Merry Black Friday. Thirty-one more shopping days until Christmas. Here at Stereogum.com we’ve actually never offered a gift guide for music fans … until now. You might wanna hop on these festive deals while you can.
These socks are perfect for the Mitski fan in your life, or anyone who likes apples, and would compliment a Santa Claus costume. Only $16 while supplies last.
A Deeper Understanding was one of the best albums of 2017, and the recipient of this gift will be able to broadcast that on their feet. It comes in navy blue and costs $15.
Radiohead socks are the perfect stocking stuffer, or maybe they are the perfect stocking. They are 2% Elastane and go for only $10. $1 of every purchase goes to fighting climate change, probably. They’re all sold out. I think this gift guide is going well.
Jeff Rosenstock’s POST- was the first great album of this year and I guess also the first album of this year since it came out on New Year’s Day. Rosenstock’s RosenSOCKS boast a 5-color design and “regular thickness.” There are drawings of socks on the socks. $10.
If you see underwear, you are part of the illusion.
THIS WEEK’S 10 HIGHEST RATED COMMENTS
THIS WEEK’S 5 LOWEST RATED COMMENTS
#1 |
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pedrodickey |
Score:-31 | Nov 20th |
“Some rap songs”? Aren’t songs sung? I ant that what defines them as songs? When they’re sung? Let us call them “raps” and not “songs”, yea? Does this not make sense? Thanks for your feedback. |
Posted in: Earl Sweatshirt – “The Mint” (Feat. Navy Blue) |
THIS WEEK’S EDITOR-IN-CHIEF’S CHOICE
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BixMeister |
Score:6 | Nov 19th |
It’s winter, 1968/69 in Northern Minnesota. You bundle up, walk to school in darkness, and come home in the last bit of daylight. If it’s not too bad out, you might take a sled and run to the town hill for a few runs before dinner. If it’s cold, there is always the afternoon matinee movie.
More often than not, I’d turn on the radio and play with Hot Wheels. WEBC channel 56 out of Duluth, was my constant companion. My AM transistor radio that I bought with lawn-mowing money was tuned to the one station that played the variety I liked. AM radio always sounded better in the winter. There was less static, and AM radio waves could travel farther. Music sounded as crisp as the cold night air.
No song sounded better to me that winter, than Everyday People. WEBC played a variety, but the variety was relatively white washed. Yes, The Supremes were played, and the bigger Motown hits, but black records weren’t that common on the airwaves unless they were top 10 mega-hits. Everyday People sounded massive on my tiny radio. Now I wonder if it was engineered to make the most of the limited AM sound. It’s one of the first songs that made me stop and take notice. I am convinced that WEBC was early on playing it, because I can remember listening to it, while the Christmas tree lights illuminated the darkness.
I can also remember how it fit into my world view at the time. I remember my grandmother’s racist comments about civil rights, as much as I remember my parents telling me how wrong she was. I remember the previous spring and summer when friends told me that their parents were “happy” about the death of Martin Luther King Jr. My hometown was as white as the snow that blankets Northern Minnesota, and the racism was just as deep. I remember a classmate talking about the screeching of Aretha Franklin. It shouldn’t have surprised me later when he shared racists memes on Facebook.
So, for that moment when Sly exhorted “We got to live together,” over a strong track, Everyday People was, is and always will be a 10/10 in my book. |
Posted in: The Number Ones: Sly & The Family Stone’s “Everyday People” |