Last month Tom Ewing ran a World Cup Of 1990 on Twitter and nearing the end asked, "For voters here, I'm interested - has the relatively deep dive of this poll changed your opinion of 1990 at all? (assuming you had one!)" My basic response is too long for 280 characters, or even 2800, so I'm blogging it here, also referring to and embedding a ( Read more... )

In 1987 I tossed an insult at a loose aggregation of people that included me, calling us "PBS for the youth." Basically, I was fingering the punk/postpunk indie-alternative "underground," but also worlds and hairstyles and rampages that surrounded it: rock critics, letters-to-the-editor, on-edge heroin poetry zines, the appreciation and ( Read more... )

Missed most of February (and most of everything else). Ash-B is the great discovery here, a strong and throaty rapper like Choi Sam but with a tone that's more supple and subtle. Will say more when I post my 2014 albums list. "The Song Of Love" is a low-rent slow dance from Core Contents Media (yeah, it's not Core Contents Media anymore, but in my ( Read more... )

Interchange between me and Tal on the Jukebox; runs similar to my attempts to restate my "PBS" idea to Marc the other day. I'm curious if anyone has any thoughts on how to clarify and/or improve the idea. (Cliffs Notes version of the idea hereBy the way, Will is doing a terrific job in framing and collating our responses in the best-off. Man's a ( Read more... )

In a shock to my many fans, I get pissy with nice-guy desnoise* over on Tom's Tumblr, the subject being "PBS" and "Poptimists" and "Indie," perhaps, if those are actual subjects.

*I think that's Marc Cohen, but correct me if I'm wrong Hogan.

New kid joshlanghoff from one of my other flists joins livejournal and asks me questions that I try to answer here about my PBS symbology that I referred to in The Rules Of The Game #24: The PBSification Of Rock.

(And some of you discussed the subject with me here.)

I'm urging dubdobdee to pitch and write a piece that he's long been contemplating: "why are the left such chumps when it comes to the charts?" So to urge him further I'm pasting in a slightly re-worded version of what I wrote on his thread, and I encourage you to contribute your own thoughts here. (I'm not saying anything that I haven't said better and at ( Read more... )

Just posted this on an old blogger thread that I found via Google:

Bug said: I've read it over thirty times now and am still no closer to understanding what the penman actually meant by this.

"through the process of our appreciating them[, we] turn them into nothing."

What does this mean?
Seriously. It's not a rhetorical question.Wish you [rmd] ( Read more... )

Latest column. I look at some of my own ideas and start asking questions, hoping that I'll inspire you to ask questions about them, too.

The Rules Of The Game #24: The PBSification Of RockI don't really go deeply into what I think PBSification is, or how we turned rock 'n' roll into something that's "good for you" in a bad, stultifying way. A ( Read more... )

I talk about Celine and the White Stripes. I quote Nia (and once again rely on her brain).

The Rules Of The Game #21: When The Wrong Song Loves You RightThis time I'm doing something of a free association, stitched together at the last minute - I'd envisioned writing a different piece and then abandoned that other piece and did this - and the ( Read more... )