will have fans of Manners and the earlier Chunk of Change EP wanting to do the same.

Passion Pit fell off the musical map for only three years Continue reading →

Tags: Columbia Records, Desaparecidos, Gossamer, hipster, James Blake, Manners, Michael Angelakos, Passion Pit, Take A Walk

Trailer Park Boys at The Egg (5/3/2012)

7 May

When I heard that there was going to be a Trailer Park Boys live show locally at The Egg in Albany, I immediately bought a ticket. Trailer Park Boys is a show that I have been drunkenly plowing through for the past three months. I was unsure as to how Ricky, Julian and Bubbles would pull off a live performance, but I figured that they had a better shot than most television comedians because some of the funniest moments in the show are seemingly off-the-cuff exchanges between characters. I could not have anticipated Continue reading →

Tags: Albany, Bobbing for Turds, Cock Tractor, Cory and Trevor, hippotized, Liquor and Whores, Ricky Julian Bubbles live, The Biggest Party Girl, The Egg, Trailer Park Boys live

Gravenhurst – The Ghost in Daylight

7 May

Bristol’s Nick Talbot has been releasing music as Gravenhurst for over a decade now. That being said, The Ghost in Daylight is his first release in half a decade. Since 2007’s The Western Lands Talbot jettisoned the band that he had toured and recorded with. On The Ghost in Daylight he melds elements of finger-picking folk, shoe gaze and Continue reading →

Tags: All I Need, Blow Up, Bristol, Carousel, Circadian, dream pop, Elliott Smith, Fitzrovia, folk, Gravenhurst, hipster, In Miniature, John Talbot, Kraut rock, Michelangelo Antonioni, Peacock, Radiohead, shoe gaze, The Foundry, The Ghost in Daylight, The Ghost of Saint Paul, The Prize, The Western Lands, Three Fires

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Passion Pit at Northern Lights (4/23/2012)

28 Apr

I was rather looking forward to seeing Passion Pit regardless of the fact that they were playing at Northern Lights on a Monday night. It’s usually okay to show up fashionably late, or just plain late, and not miss much at a Northern Lights show. The doors for this particular event opened at 6:30 Continue reading →

Tags: ape shit, Arms, Chunk of Change, hipster, Little Secrets, Manners, Michael Angelakos, Moth's Wings, Northern Lights, Passion Pit

RIP Levon Helm

21 Apr

This past Tuesday Helm’s wife and daughter asked fans to pray for Levon as he had end-stage cancer. At 1:30pm on Thursday, Levon Helm passed away at age 72.

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A lot of young music enthusiasts go through a classic rock phase when they are younger. You come home from school one day and ask your parents “What did you guys listen to when you were my age?” Continue reading →

Tags: American Son, Bob Dylan, cancer, Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Levon Helm, Midnight Rambles, Ramble at the Ryman, The Band, The Last Waltz, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, Up on Cripple Creek

Clarke – Exley

19 Apr

Exley by Brock Clarke (2010)

“Sometimes you have to tell the truth about some of the stuff that you’ve done so that people will believe you when you tell them the truth about other stuff you haven’t done.”

I read Frederick Exley’s A Fan’s Notes my freshman semester of college at the recommendation of a friendly book dealer. I loved it. After reading Clarke’s “Note From the Author” at the end of Exley, there’s really no wonder. Similar to Clarke (to a lesser, younger extent) who was similar to Exley (to a lesser, younger extent), I was living at home Continue reading →

Tags: A Fan's Notes, Brock Clarke, Exley, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Frederick Exley, hipster, meta-fiction, Miller Le Ray, Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov, Watertown

TOPS – Tender Opposites

17 Apr

TOPS is the Montreal-based foursome of singer/synth Jane Penny, guitarist David Carriere, bassist Tom Gillies and drummer Riley Fleck. Their debut, Tender Opposites, was released in February of this year on Arbutus Records (also home to Grimes). I read only two things prior to hearing this record: 1) The production is similar to “new” Ariel Pink, and 2) TOPS bites a Fleetwood Mac sound, particularly Continue reading →

Tags: Aislers Set, Arbutus Records, Ariel Pink, David Carriere, Diamond Look, Dido, Double Vision, Evening, Fleetwood Mac, Foreigner, Go Away, Grimes, Hall & Oates, hipster, Jane Penny, Pretenders, Riley Fleck, Rings of Saturn, Stevie Nicks, Tender Opposites, Tom Gillies, TOPS, TOPS Theme, Turn Your Love Around, VII Babies

Lotus Plaza – Spooky Action at a Distance

16 Apr

Lotus Plaza is the solo project of Deerhunter guitarist Lockett Pundt. Spooky Action at a Distance is Pundt’s second release after 2009’s very bright but somewhat washed-out debut, The Floodlight Collective. Like Deerhunter frontman and bandmate Bradford Cox did with last year’s Parallax (#2 on my Top 11 Albums of 2011), Lockett Pundt proves once again that members of busy bands can produce wonderful things on their own time. It should also be noted that the outspoken Pundt may be the Continue reading →

Tags: Black Buzz, Bradford Cox, Deerhunter, Dusty Rhodes, Eveningness, hipster, Jesus & Mary Chain, Jet Out of the Tundra, Lockett Pundt, looping guitars, Lotus Plaza, My Bloody Valentine, Parallax, Robert Fripp, shoegaze, Spooky Action at a Distance, Strangers, The American Dream, The Floodlight Collective