Hmm, the format of FACT magazine’s new singles review feature looks a bit familiar. Pretty sure TSJ didn’t come up with the roundtable review format but still, uhh.
shenanigans
Thought this was TSJ at first and was eager to go see what they thought of the new Ciara song, then realized I didn’t recognize any of the names as being TSJ regulars.
Ugh. We don’t get to Body Party until later this week. HOW ARE WE SCHEDULING THINGS I DON’T UNDERSTAND.
Historical Genealogy Note!
The first roundtable-marks out of 10 format thing I know of was Scott Woods’ Radio On zine (which I heard of via a WIRE Magazine review maybe?) (and Radio On might have spun out of a feature in a Frank Kogan zine). Then I nicked that idea for the “Pop Music Focus Group” feature* on Freaky Trigger and then - IIRC - William Swygart brought the format to its finest level of accomplishment** in TSJ.
*whose main embellishment is that the songs were being rated in real time by a group in actual physical space. With booze. This works excellently in all ways other than getting thought-through critical opinions.
**as far as I know! I love the format so if anyone else has used it well let me know.
Important clarification: I was in Radio On from the start (in the beginning, there was two, or maybe it was three), but it wasn’t my brainchild, it was Phil Dellio’s. Phil, far as I knew, had heard of but had never seen Why Music Sucks at that point, though I had. Anyway—the credit ain’t mine, but it sure was the funnest magazine in the world to be a part of (which, if you know anything about me, didn’t prevent me from getting morose about the situation regardless) .
Shadow Morton, Ellie Greenwich & Jeff Barry.
R.I.P. Shadow, one of the greatest, especially for such a relatively small body of work (four or five of the best Shangri-Las tunes walk all over so many other drawn-out careers… And then there’s that second Dolls LP).
Tina Weymouth, Talking Heads, Heatwave Festival, Bowmanville, Ontario 1980. Photo by Paul Ruta
That’s the moon rising behind Tina Weymouth.
Still the greatest concert I’ve ever seen.
“Genius” — Perfect word when applied well to an event, an idea, a move. Lump of hard clay when it’s applied to a person.
A Roxette Pazz & Jop-placing single (#604!) from 2011. No idea if it’s any good or not, but clearly, these people haven’t lost their way with excellent titles.
Of not minor interest to me in the 2012 Pazz & Jop singles poll is the fact that five songs have something to do with the theme of radio. If I ever wrap up (not to mention go public with) the radio-oriented project I’ve been working on for, oh, two years now, it will be evident as to why.
My immediate thoughts, however: oh shit. More stuff.
(This, btw, is not said project, but may serve as a sort of index to it all.)
Not enough Roxy in the music, but the tux is terrific.
This is so awesome.
If you visit this Tumblr in 2013, you can mostly just expect more stuff like this.
My personal sleeper hit of 2012, in much the way that “Moves Like Jagger” was my personal sleeper hit of 2011.
The Elephant Man (1980) directed by David Lynch.
People are frightened by what they don’t understand.
That’s pretty much my hands, too.
