Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand
by krisis
Get off your apathetic ass right now and listen to Garrison Starr sing “5minutes” (yeah, i have a song called that too, but it matters not) on Mp3.com. This song will be my life as soon as i can own it physically and not just across the endless infinity of the internet. If you don’t own her debut yet, buy it now before it fades away out of print. Garrison Starr is by far the best female singer-songwriter we’ve got right now. Do not let her fade away.
by krisis
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!! Garrison Starr is on MP3.com with the material from her entirely new EP. Having already heard most of the songs over a year ago in concert, i can vouch for the fact that the disc will be as mind-shattering as her first one. Listen now!
by krisis
Rock on! – someone’s been keeping tabs on patti rothberg while she floats endlessly between albums. If she’d ever get her nearly completed record on the shelves it would make my top10 for sure…
by krisis
Having just tiraded about music for a while, here are the discs that are looking to appear on my 2000top10 list. Keep in mind Pj Harvey is releasing a disc next week, and that last year’s favourite came out November 16th. Here we go, in a slightly biased order… Peter Mulvey the trouble with poets, Aimee Mann Bachelor No.2, Victoria Williams Water To Drink, Veruca Salt Resolver, Juliana Hatfield Beautiful Creature, Elastica The Menace, Tracy Bonham Down Here, Madonna Music, …. and i’m sure i’ll be adding a few more in the weeks to come as i pick up the discs i missed. If you know that i totally skipped over something worthy, point it out, by all means. I mean, i would have never bought Beautiful Creature (it was a donation to my collection from the promo bin at the phila. weekly) and it is definitely going to make my list, so i obviously could have missed out on some other good discs. And, no, i didn’t really like Belle & Sebastian’s. And, yes, i still have to buy Elliot Smith’s. Okay.
by krisis
People who review music are interesting creatures. Do we listen to them because they offer us unique and informed insight into artists we both love and have never heard of? Or, do we enjoy their outrageous opinions and biases? Obviously the answer is a little of both. Some reviewers are so immersed in a love of music that they cannot give a bad review. Should any true musical effort get a bad review? Here i’m obviously differentiating between thoughtless or overly-produced music that one often finds on the radio and the totally opposite effortless or carefully assembled music that most people would consider as art. As much as i hate the new Radiohead, and though i might give it less than two stars if i were to review it for the paper, the review itself would doubtlessly offer many positives about the album so that people who liked those facets of it would know to buy it.
That, of course, is why album ratings are arbitrary; are they personal opinion or objective rankings? I found myself battling over such thoughts earlier while i was commenting on Nelly Furtado. While there are only a few tracks on her disc that i enjoy, a quick read through Amazon.com‘s reviews pointed out to me the many aspects of her disc that my ears weren’t open to. After several revisions, my review sounds like it should be nearly four stars, but i plan to submit it as a two star review on monday. Obviously i intend for people to glance at the rating and then read the article, because the rating is probably only applicable if they share an overwhelming overlap in musical taste with me. And, god help them if they do…