When will hip-hop hurry up and die?
The “Death of …” piece is a genre of criticism that’s fallen into disrepute (there was a period when you’d be constantly tripping over essays announcing the End of something: art, theory, rock, rave ). People now seem to feel that “no genre ever really dies” (to adapt the Neptunes/NERD motto). Was this in fact one of the problems with the Noughties? No genre went gently into that good night: they all clung on, cluttering up the musical landscape. This not only made it harder for new things to emerge, it’s meant that we’ve all come to forget that, in fact, totally new things have emerged in the past. There was, for instance, a time when hip-hop didn’t exist. The refusal to admit that a genre can die (which doesn’t mean literally disappear – it may even generate good stuff now and then –but refers to stagnation, irrelevance, becoming uncoupled from the zeitgeist) is a denial of the possibility of change, renewal, the unexpected. The very vitality of a form of music implies the possibility of its eventual death.
Old Man Simon Reynolds tells it like it is.
Bonnie “Prince” Billy + Brightblack Morning Light - “Lullaby”
“ In the beginning, the end often looks like this, engulfed in stillness, immobile and ultimately, in the final version, haunted ”
The title of a digital collage by Geoffrey Farmer from 2004 that I cannot find the image for. I can only hope that it looks as awesome as it sounds.
Derrick May - interval I
The source for the awesome strings sample in Dabrye’s “One Ting” remix.
Sleephouse Radio - Issue 8
“It’s been a while…”
1. The Dirty Projectors - ‘My Offwhite Flag’
2. Tune-Yards - ‘Hatari’
3. Cold Cave - ‘Life Magazine’
4. Gentle Friendly - ‘RIP Static’
5. Kurt Vile - ‘Freak Train’
6. Kurt Vile - ‘Best Love’
7. Harmonia & Eno 76 - ‘Sometimes In Autumn’ (Shackleton Remix)
8. Yoko Ono + John Lennon - ‘Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him’
9. Yoko Ono & The Plastic Ono Band - ‘Mind Train’A podcast with talking by me. A full version of this post with notes and errata to be found on www.sleephouse.blogspot.com
Bend Sinister - Time Breaks Down
I am posting this for two reasons. 1) because this song rules and that contest thing reminded me of that fact and 2) because Naben’s dancing totally cracks me up.
This video is the only time Naben has ever danced.
Bean boots! I’m totally going to need some of these when it’s slushy for months on end. They’re always going for cheap on ebay, but I want the kind that have insulation, and they’re much rarer, but I don’t really want to shell out $150+/- for new ones.
By Happy Accident, Chemists Produce a New Blue
In the intense heat, almost 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, the ingredients formed a crystal structure in which the manganese ions absorbed red and green wavelengths of light and reflected only blue.
I dunno, looks an awful lot like good old International Klein Blue to me.
Oh wait, the [R. Kelly] yodeling song already came out, and it’s amazing.
SEX IN THE MORNING
SEX ALL DAY
Neat! You can preview pieces of the upcoming Liars album Sisterworld with little video shorts.
