MY BLOG IS LIKE THE INTERNET... FOR LUDDITES

Sorry, it must still be the CR talking. Thank you for the unexpected support, unexpectedly non-batshit letter writers!

I had him pegged as more of a "Kokomo" guy, but whatever:

"D" is for "delightful," and try and keep your trousers on.
John McCain: Bomb Iran (Beach Boys cover)

A week earlier, ingeniously disingenuous Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan praised McCain for "sound[ing] like a serious man addressing a serious issue in a serious way" (via ThinkProgress).

At the same time, worm-tongued New York Times columnist David "Brooksy" Brooks was suggesting McCain might be "the candidate who is the most substantive, most mature and most consistent," Ezra Klein points out.

Best one-line response: "Just wait until his second term!" (Isaac Chotiner, writing in The New Republic's blog, The Plank)

On a more serious note (McCain's defense: I wuz joking-- WE KNOW! Maybe if you spent more time in a POW camp you'd understand the horror of war, or at least the negative foreign policy implications of acting like a total douche), somehow I only now saw the news of Flying Canyon frontman Cayce Lindner's untimely passing back in February. Sad and pointless. Why didn't you people listen to Flying Canyon's great self-titled album last year? Pitchfork's Brandon Stosuy called it "an erudite haze that foregoes caricature and wardrobe changes in favor of melody, inventive instrumentation, strong songwriting, and an honest, riveting charisma." You can still grab an MP3 of my favorite song from the album, "The Bull Who Knew the Ring," over at Raven Sings the Blues.


Slam your body down and wind it all around.
Los Campesinos!: You! Me! Dancing!
signed, sealed, etc.

Elsewhere: K-Punk interviews Simon Reynolds. Fascinating stuff, but me being me, a quibble: I take issue with (only) one of Reynolds' complaints about rockism, namely, that "any approach that fixates on the song" is contemptible. I like songs, and I like tracks, but from an Arctic Monkeys fan it seems uncharacteristically purblind to suggest liking songs is inherently bad. I suspect he might rephrase this if asked again. It's just as ridiculous to suggest that the song is an inherently awful form as it was for rockists to say the same about dance music, rap, et alia back in olden times. Worse, it's pointlessly elitist: We music critics may have time and the free music to appreciate textures, atmospheres, whatever, but many song-weaned ordinary people don't, and I'm not sure that makes them worthy of Reynolds' contempt. DAMN, REST IN PEACE APOLLO CREED.

At the Times, Nate Chinen reviews David Torn's Joe's Pub show.

PEOPLE IN LOVE LIE AROUND AND GET FAT

Art Brut never wanted us to end up like that. The new songs we haven't heard before are good!

Is everybody supposed to know now what the title to "Rusted Guns of Milan" (fan vid) means? I still honestly don't know that or why "18,000 Lira" is about red brigades and guys named Enrique. Probably a think piece in there on how knowing this information probably couldn't make me love the songs more. Imagine you're reading it.

Side note: We've got a little Deerhunter backlash developing, seems (link #1, link #2). It's like the smart, funny person version of the band's MySpace page! Hmm, just because a few people don't like something doesn't mean everybody else who likes (loves) (gets embarrassingly evangelical about) it is pretending, does it? Eek, or vice versa: my CocoRosie review today on Pitchfork (on an unrelated note, my Crayon Fields review ran today, too-- listen to them here).

Pretending to like stuff gives you warts, which your dad can usually help you get off with some Compound-W, but it's a hassle, and your dad isn't here. I understand there are also some topical treatments for "epidermotropic human papillomavirus", AKA genital warts, AKA not what Howie Day takes Valtrex for. HE LIKES 'EM TOTALLY SHAVED!!!

P.S. Matthew Fluxblog has posted UGK's offnotes-dug "International Players' Anthem" (feat. Outkast) in downloadable form. Yes that means you can download it.

P.P.S. An enlightening interview with skronky jazz-fusion guitarist David Torn, whose "tones and textures" you probably heard in The Departed (and whose new album, Prezens, is pretty stupendous).