Sasha Frere-Jones: Really?????

abstract: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/05/24/100524fa_fact_wilkinson

that's kinda cool. I can't think of a music that is more widely reviled/ignored/dismissed by white music fans. which is weird considering that its musical roots (polka) is like the whitest shit in the world. but polkas aren't cool anymore, much less polkas sung in a language that they don't understand, and blasted at top volume out of Mexicans' cars. I find it kinda fascinating, if impenetrable (since I don't speak spanish)

But all I can remember reading is his gay gospel piece and the (toothlessly fair) profile of ... Savage, right?

Also profiled Jeremiah Wright, reviewed a slate of books about the history of whiteness in America, probably a couple other things I don't recall.

do you actually dislike dj rupture's mixes or just the people who rep for them because if the latter then wtf, dude is solid

― in which we apologize for sobering up (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Thursday, May 20, 2010 5:02 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

i disliked his set when i saw him live. so did the grrls i was with -- i was kind of embarrassed to have recommended it tbh

peaking the set w/ dubstep U_U

shakey, wish the whole thing was online. check the story out at border's or something. he briefly describes the roots (which i'd always wondered about) and some of the...i dunno, reasoning behind the song structures. the descriptions of concert attendees dramatically acting out and singing each line is really wild. What band could play in front of 67,000 people at the Astrodome that I'd never heard before? Wild.

As for K., he's at the New Yorker, too, right? But all I can remember reading is his gay gospel piece and the (toothlessly fair) profile of ... Savage, right?

his first one for the NYer was a profile of the preacher Creflo Dollar I think

x-post

Based On SFJ's Arcade Fire/miscenegation thing, and the hip hop is dead thing, I though SFJ was gonna be highlighting all kinds of interesting worldwide beat-based sounds, but yeah, all he does in this vein is pick up on a few things (mainly UK-based) pushed by DJ Rupture

ha deej ok but his mixes are great

unclear as to why US dudes are so weird & dismissive about dubstep, which is interesting & fun music, but I also understand that the trenches have already been dug on that q & it's too late to say "listen with an open mind maybe?"

most us dudes have been obsessed w/ dubstep -- its totally replaced idm as the thinking man's dance music

us = US not 'us' = me

i didn't fuck with dubstep stuff until purple/wonky cuz they sound more or less like rap beats, but not vinyl digging dilla type ish which i find kind of boring

i've never really tried to love dubstep. i'll get around to it. spritually i might be more aligned with u.k. funky. the dubstep i get in the mail is, like, industrial avant garde dubstep. i wouldn't even know to call it dubstep if i didn't read the descriptions of it. its all clanking of chains and doomy and shit. haven't heard anything GREAT out of that stuff yet, but i'm all for beats & doom.

The dubstep I've heard (and I listened to a whole bunch, not just Burial but several multi-disc compilations and other things, because fuckers kept raving about it) a) reminded me of stuff I'd heard on WordSound Records years earlier, but not as good, and b) seemed to be made by people with a lot of "black people = scary/appropriation of black culture = fast track to badassness" shit going on, to the point that I found all the rhetoric about "darkness" kinda bothersome. Plus it was boring. Like, more boring than minimal techno.

I also downloaded a whole bunch of DJ mixes from Barefiles, in addition to the aforementioned albums and compilations. I really did give it a try.

If only the 'dubstep community' had the same nuanced approach to racial politics as the "Tom Tom Club with a tan" guy

most us dudes have been obsessed w/ dubstep -- its totally replaced idm as the thinking man's dance music

― its like why GROCERY BAG and not saddam? (deej), Friday, May 21, 2010 10:02 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

weird, dubstep is the go-to music for unwashed hordes of ravers and frat boys here, at least among people my age. iirc the problem with a lot of dubstep was like, there was this sub-scene of innovative beautiful interesting artists who are (now) somewhat hesitant to identify as dubstep, with an ever-increasing and now ubiquitous scene of music for drunk frat dudes to rub crotches to (bass drops, wobbles etc). uk funky is amazing, but isn't really catching on sadly.

Where is dubstep the soundtrack to drunken frat parties???

i live in montreal

my friend who's into dubstep calls it "brostep" though \(o_O)/

This reminds me of how little I know about my neighbor to the north.

There are frats in Montreal?

they must freeze their asses off in those togas.

liberte, egalite, fraternities

Heh, in Ottawa 10 years ago, I mostly seem to remember jockish guys listening to Limp Bizkit or Korn or 311. That's actually kind of awesome if that scene has moved on to stuff like Burial or Shackleton.

haa when gr80 was djing @ the party i had a few weeks ago he told me how earlier in the night one of my friends came up & asked him if he was going to play any dubstep.

Gr80's like "Not really..."
my friend gives gr80 a hi five & goes "MY MAN!!"

sorry if thats fratty

There are frats in Montreal?

― Sundar, Saturday, May 22, 2010 3:11 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

there are, but i'm conflating frats and mcgill residence tbh *blushes*

and i don't think they're into burial, i don't know what producers make this kind of dubstep, like maybe recent benga?

Hahaha 80% of the dubstep crowds at the all-ages events of last year's Decibel Festival in Seattle were hippies. I men, of course: that's who listens to dub in the U.S.

I mean, of course

And granted that's a west coast thing too, obv. That's where hippies flock. I wonder if/how it shakes out in Colorado and large college towns.

xpost to Samosa:

Yes, it is probably more stuff like Rusko, not so much Burial and Shackleton.

There's a whole popular strain of dubstep that has harder hitting, repetitive beats and lots of wobble bass that is geared for big dumb club nights.

Burial and Shackleton are far more atmospheric, closer to IDM. dj/rupture, coming from the IDM world, probably spins more of this artsy atmospheric stuff if he spins any dubstep.

Bike Snob NYC
@bikesnobnyc

Just read a Sasha Frere-Jones article about black metal in the New Yorker. Ugh. Feel like I just ate a gallon of artisanal mayo.
8 hours ago

Haven't read it yet

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2011/10/10/111010crmu_music_frerejones

The tabloid-worthy events centered on a musician named Varg Vikernes, of the one-man band Burzum, who encouraged and participated in the burning of churches. In 1993, while playing bass in a band called Mayhem, he murdered the guitarist, a man known as Euronymous.

Until recently, it was a legacy that the genre couldn’t shake. But now American bands such as Liturgy, Krallice, Absu, Leviathan, Wolves in the Throne Room, and Inquisition have left a fair amount of the pageantry behind—not to mention the violence—and helped to create a community, as well as a musical moment that is rife with activity. Because of what the music does formally, there is little chance that we will see a Top Ten black-metal act.

http://unbornwhiskey.tumblr.com/post/11028687842/but-now-american-bands-such-as-liturgy-krallice

oooopsie daisy!

I finally listened to the new Krallice the other day - not uninteresting & pretty good but...well predictably I have a lot to say about it

Uh Mr. Unborn Whiskey, the article did say a "fair amount" not "all".

what an odd thing to be pedantic about

"he didnt murder her -- ergo, less violence"

not sure if you are talking to me or not, but I was just being trolly pedantic because I'm not sure what the point was behind the Unborn Whiskey thing, other than to prove some weird "metal is bad" point

Like, okay, you picked out an example that disprove a generalized point, good for you?

Oh shit, nvm, I scanned the article too quick and didn't see Leviathan's name in SFJ's original article.

Thats what I get for scanning shit between conference calls. I wasn't going to read all of SFJ's article right now because I have that issue sitting at home waiting, so I skimmed that paragraph and didn't notive Leviathan was listed so I thought that tumblr dude was bringing it up unrelated.

A heavily-bearded and tattooed Whitehead was dressed all in black as he appeared before Judge Israel Desierto Sunday morning.

Wearing a hooded sweater with the words “stop the madness” printed on it, he was ordered held on bail of $350,000.

his hoodie tried to warn him but he didn't listen.

"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

tbf a native american black metal band would be tres badass

Phil Spector murdered a girl so don't listen to the Beach Boys.

Re: Native American black metal. I live in New Mexico and there's actually a huge scene here, they just hate white people so much it doesn't get off the reservation. I saw Mayhem here and a bunch of native folk treated me like I walked in wearing a klan hood, was a bummer.

they hate white ppl unless they are mayhem?

tbf a native american black metal band would be tres badass

some of the Mexican & Central American bands (Xibalba from Mexico, the Chasm but I forget where they're from) work with mesoamerican mythological stuff