he's like that.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 03:21 (sixteen years ago) link
scott, here is my friends' post-rock band: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y54ZJp5pq9Y
― Jordan, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 03:29 (sixteen years ago) link
somehow i got led to the shout out louds impossible remix and i am digging it a bunch
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kM69iMNdR60
― scott seward, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 03:33 (sixteen years ago) link
and i like the original too:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NPQco3-7u5I
(Popmatters) has perhaps the largest number of unique entries of any list
This always seems to be the case. Sometimes, tho, I think they're horribly wrong on their selections. Still, it's nice to see a Year-End list that holds out hope of discovering something new and great.
see i'm already curious about that tinariwen album.
Great disc.
I think one interesting thing about "indie" as a self-identifying marker is that, for all that I tend to disapprove of it, it covers a lot of music that doesn't necessarily sound similar - to the extent that M.I.A. and LCD Soundsystem are "indie" anyway.
Yeah. I think of "indie" as an aesthetic or approach to art, not a genre. If it's a genre, I can't imagine how it all fits into one tent.
― Daniel, Esq., Tuesday, 18 December 2007 03:42 (sixteen years ago) link
i like lists like these: http://rateyourmusic.com/list/babarm87/top_50_post_rock_albums_of_2007 i've heard maybe two of the albums and heard OF, like, five or six of the artists. haven't a clue about any of the rest.
Definitely a humbling list. I think I've heard a lot of music, then this. I'll start from the top:
01 Caspian - The Four Trees 02 Scraps of Tape - This Is a Copy, Is This a Copy? 03 The World on Higher Downs - Land Patterns 04 The Six Parts Seven - Casually Smashed to Pieces 05 Grails - Burning Off Impurities 06 Tulsa Drone - Songs from a Mean Season 07 Efterklang - Under Giant Trees EP 08 65daysofstatic - The Destruction of Small Ideas 09 Immánu El - They'll Come, They Come 10 Johnnytwentythree - JXXIII 11 Ours to Alibi - Beacons 12 Joy Wants Eternity - You Who Pretend to Sleep 13 Stars of the Lid - Stars of the Lid and Their Refinement of the Decline 14 Cue - Wedding Song 15 Holy Fuck - LP 16 Giants - They, The Undeserving 17 Do Make Say Think - You, You're a History in Rust 18 Eluvium - Copia 19 Battles - Mirrored 20 Balmorhea
Nice to see 65daysofstatic come out ahead of Battles for once.
― Fastnbulbous, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 04:02 (sixteen years ago) link
"Yeah. I think of "indie" as an aesthetic or approach to art, not a genre. If it's a genre, I can't imagine how it all fits into one tent."
Is it even coherent enough to be an "aesthetic or approach to art" in a singular fashion?
In the sense that "indie" can apply to M.I.A., does it systematically stand for much more now than the claim "it has transcended genre"? (Thinking back momentarily to the M.I.A. wars, the anti-M.I.A. position was based in the (correct) anticipation that she would be embraced as transcending genre)
This is the interesting part about the term, which is its contradictory nature: it is a claim against genre which nonetheless contains a genre as its most pure expression (certain strains of guitar rock) (it is in this sense that indie as an organising principle is rockism par excellence).
― Tim F, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 07:07 (sixteen years ago) link
despite its Southall-prompted production I found the 65dos album deadly boring
also, sotl = post-rock? I don't think so.
― Simon H., Tuesday, 18 December 2007 07:10 (sixteen years ago) link
I still haven't figured out what the hell "post-rock" means.
― The Reverend, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 07:15 (sixteen years ago) link
post-rock is the rock that's happened since older rockers stopped paying attention and don't like it anymore. The line varies. Post-rock probably started in 1968 when Richard Meltzer started getting antsy but usually is meant for post-Sex Pistols / Clash stuff, since they, too , were the only bands that mattered...and then it goes from there...I think.
It's rock that doesn't want to associate with other rock because other rock has been mean to it...or thinks it wiil be mean to it if it meets.
― smurfherder, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 07:19 (sixteen years ago) link
Ummm....thanks, I think...
― The Reverend, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 07:21 (sixteen years ago) link
In the sense that "indie" can apply to M.I.A., does it systematically stand for much more now than the claim "it has transcended genre"?
i think it references a certain kind of self-awareness in the production and presentation. not that other music isn't self-aware, lots of pop is hugely self-aware, but indie self-awareness is sort of considered and abstracted (if also often callow and naive and not infrequently grating in its belief that it has discovered something new and important about how things work). the difference e.g. between indie hip-hop and mainstream hip-hop is not only in skills, slickness or subject matter, but in its self-conscious appropriation of the form for what it perceives to be some ends different than the ones associated with commercial strains. there's a sort of earnest effort at subversion of form, which often misses the point that earnestness tends to work against subversion.
(i know, is indie rock really subverting any forms? i think it perceives itself to be, starting with the whole business side of the enterprise, the small labels and self-production and so forth. which is all admirable in a lot of ways, i think, but also too often gives off an air of self-satisfaction and treefort insularity -- and, more to the point, tends to mire the music in hackneyed notions of transcendence that fail to appreciate or at least fail to replicate the actual transcendence you get from a good rihanna single. OR they distrust the idea of pop-song transcendence enough, and/or their own abilities to deliver it, that they come up to it only sideways, and knowingly. otoh it is obviously possible to have actually transcendent indie music, the joy of which is that what it is transcending is its own doubts about transcendence. you can put your favorite candidates here, but e.g. i'd say the best of pavement, sleater-kinney and belle & sebastian, for a start.)
― tipsy mothra, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 07:53 (sixteen years ago) link
and also i know "earnestness" is maybe a weird word to use about a form stereotyped as "ironic," but i don't think those things are really at odds. i think indie irony is a symptom of its earnestness. or can be.
― tipsy mothra, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 07:54 (sixteen years ago) link
and m.i.a. is clearly indie in exactly that self-aware sense of her place as an appropriator of multiple forms, and her abstracted distance from the forms themselves (which i guess is maybe why arbiters of form like reynolds and ethan don't like her, that her use of the forms is symbolic and synthetic, opportunistic).
― tipsy mothra, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 08:01 (sixteen years ago) link
The new Wire is out. Their top ten is pretty much the same as every other top ten this year. I can't say what is in it tho' coz I only flicked through it whilst paying for some stuff in Sister Ray yesterday and can't remember exactly.
― Raw Patrick, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 09:17 (sixteen years ago) link
siiiiiiigh...
It's Panda Bear.
― The Reverend, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 10:25 (sixteen years ago) link
The Wire
01 Robert Wyatt - Comicopera (Domino) 02 Burial - Untrue (Hyperdub) 03 Panda Bear - Person Pitch (Paw Tracks) 04 OM - Pilgrimage (Southern Lord) 05 LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver (DFA/EMI) 06 Von Südenfed - Tromatic Reflexxions (Domino) 07 Pram - The Moving Frontier (Domino) 08 MIA - Kala (XL) 09 Battles - Mirrored (Warp) 10 Ricardo Villalobos - Fabric 36 (Fabric)
― krakow, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 10:41 (sixteen years ago) link
They give a whole top 50 along with top 10's for each of their review genres, but I can't be bothered typing those right now...
― krakow, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 10:42 (sixteen years ago) link
Just glanced at P4K's. Has metal safely returned to the underground? Pig D didn't make the top 50!
― fukasaku tollbooth, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 11:19 (sixteen years ago) link
pitchfork's:
01: Panda Bear - Person Pitch 02: LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver 03: M.I.A. - Kala 04: Radiohead - In Rainbows 05: Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? 06: Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam 07: Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga 08: Battles - Mirrored 09: The Field - From Here We Go Sublime 10: Burial - Untrue 11: Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala 12: No Age - Weirdo Rippers 13: Jay-Z - American Gangster 14: Deerhunter - Cryptograms / Fluorescent Grey EP 15: Justice - † 16: Lil Wayne - Da Drought 3 17: The National - Boxer 18: Kanye West - Graduation 19: Feist - The Reminder 20: Liars - Liars 21: Dirty Projectors - Rise Above 22: Okkervil River - The Stage Names 23: Studio - Yearbook 1 24: Dan Deacon - Spiderman of the Rings 25: The Tough Alliance - A New Chance / New Waves EP 26: Various Artists - After Dark 27: Arcade Fire - Neon Bible 28: Dinosaur Jr. - Beyond 29: Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago 30: Caribou - Andorra 31: Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity 32: Sally Shapiro - Disco Romance 33: King Khan & the Shrines - What Is?! 34: James Blackshaw - The Cloud of Unknowing 35: Black Lips - Good Bad Not Evil 36: Iron and Wine - The Shepherd's Dog 37: Grizzly Bear - Friend EP 38: Wu-Tang Clan - 8 Diagrams 39: The White Stripes - Icky Thump 40: Beirut - The Flying Club Cup / Lon Gisland EP 41: Life Without Buildings - Live at the Annandale Hotel 42: Ghostface Killah - The Big Doe Rehab 43: Stars of the Lid - And Their Refinement of the Decline 44: Les Savy Fav - Let's Stay Friends 45: Ricardo Villalobos - Fabric 36 46: Marissa Nadler - Songs III: Bird on the Water 47: Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals 48: Robert Wyatt - Comicopera 49: Dizzee Rascal - Maths + English 50: Tinariwen - Aman Iman: Water Is Life
― Bee OK, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 11:53 (sixteen years ago) link
WOW, no Wilco.
Shocking.
― The Reverend, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 11:55 (sixteen years ago) link
at least Of Montreal finally gets some love, my album of the year.
― Bee OK, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 12:07 (sixteen years ago) link
True dat.
― The Reverend, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 12:08 (sixteen years ago) link
Sarcasm, I assume. They panned Sky Blue Sky. It got lots of love elsewhere, tho, and is doing well in Year-End polls, I think.
― Daniel, Esq., Tuesday, 18 December 2007 12:13 (sixteen years ago) link
Given its frequent referencing of the band, wow no Menomena.
Finally, however, some reader input, Pitchfork Readers Poll.
― dblcheeksneek, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 12:31 (sixteen years ago) link
wow, those are seriously the only options for favorite albums on that poll? i mean the options are limited as is but still include albums that barely anybody liked (i.e. Smashing Pumpkins).
― Alex in Baltimore, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 13:56 (sixteen years ago) link
"Other: Please Specify" is an option. And one I used to include The National as my favorite live show (until I saw that ___ National was an option). Think of all the "international music" that will fill that blank!
― dblcheeksneek, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 14:52 (sixteen years ago) link
Yes. But they ignored the Apples In Stereo, another one of the year's best.
― kornrulez6969, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 15:06 (sixteen years ago) link
Just glanced at P4K's. Has metal safely returned to the underground?
haha. seems to be the case, i guess.
re: the Wire:
I would've liked to see some more variation from every other damn top 10 this year. But it's nice to see OM's Pilgrimage get some attention, it's been virtually absent from just about all year-end lists, metal lists included. Though I guess it was in Rock a Rolla's. Maybe experimental music mags are the only ones who care about it?
Speaking of Rock a Rolla, their list has a lot of stuff that I'll want to look deep into during the next few months. That's the most fun part of these lists -- seeing all the cool stuff that you missed ! So it kind of sucks when you see a top 10 and you're like "man I don't really care to look into any of those." Hopefully the rest of the Wire's list will be more interesting.
― Mark Clemente, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 15:12 (sixteen years ago) link
and sometimes the Wire's genre top lists are more interesting than the main 50, despite some overlap obv.
― Mark Clemente, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 15:14 (sixteen years ago) link
re: the Wire, I thought for sure they'd put Stockhausen on the cover, even though it's the Rewind issue. Maybe next issue?
― Mark Clemente, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 15:15 (sixteen years ago) link
The major flaw with Metacritic is that it treats the ratings for, let's say, "Untrue" (91 with 13 reviews) and "In Rainbows" (88 with 40 reviews) without the quantity of reviews as a consideration.
There are various formulas that can be used to weight the score by the number of reviews - I'm surprised that Metacritic doesn't do that. For example the beer review site, BeerAdvocate.com, uses a more sophisticated formula:
The general formula uses a Bayesian estimate:
weighted rank (WR) = (v ÷ (v+m)) × R + (m ÷ (v+m)) × C
where: R = review average for the beer v = number of reviews for the beer m = minimum reviews required to be listed (currently 10) C = the mean across the list (currently 3.62)
The formula normalizes scores, that is pulls (R) to the mean (C) if the number of reviews is not well above (m). So if a beer has only a few reviews above (m), its (WR) is decreased a little if it is above the mean (C), or increased a little if it is below the mean (C) in accordance with the normal distribution rule of statistics.
Currently, a beer must have 10 or > reviews to be included in any calculations. And (m) is calculated by averaging the number of reviews for beers that have 10 or > reviews within the list being viewed, while (C) is the mean (average) overall score for all beers that have or > reviews within the list.
Example 1: (a beer with a 4.35 review average and 105 reviews)
(105 ÷ (105+10)) × 4.35 + (10 ÷ (105+10)) × 3.62 = 4.29 = WR
Example 2: (a beer with a 3.1 review average and 11 reviews)
(11 ÷ (11+10)) × 3.1 + (10 ÷ (11+10)) × 3.62 = 3.35 = WR
This would probably improve the quality of Metacritic's rankings somewhat.
― o. nate, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 15:58 (sixteen years ago) link
AMG's blog has a lot of genre-specific year-end lists, here.
― Mark Clemente, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 16:12 (sixteen years ago) link
beer snobs: smarter than film and music snobs in their aggregating formulas, and in how they spend their free time.
― Alex in Baltimore, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 16:14 (sixteen years ago) link
here's a better link, if you just want the year-end stuff and not the other blog stuff.
― Mark Clemente, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 16:14 (sixteen years ago) link
Definitely, and likely cure my number one gripe with Metacritic (i.e., that so many "metascores" show albums with >70/generally favorably reviews). In my mind, and in all the music I've heard this year (much less any year), that just ain't so.
― dblcheeksneek, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 16:15 (sixteen years ago) link
Well I'm pretty sure you're not gonna find Pram and Von Südenfed on any other top ten. I used to love Pram, but I found the new one more of the same but less, leaning towards soundscapes than songs. More please.
Pitchfork top 10 was more predictable. I've been enjoying Sally Shapiro, and am unfamiliar with Tough Alliance, Bon Iver, King Khan & the Shrines and James Blackshaw. Suprised at no Apparat, Matthew Dear, Chloe, or Modeselektor. I think they're all more engaging than The Field.
― Fastnbulbous, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 17:33 (sixteen years ago) link
beer snobs
I work with environmental scientists, and I have to report that there is heavy overlap between those who do Bayesian statistics and homebrewing.
― bendy, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 17:39 (sixteen years ago) link
xpost - Yea I've been surprised in general at the complete critical adoration of the Field this year. It's good, but not that good.
I read in the PF interview with the guy, and I think he mentioned how he doesn't really work on tracks longer than an evening, like he does them all in one take. I wasn't surprised, it shows, in kind of a bad way.
However, I loved his "Kappsta" track off the Kompakt Pop Ambient 2007 disc. I was hoping the full-length would be more like that.
― Mark Clemente, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 17:39 (sixteen years ago) link
It does get more engaging though, I think, with repeated plays.
― Mark Clemente, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 17:40 (sixteen years ago) link
also, for reviews I've written that got assigned a numeric grade by metacritic, it's always been 10 points below what I intended.
― bendy, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 17:40 (sixteen years ago) link
I was listening to the Field album last night and was struck by the monotony of his techniques. Also, his Thom Yorke remix is spectacularly lazy.
― Simon H., Tuesday, 18 December 2007 17:48 (sixteen years ago) link
i think its strange that minimal techno has now been added to the list of genres (along with metal, rap, etc) that have a small handful of albums each year that cross over into the sphere of popularity w/ indie rock kidz
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 17:51 (sixteen years ago) link
Here's the Resident Advisor remixes list.
― Raw Patrick, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 17:55 (sixteen years ago) link
didn't Boards Of Canada, etc. make that crossover a few years before the current reign of hipster-metal?(xpost)
― Alex in Baltimore, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 17:58 (sixteen years ago) link
current reign of hipster-metal
as mentioned above, this kinda seems to be done with already, huh? no metal as far as I saw in PF's top 50
― Mark Clemente, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 18:01 (sixteen years ago) link
ok change current to recent, whatever
― Alex in Baltimore, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 18:04 (sixteen years ago) link
sorry i wasn't trying to be nitpicky haha
― Mark Clemente, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 18:06 (sixteen years ago) link
lol no prob! /Surmounter
― Alex in Baltimore, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 18:18 (sixteen years ago) link