joy of speed

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Every hit song America ever had

Yo La Tengo's "Lewis" from their second album New Wave Hot Dogs (1987).

"Maybe just like you some day I will forget
Every hit song America ever had
Like 'this is for all the lonely people'
And 'Oz never gave nothing to the Tin Man'
And 'I've been to a desert on a horse without a name'."

Wednesday, January 04, 2017

The Work Of Art In The Age Of Mechanical Reproduction

"Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be"

"... the sphere of authenticity lies outside the technical..."

"The uniqueness of a work of art is inseparable from its being embedded in the fabric of tradition."

Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Reproduction" (1935)

Public Enemy - "Security Of The First World" (from It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back) [released June 28, 1988]

My Bloody Valentine - "Instrumental" (from extra 7" with Isn't Anything) [released November 21, 1988]

Sinead O'Connor - "I Am Stretched On Your Grave" (from I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got) [released March 20, 1990]

Madonna - "Justify My Love" (from The Immaculate Collection) [released October 30, 1990]

Asher D - "Still Kickin'" (from Still Kickin') [released 1991]

Enigma - "Mea Culpa Part II (Orthodox Mix)" (from MCMXC a.D.) [released 1991]

Tuesday, January 03, 2017

Best of 2016

My very quick and dirty list of albums I liked in 2016. They are in alphabetical order. The list is rather conservative, a bit rockist, a bit of dad rock. The real standouts I've put in highlights. Those are the ones that are my favorite of the year.

Daniel Avery - DJ-Kicks mixtape
Bat For Lashes - The Bride
Bon Iver - 22, A Million
Car Seat Headrest - Teens Of Denial
David Bowie - Blackstar
David Crosby - Lighthouse
DIIV - Is The Is Are
Dinosaur Jr - Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not
eMMplekz - Rook to TN34
Explosions In The Sky - The Wilderness
Tim Hecker - Love Streams
The I Don't Cares - Wild Stab
Kristin Hersh - Wyatt At The Coyote Place
Katie Gately - Color
Mica Levi - Jackie [original soundtrack]
M.I.A. - AIM
Moodymann - DJ-Kicks mixtape
Phantogram - Three
Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
Rob Crow's Gloomy Place - You're Doomed. Be Nice
Savages - Adore Life
School Of Seven Bells - SVIIB
Solange - A Seat At The Table
Esperanza Spalding - Emily's D+Evolution
Wild Nothing - Life Of Pause

Random song that I liked:

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - "Juno"

The track was created to commemorate NASA's Mission Juno to Jupiter. Launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on August 5, 2011, the Juno spacecraft arrived around Jupiter in the summer of 2016. On July 5, last year, the 8,000 lb spacecraft entered orbit around the largest planet in our solar system. NASA commissioned this track as a kind "soundtrack" the trans-Jovian orbital injection.

Reissues that had good "extra" stuff worth seeking out:

Autechre - Amber / Incunabula / Tri Repetae
Chassol - Ultrascores II / Indiamore
Crowded House - Crowded House / Temple Of Low Men / Together Alone
Fleetwood Mac - Mirage
Flying Saucer Attack - Further / Chorus
Lush - Origami
Michael Jackson - Off The Wall
Primal Scream - Screamadelica
Carl Stone - Electronic Music from the Seventies and Eighties
Sun Ra - Singles
Underworld - Second Toughest In The Infants
The Who - Live At Leeds
The Verve - A Storm In Heaven
The Verve - A Northern Soul

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

George Michael - Edith and the Kingpin

George Michael with a cover of Joni Mitchell's "Edith And The Kingpin." A very sympathetic rendition that is neither condescending nor patronizing to the actors in this incredibly rich story of a gangster, female companionship, and heroin addiction.