NPR is turning my mom into a corny indie fuxx

Those are exactly the kind of comments I hear in my head when the NYer publishes SFJ articles.

Release your (unintelligible).

Haha that reminds me of my boss at an old job who always played XRT, Chicago's sort of adult-alternative station, in the office. Anyway, back when they regularly started playing Moby on that station he called in to them all jovial like he was old friends with whomever picked up the phone saying, "Come on guys, you really aren't going to continue to play this absolute trash on your station are you?". I mean, I'm no Moby defender, but it was pretty hilarious.

A middle-aged partner at my firm the other day asked me what bands I was listening to lately, and then he asked if I liked the Shins or Broken Bells. I just said that I knew them but that I had kind of fallen out of touch with new music. He's a pretty cool guy, but it was still awkward somehow.

I think what I had actually been listening to most recently was Zs, which would have been too hard to explain.

God, feel like I've heard on a few occasions NPR doing a "several of you voiced complaints about our coverage of artist/s yesterday" and it is almost always some irritating, stodgy boomer (I would guess) bullshit being voiced. Whoever they are, they're the worst fucking people ever.

Aging "open-minded" boomers in not at all being open-minded non-shocker.

wow you guys are still raging against the baby boomers huh?

my mom is awesome. she likes linda rondstadt and kenny rogers and CCR and christmas music and shit like that.

it's funny too cuz diplo is basically an ILX punching bag in other contexts.

I don't really blame boomers for not wanting to listen to Diplo. I don't think it's so much a matter of open-mindedness as getting old and feeling more sensitive to fast, noisy music.

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."

I'm not so much faulting the boomers for not liking Diplo, but for actually taking the time to complain about it to NPR. Just, I don't know, suck it up, not every single new artist will be specifically tailored to your personal tastes. Chalk this one up as a miss and move on.

Well some older folks like it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9jXbp1jAZg

I heard the piece on Diplo, who I don't really listen to, and found it an interesting overview. But hearing the piece made me feel really old because his music was grating beyond belief. Every goddamn note was so loud. The vox were LOUD. The beats were LOUD. The synths were LOUD. There was no dynamics to anything, and I can't imagine how anyone can listen to that without getting really exhausted. Kids these days.

old people complained about rock n roll being too loud too yknow

I have no intention of ever listening to Diplo, fwiw

diplo isn't that young! he's like 33 or something

okay but 33 isn't exacltly old either lex

I liked diplo's first album, which sounds like endtroducing pt. 2

old people complained about rock n roll being too loud too yknow

Maybe, but waveforms of Bill Haley and the Comets won't look like a solid brick.

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