I'm here, too: http://breeawn.tumblr.com/
Follow both? Because I'm a pain in the ass like that.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Saturday, April 18, 2009
My Ode To Record Store Day
It's been a long time since I've had my world rocked by an album.
I think the last one was Pinkerton by Weezer. I think that was the last whole album to rock my world. Since then, it's been artists. Songs. Fragments. Which is probably par for the course, due to the state of the industry. iTunes has a way of dismembering albums. We have a way of buying into the system. Artists have a way of letting the system drive the art they create.
I recognize it. I know why things are the way they are. I'm not (really) shaking a fist at the industry because it's always been kind of set up to fail. And the fact that it's currently in shambles has allowed for this current state of affairs. The music industry, as a whole, is in this pretty amazing flux. Artists are building their own (legitimate!) careers and fan bases. Music blogs have become the new A&R guys. Print magazines don't really know what the fuck they're doing anymore (and neither do I. Don't think I am disillusioned enough to think I have this madness all figured out, either).
It's all pretty incredible, especially to see it in a firsthand(ish) sort of way.
Good or bad, the music industry has become a place that isn't all too kind to albums anymore. Rather than telling a whole story, it seems as if the artist is just trying to sell you five singles. The rest of the album is filled with the tracks you skip or just never buy.
Pinkerton is a whole album.
The biggest Weezer argument seems to be the Blue versus Pink album argument. Blue has some really strong singles, but if you want a full album, you're a Pink fan.
I'm a Pink fan. If a band can sell me on one entire album, I'm in. For life. Even if their follow-up efforts are really tragic. (I'll save my dignity by saving you from reading that list--some people would say Weezer is actually at the top of that list. Bastards.)
Because I was late, I didn't hear Pinkerton until 2005. Nine years after its release. (I got Make Believe and Pinkerton the same week.)
So it's been a long four years since I've played an entire album on repeat out of necessity and not because I simply didn't have anything else to listen to that week.
Bitte Orca. Dirty Projectors.
To tell you how I heard about them is embarrassing. Let's just say: it's really beneficial to, uh... pay attention.
The first time I heard "Stillness Is the Move," I thought it was weird, disjointed, thoughtless noise. I thought, "Really? This?!" But for some reason, I kept returning to it. And now every time I listen to it, I love it more.
David Longstreth knows how to make my mind explode. My brain gets knocked sideways every time the drums turn to fireworks in the chorus of "Temecula Sunrise."
"Stillness Is the Move" is no longer thoughtless noise but brilliant and textured.
And please don't even ask me to discuss the genius of "Useful Chamber" or the strange elegance of "No Intention."
Discussing this album is like having a Yale student read one of my articles--which maybe makes sense because Lonstreth is a Yale dropout. The album is bigger than my writing. I'm intimidated by it.
Like with most Weezer music (but to a much more severe extreme), I didn't like this album at all. It was too far from my comfort zone. It didn't make sense. But it kept me curious enough to keep coming back to it. And now I'm finding the intellect in its disjointed melodies and overall strangeness.
I feel like I have to earn it. I have to put an effort into hearing it and I have to find ways to force it to find its place in my mind.
You like the feeling of Saturday. You love the danger in the night.
Though I want everyone to listen to it Bitte Orca and love it in the way that I do, I know they probably won't, so I recommend the album by prefacing my recommendation with, "It's weird, but I love it." And if you listen only to the radio and are happy with that, I should've told you to stop reading before you even began.
This is the first music I've heard since the inception of the website that hasn't played by the rules just to get writers to say nice things about it. In other music, the intentions bleed through the art and the desperation is blatant and pathetic. "I'm exactly what you want me to be! I sound exactly like everything you love. I can change for you." It's really bad. This is the first album I've heard in years that doesn't seem to give a fuck. It was the first time an album has been honest enough to give me an option, either way. So I explored both extremes and the album got its way in the end: I love it.
Bitte Orca will be out June 9th.
Maybe by then I'll be able to discuss it in an intelligent and eloquent way.
(Advance copies are the shit.)
Happy Record Store Day.
I think the last one was Pinkerton by Weezer. I think that was the last whole album to rock my world. Since then, it's been artists. Songs. Fragments. Which is probably par for the course, due to the state of the industry. iTunes has a way of dismembering albums. We have a way of buying into the system. Artists have a way of letting the system drive the art they create.
I recognize it. I know why things are the way they are. I'm not (really) shaking a fist at the industry because it's always been kind of set up to fail. And the fact that it's currently in shambles has allowed for this current state of affairs. The music industry, as a whole, is in this pretty amazing flux. Artists are building their own (legitimate!) careers and fan bases. Music blogs have become the new A&R guys. Print magazines don't really know what the fuck they're doing anymore (and neither do I. Don't think I am disillusioned enough to think I have this madness all figured out, either).
It's all pretty incredible, especially to see it in a firsthand(ish) sort of way.
Good or bad, the music industry has become a place that isn't all too kind to albums anymore. Rather than telling a whole story, it seems as if the artist is just trying to sell you five singles. The rest of the album is filled with the tracks you skip or just never buy.
Pinkerton is a whole album.
The biggest Weezer argument seems to be the Blue versus Pink album argument. Blue has some really strong singles, but if you want a full album, you're a Pink fan.
I'm a Pink fan. If a band can sell me on one entire album, I'm in. For life. Even if their follow-up efforts are really tragic. (I'll save my dignity by saving you from reading that list--some people would say Weezer is actually at the top of that list. Bastards.)
Because I was late, I didn't hear Pinkerton until 2005. Nine years after its release. (I got Make Believe and Pinkerton the same week.)
So it's been a long four years since I've played an entire album on repeat out of necessity and not because I simply didn't have anything else to listen to that week.
Bitte Orca. Dirty Projectors.
To tell you how I heard about them is embarrassing. Let's just say: it's really beneficial to, uh... pay attention.
The first time I heard "Stillness Is the Move," I thought it was weird, disjointed, thoughtless noise. I thought, "Really? This?!" But for some reason, I kept returning to it. And now every time I listen to it, I love it more.
David Longstreth knows how to make my mind explode. My brain gets knocked sideways every time the drums turn to fireworks in the chorus of "Temecula Sunrise."
"Stillness Is the Move" is no longer thoughtless noise but brilliant and textured.
And please don't even ask me to discuss the genius of "Useful Chamber" or the strange elegance of "No Intention."
Discussing this album is like having a Yale student read one of my articles--which maybe makes sense because Lonstreth is a Yale dropout. The album is bigger than my writing. I'm intimidated by it.
Like with most Weezer music (but to a much more severe extreme), I didn't like this album at all. It was too far from my comfort zone. It didn't make sense. But it kept me curious enough to keep coming back to it. And now I'm finding the intellect in its disjointed melodies and overall strangeness.
I feel like I have to earn it. I have to put an effort into hearing it and I have to find ways to force it to find its place in my mind.
You like the feeling of Saturday. You love the danger in the night.
Though I want everyone to listen to it Bitte Orca and love it in the way that I do, I know they probably won't, so I recommend the album by prefacing my recommendation with, "It's weird, but I love it." And if you listen only to the radio and are happy with that, I should've told you to stop reading before you even began.
This is the first music I've heard since the inception of the website that hasn't played by the rules just to get writers to say nice things about it. In other music, the intentions bleed through the art and the desperation is blatant and pathetic. "I'm exactly what you want me to be! I sound exactly like everything you love. I can change for you." It's really bad. This is the first album I've heard in years that doesn't seem to give a fuck. It was the first time an album has been honest enough to give me an option, either way. So I explored both extremes and the album got its way in the end: I love it.
Bitte Orca will be out June 9th.
Maybe by then I'll be able to discuss it in an intelligent and eloquent way.
(Advance copies are the shit.)
Happy Record Store Day.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Insomnia-ia-ia.
If I'm going to be online, this is the last thing I should be doing. Well, this and say, Bejeweled or some nonsense.
I have a ton of stuff to be writing. And I have to code two sections for the website, one of which broke the website into a million tiny pieces which I just spent the last five hours picking up and gluing back together.
Yeah.
Fuck that.
Just two things, though:
1. I can't quit.
In terms of vices, I don't have an addictive personality. But I can't walk away from a project. I can throw my hands up 12 times in just as many minutes and half-convince myself that I need to walk away, but I will sit at the computer for five very long fucking hours piecing a website back together when I have no idea what the hell I'm doing.
Wordpress tutorials, I owe you my firstborn.
2. I made a list of everything that I need to think about, be aware of, and be careful to not forget about during the next month.
The list is two pages long. With notes in the margins. And that was just off the top of my head.
Emails, CDs, moving information, bill information, shit to write about, things to update, people to contact, travel plans, interview questions, names, dates...
It's a good sign. If I had to be this busy doing someone else's work and sitting in a cubicle all day, I'd crack down the middle.
But for some reason, the list made me kinda sad. Then that made me feel guilty.
I need to go to bed. While I'm crawling around in my head like a meth fiend, normal people are sleeping.
I should look into it.
I have a ton of stuff to be writing. And I have to code two sections for the website, one of which broke the website into a million tiny pieces which I just spent the last five hours picking up and gluing back together.
Yeah.
Fuck that.
Just two things, though:
1. I can't quit.
In terms of vices, I don't have an addictive personality. But I can't walk away from a project. I can throw my hands up 12 times in just as many minutes and half-convince myself that I need to walk away, but I will sit at the computer for five very long fucking hours piecing a website back together when I have no idea what the hell I'm doing.
Wordpress tutorials, I owe you my firstborn.
2. I made a list of everything that I need to think about, be aware of, and be careful to not forget about during the next month.
The list is two pages long. With notes in the margins. And that was just off the top of my head.
Emails, CDs, moving information, bill information, shit to write about, things to update, people to contact, travel plans, interview questions, names, dates...
It's a good sign. If I had to be this busy doing someone else's work and sitting in a cubicle all day, I'd crack down the middle.
But for some reason, the list made me kinda sad. Then that made me feel guilty.
I need to go to bed. While I'm crawling around in my head like a meth fiend, normal people are sleeping.
I should look into it.
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