Music Links Du Jour

These links have been making the rounds on lots of blogs lately, but since I definitely go through long periods of being out of the music loop because I’ve disappeared down some other rabbit hole of obsession (more on this in a future post if I decide I’m not too embarrassed to write it), I figured I’d put them here too in case any of you happen to be like me.

Also, I know my recent posts have been nothing but photos, and although I’m really happy with how my photography’s been going I think I should remind myself that it is also good to write words.

  • Pitchfork Reviews Reviews: Where has this blog been all my life?! Here’s the rationale for the blog, and a sample post I particularly enjoyed. I’m sure it has much better posts, but having only discovered it yesterday I have not gone through its entire archives. Yet.
  • Kanye West: Project Runaway: The unfortunately-named Noah Callahan-Bever writes about getting invited to Hawaii to spend a week watching Kanye make My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. At the bit where he describes the trip as settling “into a fairly routine pattern, if by ‘fairly routine’ you mean ‘a succession of both magical and mundane moments starring the musicians who defined your adolescence alongside the most exciting artists of today’,” I would suggest you open Microsoft Paint, create a blank canvas and fill it with green. Ta da, you now have a photo of me as I was reading this article.
  • Various music journos write about their “comfort albums” at Capital: There’s something about the premise of this that has innate appeal to any music nerd, and where I think the feature especially succeeds is in the breadth of music represented (though I will admit to being not quite metal enough to find Death’s The Sound Of Perseverance comforting).
  • Whatever Happened To Alternative Nation?: A well-written ongoing series on 90s alt-rock. If the navel-gaziness of Part 1 annoys you, go straight to Part 2 to be entertained by the feuding between Nirvana and GNR. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every part of the series so far even though it takes a while (Parts 4 and 5) to my favourite bands of that genre (Smashing Pumpkins and Soundgarden). Highly, highly recommended reading if you ever enjoyed any of the music.