This didn't fit into the piece, but Spike Jonze directed that "Car Song" video, and its plot is "Elastica are ghostbusters in Tokyo." HOW IS THAT NOT THE BEST VIDEO EVER? HOW DOES IT MANAGE TO SUCK? This has bothered me for 20 years.
I didn't know how many people in the band are trans and didn't want to talk out of my ass. Online info is scant, and it seems like adding a sentence like "they have a 'transbitcheswithproblems' tag on their Bandcamp" wouldn't really add anything to the experience of hearing the song. (And I didn't post about PWR BTTM.) Mostly I just wanted to draw attention to the song because it's great.
Pretty much, yeah. It's not an exact science, but we save PEs for the really big, anticipated albums or the out-of-nowhere surprise releases from huge names.
I was! Think I got high during it, too!
That was the year Jawbox opened up on the mainstage, right? Fuckin Jawbox in a stadium. That was a thing that happened.
Charlottesville, VA. We have, like, a classic-soul station that's pretty good. We also have two competing granola alt-rock stations. And when the wind blows the right way, we can get the Richmond station for a few minutes sometimes.
I'm still going to write about mixtapes! I'm just going to save it for the really, really good ones.
The catalyst for this change: Me reading something about the Florida rapper Woop, thinking "that sounds cool," not remembering that I'd written an MOTW on him last year.
My whole thing with the Montessori reference is: Doesn't Kanye realize that Big Sean is a Waldorf School alumnus? And that Waldorf and Montessori have FUNDAMENTALLY OPPOSED educational philosophies? They should really discuss this stuff before they put it on wax.
This, from Spacebomb's Twitter:
"Also, Pollard/White/Spacebomb have scored a film called @OpenTablesMovie. Hope to be able to share it with you soon!"
Tiiiiiight.
Aaaaand I still think I'm pretty good. Sorry, dicknose! Hope you feel better for getting that off your chest!
(Thanks for the kind words, everyone else.)
I forgot about them. That list was off the dome. There are a few bands mentioned in this section that would've at least made the on-the-bubble list -- Vampire Weekend, Mastodon, ATDR -- if I'd thought of them. (Built to Spill doesn't make the cut; they had albums out in 93 and 94.) Also, even if their output is limited to 2.5 albums, I feel dumb for forgetting about Girls.
LCD Soundsystem made postpunk dance music but carried and recorded themselves like a rock band. Belle & Sebastian are more of a stretch, but the fact that they have a drummer somehow makes them rock enough for me to include them.
For the record, top 10 rock bands to emerge in the last 20 years, in my estimation:
1. Sleater-Kinney
2. The Dismemberment Plan
3. The Hold Steady
4. The White Stripes
5. LCD Soundsystem
6. TV On The Radio
7. Against Me!
8. Spoon
9. Converge
10. Belle And Sebastian
I'm cheating a bit with some of these inclusions. The D-Plan and Spoon both dropped EPs in 94, and Converge had a whole album, though I'd argue that we didn't really meet any of these bands until a year or two later. If you like, though, drop those three bands and sub in the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Lightning Bolt, and Fucked Up. On the bubble: the Walkmen, Screaming Females, Arcade Fire, the Beta Band, the Rapture, the National, Titus Andronicus. Nowhere near the bubble: Animal Collective.
Peak era Jay is pretty much 96-03. It was a long era. Everything Beanie did during his Roc stint was absolute blood-raining fire. The Reason, The Mack, and The B.Coming are nearly as great as any of those Jay albums.
It's asshole satire. Laughing at poor people fighting over shit at Wal-Mart is also an asshole move. The people who get all "look, rampant consumerism" about that shit are people who don't rely on predatory Black Friday bargains to get shit for their families. The people who are fighting over those things are people who would never otherwise be able to afford those things. Wareheim's video is mocking those people. It's an asshole move, albeit a brilliantly executed one.
My personal honorable mentions that didn't make the big list:
Lil Boosie - Life After Deathrow
Rancid - Honor Is All We Know
Young Thug & Bloody Jay - Black Portland
Ex Hex - Rips
The Hold Steady - Teeth Dreams
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