Sasha Frere-Jones: Really?????

Correct me if I'm wrong here but 4X4 thump in 2009 really seems like more of an R&B trend which hip hop is exposed to by association (hence Black Eyed Peas, Timbaland etc). I haven't noticed a terribly large amount of recent rap on a 4X4 beat, but maybe I just haven't heard what Sasha's thinking of?

Certainly it's not the first time R&B has gone 4X4 before.

new orleans bounce drums are pretty fucking rigid.

ha yeah i raised an eyebrow at that

SFJ trying to rewrite his article? Or at least one sentence of it?

SFJ-October 26 from "“Wrapping Up – A genre ages out”
“If I had to pick a year for hip-hop’s demise, though, I would choose 2009, not 2006.”

SFJ -November 25-from "End Times" blog post
“Some people thought that my recent column about hip-hop was actually an assertion that hip-hop was dead. In fact, my argument was that hip-hop is not ending but rather going through a transitional moment and atomizing.” http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sashafrerejones/2009/11/end-times.html

Does "demise" mean "atomizing"? Not sure why he had the "demise" sentence if he meant that club beats and Freddie Gibbs were a sign of hiphop "atomizing"

this fucking guy

Conversely. the whole Pill/Freddie Gibbs/Juiceman axis is basically just the rap version of nitpicking over chillwave and glo-fi and, again, has little to no bearing on hip-hop at large.

― eatin' spaghett' (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, 27 November 2009 21:04 (Yesterday) Permalink

juiceman is nothing like pill/freddie gibbs and is yes "actually popular"

lol oops rong thread

What's weird is that of the probable hundreds of legit responses/critiques/counterblogs to the his article that he's gotten, he addresses a single vague response in his blog and asks for clarification, nothing more. This guy's the king of critical dialogue.

My uh, source, reports he's going to address part of this again "after the holidays"('somebody' e-mailed him his "demise" sentence from October and his "atomizing" sentence from November and asked him to explain)

Or maybe not.

December 15, 2009
I Cannot Stop Until I Get Enough
Posted by Sasha Frere-JonesI won’t be back in this space until May of 2010. I need to focus on writing a book, and the Internet is awfully distracting. You will see my byline in the magazine made of paper, and in relevant links placed here.

The New Yorker LCD Soundsystem piece has some pretty bad moments, but is not fully online for mockage. It's actually not so much that it's overall a bad piece as that he tends to be clumsy and ignorant at a number of moments.

bought the NYer just for this article. which parts did you find clumsy?

What is this thread about? Shockah? I have no idea.

― Sasha Frere-Jones (Sasha Frere-Jones)

Why is the New Yorker so popular? The writing?

the pictures

the HTML code on their internet site?

Sasha's got the album at the top his 2010 list. He's got a tumblr now

http://sashafrerejones.tumblr.com/

SFJ's 2010 list: http://www.sashafrerejones.com/2009/11/best_of_2010_1.html

There are posts in this thread that I do not remember writing.

Also, SFJ's Tumblr is pretty great. Real Enjoyable Prose + images with Real Enjoyable Captions.

Why is the New Yorker so popular? The writing?

i think the new yorker's writing is v. good.

hahaha, yeah. i had a subscription for a year or two in high school. i was just referring to the following exchange from the Awl thread:

Why is Gawker so popular? The writing?

― kshighway (ksh), Monday, January 11, 2010 11:02 AM (3 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

no, the pictures

― max, Monday, January 11, 2010 11:03 AM (3 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i think it's the HTML coding actually

― fella, cutie (s1ocki), Monday, January 11, 2010 11:13 AM (3 months ago)

wkiw sfj

article was great, needed a little more funk in it though

why is nicki minaj his ninth favorite album of the year?

i was thinking the same thing

Are you wondering why it's so high or so low?

Wikipedia says she doesn't have an album of her own out yet

so, probably the fact that she's just listed there?

well, unless he's talking about barbie world or has got secret new yorker privileges, it isn't out or leaked yet, and no concrete info about is has been released or anything. assuming he just means nicki minaj disparate output of 2010 so far.

iirc he had Carter 3 listed as one of his favorite albums of the year way before its release based mixtape(s) full of leaks that ended up having nothing to do with the album it eventually ended up being.

haha yeah I was wondering why a person was #9 on a list of albums. had no idea she even had an album coming out, no way i'd be able to get through a whole 2010 minaj album anyway

ok just checked out dude's 2009 album list and he's got sleigh bells at number one, and their debut still isn't out. either a weirdly desperate attempt at getting there first or dude is really loose with his definition of the word album.

well, Ring Ring was streaming on Myspace so, you know, album!

bought the NYer just for this article. which parts did you find clumsy?

― ksh, Sunday, 9 May 2010 23:15 (Yesterday)

E.g.:

"In discussions of rock recordings, there is often great reverence for the live room, where the instruments are recorded.... Musicians believe that the air in these spaces and the ambience of these buildings are an integral part of what makes the recordings special."

I mean "the air"? Really? Not, say, the particular acoustics of the room? He makes it sound like it's something purely superstitious.

air can hurt you too.

I'm guessing he just means air. It was humid in the French basement where the Stones made Exile on Main St., for example.

the last time there was a major "no air" recording was like, 2007/2008 or something O_O

i'm not being a smartass, this is literally the only possible interpretation i can think of for the above post

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pL6fK1iNIQ

Can you feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord, oh Lord

Or: "Murphy leaped about, singing into a small Sennheiser mike, a type of mike that, though Pink Floyd used it for vocals, is usually used to record guitar."

Sennheiser is a brand of microphone - they make vocal mics as well as guitar mics. I mean maybe it would be too nerdy for the New Yorker to put in an actual model number, but it sounds off this way.

Also, there's a description of him composing Losing My Edge by "turning on the [toy rhythm box he was given], and singing and drumming at the same time." -- Not only is this an awkward way to describe it (turning on the rhythm box is not really a notable part of the process) but he doesn't really sing in that song.

Also, "For someone coming from a performance-based background -- like jazz or classical music -- Murphy's approach can be puzzling. But he is more concerned with the sonic qualities of the equipment than with those of the physical space they are recorded in." Wow, holy shit, you mean he uses the recording process as his instrument? Coming from a performance-based background, I am somewhat puzzled by this novel approach.

Also: "LCD shows draw a mixture of teenagers, fashion plates, and older fans who can probably identify exactly what kind of bass Murphy uses just by listening."

some dude: *high-five*

abbreviating microphone as "mike" is by far the greatest offense there imo

ksh does that mean i accurately understood your joke or what? i'm still somewhat confused

yep, that was the joke -- you got it

oh ok -- i srsly thought you were on some crazy tech jargon ish

hahaha!! :-D nope, you were OTM

koritfw

if you told me you could identify what kind of bass james murphy uses just by listening i wouldn't believe you even if you are an older fan