NPR is turning my mom into a corny indie fuxx

dad is 63 and looks like neil young.

mom emails $$

Yeah, I was gonna say. Is this that 'regressing' thing I've heard about?

Adamrl, you're cynical. Oh I know.

My dad (65) shocked me recently by admitting that he keeps his XM tuner almost exclusively on the techno channel. "After 15 years of listening to you talk about it and hearing your records, I finally get it!!!" he said. If I go home and he's sucking on a pacifier, we will be having words.

the nice thing w/ hey ya is it killed the burgeoning jangle hop fad.

Only if he's waving a glowstick though. (And if he's wearing a diaper just back out quietly.)

Request for Urgent Indie Music Fan Relationship

I am your mother -- as well as the group managing director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and a member of the ad hoc committee set up by the federal government of Nigeria to review contracts awarded by the past military administration between 1985-1993. The members of the committee are interested in the importation of goods into the country with the funds presently floating in the Central Bank of Nigeria/Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) foreign payments account. And corny American indie music.

Our request is anchored on our strong desire to establish a lasting business relationship with you and your company, and to listen to shitty indie-rock on NPR. We hence solicit your partnership to enable us transfer into your account the said funds and to purchase Shins CDs. You have been recommended to us in confidence and we were assured of your ability and reliability to prosecute business transaction that require maximum confidentiality and a fast Internet connection to download indie mp3s.

Origin of Fund

This fund is presently floating in the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) foreign payments account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). This is as result of grossly over invoiced contracts which were executed for the NNPC during the last administration in Nigeria, and are presently under verification. To this effect, the present administration in Nigeria set up an adhoc committee to identify, scrutinize and recommend for payment all valid contracts that have been fully executed. In the course of our assignment, we have identified a lot of misappropriated and inflated funds which are presently floating in the suspense account of the Central Bank of Nigeria ready for payment. The companies who executed their contracts have been fully paid. It is now part of the over inflated sum of USD25,320,000.00 that we intend to transfer into the foreign account. I should also add that all of the members of this adhoc committee are Franz Ferdinand fans, son.

My son, I have therefore been mandated as a matter of trust by the members of the committee to look for a foreign partner into whose account we could transfer the sum of USD25,320,000.00 (twenty-five million, three hundred and twenty thousand US dollars) only, and obtain recordings of music from the most obscure American indie bands. Hence I am writing you this letter. We have agreed to share the funds thus:

(1) 65% for us (the committee members) and
(2) 25% for account owner (you)
(3) 10% to be used in settling taxation and all local and foreign expenses that will be incured in the course of this transaction.
(4) The latest Decembrist Plan CD.

It is from the 65% that we wish to commence the importation busines. Please note that this transaction is 100% safe and guaranteed since the law under which our committee was set up has empowered us to disburse all the funds found to be floating in the Central Bank of Nigeria redundant account from 1985 till date. We shall commence the transfer of the funds immediately we receive the following information by telefax: (number omitted):

(1) your company's name and full address
(2) your banker's name, address, telephone and fax numbers
(3) the account number and name of beneficiary.

The above information are to enable us put up letters of claim and job description to the respective ministries for the issuance of the mandatory fund release approval/recommendations. This way, your company will become recognised and accepted as the beneficiary of the contract entitlements before the final remittance to your nominated account by the Central Bank of Nigeria being the paying bank. As well as having excellent taste in indie rock.

We are looking forward to doing this business with you and solicit your absolute confidentiality in this transaction. Please acknowledge the receipt of this letter using the above telefax numbers for more details regarding the transaction.

Yours faithfully, MRS. MITCH DUB

N.B. This letter is being sent by ordinary mail for confidentiality purpose. Also, please remember to bootleg those Shins concerts at school, or I will not pay your tuition any more.

FOR REAL! One of his friends is Masta Ace's father-in-law and he is constantly sending me Masta Ace news by e-mail and asking me if I want to interview Masta Ace! And telling him that I really liked Masta Ace's last album only made things worse.

That...is....fucking....awesome.

Yr dad is cooler than us.

(to my dad's credit, he kept turning it back up to an audible level, heh)

I fucking fear some gene in me that's going to cause me to snap ten years later that's going to make me renounce my entire musical upbringing, only to buy greatest hits CDs by Lee Greenwood and Andrew Gold.

I think Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan is all the crossover in musical taste we have.

Leonard Berstein & NY Philharmonic - "Mahler 2"
Pink Floyd - "The Wall"
One of the James Brown live albums, don't remember which one.
Steely Dan - "Can't Buy A Thrill"
Vanilla Fudge - s/t, I think
Dave Brubeck Quartet - "Take 5"

my parents love that song too!

Hot!

And he keeps nagging me to listen to the Interpol and Wilco live recordings in the archive section...

since my grandmother liked "beautiful" music (what elevator music was called before burt bacharach became hip and all), i wonder what she would think about stereolab. (will never know b/c granny is dead.)

"You've probably never heard of ALTERNATIVE ROCK BAND THE SHINS. But now thanks to a surprise hit INDEPENDENT MOVIE, you'll be hearing a lot about them."

"The Shins are an ALTERNATIVE ROCK BAND, but some of their ALTERNATIVE FANS worry that they're SELLING OUT"

I've also never seen the movie, so I was a bit shocked by the idiotic-sounding direct plug Portman's character gives in the movie: "It's this band The Shins. Listen to it, it will change your life (etc. etc.)"

ppppspsssAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

My dad tracks anything new that's pop country and western. My mom just likes whatever. (This is how I got her into Aphex Twin.)

I dunno, wouldn't he take that as a compliment?

Yes, because waveforms were such a pressing issue for Bill Haley.

yeah I know, I'm familiar with the loudness wars etc nonetheless by this point it's a well established generational pattern for kids to like things louder than their parents. if it's too loud you're too old etc.

I think poliopolice's brain might explode if listened to the first Sleigh Bells record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSOSxXhoYn8&feature=relmfu

See sometimes in indie rock circles I feel like an opposite generational thing where stuff feels so wimpy to me compared to the 90s

Like botched mastering aside

Yes, because waveforms were such a pressing issue for Bill Haley.

The waveform represents how you experience sound. It's not irrelevant even though they might not have talked about in the same way we're talking about it.

See sometimes in indie rock circles I feel like an opposite generational thing where stuff feels so wimpy to me compared to the 90s

― wack nerd zinging in the dead of night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, June 15, 2012 1:35 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

seriously tho

definitely true in terms of rock music

well even in rap, it's almost like you must be an old retro head if you wanna hear rappers yell on the mic and for producers to use big booming drums

Which is also kind of why I don't get a lot SFJ reviews in the NYer, because it's like "Just face it, you are not going to get your readership to like this stuff except the young part of it that probably already knew the music before it was reviewed here."

― eggleston or instagram? (Hurting 2), Friday, June 15, 2012

I don't agree. As long as he has that platform and his editors do not mind, he should write about what he finds of interest, whether a stereotypical NewYorker reader is expected to like it or not.

it's almost like you must be an old retro head if you wanna hear rappers yell on the mic and for producers to use big booming drums

wait waht

Waka not enough for you

ha i heard this last night and was wondering if it would be brought up here! nothing like some olds quipping about "amphetamines at a rave" to get ilx defending diplo

I'll take Diplo over more typical All Things Considered crushes like the hideously sunshiney Regina Spektor, but NPR currently has a not-bad to sometimes awes range, especially some of the live/archived concerts (Newport coming up again next month) and new albums. Need to check Fiona's Idler Wheel again, but some of it got me instantly, and I'm really into Neneh Cherry & The Thing's The Cherry Thing (some of the sax solos go on too long, but don't bother the overall momentum)
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/10/154159413/first-listen-neneh-cherry-and-the-thing-the-cherry-thing?ps=mh_fl

i went through a srs "liking diplo and hollertronix" phase way back there in two thousand and something. baltimore club music! money studies! spank rock even. caught some flak for it hereabouts, but that shit was enjoyable. still like his MIA album. gave up when the novelty buzz wore off, perhaps not coincidentally when he started "discovering" rapping children from australia

NPR should throw the video for "Pon De Floor" up on their website if they REALLY want the complaints to roll in

Spank Rock's first album is totally fun

I like how most of our NPR discussions devolve into trying to figure out what exactly we find off-putting about the tone of NPR. It's usually not fully articulated.

It's like when people talk about a mutual friend and the tone is always "he's a cool guy, but I don't know..."

we like you but we're ambivalent about you too, npr

Well, as we said, there was a conversation online and there were Diplo defenders. Among them, Chris Thompson(ph) of Rochester, New York, who writes: I find it hilarious that you people are tuning in to a show called ALL THINGS CONSIDERED and getting upset at the fact that they're considering all things.

this is kind of top-shelf.

Ha ha yeah cunga so otm

we like you but we're ambivalent about you too, npr

Title of LCD's eventual comeback single.

i went through a srs "liking diplo and hollertronix" phase way back there in two thousand and something. baltimore club music! money studies! spank rock even. caught some flak for it hereabouts, but that shit was enjoyable. still like his MIA album. gave up when the novelty buzz wore off, perhaps not coincidentally when he started "discovering" rapping children from australia

― contenderizer

diplo did like 2 tracks on that album iirc. not that i care.

i mean piracy funds terrorism

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/how-all-songs-considereds-bob-boilen-went-from-tiny-desk-to-tastemaker/2016/04/08/354beb44-e492-11e5-bc08-3e03a5b41910_story.html

“I’m one of the people who didn’t care for Michael Jackson,” he says. “Talented, yeah, but there are so many other people that will never get their voices heard, and it’s so cool to be able to find the ones you connect with. I just try to find music that makes me think, ‘This needs a champion.’ ”

Many of the acts he loves, such as the Low Anthem and Taken by Trees, fall into the category of indie rock. And he’s been criticized more than once for his indifference to country and hip-hop in particular. Frannie Kelley, co-host of NPR’s “Microphone Check” podcast with rap icon Ali Shaheed Muhammad, was asked to create an “All Songs Considered” for rap music, but she declined. “We said we didn’t think hip-hop needed that, nor was recommending new rap music something that took advantage of either of our skills and assets,” Kelley says. “We said we would make something where we spoke with people in the culture.”

Boilen invited Kelley to his show a handful of times, before and after “Microphone Check” existed, but not to talk about the show. He wanted them to recommend new rap music to his listeners, “songs that he approved,” she says. “I couldn’t do the work I wanted to do within the context of his show. ... You can’t challenge Bob on his show. Ali and I had to create our own show to make NPR Music great.”

Boilen has acknowledged that he tends to play “music that speaks to me,” and his “lack of love for hip-hop, country, classical and metal stand out as big holes in our coverage.” He’s tried to fill them by inviting people with eclectic tastes such as Kyp Malone from TV on the Radio to play DJ. When Kelley suggested the NPR Music team invite hip-hop artist T-Pain to do a Tiny Desk show, Boilen was open to it. T-Pain’s October 2014 appearance is still the most-watched Tiny Desk performance, with nearly 9 million views on YouTube.

But Boilen doesn’t apologize for his tastes. In response to an email from a listener with the subject line “All Indie Rock Considered?,” he once wrote, “I won’t fake what I do when I host the show.”

tiny desk is painfully bad

I like when others (not Boilen) at NPR pick acts for it. Anthony Hamilton was great

Tiny Desk is good when it has good artists and bad when it doesn't. I don't understand how the entire thing can be described as "painfully bad."

long legs

Tiny Desk is good when it has good artists and bad when it doesn't. I don't understand how the entire thing can be described as "painfully bad."

― JWoww Gilberto (man alive), Friday, April 22, 2016 10:49 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah there's been great ones

The Dirty Three & the Sun Ra Arkestra performances were both great

Oh man, need to see those.

I liked the T-Pain one. They're kind of like nicer versions of standard in-studio radio performances -- the room sounds good and it's intimate.

i'm sure if i watched one of a band i liked it would be ok (you got me!) but c'mon the whole concept is hair-raisingly cutesy and early-00s indie sincere, the intimacy is so forcedly quirky 'oh how endearingly cluttered this office is'. and the curation, like the music they choose to play in this nauseatingly hungry for authenticity environment is all folky trembling indie vocalists and like wholesome alt-bluegrass bros and pop punk. also t-pain aside i feel like they adhere to what thing of like, only black artists if they play in a style that was popular 3 or more decades ago whats up with that

well and the whole point of the t-pain thing was steeped in language of authenticity, like "oh he can actually sing"

you seem fun

that said while i love microphone check i think its a little silly to abdicate critical advocacy of artists & songs, its not like indie bros will stop advocating for their favs

xp Well there are other exceptions to that last point, although looking at the list overall you may be onto something. But on the whole it seems like modern "NPR taste" is relatively broad enough that there is some good stuff in there. The name "Tiny Desk" is annoying but I don't really mind the setting, honestly it's nicer than just looking at carpeted studio walls and a bunch of gear.

i feel like they adhere to what thing of like, only black artists if they play in a style that was popular 3 or more decades ago whats up with that

That's Boilen. See the quote from the Post article above. He has also rationalized things by saying most rap and r'n'b is too foul-mouthed for npr. I wouold be fine with Boilen booking stuff he likes if they also let the folks who do the "Microphone Check" thing and the folks who do the alt-latino and the jazz online NPR stuff also have an equal hand in picking music for Tiny Desk. They only occasionally do

well and the whole point of the t-pain thing was steeped in language of authenticity, like "oh he can actually sing"

― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Friday, April 22, 2016 2:08 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

the jazz ones are often good. Christian Scott, Matt Ulery, etc.

Yeah the acoustics sound very good for jazz too imo.

obviously it's playing off of all things considered, but the name of the show should be Bob Boilen's Fave Tunes or something. all songs considered makes it seem like it'll be a wide ranging genre-free zone, which it isn't.

i guess i don't really care about the series as a series or what i means or w/e i've just watched specific ones with artists i already liked and i like it mostly because it's really really well engineered soundwise

We used the Steve Gunn Tiny Desk as an object lesson for our young teenager: this is how stoned people look and act. Great set, btw.

yeah what UMS said

yes.
wonder what the original poster's mom is into these days -- deep private press new age shit?

I love the original post

This song popped into my head tonite; I haven’t thought of it in 10 years (....bet you haven’t, either) —

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgBeu3FVi60

To the thread topic -- my mom sometimes emails me links to "Tiny Desk Concert" performance videos... usually I'm already aware of the band (or not interested), though that is how I first encountered Car Seat Headrest (of whom I later became a real fan). "Thanks, mom!"