Also not recommended: Biggie - "Juicy", Jeru - "Come Clean", Royce - "Boom", Dre - "Xxplosive", OutKast - "Bombs Over Baghdad", etc.
Greg Scarth (link) (e-mail)
- - -

Clear Channel's List of Songs With Objectionable Lyrics: A response to the events of September 11 focuses on the lyrics of 150 or so radio standards, including "all songs by Rage Against the Machine." Lyric-broadcasting in times like this, where sensitivities are a bit higher than usual, is definitely a delicate balancing act—I had more than a few "is this okay?" moments during a radio program I hosted on Saturday —but on the flip side, I've been listening to the Temple of the Dog album all week (it kicks off with the currently blacklisted "Say Hello 2 Heaven"), and it's been one of the few calming popcultural artifacts in my orbit. It's the crassly stitched-together "disaster specials" (AC staples like Don Henley's "New York Minute" or C. Dion's "My Bleeding Heart Will Forever And Ever Go On, Even Though I Claim To Have Retired" with special news footage layered over the instrumental bits) that are completely abhorrent, capitalizing on last week's events through emotion-jerking that can be teased as "lighting up the phone lines and coming up after "Alone" by Heart," or squeezed between the traffic report and (the not banned!) "Let Me Blow Your Mind."
maura johnston (link) (e-mail)
- - -

Mike Ladd: Welcome to the Afterfuture: Ethan P. takes time out from baiting regulars on ILM and ILE and crosses the tracks to write for Pitchfork. It doesn't read like a typical Pitchfork review, either, more like a swearier version of Hua Hsu's impenetrable-but-exciting hip-hop writing for The Wire (right down to the token quotation of some 'dense flow' or other). Which is good, even if I'm no nearer guessing what Mike Ladd's music sounds like.
Tom Ewing (link) (e-mail)
- - -

Friday, September 14, 2001

Arvo Pärt's "Cantus" is the subject of the latest Freaky Trigger update. Regular FT service next week.
Ned Raggett (link) (e-mail)
- - -

Thursday, September 13, 2001

BJÖRK - "Hidden Place"

Everyone has a private area, be it physical or metaphorical, that they use a private retreat. I am amazed and astounded that Björk has shared the soundtrack for hers with the world and it sounds so much like the soundtrack for mine.
Dan Perry (link) (e-mail)

- - -

Yahoo! Groups : LondonIndieNYC: a group of London indie people are sorting out a benefit gig for the USA terror attacks - details of venue, time, price and where proceeds will go to TBC but it's happening on October 12th. Join this yahoogroup to be kept informed and please, if you can make it, do. More details and hype to come.
Tom Ewing (link) (e-mail)
- - -

Buy British - American hip hop "losing its lustre". Big and Pac still dead. Hip hop to be toned down by someone (remember "The Message"? "Stop The Violence"?). Blade still quite good. Roots Manuva still writes some shit lyrics ("To my boys that hassle banks like Jimmy Floyd..."). Record companies "don't know how to deal with hip hop". Record buyers will still, when given the choice, buy the record that sounds better rather than the one made in their own country. Guardian music coverage still shit.
Greg Scarth (link) (e-mail)
- - -

Tuesday, September 11, 2001

MORTON FELDMAN – “Why Patterns?”

I've been falling asleep to it for the last few weeks. It's near-random tinkles of glockenspiel, piano and flute. You keep expecting the tinkles to fall into the void, it's so slow and lovely.

At first I thought: this is music for falling snow. Now I will think: this is music for falling ash.
Michael Daddino (link) (e-mail)

- - -

Monday, September 10, 2001

Janelle Brown, "Death of a pop princess in the making": the inevitable "Aaliyah's dead, so what?" articles arrive. The public mourning for Aaliyah seems hyped and manufactured, because, after all, "was her music really that seminal, her message that fresh and genre-busting?" Well...actually, yes, but how odd it is that Ms. Brown is repulsed that people would be willing to sacrifice their autonomous decisions about what matters and what does not to the impersonal authority of the mass media, yet herself argues against Aaliyah's mournworthiness not so much by relying on her own personal tastes but by pleading to the impersonal authority of history.
Michael Daddino (link) (e-mail)
- - -

Sunday, September 09, 2001

Siobhan quits Sugababes!: to be replaced by an ex-member of Atomic Kitten! (NB not Kerry) Say it ain't so! My pop dream is shattered - it's emo for me all the way now, sob! Seriously this is bad news as the Sugababes were individual and interesting at a time when British teenpop needs those qualities, and fond though I am of AK, the choice of an ex-Kitten will not do wonders for the Sugababes' precious cred.
Tom Ewing (link) (e-mail)
- - -

Friday, September 07, 2001

Sven Goran Eriks-song: oh good.
Tom Ewing (link) (e-mail)
- - -

Ally reviews the new Jay-Z -- I apologize if I embarass her or something, but in my utterly unhumble and perfectly right opinion, Ms. Bitchcakes is one of Thee Best Writers Around, Mang, and this is a prime example as to why. It doesn't hurt that I think her review is completely and totally spot on -- an amazing, amazing album, that's The Blueprint. "H to the Izzo" is merely the tip of the iceberg, a mere taster.
Ned Raggett (link) (e-mail)
- - -