Music

Rob Weychert’s Year in Review

My personal movie-watching stats for 2016, provided by the always delightful Letterboxd.

Why Classic Rock Isn’t What It Used To Be

But do radio stations rely at all on the institutional knowledge of their DJs to decide what to play?

Nope. The role of the song-picking DJ is dead. “I know there are some stations and some companies where if you change a song it’s a fireable offense,” Wellman said,… See more →

Every YouTube upload of Chaplin’s amazing monologue from The Great Dictator is retrofitted with corny-ass Hans Zimmer music. 😒

When Rdio’s demise pushed me over to Spotify, Discover Weekly was the main saving grace, but a year later, it is talking right past me. 😴

“But do radio stations rely at all on the institutional knowledge of their DJs to decide what to play? Nope.” fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-c…

What’s Your Ideal Community? The Answer Is Political

It’s conceivable that people who live in cities come to value more active government. Or they’re more receptive to investing in welfare because they pass the homeless every day. Or they appreciate immigration because their cab rides and lunch depend on immigrants. This argument is partly about the people we’re exposed to in cities (the poor, foreigners), and partly about the logistics of living there.

The suburbs… See more →

2016 was what it was, but at least I was reunited with this beauty just before the finish line.

Saw this t-shirt today. A take-off on Metallica’s Kill ’Em All: “America: Free ’Em All” with “tour dates” listing all of our wars. Cute.

“So if you still have friends
Raise a glass with them
Happy New Year
Prince can’t die again” macmccaughan.bandcamp.com/track/happy-ne…

Dear humans,
This is how it’s done.
Love,
Rob
youtu.be/oYAR8RigqDA

BEGIN FLASHBACK:
INT. TOYOTA CAMRY – DAY
Chris, 12, theorizes on the semantics of “I Want Your Sex” at my mom as she drives us somewhere.

And there goes George Michael. 53 years old. Not three days ago I decided Faith was too far back in my rear-view. On it goes. RIP.

“If you were born today
We’d kill you by age 8
Never have the chance to say
Joy to the world
And peace on the earth”
youtu.be/OYn-FK-5wow

The Inaugural Committee couldn’t satisfy the part of Kiss’s rider stating Gene Simmons gets to be the biggest, loudest asshole at the show.

Digging this @PinegroveBand album. In places, it feels to me kinda like an alt-countrified version of early @dcfc. pinegrove.bandcamp.com

A sharp read on Pantera’s penultimate album, though it sidesteps the fact that extreme angst was de rigueur in 1996. pitchfork.com/reviews/albums…

First, the songs I’ve already skipped:

I shall now begin updating you in real time which songs I skip as I shuffle this Billboard Top 100 of 1988 playlist. open.spotify.com/user/israel.ke…

Tonight I got to see Megadeth play in a room a little bigger than my apartment and it was very very great.

brb megadeth

“19 visual artists count down their 10 favorite albums of 2016 with reimagined cover art.” This is a delight. 10x16.com

Name your punk band The Faithless Electors.

Maybe I just desperately want to abandon the planet, but this space jazz freakout might be my #1 record of 2016. thecometiscoming.bandcamp.com/album/channel-…

Just noticed that iTunes finally supports metadata for works and movements in classical music, so there goes Sunday.

Revisited most of The Cure’s discography this week. Apart from the utterly majestic Disintegration, I’m still mostly just about the hits.

Kasich Goes for ... McCain

At least three prominent Republicans are publicly throwing away their vote.

The Different Stakes of Male and Female Birth Control

for some women, there are tradeoffs between their reproductive freedom and their mental and emotional health.

Not so for men. Though men have an equal responsibility to prevent unwanted pregnancies, they don’t share equally in the consequences, and never have. The burden of birth control has always fallen largely on… See more →

Name your punk band Merrick Garland.

Having introduced @hannahsbirch to 3rd Bass’s “Pop Goes the Weasel,” I think it’s fair to say my work is done for the day.

Calming my election nerves with a brand new record from Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions. amazon.com/Until-Hunter-H…

Barbara Crampton on Stuart Gordon, Chopping Mall, and the new wave of indie horror

For fans of 1980s B-horror, here’s a good AV Club interview with the delightful Barbara Crampton.

Anti-Christ in a custom van: The churchy cheap thrills of A Thief In The Night

It may seem impossible to not think of the end of the world in poetic terms, but never underestimate the premillennialists.

Why Punching Down Will Never Be Funny

Watters and… See more →

Bumping this for the fiends in the PDT morning / EDT afternoon / GMT evening crowds. twitter.com/robweychert/st…

I couldn’t get the vocals right on The Misfits’ “Hybrid Moments,” so this cover is an instrumental. Happy Halloween! soundcloud.com/robweychert/hy…

If you like loud, irate, distorted guitar music, here is a thunderous new thing for your earholes. amazon.com/Gold-Whores/dp…

Apple’s Messages app now adds an iTunes Store link when an artist is mentioned. Our utopia of ad-saturated private conversations is nigh.

Shellac and Shannon Wright at the Bell House tonight. It was really really good.

RIP Pete Burns, who wrote some of my favorite synth pop tunes and used the spotlight to challenge the gender binary. youtu.be/ZWbj64Rwfvc

What a time to be alive. youtu.be/FdBF6h7oH5I

Current status.

On rape allegations and separating the art from the artist. mtv.com/news/2941144/s…

What song is your #karaokewhitewhale, the gem that’s never available? Mine is “Turtle Power” by Partners in Kryme. youtu.be/VFsTr0kGAqU

Fear of a Female President

To understand this reaction, start with what social psychologists call “precarious manhood” theory. The theory posits that while womanhood is typically viewed as natural and permanent, manhood must be “earned and maintained.” Because it is won, it can also be lost. Scholars at the University of South Florida and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign reported that when asked how someone might lose his manhood, college students rattled off social… See more →

Wait, Son of Zorn isn’t about a kid trying to survive high school and meet girls despite his dad’s constant avant-garde jazz intrusions?

A thoughtful essay from @seanoneal on Corey Feldman and the internet’s blurred line between bullying and criticism. avclub.com/article/corey-…

Tonight I saw the actual Misfits play a whole bunch of Misfits songs. My voice may never come back from this one.

I wanted to share with y’all a video of The Hold Steady playing all of Boys and Girls in America front to back, but I was too busy dancing.

Written documentation of last night’s Wolves in the Throne Room fan who solemnly held aloft a single invisible orange for several minutes.