Of course, you could simply listen to the podcast below for less talk and more rock. In fact, one person even claims that it is the BEST punk podcast. And if you can't trust some stranger on the internet, who can you trust?
Showing posts with label Sic Alps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sic Alps. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 06, 2013
The Unblinking Ear Podcast 7/26/13
Do you enjoy this podcast but wish it consisted of more of my blathering and less music? You say you wouldn't wish that on your worst enemy? Well if you change your mind and want your enemy to truly suffer than click on over to this week's Jaded Punk Hatecast where I appear as their first and perhaps only guest who has never heard Lagwagon but has heard Henry Cow. We discuss the finer points of what qualifies one for meaningless genre label and other subjects of even less relevance.
Of course, you could simply listen to the podcast below for less talk and more rock. In fact, one person even claims that it is the BEST punk podcast. And if you can't trust some stranger on the internet, who can you trust?
Of course, you could simply listen to the podcast below for less talk and more rock. In fact, one person even claims that it is the BEST punk podcast. And if you can't trust some stranger on the internet, who can you trust?
Thursday, November 08, 2012
The Unblinking Ear Podcast 11/8/12
As some of you may know, I've resided for most of my life in New York City's least populated borough, Staten Island. While I was lucky enough to be barely impacted, Hurricane Sandy devastated a good portion of the island:
Being that this is my first post-Sandy podcast, as you're listening, please take the time to donate to Staten Island recovery efforts. The unfortunate general consensus is that the Red Cross is doing very little to help but I've been told that The Tunnel To Towers Foundation and The Carl V. Bini Memorial Fund are both excellent organizations with efforts going directly to help Staten Island families. Staten Island Recovers is run by some of the same people behind the Occupy movement. While it doesn't seem to be accepting monetary donations, it's a great place to start if you'd like to get involved locally.
WFMU, another place near and dear to my heart, also suffered from Sandy and have extended their October silent marathon to help pay for damages. Read about it here.
Staten Island and WFMU thank you. And so do I.
Being that this is my first post-Sandy podcast, as you're listening, please take the time to donate to Staten Island recovery efforts. The unfortunate general consensus is that the Red Cross is doing very little to help but I've been told that The Tunnel To Towers Foundation and The Carl V. Bini Memorial Fund are both excellent organizations with efforts going directly to help Staten Island families. Staten Island Recovers is run by some of the same people behind the Occupy movement. While it doesn't seem to be accepting monetary donations, it's a great place to start if you'd like to get involved locally.
WFMU, another place near and dear to my heart, also suffered from Sandy and have extended their October silent marathon to help pay for damages. Read about it here.
Staten Island and WFMU thank you. And so do I.
Monday, January 24, 2011
The Unblinking Ear Podcast: Hermitude
(Above: The view outside my apartment.)
Doing this podcast on a weekly basis works out fairly well when I decide I'm not going to leave my apartment for an entire weekend.
Download the latest The Unblinking Ear Podcast
Or Subscribe via iTunes
This is not due to some isolationist/perfectionist impulse but rather because it's 20 degrees colder than it should be for any living thing it exist here in New York City.
However, if you listen to this podcast and come to the conclusion that I put a lot of extra time into it, feel free to continue to think that.
Download the latest The Unblinking Ear Podcast
Or Subscribe via iTunes
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
If I have my nose turned in the air...
...it's only because I'd rather not look you in the eye.
As the Staten Island Advance has seen fit to remind me, I'm have sometimes described myself as a snob when it comes to the rock stuff. Of course, I've been called a snob many times before I started calling myself one. The first instance was probably during my teen years when a classmate vehemently called me a snob for saying that Unrest was better than Pennywise. (I'm not sure if history has proven me right on that one.) It's happened recently as well. The editor of A New Nuance chided me as a snob for not particularly looking forward to the second Arcade Fire record and saying that I found Clap Your Hands Say Yeah as "dull as dishwater." (In case you don't remember, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah was a band briefly popular in 2005.)
Using the historically tested method in identity politics of turning a negative into a positive, I decided to adopt the word for myself thus negating its derogatory power. (i.e. "Snob" is my N-word.)
What's fascinating to me is how well it's worked. Almost too well. When people call me a snob, it's a pejorative. When I call my self one, I'm self-aggrandizing even if I mean it in a tongue in cheek, self-effacing way.
When I tell a friend I don't enjoy a particular artist he or she likes, I'll follow it up with "But I'm snob, so, you know..." I don't mean this to imply that I have better taste than anyone else and can't be bothered with your inferior myopic nonsense. I mean that I have a huge personality defect that makes me very particular and judgmental about music generally made with guitars so heed not and listen to what you like.
A similar point was made in this week's Popless column over at the Onion AV Club. Noel Murray writes:
I've often wondered the same thing. Why do people get so apologetic for liking Justin Timberlake or Amy Winehouse or even the Killers? They sell millions and millions of records! Tons of people like them! I'm the one who likes the wacky fringe shit! I should be apologizing for contemplating if if the Disco Zombies song "Drums Over London" is racist or simply sung in character. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, that's exactly my point.)
For all these reasons I've decided that I need stop referring to myself as a "rock snob." (Also because the other "self-described music snob" in the AWE piece likes these guys thus proving the term totally ineffectual at conveying my personal taste.)
I may have to go on a little hiatus from this blog until I come up with a better term to describe what kind of music I cover here. (And not because I'm going to be really busy with work and other things for the next week or so). The best I can come up with so far is "dumb smart guy rock." Can you do any better? Please share.
Speaking of "dumb smart guy rock" I was lucky enough to catch Thee Oh Sees and Sic Alps at Brooklyn's favorite illegal performance space/sauna on Sunday night. So good were they, I briefly forgot about the awful, stomach-turning events of that afternoon. Their respective 2008 releases, The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In and US EZ, are highly recommended.
Also highly recommended for those in the New York City area is the Tyvek/Thomas Function show at Cakeshop this Friday, October 3rd. This marks the first time that two of the bands from this blog's "Make This Band Your Myspace Friend" feature have played together in New York. (Especially noteworthy since I've only done the feature 4 times.) Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it as I'll be attending a wedding but don't let that stop you from going. In fact, you might have a better time without my presence. I can be a bit of a snob from what I hear.
As the Staten Island Advance has seen fit to remind me, I'm have sometimes described myself as a snob when it comes to the rock stuff. Of course, I've been called a snob many times before I started calling myself one. The first instance was probably during my teen years when a classmate vehemently called me a snob for saying that Unrest was better than Pennywise. (I'm not sure if history has proven me right on that one.) It's happened recently as well. The editor of A New Nuance chided me as a snob for not particularly looking forward to the second Arcade Fire record and saying that I found Clap Your Hands Say Yeah as "dull as dishwater." (In case you don't remember, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah was a band briefly popular in 2005.)
Using the historically tested method in identity politics of turning a negative into a positive, I decided to adopt the word for myself thus negating its derogatory power. (i.e. "Snob" is my N-word.)
What's fascinating to me is how well it's worked. Almost too well. When people call me a snob, it's a pejorative. When I call my self one, I'm self-aggrandizing even if I mean it in a tongue in cheek, self-effacing way.
When I tell a friend I don't enjoy a particular artist he or she likes, I'll follow it up with "But I'm snob, so, you know..." I don't mean this to imply that I have better taste than anyone else and can't be bothered with your inferior myopic nonsense. I mean that I have a huge personality defect that makes me very particular and judgmental about music generally made with guitars so heed not and listen to what you like.
A similar point was made in this week's Popless column over at the Onion AV Club. Noel Murray writes:
It's odd how defensive people get when they mention certain bands or movies, like, "I know people will jump on me for this, but I really like Groundhog Day," or "I hate to admit it, but The Bee Gees have some good songs." There's an assumption being made, that the world at large has agreed that some things are meant to be taken seriously, while others are "guilty pleasures" (or just plain "suck").(For the record, Groundhog Day is a great film and the Bee Gees have some outstanding songs, particularly on their first few albums. However, the band Murray mainly uses to illustrate his point in the introductory essay is Steely Dan, who are awful. But that's neither here nor there.)
I've often wondered the same thing. Why do people get so apologetic for liking Justin Timberlake or Amy Winehouse or even the Killers? They sell millions and millions of records! Tons of people like them! I'm the one who likes the wacky fringe shit! I should be apologizing for contemplating if if the Disco Zombies song "Drums Over London" is racist or simply sung in character. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, that's exactly my point.)
For all these reasons I've decided that I need stop referring to myself as a "rock snob." (Also because the other "self-described music snob" in the AWE piece likes these guys thus proving the term totally ineffectual at conveying my personal taste.)
I may have to go on a little hiatus from this blog until I come up with a better term to describe what kind of music I cover here. (And not because I'm going to be really busy with work and other things for the next week or so). The best I can come up with so far is "dumb smart guy rock." Can you do any better? Please share.
Speaking of "dumb smart guy rock" I was lucky enough to catch Thee Oh Sees and Sic Alps at Brooklyn's favorite illegal performance space/sauna on Sunday night. So good were they, I briefly forgot about the awful, stomach-turning events of that afternoon. Their respective 2008 releases, The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In and US EZ, are highly recommended.
Also highly recommended for those in the New York City area is the Tyvek/Thomas Function show at Cakeshop this Friday, October 3rd. This marks the first time that two of the bands from this blog's "Make This Band Your Myspace Friend" feature have played together in New York. (Especially noteworthy since I've only done the feature 4 times.) Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it as I'll be attending a wedding but don't let that stop you from going. In fact, you might have a better time without my presence. I can be a bit of a snob from what I hear.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
The Unblinking Ear Podcast: Don't Cross the Streams
Thanks to some good advice from a very nice fellow, I can now stream my podcasts right here on the blog, thus saving you, dear reader, the trouble of multiple clicks on your mouse and perhaps even carpal tunnel syndrome. I wouldn't recommend playing more than one simultaneously however. It may not result in all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't sound very good.
Download The Unblinking Ear Podcast
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)