lauren's spatial dysphoria

thanks a bunch, NYU. you're great. really great.

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:03:32 -0400

thanks a bunch, NYU. you're great. really great.

Oh, Noel. Will you ever learn?

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:00:25 -0400

“I’m right into the Blur reunion, ‘cause it’ll finish off the Kaiser Chiefs and put them to bed. There’s nothing worse than a shit Blur. And at least the original shit Blur are back to finish off all these other shit Blurs. I’m bang into the Blur reunion.”

— Noel Gallagher of Oasis. (via P4K via Contact Music via Vulture)

That’s an olive branch if I ever saw one.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LET THIS BE THE PRECURSOR TO A REUNION. WITH OR WITHOUT JOHN. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEED IN MY LIFE RIGHT NOW. PLEASE.

Mon, 18 May 2009 16:35:40 -0400

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LET THIS BE THE PRECURSOR TO A REUNION. WITH OR WITHOUT JOHN. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEED IN MY LIFE RIGHT NOW. PLEASE.

this is it. this is what it’s all about. black and white,...

Fri, 01 May 2009 11:06:35 -0400

this is it. this is what it’s all about.

black and white, mosh pit, fucking ridiculous music, and CONFETTI.

the best, most classic video i’ve seen in a while. the cinematography is fucking amazing. back to basics, kids, back to basics.

what a blue ball.

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:08:59 -0400

what a blue ball.

how many hours of footage was used to create this...

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:14:45 -0400

how many hours of footage was used to create this video

let’s see… the words “sunday bloody sunday” in the chorus? i’d say ten minutes. god bless america.

maybe fred flinstone had the right idea.

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 05:59:33 -0400

maybe fred flinstone had the right idea.

Can’t tell Zach Galifianakis nothin’.

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:37:36 -0400

Can’t tell Zach Galifianakis nothin’.

die hipster scum.

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 06:12:39 -0400

die hipster scum.

wtf, craigslist, everything's ruined. now where am i going to sell my useless shit??? eBay is so passé.

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 06:01:35 -0400

wtf, craigslist, everything's ruined. now where am i going to sell my useless shit??? eBay is so passé.

fox news strikes again.

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:49:27 -0400

fox news strikes again.

we now know that the factor bill o’reilly is referring to...

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 07:00:07 -0400

we now know that the factor bill o’reilly is referring to are the quaaludes he has to take to retain mental equilibrium.

surprise at 1:54. i miss old bright eyes. why was there no more...

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 06:57:56 -0400

surprise at 1:54. i miss old bright eyes. why was there no more of the same, conor?

siren '08

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:11:30 -0400

No one can really complain about a free concert, can they? Tehcnically speaking, the fact that concertgoers pay nothing for admission means that they are recognizing that their money is going .. well .. nowhere. Other than in their pockets, of course. As such, standards cannot logically as high as a concert that they pay $30, $20, or even $10 for.

But let’s not kid ourselves… we all judge. We all have certain standards that we want to be met, regardless of the price of admission. And, well, Siren didn’t meet those.

There were complaints floating around for months before the concert was underway, about the initial line-up. Having to go up against Pitchfork Festival in Chicago that same weekend (with a stellar line-up including Animal Collective, Spoon, No Age, Ghostface, and more) Siren Festival’s line-up was lacking, to say the least. Though their headliners were satisfactory, keeping concertgoers interested long enough to keep them around until the headliners went on proved to be quite difficult.

And on top of initial problems with the line-up, the actual Siren Festival itself was poorly organized, with a scarcity of booths that handed out schedules and stages set up too far from each other, and poorly executed overall, with a sound quality that was quite sub-par. If one chose to stand outside of the jam-packed, sweaty masses (which many people did, considering the weather), one could scarcely hear the band performing onstage.

I left three hours before Stephen Malkmus even went on. On top of the sweltering heat, none of it really seemed worth it. The bands that I were able to hear were really quite a disappointment (most notably the Dodos, who didn’t really perform as much as they free-form jammed for a half hour; yawn, yawn, yawn) and walking back and forth between stages was simply pointless when, by the time you arrived at the other stage, the band performing was already halfway through their performance that couldn’t be heard, anyway.

The only band that made my night not entirely shot was These Are Powers. Many people like to criticize this band for their lack of conforming to a specific genre and call that “crappy” instead of original and new. But, really, their high energy, amazing stage presence, and powerful music (much of which was new since their last performance, as they have been recording for a few monthsn in Chicago) left me feeling as if they wanted to be there, performing at Siren and, consequently, made me want to be there too, if even only a little bit.

Regardless of the musical history he made with the Libertines,...

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 23:16:00 -0400

Regardless of the musical history he made with the Libertines, Babyshambles founder and frontman, Pete Doherty, is best known on this side of the Atlantic for his time in jail, his destructive, cocaine-ridden relationship with ex-girlfriend Kate Moss, and other such debacles that make it across the ocean and found their way into American music magazines. All this serves to overshadow any sort of contribution he made to the industry with his work in the Libertines, and discredits his work now with Babyshambles… at least in this country. On his friendlier, more forgiving home turf of England, the good and the bad sides of Pete Doherty are equally portrayed. One can only imagine that this is why, after two LPs and an EP, he and his bandmates chose to record their first live album there. Doherty’s statement near the beginning of Babyshambles’ set “I never thought we’d make it…It’s good to be home,” only serves to confirm such a notion.

Not only does Doherty sound sober throughout the performance, but very well put-together, overall. With just enough slightly sour notes to charm an audience to their imperfections (and to remind us that this is, in fact, a live show on recording), Babyshambles put on quite a good show, striking a near-perfect balance between reproducing their recorded songs and live touches like covers (two, one of which was a sing-a-long to “Buttercup” in between songs and, of course, the Libertines’ “Good Old Days”) and dedications (to the likes of “Stookie McBastard” and Amy Winehouse). The sound is clean and, if possible, Doherty seems to have performed better on this than he did on prevous Babyshambles recordings. But one place where the record falls short (and Doherty, most of all) is reproducing the joie de vive and fervor that embodied all the recordings of the Libertines. There is no laughter on this record, no real sounds of enjoyment other than Doherty’s weak reassurances of the band’s happiness. It makes it quite difficult to fall in love with the record for old fans, and leaves new fans with a sense of lacking, without quite understanding what it is they’re looking for from Babyshambles. Though it is unfair to crucify Doherty for his lifestyle and the choices he has made, it might be entirely accurate to say that it is those things that have effectively euthanized the magic and the grit of his old performance and work, and left him with nothing more than shadows and memories.

Attempts to capture the essence of No Age in words will...

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:25:31 -0400

Attempts to capture the essence of No Age in words will inevitably fail, but I’m going to try anyway. But, to make my job a little easier, I’ve included the video above.

Influence doesn’t matter. Influence doesn’t matter. Listening to No Age’s Nouns and seeing them in concert is an experience of the physical, pure and true. Their songs don’t simmer on a slow burn; they explode in a lightshow of sparks and manic drumbeats that, in a live setting, leave the listener feeling well-fucked and ready for a cigarette at the end of it all and, on recording, make the listener want to .. well .. break shit, but with a grin. No Age is not no age at all. They are the shit-caked assholes of helpless children, disillusionment of pimpled teenagers, the jaded, Proust-studying college student’s underfed sex drive, and the mid-life crisis. No Age is every age, because they sing the universal frustration of the human condition, and take the ugly and shove it in everyone’s faces in a most unapologetic of ways. And by doing so, they make it a little bit better, even if just for the duration of a 2 minute and 23 second ditty.

Don’t you wanna cry
If I was you I’d wanna try and force it out
Break it off as soon as I could start
And maybe quit if I was trying
Maybe stop if it’s too hard

- Cappo, No Age