For those entertained by band rivalries, perhaps we have a new one. Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips had some not so nice words for the Arcade Fire, which band member Win Butler responded to here.
There's yet another Bonnie 'Prince' Billy album coming out and, as always, it's good. Here's a video:
The New Yorker has an interesting profile of Oldham here.
And here's BPB on WNYC:
This is a few years old now, but for my money this Beirut video is an absolute classic:
Dinosaur is back in the studio:
At the library I work at we recently got the Pitchfork 500 book, which is pretty interesting. Basically it goes through 500 songs ("from punk to the present") which have altered the course of indie music, each with a short explanation of what was so special about them. (You can see a list of the songs here) It does a pretty good job I think, but it got me wondering if the focus on individual songs is really justified. I mean, was it the song Summer Babe that had such an influence on everyone, or was it the album Slanted & Enchanted, or was it Pavement's live performances or what? I would imagine it's the cumulative effect of a band/artist's general aesthetic that really influences people. The idea behind the book seems to be that these songs were revelatory for people, in that they opened up new avenues for musical exploration... and I'm sure there are real examples of that happening, but I feel like that's probably pretty rare. I'm sure in some cases the songs didn't cause music to change, but rather reflected and crystallized changes that were already occuring. In college I took a class on the philosophy of history, perhaps there needs to be a class on the philosophy of indie rock. Really I'm just skeptical of all musical lists and rankings, although that doesn't stop me from reading them.
Anyone have any music recommendations for me? Post in the comments!
No comments:
Post a Comment