HASHTAG BUSXSW
This mix is about South By Southwest 2012.
Why It’s Pretentious: So I don’t if anyone noticed from the photo set spam around here, but I went to South By Southwest last weekend. (I should really stop giving away the most pretentious bits in the first sentence.) I went as part of a pilot program/class called “The SXSW Experience.” Yes, that means I got college credit for going to 10 panels and 24 shows in 4ish days. Next week, I’ll be presenting my findings to our music business faculty, but I thought that I’d just go over a few of my favorite moments:
- I went to a panel called “REBLOG CULTURE: Tumblr and Social Music Fandom.” It was easily one of my favorite panels, with the basic message being that Tumblr mirrors how fans naturally behave: they discover, they love, and they share. Other gems: discussing Fuck Yeah blogs and referring to Tumblr as “magical internet play dough.”
- From Friday to Friday, I saw all of my favorite bands. In chronological order: Jeff the Brotherhood, Jenny Owen Youngs, The Drums, Cloud Nothings, The Big Pink, Best Coast (4 new songs!!!). I danced to Andy Rourke’s DJing for two hours, which I feel like counts as seeing The Smiths.
- Andy Rourke kissed me on the cheek. SWOON.
- I went to TWO panels on mixtaping/playlisting. The good side is that labels, etc are starting to recognize the benefits of mixes. The bad side is that this blog is probably very much illegal. Rock and roll?
- I learned that it is not appropriate to swear on a university-sanctioned Twitter hashtag, even if you’re quoting a Tumblr panelist or if your natural response to Yellow Ostrich bringing out the trumpets is a pleasantly surprised “OH SHIT.”
- Best shows: Cloud Nothings, who were shockingly ferocious; Grimes, who was sick/struggling with technical difficulties yet still pulled off one of the most awkwardly adorable and danceable sets; Sleigh Bells, who trashed so hard that the whole crowd (who was mostly there to see Nas perform Illmatic) was dancing.
Now, since I’ve been absent for quite a while, I thought I’d give you two mixes. First, a streamable/downloadable mp3 mix consisting of songs from 23 of the bands that I saw. Second, a Spotify playlist consisting of songs from 23 of bands that I saw, plus a few from bands that my friends saw. The songs and bands and order differ somewhat. Pick your poison.
Listen/Download: Right click, save-as.
Spotify playlist: Click to open.
Tracklisting after the jump.
Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo: Pop Culture Round-Up
Read
“Is R&B Having an Identity Crisis?” Michael Arceneaux. The Atlantic.
“What’s crazy is that blacks can’t do soul records any more,” [The-Dream] said. “We love Adele singing it, but Beyoncé singing it? No, the tempo’s too slow, gimme the club hit. Now the blacks in America are responsible for the pop records, and everybody else is singing soulful records. It’s weird to me. We’re pigeonholed over there.”
What’s striking, though, is that only a few days later, Stephin Merritt—singer for the decidedly un-club-friendly, un-R&B indie-pop act The Magnetic Fields—voiced similar concerns to LA Weekly. “I like Adele, though I have some reservations about why people like her,” Merritt said. “She really has a lovely voice, but I only get suspicious when people get excited about British people who sound like American black people.”
“Why the Old School Music Snob is the Least Cool Kid on Twitter.” Alexandrea Molotkow. New York Times Magazine.
Worse, file-sharing had rendered us, the knowledge guardians, irrelevant. Within a few years, knowledge had ceased to confer any distinction, and hoarding it had become about as socially advantageous as stamp collecting. Thanks to the Internet, cultural knowledge was now a collective resource. Which meant that being cool was no longer about what you knew and what other people didn’t. It was about what you had to say about the things that everyone already knew about.
“Hipster Moron Brags About Being a Hipster Moron in ‘New York Times Magazine’: What we talk about we talk about snobbery.” Brandon Soderberg. SPIN Magazine.
But see, the Internet hasn’t rendered “obscure knowledge” useless. It has enabled — thanks to tangible things like YouTube view counts — hard data that proves somebody like Molotkow just isn’t as cool as she thinks she is, and probably never was. Shouldn’t hip, with-it Molotkow have discovered Banks already? The 20-year-old Harlem MC has been rapping since 2009.
“No, I’m The Narrator.” Jami Attenberg. New York Times.
When I broke up with my boyfriend almost four years ago, he started a blog about me. This was a reversal of our entire relationship. I had always been the documenter, and he made guest appearances, or sometimes starred, in what I created.
Watch
“Surf.” The Skins. Wreckroom.tv.
Grimes: Building Beats from the Ground Up. NPR Music Sessions.
Looper - Official Teaser Trailer. (Follow on Tumblr.)
Ice T’s Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap. Official Trailer.
Listen
Devin’s debut LP Romancing. Rolling Stone.
Study
Map: Where To Find Hipsters in Nashville. The Tennessean.
Monday to Monday and Friday to Friday: Pop Culture Round-Up
A very belated Pop Culture Round-Up on account of, finals!
Read
5-10-15-20 with Johnny Marr. Mark Richardson. Pitchfork.
The first 45 I ever bought with my own money was a T. Rex record, which, luckily, is very cool. It was a fluke, though— it was in a bargain shoebox in a furniture store, and I didn’t know what it was. But I bought it because it had a picture of Marc Bolan on the B-side label, and I figured I was getting more bang for my buck!
[…]
When Angie and I first got together, the first thing we did was make each other a mixtape— that’s what you do with people you love.
How Samuel L. Jackson Became His Own Genre. Pat Jordan. New York Times Magazine.
Jules was the moral center of “Pulp Fiction,” Jackson told me recently, “because he carried himself like a professional.” The same can be said of Jackson as an actor. “Before Jules,” he went on, “my characters were just ‘The Negro’ who died on Page 30. Every script I read, ‘The Negro’ died on Page 30.” He thundered in character as Jules for a moment, repeating his point in saltier language, then returned to himself and said: “After Jules, I became the coolest [expletive] on the planet. Why? I have no clue. I’m not like Jules. It’s called being an actor.”
Grimes: nine days without food, sleep, or company gave me Visions. Sam Richards. The Guardian.
Yet despite her own version of the hat and the waistcoat – the dyed fringe, the occultish homemade tattoos – Claire insists that Grimes is not a kooky persona that she slips on and off with her rings. “That would be cheesy, and I’m really bad at faking it. If I’m a bad mood I can’t go onstage and smile. Sometimes my show is really emotional and quiet and sometimes the same set is like a punk show where I turn up the distortion and scream.”
Why We Fight: Bubble Pop, On The R&B Vocalist Miguel, Screaming Females, and closed cultural loops. Nitsuh Abebe. Pitchfork.
The songs on Ugly are well-composed, well-paced, and well-structured. But there’s also a quality in some of them that it feels like it could only come from a band that thinks the basement is always realer than the internet, and spent time cruising comfortably outside the ken of many potential fans. “Red Hand”, for instance, does not seem like the kind of song one sits down and thinks up as an aesthetic missive to listeners. It seems like the kind of song that comes from people who spent a lot of time in a room together, and do it well enough that they can grab a simple idea— the song starts with an ordinary bass riff, the sort of thing any player might idly toy around with— and elaborate it into whole gorgeous workout, complete with really stunning guitar filigrees and ominous word-chewing from Paternoster.
Watch
Bagged. Benjamin McConnell.
Presidents Tellin’ Jokes. Barack Obama.
The Fellowship. BRKF$T CLUB.
Stream
Savor. Natalie Royal.
“Malfunction.” Useless Eaters.
“Call Me Greyhound (Kap Slap Bootleg).” Swedish House Mafia vs. Carly Rae Jepsen.
Prepare
…for the return of the Hufflepuff.
