His PR pitched me an interview during the Virtue cycle, and my response was something like, "I wouldn't wanna do it if I couldn't do it right, and I couldn't do it right unless it was like a book project, tbh." They very sweetly and politely declined. But the offer stands!
There are some really good college stations in and around NYC. One of the schools in Jersey (Seton Hall maybe?) used to play tons of great like old-school hardcore and thrash and weird post-rock/art-noise if you could deal with the terrible signal and the fact that it would just drop out entirely on certain stretches of road.
Oh no question. I could look at pix of his clothes all day and probably not pick out the provenance of a single piece. Although I think I bought his old Magna shirt from a secondhand shop in the East Village about a dozen years ago:
https://66.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwoiadhEFM1qaxvu0.jpg
I almost wore it today actually! He probably traded it in with a pile of clothes for store credit in like 2002. It's not even his STUFF, though, but the way he puts it together. Truly peerless and fearless. Also, if you've ever seen him on the street or on the grounds at a festival or something, you know he's a LARGE DUDE, so you understand he's really 100% all-in when he leaves the house wearing this combo:
http://www2.pictures.zimbio.com/bg/Nikolai+Fraiture+Strokes+Visit+Kimmel+A1fVLAPTwXxl.jpg
Oh no, not even close. Here are three looks I scrolled past in Getty before settling on the one I used above:
http://www2.pictures.zimbio.com/bg/Nikolai+Fraiture+Strokes+Visit+Kimmel+A1fVLAPTwXxl.jpg
http://www2.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Julian+Casablancas+Evolve+Media+Exclusive+IxDzdCR5rJml.jpg
https://www.billboard.com/files/styles/article_main_image/public/media/_Julian-Casablancas-and-the-Voidz-paris-2015-billboard-1548.jpg
This isn't a "defense" of the chorus exactly (I love the song, but if it doesn't work for you, it doesn't matter WHY) but fwiw, he's quoting this song with that "cheating on, cheating on" stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP_40aphBn0
Again, I love the song, and I love the way he fits it all together and uses the same phrasing to convey a different feeling, but I'd love it either way.
Pretty sure you could replace Ezra's vocal line with the melody from "Uncle John's Band" (or vice-versa) and it would sound perfect whatever the permutation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSIajKGHZRk
EXACTLY. On that note, I loved this little bit of lite-exegesis from the FLOOD story linked in the text above:
The chorus goes, “And the stone walls of Harmony Hall bear witness / Anybody with a holy mind can never forgive the sight / Of wicked snakes inside a place you thought was dignified,” a pretty accurate summary of Columbia, in my humble opinion. And yes, OK, Ezra Koenig said on Twitter that he wasn’t aware of the campus connection, but then how do you explain the pre-chorus? "Anger wants a voice / Voices wanna sing" sounds a lot like the famous opening lines of The Iliad, required reading for all Columbia first-years.
Maybe not all of these references are direct or intended, but forcing a text to support your thesis is a time-honored college tradition.
Also, wasn't Pynchon, like, DFW's favorite writer/biggest influence? Certainly his most obvious forebear. Anywho, consider this thing a footnote to/from that other thing!
https://twitter.com/matthewjsimmons/status/405770429337333760
Well yeah, that goes without saying. Incidentally, I got this amazing AWK shirt that captures his whole nonexistence steez in one simple graphic:
https://www.rockabilia.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/300x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/TSHIRT/ANDREW-W-K--T-SHIRT-123588F.JPG
He's just the best.
I mean, in defense of my prog sensibilities, I wrote as much about "Sunflower" a few weeks ago:
...I’m sure I’m similarly sleeping on several million influences and references rooted in the soil of “Sunflower,” but my naked ear hears hints of heads like Herbie Hancock, Mahavishnu, and — obviously, admittedly, accept it — Phish. Key diff: All those dudes would noodle for 20 minutes to get two, total, of ecstatic resplendence. Vampy Weeks, OTOH, spent six years editing to give you only those two minutes.
Re: the cover image: I think it's just a shame that they're taking SO MUCH from the Dead ... but NOT the cover-art aesthetic, which is possibly the very best of all time.
https://jerrygarcia.com/wp-content/uploads/albums/Aoxomoxoa_Cover.jpg
https://images.genius.com/97039ff0fc1fd85580fa2d1e4888bcc6.1000x1000x1.jpg
https://jerrygarcia.com/wp-content/uploads/albums/AmericanBeauty_Cover.jpg
Yeah normally that would make me sick, but the song itself is just devastatingly beautiful and unironic, and maybe even reaches back to the ORIGINAL reference, Kundera's Unbearable Lightness Of Being.
THANK YOU! Remind me: PayPal preferred? Or Venmo? I will settle up with you ASAP, great job on the #spon, appreciate you! Haha nah seriously, I do appreciate this SO MUCH and will pay you in upvotes!
Well they sound absolutely nothing alike. Probably shoulda noted that factoid in my 100% Shellac-free review of this 100% Shellac-unrelated album. Other power trios I did not mention by name: Hüsker Dü/Sugar, Jawbreaker, Babes In Toyland, King's X, Joel R.L. Phelps' Downer Trio, Biffy Clyro, Acetone, Built To Spill (1993-2009), pre-Amott-era Carcass, post-Richie Manic Street Preachers, and Thin Lizzy, all of whom have more in common with Brutus than do Shellac. I'm POSITIVE that covers everyone and everything and I've left out nobody!
I guess so. I know the guitarist they brought in to replace Pete Adams came outta Philly. I was curious to hear the dual-guitar interplay between her and JDB, because he and Adams were MAGIC, but based on this tune, I'm extremely optimistic.
Unbelievable art. Baizley is one of the all-time greats. His portfolio is incredible and he'll go down as the single most important/iconic visual artist in post-millennial metal, and one of the best of all time along with Pushead and Dan Seagrave. I once interviewed him about his cover-art influences, in fact. He's truly an awesome dude.
https://www.stereogum.com/1077682/baronesss-john-baizley-on-six-influential-album-covers/photo/
In the unabridged edit of the blurb above there's a section about how "Harmony Hall" is this rollout's "Leave It In My Dreams" while "Sunflower" is its "QYURRYUS." This may or may not constitute a compelling argument, I admit. BUT IT WORKS FOR ME.
I'm one of the few exceptions I guess? Bc I probably qualify as a "from the word go" fan. I was at this show for example. And my summer trips to Cape Cod wouldn't be the same without "Wolcott" playing on the car stereo as I'm driving through the places he's shouting out. Etc. I love VW! I just think the new songs are on a WAY higher level than anything they've done before. I'm sorry to hear other folks don't like 'em as much as I do, but I think we'll all survive this turbulent moment and maybe even look back and have a laugh about it someday.
You guys know these are not actual types/tropes? For me, it's more like, "Yeah I really dug Murmur and Reckoning, I kinda never really clicked with Fables Of The Reconstruction, but GODDAMN THIS WTF WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbSBfI9_J84
In fairness, the press materials say Strävan means "'striving' or 'endeavor,'" and I made a stylistic choice to omit "or endeavor," and I can honestly say I never anticipated that choice bringing us to this point. But here we are!
Way back when I was editor of Invisible Oranges, Nick McMaster from Krallice wrote a really great piece for the site about his experience opening for Urfaust when the band played a few Stateside dates in 2011, and he kinda ruminated on some of the existential questions being raised here today:
"[To] think about the snobbishness of American metal fans -- so many of us live in walled gardens of taste where only bands that fit an ever-narrowing criteria are allowed..."
http://www.invisibleoranges.com/dutch-treat-krallices-nick-mcmaster-on-seeing-and-sharing-a-stage-with-urfaust/
Alcest are one of the greatest bands ever to walk the earth, but they're pretty much exactly the thing people are talking about when they say, "that's not black metal." Fortunately I have written an exhaustive treatise on this very subject. https://www.stereogum.com/1617782/deconstructing-alcests-shelter-and-metal-in-a-post-deafheaven-world/franchises/deconstructing/
"I've always wanted to be in a death metal band. Problem: I am an untalented, antisocial loser." -literally every death metal band in the history of the world
For sure. I wrote a lot about the degree-of-difficulty stuff in my previous post about the band, but it really can't be overstated: It is ridiculously hard to play drums and sing at the same time, and perform at an ACCEPTABLE level in each capacity. Stefanie Mannaerts is doing both things, at once, at a HOLY SHIT level. Her voice is obviously, unquestionably, self-evidently amazing. That's impossible to NOT hear. However, she plays drums in the service of the songs, so you might not always consciously clock that she's a fucking amazing drummer. She is a fucking AMAZING drummer. There's a track on the new album called "Horde V" where she just absolutely beasts for every millisecond of the full four-plus minutes, and it's like an Olympic display. Just watching her play drums and sing in the studio is one of the most mind-blowing things I've seen in a long time, and if you haven't watched the "War" video I will literally BEG YOU to watch it. Now. I am begging you! Please!
https://youtu.be/EBRYSlKDlws
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