Shut Up, Dude: This Week’s Best And Worst Comments
“I can’t believe I’m about to say this,” Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner remarked onstage last night at Scoot Inn, “but we are actually having so much fun at SXSW.” That’s the surprising sentiment I’ve been hearing from a lot of artists and industry folk at Austin’s annual mega-conference/clusterfuck this year. This is my 12th (I think) South By Southwest and it’s the first year since 2009 that Stereogum hasn’t thrown a party. (We are taking a year off!) But yeah, everything seems a bit more manageable this year.
Since 2014, when a drunk driver killed four people in a crash on Red River, the fest has taken steps to ramp up security and better organize the throngs in neck laminates crowding downtown streets. We’ve also seen a lot of the corporate money behind garish, invite-only “activations” (remember Gaga x Doritos?) flow to the convention’s earlier Interactive Week or out of SX altogether. This means fewer pop stars (the biggest one this year was Noah Cyrus lol) and less distraction from the up-and-coming talent for whom this festival was built.
Highlights for me so far include last night’s back-to-back White Reaper/Jeff Rosenstock sets at Cheer Up Charlie’s, teenage indie-rock phenom Snail Mail at Barracuda (and elsewhere), and the captivating aforementioned performance by Durham dream-pop stalwarts Wye Oak, playing as a trio and debuting pretty much their entire new LP The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs. Keep track of our coverage on Instagram and tag/sxsw, and enjoy this week’s Best & Worst below.
THIS WEEK’S 10 HIGHEST RATED COMMENTS
#10 | Jeff Buc-lee | |
Score:35 | Mar 13th | ||
Seriously. The rule is to have at least one empty stall in between, or is that just for urinals? |
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Posted in: Album Of The Week: 03 Greedo The Wolf Of Grape Street |
#9 | saul wright | |
Score:36 | Mar 13th | ||
03 Greedo? I hate it when mp3s are poorly tagged… |
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Posted in: Album Of The Week: 03 Greedo The Wolf Of Grape Street |
#8 | Phil Freeman | |
Score:39 | Mar 15th | ||
He looks like somebody sewed his face onto Mark McGrath’s head. |
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Posted in: Perry Farrell Is Building An Insane $100M Vegas Show With Holographic Porn And VR Pickpockets, Or Something |
#7 | fleshbench | |
Score:40 | Mar 15th | ||
“this isn’t about my personal feelings, cause I dont’t have much of them…” she’s a legend |
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Posted in: Rihanna Tells Snapchat “Shame On You” Over “Slap Rihanna” Ad |
#6 | blochead | |
Score:40 | Mar 9th | ||
Top 10 for TayTay Shade. Bottom 5 for a Madonna bash. #brand is fucking STRONG this week. |
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Posted in: Shut Up, Dude: This Week’s Best And Worst Comments |
#5 | Win | |
Score:46 | Mar 13th | ||
For Kim, Five Minutes Ago |
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Posted in: Kanye West Back At Work In Jackson Hole With Travis Scott, King Louie, The Dream, & More |
#4 | cokeparty | |
Score:46 | Mar 14th | ||
You mean, it’s possible to apologize for something you’ve done wrong and have someone else forgive you, and learn and grow and love and sing and have nice things again? |
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Posted in: Half Waif Says Pinegrove’s New Album Skylight Is Still Coming Out, Band Is Already Working On The Next One |
#3 | undergroundspoon | |
Score:52 | Mar 9th | ||
So I listened to the new Roc Marciano album today. Enjoyed his album from last year and was getting the same enjoyment out of this one – cool, subdued beats that a tough guy raps icily over. Dunno if it was worth $30, but definitely $10 at least? Then track 5 comes in and he drops the Gay Slur. This could just be a me-thing – I definitely didn’t see it mentioned in the write-up on this site – but, I dunno, does that not take anyone else out of the music, cause it to stop being fun? The same thing happened to me last year with Jay-Z’s anti-semitic bars on 4:44, and the Asian slur Migos dropped on Culture (both similarly under-discussed, IMO). And sure, you could argue that it’s just a boneheaded misuse of language, that he’s not actually talking about gay people. I think the same arguments got made to excuse some of yr fav rap-albums-of-the-last-few-years DS2 and Acid Rap (when Future and CTR’s use of the term isn’t just being ignored altogether). But then I looked into it, and dude has a history:
All of this was in response to Macklemore’s performance of his cornball/up-the-middle “Same Love” song at the 2014 Grammys, where Queen Latifah married same-sex people on stage. So, whether or not he’s actually talking about gay people in his songs, Roc Marciano doesn’t seem to like them much, and uses a really loaded word to refer to them. He did it then, and he probably just did it on his new album. I dunno, man. As music culture and music journalism have trended more towards a social justice bent – and to boot, has foregrounded rap as the most important genre to watch – it’s weird that y’all overlook stuff like this. Would be cool if people got as mad about this as they do when some young rapper says he thinks the 90s are overrated. Maybe people would have if someone more outwardly antagonistic like Ariel Pink or Mark Kozelek had said it instead. But IMO the current silence is deafening. Last year when Migos were blowing up, I asked a friend (who, it should be noted, is gay) if he’d heard their music. He responded by asking me why he would listen to music by people who hate him. And that stuck with me – why would I continue listening to music by people who hate my friend, especially when there’s so much else out there? |
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Posted in: Shut Up, Dude: This Week’s Best And Worst Comments |
#2 | a.j.howard09 | |
Score:54 | Mar 14th | ||
Between deflowering the first base path of earnest-looking Oklahomans and indirectly killing nuns, Katy Perry is having a hell of a week. |
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Posted in: American Idol Contestant Gets An Unwanted First Kiss From Katy Perry |
#1 | FacePeppler | |
Score:58 | Mar 14th | ||
Yes, it was a bad joke. Now we must burn them at the stake. No forgiveness is allowed ever! |
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Posted in: Half Waif Says Pinegrove’s New Album Skylight Is Still Coming Out, Band Is Already Working On The Next One |
THIS WEEK’S 5 LOWEST RATED COMMENTS
#5 | Where Is My Edge? | |
Score:-16 | Mar 14th | ||
Yikes at your usage of the word “Branded.” I know Brand is his last name, but that word has some pretty awful connotations and implications of ownership |
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Posted in: American Idol Contestant Gets An Unwanted First Kiss From Katy Perry |
#4 | explanationpoint | |
Score:-16 | Mar 13th | ||
you only listen to mount eerie because one time, probably a few years back, pitchfork gave them a good review, and that high number tickled your animal brain into thinking it was good. you, and the rest commentariat constantly disrespect black art, making these kinds of fuckshit statements with absolute certainty, despite being well-aware you have no idea what you’re talking about. go to rym or fucking mu/ if you want indie-rock circle jerk nonsense. |
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Posted in: Album Of The Week: 03 Greedo The Wolf Of Grape Street |
#3 | BertFMacklin | |
Score:-17 | Mar 15th | ||
So you are a human male with sexual drive. Big deal. Girls like you and you can get tons of chicks, they get all wet when you talk to them? enjoy it you lucky bastard. That is ok as long as you are not a monster and havent harrassed nor hurt anyone (have you???!!!). just release the damn thing. |
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Posted in: Pinegrove Address Album Release Controversy |
#2 | lieutenant wine | |
Score:-21 | Mar 9th | ||
They are an overwhelmingly shitty band. |
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Posted in: The Decemberists – “Once In My Life” |
#1 | Win | |
Score:-24 | Mar 12th | ||
Basic white hipsters rejoice. |
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Posted in: Arctic Monkeys Announce North American Tour |
THIS WEEK’S EDITOR-IN-CHIEF’S CHOICE
fknboz | ||
Score:24 | Mar 11th | ||
Stereogum’s comment section is great because there always seems to be a voice of reason. Today that voice is ButtHash. |
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Posted in: Watch SNL’s Random Nickelback Fan Deathbed Sketch |