my sister pointed out that i haven’t updated this shit in an age.
thank you, sister. i love you.
it is a true fact that i have not updated this or any other internet shit (aside from twitter or a saucily named beer blog) in a dang while. i had some grandiose notions of making a big ol’ best of 2010 list and stuff, but then i realized that actually i do not give many fucks about many records that people don’t already know are awesome from last year. EXCEPTION: desert fires by noveller. get that album if you like grouper (i like grouper a lot) and also relaxing with distorted chimey guitar noises and thick haze-sounds (i like this also). instead, while i am procrastinating on writing some other stuff, allow me to list some recent impulse purchases i made in record stores!
-the slits, in the beginning (picture disc): despite a devotion to riot grrl that has now spanned more than half my life, i did not listen closely to the slits until after ari up died, which i would be ashamed of if i still thought there was any use for cultural-literacy shame (i don’t). holy shit you guys. the joy and abandon in this performance kind of motivates me in life.
-anthony shake shakir, frictionalism 1994-2009: house music! techno music! i am bad at drawing the line, especially for something that is just so powerfully funky as to defy any descriptions that do not involve booty-shaking. my extremely techno-aware ex-roommate has also informed me that anthony shakir is a really nice dude in person, which i am very pleased to know.
-marnie stern, marnie stern: some of my friends were saying that her songwriting got way better on this album and i can see where they’re coming from, although if i wake up with a marnie stern song stuck in my head it’s usually still “shea stadium” for whatever reason. (catchiness, to me, is often a mark of good songwriting.) she’s just great at shredding some shit up and that is really essential sometimes.
(side note on marnie stern and also music criticism: i was deeply annoyed about sasha frere-jones’s description of her “finger-tapping technique associated with male players like Eddie Van Halen,” because what the fuck does eddie van halen’s gender tell anyone about the way his guitar sounds. that is some true actual bullshit, and if the bro who wrote it is following his tumblr trackbacks will he please explain himself? that is the most i am going to do to try and stalk the new yorker’s pop music critic into seeing the error of his ways or whatever, but seriously, wtf, as the kids say) !?
