Thursday, July 13, 2006

What IS in it for me?

Apparently I need to blog more. A keen audience awaits. Who am I to disappoint?



AMY MUTHERFUCKIN DIAMOND. Everyone's favorite 13 (now 14) year old Swedish pop sensation is back with a new album Still Me Still Now. Even Stylus is pumped, but bloody hell it's hard getting a hold of it. I've been unsuccessful tracking down a good torrent for it so far, and soulseek is coming up with bollocks, but thankfully there's myspace--ugly, ugly myspace. Why is something so poorly designed so popular? I don't know, but Amy's myspace page has four new tracks for download (not just streaming, score!). Pick of the litter is probably "My name is love" whose chorus is really uplifting and airy in the way only Swedish pop sung by teenage girls can be; the chorus has this really classic, ageless vibe to it, like it could have come from anytime from the 50's to now. Lovely. Also good is "Don't Cry your Heart Out" which is probably most reminiscent of Diamond's ABSOLUTE BOMB "What's in it for me?" from her first album (which if you haven't heard SHAME ON YOU! go here and watch the video for it and then download it when I post it this evening). The lyrics for "Big Guns" are also ace. Pre-teen politix rox!

In other music news (I think I'll post something non-music-y this evening) I was really impressed with this review of Peaches' new album. It's crazy the way a well written review can pique my interest far more than a high mark for an album can. Pitchfork gets shit on in a lot of places for being an indie-nerdish, knowitall bunch of "cool" gatekeepers, able to make or break a band with a single review. There is certainly some truth to this (The Arcade Fire would pretty much not even exist without Pitchfork), but thankfully Pitchfork has now expanded into such an all consuming beast of internet music criticism, that beneath the surface of pretentious reviews of generic indie-rock bands there's actually a very good site about alternative musics. They now employ about a half-dozen of the best writers around, guys like Tim Finney, Phil Sherburne, Jess Harvell and Nistsuh Abebe (among others...might be more than 6 people really), writing about techno, house, grime, dubstep, dancehall and all sorts of other interesting little nooks in crannies of the music world. Just ignore the indie rock :)


(Note to self: these days you seem to know as much about the music critics as the people making music. Is this weird?)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

(Note to self: these days you seem to know as much about the music critics as the people making music. Is this weird?)

yes.

Anonymous said...

Also, am I the only one who finds your infatuation with a 13 year old girl disturbing? Particularly given that you both have a similar gap-tooth thing going on...

I think that's enough "candy" for you!

turtles said...

yes

Yeah I realized that a while ago I made the step from being interested in music to also being interested in music criticism, which in a lot of ways covers similar ground to (and often takes its cues from) literary critical theory. So yes I am entering into a danger zone! But I find a lot of interests thoughts can occur when looking at how music reflects and is reflected by culture.

turtles said...

also big up garlicprawn, my sole commenteer.