POPSENSE

Ladies and Gentlemen: Going to the Show

2010-03-25T22:55:00.000-04:00

We're all guilty of overdressing to events just to be seen. Concerts are no exception. Everyone has that friend that takes forever, and likewise, that friend who goes to every concert in the same ratty Soundgarden shirt from 1994. In our years of performing and attending shows, we've seen our fair share of concert fashion, and the major thing we've noticed is the differences between the ways men and women get ready for the show. Of course there are always those people who just don't give a shit, but they're no fun. This isn't meant to be sexist or anything, it's all in the name of Popsense. Here's how two "fictional" characters, Steve and Amanda get ready for the big show.

Waking up:

Steve: "Hm, after my morning dump, I should probably grab a Hot Pocket and find the tickets for tonight. I think I left them under the cushions."

Amanda: "Ok, I've just gotten out of bed, and it looks like I had sex with a grizzly bear last night. I'm going to spend the next three hours to make sure my hair stays this way for tonight."

Mid-Afternoon:

Steve: "Alright, I found my ticket. The show starts at 8, so I've got some time on my hands. This would be a perfect time to bust out the Nintendo 64 and call some friends just to show them how fucking phenomenal I am at Mario Kart."

Amanda: "Ok, hair is looking good, but still no outfit. I should probably bring an extra shirt, because last time, some drunk asshole hit on me by burping the ABC's and threw up on me when he got to Q"

Late Afternoon:

Steve: "I'm seriously pumped for this show. I'm definitely starting a mosh pit, and if some dickhead tries to stop me, I'm knockin' his block off, just like that one time at Lollapalooza during the Bright Eyes set when I started that mud fight. They said it couldn't be done, but I did it."

Amanda: " Oh man, what if it starts snowing? I know it's July, but I'll definitely keep the Ugg boots in the car just in case. Either way, I'll bring the biggest bag I own. You never know when you'll need a power drill."

Early Evening:

Steve: "I should start getting ready. Time to throw on some pants and my wicked Soundgarden shirt from 1994. My friends are always saying only tools wear band shirts to concerts, but they don't know shit. They won't be saying that when I'm getting digits all night. Do I have time to jerk it before leaving? What am I thinking, of course I do!"

Amanda: "I'm going to take a few camera phone pictures and send them around to my best friends just to get a good second opinion. Actually, no, I hate my friends today. I know I look good right now. I'll call my ugliest friend and have her come with me, so by comparison, I'll look even better."

Waiting on Line Outside:

Steve: "Man these chicks are lookin' good tonight. I probably should have washed this shirt. Nah, they won't care. It's all about my dance moves. Just wait until they see me do the worm."

Amanda: " I hope they play my favorite song, but I also hope they don't play my second favorite song. My ex-boyfriend loved that song, so now it sucks."

They Meet Inside:

Steve: "Hey there honey, check it out, I can burp their new single"

Amanda: "Oh, that's my second favorite song."

After the Show:

Steve: "I'm totally gonna text all my friends and tell them how many ladies I'm bringing back home tonight, when in all reality, I forgot to wear deodorant and everyone was repulsed."

Amanda: "Ew, that smelly guy in the Soundgarden shirt threw up on me! I spent hours trying to look as good as I did, and now look, I'm a mess. The drummer was really cute though; I'll go talk to him out back. What was his name, Arian or something?"

-Arian Murati

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Radiohead 'Wall of Ice' EP Review + New Mp3 'Dead Air Space'

2010-03-25T22:53:00.000-04:00

Sending the internet ablaze with their 'no more albums' rumor, it comes as no surprise that Radiohead's first release since In Rainbows is an EP. Wall of Ice, which features yesterday's self-released track, "These Are My Twisted Words," delivers a digitally melancholy yet thunderously natural performance.

The title track, "Wall of Ice," is predictable -- for Radiohead. The track's jarring 9/8 timing transitions into a programmed drum beat, similar to "These Are My Twisted Words," ultimately climaxing into the sparse (and puzzling) spoken word chorus, "Time is not a charity/Words so fast/The tale is free." Thom Yorke's dulcet, countermelodious narration offers a biting criticism to internet enemy number 1, the record label. The song (and the accompanying ASCII poem to the EP) is especially relevant, considering Capital Record's impending Radiohead reissues. However, despite this reaffirmation of their musical self-consciousness, the drum track sounds like an offbeat version of 'Pokerface' if Thom Yorke remixed it and autotuned his speaking voice atop it. Trust us when we say that this is a very, very good thing.

"These Are My Twisted Words," the originally leaked single and the second track on the EP, presents itself, ostensibly, to be a hauntingly pleasing tune. But, after listening to it, we are reminded that not all songs are intended to be heard without context. "These Are My Twisted Words," conceptually, musically, and mathematically, serves as a stepping stone of which the other tracks must severely overcome by comparison in order to understand their relative greatness.

The third track, "Berglund Räikkönen (Afterthoughts On)", a tribute song to the first casualty in the Finnish Civil War at the Battle of Asplund, is uncharacteristically subtle to say the least. Yorke's lyrics are heart-wrenchingly moving as they are pulled straight from Berglund's dying words on the battlefield-- in the original Finnish. The track's poignant lyricism is highlighted by a musicality that strives to transpose "Nude" and "Bodysnatchers," swelling with distortion spontaneously, only to be tempered by Yorke's sedating falsetto harmonies. If you thought Thom Yorke was one of the best singers of our generation in English, just imagine his unparalleled conquest of the Finnish tongue.

The closing track, named after their website, "Dead Air Space," attempts to transcend the entire Radiohead-post-album-era listening experience -- and succeeds, simply because the track is not a listening experience in and of itself, but rather, hissing white noise. The track is only 38-seconds long, intended to be an outro to the E.P. While these type of "tracks" are not meant to be judged as full-fledged songs, the quality of the noise is oddly pleasing. It is the denouement to the Wall of Ice EP, a manifestation of the foreboding glacial image, a welcome prophesy of Radiohead's future.

Radiohead - Dead Air Space.mp3
Radiohead - These Are My Twisted Words.mp3
Radiohead - Harry Patch (In Memory Of).mp3

Looks like we don't have to mourn the loss of Radiohead after all.

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Exclusive Interview with Lead Singer Vawn Daniels of 'Cork Board'

2010-02-25T13:01:00.000-05:00

POPSENSE (PS): We at PopSense don't like to hold anything back, so let's just get to the juicy stuff right away-- in our ironic correspondence via Blackberry Messaging you said you wanted to set up this interview to clear your name, so why don't you tell the people what's up?

VAWN DANIELS (VD): Yeah, thanks for making this happen because we have been, to say the very least, really f*cking pissed off about some recent incidents. As you and our fans know well by now, Cork Board never has and never will release any of its music to the public nor will we ever perform live. We have all seen our favorite bands 'sellout' and so we as a group have had this appropriate pendulum reaction to these scarring moments in our musical lives by refusing to let others hear our music. Ever. We practice about 19 hours a day in Ned's basement, refuel, and then go at it again the next day. This of course has led to a level of popularity that we wholeheartedly expected. Unfortunately this recent 'leak' of one of our recordings onto the blogosphere comes as an incredible shock to us.

PS: Do you have anything to say to your fans or to the perpetrators about this leak?

VD: To our fans we say, "shit. earmuffs." to the perpetrators we say, "when we find you, we are going to tie you up in Ned's basement and skin you with a potato peeler."

PS: Strong words from a strong man.

VD: Thanks.

PS: Now, if you don't mind, can we talk about this recording for a second? To the untrained ear it sounded essentially like a few popping noises and an occasional grunt. How do you respond to such accusations?

VD: Well at a literal level, yes, that is what it probably sounds like to you. But this was actually our original collaborative work which led to the creation of the band. See there was this blank cork board in Ned's basement and we thought-- we should make a statement out of this. So we took thumbtacks, or push pins if you will, and tacked up poignant newspaper and magazine clippings and when we were done we realized we had been recording the whole time. And then we also realized that we had been using a cork board. So we named ourselves 'cork board' and the success has pretty much just been exponential from there.

PS: Wow.

VD: I know.

PS: Is it true that no one in the band actually has any formal music training?

VD: Yes, very true. Michael, our 'blunt object beater' (Editor's Note: The blunt object beater is like the drummer but apparently gets the respect of a bassist) used to know how to play the guitar, but we spent 6 months doing an ancient form of yoga that involves stoning and strangling with guitar strings until he reverted back to a childlike state in which he never knew how to play the guitar. Interestingly enough many of our fans who have gotten through the obstacle course and into Ned's basement to hear us play have been known to recreate that very process upon themselves so that every time they listen to us it literally feels like the first time, every time.

PS: Very interesting. So what's the deal with the scar?

VD: What scar?

PS: The huge scar across your face?

VD: I don't have a huge scar across my face.

PS: So what are you guys working on now?

VD: Right now we're really excited about our silent musical.

PS: Oh. What's it about?

VD: Cork board's beginnings...

PS: Cool

VD: ...and how we actually wrote every song that U2 claims to have written at least 20 years before them.

PS: To say the very least, from a mathematical standpoint, that isn't possible.

VD: That's because you have a false perception of time.

PS: Yes, right.

VD: Anyway, Bono is probably behind our leak, and he'll pay for that one day. Soon.

PS: Ok well, I think we've talked on long enough today, can I just say thank you for coming out and speaking with us today, and especially for sticking to grammatically acceptable English throughout the entire interview, as I'm sure your fans will remember quite vividly you refused to be 'limited' by the 'rules of language' in your interview with Rolling Stone last week and instead just roared like a lion for 45 minutes without inhaling. That looked painful.

VD: It wasn't.

PS: Well, thanks for stopping by, and we'll be sure never to post the leak.

VD: I'll kill you if you do.

PS: I know.

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The World Mourns the Loss of Radiohead.

2009-09-25T12:57:00.001-04:00

Radiohead will not/may never release another album. Here's what the people had to say:

John and Susan Anderson: "Our wedding song was 'Creep.' Everyone thought we were crazy! Some people just don't understand. Kids these days just want that acoustic version of 'Poker Face' to play instead."

Walter Flanigan: "I lost my virginity to 'High and Dry." It felt like having sex with Thom Yorke. I'm gunna miss 'em"

Vawn Daniels: "MOST overrated band. Ever. You should check out 'Atlas Sound,' I'll send you a link to my blog."

RollingStone: "Best Alternative album of 2000, 2003, 2008, 2013, 2015. 3000.'

Chris Martin: "There's a direct correlation between Radiohead and our earlier albums. Can you imagine how multiple sounds joined together so fastidiously to create the unique sound of Coldplay? Music is fascinating."

Lonnie Friefeld: "Amnesiac was the lesser loved brother of Kid A, but I always loved it more. You're a true Radiohead fan if you can appreciate that. Oh yeah, about their departure - why attempt to improve on perfection? In Rainbows topped my best albums of 08-09 list.

Kanye West: "They had their time. Now's my time. I'm thinking about sampling 'Nude,' it'll be like when Diddy sampled 'Every Breath You Take,' but modern and better

Pitchfork: "We think we gave them some 'Best Album Ever Awards.' Our readership loves them. Hey, did you read our memorial Post?"

Stereogum: "Unreleased Radiohead Tracks. Listen Here."

PC: "Fitter, not happier :("

Steve Jobs: "'Reckoner' should have launched with the iPhone advertisment. Even Apple makes mistakes...that band could've been HUGE."

Jeremy Lancaster: "The first song I ever learned on guitar was 'No Surprises.' That's when I fell in love in music. They will inspire us for generations to come."

Roary Oxford: "You don't need to love music to love Radiohead."

Amy Shmidt: "People think I'm so weird for liking Lady GaGa and Radiohead. I put them on the same mixtape sometimes. Who says a girl can't branch out once in a while??"

Brian Howe: "You don't respect music if you don't respect Radiohead. Ladies and gentlemen, we have had a great loss today. Scratch that - you don't respect yourself if you don't respect Radiohead."

Miley Cryrus: "I listened to Hail to the Thief like 400 times before recording my debut!!! Inspiration comes from the strangest places, doesn't it? Maybe if they had been a little kinder to me they'd still be playing today."

Ray Fontana: "Saw them at in a bar back in '91. Everyone said they sucked - except me. I know greatness when I see it. I got a blowjob later that night."

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Zooey Deschanel and Ben Gibbard married, first hipsterstream relationship made official

2009-09-21T10:41:00.004-04:00

According to People, every flannel-wearing male's worst nightmare has officially been realized. About a year ago a sudden pang shot through our hearts when Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard adorned Zooey Deschanel's precious finger with a three-carat diamond and platinum Neil Lane ring. This Saturday near Seattle the knot was officially tied between the two hipsterstream (hipster + mainstream) icons, marking the first marriage of its kind.

As grown men dry their tears of jealousy, Gibbard, 33, and Deschanel, 29, leave many quesions lingering in the minds of pop culture fiends. The first of which, a fairly obvious one--Will the couple form the ultimate hipsterstream duo, shattering Scarlett Johansson's dreams of being the new 'it' girl, and putting M.Ward back in his place as another awkward, mediocre male vocalist?

The subsequent questions are all variations on 'Will they break up/will Zooey Deschanel marry me when they do?' So let's focus on the primary question at hand. The Postal Zooey? Deschanel Cab for Cutie? She & Ben? The possibilities are endless. Technically speaking there are literally hundreds of variations on their names and previous bands they've been in so it almost seems inevitable for them to put out an album.

When they do put out the album (no doubt a lovely mix of melancholy, country, and Elf) hipsterstream music will finally be realized with Ben and Zooey sitting comfortably atop the crowd as King and Queen. Now all we can do is wait for the recording process to start... or for them to have a baby and shatter our paradigm of indie perfection completely.

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Avril Lavigne and Deryck divorce, rebellious teens confused

2009-09-17T12:59:00.001-04:00

"He was a boy. She was a girl. Can I make it any more obvious?" Avril Lavigne's culturally relevant words from the timeless classic 'Sk8er Boi' seem especially poignant today as Us Magazine announces that the ex-queen of cool has officially split with her husband of three years, Deryck Whibley.

The magazine, on newstands now, elaborates:

"She dumped him and told him she was leaving him. She wants to move on," a source tells the new Us Weekly, adding that Lavigne, 25, forced him out of their $9.5 million, 12,000-square-foot estate in L.A.'s Bel Air. "Divorce papers will be filed any day now."

Well, there ya go. Another celebrity match made in heaven results in a nasty split h could be boup. Another insider for the magazine adds that Whibley is apparently "crushed." The fame and fortune... well at least the fortune... was pulled out from under him, and as we can imagine, he's probably thinking deep thoughts like, 'why'd you have to go and make things so complicated?'

With five number-one singles scored worldwide, Avril's influence in the early 00's was seen not just in the music world but even brighter (or darker?) in the fashion and identity-building realm of female teens everywhere. The black nail polish, the pink highlights, an incomparable level of sass-- a girl could embrace both her inner goth and her pretty pretty princess simultaneously. Amidst the Britneys and Christinas, Avril was the beacon of truth for the rebellious female teen who was convinced that she was a unique individual. And whether or not that was true, well, that's irrelevant. What matters most is that the desire to find that unique side, to discover a deeper self-image, in the attempt there is social value.

So now, seven years after the release of 'Let Go', 16 million sold copies later, one can't help but wonder where those rebellious female teens today will turn for the latest role model. Lady GaGa and Katy Perry are Britney and Christina rehashed and repackaged, Miley Cyrus and the DIsney crew are the younger version of that same brand. So I ask you today, who is the new Avril Lavigne?

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New Susan Boyle Album Defies Accepted Consumer Laws

2009-09-15T18:30:00.014-04:00

When you find yourself acknowledging that Susan Boyle served up a solid cover of the Rolling Stones' classic 'Wild Horses' you know something is off. Yes, Boyle, the old woman in the shoe from Britain's Got Talent that, as Columbia records puts it ever so tersely, "was plucked from obscurity" after her show stopping performance of 'I Dreamed a Dream'. After you recover from your state of disarray, grooving along to Boyle's crooning vocals pouring out from your laptop speakers in some inappropriate location thanks to the power of wifi, you come to realize that you're not alone. And this-- this scares you.

In a Columbia records press release today, the label announced that pre-orders of Susan Boyle's new album 'I Dreamed a Dream' due out November 24 have "topped Jay-Z, Whitney Houston, and even The Beatles' remastered CDs, making Boyle #1 on the Amazon.com's best-sellers list."

This scares you even more.

But today we must not let our internal pretentious artist get the better of us and merely be disgusted by this apparent travesty. On the contrary now is the time to take a step back, pick up a wooden baseball bat, and shatter everything we ever thought was inherently true about consumer patterns.

Ostensibly the quantitative success of this album seems appropriate when considering the tens of millions of views that her Britain's Got Talent YouTube video has garnered, but then again, there is one key factor that doesn't make sense. Time.

Boyle's big debut occurred on April 11, 2009 -- yes, this is the longest 15 minutes of fame known to man. Most chalked up the uncontrollable outpouring of love for the affectionately nicknamed SuBo as a spur of the moment thing that follows the basic process of human thought-- 1.) 'look at that old ugly woman, she can't be talented' 2.) 'wait, she is talented' 3.) 'bring on the pendulum effect!'

Yet at step 4 things go wrong. Of course, step 4 is 'go back to loving externally attractive/obviously talented people'.

Say what you will about the artistic integrity of Susan Boyle's upcoming album, say that it will be terrible, say that she is a talentless hack, say that you just still think she's an ugly old chick, but take that extra second and muse over the fact that your fellow man apparently disagrees.

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Zooey Deschanel is Katy Perry

2009-08-25T23:18:00.003-04:00

Guest submission by Tim Myers

We live in an age in which corporations have the power to make and break the careers of whatever clean cut celebrity automaton that they see fit. These icons are packaged, marketed and, with the aid of relentless air time on local top 40 stations, sold to a public clamoring to latch on to the next big thing. In response to current trends, pop stars are branded with an often times ill-fitting image allowing, for example, Lady Gaga to refer to herself as "shock pop" even though the only thing shocking about her music is the possibility that "Just Dance" may be about date rape. While this practice has been commonplace in popular music for ages, it also seems to have infiltrated independent-minded subcultures that have risen in defiance of the mainstream. This phenomenon has particularly been evidenced by the parallel rises to fame of Katy Perry and Zooey Deschanel.

Katy Perry is the perfect example of a well branded popstar. As has been demonstrated by the arrival of Pink and Avril Lavigne in the public consciousness, Top 40 music seems to move in cycles as pop music becomes exhausted with itself and an "alternative" icon or two suddenly become famous. Ironically, these alternative icons never really change the mold of future popstars and are doomed to be sandwiched between the type of cookie cutter divas that alternative icons generally rail against in KISS FM playlists and the CD collections of pre-teen girls.

With mainstream divas like Jessica Simpson having a panic attack and getting fat and Beyonce being replaced by the pseudo-feminist, vomit-inducing alter ego "Sasha Fierce", Katy Perry was suddenly in the perfect situation to grace magazine covers with taglines like "Katy Perry grabs Hollywood By the Balls" or "Katy Perry: The Girl You Don't Bring Home To Meet Your Mother Unless You Want Her To Have An Aneurysm". Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl" resonated perfectly with girls determined to get in touch with their bad girl side in order to attract the attention of fraternity meatheads and/or get back at their parents and it also resonated with guys who were all too excited to see girls make out with each other. Ultimately, everyone was happy except for the parents themselves and people with souls who saw Katy Perry's music as setting back both women and the LGBT community at least 20 years.

Zooey Deschanel also has proven to be perfectly marketable, winning the adoration of a sizable target market of hipsters who watch Annie Hall obsessively and harbor the misguided notion that girls do, in fact, pour over their painstakingly crafted mixtapes. 500 Days of Summer, in which Joseph Gordon-Levitt's ceaseless need to be in a committed relationship with Zooey's "I'm so cute and quirky as I shout penis in a public park" character not only cemented Zooey's status as hipster sex symbol, but also signaled a perfectly timed paradigm shift within the indie community. The innocent romantic is now cool again. Going steady is the new drunken hookup. Websites like "Hipster Wife Hunting" show a formerly oversexed and sometimes bicurious subculture ready to become monogamous.

Really, Zooey Deschanel is just a response to former hipster sex symbol Scarlet Johansson, who has fallen out of favor due to her role in movies like The Nanny Diaries, He's Just Not That Into You, and most notably The Island in which Johansson commits the hipster cardinal sin of starring in a Michael Bay movie. In spite of a valiant effort to win back her once adoring fans with a Tom Waits cover album, Johansson was outplayed by Deschanel, whose She & Him record showed she not only has a more commanding voice, but also featured indie-cred builder M. Ward, resulting in the perfect soundtrack for flanneled folk to touch themselves at night. Ultimately, Deschanel's cutesy schmaltz provides the perfect foil to Johnasson's sex pot promiscuity.

Underneath the simultaneous rise of these two celebrities lies something suspicious. The two look like carbon copies of each other. Same pale skin, same heavy bangs, same big doe eyes. Lyrically speaking, Zooey Deschanel sounds an awful lot like Katy Perry imitating Kermit the Frog. Could Katy Perry be to Zooey Deschanel as Garth Brooks is to Chris Gaines? If true, the result could be a modern day Oedipus Rex style tragedy as hipsters nationwide gouge out their eyes upon discovering that the object of their affection is the same sexual object igniting frat parties nationwide. My friends, we may be in the middle of the great hipster swindle.

-Tim Myers

Tim is a guest writer for PopSense, so be sure to check out more of his work at Milwaukee Cool Kids!

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The Dead Weather: Translated

2009-08-25T12:00:00.000-04:00

You know that sinking feeling that something is just 'off' about the supergroup 'The Dead Weather'? How that burning desire to appreciate a band that combines members from all your other favorite groups (The White Stripes, Queens of the Stone Age, The Kills, The Raconteurs) is somehow extinguished by an unidentifiable disgust for everything they do?

Ever since the marketing backlash to The Dead Weather's intrusive advertising campaign (see first photo) music bloggers who previously felt compelled to cover the band are now in a tizzy. It's not so much their music, but rather a seemingly manufactured image that is so unsettling. The general sense is that The Dead Weather must somehow just be a mockery of itself and Rock and Roll as a whole, and thus arises the need to vocalize the previously unnamed feelings we are all troubled by.

So, we present, in image form, The Dead Weather: Translated

My name is Jack White, you might know me from such gimmicks as The Raconteurs or that band I started with my wife...I mean, my sister, I mean...click the ad! This is kind of a big ad, because we're kind of a big deal.

FUCK THE SURGEON GENERAL.

Don't talk to me like that, I'm the surgeon general, bitch! Wait, this pose makes me look badass, right? Okay, yeah, that's what I thought.

Why are you taking a picture of us? All four of us sleep in a twin-size bed together, we just woke up. I don't even want to be here, we just do it for the music, man!

Used our MacBook to make this picture. Yeah that's +3 edge blur right there, just like they did it in the 60's.

Dean Fertita: Why am I the only dude here? Maybe this a metaphor for the androgyny of music. Mmm, deep. Wait, is Alison hot?

When they make The Dead Weather biopic, Johnny Depp will probably play all of us.

Jack Lawrence: "Note to self: Tuesday is tinted glasses, I always forget! *face palm* shit, shit, shit...

You will never see both of my eyes, they are the windows to my soul. And I have no soul, because I sold it to the devil for rock glory. Suck on it Jimmy Page. We're The Dead Weather. And you heard right, we're kind of a big deal.

The Dead Weather - Treat Me Like Your Mother.mp3
The Dead Weather - Hang You from the Heavens.mp3
The Dead Weather - I Cut Like a Buffalo.mp3

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iTunes Top 5 Ringtones: What You Were Thinking When You Bought It

2009-08-12T19:36:00.000-04:00

5. Ice Cream Paint Job (Dorrough) – Well now all of my grandkids will know that Grandma is still hip! I can “get down” with this hip-hop music! Although, this “Mr. D- O- double R” is silly if you ask me! Why would anyone give their car an ice cream paint job? I won’t even let my grandson Johnny in the car with an ice cream cone – that’s a sticky mess waiting to happen.

4. I’m Yours (Jason Mraz) – Well, this has been on and off the top 5 ringtones for months. Guess it’s time for me to lay down $2.99 and my dignity and jump on the bandwagon.

3. Use Somebody (Kings of Leon) – This will impress that chick I’ve been trying to get with for months. No, dude, seriously…she’s JUST like that Zooey girl’s character in every movie she’s been in…she’ll eat this shit up. Wait, what? They’ve been on MTV now? Dammit.

2. Run This Town (Jay-Z) – I’ll leave Hova to his town. The question is – who is gonna run this SUBURB tonight?!

1. Big Green Tractor (Jason Aldean) – Yeah, like, I wish I could find some country boy to take me riding on his tractor thingy. I dunno, like, I just really think I would do better living a really, like, simple life. I don’t need the big city life. Do you think my iPhone would get 3G on a tractor?

-Abby Johnston

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90's Alt-Rock Is Having A Mid-Life Crisis.

2009-08-12T19:29:00.000-04:00

Or at least their PR is. The other night, we received an email with the subject, "you are missing out on the third eye blind fun." The words "fun" and "Third Eye Blind" only belong in the same sentence when you are a) talking about camp-fire sing-a-longs of "Jumper" or b) the 90's. A chance email correspondence resulted between PopSense and Third Eye Blind's PR agency, Mega Force USA. The discussion is as follows:

In a message dated 7/29/2009 9:00:46 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, editors@popsense.com writes:

Hey,

Thanks for sending. Admittedly, the site generally doesn't cover more mainstream acts, though we certainly would post something along the lines of Andrew Bird or Heartless Bastards, which I see you also promote. Just a heads up!

On Jul 31, 2009, at 10:19 AM, Megaforceusa@aol.com wrote:

Third Eye Blind are not really mainstream. Lyrics are the most demented around.

In a message dated 7/31/2009 10:29:41 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, editors@popsense.com writes:

I'll take your word for it. I suppose I should've clarified and just said our readership looks for the "indie" caliber of, as I mentioned, Andrew Bird or Heartless Bastards. Don't get me wrong, I've had my share of Third Eye Blind lovin' - I even performed semi-charmed kind of life in high school haha

On Jul 31, 2009, at 10:34 AM, Megaforceusa@aol.com wrote:

check out this new video. mtv and fuse banned it cause of "you fucking whore..." content.

the video is hundreds of photos strung together. feel free to post:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBmb_LbqN2U

--

We will now feel free and post. Remember when cursing and "getting banned" was alt?

Now we just have to dress really really crazy.

The 90's band was all about "having tude," eating the Chickity China the Chinese chicken and "not giving a shit." There were two ways to not give a shit in the world at the time.

Be misunderstood (Circa 1992)

Be pissed off (Circa 1999)

The 2000's are a reaction to the push and pull of "misunderstood" and being "pissed off." With the exception of Buckcherry and the rest of the post-pop-alt-rock hangover, bands decided to chill out and be weird enough to be quirky, but not misunderstood.

"We're thinking of naming our band NGNT"

Since everyone looks like they're in a band now, it's hard to tell who actually makes music anymore.

Do you think Third Eye Blind should hire a stylist? How will we recognize bands in the 2010's, when clothes aren't fashionable anymore?

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What Happens When Indie Kids Discover "Mainstream" Music?

2009-08-12T19:25:00.000-04:00

The announcement of Activision's Guitar Hero 5 unveiled the newest feature in the series: indie music. This would seem like the logical progression in the series: Guitar Hero's 1-4 introduced people to "crazy rock muzak" and now, Guitar Hero 5 will throw some indie crap on there to expand into the ever-growing hipster market. Besides the obvious question (How the hell am I supposed to raise devil horns to Elliott Smith's "L.A." ???), two other puzzling possibilites arise from the inclusion of the indie genre:

a) What will happen when mainstreamers discover "Indie" music?
b) Vice versa, what will happen when indie kids discover "Mainstream" music?

Ironically, the indie folk have succeeded in shielding themselves from all popular music so that hearing Brand New's "Sowing Season (Yeah)" will seem "underground, unlike anything that's out there these days" and Thrice's "Deadbolt" will be "ground-breaking." Soon, there will be a time when having mainstream taste is considered hip, especially since so few Nickelback fans will be in existence. PopSense will therefore tackle question b): What will happen when indie kids discover "Mainstream" music?

"OMG AFI rocks my dick off, why the hell have I been listening to Animal Collective??"

"A Perfect Circle is so wild man, it uses guitars instead of keyboards...the recording doesn't even sound like dirt in a frying pan. Can you say, I-N-N-O-V-A-T-I-O-N???" Wavves is so last April."

"Blink 182. Including numbers in your band name is so ironic now. Why can't Fleet Foxes make "feel good music?"

"I only knew Coldplay from that shitty Apple commercial, but if you take the time to explore their discography, everything is deep as hell. 'In My Place' defines me as a person."

"Wow, and I thought Mastodon was heavy. Supposedly, these Iron Maiden guys are from the 80's. I read in Wikipedia that 'heavy metal' was invented around that time. It's like no one respects old music anymore."

Guitar Hero 5 is out September 1st.

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Would this Stop You from Stealing Music?

2009-08-12T19:19:00.000-04:00

Apple is always finding new and innovative ways to get us to buy shit again. iTunes was made to make us feel comfortable downloading music, as though we were shopping at an organic food store and buying fair trade coffee. The announcement of the new Apple tablet (basically a 10inch screened mutant iPhone) coincides with Apple's plans to bring back the allegedly interactive nature of album art.

Apple is working with the four largest record labels to stimulate digital sales of albums by bundling a new interactive booklet, sleeve notes and other interactive features with music downloads, in a move it hopes will change buying trends on its online iTunes store.

One executive dealing with this project said,"It's all about re-creating the heyday of the album when you would sit around with your friends looking at the artwork, while you listened to the music."

Question: Did you ever sit around and stare mindlessly at album art while the music played? Is Apple trying to implant phony "glory days of music" memories into out heads? Whether or not people ever interacted with their album art before, Apple's plans are somewhat counter-intuitive.

"Hey Bill, in order to make people appreciate album art like they used to, let's make them stop buying records all together! We'll just chock in a bunch of videos and other shit people don't really want into this tablet thing and BAM! Interaction. How do you like them apples? Yeah those apples are f*ckin good."

Oh Bill, you never cease to impress us.

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The Unabridged Tail of Neon Indian

2009-08-12T19:15:00.000-04:00

Today, you are about to be diagnosed as Terminally Chill. Today, you will know the secret of Neon Indian.

If your initial thought is, "Wait, isn't that a casino at a Native American reservation camp?," then you are mistaken. If your thought is, "a mysterious duo...'a guy and a girl who make music via correspondence. One in Brooklyn, one in Austin,'" then you are only half right.

The legend of Neon Indian began in early April, when indie music blog titans, Gorilla Vs. Bear, posted up two of the band's songs, citing an email containing the cryptic description mentioned above. Shortly thereafter, the online domino effect that is the blogopshere sent the two tracks, "Should Have Taken Acid With You" and "6699 (I Don't Know if You Know)," across the internet and back. Bloggers wet their beds as a new song, "Deadbeat Summer," hit the web alongside the announcement of the band's Psychic Chasms "7 EP and the October 13th release date for the Psychic Chasms LP.

Talk continued, but blogger sleuths remained stumped as to the band's true identity. Adding to the intrigue was zero photographic evidence and zero information besides the band's vague geographic locations.

Later that month, Crystal Castles cancels their show. The indie-electro band, one that was arguably "made for and by the Internet," bails on the venue due to allegedly stolen effects pedals and beer. VEGA, the opening act was accused of thievery, making headlines on the online indie music publications, Pitchfork, Stereogum, and Brooklyn Vegan. VEGA lead singer, Alan Palomo, set the record straight, explaining the debacle arose from miscommunication and mistaken pedals.

The (sort of obvious) unveiling

Remember that scene in Fight Club, the moment you realize that Brad Pitt and Edward Norton are actually the same person? Alan Palomo is one half of Neon Indian. He revealed his identity earlier this month. "It's ironic that it made people more curious. I considered maintaining [anonymity], but it's just very unrealistic. At some point, especially with my hair, people would of eventually go, 'You know, he kind of looks like that guy from VEGA...'" says Palomo. It's also ironic that, while everyone knew who Alan Palomo was, no one knew who Alan Palomo was. Both Neon Indian and VEGA were making music headlines at the same time, and yet nobody made the connection.

"There's been a misconception of our roles," says Palomo of Alicia, the member of Neon Indian hailing from Brooklyn. "Alicia tackles it from a visual standpoint. The initial project of Neon Indian was this multimedia maelstrom, and over time we want to start incorporating videos, teasers, and graphics." The full scope of Neon Indian will only be realized when Palomo moves to Brooklyn later this year. As of now, the two artists, who have known each other since their days on their ever-so-posh high school literary mag team, collaborate via internet by sending each other sample ideas, melodies and even short works of fiction.

Citing Bjorn Copeland of the Black Dice as an example of an artist who uses artwork to complement the music, Palomo explains, "these projects always have more longevity in the sense that there's a different concept that comes out — that's definitely what we're looking to do with Neon Indian."

"The person I should have taken acid with was her," confesses Palomo, referring to the woozy, I can't believe it's wasn't conceived on acid! electro song, "Should Have Taken Acid with You." "It was more of a humorous apology. I was experimenting with songs and I didn't have any expectations for the aesthetics, it was more about using certain new tools that I had." The song stems from a vivid, lucid dream of Palomo's, in which he and Alica had taken a hallucinogen and spent an afternoon strolling through a park. After recounting the dream for for Alica, she asked, "Do you really want to do that?"

Grizzly Bear's blessing, buzz-band status

Earlier this month, Palomo regained internet access in a Belgium hotel. He turned on his computer to find that Neon Indian's latest single, "Terminally Chill," was the number one track on the music blog aggregator Elbo.ws. Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste had even given the band a shout-out through his Twitter. The blogs had been buzzing more fervently then ever. It's only a matter of time before everyone else catches on.

The scarlet letter of the music industry is "B" for buzz-band. This label is often associated with acts who garner hype so quickly that the music itself is negated, appearing stale in comparison to the praise-happy chatter. When asked if he fears being labeled as such, Palomo remains confidently unconcerned. "There's been a few label offers that would cater to the possibility that this thing would become overwhelming, but I declined under the basis that I'd rather let Neon Indian grow naturally and let the music speak for itself."

Palomo's advice to avoid the fate of the buzzband label is to "ensure that as soon as you expose your music to people, you can back it up with a live performance and more material." Remaining true to his word, Palomo has been fine tuning a live act for his upcoming first show, Colorado's Monolith Music Festival on September 12th, and a tour later this year. The tour will occur simultaneously with that of his other band, VEGA.

"VEGA is more of a labor of love; its goal is to create unadulterated pop music that can speak to anyone, to be accessible and to create interesting sounds in the context of dance music. Neon Indian has far more open range in terms of being able to try new things out," says Palomo of the dichotomy within his music. But wouldn't shifting between the two bands invoke a hyperactive identity crisis? "Balancing both of them keeps me sane."

-Stelios Phili

Download "Terminally Chill" for free on RCRD LBL.

My article was originally published over at our friend blog, Flavorwire, so check 'em out!

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Harlem Shakes' Kendrick Covers an ENTIRE Yeah Yeah Yeahs Album...with Piano

2009-08-12T18:55:00.000-04:00

In the words of Kendrick O himself, Fever to Tell by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is the best album to have sex to of all time. I can't play drums, I can't play guitar, and I'm not a banshee of a girl. But I wanted to cover it because I like it, and because I wanted to win a bet. So here is my impressionistic, masturbatory act of devotion."

This masturbatory act of devotion has yielded the incredible combination of "Maps" and "Modern Romance" into an 8-minute spoken word poetry epic. Kendrick O a.k.a. Kendrick, the keyboardist of the Harlem Shakes, is responsible for this beautiful piano re-imagining of the album and is offering it for your FREE listening pleasure. Enjoy, and thanks to Stephen Haskell for the tip-off!

DOWNLOAD: Kendrick O's Yeah Yeah Yeah's cover album of Fever to Tell.

Kendrick O - Y Control.mp3

If you're not sure what the YYY's album sounded like, here's the video for "Y Control" after the jump.

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A Pitchfork Review of a Day In Pitchfork

2009-08-12T17:00:00.000-04:00

Every day, Pitchfork Media reviews new music. Today, PopSense decided to review Pitchfork.

Index - Jump to each section by clicking title
Top Story and Headlines - 4.6
Track Reviews - 8.1
Album Reviews - 6.8
Features - 6.2
Advertisement - 9.0
Forkcast - 5.3

OVERALL SCORE OF PITCHFORK.COM - 6.7

Top Story and Headlines

Pitchfork News Team

[Pitchfork; 2009]

4.6

Unreleased Jeff Buckley Song in Tearjerker
And by "unreleased," you mean a remastered bootleg that's actually an Elton John cover song. Also, a using-lots-of-dashes-to-describe-something technique is a lazy way to describe something. 6.1

Buy Billy Corgan Lunch!
Doesn't say what actual cause the money is going towards, presumably it will go straight to the "Billy Corgan needs to eat since people stopped listening to the Smashing Pumpkins" fund - 4.5

Is this the flaming lips album cover? - "We sure hope so" -- that's like putting a picture of Morgan Freedman and writing "We sure hope so" under a title that reads "Is this God?" - Hopeful Conjecture, Not News - 3.2

Jim James to Release George Harrison Tribute
An appropriately placed beard joke and the news itself is mildly to somewhat interesting - 7.4

Pavement's Spiral Stairs Preps Solo Album
"Up until now, he's never recorded an album under his own name-- or his own pseudnym. That's about to change" -- PAGING DETECTIVE OBVIOUS, THIS IS THE OBVIOUS POLICE, YES WE USE PAGERS NOW - 5.2

Devandra Finishes New LP, Leaves Label
"Banhart's sixth solo LP all finished, and it's due this fall on a label to be named later" - pitchfork caveman make blatant grammatical error! 1.3

Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) Side Project Announced
With actual quotes from Justin Vernon, this news piece succeeds in illuminating an exciting new release with minimal Pitchfork commentary. Best New News - 8.7

Virgin Mobile Fest Returns -- For Free
Unable to look past their bias towards Meriweather Post Pavilion (9.6), Pitchfork blindly claims that the show's lineup "looks strong." By averaging the latest album scores of the lineup, however, we see that this festival amounts to a mere 7.46667. Looks "meh."7.3

Dirty Projectors in Auto Accident
It's not an auto-accident unless somebody is seriously injured, you sensationalizing bastards. 2.6

Jay Bennett's Death: Overdose
What?? A musician dies of overdose?? Now that's news people. 5.0

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Track Reviews

s/t

[Pitchfork; 2009]

8.1

Zach Kelly
Beck Sunday "Sunday Morning" Review

[Self-Released]

Zach Kelly understands Beck better than Beck has ever understood Beck. Noting that Beck has "employ[ed] a somberness that his original music hasn't seen in a while" is an insightfully morose observation and vivaciously demonstrates a grasp of Beck's career and the context for this reviewer to discuss the song. Still not sure how one channels something "respectfully honest"... as opposed to disrespectfully dishonest? "I was singing "Born in the U.S.A. while spitting on my dad's my E-Street Band vinyl collection. Later, I totes lied about it."

Ian Cohen
Bloc Party "One More Chance" Review

[Self-Released]

Ian Cohen paints a glorious picture with this review that is a vivid display of understanding both in regards to Bloc Party and the english language, it is a picture so vibrant and descriptive that The Mona Lisa is suddenly revealed to be the piece of crap painting that a 3 year old mentally-challenged monkey could shit out on Microsoft Paint. Like any sane assessment of Bloc Party, this review cerebrally illustrates how the band has devolved into a foolish parody of themselves as well as 90's house music. With biting truthfulness Cohen labels the song as "just another Bloc Party single," accurately describing how fans are slowly beginning to accept Bloc Party's mediocrity. Best New Track Review

Joe Colly
Real Estate "Green River" Review

[Self-Released]

When Joe Colly decided to review 'Real Estate' he must have first freed himself of his own human existence, stood up on some higher plane near his now-lifeless human self, possibly on a chair or a large stool, looked down upon his jello-y Joe Colly frame and imparted wisdom from that slightly higher vantage point to allow himself to write this remarkably enlightening review. It is far too easy for critics of "lo-fi pop" to describe songs within this genre as "the lovechild of Wavves and No Age." Fortunately, Joe Colly does not take this shortcut in assessing "Real Estate," noting the track's "warmth and texture" rather than "cloying or of-the-moment" like a, say, Japandroids song. Colly's audacity - to treat a B-side, let a alone a lo-fi beach-pop B-side as its own entity - is ambitious to say the least. Best New Track Review

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Album Reviews
The Pitchfork Album Review Squad

[Pitchfork; 2009]

6.8

Brian Howe
Tortoise "Beacons of Ancestorshi p"

Review

[Pitchfork; 2009]

3.4

After navigating through word choices that Brian Howe seems to have included solely to prove that he got 3, count'em, 3 Gold stars on his 8th grade Language Arts exam (see: interpenetrating, proliferate, postmortem, etc), it becomes clear that this reviewer had absolutely nothing of substance to say about this album, and instead had already decided what Tortoise had to do in order to write "an ambitious record" despite the fact that he acknowledges that "the funny thing is that for most bands [this album] would be the very definition of an ambitious record."

The review is framed by two other lol-worthy paradoxes: First, the opening paragraph overstates how influential the band has been (if they actually "garnered a level of influence in indie music that almost rivals that of Animal Collective today," it would go without explaining). Secondly, Howe closes the review by saying, "You want to see them at least risk fucking up, and acknowledging that music is played by humans. Now that Tortoise have inarguably mastered the consideration of their namesake, it might not hurt them to tap into a little of the impulsiveness of the hare." Let's try to make sense of this: Brian Howe is implying two things in the first sentence: 1) The album is perfect in every way, there are no fuck ups, and 2) as a result of (1), the members of Tortoise are not human. In the proceeding sentence we have an analogy that seems like it could make sense, until we remember that Tortoises go slowly not as a result of carefully calculating all of their choices and making safe decisions, but rather simply because they are just slow fucking animals. This pun is not effective.

Finally, here is a sentence from the review:
"Now that smuggling non-guitar genres into indie rock is commonplace, the record could feel like a postmortem of Tortoise's own influence, and the air of self-consciousness that often attends their music thickens"

I will now review the rest of the review by using this same sentence and filling in a few blanks (I'm pretty sure Howe stole this sentence from me anyway when I was totally blazed out of my mind last week, so suck on that intellectual property law)

"Now that smuggling [words that make no sense in context into music reviews] is commonplace, the [review] could feel like a postmortem of [Brian Howe's] own influence, and the air of self-consciousness that often attends [his reviews thickens]."

This review made no sense, I still know nothing about Tortoise or the thickness of their musical self-consciousness.

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Stephen M. Deusner
Lemonhead "Varshons" Review

[Thrill Jockey; 2009]

9.6

The much-anticipated Stephen M. Deusner review of The Lemonheads cover album 'Varshons' is one of the most adventurously clear, wildly comprehensive, and outrageously navigable reviews to grace the screen in what could be years. Not since the release of Brent DiCrescenzo's April 30, 2000 review of Sonic Youth's NYC Ghosts and Flowers have we seen such a responsibly crafted shitting on of an album.

As Deusner flawlessly transitions from one shockingly understandable phrase to another there are moments where the reader finds themselves asking, "Wait, Holy Shit, do I actually 'get' what is being said here?" Yes, yes you do.

In the first paragraph Deusner describes one tune as a "country-tinged murder ballad"-- an image that ambitiously combines both words that make sense to normal people and and words that should be used to describe music.

This sort of phraseology throughout the review gives the reader a sense of not wanting to kill themselves midway through it.

Serious speculation is surrounding the fact that this review could very well be the best of 2k9, but while some refuse to make such a bold statement this early in the year, everyone seems to be in general agreement that it is the ultimate answer to Brian Howe's helplessly shitty review of Tortoise's "Beacons of Ancestorship"

Thanks Stephen, it looks like 2k9 is gonna be a good year after all. Best New Album Reviews

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Mike McGonigal
Alasdair Roberts "Spoils" Review

[Pitchfork; 2009]

9.0

Mike McGonigal was once quoted as saying, "I am the son of God" Actually that was Jesus, but based on this review, it's really hard to tell the difference between the two of them. Opening with a lyrical discussion on eye socket fucking, McGonigal reminds all you bitches that he had his name way before JK Rowling tried to make a fool of him.

He acknowledges the fact that the 'weirdo folk-rock record' can be so strong despite its living up to being exactly that is "almost a miracle" (you can't make up this Jesus imagery, people). McGonigal displays a Deusner-y understanding of writing a review: use terms like 'pretty as hell' that make sense to regular human beings.

When describing the oft-made connection between Roberts and Will Oldham, McGonigal says that it is not "the worst comparison," which is, of course, the reviewer's impressively tactful way of saying, "Fuck you Brian Howe"

McGonigal's style throughout this review can be summed up in one word: Fuck yeah. Ok, so that's two words, but he's Jesus, he can whatever the hell he wants so back off. Best New Album Reviews

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Paul Thompson
So Many Dynamos "The Loud Wars" Review

[Pitchfork; 2009]

6.8

Paul Thompson is an intelligent, all-around lovable guy with good intentions, but in this review we see him fall victim to a somewhat debilitating case of 'talking about shit that doesn't actually have to do with the music but could help him come to a conclusion about it regardless'.

Thompson describes the Loud Wars as being formulaic, which is inherently meant to hold negative weight. However, if one were to describe an album review that met a formula in which the reviewer talked more about the music recorded on the album instead of other things that aren't recorded on the album, you'd be describing a good review. In a very pitchforkian sense, then Paul Thompson's review is both formulaic and yet not formulaic at all. It's so human yet so digital. Yet at the same time-- at the VERY same time-- it is so not Merriweather Post Pavilion.

Still, this may all be a result of crappy music, not lazy reviewing. We'll give you a break on this one Paul, but only because you're so goddamn lovable.

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David Bevan
The Present "World I See / The Way We Are" Review

[Pitchfork; 2009]

6.8

Oh David Bevan, why have you forsaken me?
In an incredibly uninspired review, David Bevan is sending readers into a frenzy of disappointment, but can one really blame the reviewer for the remarkably high standards that readers set upon them after past successes? Of course we all remember Bevan's past genre-shaking reviews that seemed to say, "hey language, yeah you, written word, you are no longer a viable medium for what I need to convey," but can't a guy just take a breather every once in a while?

Is it fair of one critic to tell another critic that they can't use phrases like "walls of sound" to describe something good despite the fact that everyone knows that a wall of sound is not only the most generic phrase, but also just conveys the message that the sound is a large, impenetrable substance made probably of brick or some other material that would just hurt if it ever came at you or you ran into it? Is that even a question?

Nevertheless, you have to give a man props for rating two albums in one review and claiming that one album is exactly 1/100th better than the other. Only a review penned by The Bev could make such an aggressive choice.

It is, however, unforgivable, to end a review with a statement that is so incredibly pompous (yet simultaneously nondescriptive) that it makes Brian Howe look like Bill Shakespeare. I present, unedited, Bevan's big closing number:

"Santos seems to be trying to transcend the idea of listening experience in particular. He's taken to finding a spectrum of sound that mirrors more than just a moment."

If this is true, if Santos has in fact transcended the concept of listening and that all other music simply captures a moment whereas Santos' music mirrors somehow more than this, than this album needs not only to receive a 10.0 but also to be played over loud speakers big-brother style for every human being to listen to immediately. All other music will be burned because it is no longer relevant. Apparently, neither is David Bevan.

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Features
The Pitchfork Jockeys

[Pitchfork; 2009]

6.2

Guest lists: Japandroids

Oh cool, the same questionnaire we see every day. Oh well, bands are just numbers, so these questions should be relevant to everyone. "You know what, I actually don't have a mobile phone. I'm the last of my kind." Incredible. - 7.6

Interviews: Phoenix

Because Pitchfork prefaces the interview with explaining how Phoenix frontman Thomas Mars' "english fails him" sometimes and how his "big ideas don't always totally translate on the page," we've taken up the taks of further translated Mr. Mars responses to these "fascinating" and "hard-hitting" questions. By providing answers of our own.

Pitchfork: Congrats on playing "Saturday Night Live". Did they try to get you guys in any comedy skits?

Thomas Mars: Unless you are justin Timberlake, the musical guest never acts in a skit. Good first question, douche.

Pitchfork: It feels like people are really ready to love Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Do you feel like people are responding to this record more than anything else you've done?

TM: It feels like we're already a semi-popular band, so yeah, people are responding to this now because they actually know who we are.

Pitchfork: It's funny you mention that, because I was thinking how your songs could be in a billion commercials. Specifically, they seem perfect for iPod ads, which tend to go with really pop-oriented, upbeat music. Would you want to do an ad like that?

TM: Is this a trick question? Don't you shit on bands who do iPod ads? Is this a nice way of asking me if we're going to sell out?

Pitchfork: I think a lot of people think of the iPod commercial when they hear Coldplay's "Viva la Vida."

TM: Hmm, people associate incredibly popular songs with an incredibly popular ad campaign. Profound.

Pitchfork: I read that some of the songs on the new record took three years to complete. Obviously, you're not working on the same song everyday for three years

TM: What else does three years to complete mean? - 5.9

Interviews: Bat for Lashes

"Then, bolstering her astronomical metaphors with a tragic character inspired by the seamy underbelly of old New York, and trading debut album Fur and Gold's orchestral druid-rock trappings for booming percussion and 1980s electro synths, she makes the whole thing magnificently her own."

That is one sentence. This paragraph is then closed with a latin phrase "Exeunt omnes." Good thing Natasha Khan is cool. - 8.0

Articles: Bonnaroo 2009

Wow, three pages of miraculously non-comprehensive reviews of each band that played, this SO sums up the Bonnaroo experience for a vast majority of the audience!

Excerpt:
TV on the Radio [Which Stage; 6:45 p.m.]

"TVOTR are also a well-oiled festival machine by this point, rolling through their catalog with a sharp precision and few curiosity-killing lulls. Maybe too much so: some of the menace of "Wolf Like Me" and "Staring at the Sun" was dissipated, either by the familiarity of the moment or they peaceful sunset Tunde Adebimpe bellowed into."

It's a sad thing when a band's "menace" is "disspated" by "familiarty" and a "peaceful sunset." That's EXACTLY what I was thinking! - 4.5

This Book is Broken

"This Book is Broken" (article by Pitchfork writer, Stuart Berman)
A highly critical commentary on the gripping new novel "This Book is Broken," which is also written by Pitchfork writer, Stuart Berman.
- self-ball-tonguing assholes - 0.2

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SONIC YOUTH INTERVIEW AD

The picture is a little blurry but this does make us feel authentic. Also, being able to get a band in to do an interview after rating one of their albums a 0.0 is like getting an internet footjob -- both impressive and baffling when you tell your friends about it the next day - 9.0

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FORKCAST
Overall Score (adjusted based on the fact that it is literally impossible to pronounce 'forkcast' as one word, and using the term 'forkast' would achieve the same end and be far more reasonable): 5.3

Graham Coxon: In the Morning
Describing a song as "Beatles-y" is the broadest, most unhelpful description ever: Should I expect this song to be like 'Happiness is a Warm Gun' or 'Yellow Submarine'... 4.8

Love Is All: Various Songs (Daytrotter session)
Daytrotter's mission statement explicitly says that what makes them stand apart is that they are producing their own original content for the music world, not just regurgitating it. Being ironic is so first half of 2009. - 3.1

Spiral Stairs: "Maltese Terrier"
Already heard about this in your news section, hate clicking multiple links, why wouldn't you just include the song with the news story? What is this about? Is this about the money? Ya know what just come to my house and take it, I don't even care. I'm going to put my life saving's in my child's mouth and I want you to just take the entire baby with the money in it, and I want you to sell the baby because I don't care about him either. You are sick bastards. - 7.8

Sally Shapiro: "Miracle (Bogdan Irkük Remix)"
Why are the titles of all remixes in some language I can't understand: Cultural hegemony! - 3.2

jj: "From Africa to Málaga"
If you click the link provided to go to the song where the artists have hosted it, you are presented bluntly with a white page, sparse text, and a large, faded image of two people's backs splattered ravenously with blood.
Pitchfork describes this song as being a "light Balearic summery jam, and would make a nice soundtrack to chilling by a cold swimming pool. Boy, doesn't that sound nice on a day like this." Mixed message much? - 2.8

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NOW 31: What You Didn't Miss in the Last 12 Years

2009-08-12T15:00:00.000-04:00

The Question:
Has popular music remained almost entirely stagnant for a decade?

Today we received the mind-blowing news that NOW (That's What I Call Music) 31 will be hitting shelves June 30. Besides making us all feel damn old, the title of the series seems evermore ironic with each passing edition, and after a look at the track listing, our question seems almost too easily answered.

Let's step back into the last 12 years of popular music (careful, watch your head) and see what we have (or haven't) missed...

Ok, are you there with me?
Are you having visions of milky pens and Pokemon?
Sweet, me too, ready for this?
We missed nothing.
Literally. Nothing.

Flash back to present day (mind the gap).

On NOW 31, the most recent installment, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Beyonce, Pink and Nickelback appear.
Why yes little Jimmy, we did just flash back to present day. What's that? You want to know why these artists who were trendy ten years ago are still the representatives of premiere music in the public eye? Well that's the whole point of this article you stupid little shit. Go out back and leave the baseball bat on the steps. No we're not gonna play baseball, just do it.

Sorry about that. Kids these days, you know.

On NOW 31, the most recent installment, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Beyonce, Pink and Nickelback appear. Repetition = Effective Way To Make Point.

Britney first appeared on NOW 2, ten years ago in 1999. She has since been featured on 15 NOW albums, making her second only to Beyonce who has appeared 18 times starting with her Destiny's Child debut on NOW 5 in 2000. That's not to say that we don't know the choreography to 'Single Ladies,' but it's worth noting she joined JT for his first NOW track with NSYNC that same year. Pink made her first showing on NOW 9 in 2002 and Nickelback...well Nickelback just blows, I don't really care when they started to blow.

The NOW series has been chock full o' repetitive mediocrity ever since about NOW 2. Believe it or not, the first NOW was easily the coolest with an artist list that included Radiohead, Fastball, Marcy Playground, and Brian McKnight. Yes, Brian 'baby makin-music' McKnight.

So to reprise our question for clarity's sake:
Has popular music remained almost entirely stagnant for a decade?

For the most part we can say that, since the NOW series is strongly reflective of the 'chart-toppin' hits of the day, this looks like a definite win for the affirmative.

Ok Jimmy, I'm coming outside, close your eyes and count to ten!

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Is Indie Music Just One Big Animal Pun?

2009-08-12T10:00:00.000-04:00

Yes. Here it goes:

1. You fool! That’s not Advil… that’s Ratatat poisoning!

2. Do you have Cat Power? Or more importantly, have you walked your Dr. Dog lately?

3. Yo, I heard the Wolf Parade was sick last weekend… who knew murderous woodland creatures could be so organized?

4. Chicago’s Pitchfork Zoo opened today, but their Animal Collective is seriously lacking. What d-bag thought it would be a good idea to have only one Panda Bear? I give it a 7.4.

5. Alright, who’s the son-of-a-bitch that threw a Deerhoof at my face?

6. Staunch advocates of Grizzly Bear rights have seen to it that every Deerhunter within one mile of Brooklyn has been promptly executed. Critics fear that mass rioting will threaten the zoo’s Department of Eagles.

7. Paul Wilson, 19, lost several limbs in a bitter cage fight with a group of feral Fleet Foxes, a Tortoise, and one disgruntled Phoenix.

8. The Arctic Monkeys were such a cold and bitter race… I was waiting to use that fact! The Discovery Channel is, like, soooo cool!

9. Half man, half animal — all badass. Andrew Bird and Patrick Wolf were resurrected last Sunday after the world’s first successful animal-to-human heart transplants.

10. I hate that Band of Horses. It’s animal cruelty at its finest. But I gotta admit, they are f*cking phenomenal at Guitar Hero.

Go ape crazy. Write your animal band pun below.

-Stelios Phili

My post was originally published over at our friend-blog, Flavorpill, check 'em out!
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LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!

2009-08-11T16:30:00.004-04:00

An (Attempted) Defense of Shitty Pop Music

You may have heard of Noise pop and Indie pop, or at least know of the likes of Wavves and MGMT.
You may have heard of Synth pop and Folk pop, or at least know of the likes of Depeche Mode and Fleet Foxes.

You may also have heard of Shit pop, or at least know of the likes of Coldplay, Papa Roach, the Dave Matthews Band, The Fray, or be familiar with the feeling of having a 4mm drill bit shoved between your ears.

I was recently forced to listen to an unprecedented amount of Shit pop as a result of my friend's evil girlfriend's death grip on the radio tuner knob in the car. Seeing that I had no choice but to be subjected to it, I figured I might as well try to enjoy it as much as possible, given the circumstances.

Now, bear in mind that in doing this I tried to be open minded. I really did. I tried to give all the following songs the biggest, fattest benefit of the doubt I could muster. But in the end, I just couldn’t. I wasn’t man enough. The following is a series of stream-of-consciousness initial reactions to 5 of the songs I was forced to listen to in the car, followed by a carefully considered and cautiously constructed final conclusion regarding them.

LL Cool J: Billie Jean Dream: Written by Michael Jackson

Initial Reaction: Despite having a name that haunts the dreams of fans with severe speech impediments (We Wove you Ew Ew!) as well as stereotypical Asian immigrants (We rove you Er Er!), LL Cool J does deserve some props for at least attempting a Michael Jackson tribute. So, yeah, props.
Final Conclusion: Too bad it’s horrible. This is Billie Jean with vocals that pale in comparison to those of the late King of Pop, with an annoying 4-beat stutter before every chorus. How innovative. Granted, LL is just doing his ‘I’m a somewhat still relevant rapper and I haven’t been arrested yet” thang, but honestly, is there any way to pull off an MJ cover these days and have it not be some sort of unforgivable heresy? I think not, and this is why.

Black Eyed Peas: Boom Boom Pow

Initial Reaction: Damn it, this so catchy…wait, did she just say “I’m so two-thousand and eight, you so two-thousand and late”? What does that even mean? Is “Boom Boom Pow” an innuendo of some sort? What the hell is autotune doing on here? Has anyone ever heard Will.i.am’s real voice? What if he’s an alien?
Final Conclusion: You know, this track could be worse. It’s simple, it’s catchy, and it’s the first time I’ve ever heard a chorus composed exclusively of comic book action onomatopoeias. Alright, Will.i.am. You win this time.

Lady Gaga: Love Game

Initial Reaction: “…she studied at Tisch?”
Final Conclusion: Lady Gaga is a lamer, manlier, more image-conscious version of Christina Aguilera with a penchant for eating babies. This tawdry strumpet gives circa 1972 Bowie a run for his money in the ‘completely over the top’ department. If ever there was a song crafted solely around a singularly shitty, shameless garish snippet of lyrics, it’s ‘Love Game’. Please, Ms. Gaga, take a ride on a disco stick. And by ‘on a disco stick’, I mean “in a sinking nuclear submarine, hopefully while you're wearing some designer miniskirt made out of lead and concrete”. Ok, maybe that's a bit extreme. But maybe not.

Pink: Please Don’t Leave Me

Initial Reaction: You know, if they stripped everything away except the vocals, this could pass for a country song…what the hell, I thought Pink was a badass, why is she whining about generic relationship problems? What ever happened to the whole “I guess I just lost my husband, I don’t know where he went—So I’m gonna drink my money, I’m not gonna pay his rent” spiel, from ‘So What?’ Where is the Pink I know and…uh, know?
Final Conclusion: Clearly, this one is aimed at the ladies—no surprise there. It’s got a cool laid back pixies-meets-chili-peppers feel though, and even though Pink isn’t exactly the most original or novel artists out there, she sure as hell beats out Gaga in the 'at least I don't totally fail' department. I’ll take it.

Halestorm: Halestorm

Initial Reaction: Is this Evanescence? No? ..But there’s a chick singing…did Chad Kroeger get a sex change? …hm, “I get off on you, getting off on me, give you what you want, but nothing is for free. It’s all give and take, the kinda life we make. When your line is crossed, I get off. I get off.” I am confused, and I feel dirty.
Final Conclusion: No way, couldn’t do it. This is just ridiculous. It’s obvious that this band is just Nickelback with a chick lead singer, which in turn means that it exists solely to appeal to the masses and make tons of money—neither of which they do well. ‘Halestorm’ needs to fire their writers and marketing team, because with lyrics like this, they’re only appealing to nymphomaniac masochistic freaks, deaf people, and any combination of the two. That’s not just bad music, it’s bad business.

Disclaimer:
This article has nothing to do with Chris Crocker or his infamously moronic circa 07' youtube video, and I don’t actually care about ‘leaving Britney alone’. In fact, if I try to think of something I care less about than the trials and tribulations of Britney Spears, I spontaneously shit my pants and go into a temporary coma because my mind can’t comprehend anything that could possibly be more trivial and meaningless. I'm shamelessly referencing the ‘leave Britney alone’ meme because it simultaneously draws attention to itself and serves the general purposes of this article—i.e. to attempt a witty, entertaining, and largely unsuccessful defense of music that is ostensibly and frequently described as “shitty” by the indie crowd. I also (again, shamelessly) thought it was a clever enough reference to justify going through the trouble of writing this stupid disclaimer, and to have you waste your time reading it, just so I could use it with impunity and retain any pop culture street cred I imagine myself to have. God, I’m an arrogant bastard.

Leave a comment, yo!

MTV Chooses Not To Renew TRL Studio Lease; 20th Century Rolls In Its Grave

2009-08-11T15:00:00.000-04:00

The 20th century ruled, so that’s why it’s such a bummer to have this tribute to the raddest of all centuries be an obituary. Because that’s what this is, essentially—the death of our collective childhood and the final nail in the coffin for music on TV. MTV owner Viacom has chosen not to renew the lease on the studio space that became famous for hosting Total Request Live. Yeah, TRL has been dead and gone for a while, but we all had that little nagging hope that said, ‘Maybe TRL will come back bigger and better than ever, and with actual good music this time around.’ Don’t even try to deny it.

The rent, which totals over $11.6 million per year, is without a doubt insane. But in the good old days, it was worth it. Remember the blocks and blocks of fans standing outside, hoping, praying for a glimpse of a Backstreet Boy (it totally didn’t even have to be Nick—they’d settle for Howie)? Or how about Tom Green’s ‘The Bum Bum Song’? That was classic! In the good old days, nothing was better than seeing your favorite celebrity in the Photo Booth, goofing off. So many big names got their start there—Britney; Christina; Baha Men—that it’s a shame to have to say goodbye to all of that.

But what if we didn’t? What if Viacom rented out that studio for one more year? They could play indie videos that normally would never get that kind of exposure along with the big names. Imagine it: Born Ruffians followed by Kanye followed by The Honey Brothers and Taylor Swift in an hour of music video madness that will shred your face. They could bring back those ridiculous contests to win concert tickets, and we all know that those crying, screaming fangirls would not miss the opportunity to cry and scream within the vicinity of their one true soul mate, if only we met it could be looooove! Carson Daly would host and people would get free cd’s Oprah style (“EVERYONE GETS A CAR!!! YOU GET A CAR!!! AND YOU GET A CAR!!”) and everything wrong in the world will right itself. Terrorism would probably cease to exist, too, if we’re being honest here.

Only that’s not going to happen. Sorry to have gotten you excited, there. Music on TV is dead; music videos can’t be made without product placements because, for the most part, no one watches them, and shows like FNMtv tried—valiantly—and failed to be the next TRL. Besides, TRL can’t be revived without Carson, and he’s busy hosting the Extra Super Double Really Late Late Show With Carson Daly (or something) to be bothered.

Don’t feel bad for yourself, PopSense. Feel bad for the next generation who will never rush home from school to turn on the TV at 4 o’clock to find out just what SuChin Pak and Gideon Yago have to tell us about the world, and for those who will never see the view looking down upon Times Square and the signs proclaiming “Justin, I’m pregnant!!” and “Marry me!!”

…And also, yeah, feel bad for yourself, too. -Melissa Schrettner

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Arctic Monkeys "Humbug": Victims of Identity Theft?

2009-08-04T10:30:00.000-04:00

In 2006, the Arctic Monkeys made their debut with the verbosely titled and monstrously popular Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. The effortless post-punk album claimed fans instantly and remains the fastest-selling band debut. The boys had a neatly executed follow up in their second studio album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, which, despite some weighty elements added to the mix, remained largely in the post-punk vein, producing many of the same dance-type hits as the first. It would be a safe assumption, then, to expect the Arctic Monkeys’ third release to continue with more of the infectious, loop-worthy songs.

Here’s the switch up.

Humbug, the much buzzed about recent release, is a complete restructuring of the Monkeys' sound. Front man Alex Turner’s desire for a heavier, challenging sound has been realized in an acute, forceful fashion. Gone are the signature bouncy power chord frenzies, with creeping ambient leads taking their place. Background vocals that once echoed playful lyrics are now ghostly “oohs and aahs” that accompany Turner’s sinister lyrics. Critically, the album is a triumph. The music gods have ruled that this is the Arctic Monkeys’ career paramount, defying and exceeding any expectations of the band. While RollingStoners and bloggers rant and rave on the merit and social importance of such a far-reaching album, one question still remains:

Where are the Arctic Monkeys?

Change is an important and natural step for bands throughout their career. The Beatles somehow evolved from love balladeers covering rockabilly to heavily influenced psychedelic hippies, managing to take fans along with them for the ride. But the Monkeys’ abrupt shift to what could easily be called experimental rock has left a hole in the legacy of the original band. So what is the difference between this evolution and that of the Beatles? Well, firstly, it’s the Beatles. Secondly, the Fab Four eased into new sounds, overlapping their ever-changing styles from album to album, and retaining at least some taste of what gained admirers’ hearts in the first place. The Arctic Monkeys have given no such courtesy, completely rejecting any trace of their old sound.

This is not to say that the new genre does not suit the band. Garbled bass lines, the crying slide of the lead guitar, and a deviant keyboard blend to create a successful experimental album. Predominantly down-tempo, Humbug lacks singular impressionability, the songs functioning more as a unit rather than standing on their own. The album’s first single, “Crying Lightning,” accurately summarizes the remainder of the album, displaying a recurring offbeat theme in both lyrics and song styling. “Cornerstone” is the only song that breaks away from the new formula, bearing traces of previous albums in its light, acoustic backing.

All in all, the Monkey’s first foray in their new style is a solid success. But is it fair for the boys to have completely abandoned their old shenanigans with no warning or consideration for their fans? Obviously, artists should not limit themselves simply because they premiered with a different vibe, nor should they be ruled by their audience; but for a band with such a definitive style to change without warning is comparable to finding out your heterosexual significant other has, overnight, switched teams. This could have been easily avoided with transitioning EPs, or at least a side project. Hell, even a flat out disclaimer would do. The weeping ballads of Bright Eyes, album by album, transitioned into a completely new design, finally resulting in the quiet abandonment of the Bright Eyes moniker, opting simply for Conor Oberst. Oberst knew that with such renovations he must separate himself from his previous work. It is a matter of making some sort of accommodations for people that pushed you into success in the first place – the fans.

The Arctic Monkeys should be encouraged to find their musical foothold; innovation is never a bad thing. But building up a massive following based on a particular method, then betraying stylistic expectations completely can be jarring for the listeners. This is not an album made for the kid who played “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” on repeat for a solid two hours. This sound is of a new band completely, and, although enjoyable in itself, we find ourselves asking the question the band posed as the title of their second EP, Who the F*ck are the Arctic Monkeys? Definitely not the ones we came to know.

-Abby Johnston

Carly Patterson, To Stick To Your Day Job Or Not: An Open Discussion

2009-07-31T13:58:00.001-04:00

Fickleness, thy name is Olympic gymnastics all-around champion. Carly Patterson was only the second American to win an Olympic all-around title, and did so in 2004 with this proficient but uninspired floor routine. Patterson then tried to break into Hollywood by doing proficient but uninspired song renditions on Celebrity Duets. Lastly, Patterson had a minor hit last fall with Temporary Life (Ordinary Girl) after it was remixed by a radio station in Austin. The verdict? You guessed it. Proficient but un--Ahh, we can't even say it anymore.

Now, Patterson is back with "Time To Wake Up," a mid-tempo, country-infused single which she hopes will legitimately propel her into the mainstream music industry. Watch her video -

Is this 'Britney Spears trying her hand at acting' territory? Or more 'Michael Jordan playing baseball?' Is just proficient good enough? And can you really be "a little rough around the edges"--as Patterson sings--with such meticulously crafted hair?

--Gaar Adams

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An Open Letter To New Yorkers: Support Your Ugly Neighbors' Music Festival, All Points West

2009-07-31T10:11:00.008-04:00

Dear Blase New Yorkers,

Get the hell off your Blackberries, put down that frappuccino, and take the cringe-inducing ride out to Jersey City this weekend for three days of awesome line-ups at the second annual All Points West Music and Arts Festival.

Okay, first off, we understand your hesitation, New Yorkers. That is, why on Earth would someone consciously choose to go into New Jersey from New York City for any other reason than to chase around desperate, floozy Jersey girls on the shore?

Well, we have many good answers: Jay-Z. Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Vampire Weekend. Carolina Liar. Arctic Monkeys. Ting Tings. Coldplay. MGMT. The Black Keys. And that's just a fraction of the scheduled bands. A full line-up can be found here.

And hey, look, we get it. You can go to Webster Hall or Terminal 5 or any other awesome venue whenever you'd like. But it's time, New Yorkers. It's time that you be initiated into American society by attending a sweaty, showerless 3-day music festival, alright? And, plus, it's in New Jersey. They'll understand.

Sure, there have been some festival clunkers in the past (Field Day, Bonnaroo N.E., anyone?), but this is your chance to keep a decent, annual music festival in your area. And, seriously, if you can deal with walking in Union Square on weekends, you can do anything.

XOXO,
PopSense

--Gaar Adams

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Music for Life, or at Least a Better Conscience

2009-07-31T10:00:00.004-04:00

For years celebrities have used their glory to lend aid those less fortunate. From astounding sums of money given in donations, to very chic charity and foundation launches, celebrities manage to utilize free time to do some good. Now, whether these acts are wholly altruistic or a ploy to keep them off of tabloid pages is hard to say, but, regardless, it makes a positive impact.

Perhaps the summer months have left them bored, or maybe they are putting in their tax exempt projects of the year, or maybe, just maybe, they are really good people, but for whatever reason the music world has had a surge of giving. The Holy Trinity of Acoustic Guitars, Monsters of Folk, has announced a charity tour benefiting local non-profit organizations. Proceeds from crooner Ray LaMontagne’s fall tour will go to the National Children’s Cancer Society. Climate control and natural disaster relief group Artists Project Earth will bring together an eclectic group of musicians for its latest collaboration due out in August.

These offerings are not from the music world’s forgotten, one-hit wonders. These are music’s finest contributing their work for the greater good. In an age where musicians are greedy enough to pitch fits and lawsuits over a few (million) file-sharing downloads, it warms the cockles of our cold hearts to witness such benevolence. With all of the charitable music options, listeners cannot help feeling dirty for buying music sans causes. Come on, bands! Aren’t you tired of Bono stealing all the glory? Don’t you want to wipe the smirk off of Elton John’s face? Thought so. Here are a few ideas for artists to get involved.

Lady Gaga: Gamblers Anonymous – Her sick addiction was made public under the guise of a catchy pop song, but Gaga’s heartbreaking cry for help makes her a knowing and obvious candidate for work with GA. This partnership has the ability to benefit both sides. Gaga can finally put away her Poker Face, and at least the chain-smoking card sharks could have something to stare at aside from their card hand.

Passion Pit: National Abstinence Education Association – If artists are going to subject millions to tracks that sound like they’re laced with heroine, they have to be aware of what image you are presenting. Passion Pit’s faults do not lie in their musical content or shows, which are generally wholesome. No, their downfall comes with the first impression – the name. What exactly is the angle, here? A pit of passion?! They have hoodwinked impressionable young children with the synth-giddiness of “Chunk of Change” and “Manners,” craftily masking their hidden agenda: leading children not into a giant orgy, but rather into eternal hellfire that will surely ensue after premarital sex. Now there’s a pit you’ll never recover climb out of.

Kanye West: Marine Conservation Network – We’ve all heard South Park’s infamous fish sticks joke. A disappointing lack of response after this 45-minute jab at the cocky rapper left everyone wondering – has Kanye finally gotten over himself? Of course not! If he was, however, suddenly blessed with a sense of humor and a fruit juicer to remedy the size of his head, West could get serious laughs from helping out someone other than himself.

Amy Winehouse: Drug Abuse Resistance Education – Does this need any explanation?

-Abby Johnston

90's Alt Rock is Having a Mid-Life Crisis

2009-07-31T10:00:00.003-04:00

Or at least their PR is. The other night, we received an email with the subject, "you are missing out on the third eye blind fun." The words "fun" and "Third Eye Blind" only belong in the same sentence when you are a) talking about camp-fire sing-a-longs of "Jumper" or b) the 90's. A chance email correspondence resulted between PopSense and Third Eye Blind's PR agency, Mega Force USA. The discussion is as follows:

In a message dated 7/29/2009 9:00:46 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, editors@popsense.com writes:

Hey,

Thanks for sending. Admittedly, the site generally doesn't cover more mainstream acts, though we certainly would post something along the lines of Andrew Bird or Heartless Bastards, which I see you also promote. Just a heads up!

On Jul 31, 2009, at 10:19 AM, Megaforceusa@aol.com wrote:

Third Eye Blind are not really mainstream. Lyrics are the most demented around.

In a message dated 7/31/2009 10:29:41 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, editors@popsense.com writes:

I'll take your word for it. I suppose I should've clarified and just said our readership looks for the "indie" caliber of, as I mentioned, Andrew Bird or Heartless Bastards. Don't get me wrong, I've had my share of Third Eye Blind lovin' - I even performed semi-charmed kind of life in high school haha

On Jul 31, 2009, at 10:34 AM, Megaforceusa@aol.com wrote:

check out this new video. mtv and fuse banned it cause of "you fucking whore..." content.

the video is hundreds of photos strung together. feel free to post:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBmb_LbqN2U

--

We will now feel free and post. Remember when cursing and "getting banned" was alt?

Now we just have to dress rly rly crazy.

The 90's band was all about "having tude," eating the Chickity China the Chinese chicken and "not giving a shit." There were two ways to not give a shit in the world at the time.

Be misunderstood (Circa 1992)

Be pissed off (Circa 1999)

The 2000's are a reaction to the push and pull of "misunderstood" and being "pissed off." With the exception of Buckcherry and the rest of the post-pop-alt-rock hangover, bands decided to chill out and be weird enough to be quirky, but not misunderstood.

"We're thinking of naming our band NGNT"

Since everyone looks like they're in a band now, it's hard to tell who actually makes music anymore.

Do you think Third Eye Blind should hire a stylist? How will we recognize bands in the 2010's, when clothes aren't fashionable anymore?

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