December 2009
130 posts
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The 50 Worst Songs of the '00s, F2K No. 1:... →
Totally.
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My 82 Favourite Punk Rock Singles '77-'79
#62 Sex Pistols - ‘Holidays in the Sun’
“A cheap holiday in other peoples misery!”
This ode to exploitative tourism was the Sex Pistols’ last single proper, and whilst it’s probably the worst the lot, it’s still pretty fantastic. The guitar riff is just brilliant; so much so that The Jam ripped it off the same year for ‘In the City’...
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“Well Saturday gives what Sunday steals, and a child is born on his...”
– Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - ‘Tupelo’
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“You have to forget about what other people say, when you’re supposed to die, or...”
– Jimi Hendrix
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My 20 favourite Ramones songs
1. ‘Sheena is a Punk Rocker’
2. ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’
3. ‘Carbona, Not Glue’
4. ‘Beat on the Brat’
5. ‘Rockaway Beach’
6. ‘Judy is a Punk’
7. ‘We’re a Happy Family’
8. ‘Havana Affair’
9. ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll High School’
10. ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’
11. ‘Gimme...
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“I think many people would compromise their morals for Robert Smith, but I...”
– Carlos D. of Interpol
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Morrissey: 'Suicide is honourable and I understand... →
I can’t help but feel this is a rather irresponsible move on Mozza’s part. Seriously, this is not something you should be telling people who listen to The Smiths.
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My 82 Favourite Punk Rock Singles '77-'79
#63 The Clash - ‘Clash City Rockers’
“You see the rate they come down the escalator / Now listen to the tube train accelerator / Then you realise that you got to have a purpose / Or this place is gonna knock you out sooner or later”
This riff is just fucking awesome. There is no other way to describe it. Okay, so it’s a complete ripoff of ‘I Can’t...
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“Every place is just the same, isn’t it?”
– Thomas Dolby - ‘Leipzig’
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The Compact Disc (CD) was developed by Philips and Sony in 1980.
Originally, CDs were intended to have a playing time of 60 minutes. However, conductor Herbert Von Karajan pushed for the capacity to be extended to 74 minutes in order to accommodate Wilhelm Furtwängler’s recording of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony from the 1951 Bayreuth Festival.
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My 82 Favourite Punk Rock Singles '77-'79
#64 The Mekons - ‘Where Were You?’
“When I was waiting in a bar, where were you? / When I was buying you a drink, where were you? / When I was crying at home in bed, where were you?”
I know a lot of people are really, really fond of the Mekons, but they’ve never quite jelled for me - they’ve always seemed like a second-rate Wire. I do, however, really enjoy...
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“The point is that, like Richard Hell says, rock ‘n’ roll is an arena...”
– Lester Bangs
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“I fall for this season every time / When it’s hot and everybody smiles / I...”
– The Divine Comedy - ‘The Pop Singer’s Fear of the Pollen Count’
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My 15 favourite songs by The Go-Betweens
1. ‘Cattle and Cane’
2. ‘Love is a Sign’
3. ‘Right Here’
4. ‘A Bad Debt Follows You’
5. ‘Love Goes On!’
6. ‘Bachelor Kisses’
7. ‘The Ghost and the Black Hat’
8. ‘The House that Jack Kerouac Built’
9. ‘Streets of Your Town’
10. ‘Five Words’
11. ‘Spring Rain’...
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“It’s good profile-raising stuff for them and their other material will do well...”
– Freakytrigger
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“I’ve got ‘Metal Box’ and I think it’s superb, the only...”
– Ian Curtis discussing Public Image Ltd.
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My 82 Favourite Punk Rock Singles '77-'79
#65 The Cure - ‘Killing an Arab’
“Whichever I choose / It amounts to the same / Absolutely nothing”
The Cure’s first single is pretty forgettable when considering the entire canon of their work - however, taken on its own merits it is pretty interesting. The sound, consisting of just one guitar, bass, and drums, is appealing sparse, and the riff is pretty awesome....
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“Remember the immortal words of Chuck Berry: beware of middlebrows bearing...”
– Robert Christgau
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“Politicians sit yourselves down, there’s nothing for you here /...”
– Graham Nash - ‘Chicago’
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Sony triumphs over Sony →
Annnd Rage Against The Machine are your UK Christmas No. 1 for 2009.
ETA: Apparently the sales totals were 502,672 Rage / 450,838 Joe McElderry.
Imagine what would have happened if, as Tom Ewing wondered, Jedward had won?
The absurdity of this whole thing amazes me. Couldn’t they have at least picked a band that wasn’t on the same label? Great rebellion, you guys.
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My 82 Favourite Punk Rock Singles '77-'79
#66 The Dictators - ‘Search and Destroy’
“I am the world’s forgotten boy / The one who searches and destroys”
Yeah it’s a Stooges cover. No, it’s not even the best Stooges cover (an honour that goes to Radio Birdman’s ‘TV Eye’). But the song is so ridiculously, awe-inspiringly good, pretty much any half-decent cover of it is going to...
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Vimeo sued; have staffers uploaded infringing... →
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“Must not sleep must warn others / Trust blocks creep where the dust storm hovers...”
– Aesop Rock - ‘Commencement at the Obedience Academy’
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“Decades removed from its writing I didn’t find the assertion particularly...”
– From Brent DiCrescenzo’s notoriously verbose and obnoxious review of Metallica’s (shitty) St. Anger
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“Here are the young men, the weight on their shoulders”
– Joy Division - ‘Decades’
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An Open Letter to the Tumblr Dev Staff,
headunderwater:
I’ve debated with myself whether I would email the staff personally or an open letter. But however I feel that it is just not me that feels the way I do. You have created a great service, where community is it’s biggest feature. In my opinion this is one of the best blogging platforms out there. I’ve personally experimented with Blogger, Wordpress and Durplo and I found them over...
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My 82 Favourite Punk Rock Singles '77-'79
#67 Elvis Costello - ‘Less Than Zero’
“Calling Mr. Oswald with the swastika tattoo / There is a vacancy waiting in the English voodoo”
Elvis Costello really dislike fascists, it would seem, judging by the number of songs he recorded in his early years covering this subject. Of those, this is probably the best (or at least the catchiest). The lyrics make reference to...
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Welcome to the new Idolator →
Shudder-inducing, isn’t it? The departure of Maura from Idolator really has left a black hole in the blogosphere (oh crap, why did I just use that term?).
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Carles prepares a post about the decade in music. →
Yall. I feel tons of pressure to write a ‘best of year’/’best of decade’/’best of century post.’
I am not sure what I should take into consideration. Really want to ‘figure out’ the last…
Just put AnCo at no. 1, and you can be as cool as every other fucking end of year/decade list.
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“Grand pianos crash together when my boy walks down the street / There are whole...”
– The Magnetic Fields - ‘When My Boy Walks Down the Street’
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My 82 Favourite Punk Rock Singles '77-'79
#68 Joy Division - ‘Transmission’
“Dance, dance, dance to the radio”
This probably should be higher on my list, but I’m not really convinced of its punkiness. Whatever - it’s brilliant. Everyone knows this. It’s by far the band’s best single, including that piece of trite schlock ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’.
It’s also...
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The Bats, The Clean, The Chills, The Verlaines, Able Tasmans, Superette, Sneaky Feelings, Straitjacket Fits, Bird Nest Roys
Thank god for New Zealand!
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My 82 Favourite Punk Rock Singles '77-'79
#69 Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers - ‘It’s Not Enough’
“Money’s so green / So casually seen / It don’t bother me / It’s not enough”
This is one of those songs, like The Vibrators’ ‘Baby, Baby’ for instance, that see a punk rock band slowing down their tempo for a one-off sellout single. ‘It’s Not Enough’...
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“Can you judge a man by the way he wears his hair? / Can you read his mind by the...”
– The Yardbirds - ‘Mr. You’re a Better Man Than I’
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