Our weekly round up of the best music and most thoughtful articles from around the web...
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Warning: Someone, Somewhere, Might Be Faking Something by Nitsuh Abebe (Pitchfork): Some people—possibly you—have a certain reflexive thought pattern about music website Pitchfork, involving thoughts on where hipsters like
this poor soul should put their pitchforks? If you share this reaction, try putting it aside long enough to read Nitsuh Abebe's piece on judging what is real and what is fake in music. And why it matters. Because Nitsuh's one of the most thoughtful and generous music critics out there.
'In The Evening' – A Second By Second Analysis Of Led Zeppelin's Last Stand by Chuck Klosterman (Grantland): In 1979, Led Zeppelin played their last two UK shows ever at Knebworth, and it was recorded for posterity. In 1979, Led Zeppelin were not even remotely cool; they were widely panned by critics for being bloated dinosaur rock. But here, Klosterman analyses their Knebworth version of 'In The Evening', and in typical Klosterman style it's informative and very funny, whilst discussing what was great and what was terrible about Led Zeppelin at this point. This includes discussions of a) John Bonham's idea of a funny joke; b) how Robert Plant pretty much hates Led Zeppelin; c) what guitar store bozos have told him about Jimmy Page; and d) John Paul Jones's telephone.
A Free Man In L.A. By Vanessa Grigoriadis (Vanity Fair): So, Justin Timberlake. It's been 5 years since
FutureSex/LoveSounds. There's an interview in Vanity Fair. New album coming out? Nope. Through an unlikely series of events (involving a dick in a box), he's a movie star now, starring in a rom-com,
Friends With Benefits. He apparently enjoys making movies more than making music—and especially touring—these days. But he's in a strange, subdued place, judging by Grigoriadis's article; he's starting to feel his own mortality at the age of 30, and is, for the first time in his adult life, moping around doing nothing in particular.
I Almost Felt A Glimmer Of Jealousy At Not Being At Glastonbury, Until I Remembered The Mud by Charlie Brooker (The Guardian): Even over here in Australia it's a bit hard not to be a bit jealous of the Glastonbury Festival:
new songs from Radiohead!
Incredible performances from Janelle Monae and
Beyonce! U2 and Coldplay battling for vaguely-political arena rock supremacy! In the UK Glastonbury is fairly unavoidable, with the BBC running Glastonbury footage on 3 separate channels. And so Charlie Brooker—one of the very few TV critics who's also become a TV star—amusingly discusses the experience of watching Glastonbury on TV, minus the mud, and wonders why it is funny that it rained during U2's set.
Skewer Mouth by Dan Savage (The Strange): Dan Savage (who pretty much created the 'It Gets Better' project that got everyone from Ke$ha to Obama saying encouraging things to young gay kids struggling through high school) here interviews the singer-songwriter-comedian Tim Minchin about his curious mix of funny songs and hard-edged atheist/rationalist beliefs (e.g., his beat poetry piece 'Storm'). It's a great interview; Savage is sympathetic but questioning, and the result is a great insight into Minchin's mindset, on what he thinks about as he writes his songs.
Introducing The Queen Of Pop by Chris Molanphy (Rolling Stone): Is Beyonce the queen of pop? Or is it Lady Gaga? Or maybe Katy Perry? Who knows? Rolling Stone do! Molanphy here has taken a whole bunch of numbers which represent different parts of the music experience—everything from YouTube views to concert profits to Metacritic scores—and figured out who wins in a particular area. The actual answer, once they crunch all the numbers, is not super-surprising (you have to read the article, obviously), but both Taylor Swift and Shakira are much more popular than I realised.
Stop Being So Sensitive: Burly Men Become Girly Men, Turning Pop Music Into A Wuss-Case Scenario by Jim Farber (NY Daily News): Farber, I think, misses the good old days, when critically acclaimed indie/alternative music had balls; those days when the loud drums, desolate screams and loud guitars of bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden thumped their way into his heart. These days, it's all Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes—sensitive dudes who sing softly about their emotions. Of course, both Nirvana and Bon Iver are/were big because they appeal to people who are reacting against what they perceive to be the mainstream: in a world where Nickelback are pretty much the biggest hard rock band, it makes sense to sound like Bon Iver. Similarly, Nirvana were a reaction against safe, bland corporate rock (e.g., Bon Jovi). Then again, maybe Farber just needs to dig deeper? Titus Andronicus (see
'A More Perfect Union') and Fucked Up (see
'A Little Death') seem to fit his bill quite nicely, as far as critically acclaimed music with balls goes.
The Singles Bar: Lloyd ft. Lil Wayne & Andre 3000, 'Dedication To My Ex (Miss That)' by Katherine St. Asaph (Popdust): Assuming you've not been under a rock in the last year, you've probably had Cee-Lo's 'Fuck You' stuck in your head once or twice, right? Well, 'Dedication To My Ex' does irresistable retro soul just as well as 'Fuck You'—Lloyd does some pretty classic Michael Jackson impressions here—and is about as catchy. But 'Dedication To My Ex' is a pretty weird song to have stuck in your head, like I do right now (courtesy of pressing the play button on the YouTube link on Ms St. Asaph's post). This is because the lyrics in 'Dedication To My Ex' are wrong. Either that or Lloyd's ex had the most awesome pet cat ever.
Tim Byron