Let’s just get this out of the way — I’m a huge fan of Spotify. Along with plenty of other folks, it’s helped provide a legal gateway for me to explore new music and expedite my workday. Outside of their coupled ambition with Facebook to create the world’s nosiest interface, Spotify’s services, both complimentary and premium, are great.
As of now they are currently averaging 8,000 new users daily, surpassing both Netflix and Sirius FM.
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I remember reading an interview with R.E.M. sometime during the 90s praising the endless merits of Big Star, but by that point I was too engulfed in Los Angles punk rock from the previous decade to put energy into seeking out any of their records.
My first real exposure to Big Star, like so many others, started with The Replacements. At that point in my life I was listening to a lot music from the 70s and early 80s: Thin Lizzy, Television, Elvis Costello and, of course, The Replacements. Falling in love with Alex Chilton lead me to Big Star and to picking up #1 Record/Radio City. Those albums look and feel like the 70s to me; full of great songs that have a certain buoyancy that so many bands from that era lacked.
“You Get What You Deserve” is one of my favorite Big Star songs, and one my favorite songs in general. Over the years I’ve included on it countless mixes and playlists. The 2009 box set, Keep An Eye On The Sky, has two versions — both equally great, but this demo version exhibits just the kind of grace that made me fall for them the first time around.
Fashion is what seems beautiful now but looks ugly later;
Art can be ugly at first but it becomes beautiful later.
Steve Jobs
[Via Owen Renn]
I’m guessing no one ever anticipated a video game inspired by a book that’s kept Brooks Brothers in business for years.
John Steinbeck is hands down one my favorite authors and a personal hero. He is the ubiquitous American writer — unlike Don Delillo, Norman Mailer or Thomas Pynchon, he is someone often associated with high school curriculum (e.g., The Grapes Of Wrath, The Pearl, etc), and even more recently with Oprah’s book club, an undeserved fate at best.
In this collection, Steinbeck: A Life In Letters, he addresses a myriad of topics in letters written to family, friends and colleagues. His letter addressed to his son, Thom, on matters of love and patience is well worth the read.
I’m normally opposed to bands with names like this on pragmatic level; the name sounds like either: A) a band with three superfluous members playing triangles and pretending to like R&B, or B) the reality that combining animal names has been passé for quite sometime, causing the band to name themselves after arbitrary household items. That being said, First Aid Kit apparently covered a Fleet Foxes track a few years back and Hypemachine, amongst others told us we should care. Either way, being late to the game is fine by me, and this track spiked my interest enough to check them out.
Their new record, The Lion’s Roar, drops Tuesday, January 24th. We should all pick it up.
Balmorhea make music that sounds like it was made for a different time or place. I doubt I’ve spent half as much time listening to a single band in the last two years as I have listening to Balmorhea. All is Wild, All is Silent and Constellations both see almost daily rotation for me, and deservingly so. This yet-to-be titled track is live, no over-dubs; showcasing the band’s multi-instrumental capacity and dexterity as a live band.
NPR’s First Listen is streaming the new Craig Finn album here.
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Lookout!’s demise has been a long time coming. Losing Green Day’s back catalog, signing a lot of shitty bands, both pre and post-Ted Leo, but Lookout! was a great label and made a huge impact on me as a teenager in the 90s. Screech Weasel’s, My Brain Hurts, was the first piece of vinyl I ever bought myself. The later years were without question suspect, but the label’s impact and assistance in mainstreaming punk rock in the 90s is undeniable.
Here’s an excellent collection of predictions from The Ladies Home Journal in December of 1900 for the year 2000.
