John Maus

Already I'm really sorry that this isn't the erstwhile John Walker.

So, if this guy had met Scott Walker....

Scott's a hip chappie; I'm sure he's very familiar with the Pink/Panda oeuvre...

I love this album. Really, really creepy. "My Whole World is Coming Apart" is great.

I kind of wish "Rights for Gays" wasn't on it even though it's one of the catchier songs and I'm sure he's sincere. It plays a little too much like a novelty song I think. But the rest of it is really excellent.

There's some other element besides Joy Divis./N.O. but I can't really put my finger on it... it's almost Italo-y in some parts I guess, but I don't think that's it.

I want to say there's a dash of Arthur Russell here and there, but pretty much everything these days is said to have a dash of Arthur Russell in it...

a few more comments here

I love the whole album, but "Do Your Best" is the one.

thx, and shame on me for not searching...

Right, who's up tomorrow in the "not that one" artist list? Yesterday was f/5ive...

this guy!

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61GH2KN4C9L._AA240_.jpg

Listening now and I love what I'm hearing. Yeah, its pretty fucked in a good way. Haunting vocals, 80's art damaged keyboards, like taking a bunch of downers and trying to make a skewed version of what you remembered late-night movie soundtracks sounded like. I agree "Best" is the one.

Haha. I found that Bobby Brown record in a dollar bin !

Yeah, "Rights for Gays" is awesome but when John Maus sings it sounds like a Ween song that you and your long lost friend have an inside joke with.

saw him last nite. the man is psychotic. he makes music for lonely folks. only for the faint of heart.

i love the music, but the vocals sounds like if the big horned tim curry demon from legend had his own bedroom pop project

Really loving this lately.

just wanted to bump this thread to say that love is real is one of my absolute faves of 2007/8 and it's sad it'll never get any poll luvv.

the vocals sounds like if the big horned tim curry demon from legend had his own bedroom pop project

how could you not want to check it out after reading that though?

I never really liked this dude but today this album was playing when I woke up from a nap and it all clicked and now I think this guy is incredible

Sex with god/sex on top of god

don't know anything but love is real, but prefer that to most ariel pink

"my whole world is coming apart" for all time

Sex in car/Sex with Ringo Starr...genius...

would love some new stuff from him

bow bow bow bow bowww

No love for "Quantum Leap"? The squiggly synth freakout about two minutes in, the awful/brilliant lyrics that really are about the TV show, anything?

http://www.ribbonmusic.com/label/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/WeMustBecomeThePitilessweb1.jpg

My second most anticipated album of the year just behind Gang Gang Dance, I think...

Didn't know a new song was out
I was thinking yesterday about how John Maus was probably my favourite musician living in Hawaii
I have no idea why I ever thought he was living there

i thought he lived there too. don't know where i got that tho

Maus lectures political philosophy at the University in Manoa.

Didn't know new work was on the way, excited!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMku-GbafEg

like.

also like

love his sound, though the songs are sometimes only halfway there

Sounds a bit like Shocking Pinks. That start bit I mean.

This has leaked, and it is glorious.

He expanded his sound so much on the new record. I stayed away from all the songs that were floating around the web already in live/demo versions, so it's all fresh to my ears. It's way less dense and galling a sound than the previous album. There's more room for fizzy frivolities, both synth and vocal wise. There's colorful backing vocals, This is still John Maus, mind, there's no 'wall of sound' all of a sudden, but there's so much more space in the sound. I can't describe it any other way. He's broadened his audio-scope for sure.

'Hey Moon' immediately stands out as an alternate-universe lullaby/love-song classic, warm glowing piano sounds tickled by metallic lo-fi beats he's got a patent on, a high pitched synth line swirling through the song coyly. And there's so much going on on this record, so much to discover and drop your jaw at. Wow.

'Matter of Fact' and 'Believer' instant faves too. Esp the latter, which chorus really reminds me of an eighties hit, but I can't for the life of me figure out which one.

Maybe it's just 10,000th 80s choruses

Can't wait to listen!

Yeah, good album. Interviewing the guy tomorrow, anyone want me to ask him anything?

Really enjoying the new album, as I said above.

Ned, I don't so much have a direct question, but I do wonder about his recording process. I believe he's still a philosophy professor, no? Does he pick a period to retreat in a home studio and write and record the album, or is it something that comes together over a long period of time, when he's got some spare time?
Not a real question but I'd be interested to learn more about this.

Could be fun! I'll ask and see.

Fun interview! Dude talks mile a minute but I like it!

PUSSY IS NOT A MATTER OF FACT

the last show I saw of his, his performance was pretty eclipsed by geneva jacuzzi's

funny that geneva jacuzzi hasn't really blown up yet in any way I know of and the last show I went to, one of the acts was a clone of hers

xp Was she wearing mime makeup?

The forthcoming tour will allow for compare/contrast again there -- he was also talking about how he's looking forward to playing with Puro again, loved them at the SXSW shows they did.

yeah her face was all made up

Did you get to discuss the recording process, his working ways? And if you don't mind me asking, for which publication are you writing this interview?

Great record, kicking myself for not seeing him live when he played round here 6 months back.

just want to say that jacuzzi is a must see live imo

saw her years ago and she was rolling on the floor screaming in sparkly clothes while a bunch of strobe lights went off and now she has like a whole fuckin stage performance, like she is a real live performer

But she's just a cdr performer. I would've been happy to see her when she came to town a couple weeks ago, but they doubled the ticket price from $10 to $20 ($7 for preorders).

Also, it was dance music and nobody was dancing. Trite complaint, I know, but I felt a little like dancing at the time.

man I didn't even mention the prerecorded aspect of it because I've just seen so many performances like that and was so happy to see one that was good

but yeah you made the right call $20 is way too expensive for her

Did you get to discuss the recording process, his working ways? And if you don't mind me asking, for which publication are you writing this interview?

I did, and you'll find out more when the piece runs next week in the OC Weekly. :-D (In brief, it's very much an on the fly thing.)

Maus/Puro playing in LA when I'm in town, I think the Echo.

Great Ned! :-) Looking forward to it!

Yeah, that lineup's playing earlier that week in Costa Mesa (thus the story).

Meanwhile, interview up at the Quietus:

http://thequietus.com/articles/06499-john-maus-interview

Yeah, good album. Interviewing the guy tomorrow, anyone want me to ask him anything?

man do i regret not reading this thread last week! i didnt have the record until this wknd tho...

This is a great record, I want to write more but my thoughts are mostly about "degradation" plug-ins, mastering to VHS, "Is this chillwave and what does liking it say about a man" etc.

"Is this chillwave and what does liking it say about a man"

hope it says good things!

yeah this is the sorta record that tempts you into writing/saying a bunch of grandiose garbage about it, mb? it also feels like the sorta thing that i might be embarrassed about liking cuz its so pseud-friendly

my thoughts are mostly like: '...'

I'm kind of worried about attending to it in too much depth.

Would love to see him live.. there's a great YT of him doing 'Matter Of Fact' in Paris, he looks like he gets into it.

Absolutely not making any grand theoretical statements about it, but... it is undeniable that it is a fucking great record.

It is a great record! Also thx this record for alerting me to the existence of Molly Nilsson, since "Hey Moon" was the track to leap out at me on the first few listens.

That is the first one that jumped out at me, as well.
Molly Nilsson, eh? Any relation?

The grand theoretical statements about this record are wildly offputting.

Probably so (ditto Ford & Lopatin), but the record IS pretty great. As is, of course, the Ford & Lopatin thing.

Hooray my interview. (Euclidean thoughts? Not my headline!)

Nice piece, Ned! And you indeed get him to talk about what he sees as the "artist's process", the unveiling of artistic work.

It does read as if you could've written an article four times as long!

Hahah I could well have done. But wordcounts are wordcounts!

That's not a bad headline! I thought it was gonna be "The Maus That Floored...Me" or something like that.

Every interview I read with that guy he's so Tragic and Heavy I LOVE IT

He actually sounded pretty exuberant! If intense.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/click-track/post/in-concert-john-maus-at-black-cat/2011/07/06/gIQAInK50H_blog.html

Washington Post writer hates the live show
an excerpt:

A number of questions run through your mind during a John Maus concert.

What's he saying? Is he being serious? Is he okay? Isn't this a Kajagoogoo song? Who told that kid dancing up front that was an acceptable haircut?

But one question comes up more than any other — what's the point?

When Maus performs, as he did Tuesday at the Black Cat's backstage, it's like '80s karaoke night minus the hits — plus a hint of crazy. For 25 minutes the 31-year-old electronic music composer stalked the stage, leaped into the air, pulled his hair and howled along to his pre-recorded music that sounded like the third generation audio cassette dub of a long-forgotten new wave band. The way he shouted, flexed and bulged his eyes you half expected his skin to turn green and for him to transform into The Incredible Maus.

Sounds like a review of mid-2000s Ariel Pink

All week I've been planning on picking this up after wory today, but now that BNM is going to mean it'll be sold out if they didn't order enough copies. Thats really my only beef with Pitchfork.

I've been a little lukewarm on his stuff prior to this album, but "Cop Killer" and all the iTunes samples I've heard make this sound like pretty much the perfect fit for my ears in 2011.

I've never seen him live, but the pics at that Washington Post link are pretty hilarious.

(to be fair, there are tons of bands I love where live pics of them wouldn't do any justice to how intense the shows can actually be)

Hmm. Do people really have a problem with "Rights For Gays"? I'm surprised that people would write it off as a piss-take.

John's live show reminds me of the live shows of other people I know who also went to CalArts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLpadyo9cFw

When I saw him last, his laptop was screwing up with the playback and he shook it and pounded it, in character, 'til it fixed itself. I love this guy.

Pfork article also singles out the gorgeous (imo) "Tenebrae" as a misstep.

Although I disagree with some people who see "Rights For Gays" and "Tenebrae" as missteps, or others who say "Cop Killer" or "Matter Of Fact" are missteps... there's something about John's ironic approach to lyric writing-- real, literate irony, the duality of meaning etc., not 'moustache on a trucker hat' irony-- that kind of makes these differences of opinion a non-issue? I mean, I feel like the unimpeachable pop hit "Believer" is in fact unsophisticated in comparison, but I am cool with the fact that somebody would prefer John Maus when he's singing about Jackie Chan instead of riskier stuff

0 stars in Slant

http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/review/john-maus-we-must-become-the-pitiless-censors-of-ourselves/2552

When I find nothing redeeming in 90% of an album's content I will usually, out of something like sportsmanship, at least entertain the hypothesis that I just didn't get it. In this case, I can't bring myself to care. There's obviously some kind of art-school mindfuckery afoot here, and I suspect that Maus aspires to some meta-theoretical point on the level of "But really, what is music anyway?" And maybe reality is just the hallucination of a five-dimensional computerized intelligence! Generous guy that I am, I'll concede that We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves does, on some level, constitute music. Really shitty music.

I just...

There's obviously some kind of art-school mindfuckery afoot here I mean seriously, dude, what? How cynical must one have become to even think this is "obviously" what is going on? Critic in completely-not-getting-it and not-being-able-to-detect-earnestness-and-sincere-music-so-it-must-be-mindfuckery shocker...

What a piece of shit that review, gah. Can't get over it.

The "writer" weighs in in the comments there, saying: "Consider this a satire on an unlikely and undeserving cult hero."

Right.

Stopped reading at this piece of shit opinion: "The Walker Brothers produced little memorable music as a unit"

I know, so so wrong.

What a waste of bytes and time that review is, christ. It is unhealthily winding me up.

loved this dude last time I saw him

chillwave klaus kinski

i'm all about this album

http://pitchfork.com/tv/#/1/1730-john-maus/2784-live-at-glasslands/

I love this guy so much. Can't wait to see him live.

I like him, but i really don't get the huge critical adoration. Maybe dude is just so successful with justifying his retro shtick with intellectual/performance theory word-games it gives writers a boner.

Though i love this

There's just something about a metal skeleton coming out of fire that's really poetic and just extraordinary

Uh oh, I think I'm going to eat my own words with that 1st post.

Mmm... It seems people who don't particularly get the critical acclaim always call it things like a "schtick", like you do as well. I don't think his music is a "schtick" at all. He's got a distinctive style, but why do people with John Maus call it a "schtick" so often? Most bands have a particular style but their sounds doesn't get called "schtick". Is it the retro sound that makes people think his music is a gimmick, tongue-in-cheek? I think he's completely sincere about his music.

b/c lofi 80s appropriations are a schtick now? i think its pretty fair 2 say that what is distinctive about maus is his approach to publicity and interviews

i dont know anything about his interviews or publicity but his new album sounds like someone drowning in the deep end of chillwave, like dredging up the queasier elements.

that is, i like it

i can agree on characterizing dude as "queasy chillwave dredge"

chillwave klaus kinski

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Monday, 18 July 2011 00:55 (3 days ago)

not an upbeat churl then

someone link me to one of these interviews

This album is SO good. I've had little wisps of almost every single song in my head almost constantly over the past week.

It's pretty interesting to find myself muttering things like "cop killer, let's kill all the cops tonight, kill them" on the subway with my headphones on...

ya that song is the best

the deal with John Maus is that his hooks are better & catchier than the hooks of people working a similar angle. love this guy

It's pretty interesting to find myself muttering things like "cop killer, let's kill all the cops tonight, kill them" on the subway with my headphones on...
i find myself cringing at the lyrics -- especially this track. the sounds/melodies/hooks are so nice though.. the lyrics actually feel like total fluff. odd to see him rambling about conceptual stuff on youtube, considering this. i suppose the simplicity of it is interesting.

are all of the female vocals on 'hey moon' samples? i was surprised by this fact.

Fluff can be hard to do and nice to hear.

Female vocals on Hey Moon are by Molly Nilsson, the woman who wrote the song. Look a little upthread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ594IL_wyw

yah, thanks. i was curious if she actually sang (later) on the maus album track, or if her vocals were solely samples.

Couldn't tell you

Reviews are calling it a duet

I haven't even read much on this album but lol @ the critical reception of this vs. his earlier shit

plz listen to my new album on spotify

"Mr. Le Bateau Ivre, will you take 'We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves', to be your man, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; and promise to be faithful until death parts you?"

"Hey Moon! Believer! I do!"

Keeps on opening up, this beaut. Way more than his previous album even, which I did not think was possible. Album of the year. I'm calling it.

I listened to this once very recently, and found it unlistenable for the most part. is it a grower?

*caveat: since discovering that King Creosote/Jon Hopkins collab nearly all new music sounds relatively unlistenable to me, so i might just be biased.

I think it's rather unlikely for an album to be a 'grower' for you if your first verdict was unlistenable.

i will give it another go, but it just sounded like Ariel Pink with more synths. Maybe I'm missing the point.

I must admit I’m not really feeling Pitiless Censors.

I understand what he’s trying to do – the notion of some scavenger from the future, stumbling upon this ancient, decaying mass called “eighties synthpop” and trying to wind it up back into life (at least I think that’s what he’s going for) – but alas the songs have no tunes, the overabundant echo (presumably there to mask vocal technical deficiencies) renders all of them lyrically incomprehensible, and the overall feeling is one of a Peter Murphy solo demo circa 1988.

People like DAM Funk and Oneohtrix Point Seven hover around the same territory but pull it off with much more style, humour and genuine boué.

Marcello, my first take was much like yours, but then the melodies started to emerge from the reverbed morass after a few listens, and I began to be able to understand snippets of the vocals. Then a bit more, and then more. I actually find it to be highly tuneful, almost irritatingly so given how frequently I've had songs from the record in my head recently. For me, it's the definition of a grower (but it didn't take long to grow). I feel Oneohtrix is mining totally different territory, FWIW.

Yes, I am aware that I could just as well be talking about the Jesus and Mary Chain in 1985 as far as reverbed morass is concerned! Well, I'll give it a few months and see if it grows on me.

the overall feeling is one of a Peter Murphy solo demo circa 1988.

Ah, no wonder I love it!

Marcello summed it up perfectly for me. I'm getting to the end of my tether with things that have been so deliberately FX'd till all you hear is a smudge of a song. It worked for a while, and don't get me wrong, I love a bit of AC and Ariel Pink and it's good when people get creative with unorthodox production, but this is turning into a default aesthetic for so many underground artists. Just punching the "chillwave" button is a lazy excuse for poor execution. It's like that Baths album, which again I find unlistenable because it's been smothered with extreme compression and reverb.

I feel you on that, but it doesn't destroy the record for me. I firmly believe, however, that this would be an unimpeachably great record even if it were recorded with the starkest clarity.

Reviews are calling it a duet
― Trip Maker, Saturday, 23 July 2011 22:35 (6 days ago) Bookmark

Re: the Molly Nilsson - the liner notes on the CD say that the song "contains samples" of the song.

I'm not getting jm either but that molly nilsson cover/remix/whatev is gorg mostly due to molly nilsson I'm guessing

sounds to me like he just sang over the original track and sweetened it up a bit

It's like that Baths album, which again I find unlistenable because it's been smothered with extreme compression and reverb

the baths album is going for something totally different imo. the compression is of the rhythmic sidechain/flylo variety, and there is a ton of detail and clarity in the beats.

now I want to listen to that baths album

sidechaining? sign me up

Just punching the "chillwave" button is a lazy excuse for poor execution

fwiw maus has been making great records very similar to this one since at least 2006, long before chillwave was a thing... doesn't this album fall more into the minimal wave revival stuff like xeno and oaklander way more than chillwave anyway?

i mean idk how theyre selling it these days but i got into the last maus album at about the same time as i was buying every blank dogs 7" i could get my hands on. seems funny that critics are just now hopping on board and having to contextualize this stuff for 2011

Just punching the "chillwave" button is a lazy excuse for poor execution

I'm sorry DL but just saying it is "chillwave" is a lazy excuse for being unable to explain why you dislike it. I mean, fair enough you don't like it, but John Maus = Chillwave? Seriously? No way.

doesn't this album fall more into the minimal wave revival stuff like xeno and oaklander way more than chillwave anyway?

OTM... Less po-facedly serious and industrial-ish than lots of the Wierd Records stuff, but there's echoes of Martial Canterel, etc.

Fair enough folks, I know I certainly haven't listened to it quite enough - these are very much initial reactions about both baths and jm - reactions compared to what I'm hearing a lot of right now. Tbf I need to sit down with this properly before passing sweeping judgements on what might be very good indeed.

I wouldn't call John Maus "chillwave" either, no way no how, but son of a gun, I'll be danged if I didn't include this album on an iTunes playlist of mine called - you guessed it - "chillwave"...alongside the likes of Ariel Pink, Toro y Moi, Washed Out, Ford & Lopatin, etc...I mean, sure, not all "chillwave", but they really seem to get along well...so, there's that.

You don't know how happy it makes me that the days of the record store are coming to an end. $20 for an LP? Do you remember going to the record store and not getting what you want because there was no other place to get it? Now we can get it all for free, and I think that's wonderful. There was always something really depressing to me about record stores and music equipment stores. There's something oppressive about them, like the guy who looks you up and down and looks at what you're buying. You're bound up in exchange with the snobby clerk. So I'm glad they all have little "closed" signs on their doors now.

Remind me to punch this clown in the throat if I ever see him

is that an interview quote?

p-fork interview here: http://pitchfork.com/features/guest-lists/8003-john-maus/

i don't think he could have come off any worse if he'd tried...i have no interest in "chillwave", but even less-so having spent any time reading that brief interview.

FWIW, I wasn't saying he was necessarily chillwave, just his music is one of many that exhibit those purposefully muddy/lo-fi production jobs that kind of don't feel necessary.

*reminds If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport to punch John Maus in the throat if he ever sees him*

i knew ilm could be insufferable but lately this thread takes the cake

musician has opinion about record stores that incites esteemed ilxor If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport to violence, feebs hit wrists to chest every time the word "chillwave" is invoked because they are retarded.

stay classy Matt P

fuck you bitch

Matt P, go check out the "S/D: IDM" thread to feel warm about ILM again... I'm only mildly kidding; the discussion going on there is U&K.

Remind me to punch this clown in the throat if I ever see him

― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Wednesday, 3 August 2011 15:59 (1 hour ago)

dude's fuckin huge, I would train a bit first

imo just go to his live show, it's him punching himself in the throat over an over

lol Cal Arts

buzza

yeah that's a good thread. xp

sorry i called you a bitch jon. turns out im the one who needs to chillwave out.

buzza

Well, Yglesias is a fan. At least of the title.

so i am going to see him tonight

i have been led to expect *crazy things*

is this going to be like bauhaus + soul junk or what

also tropic of cancer is opening but they are not really my thing (death to false techno)

can we please mandate that the right John Maus thread is the one where Whiney calls him a "worthless VHS idiot"

i love this guy and think that thread is dumb.

and i know none of his backstory which seems to make people annoyed, cos i have a life.

hmm that's an odd slur coming from a guy that fucks w/ pre-biggie rap and dope 77-85 reggae

so you're telling me to expect a worthless vhs idiot

:-(

at least i didn't pay for these tix

whoops that was xpost to aero

i learned about three completely-new-to-me musicians today: frank ocean, twin shadow and john maus. i think i liked john maus' music the best.

i wonder if he'll do something stupid in honor of comic-con

i recommend keeping john maus in mind for christmas 2012, that album is burnt into my mind for christmas 2011. "believer" actually sounds like some hipster "last christmas" shit, amazing.

you know i think i like that type of stuff the least!

but i really like the muy dramatico tracks like "cop killer" and "don't worship the devil" and i like devo-type things like "navy seals".

i am hoping it will be more a.r.e. weapons and less twin shadow, is that a false hope?

that was sporadically awesome and he def punched himself a lot

What do you think of "rights for gays"?

there was some classic whiney g vitriol in that other thread, also pics of cute rodents

I still like the one john maus record I have I gotta say

he played rights for gays! it was awesome and my mormon friend was pumping the fist to it.

I used "mastering to VHS" to describe Maus itt, as a compliment, though.

Rereading that other thread I can't really say there's much distinction between Maus' "inside voice" and Whiney's, get Whiney talking about a nacho or about Canadian rap and he'll say some flaming things too

He punches himself during live performances?

Briefly saw him in Peckham last year for the Upset the Rhythm fest (Dan Deacon was playing upstairs, think No Age did the second day etc), his mic broke, lol it was like Barry from Eastenders in Extras in that he carried on not giving a fuck.

Ronan's right about 'Believer'.

The new rarities comp is pretty, pretty wonderful too.

people used to master to 1630 all the time actually

all he does live is punch himself and hit himself in the head w/ the mic, he's great, v tall

that was sporadically awesome and he def punched himself a lot

― the late great, Sunday, July 15, 2012 3:54 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Saw him live last week ... pretty awful/hilarious. Like, I understand if you're a press-play-&-karaoke-your-own-songs performer and feel the need to maybe compensate by "losing yr shit onstage" and "going bananananans" etc., but someone needs to sit him down for a bit and explain that his stage persona undercuts like 95% of his show and maybe consider toning down the pacing around / intense-hair-grabbing / GRRRR INTENSE stuff?

Sounds entertaining. But I think I'd rather just listen to his records.

i don't understand how him jumping around and being intense undercuts the performance when that is the performance?

i don't understand how him jumping around and being intense undercuts the performance when that is the performance?

If I'm parsing you correctly, it's because the "intensity" seems like so much of a put-on (ie, pre-meditated / disingenuous) that it was unintentionally funny, which almost never happens? Thrashing around on stage and looking like you've got bees in yr pants is a pretty standard performative pose; usually, as someone in the audience, you either buy in or watch w/o much interest in the physical performance. Out of the thousand different ways a singer can look intense onstage, he found some sweet-spot where he looked silly enough that I was perma-chuckling/cringing for the whole 30+ minutes. It probably didn't help that he was kind of running through the same four or five physical ticks throughout the whole show.

There was other stuff not to like -- same echo effect on vox, bad skip-track transitions -- but I thought his stage presence was irl lol. Then again I didn't spend any money on the show, so can't really complain that much.

This is coming from someone who likes his music fwiw.

i bought in pretty easily

i admit i did go outside during the last two because i felt like i had seen all of his poses by then but i also just wanted fresh air

i liked his unamplified screaming parts too because there

Huh, I might be in the minority then, although I saw a few people around me who were lolling as well (I was kind of on the outskirts though, rather than down front w/ people who were a little more amped). Was just disappointed since I really like the tracks he puts out; but, if other people are connecting to it, I guess, more power to him.

i liked his unamplified screaming parts

Agreed, which is always good!

i was lolling too, i think inside john maus was lolling at times, the only people who never cracked a smile were the girls from tropic of cancer, who i was surprised to see were unaccompanied by silent servant, who was also lolling

it was lolling with rather than lolling at

my friend regifted to john maus a carpentry and paint build-your-own-toy-pirate-ship kit that i had given him, john maus lolled at that but i think that was lolling at

http://devonrecordclub.wordpress.com/2012/12/05/john-maus-we-must-become-the-pitiless-censors-of-ourselves-round-41-toms-selection/

That album has only gone up and up in my estimation since last year. It's a record I can just have on repeat and not notice it's been looping for about three hours. Helps that it's nice and short.

no one's been talking about it here but the 'rarities & unreleased material' record is a party & absolutely worth your time.

It certainly is a grower and I find the sound of the album - that deliberately 80s sounding synth cheese with doomy vocals thing - to be really intriguing...it should be awful!

now on his wikipedia:

Underground Releases
1984: Maus
1985: Maus Time
1986: Baumaus
1987: Man or Maus?
1988: Maus and the Gang
1989: Maus and the Gang 2: Return of the Maus
1990: Maus and the Gang 3: This Time It's Mausy
1991: The Janitor's First LP, with Sam Anderson and Cory Boik
1992: The Janitor's Second LP, with Sam Anderson and Cory Boik
1993: A Janitor's EP, with Sam Anderson and Cory Boik
1994: Early Songs 1, with Cory Boik
1995: Early Songs 2
1996: Early Songs 3
1997: Early Songs 4
1998: Mass Appeal, with the Tony Alonso Ensemble
1998: The Mystery Molasses LP, with Ian Stahl, Jay Jensen, Gabe Schlake and Jess Bednar
1998: Early Songs 5
2000: Fish With Broken Dreams
2000: Love Letters From Hell
2001: Snowless Winters EP
2003: I Want to Live
2011: Demos

"Believer" is some next level shit

pretty much

All-time break down

Psyched to hear that he's planning new music for next year.

We Must Become has to be one of the most surprisingly enduring records I've heard in recent years. I didn't expect to give it more than just a cursory listen when it first came out, but I ended up just having it on repeat for weeks and I still play certain tracks on a fairly frequent basis.

^^ otm. It's in my top ten of the last ten years probably. Never expected it because his previous work was so scruffy and scrappy, but We Must Become is a stone cold classic start to finish.

Great news that he's going to make music again, was afraid he'd stick to lecturing.

I just got my first Twitter follower who's not a member of my family - John Maus!

just realized new gold dream by simple minds feels like a total blueprint for the john maus vibe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzMgfi9y-nc

https://t.co/NebtrtwBRF
Aug 19th

— John Maus (@JOHNMAUS) May 18, 2017

Aug 19 at moma?

Hope it’s something to do with Spotify.

I can sort of understand the New Gold Dream comparison in terms of the kinds of chord changes used.. I'm always thinking in terms of arrangements/sonics

when's he dropping a new album?

^^^^^^^^^^

i think he said in an interview a few years so he wanted to have a live band for his next album

huh

https://youtu.be/g_WPWpo2AXU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_WPWpo2AXU

i hope john maus finds what he's looking for

I do too. This is awesome though.

really liked that but I will never not call him "worthless vhs idiot john maus" in my mind

keep the meme alive!

is this guy the pretentious Ariel Pink?

adam what are you using the word pretentious for, is it cuz of philosophy

I'm excited.

I've been popping maus all day, would love to see him live

he is amazing imo.

I'd basically given up on him coming back with new music, so when I say I'm excited, you'd better believe I mean I AM EXCITED.

Count me EXCITED as well

"The Combine" is from the forthcoming album Screen Memories by worthless VHS idiot JOHN MAUS available October 27, 2017. Screen Memories is also a part of a career-spanning limited edition 6 LP box set being released in April 2018.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kF2-Cr6yX4

Dear worthless VHS idiot JOHN MAUS,

It's good to have you back.

Yours,

I like the new one, some very nice synth solos. Compositionally and production wise, could fit in well on that Rarities disc.

Damn. He's coming to town opening for a.pink but don't want any of my money going to AP. 30 bucks for an opening act is steep.

^ especially steep if Maus's live set is still just him singing and shouting over his music played on an iPod.

I saw Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti years ago because Os Mutantes were opening. I thought AP was pretty good! I was impressed by how the band seemed to capture the washed-out VHS sound of his records in a live show. But this was before all the controversy and I was a few drinks in by the time he came onstage.

definitely one of those acts that is great after a few drinks ... or more

AP music is good!! but yeah he is a garbage person

well was good, i just like the old lofi stuff mostly. crut you really should check out "the doldrums" album at least once..

i hate ap but love his music so i got a ticket, fetch :(

yeah I like The Doldrums!

just him singing and shouting over his music played on an iPod

this sounds extremely appealing to me and is why i bought tickets earlier

That was APs set up when I saw him like a decade ago. I like his music but he's a choad and has been rude to me a couple of times.

i think maus is playing with a band now

maus back

part of me wishes ppl stopped making music like this and ppl like him and ariel pink would just die or fade into obscurity so that i could compartmentalize it in my mind, maybe eventually be nostalgic about it..... but that song is p good

maus' music kind of makes me nauseous and puts me in a foul mood and i like it a lot. i'm not sure what other musician does that for me

leaked?

Yep.

WMBTPCOOS has to be one of the most surprisingly enduring albums that I know. I gave it, what I assumed was going to be, a cursory listen when it came out but then ended up buying the record and now I still play it quite regularly

Same for me. It's a classic album imo, and it clicked right away with me.

I've only heard the new one once; not sure it will be as classic for me, but it's what he does best and I really enjoy it.

"Your pets will die" ;_;

Touchdown is already a classic for me

I like the ones that sound like they could have come from the b sides collection , Esp Teenage witch.

And Could there be a connection with Pink's kitchen witch?

Latter kind of seems like a glammed up version of the former?

Just listening to his latest, "Screen Memories" and I am really enjoying it. It feels like a guilty pleasure. Somehow it reminds me of Lansing-Dreiden as it also succeeds in recreating the new wave sound of the early eighties without aping/cloning it. Usually retro music bores me to death but this is different. He does his own thing and somehow it works. Surprised that there isn't more discussion on him around here.

New album's great!! Probably not better than Pitiless Censors but it's definitely more well-produced

Hell yes, new album rules. IDK if it's actually better than his last records but it's easily my favorite thing he's made.

Maybe it's because the production is better. Thinking why I had a hard time connecting with previous records of his, the production was probably it

Also the RA review suggested that the current political climate (of horrors) is a better context for his style of music, and it does feel like a timely record

his AMA is predictably good reading https://www.reddit.com/r/indieheads/comments/8jp4qx/im_john_maus_ama/

Thanks for that

Follow your nose, philosophize with your nose! Wikipedia, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Beginners Guide comic series, The Giants of Philosophy narrated by Charlton Heston--things like that. They'll all give you the standard caricature, e.g., "Hegel is about the acorn becoming an oak", stuff like that... Then, smarmy, uptight, grad-students with no love in their hearts will kick you in crotch (and do it speaking perfect French) when you try to weigh in on the basis of that knowledge so you'll read each of three critiques from cover to cover carefully underlining everything that is important, you'll keep reading, reading it all, always the original book, always from cover to cover, and then when smarmy grad student comes to kick you down you'll just feel bad for them... They'll say something like, "Yeah, I wrote an essay about how I want to make out with Walter Benjamin." And you'll say something like, "Huh? You know my brother just got down slugging through the Arcades Project, have you ever read that one?" And they'll say, "Yeah, I think so..." Then, you'll think to yourself, 'geese, it took my brother several weeks to slug through that several hundred page collection of fragments and aphorisms, it's something I don't think he'll ever forget, and here this person is telling they're not even sure if they read it! Damn, I guess I won't even bother trying to dialog about On Language As Such and On the Language of Man, even though the profound insights contained in that essay illuminate the truths contained in the story of the fall in ways I haven't even begun to unpack, because this one I'm talking to now is no good.' Then, later, you'll be in New York City and you'll politely try to make conversation with someone standing there, and you'll ask them: "What do you do?" and they'll say "I work for an art collector" and you'll say "cool, what sorts of art are you into?" and they'll say "well, right now, I'm into garbage" and you'll think to yourself 'how many of these robots are there?'

:D

The new one didn’t click with me at first but I just gave it a re listen and it’s excellent. Maybe a little more low key than Pitiless, which I think is his best. Love his synth tones.

his AMA is fantastic lmao, exactly what I'd expect

has anyone else listened to Addendum yet? I'm enjoying it a fair bit more than Screen Memories

Really sad news: https://pitchfork.com/news/joseph-maus-john-maus-brother-and-bandmate-dead-at-30/

wow, that's horrible. I hadn't realised that was his brother

I wonder if he got hit by the viral lung thing going around Europe -- it's apparently really dangerous because the symptoms are pretty mild.

He has gone full Maga and was at the 'protests'

https://www.clashmusic.com/news/it-looks-like-ariel-pink-john-maus-attended-the-washington-dc-protests

I can’t say I’m entirely shocked by this after the Adult Swim fiasco but this nonetheless makes me feel a bit sick. Pink has always been beyond the pale politically but this seems pretty desperate for both of them.

I love Maus’ stuff and this just sux

"welcome to the panoptigan" tweets pink. "panoptigan", jfc

https://t.co/OXAVV9jk2d

— John Maus (@JOHNMAUS) January 7, 2021

pic.twitter.com/ejXD5DKHq6

— John Maus (@JOHNMAUS) January 7, 2021

god that's an annoying, pretentious, opaque way to try and defend himself

i knew so many guys like this dude in grad school, always covering their asses by gesturing like mysterioso postmodern oracles to cover the fact that they were just lazy middlebrow dilettantes

I mean by partaking in that riot/insurrection Maus is hypocritically exalting Donald Trump. What a hypocritical and sad attempt at some form of defense. Kinda want to throw my copy of Screen Memories in the trash now.

Also tweeted a photo of Edith Stein, who was killed at Auschwitz. After attending a riot with Nazis.

i knew so many guys like this dude in grad school, always covering their asses by gesturing like mysterioso postmodern oracles to cover the fact that they were just lazy middlebrow dilettantes

― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Thursday, January 7, 2021 10:35 AM (twenty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

not sure it's very pomo to cite piux xii

heart to heart, mind to mind

xp ha fair. theres a long list of things that tweet is 'not very'

god that's an annoying, pretentious, opaque way to try and defend himself

Par for the course. From a Vice interview when he was asked about the Adult Swim fiasco:

...a few months later or whatever, one of the people from the label was like, “Yo, did you see this? You gotta say something.” “They’re Nazis,” or something like that.

Shit. A cult of a race and blood—that’s an absolute obscenity. That’s nothing other than disaster. That’s just inarguably obscene, that sort of ideology.

If the question too is why not just throw in your two cents about it or whatever, it’s just so insanely complicated the way the biopolitics and the cults of race and blood, the residues of that, are rearing their ugly faces again in our situation. That’s too complicated a thing to try to touch with [140] characters without running the risk of just turning the screw.

I don’t want to make any apology, but I also didn’t want to… The guys I met were nice. They weren’t burning crosses or doing anything like that. In other words, I never had, from what I know about it, any indication that anything other than certain instances of a sort of trolling was going on. What did they do that made them Nazis? Maybe I haven’t looked into it. Or why were they alt-right people?

When he was asked about one particular sketch:

The one I was on, there was a sketch at the beginning of it where these guys are sitting at a wine-tasting party or something like that, and their wives are there, and they make a point of the character—one of the wives is off-putting. She scowls and things like that. One of the guys trips her, and she falls through glass, and it tears up her face, and she’s bleeding.

Now immediately, I’m thinking of "Metalocalypse." I’m thinking of phantasmagorical humor, like a person gets their arm ripped off or something, and there’s something absurd about that. I didn’t think much beyond that about it.

Then people were like, “This is a misogynist sketch.” Then in that sense I’m thinking of the French feminist theory, this whole reading of it from that standpoint: the men do not acknowledge the woman as an agent, as having any subjectivity. She’s just an object in their patriarchal economy. In that sense, it’s like a feminist critique of where a woman is made to stand in a patriarchal, heteronormative reality. The idea that it just encourages violence against women, maybe I’m just too dumb. I didn’t see that or something like that. I don’t know.

ay ay ay. please fuck off john you total wank

"maybe I'm just too dumb" following a long equivocating non-apology....classic bullshit move

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n35wAjB_u78/T1G-sL_peBI/AAAAAAAABJc/UZc0x2bI0M8/s400/Caveman+Lawyer+Jury.png

What did they do that made them Nazis? Maybe I haven’t looked into it.
What did they do that made them Nazis? Maybe I haven’t looked into it.
What did they do that made them Nazis? Maybe I haven’t looked into it.
What did they do that made them Nazis? Maybe I haven’t looked into it.
What did they do that made them Nazis? Maybe I haven’t looked into it.
What did they do that made them Nazis? Maybe I haven’t looked into it.
What did they do that made them Nazis? Maybe I haven’t looked into it.
What did they do that made them Nazis? Maybe I haven’t looked into it.
What did they do that made them Nazis? Maybe I haven’t looked into it.
What did they do that made them Nazis? Maybe I haven’t looked into it.

well uh I guess based on recent developments “cop killer” makes him pretty consistent.

my guess is when he eventually gets pressed further on this, he'll deny any support for trump & denounce him further in a convoluted manner, explain that he "has his disagreements with ariel" and that he was just observing & not participating in the protests

i don't think he's sincerely a trump supporter or anything like ariel is, just very stupid about this sort of stuff as he has been in the past, which is enough to make me say "come on dude"

That's the most waffling, arse-covering, disingenuous reading of that Adult Swim sketch. The woman isn't 'off-putting' she doesn't 'scowl and things' she's considered too unattractive to marry the guy's brother, he says so and then trips her up deliberately. It was revolting and anyone with any sense called it out at the time. 'Feminist theory'?? What a complete arsehole.

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/11/the-raging-battle-over-adult-swims-alt-right-tv-show/508016/

guys like this just think they are so interesting

I forgot that Brett Gelman quit Adult Swim because of that show, as well as the network's poor track record on working with female talent... that was pretty cool, and somewhat ahead of the game.

John Maus was radicalised by this post pic.twitter.com/XwC79T2ZhD

— All Watched Over By Machines of Drum and Bass (@bartlebooth45) January 7, 2021

Lol that was so satisfying after that overwrought and pretentious explanation.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91p17bGVEXL.jpg

In case anyone was wondering, I'm a lifelong supporter of Antifa. Like most of us, I was appalled by what we saw in DC this week and by the people present there. In response to this DSA and Night School Records have decided to release a 7” single of my original song Hey Moon (2008), with ALL PROFITS from the sale donated to BLACK LIVES MATTER worldwide.
Pre-orders available now and shipping as soon as we have them (approximately 10 weeks from the moment I type this). Pre-orders from DSA online shop or Bandcamp available now
Molly Nilsson, 2021
https://mollynilsson.bandcamp.com/album/hey-moon

worthless VHS idiot JOHN MAUS #neverforget

Most tedious thing said by worthless VHS idiot JOHN MAUS in p4k interview

don't wanna be the poster boy for the unintended effects of so-called cancel culture but I'd never heard of this guy before the Trump shit last week and then this revive in which he comes off like a total douche but I was curious so I checked out some of his music and really liked it in spite of myself

not gonna buy any of his albums or anything though

We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves is a bona fide indie-synth albun and I think that's why this is hurting us all a bit. As you say though, he's never come across as a super-great dude though.

"bona fide classic indie synth album" I should say

I had "Believer" at #2 in my tracks list for 2011, the only year I ever put a top 200 together, the rest of the LP was less good but still annoyed that it feels tainted now.

We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves is a bona fide indie-synth albun and I think that's why this is hurting us all a bit.

yeah that's the one I randomly sampled, hoping I'd dislike it as much as I have always disliked or at least been indifferent to Ariel Pink, but I couldn't really deny how much I immediately liked it.

yeah i still love that album, it's not like ariel where i wrote him off as intolerable years ago and this hasn't changed that. i'm disappointed but it's par for the cause with him being buddies with ariel. if he fully commits to the sort of shit that ariel has then that would probably be exhausting enough to be done with him though

he's mostly come across as a pretentious fool though in general, and this is just an extension of that. there's a weird disconnect though because he's always going off on elaborate philosophical tangents in interviews and you can tell he deeply thinks and cares about what he's doing in his art in that vein but that pretentiousness doesn't really come across at all in his music which is fairly minimal both musically and lyrically. like maybe it's possible to find the classical composition techniques he deeply cares about in his music but it's not something that's particularly obvious.

as far as him coming across badly in the past, not just as a fool, there's this strange piece (somewhat like an interview but not really) https://www.adhoc.fm/post/re-dear-john-maus-how-are-you/ where he says that "bennington" is autobiographical and proceeds to share his deeply weird & somewhat creepy email correspondence with its subject. that section is near the bottom after some walls of text on other topics.

"Quantum Leap" is a good song but I always thought his live sets looked stupid af

Someone on his Facebook fan group has uncovered evidence which appears to show that Maus has donated to Sanders, Yang and Trump in the last 12 months

lol

He loves politics, all of it!

poisoned galaxy brain

galaxy brainworms

idk still workshopping this post

PaulTMA at 3:16 14 Jan 21
Someone on his Facebook fan group has uncovered evidence which appears to show that Maus has donated to Sanders, Yang and Trump in the last 12 months


think we're gonna need a bigger galaxybrain.jpg

Best I can do

trying to cover all his bases if he needed a pardon in the future?

lol imagine being john maus and donating your actual money to donald trump, lol i cant even with this guy

"JOHN M., we need your help! Donate now and claim your FREE GIFT!" lolol what a fucking moron

i bet he thought he was playing 5D chess donating to bernie & yang on some rush limbaugh Operation Chaos shit

From what I saw the trajectory of the donations was early 2020: Bernie & Yang; late 2020: Winred. This is reminiscent of an anything-but-Hilary bro type I encountered in grad school (though I dunno if he would have joined the Yang gang).

i want to say, "wtf?? This guy seemed too smart for this garbage behavior/ideology" ... however I know a guy who graduated from Harvard and was also a smart guy that has somehow expatriated to stupid QAnon talking points, so ... I sense a pattern. Also Maus' donation pattern is definitely that of a white dude.

idk donating to all three is a little strange and I don't think I've ever met anyone who would do this

like I can definitely think of a couple Types Of Guys who would do this for a couple different reasons but I've never actually encountered any in the wild

i realize his responses to this were insufficient (he quoted some part of the Bible? lol) but i kinda feel bad for the backlash he’s getting which should really be directed 100% to abuser and trump supporter ariel pink. maybe im naive but i buy that he was attending out of sociological curiosity, i feel like the presence of the tfw no gf documentarian is corroborative

i was reading his statements about the alt right cartoon show, where he doesnt defend it but also resists giving the kind of pro forma denunciation that’s necessary. he’s just like “from the clips i saw i thought it was hyper violence like superjail and the animators seemed nice.” i get why that’s not enough for some, but it’s not like he says “no this show is actually good” it’s more pleading ignorance

i get that some people thought it was cool that he was a dark radical philosophy prof and connected with what they imagined to be his politics and are letdown. i have some friends who are in humanities and do the edgy pseudo profundity thing where you flirt with dark ideas and go on evil parts of the internet in this anthropological way and then smoke cigarettes and talk about Bataille, and they all think of themselves as radical leftists but also have some truly idiotic and reactionary opinions (mostly around race/gender) that would get them cancelled if they were public figures. that part of vhs idiot Jon Maus was always lame to me, so i don’t feel letdown and feel no anguish blasting ‘cop killer’

maus donated to winred? Jesus...

don't worry flopson i know that ariel pink is a worse person than john maus

its weird to me that ppl are so invested in a framing of this that casts ariel pink as a charismatic villain and maus as a Good Guy Who Got In Over His Head. Maus donated 4-figure sums to getting trump reelected, attended the protest, then got busted trying to cover his ass about it, saying 'ariel went down there to meet with someone about a project and i tagged along', and then pink saying 'hell yeah i went there to go to support donald j trump'. at what point does engaging with trump support in a detached anthropological way become actual trump support?

simplest explanation just seems like he supports trump but is afraid of the financial/career consequences of being publicly identified with it, not exactly the first person to get caught in that quandary

There are radical leftists, especially Marxists, who supported Trump out of a Hegelian desire to heighten the contradictions of our society. Some of these people are appalled at the idea that this is accelerationism, which is too crude in their view. I feel that John Maus, with his talk of the truth content of his work lying in negation and other sort of Adornian themes or whatever, is likely one of these guys. And in the words of Jeff Tweedy, liberal sentimentalist, “no it’s not OK.”

i have some friends who are in humanities and do the edgy pseudo profundity thing where you flirt with dark ideas and go on evil parts of the internet in this anthropological way and then smoke cigarettes and talk about Bataille, and they all think of themselves as radical leftists but also have some truly idiotic and reactionary opinions (mostly around race/gender) that would get them cancelled if they were public figures.

yeah, i think that's how it started with this Harvard guy ... and I definitely have other friends (who are also friends of this guy) who are similar but not quite as "far gone" ... and I haven't quite gotten to the point where I unfriend them, possibly out of my own anthropological curiosity about them ... but a number of other friends have done this, at least one of whom had been friends with these guys for 20 years. One of these dudes did get kinda called out and his band broke up sorta as a result of it, though not because he got called out, because at least one of the other band members was sick of the gross bullshit that included racism.

basically the Gen X hipster bros are dividing into factions: the ones that are actually kinda stupid and sexist / racist / transphobic and the ones that aren't.

Someone posted a photo of a Vietnamese restaurant that was still flying the Pete 2020 flag months after he was done and then cut to the owner of said restaurant at the Capitol riot. Lots of people seem to have caught the brainworms after August.

His wife donated a bunch to WINRED fwiw

John Maus's wife? Didn't he get divorced in 2019? I recall seeing him perform and literally two weeks prior he confessed to his wife leaving him in an AMA on Reddit

its weird to me that ppl are so invested in a framing of this that casts ariel pink as a charismatic villain and maus as a Good Guy Who Got In Over His Head.

i don't think that's really how i'd frame either of them. ariel has never been charismatic and maus is at best an unsympathetic idiot, just not a malicious bigot like pink. i largely agree with flopson. maus has always professed to be left-wing but the substance of that has always been abstract enough that i'm sure he can believe he is left-wing while having strange positions (like going sanders -> yang -> trump) that reinforce my view of him as an "unsympathetic idiot", and it's not like 'having good politics' was ever much part of his image.

rights for gays -- oh yeah

"On FEC you'll see John Maus donated to Yang and Sanders when he was living in Austin, MN. It appears he then reconciled with his ex-wife and moved to Arcadia, CA, after which donations made a hard right turn. The merch store he set up with Ariel Pink might have been used for sen pic.twitter.com/rSRX7NBPkp

— Nick Newman (@Nick_Newman) January 12, 2021

lol Arcadia

Yikes... well fuck.

SMH at people trying to defend this fuckface:
“John is, by the way, 1001% on Team Trump now.”

https://variety.com/2021/music/news/ariel-pink-dropped-label-mexican-summer-trump-support-1234881742

sarahell - what's the deal with Arcadia? never been, don't know much about it, a friend of mine from high school lives there, looks beautiful in Facebook pictures

SMH at people trying to defend this fuckface:
“John is, by the way, 1001% on Team Trump now.”

personally I would not take known shit-stirrer Ariel Pink's words at face value

here are his political donations since September.

$500 to Trump and $1000 to Winred

it's not a question it's a fact

https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?committee_id=C00580100&committee_id=C00694323&contributor_name=John+Maus&contributor_city=Arcadia&two_year_transaction_period=2020&min_date=01%2F01%2F2019&max_date=12%2F31%2F2020

That's putting your money where your mouth is for sure. Given the above observation that his donating habits changed post-reconciliation with his wife and with his move to LA, I wonder if that played a part.

In any case, this all just makes me sad.

He's a dead maus to me now

fwiw i didn’t realize he’d donated to DT4PREZ and winred when i wrote my post above, obviously that’s beyond the pale

He's a dead maus to me now

― kieth chagrin (NickB), Saturday, January 16, 2021 4:20 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol

vector control has been called

please tell me Gary War doesn't suck too

So where does donating to Winred sit on the cancellation scale in comparison to rape, sexual assault and openly sexist verbal abuse (thinking in relation to say Mark Kozelek, Derrick May, and Michael Gira) or marrying an anti-labor billionaire who relishes in toppling governments to retain supplies of lithium (thinking Grimes)?

There's no Cancellation Bureau, you can make your own decision (or: Instances where you can't separate the art from the artist. vs. instances where you can.)

"basically the Gen X hipster bros are dividing into factions: the ones that are actually kinda stupid and sexist / racist / transphobic and the ones that aren't."

I suppose it's inevitable that our generation would go through this same thing, we saw it happen to our parents.

"I learned it from watching you!"

lol all those ppl suck too

xxp - I think our parents' generation went through it earlier on? This is like the hippies that became yuppies after getting older and making $$$, minus the making $$$ part, because some of these dudes still live in the same rent controlled apartments.

some people graduate but be still stupid

xp It’s hard to say because Bush won every age group (including the youngest voters) in ‘88, and the same with Regan (by a much wider margin) in ‘84. Anecdotally, the former-hippie Boomers I know who became Republicans didn’t do so until the early ‘90s, when they were in their early ’40s, and earning $$ wasn’t the driving factor (as that had already happened) as much as other cultural factors.

(Also keep in mind that white voters in every age group voted for Trump in both ‘16 and ‘20—it’s not like it’s some anomaly—but I don’t know how to account specifically for supposed non-Trumpers who went Trump only recently.)

(White millennials seem to have turned out even harder for Trump this year than last time; though CNN shifted their exit-poll age group brackets, so it’s not apples to apples.)

fun situation brewing in the vaporwave community thanks to this guy, apparently George Clanton invited him to headline Electronicon 4, which caused a big stir due to him being at J6 and donating a ton of money to Trump and just being an idiot in general, to the point where George uninvited him, which is now causing all these people to whine about safe spaces and cancel culture and what not, it's just a big dumb mess that could've easily been avoided

George deserves the benefit of the doubt on this imo and he ultimately did the right thing, but the dude can be tone deaf sometimes