"I first encountered the Fancy Chords when I was a young boy, studying Elvis Costello’s music."
Baaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrffffffffffff
― Where is Stephen Gobie? (Dandy Don Weiner), Friday, 11 September 2009 19:26 (3 years ago) Permalink
sasha frere jones gets on my nerves sometimes
― surm, Friday, 11 September 2009 19:29 (3 years ago) Permalink
the still young Lerche has learned that you can grow a permanent beret if your songs don’t justify all the recondite fingerings with intensity or wit.
― call all destroyer, Friday, 11 September 2009 19:30 (3 years ago) Permalink
lol
― President Emeritus, Fancy Chord Club (M@tt He1ges0n), Friday, 11 September 2009 19:30 (3 years ago) Permalink
didn't know u were in steely dan matt, that's cool
I usually insist on Mr. Baxter, but you can call me Skunk.
― President Emeritus, Fancy Chord Club (M@tt He1ges0n), Friday, 11 September 2009 19:32 (3 years ago) Permalink
― call all destroyer, Friday, 11 September 2009 19:34 (3 years ago) Permalink
― Mr. Que, Friday, 11 September 2009 19:35 (3 years ago) Permalink
I can't stop laughing at that first line. Everything I hate about the New Yorker in one sentence.
― Where is Stephen Gobie? (Dandy Don Weiner), Friday, 11 September 2009 19:36 (3 years ago) Permalink
"Hey guys, not to be a bother but I would really like to get everyone's fantasy league fees in before noon on Sunday....also Robert said we can hold our next meeting at his place, his wife is out of town that weekend."
― President Emeritus, Fancy Chord Club (M@tt He1ges0n), Friday, 11 September 2009 19:36 (3 years ago) Permalink
hahahahahahha
― call all destroyer, Friday, 11 September 2009 19:37 (3 years ago) Permalink
"For a long time, I went to bed early, so I could fall asleep studying Elvis Costello's complicated chord system."
― Mr. Que, Friday, 11 September 2009 19:38 (3 years ago) Permalink
Don't know what is so terrible about this little blurb, though I have no opinion on Sondre Lerche, not sure if I've heard him. But otherwise, all artists mentioned here use fancy chords. It's a fact! I think all songwriters should check out Steely Dan chord progressions -- they give you lots of ideas that would never occur to you otherwise.
― tylerw, Friday, 11 September 2009 19:38 (3 years ago) Permalink
Sondre Lerche's African-American Influences
― velko, Friday, 11 September 2009 19:42 (3 years ago) Permalink
i know that--i think it is the smugness, the way he capitalizes fancy chords, the unwavering brutality of the "permanent beret" quote, etc. etc.
― call all destroyer, Friday, 11 September 2009 19:42 (3 years ago) Permalink
xp
Well, I first encountered the chords of Elvis Costello's music when I was a young fancy studying boys.
― mottdeterre, Friday, 11 September 2009 19:44 (3 years ago) Permalink
The important thing is: How many rap albums does Lerche own?
― Giorgio Marauder (I eat cannibals), Saturday, 12 September 2009 06:37 (3 years ago) Permalink
― surm, Friday, September 11, 2009 2:29 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
― i got nothin (deej), Tuesday, 20 October 2009 05:57 (3 years ago) Permalink
u aint like that new piece or what
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, 20 October 2009 06:00 (3 years ago) Permalink
i think he was trolling ilx poster deej by not mentioning the big rapping elephant in the room tbh
― i got nothin (deej), Tuesday, 20 October 2009 07:55 (3 years ago) Permalink
When you got funky albums by Neko Case and St. Vincent in your top 10 who needs hiphop. They clearly took lessons from the SFJ article on white folks and rhythm from a few years back. Ugh.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 20 October 2009 13:13 (3 years ago) Permalink
Note the substitution of a major second in place of a conventional tonic in the chord structure (in the case of a µ major, B natural for an A natural in the right hand). Of course, this chord can be built on each of the twelve root pitches found in most western music. Some of our more harmonically sophisticated readers may know this chord by one of several other names such as "deus de musica (1st expansion)", "major triad avec neoplastic distension", or "'M' Lords Consonance". Used only sporadically in most contemporary popular music, we have found this little honey to be a sine qua non in almost every song we have written to date. All the members of Steely Dan, past and present, have come to believe, as we do, that the luminous, mystic quality of the µ major chord is capable of greatly enriching the musical vocabulary of our otherwise discordant era. Virtually any piano owner can experience this sonority in the privacy of his or her own home if she or he is willing to take the trouble, when confronted with a major triad, to come down on the keyboard with his or her thumb just slightly to the right of where it would normally land. Once you become accustomed to this wholesome harmonic mindbath, you'll soon find yourself sneaking seconds into minor seventh chords and stacking fourths like a Hindemith gone haywire in Harlem.
― ellaguru, Tuesday, 20 October 2009 13:20 (3 years ago) Permalink
― i got nothin (deej), Tuesday, October 20, 2009 3:55 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
i would like to think you're kidding when you say you're personally being trolled if someone not on this board fails to mention gucci mane in something, but at this point i don't even know anymore
― some dude, Tuesday, 20 October 2009 13:25 (3 years ago) Permalink
classic first posts: Sasha Frere-Jones' Radiohead review
― rent, Tuesday, 20 October 2009 13:27 (3 years ago) Permalink
xp. to be fair some dude I believe deej is referring to Fat Joe
― Whay!ney G. Welldamnen (surfboard dudes get wiped out, totally), Tuesday, 20 October 2009 13:39 (3 years ago) Permalink
was talking about the triple c's album al & im offended at yr assumption
― i got nothin (deej), Tuesday, 20 October 2009 14:04 (3 years ago) Permalink
Jesus christ, that "fancy chord" thing is egregious - what would we think of a book critic who wrote about the "big word club"?
― Bay-L.A. Bar Talk (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 20 October 2009 14:15 (3 years ago) Permalink
Results 1 - 10 of about 5,660,000 for big word literary analysis
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 20 October 2009 14:25 (3 years ago) Permalink
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200107/myers
― M. Grissom/DeShields (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 October 2009 15:29 (3 years ago) Permalink
lol @ fagen
― threesome dude (The Reverend), Wednesday, 21 October 2009 06:28 (3 years ago) Permalink
words are hard xp
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 21 October 2009 07:15 (3 years ago) Permalink
that myers reader's manifesto piece is one of the dumbest things ever written by anyone
― a full circle lol (J0hn D.), Wednesday, 21 October 2009 10:08 (3 years ago) Permalink
I thought this thread had been revived because of this:
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2009/10/26/091026crmu_music_frerejones
― President Keyes, Wednesday, 21 October 2009 10:12 (3 years ago) Permalink
3000 new posts before quittin time is the o/u
― a full circle lol (J0hn D.), Wednesday, 21 October 2009 10:20 (3 years ago) Permalink
pretty sure that is the reason deej revived this thread
― just sayin, Wednesday, 21 October 2009 10:24 (3 years ago) Permalink
Myers piece reminds me of Dale Peck but without the zings. I like close reading but he gets high on his own pedantry, his sacred cow-slaying, his evident beef with the critical establishment. You can pick apart McCarthy and DeLillo all you like but you can't say it's objectively bad prose when you seem to miss the whole point of it. I know that DeLillo's dialogue is phony, that McCarthy's prose is sometimes an end in itself which obscures rather than reveals - that's part of why I like them. They only "fail" according to Myer's false definitions.
That said, did Michiko Kakutani really call DeLillo "laugh-out-loud funny"? I can't imagine anyone genuinely lolling at a DeLillo line. Maybe a wry smile.
Regarding SFJ, I don't mind the piece but I can now add "Fancy Chords" to "Sophisti-pop" as a sure sign I should avoid the music in question. Steely Dan AND Elvis Costello? Yick.
― Dorian (Dorianlynskey), Wednesday, 21 October 2009 10:27 (3 years ago) Permalink
White Noise is a lol riot.
― Stevie T, Wednesday, 21 October 2009 10:32 (3 years ago) Permalink
Great Jones Street brings lols too
― a full circle lol (J0hn D.), Wednesday, 21 October 2009 10:36 (3 years ago) Permalink
It's a bit of a bugbear of mine. Wry, amusing novels are routinely described as "hilarious" on the jacket as if nothing less will do. There are many gradations of funny that don't need to be oversold. But I guess "made me smirk knowingly" doesn't blurb as well.
― Dorian (Dorianlynskey), Wednesday, 21 October 2009 10:46 (3 years ago) Permalink
i chuckled. once.
― wot?? (Ioannis), Wednesday, 21 October 2009 10:48 (3 years ago) Permalink
"bursts with that sort of dry wit that'll make you wonder if the shit you laugh at is actually pretty fucking juvenile tbqf"
― a full circle lol (J0hn D.), Wednesday, 21 October 2009 10:55 (3 years ago) Permalink
^^^ would read
― it's like a Shark-Cage but for "Your Junk" AKA Your Penis & Balls (stevie), Wednesday, 21 October 2009 10:57 (3 years ago) Permalink
I need to write a book worthy of such a blurb.
― Dorian (Dorianlynskey), Wednesday, 21 October 2009 11:03 (3 years ago) Permalink
I'll be the only person to agree with Myers. Sick of reading lit fiction that takes it upon itself to obfuscate. Lit crit establishment needs taking apart, since it's the most corrupt of all crit establishments: friends reviewing friends; writers refusing to say bad words about heroic figures (as Amis admitted after Updike died: crucial line in his panning of posthumous clunker: "This piece would have gone unwritten if its subject were still alive"). I suspect there's a link between endless critical indulgence and endless literary self-indulgence.
― ithappens, Wednesday, 21 October 2009 11:35 (3 years ago) Permalink
The silliness of that piece, though, is that there are tons of books published each year that fit Myers qualifications for correctness in literature. He seems to be mad that writers he doesn't like are getting attention from critics he doesn't like.
― President Keyes, Wednesday, 21 October 2009 11:48 (3 years ago) Permalink
Kinda agree with significant parts of the Myers, and I think he sounds like a Dale Peck who actually knows what the hell he's talking about- but, while I'm glad someone else agrees with me that Paul Auster is a terrible writer, I think he just misses the point of McCarthy's style, and probably Delillo's (who I haven't read enough of). The whole thing seems undercut by a kind of paranoid, me-against-the-cultural-East-Coast-elites-cue-scary-music ethos the makes wish I disagreed with his tastes more than I do. That said, the best parts, as they often are in these kinds of things, are where he picks up on the awful, cliché-ridden prose of aforementioned "Lit crit establishment" types, a fish in the barrel target if there ever was one, but one in terrible need of frequent, harsh drubbings. What really hurts the piece though is that as he's raking writers over the coals for their overly flashy prose, I find my interest flagging because Myer's own writing is a little too dry and "workman like."
― MumblestheRevelator, Wednesday, 21 October 2009 11:56 (3 years ago) Permalink
This kind of thing needs either relish (Dale Peck) or generosity (James Wood) and Myers has neither. He's also too scattershot - McCarthy and DeLillo are too different from each other (let alone Auster or Proulx) to yield any kind of coherent argument. And like Mumbles says, the self-aggrandising "Only I have the balls to challenge the pointy heads" tone galls pretty quickly.
― Dorian (Dorianlynskey), Wednesday, 21 October 2009 12:15 (3 years ago) Permalink
the second anybody sees the scarequotes around "literary" in the first line is the last second anybody has any excuse for taking that guy & his reactionary & also politically v. v. v. suspect shit seriously
― a full circle lol (J0hn D.), Wednesday, 21 October 2009 12:23 (3 years ago) Permalink
no one in an indie band has every murdered anyone else--FACT
― Mr. Que, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 20:59 (1 year ago) Permalink
ever, even
give underrated aerosmith a chance lol
― dangobro (D-40), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 21:00 (1 year ago) Permalink
I shot a man in WilliamsburgJust because
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 21:03 (1 year ago) Permalink
that Manson bloke looks like a fucking hipster
― Dios mio! This kid is FUN to hit! (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 21:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
so much of the shit being claimed as a new look by usbm is stuff that the major players in black metal did literally over a decade ago and what writers mean when they attribute newness to it is "I give a shit now that the bands play at the Bell House"
isn't this the case for any subgenre of music that eventually garners mainstream/highbrow attention
― unorthodox economic revenge (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 21:07 (1 year ago) Permalink
(imho praising things for their "newness" is always a mug's game that just exposes yr ignorance about predecessors/antecedents)
― unorthodox economic revenge (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 21:08 (1 year ago) Permalink
try saying that next time you're trying to sell dishwashing liquid
― Dios mio! This kid is FUN to hit! (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 21:10 (1 year ago) Permalink
well, just speaking of the arts here...
I'm sure the newest dishwashing liquid actually is an amazing breakthrough in soapbubble generation technology
― unorthodox economic revenge (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 21:16 (1 year ago) Permalink
Has anyone in indie rock ever killed anyone though, for real?
― piper at the goats of j0hn (rustic italian flatbread), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 21:18 (1 year ago) Permalink
besides themselves?
― unorthodox economic revenge (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 21:19 (1 year ago) Permalink
I hear Ryan Adams stabbed Chuck Klosterman once
heard that sufjan killed a dude w/ his bare hands once just for looking at him
― tylerw, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 21:20 (1 year ago) Permalink
Bon Iver eats babies
― unorthodox economic revenge (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 21:21 (1 year ago) Permalink
That Sebastian guy from Belle & Sebastian killed someone sometime, too
― Young Swell (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 21:21 (1 year ago) Permalink
Only thing I can come up with is the drummer from the Housemartins:
In 1993, Whitaker was convicted of assault after attacking his former business partner James Hewitt with an axe, and firebombing his house after Hewitt had seemingly cheated him. He served 5 years in prison. After his release, he moved to Leeds. In 2004, he was playing drums with a local band called Percy
― master musicians of jamiroquai (NickB), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 21:22 (1 year ago) Permalink
Thurston Moore killed Robert Christgau iirc
― unorthodox economic revenge (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 21:23 (1 year ago) Permalink
the hold steady almost killed me
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 21:23 (1 year ago) Permalink
Hoodie should've said STOKED FOR THE MADNESS tbh
― Young Swell (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 21:24 (1 year ago) Permalink
Noir Desir anyone?
~think about it~
― Young Swell (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 21:25 (1 year ago) Permalink
"the violence" is just a weird way to describe the black metal situation in Norway - one murder IIRC? a friends-business-beef murder in point of fact, not really v. genre-related? - and then the church burnings, which are a totally different deal & which haven't crossed over here because the only ppl in the US who might burn churches with the same (ostensible I guess I should add) impetus/rationale as the Norwegian dudes would be Native Americans & there's only one Native American metal band I know of and they play death not black
fwiw p. 329 of Lords of Chaos, The Electric Hellfire Club has some fans who have vandalized churches and they explicitly encourage fan to burn churches down:
"For them, it's a revolutionary act, it's not an act of vandalism. It's a statement. The church is the legacy of the people that stole their heritage. By all means -- burn, baby burn!"
― Mordy, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 21:26 (1 year ago) Permalink
btw, if that quote isn't clear, he's approving of church burnings in norway. later he says that he'd smile approvingly if there were similar burnings in the US
― Young Swell (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 21:28 (1 year ago) Permalink
― mookieproof, Wednesday, October 5, 2011 9:23 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark
<3
― thank you BIG HOOS, you brilliant god-man (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 21:31 (1 year ago) Permalink
Uh Mr. Unborn Whiskey, the article did say a "fair amount" not "all".
i definitely realize that but i have been working on a piece about leviathan for a feminist blog, so i was necessarily sensitive about it
― mutant slow drum (BradNelson), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 21:35 (1 year ago) Permalink
Well, please make sure you see my follow-up comments where I realize where it came from, due to my misreading of the original article.
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 21:37 (1 year ago) Permalink
totally did, but you're still kind of otm. i was mad.
also aero otm regarding how "one murder" = "black metal is full of violence" is a kind of casual, irresponsible link.
― mutant slow drum (BradNelson), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 21:56 (1 year ago) Permalink
xpost Well, there was that one Shins guy that beat up his girlfriend, and the Isaac Brock rape charge that went away. But indie murder? Dunno.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 22:01 (1 year ago) Permalink
why hello mr. unborn whiskey
― max, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 22:12 (1 year ago) Permalink
tbf a native (North) american black metal band would be tres badass
May I introduce you to Gyibaaw...
http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Gyibaaw/3540271446
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=181925428
― A. Begrand, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 22:18 (1 year ago) Permalink
""the violence" is just a weird way to describe the black metal situation in Norway - one murder IIRC?"
Well the lead singer of the self-same band did kill himself in fairly violent fashion and the soon to be murdered guitarist did photo it for the band's next album, drummer of other famous Norwegian BM act killed a gay man, lead singer of big Swedish BM act involved in murder of another gay man, plus arson is a fairly violent act. Although I guess with the Leviathan thing USBM now has their own monstrous act of violence to unite around. Ick.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 22:32 (1 year ago) Permalink
fwiw i know next to nothing about underground metal and i know allllll about that one guy who murdered another guy so you can't really blame just one writer for playing that up
― nəverDirty (some dude), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 22:35 (1 year ago) Permalink
http://theamericanreader.com/sasha-frere-jones-is-a-white-man
(via maxxx)
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 24 October 2012 19:54 (7 months ago) Permalink
i'm xposting to the rolling racist thread.
― s.clover, Wednesday, 24 October 2012 19:55 (7 months ago) Permalink
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chinese_Woman
― burrito smalls (some dude), Wednesday, 24 October 2012 19:58 (7 months ago) Permalink
Alice Randall is a black woman.
― Andy K, Wednesday, 24 October 2012 20:55 (7 months ago) Permalink
the hilarious thing about this is that sfj's homie joshua "jane dark" clover is ACTUALLY guilty of misleading readers in such a way
― burrito smalls (some dude), Wednesday, 24 October 2012 20:59 (7 months ago) Permalink
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 24 October 2012 21:14 (7 months ago) Permalink
David Grann expose in next week's NYer about how Frere Jones *is* actually a black woman and has been playing an elaborate game of identity shifting with the magazine. mind blowing.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 24 October 2012 21:15 (7 months ago) Permalink
― balls, Wednesday, 24 October 2012 21:18 (7 months ago) Permalink
is that article serious
― call all destroyer, Wednesday, 24 October 2012 21:21 (7 months ago) Permalink
i can't even tell
is joek
― (REAL NAME) (m coleman), Thursday, 25 October 2012 09:55 (7 months ago) Permalink
"Maya Angelou is black?!?"
― Binders Full of Mittens (President Keyes), Thursday, 25 October 2012 10:40 (7 months ago) Permalink
still want to know how hot dominique leone and jessica harvell are in person
― burrito smalls (some dude), Thursday, 25 October 2012 11:06 (7 months ago) Permalink
Jacob Savage.
― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 25 October 2012 11:24 (7 months ago) Permalink
not really a savage
― Binders Full of Mittens (President Keyes), Thursday, 25 October 2012 16:33 (7 months ago) Permalink
shocker.
― s.clover, Thursday, 25 October 2012 17:24 (7 months ago) Permalink
Just going to assume that he's the brother of the guy from The Wonder Years.
― Andy K, Thursday, 25 October 2012 17:41 (7 months ago) Permalink
Jacob Savage is the son of Fred and Chantay Savage.
― Andy K, Thursday, 25 October 2012 17:42 (7 months ago) Permalink