OK, is this the worst piece of music writing ever?

eighteen thirty four, i took the whig party to war,

https://www.theringer.com/music/2020/10/1/21494313/radiohead-best-songs-ranked

Radiohead is immune to hyperbole. Many will say “Radiohead is the soundtrack to my life,” and those people aren’t wrong. Others will say “Radiohead is so boring. I don’t get it,” like Kid Rock did in 2001, and … well, who is going to argue Radiohead with the guy who wrote “Bawitdaba”? The fact is Radiohead is Radiohead, existing in its own musical world. Similar to predecessors like the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and R.E.M., Radiohead has legions of fans, and endless cycles of rereleased, remastered, and reappraised albums. It’s with good reason. For the past 25 years, these five creeps have defined alternative rock.

The fact is Radiohead is Radiohead

For the past 25 years, these five creeps have defined alternative rock.

For the past 25 years, these five creeps have defined alternative rock.

For the past 25 years, these five creeps have defined alternative rock.

For the past 25 years, these five creeps have defined alternative rock.

For the past 25 years, these five creeps have defined alternative rock.

Christian suburbanites

The fact is Radiohead is Radiohead

where is the lie???

… well, who is going to argue Radiohead with the guy who wrote “Bawitdaba”?

Furthermore, I am me.

Anticipation for the OK Computer follow-up built a comparable head of buzz to Britney Spears doing it again, Eminem threatening moms, and Mystikal yelling, “Shake ya ass, but watch yourself.”

Just saw the author's name. What if this is all a ploy by the similarly named Icelandic band of Ágætis byrjun fame to dislodge their direct competitors in the annals?

https://www.cjnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Burning-Bush-Moses-Ten-Commandments-Movie.jpg

Radiohead is that Radiohead is

head of buzz to Britney Spears

gonna start a radiohead / cure mashup cover band and call it "these five imaginary creeps." we need a singer and a bass player, who's in?

The fact is Radiohead is Radiohead

He uses the same, um, rhetorical device just a few paragraphs later

Radiohead released their seventh album straight to fans, famously using a pay-what-you-want model. The move pissed off Trent Reznor, who then realized he was Trent Reznor and used a similar tactic for his next two Nine Inch Nails albums.

Similar to predecessors like the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and R.E.M.,

Where "predecessors" = "groups of white dudes who released records in the 20th Century," I guess?

Because I am not sure in what precise ways Radiohead is the successor to those bands.

And, if the criterion is simply "people who made music before Radiohead did," well, that's a pretty broad category that would, presumably, also include Mozart, Percy Faith, and GWAR.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/mathonan/radiohead-kid-a-20th-anniversary

As you might expect, because I am a white Gen X’er bro in my late forties who was not cool enough to be familiar with Aphex Twin but was hip enough to shit all over U2, I really like Radiohead’s Kid A — which came out 20 years ago this week.

It’s easy to forget just how good things seemed back in October 2000. The prevailing mood was one of optimism. The Cold War was over. The Supreme Court had not yet handed a contested election to George W. Bush. The 9/11 attacks were a year away. Climate change still seemed like a distant concern. The economy was in the midst of the dot-com boom/bubble. The internet was going to bring us all together in a marketplace of ideas, make the world a better place. Handjobs all around. And in the middle of all that, Radiohead rolled out Kid A.

(...)

The planet is dying, there’s a pandemic that’s killed a million people and counting, cops are still killing Black people, the country is being rent apart by racism and hate, it’s red state versus blue state, California is literally on fire, and did you even see the fucking debate? Did you see it? Jesus. Talk about “Idioteque.”

Radiohead’s Kid A — which came out 20 years ago this week

just staring at this realizing I’ve lived more post-Kid A than pre-Kid A life and drafting my thinkpiece on what that means

not cool enough to be familiar with Aphex Twin but was hip enough to shit all over U2

He's the "BuzzFeed News San Francisco Bureau Chief"

I’ve been a chief, this guy ain’t no chief of nothin

Tombot knew Jack Kennedy. Tomboy served with Jack Kennedy.

Crud, Tombot, sorry

It’s easy to forget just how good things seemed back in October 2000. The prevailing mood was one of optimism.

Ha ha what the fuck

i remember my October 2000 "Everything's Going Great!" party well

Hahahaha @ “The Cold War was over”

That happened like a decade earlier. You might as well say people were excited about Madchester bands

In addition to his music career, Van Halen will forever be remembered by fans for his contributions to pop culture and film, including cameos in series such as Frasier and Two and a Half Men and being one of the titular characters’ driving forces in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

hahaha

was that written by billy eilish?

Entirely correct though.

From Scaruffi

(I capitalized all the song titles because Autechre's lower-case habit is misleading. It may lead to confuse the music with the design: the lower-case titles are part of the design, and the design has indeed remained high-class; but that doesn't translate into an appreciation of the music, although one could claim that the "content" includes both the design and the music).

Yes, I understand things better now that the titles are capitalized!

May 5, 2011
By Pat Prince

Phil 'Fang' Volk, known as the spirited bass player for Paul Revere & The Raiders, has independently released a cover of Bob Dylan's enormously popular hit "The Times They Are a-Changin'" as a single.

The rendition is electric and hard-driving (what else would you expect from a rock 'n' roll bassist?) as the times we now live in. Volk adds a bit of 2011 to a timeless classic. Nothing can beat the Dylan original, but this energetic take adds to a message with a raw John Mellencamp-ish flair.

With this release, Volk wanted to make a statement about, what he calls, a "planet in transition."

As notes to the single, Volk writes "A SONG FOR A WORLD IN TURMOIL. Never before has humanity teetered with such instability, facing a future with incredible fear & uncertainty." Volk sees this as a "battle cry" for all those who stand ready to see things change for the better. Coincidentally, Volk released the CD on May 1, the same day that Osama Bin Laden, a proponent of such fear, was declared dead.

https://medium.com/@joshuacopperman1/what-your-favorite-album-of-2020-says-about-you-930285dad454

Oranssi Pazuzu: you have prepared yourself for the rise of the Master and shall welcome him with open arms

https://beatsperminute.com/album-review-playboi-carti-whole-lotta-red/

that Carti review in interminable while providing little actual content

There are valid arguments to be made for Autotune. They are not found here: https://popternative.com/music/getting-rid-of-the-stigma-that-surrounds-autotune/

Aside from the utter confusion about music history, every argument in that article goes exactly against the thesis statement.

Yeah, it's so incoherent I'm almost not sure how to even start arguing against it.

The moments of this have probably gone by, but this is nevertheless the stupidest review I've seen in years.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/st-vincent-daddys-home/

It presents the point of the whole fucking album as arguing for childlessness or something. Peyton Thomas gives this argument 6.7.

It’s odd, for example, that two songs on the album refer to calling “the cops,” or 911, in light of the past year’s uprisings against police brutality.

Docked points for snitching

Calling 911 because you have a medical emergency makes you a Karen

[Verse 1]
9-1-1 (9-1-1, what's your emergency?)
I'm in love (I see, so how can I help you?)

Wow, do better, St. Vincent

Fwiw, here’s the other lyric being referenced:

Hello
Do you know where you are?
You've been out cold
We almost called the cops
Don't get up
Can you count to ten?
Oh, boy, you're so lucky we found you when we did

scandalous

The writer’s oeuvre is full of bangers:

The audible crosswalk signals Jordan samples were developed to make life easier for visually impaired pedestrians. But they benefit everyone, adding clarity, joy, and a little music to busy urban journeys. (Recently, while I was waiting at an intersection, a mechanical voice pronounced “Wait”; I turned to my boyfriend and sang, “They don’t love you like I love you.”)

I like that

It kind of strikes me as the NPR/podcast voice turned to music criticism

I thought his Zooropa piece was good (even if not quite my bag).

Not going to link to The Federalist for obvious reasons, but the 22 year-old daughter of Rachel from The Real World: San Fransisco and Sean from The Real World: Boston wrote an unresearched, openly racist hit piece about country artist Mickey Guyton. Among her claims is that corporate country radio is "shoving Guyton down listeners throats"... despite the fact that Guyton's had exactly one top 40 hit at country radio, back in 2015.

Not the worst piece of music writing ever I guess, but should the Guardian really be publishing these wide-eyed fanzine-level scribblings?

if you say "not the worst" and also don't add a link, don't expect me to go to the Guardian to sniff around to find out wtf you're talking about