7 Random (And Mostly) Musical Observations To End The Summer

1. Well, it ended over two weeks ago, but Jim DeRogatis is still hammering away at Lollapalooza. (I think he has officially reached "curmudgeon" status.) He is now calling it...wait for it..."Wal-Mart on the Lake." Well done. I grew up in a town of 16,000, and had no idea all those years I was going to a "Lollapalooza by the Burger King" to buy socks. Maybe Lincoln, Illinois, is more hip than I ever knew.

2. Walking around DC, I have seen a lot of these "Michael Jackson: August 29, 2008 - June 25, 2009" memorial t-shirts. Has anyone else noticed that MJ's picture on these shirts is usually circa 1984, and not circa 2003? Wonder why that could be? Hey, speaking of which...

3. ...the night he died, I decided out of all the possible tributes that seemed to be everywhere, I would watch whatever MTV had whipped up. Seemed fiiting, right? Problem is, I realized at that moment I had no idea what channel MTV was on. I was going to search my DirecTV guide but then realized I didn't really care and just watched CNN. That's how far MTV has fallen. And it has been that way for awhile. I guess it doesn't really matter, Youtube has essentially rendered MTV obsolete anyway.

4. Pitchfork recently unveiled what they considered to be the top 500 tracks of the 2000s. Numbers 500-200 are worth a skim, 199-21 can be read if you have time, and check out their top 20 because I thought they were pretty solid. Later this week, I'll post what I think are the top 10 or so songs of this decade. (Yes, hold on to your butts.)

5. Staying on Pitchfork, the Lala add-on to their revamped site is fantastic. Today, as I was reading Joe Tangari's review of the Arctic Monkeys' new album Humbug, I utilized the Lala play feature along the way and thought to myself, "Tangari is exactly right. The song 'Potion Approaching' DOES in fact opt for Zeppelin-ish start-stop passages that read just like 'Achilles Last Stand' but recast as a Britpop tune before shifting completely into a seesawing, almost mild-like psychedelic mid-section." I couldn't have written it better myself. (Honestly, I couldn't have, album reviews are harder than they seem. I think I would rather tell an Aristocrats joke at someone's wake than have to write album reviews for a living.) And still staying on Pitchfork...

6. ...I don't feel all that comfortable making light of this, since it is for charity, but I had to laugh when I read this story about an ebay auction for a shirt designed by Jeff Mangum. (For what it's worth, I'm not laughing at the charity, I am laughing at Ryan Dombal's c-jerk write-up.) Last I saw, the highest bid for the shirt was $305, with the proceeds going to help homeless children in Mongolia. And if a t-shirt that didn't look like it would survive more than three or four cycles in the wash just wasn't your thing, you also could have bid on a vinyl copy of Neutral Milk Hotel's first album On Avery Island. Oh, but that wasn't all! What if I were to tell you that the record was autographed by Mangum, and (AND!!!) even had his thumbprint?! Might that be something you would have been interested in? Of course it would! The highest bid I saw was $164.27 and that was with nine hours to go. But sorry, the bidding is over. (Why was the autographed record going for so much less than the t-shirt?) And I know that the homeless problem in Mongolia is a pretty serious issue today for most Americans, so if you missed out on the auction, please check out this link. (Okay, maybe I am sort of making fun of the charity, and that makes me feel like a jerk. So honestly, click on that link, you'll learn some pretty interesting facts about homeless children in Mongolia. For starters, it appears Richard Gere may or may not be one of them.)

7. Two things help heal the wounds of a disappearing summer. The beginning of football season (for all of us Bears fans, I must say, it's gonna be a good year, I can just tell), and fall concerts. For whatever reason, September and October just always seem to be stock-full with great shows. This was definitely true in Chicago, and it's still true in DC. I'm not sure if every band is trying to get one last tour in before winter rolls around, or if they're just looking to have a return to normalcy after a summer of music festivals, but my fall is pretty much booked and I am not complaining. So if you happen to live near a music venue, be sure to check out the schedule. Your favorite band is probably stopping by soon.

--Alex

8 Random (And Mostly) Musical Observations To Kick Off The Summer

1. I am currently typing this on my laptop at Union Park in Chicago. I decided to show up a month-and-a-half early for the 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival to squat my area near the stage for Fucked Up’s set. Is there any possible chance that won’t be the best hour of the festival? No, there isn’t. And that’s with a fantastic lineup, too. Good job, Pitchfork. Hey, speaking of which…

2. …this particular article on Pitchfork reporting that Kim Gordon criticized Radiohead’s pay-what-you-want scheme for In Rainbows made me laugh. Well, at least this sniveling line from staff writer Ryan Dombal did:

“Please don't make us choose between Radiohead and Sonic Youth!”

Jesus. By the way, I kind of agree with most of what Gordon says, but look how the same Ryan Dombal handled the story when Robert Smith of the Cure said essentially the same thing about In Rainbows. No, they don’t play favorites. I love it when two of their favored artists get in a spat. I remember when David Berman of the Silver Jews said not nice things about Radiohead, and Pitchfork reacted like a scared nine-year-old boy hiding in his basement listening to his parents fight and just praying that it would all end soon. Good stuff. Also, on an almost completely unrelated note, I don’t know why, but it really bothers me how Pitchfork reviews always have a comma outside of the quotation marks for a song title. For example, look at how they used the comma after the song “Champions” from their recent review of Mos Def’s latest, The Estatic:

“…aside from the aforementioned Oh No and Madlib contributions, "Life in Marvelous Times" recycles Mr. Flash's beat for "Champions", his collaboration with French rappers TTC…”

Come on, how do you screw that up? Pitchfork is the best and most influential independent music site on the web, but at the end of the day, they’re still the Chicago Manual of Style’s bitch.

3. Former NBA journeyman, Paul Shirley, has a great column on ESPN.com where he writes rather generally about rock music. I especially enjoyed this particular column. For whatever reason, I’d rather read about music from a non-music guy like Shirley than from the likes of David Fricke or Ryan Schreiber any day of the week. Good writing, non-music guys are more relatable and readable than 90% of good writing critics who actually have a background in music or music journalism. Just my opinion. Also note that Shirley is 6’10, which means there are a lot of angry people standing behind him at concerts. Hey, speaking of which…

4. …he may have been standing just to my right at the Hold Steady concert this past Sunday night at the 9:30 Club. I was there with my brother and we were standing in the highest part of the balcony and there was a guy on the row below us who was still blocking a bit of my view. And I’m about 6’1 so it’s not as though I am small. It was fine though, he was only shielding me from Tad Kubler, and the show was amazing as expected. I told my friend Val that it may have been the best sounding Hold Steady show I have ever seen. She reminded me that I say that after every Hold Steady show I go to. What she doesn’t know is this time I meant it. When they came out for the encore, they played a cover of Minutemen’s “History Lesson – Part II.” It was a bit sloppy as Craig Finn tried to mix in lyrics that related to him and the Hold Steady, but we all loved it anyway.

5. It looks as though the Smashing Pumpkins have found a 19-year-old drummer to replace Jimmy Chamberlin. (Searching for something to say.)

6. I have almost finished reading Chuck Klosterman’s first novel Downtown Owl. If you’re a fan of Klosterman, you’ll probably enjoy this book, although not as much as his non-fiction material. (For me, it has been well worth the read for this line on page 184 alone: “People said Koombah looked like Rollie Fingers without the handlebar mustache. This meant he didn’t look like anyone.” Every other sentence could have been utter nonsense and I would have felt like I got my money’s worth for that line alone.) If you don’t like Klosterman, don’t bother. If you have never read Klosterman, start with Fargo Rock City and maybe work your way to Downtown Owl.

7. If Phil Spector being acquitted of a murder he obviously committed would have saved me from seeing this picture, I would have been all for it. And if I'm Dobby from the Harry Potter books, I sue.

8. And finally, Jack, we’re sorry for stealing your picture of Bry Webb from the Constantines. Please forgive us. It (probably) won't happen again.

--Alex