Music

“Heaven Is a Place on Earth” is happening at karaoke. Belinda Carlisle once played drums for The Germs. Her arc is a jagged line.

Is there a more gleeful song about statutory rape? Wait, don’t answer that.

If I don’t group compilations in iTunes, the 100th artist in my library is The Besnard Lakes.

What is the 100th artist, alphabetically, in your music library? Mine is The Chameleons.

Spending the day with @ChamberMonster and My Bloody Valentine. Enjoy your Head Trauma Advertising Jamboree, everyone.

Sending out a press release announcing the names of the songs on your forthcoming album is just talking to hear yourself talk.

If there are fewer than five artists at Coachella that I’m interested in seeing, I feel like I’m doing something right.

Four “correctly” misspelled artists in today’s new releases on @Rdio, all hip hop (e.g. “Little Wayne”). Disgruntled English teacher/hacker?

There are a few good ideas in here, but far too much sprawling, self-indulgent experimentation to recommend this album. However, assuming the band had to get this out of its system in order to later find itself on the excellent The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse, then I’m glad Volume I exists. But I probably won’t listen to it again.

You only have to substitute one letter to make Michael Jackson say, “I’m sharting with the man in the mirror.”

During a recent discussion about karaoke, I confessed that one of my favorite songs to sing when it’s available (which is more often than you’d think) is “Too Drunk to Fuck” by the San Francisco Bay Area punk legends Dead Kennedys. Virtually no one is expecting to hear it, and it elicits precisely the sort of slack-jawed amusement and/or horror I like to see in a karaoke audience.

My friend Tyler, who was a Bay… See more →

Damn, this Alabama Shakes record is great. I’m late to the party, but I’m glad I made it.

Joking that Robert Smith is a white supremacist won’t work because “Pictures of You” mentions “white” less than I thought. #abandonedtweet

I recently saw the band Swans live for the second time. They were promoting a stellar new album (The Seer) which essentially encompasses all of the varied and challenging music that bandleader Michael Gira has made under a few different monikers over the last thirty years. In the two years since I saw them last, I had gotten to know their oeuvre better, and coming to this show with a more educated ear paid off.… See more →

On the early Rush albums, Geddy Lee sounds kind of like Janis Joplin.

Streaming the Unwound live album, which will be released tomorrow. I miss this band so much. pitchfork.com/news/48875-str…

It is one of those two frustrating times of the year when we are reminded that a lot of people actually give a shit about the Grammys.

Apropos of nothing, here are two icons of 1980s alt rock that just never did anything for me: R.E.M. and The Replacements.

“All of a sudden, I found myself in love with the world, so there was only one thing I could do: ding-a-ding dang my dang-along ling-long.”

When Fallon took over Late Night, I was skeptical. When The Roots signed on, I thought they were crazy. Never been so glad to be so wrong.

Early Christmas present from Scott Walker. Just as unsettling as I hoped it would be. rd.io/x/QFyuPmEyRw

Just heard a Slits song in a Chipotle. Checking that off a list with no name.

Children’s choir singing generic Christmas lyrics shoehorned into Pachelbel’s Canon in D. This is the real war on Christmas.

Spent a few hours today cleaning up stray tracks in iTunes to keep my album view uncluttered. Looking spiffy.

Where is Corey Hart?

Happy to see some of my @Harmonix pals get their due in this article about adapting “Gangnam Style” for Dance Central 3 polygon.com/2012/11/26/365…

Filed for future studies in value theory: The Rolling Stones are playing in my neighborhood next month. Tickets range from $99.50–$754.50.

Looking forward to the day we’re horrified we once told our musicians, “We’ll pay to see you play and buy your t-shirts, but it ends there.”

Looking forward to Rebecca Black and Nicole Westbrook inevitably joining forces for an amazing Black Friday jam.

As usual, @seanoneal’s take on the new ARK Music Factory video is funnier than the (already hilarious) video itself. avc.lu/SVTbxb

“I was willing to forgo a potential sexual liaison… in order to never hear this banal collection of fuck-fluff again.” avc.lu/Ur4mzY

With all manner of unnecessary vitriol flying to and fro, social media can be a nasty thing during an election year like this one, but the most unfortunate thing I’ve seen in my social graph lately had little to do with politics. It had to do with punk rock, and a friend’s expressed preference for The Misfits’ post-Danzig era; that is, the seminal horror punk band’s mercenary reformation without its creative mastermind, Glenn Danzig, more… See more →

Brown-leafed vertigo, where skeletal life is known. I remember Halloween.

Anyone in the vicinity of Fort Greene have an acoustic guitar I could borrow for a day or two?

Reached the moment in the Samhain discography where I have to decide if being a completist is more important than skipping “Misery Tomb.”

In which GYBE rejects being called a bummer band, followed by 2,500+ overwrought words of its signature bummer variety. guardian.co.uk/music/2012/oct…

Thoughts about streaming music from @elliotjaystocks (elliotjaystocks.com/blog/music-col…) and @fchimero (frankchimero.com/blog/2012/10/s…). Added my 2¢ to the former.

If you ever wondered what the worst possible rendition of “Welcome to the Jungle” would sound like, well, here it is: youtube.com/watch?v=p_Gm06…

Maybe because Yanqui U.X.O. didn’t really do it for me, I never really pined for new GYBE material after they went on hiatus. And that makes the unexpected appearance of this stellar album ten years later all the more pleasant a surprise.

The new Godspeed You Black Emperor album will be on repeat for the foreseeable future.

Honored to be a part of @songadaymann’s @brooklynbeta theme song video! youtu.be/zx1dJT8YhUU

I recently saw the band Swans live for the second time. They were promoting a stellar new album (The Seer) which essentially encompasses all of the varied and challenging music that bandleader Michael Gira has made under a few different monikers over the last thirty years. In the two years since I saw them last, I had gotten to know their oeuvre better, and coming to this show with a more educated ear paid off.… See more →

Okay, I made an @Rdio playlist for standard school dance finales. Add yours, or let me know and I can add it: rd.io/x/QFyuL1c-YQfi…

Poll: When you were a teen, was there a standard song that always closed out your school dances? If so, what was it?

Somebody made a ska version of “Karma Police.” Because, why not? Aside from all the good reasons, that is.