August 2011
1 post
April 2011
2 posts
1 tag
February 2011
1 post
January 2011
4 posts
Five Movies From 2010 I Thought Were Dope
1. The Fighter
I keep seeing The Fighter get dismissed as Oscar bait, as if actors challenging themselves was a bad thing. Christian Bale is unflinching in his portrayal of a crack addict, and the real jaw-dropper is seeing a clip of the actual Dickey Ecklend in the credits and realizing just how accurate Bale’s portrayal is. Amy Adams turns a nothing part into a memorable one. Mark...
December 2010
8 posts
50 Subjective and Mostly-Disconnected Thoughts on...
marathonpacks:
natepatrin:
So that’s the approach I’m going to take in my year-end roundup here – dialing down the whole Giving a Fuck quotient and dashing off whatever comes to mind, albeit without the 140-character limitation. Just as a warning: this could get kind of stupid. Or frank. Same thing.
And Mostly Sharp and Great and Wow! There’s really 50 of them!
Nate’s year-end wrap...
2010: It's a Wrap
To coincide with The Factual Opinion closing out its epic year-end wrap-up today, here’s a couple of lists of my favorite music from this year, along with links to the shit I wrote at TFO. Please check some of it out if you can.
In order to figure out my favorite albums of 2010, I made a playlist of 50 albums that I would be stoked to listen to right now. I feel like these kinds of things should...
100 Greatest Native Tongues Songs - MP3s Pt 1 →
thetroyblog:
Part 1 of 2 files. 100 songs we covered at Complex.com plus 5 bonus songs.
Perfect.
(Part 2 Here)
Watchmaura:
The Dirtbombs’ new album is all Detroit techno covers??!
Fuck. Yes.
The Factual Opinion’s year-end music wrap-up is on and popping. This year, me, Tucker Stone, and Sean Witzke got together and argued out our albums list—which was a process that was more than a little bloody. The first four entries are all personal favorites, and albums that I nominated for inclusion. Here’s a little excerpt from my write-up on Jamie Lidell’s Compass at...
3 tags
On Some 2010 Shit
Since 2005, I’ve been making a year-end mp3 mix to gift my friends for the holidays. This year I’ve decided to put it up on line because fuck it. (Also, I can direct people to this link once I’m tired of mailing out hard copies.) This is an overview of the music that I was digging this year, from the beasts to the personal favorites. It’s built to be listened to in order, but shuffling is...
1 tag
November 2010
3 posts
2 tags
WatchMurderous Footsteppin’: Dubstep Etc. 2010
Hey, so I did a podcast this week focusing on some of my favorite dubstep and dubstep-related tracks of 2010. It should be noted that I know shit about things like beat-matching and actual DJing. That being said, there are places here that I could almost pass for an actual DJ. Please enjoy this tracklist:
1. Pursuit Grooves - “Start...
October 2010
3 posts
The Articles in SPIN's Greatest Hits, Ranked in...
1. Chinese Water Torture: Visiting the Yangtze River’s Controversial Three Gorges Dam by Elizabeth Gilbert
I’m as surprised as you are.
2. School’s Out: Remembering New York City’s Real Rock’n’roll High School by Tom Sinclair
The most fascinating thing about Quintano’s School for Young Professionals, alma mater of Steven Tyler, Stevie Nicks, D Generation, The New York Dolls, Sal...
September 2010
8 posts
2 tags
No Illmatic: Not Quite the Best of Nas, 1991-2000
This is a thing that I did that I thought some of y’all might enjoy.
No Illmatic: Not Quite the Best of Nas, 1991-2000
1. Nas – “It Ain’t Hard to Tell (Acapella) (Excerpt)” (0:35) (from “It Ain’t Hard to Tell” single, 1994)
2. Nas – “Nas is Like” (3:57) (from I Am…, 1999)
3. AZ – “How Ya Livin’ (Feat. Nas)” (4:31) (from Pieces of a Man, 1998)
4. Nas – “Come Get Me”...
“the Stockholm Syndrome theory of pop”
– SPIN’s 20 Best Songs of Summer | SPIN.com (via desnoise)
Charles Aaron: Still my rock-crit hero.
Also...
Joe Tangari is Killing It right now running down some of the P4k list’s ommisions (including a couple of picks that would totally make my own list.) Get there.
3 tags
One Thought About Pitchfork's 90's Songs List
I have this pet theory about P4k’s lists of the best albums of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. Once you get past the canonical stuff, a lot of the choices seem to have been dictated by what was most accessable at the time. I noticed a lot of albums that frequently made the rounds in, say, the Tower Records bargain bins or the Amoeba Records used sections. In other words, stuff...
2 tags
August 2010
7 posts
1 tag
25 Songs That Probably Won't Make Pitchfork's Top...
The Afghan Whigs - “66” (from 1965, 1998)
Arthur Russell - “A Little Lost” (from Another Thought, 1994)
Billy Bragg & Wilco - “Ingrid Bergman” (from Mermaid Avenue, 1998)
Björk - “5 Years” (from Homogenic, 1997)
The Black Crowes - “Hotel Illness” (from The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, 1992)
Black Moon - “I Got...
WatchJimmy Z - “Funky Flute (Feat. Dr. Dre)”
Okay, this is weird.
July 2010
3 posts
2 tags
June 2010
12 posts
The 2010 2nd Quarter Playlist
So that albums list from the last post already feels obsolete. My opinions have already changed, mostly because it’s been a ridiculously rich year for music. Besides, I think I promised myself that I would try not to rank shit if it wasn’t absolutely necessary. Instead, here’s a mosaic of music that’s struck me in the last three months, in playlist form. So much so much...
21 tags
The Mid-Year Check In
20 favorite albums of 2010 so far, based on projected future enjoyment:
1. Guido – Anidea
2. The Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt
3. Gil Scott-Heron – I’m New Here
4. Jamie Lidell – Compass*
5. Ted Leo/Pharmacists – The Brutalist Bricks
6. Sleigh Bells – Treats
7. LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening
8. Javelin – No Más
9. Big K.R.I.T. –...
2 tags
“I’m in Los Angeles for a music conference sponsored by Scion, and last night...”
– Fluxtumblr: RZA On Dictatorships
Yeah, I don’t know about this. It sort of sounds like using the RZA’s answer to confirm something you already believed was true.
It doesn’t sound like the RZA was running things like a *dictator* on those early Wu albums but like a...
1 tag
This little project has been consuming me for the past couple of days, so I figure I’ll share. On Monday night, I’m DJing an 80’s-themed benefit for some friends’ theater company (you should totally come and dance!) To help raise money, they’re going to be offering dedications for donations, and they asked me to come up with a list of 100 80’s songs that...
2 tags
This is my favorite David Mamet story.
Every year, the Atlantic Theater Company has an intensive in Vermont for some of its students. The intensive is led by Scott Zigler—the director of A.R.T.’s theater training program, one of the founding members of the Atlantic, the primary author of the Practical Handbook for the Actor (or at least that’s what I heard), and probably the best teacher of the Practical Aesthetics...
2 tags
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a grammar: a little extra →
tomewing:
I instinctively like this idea of “pop wrongness” but I’m not sure how actually arguable it is. For instance - this is an example I keep coming back to I think! - back in 1993 I was a student, and Blur put out Modern Life Is Rubbish. And my reaction was, this is a bit embarassing. They’re trying too hard, they’re playing with a lot of stuff that feels a bit obvious and contrived. Blur...
m.i.a.'s uniquely close relationship with...
pitchforkreviewsreviews:
okay so correct me if i’m wrong but plenty of Best New Musics have been given out right? and plenty of artists have played the pitchfork festival, a lot of been interviewed and given extensive coverage by pitchfork, but never before M.I.A. was an artist SO CLOSELY ALIGNED WITH PITCHFORK that they were allowed to take over the pitchfork twitter for a day to coincide with...
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WatchThis is my single favorite piece of movie promotion ever. John Carpenter is a man who knows how to give the people what they want:
John Stewart: Tell me about this thing. The Ghosts of Mars. Now, what’s going on here?
John Carpenter: You got Ice Cube on Mars, kickin’ butt.
(Side note: Look at John Stewart’s hair!)