Born Under Punches

A notebook of sorts of clippings, quotes, and ideas.

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Also, writing about a song a day at Some Songs Considered

"I'm a tumblr / born under punches"

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Free Snuggie Blanket | Suzzly Market Research

I’m trying to decide if having a Snuggie to give as a gag is worth giving away my contact information.



October 26, 2009, 5:57pm

Quote
“On the song “Empire State of Mind”, Jay-Z raps, “Shit, I made the Yankees hat more famous than a Yankee can.” On Wednesday night, he’ll get the chance to prove that boast when he and Alicia Keys perform the Blueprint 3 track at Yankee Stadium before game one of the World Series, according to MTV. Beat that, Philly.”

Pitchfork: Jay-Z to Perform at World Series

Somebody get ?uestlove on the phone…



October 26, 2009, 5:44pm

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My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-10-25)

  1. Elliott Smith (4) 
  2. Amy Winehouse (4) 
  3. Teenage Fanclub (2) 
  4. Poe (2) 
  5. Dirty Projectors (1) 

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz



October 26, 2009, 1:46pm

Link

Romance Is Boring

New Los Campesinos! album out on February 1!



October 25, 2009, 8:36pm

Text

andrewmcclain:

somesongsconsidered:

and having a character who spends his entire time on screen singing Bowie songs without a single line of dialogue (it’s been a while since I’ve seen the movie, so correct me if I’m wrong) feels excessively odd.

Yeah, Seu Jorge has a few lines - “I like her hairdo” is the only one I can think of. Ordinarily I’d never nitpick like that, but you did extend an invitation to correct you, so I thought I might nerd out for a second.

Thanks for the correction - I appreciate it!  I gave myself 20 minutes to write that post and haven’t seen The Life Aquatic since 2005 or so (when I saw it 3 - 4 times between theatre and DVD).  No apology needed for nerding out!

Also - I updated the original post - thanks again!



Reblogged from the last exit.

October 25, 2009, 1:58pm

Video

merlin:

R.E.M. So. Central Rain (26/07/84 Solid Gold Hits, NYC, New York, USA)

It wasn’t until early 1989 that Peter Buck learned there was actually no such thing as a “cuff link allergy.”



Reblogged from kung fu grippe.

October 23, 2009, 6:07pm

Link

Pitchfork: The Hold Steady's Craig Finn Co-Writing Fargo Rock City Movie

Well that’s only going to make this more divisive!



October 22, 2009, 1:05pm

Photograph

eceu:

mp3: Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth) - Elliott Smith [Play] (George Harrison cover)
This is how I like to think of Elliott, honestly.  Not some guy who was continually mopey and depressed, nor some guy who knew all the answers.  He was complicated, like all of us, but he was also unlike most of us in one important way: he was a musical genius.  He could take his pain and his happiness, his sorrows and his joys, and shape them, mold them into three to four minute songs that could nod your head or break your heart on a regular basis.  But even when he took on someone else’s songs, as he does here with this old George Harrison number, his emotions - his voice, always - poked through.
It was often telling what he chose to cover, as well.  Elliott clearly knew his stuff, and his tastes ran all over the map musically - but whenever it came down to actually picking out covers to play on tour, he had a very singular, exacting standard.  Even when he was covering Oasis (which he did, “Supersonic”) or Blue Oyster Cult (yep), he added other layers to it, provided another level for it to be read on.
Or maybe I (we) just did?
It was when he tackled songs like this one, though, that we musical obsessives knew he was really one of us.  This one let us know that he actually listened to records, that he knew songs not just hits.  For there are certainly many more obvious Harrison-penned songs to cover - and, once in a while, he did - but this was the one he took out on tour with him and played for nearly a year straight.  I’m sure more than a few people at the shows assumed it was a Smith original, and in a way it almost was.  Go back and listen to Harrison’s version some time, then compare it with this.  Listen to the difference, not in melody (for Elliott was certainly reverential enough to keep Harrison’s original melodies and harmonies intact) but in tone, in emphasis.  Listen to how Elliott strips it down and makes it his own: a weary happy-sadness in the delivery that changes the song’s impact in many ways.
We lost him six years ago today.  And in so many ways, that still makes no sense at all to me.

eceu:

mp3: Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth) - Elliott Smith [Play]
(George Harrison cover)

This is how I like to think of Elliott, honestly.  Not some guy who was continually mopey and depressed, nor some guy who knew all the answers.  He was complicated, like all of us, but he was also unlike most of us in one important way: he was a musical genius.  He could take his pain and his happiness, his sorrows and his joys, and shape them, mold them into three to four minute songs that could nod your head or break your heart on a regular basis.  But even when he took on someone else’s songs, as he does here with this old George Harrison number, his emotions - his voice, always - poked through.

It was often telling what he chose to cover, as well.  Elliott clearly knew his stuff, and his tastes ran all over the map musically - but whenever it came down to actually picking out covers to play on tour, he had a very singular, exacting standard.  Even when he was covering Oasis (which he did, “Supersonic”) or Blue Oyster Cult (yep), he added other layers to it, provided another level for it to be read on.

Or maybe I (we) just did?

It was when he tackled songs like this one, though, that we musical obsessives knew he was really one of us.  This one let us know that he actually listened to records, that he knew songs not just hits.  For there are certainly many more obvious Harrison-penned songs to cover - and, once in a while, he did - but this was the one he took out on tour with him and played for nearly a year straight.  I’m sure more than a few people at the shows assumed it was a Smith original, and in a way it almost was.  Go back and listen to Harrison’s version some time, then compare it with this.  Listen to the difference, not in melody (for Elliott was certainly reverential enough to keep Harrison’s original melodies and harmonies intact) but in tone, in emphasis.  Listen to how Elliott strips it down and makes it his own: a weary happy-sadness in the delivery that changes the song’s impact in many ways.

We lost him six years ago today.  And in so many ways, that still makes no sense at all to me.



Reblogged from everybody cares, everybody understands.

October 21, 2009, 9:41pm

Quote

To all our customers that have supported us for the last three years thank you and much.

&

For Those of you
who supported
Tim Horton’s or
Mc Donald’s
because you were
to lazy to get out
of your cars you
can go FUCK
YOURSELVES

A now-shuttered Pennsylvania espresso bar is not too happy about the reasons for its demise. (via maura)

Granted, they were too lazy to proofread their kiss off.



Reblogged from what?.

October 21, 2009, 2:50pm

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Remembering Jasper Howard as a Friend and Teammate - Rob Lunn - NESN.com

This has been seemingly everywhere around here in the past few days, and it keeps striking me as profoundly sad.  This afternoon alone, I listened to local talk radio callers call in dumbfounded, Connecticut’s coach recount the players meeting with the family, and now this ex-teammates account of grief and (somewhat tangential) regret.



October 20, 2009, 7:11pm

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“Whereas he was once the Milhouse Van Houten to Malkmus’ Bart Simpson, [Spiral Stairs] had devolved into being an incoherent indie equivalent of Milhouse’s dad mewling “Can I Borrow a Feeling?”

Pitchfork: Album Reviews: Spiral Stairs: The Real Feel

I realize I’m the target reader for this review, but this is such a wonderful takedown that it almost makes up for the bummer of Spiral Stairs’ album being sub-par.



October 20, 2009, 9:52am

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My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-10-18)

  1. Wilco (5) 
  2. Japancakes (4) 
  3. The Who (4) 
  4. The Clash (3) 
  5. Los Campesinos! (3) 

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz



October 19, 2009, 4:01pm

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“Go get your money, Tumblr, But please make your ads less offensive.”

Abby Jean (via bmichael)

Agreed.  This is a far more eloquent way of putting it than I stated it.



Reblogged from B. Michael and His Truly Epic Shit.

October 19, 2009, 11:54am

Quote
“People really think narrowly when it comes [to]…the idea that something has to be aggressive or avant grade, or atonal, even, to be a challenge,” he told The A.V. Club. “I’ve found it to be the exact opposite. We literally put 15 minutes of noise on a record that did not raise an eyebrow, but if you make a pop song with Feist on it, people are going to cry like the sky’s falling.”

Jeff Tweedy Comments on His Internet Commenters :: Music :: News :: Paste



October 19, 2009, 11:40am

Video

andrewmcclain:

copycats:

Octopus’s Santeria by DJ Magnet
“Octopus’s Garden” by The Beatles + “Santeria” by Sublime
(posted by mialegria)

I… I… I might not hate “Octopus’s Garden” anymore…

The Kermit the Frog stuff seals the deal for me.  This was pretty well done.



Reblogged from the last exit.

October 17, 2009, 12:08pm