20,000

crush + jellyhead + lyrics = yeeeeeeeeeahhhhhhhh

Sun, 19 May 2013 19:31:14 -0500

crush + jellyhead + lyrics

yeeeeeeeeeahhhhhhhh

I hope to plunge this check into repairing my car. I’ve been working a temp gig grading...

Thu, 16 May 2013 23:46:00 -0500

I hope to plunge this check into repairing my car. I’ve been working a temp gig grading standardized-testing essays… I loved it, I’m a legend at the firm now, in the LeBron mold of accuracy and output. But to get there and back, I had to hop the 3 bus. Hour and a half each way, not counting walk time. Shed some pounds, ate a bunch of homemade lunches (mayo spread at the workstation, chatting was for smoke breaks).

So I’ve got two outstanding pieces for editors who… I dunno. I hate the artistic temperament, and I’m not even an artist, so you can imagine how I feel. But this last grading session ended this afternoon, and an entrepreneur friend will make me an offer next week. Could be short term, could be medium term, could be a whole new deal. I’ve got to lock my partner down, and stability’s a big part of that. This gig, however it looks, would enable me to like all your posts, get back into freelancing, and add a few hours to my five-per sleep regimen. I’m proud of keeping my TSJ output up, but that’s been my only assault against this schedule. If you’ve emailed me, I haven’t gotten it. It’s so dumb.

New entries to megapop. Got rock-happy. Apparently the playlist limit is 10,000? I could hit that in a few years. Creating sub-playlists per year is a dream that may not happen. Anyway, as always, hope you enjoy the jams. The annotated additions:

Turbulence, “Blood Dem Out” (made my best-of-decade Stylus list from ages ago. super-dry production, incredible vocal performance)

The Ventures - He Never Came Back (had to add more instrumentals. tangy as hell)

Junior Boys - In the Morning (surprised I hadn’t added this. perfectly named MJ-style shuffler)

Vampire Weekend - Diane Young (sry Katherine, but it’s a pitchshifted George Michael tribute, it was only a matter of time before I gave in. on Sunday i’m going to celebrate the law-school graduation of someone who knew him at Columbia. before someone asks: i never asked)

Grum - Can’t Shake This Feeling (Crystal reminded me about Grum. i have a bunch of Post-Its with genres to explore; French house — which this isn’t quite for at least one major reason — is on there)

Mark Eitzel - Take Courage (trying to challenge my initial concept of this playlist as a pep machine. gently rolling, ends with some triumph)

Heatmiser - See You Later (i suppose i need to add some Alanis soon. and/or look at Glen Ballard’s production discography. Elliott was great at turning amazing bridges into choruses)

Men at Work - It’s a Mistake (kinda not ska. i think this is a good one for walking)

Wall of Voodoo - Do It Again (this knocked the Beach Boys’ original off the list. y’know… production values)

The Beach Boys - Be With Me (but we recovered! megapop lead vocals from Dennis Wilson: 2. from Brian: 0. nothing personal)

Delinquent Habits - Tres Delinquentes (not on Spotify. fix it, rightsholders! got this on a grey-market hip-hop collection in a Nanjing warehouse)

Stepdad - Must Land Running (a Jukebox tune that i haven’t forgotten. great walking-in tune)

Johnny Boy - You Are the Generation That Bought More Shoes and You Get What You Deserve (put this off because i was hoping for a better mix. anyway, for everyone who discovered assonance due to “212,” please revisit this. an all-time textual construction)

Young Jeezy with 2 Chainz - R.I.P. (the most matter-of-fact West Coast rap single? production is lean, lyrical concern isn’t)

Cortney Tidwell - Watusii (three words in a row flagged by Chrome. wish she hadn’t gone country, but you do what you gotta)

Don Gibson and Dottie West - There’s a Story (Goin’ Round) (speaking of. the melody drips with irony, the chicken picks)

Arcade Fire - Keep the Car Running (i can’t deny! no way. one of the only worthwhile things they’ve ever recorded)

Faith No More - From Out of Nowhere (half-speed punk rock with gorgeous pop guitar rejoinders)

Lisa Hanningan - Knots (another Jukebox tune I haven’t shaken)

Pete Yorn - For Nancy (‘Cos It Already Is) (you gotta know i love earworms, and Yorn gave me a clutch of klaxon guitar figures. see-sawing vocals, i’m not nuts about. on synth, it’s dicey. screaming six-string, i’m on board)

Futurecop! - Hey Heartthrob! (needed more instrumentals and exclamation points. ecstasy in my optometrist’s c. 1991)

Vyto B - Happy (this is private-press territory, so I don’t have anything beyond the excellent live link. this was on the first mix i made Cat in 2009; she was taking a trip to Peru, and of course the winner was “Party in the USA”. it’s cool, it’s a classic too)

Little Big Town - Pontoon (this got my phone yanked from a party barge stereo. a new regime followed. you know me, i don’t judge people on matters of taste — check this damn project — but believe me, i did not know Pitbull had such a busy schedule)

Screaming Trees - All I Know (love the pivoting rhythm-guitar work and the bashful backing vox. i wanna be in charge of the radio)

The Heptones - Old Time (gonna harvest this period of Temps-influenced reggae for sure. ridiculous cadences and a Byrds-worthy chorus - and those coos!)

The Divine Comedy - National Express (you can guess my method for unfamiliar artists: look for songs under 3:00. luckily, this was a go-to my freshman year in college, along with “How to Make Gravy” by Paul Kelly, so ok. i know it’s easy to make your song sound like trains, but anything that reminds me of a non-lethal “Touch Me” gains points. there’s more like this, i’m sure)

Wayne Smith - Under Mi Sleng Teng (giving it up for the burrowing synthbass. “weighing my brain/no cocaine”. gotta get a TSJ dance party going one of these months)

Nero - Promises (Skrillex & Nero Remix) (need more brostep. didn’t go nuts for this on TSJ, but this is the form i needed, i guess)

Seal - Don’t Cry (when the counter-melody comes in at 3:30? GAME OVER. a sophistipop kind of key that London did really well about 15 years ago)

The Wipers - No Solution (i could pull this in a few weeks, i dunno. the stomp is so garage, total Monks style but for Greg’s vocal leaps. the twin guitar passage clinched it for me, for now)

Kings of Convenience - Failure (we gotta bring everything into the fold, even God-moping-over-the-waters folk. there’s a hidden drone)

Burning Spear - Tradition (i’m starting to favor his more pungent/airier later work, but he commands attention here. verses that soar into irresolution, guitar cozying up to the cochlea)

M83 - Midnight City (i surrendered a long fucking time ago)

Brutal Juice - Galaxy (they’re working on a new album, so maybe Interscope or whoever will finally put this on Spotify. as ever: my favorite record of all time, hooks and bile and riffs and screaming and mordancy and evil and transcendence. “and they can play that song a million times/but it’s just a song on the radio/radio/goddamn radio/radio/radio…”)

Until I fix my commute situation or the next 30 pop tunes!

megapop

Sat, 11 May 2013 12:27:00 -0500

megapop:

megapop, a playlist by thefossor on Spotify.

Off to Houston! Going to see the Astros put up a fight in this intra-state baseball game. And if not, I’ll root for a Yu Darvish triple-digit Game Score. New megapop additions: The Party, The Cheetah Girls, Moby, Universal Robot Band, Sublime, Clyde Alexander & Sanction, Le Kid, Master Saleem, Lee Ann Womack, Deltron 3030, Tara Kemp, the Cannibals, Spoon, West End Girls, Kate Miller-Heidke, Chuckii Booker, Susanne Sundfor, Chic, Womack & Womack, Pete Shelley, Quadron, Rainbow Girls, Super Furry Animals, I Break Horses, Eliza Doolittle, Delta Goodrem, Boogie Box High. Not all songs play in all countries, but I’ve noticed Spotify slooooowly getting its shit together on that front. Almost added Alice Coltrane; I may yet!

How great can Spotify be if 1) it replaces Doc Corbin...

Mon, 06 May 2013 22:47:07 -0500

How great can Spotify be if 1) it replaces Doc Corbin Dart’s Messiah with a terrible prog-electronica album 2) a number-7 hit from 1991 can’t be streamed except in cover form?

An early happy 49th to Tara Kemp! This song will never die.

Trying not to wake her. Night.

Sun, 05 May 2013 03:00:51 -0500

Trying not to wake her. Night.

wronglikeright: The second one.

Sun, 05 May 2013 01:07:45 -0500

wronglikeright:

The second one.

megapop

Sat, 04 May 2013 20:30:17 -0500

megapop:

megapop, a playlist by thefossor on Spotify.

New tracks. Brings it to 900, finally, although that total counts stuff on my hard drive that’s not (yet?) available on Spotify. Trying to keep that to a minimum. Tonight’s inductees:

The Barbaras, “Summertime Road”

Big Maybelle, “That’s a Pretty Good Love”

PJ Harvey, “This Is Love”

G Whizz, “Nuh Wah Si Dem”

Devo, “Girl U Want”

Shoes, “Writing a Postcard”

Lime, “You’re My Magician”

Phoenix, “Entertainment”

Brandy, “Necessary”

Jessie Ware, “Running”

Rascal Flatts, “Fast Cars and Freedom”

The Boys, “Keep Running”

Lushlife, “Magnolia”

Josef K, “Chance Meeting”

Sebadoh, “Sacred Attention”

Hunter Hayes, “I Want Crazy”

Belle & Sebastian, “White Collar Boy”

Marvelous Darlings, “Sleeping Like a Deadman”

Gang Starr, “Work”

The Busy Signals, “I’m So Slippery”

Dave Edmunds, “Girls Talk”

Angela Bofill, “Holdin’ Out for Love”

Neil Young & Comrie Smith, “Casting Me Away From You”

Ciara ft. Ludacris, “Oh”

Buffalo Springfield, “Upside Down”

The Soft Boys, “Only the Stones Remain”

Guided by Voices’ “Chief Barrel Belly” replaces “Postal Blowfish”. May swap out Neil at some point. Y’all keep having a good weekend.

Homo

Sat, 04 May 2013 16:53:46 -0500

shitmystudentswrite:

It is thought that he might also be a homo.

The Internet dilemma: Do people have a right to be forgotten?

Sat, 04 May 2013 16:41:21 -0500

The Internet dilemma: Do people have a right to be forgotten?:

sadyoutube:

The Rehtaeh Parsons case coincides with a new debate about the inhumanity of omniscient digital memory

Here is an interesting article in The Globe and Mail with some thoughts from me on Sad YouTube.

thesinglesjukebox: MARIA MENA - FUCK YOU [6.22] Our second...

Fri, 03 May 2013 11:57:42 -0500

thesinglesjukebox:

MARIA MENA - FUCK YOU
[6.22]

Our second favourite Mena and our favourite swear word: together at last.
Brad Shoup: Commentism: THE SONG!
[10]

Edward Okulicz: Sure, the idea of hatin’ the hataz on the Internet in song seems gauche, but that’s just because there’s little precedent. If music as an artform had no history and was invented in 2013, you can bet this would be a pretty prominent theme and nobody would think twice. Kudos to Mena for doing it well — the way she utters the word “fuck” with such quiet determination makes Ani DiFranco seem like Zach de la Rocha. The rest of the song, including the word “you” spirals and curlicues so elegantly that you don’t need the swear word, the anger, the anything. The statement doesn’t need the swear word either, but it sure makes the most of it.
[8]

Patrick St. Michel: Sounds like Vanessa Carlton with a little of Mumford & Sons/Imagine Dragons/whoever else fits in this beardy genre thrown in. Except with a goofy chorus that’s neither sincere or edgy or funny. Cee-Lo made those two syllables count…this just expects us to clap along because Mena said a profanity.
[3]

Iain Mew: Yes, I have a thing for bitter songs delivered with an unbroken fake smile, but not as much for bitter songs which dress up aggression as twinkly indie mope.
[4]

Anthony Easton: I like when vulgarity is softened by tasteful cocktail piano and sotto voce whispering — this might sound sarcastic, but it takes words seriously that have been withered by overuse. Elegant.
[7]

Will Adams: The way she delivers the title is just amazing. Too many times I’ve resorted to the under-breath mutter in place of standing up for myself. I tell myself it’s enough to say those two words to myself as that jerk walks away, but it never satisfies. I enjoy the Spektorian arrangement in this, but not so much the overstuffed verses telling off… Internet haters. Whatever, fuck it: it’s all about that chorus.
[7]

Jonathan Bogart: Less jollity and more venom than in the other recent song of the same name, and whether that’s a good thing or a bad probably depends a great deal on which you’d rather relate to. The sentiment remains unchanged, as is only proper; even when the disaster is our damn fault, it’s a relief to get bile out of the way.
[7]

Scott Mildenhall: This should be on the curriculum, played in PSHE lessons, music lessons, maths lessons… you can tell people to “Change Your Life” like a “Firework” because they were “Born This Way” all you like, that could never be as truly empowering or cathartic as telling the bullies to just do one, and in the most elegantly unelegant of ways. Mena is decisive and commanding, but not overwrought, successfully pulling off the balancing act of saying “I don’t like you, but also genuinely couldn’t care less about you,” and making it believable. Obviously if you did play this in schools there’s a chance it would be appropriated by the bullies, and it’s not really the most pragmatic response to them, but the point still stands.
[8]

Alfred Soto: Somebody had an idea: “Let’s juxtapose the profanity against strings and piano.” Nobody had a clue.
[2]
[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

THIS IS THE ANTHEM FIRST [10] ON PRINCIPLE

Oh man I can’t wait to go to bed

Thu, 02 May 2013 21:29:25 -0500

Oh man I can’t wait to go to bed

Megapop update: swapped out Mahjongg, added no-brainers from Wreckless Eric and the Five Stairsteps....

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 13:03:41 -0500

Megapop update: swapped out Mahjongg, added no-brainers from Wreckless Eric and the Five Stairsteps. Also Manu Dibango (like the ideal pop radio station, we’re striving to keep instrumentals in the mix), Eruption, Switch, Pilot, Gram Rabbit (cos Hazlewood wasn’t available), Low, Ray Price, Shocking Blue, Sonic Avenues, Soul-Junk, Starz, the Sugar Stems, the System, Terence Boylan, and Tom T. Hall.

Finished the ’70s one-hit wonders list, so we’re off to the ’80s, then power pop/Eurodreck/pop rap/lo-fi/house, all that. Gotta stay sane, y’know? Thanks for listening.

I could sleep to these every night

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 22:57:29 -0500

I could sleep to these every night

thesinglesjukebox: PISTOL ANNIES - HUSH HUSH [6.88] Yap that...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:28:05 -0500

thesinglesjukebox:

PISTOL ANNIES - HUSH HUSH
[6.88]

Yap that fool!
Anthony Easton: I have been thinking about the supposed radicalism of the Annies’ position recently, especially considering the nature of country’s recent conservatism. The critical opinion seems to be that they are breaking apart the post-Garth soft rock politeness. But country has not been very polite. The pendulum has swung — critics ignore what happened in the work of John Rich and his eventual descendants. The great thing (and I think the underrated thing) about this age of Rich is that it’s pretty gender-neutral. From Gretchen Wilson onward, women have had the fun as much as men. The Annies’ position on pleasure is not radically new. What is radically new is their use of pleasure as a disruptive strategy against a slew of targets that seem to be obvious but haven’t really been addressed before. In “Hush Hush,” we can list family (especially the silence of the front pew), alcoholism (rehab, vodka being snuck, eggnog instead of beer), performative piety (the spectacular line “well, Daddy’s reading propaganda/and he’s talking about the end of days”), and even a mention of grass so casual it might as well come from ’70s outlaws. What becomes new is a different kind of integrative either/or. This is not partying on Saturday and church on Sunday, but a recognition of the tense negotiations between the South as a libertine’s playhouse and the South as a sanctified space. The tension is that though both of those exist at the same time, the Annies suggesting that not only hypocrisy but silence is foundational, is what is really left unsaid. That to expect the South to exist without the “hush hush” is to expect the South to exist not at all. (It’s actually what makes the Annies great — but it sells, and it ends up on CMT, and it wins awards, and people sing along, so it’s not subversive. One wonders what that means — if everyone knows what’s going on, and everyone is speaking it aloud, does it become a steam valve where the real work doesn’t need to be done? We talk about drugs and sex and Jesus and pot, but we don’t write songs about how granddaddy fucked the maid, or that the one-drop law is still an ongoing concern, or that Billy can’t take his husband to Sunday dinner, or why all of those foreclosures, or the real history of slavery or what exactly happened at the Tallahatchie Bridge.) The personal is political: this is a political song. But its politics will only go as far as the market will allow. As a song — the brilliant chorus, the harmonics, the guitar work, how well the whole thing hangs together — it’s a [10], but the Annies always make me a bit nervous.
[9]

Alfred Soto: This “Coal Miner’s Daughter” variant set on Thanksgiving will stir memories, although I doubt eggnog is as universal as Miranda Lambert thinks. Another winner from the most fecund trio in modern music, relaxed and confident despite big riffs and unexpected three-part harmonies and surprising chorus. To top it off, Ashley Monroe proves she’s a rocker not a wallower.
[7]

Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: What makes “Hush Hush” so much fun is how cathartic it is airing out dirty laundry. The clown, the recovering fuckup, the vodka-swigging matriarch, the ranting patriarch — any of these characters could have starred in their own song, but the Pistol Annies cast their net wider, turning loose the tension from over-diplomatic family gatherings into acid little vignettes. They don’t forget to sell it either, with the gritted-teeth threats of “be quiet” and “don’t you DARE say a word!” sealing the joke. You can either laugh at the gnarled branches of the family tree or curl up under the bubbling angst: Lambert Monroe & Presley say laugh, dammit.
[8]

Ramzi Awn: These drums have some boom to ‘em and it’s a good thing. Mama and Papa are the ones hushing us, I think, and the Annies just wanna get along. I just spent some time with my family so I understand, but the hoax is a bit of a joke. Don’t get me wrong, I’d drink a beer, sit on a haystack and sing “Hush Hush” ‘til the cows come home, but the June Carter-gone-pop approach is sadly short on production savvy.
[5]

Brad Shoup: This is some Jeannie C. Riley territory, and boy, I never could latch onto Ms. Riley.
[3]

Katherine St Asaph: It’s Thanksgiving! Dad’s a fundie, mom’s an alkie, brother’s back from wilderness camp, sister’s baked singing from Baby’s First Hymnal, everyone’s drinking eggnog before Black Friday, and instead of making Sunday service they’re huddled by the closet playing whack-a-skeleton. What fun! You probably need to have been at that table to really appreciate this song, or at least get dispatches from someone who’s been there (this week’s latest: “I’ve got enough bullets for a war with someone”), but lacking that, the music is rollicking enough to suffice. That intro is almost “Material Girl.”
[8]

Sabina Tang: As a non-Christian Chinese person who’s spent nearly all her life in the West, I’m a lifelong veteran of other people’s family Christmases (and Thanksgivings, and Easters); so when I say that Pistol Annies express a mood as universal to the season as delight in fresh snow and good will to all men, I feel I’m drawing from a broad sample base. Why didn’t they release this as a Christmas single? It’s cheerful enough for a ’nog-sozzled line dance.
[8]

Jonathan Bogart: Pop music is not generally an effective delivery vehicle for satire, because pop’s instinct is towards generalization and universality, and satire requires such a specificity of culture and common reference that it can die on the vine before it travels a hundred miles. Country music, with its quasi-politicized assumption of shared values and experience, is one of the few pop scenes where such satire can dig its heels in, and between “Mama’s Broken Heart” and this, Miranda Lambert and her cohort are becoming country’s foremost satirists, blasting cheerfully away at the hypocrisy of keeping up a respectable front when none of the things that were supposed to go right do. The concealed venom of “Hush Hush” is somewhat undercut by a mushy chorus that rollicks where it ought to bite, but it’s a good first sign. Eagerly awaiting the new record.
[7]
[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

You gotta click through to the site for the subhead to work, but it pleases me.

Adding to megapop. Today’s entries, mostly courtesy of a list of 70s one-hit wonders: B.W....

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 19:33:07 -0500

Adding to megapop. Today’s entries, mostly courtesy of a list of 70s one-hit wonders: B.W. Stevenson, Bill Deal and the Rhondels, Billy Swan, Chas & Dave, the Choir, City Boy, Coven, Crabby Appleton, Denise LaSalle, Eddie Holman, Fol Chen (RIP Scott Miller), the Fortunes, Frederick Wright, Gary Wright, Gomez, Gwen McCrae, the Ides of March, Instant Funk, Jerry Butler, Jimmy “Bo” Horne, John Tropea, Keith Moon, Miguel Rios, Unk, Waylon Jennings, Wendell Watts, YG. Work kept me from getting us to 900, but we’re over 850 jams a la this guy.

When Dickens met Dostoevsky | TLS

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 19:18:18 -0500

When Dickens met Dostoevsky | TLS:

isabelthespy:

are you up for a really delicious story of the uncovering of a particularly convoluted and long-ranging literary hoax? that’s a trick question, who is ever not up for a good literary hoax story. i mean i’m basically always up for a hoax story but no one is faking terminal illness in this one (although there is an almost definitely fictional car crash). there’s grudges against academia, invented foreign journals, fake names, mysterious motivations, the contributing detective work of dickens and dostoyevsky scholars alike, terribly written erotica — truly, Something For Everyone, doled out with an even hand and a peculiar amount of suspense given the subject matter. i mean, how can you stay away from an article that lets us glimpse what the author of the piece describes as “one of the most unusual responses by a scholar to a critic that one is likely ever to stumble upon”:

“Twenty-five years before Polly Morris, reviewing one of my books in Journal of the History of Sexuality, ticked me off for appearing to believe that women’s nipples were ‘normally sepia’, I discovered how Jackie M, a natural blond with hair dyed chestnut, had perfectly pink nipples that took on a beige tinge in the cold of my bed-room at 40 Histon Road, Cambridge”.

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, CLICK THE LINK.

The problematic (i.e., still-linking-to-Deadspin-and-garbage-NPR-profiles-on-race) Longform posted this. It’s great. It’s explicitly Nabokovian. READ IT

where have you gone, Joey Heatherton

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:01:14 -0500

where have you gone, Joey Heatherton

Audio

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 16:01:16 -0500

Shamblejam of the day. Pre-chorus sounds like “Leader of...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 13:04:11 -0500

Shamblejam of the day. Pre-chorus sounds like “Leader of the Pack”. The rest sounds like Neil Young, Retiree.

Photo

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 20:20:07 -0500