January 2012
7 posts
1 tag
Watchkennylipscomb:
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...
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Favorites (No Order): 2011
Dustin O’Halloran — Lumiere
Holy Other — With U
James Blake — S/T
Deaf Center — Owl Splinters
Bon Iver — S/T
Radiohead — The King of Limbs
Nils Frahm — Felt
Atlas Sound — Parallax
Panda Bear — Tomboy
The Caretaker — An Empty Bliss Upon This World
Clams Casino — Rainforest
Hammock — Longest Year (Late-2010)
Explosions in the Sky — Take Care, Take Care,...
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“Indeed, if there’s any movement in music that the Internet and social-media era...”
– Carl Wilson, in “Retromania: A Roundtable” (via barthel)
December 2011
1 post
October 2011
1 post
September 2011
1 post
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On The Rapture in The Atlantic →
August 2011
5 posts
3 tags
'Rumspringa'
On Canon Blue’s excellent new album, Rumspringa, for the Cream.
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A Winged Victory For The Sullen
A few words on the new project from Dustin O’Halloran and Adam Wiltzie for MAGNET.
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Stirrings From Sigur Ros
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Via
A Guide to the Illuminati References in Kanye West... →
perpetua:
Jessica Misener unpacks and decodes one of the best songs on Watch the Throne, which just happens to have loads of lines that support the popular notion that Jay-Z is a member of the Illuminati.
Cool to see a very deserving writer get a couple nods from some big names in music criticism.
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"Wages of Sin"
On Damien Jurado and Rosie Thomas’ cover of Springsteen’s “Wages of Sin” for MAGNET.
[Photo via]
July 2011
12 posts
3 tags
The Loudness Wars: Is Music's Noisy Arms Race... →
barthel:
This is the piece I’ve been working on the last couple weeks. It’s assessing the state of the loudness war in 2011 and concludes that artists are starting to push back. I got to interview two of my favorite mastering engineers (I know!) as well as Derek from Sleigh Bells, who talks a little about the direction of the new album, if that’s the kind of thing you’re interested in.
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On Bon Iver for the Nashville Scene →
[Photo via]
Kinfolk →
On his blog, my friend Michael Muller talks about the just launched, aesthetically disarming Kinfolk — “a guide for small gatherings.”
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Did Pitchfork Kill the Rock Critic? →
Newcity’s Alex Baumgardner asks a good question: By spending more time cultivating its brand than its place as a critical institution, is P4K killing the potency of the provocative byline?
But whether it will ever start to show any real atavistic traits and begin pulling the best bits from the publications that went before it remains to be seen. An ever-expanding brand like...
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Critics' Pick: Toro Y Moi →
On Mr. Bundick’s aural re-imagining of the South for the Scene.
[Photo via]
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A Tour of Germantown with Nashville Architect Nick...
Here’s the best thing I’ve read all morning, courtesy of the fine folks over at Imogene+Willie.
[Photo via]
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Critics' Pick: Cass McCombs + Lower Dens
On loneliness, Cass McCombs and Lower Dens for the Scene.
[Photo via]
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June 2011
8 posts
3 tags
R. Stevie Moore / X
On the D.I.Y. legend R. Stevie Moore for the Scene and Yacht’s cover of X’s “Nausea” for MAGNET.
[Photo via]
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On Junior Boys
Unfortunately, I won’t be in attendance for Junior Boys’ Nashville appearance tomorrow evening, but I love the band so much that I Picked them in this week’s Scene anyway. These guys are seriously so good live — don’t miss this if you’re in town. Here’s my Pick:
“When most people ascribe the phrase “thinking man’s music” to a genre, they’re likely...
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The Scene on the Sale of WRVU
The Nashville Scene’s coverage of the sale of student- and community-run 91.1 to WPLN is all must-read material. Part hard news, part editorial, part memory-sharing, it’s all extremely informative, heartwarming and, perhaps as a surprise to some, even-handed. Very proud of my colleagues over there today.
[Photo via]
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“There’s a system and rigor to what we do, and you can laugh at it as archaic and...”
– David Carr, being interviewed for Interview by the screenwriter and all-around eccentric Aaron Sorkin.
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On Dustin O'Halloran and Rachel Grimes
A piece I wrote jointly with LEO Weekly’s Music Editor Peter Berkowitz ran today just ahead of Dustin O’Halloran’s and Rachel Grimes’ performance at St. Francis of Assisi in Louisville this coming Friday. I’m driving up from Nashville with my wife, Marta, and Patrick Copeland, a longtime friend and co-conspirator in the band Southern, which we’ll be unveiling...
May 2011
9 posts
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Why We Look the Other Way
Chuck Klosterman asks if we’re ready to take a sober look at what is likely a widespread drug problem in the NFL, or if our wish to bear witness to extra-human theatrics on Sunday incentivizes us to look the other way. And, of course, he brings it back to Dylan and The Beatles:
“It’s a subtle paradox: People choose to ignore the relationship between performance enhancers and...
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June 6: The Caretaker's 'An Empty Bliss Beyond...
James Leyland Kirby’s Caretaker project holds a special place in the Slowblog universe, as Persistent Repetition of Phrases, the record that preceded his latest, An Empty Bliss Beyond This World, was the subject on one of my first posts here. The scope of this blog has changed dramatically since then, becoming more of a running list of clips published elsewhere, but what hasn’t...
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New DJ Mix for Nighttime
WUT (Ryan Scott Burleson’s 2011 Night Mix) by ryanscottburleson
It’s been years since I made a new DJ mix, so last night I just sort-of up and made one without much preparation, other than pouring a glass of red wine. Feel free to download, embed, share, etc.
Some of these songs are older, some are brand new. All have impacted me in some way recently.
Please do support the...
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Palin’s achievement was to pull Alaska out of a... →
— Joshua Green, “The Tragedy of Sarah Palin,” The Atlantic Monthly, June 2011
Really informative and, at times, surprising, read on Palin’s oft-overlooked/dismissed record as governor of Alaska. Turns out she was a kind-of maaavrick after all.
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Grizzly Bear Recording a New LP (Soon)
disconaivete:
Earlier today, Grizzly Bear informed us they have been writing songs for a new album and will start recording it by the end of this month in Texas. That’s all information for now, but I will definitely keep you posted!
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Twice, The Twilight Singers
On The Twilight Singers for the Scene and then again (to a lesser extent) for MAGNET.
[Photo via]
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Take Cover: Karate vs. Billie Holiday
On Holiday’s personal attachment to “Strange Fruit” in last week’s blurb for MAGNET.
[Photo via]
April 2011
15 posts
2 tags
WatchThis is, so far, the most haunting video I’ve come across of the Tuscaloosa tornado. Unreal.
Via Sullivan
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WatchOne of my favorite modern composers, Dustin O’Halloran, has just announced a North American tour in support of both Lumiere, which I wrote about here, and a new live album, Vorleben, which was just released on April 21st in North America. (The collection will be available worldwide on May 23rd.) And thankfully the tour is coming South, to Louisville to be exact, so I can finally experience...
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David Foster Wallace on Worship
thirtyam:
“Here’s something else that’s weird but true: in the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship–be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother...
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