Internet Roundup

On Thought Catalog, Caroline Washington has a nuanced and hilarious rundown of 5 Artists You Should Never Listen To At Work. I’m fortunate enough to have a job where I can listen to music and while I have a somewhat different list (notably Andrew WK, DJ Shadow, Goldfrapp, M.I.A., and almost any band Mike Ladd was in); I totally see where Washington is coming from. If you can listen to music at work, are there any artists that you like but put you in a difficult state while you work?

Flashing back to the mid/late 90s, Fluxblog has a couple of old songs by the “emo before they was emo” alternative band Sebadoh. I first heard the band through a Sub Pop label sampler I got in the mail when I registered my Sega Saturn. I thought “Rebound” was pretty damn catchy, and singer Lou Barlow’s voice was low and kind of like “melodic talking,” so it was great for someone like me to sing along to. I was 13 when I received Sebadoh’s Harmacy album as a gift one holiday, and it was right at the time when I started having crushes on people. I had no idea what I was doing romantically and in time I built up this whole “obsessive tortured soul” persona. When I look back I realize I was totally acting like a “nice guy,” and not in a good way. Matthew Perpetua puts it best: “Their music is a catharsis for unflattering feelings — pettiness, jealousy, neediness, foolishness and passive aggression. These are valid feelings, but…ugh, you know?” I still love the music and I still have a good time singing along to Barlow’s thin bass of a voice, but there’s a distance now for me that’s come with experience.

Finally in Idol news, Andrew Unterberger at Popdust has a rundown of the aftermath of Pia Toscano’s elimination from the show last week. Surprise, surprise, she signed a record deal with Jimmy Iovine’s Interscope (though getting signed does not always mean getting paid). Also, the collective shock uttered from the Internet (including me), has executive producer Nigel Lythgoe talking about yet another format change to the show – this time with the bottom three elimination being decided by the judges a la So You Think You Can Dance, Lythgoe’s other show. This seems cool at first, but then I think about it: Randy would squash any interesting contestant, J. Lo would put the cute kids though, and Steven Tyler would be alternately a dirty old man and a pitch stickler (never mind Expert mode on Rock Band vocals would likely maul his ass).

Internet Roundup

Popdust has a rundown of the Juno awards, which is the big music awards show in Canada. Drake was the host! Arcade Fire took home several of the big awards, including Album Of The Year, but lost the Artist Of The Year award to Neil Young. Justin Bieber won the Fan Choice award. Deadmau5 lost the Electronic Album Of The Year award to Caribou, but took home the Dance Recording Of The Year.

Meanwhile Hard Candy has posted a new DJ mix by Aeroplane. I don’t normally care for that “Balearic Beat,” but Aeroplane’s remixes of Chromeo’s “Don’t Turn The Lights On” and The Human League’s “Never Let Me Go” were pretty damn catchy. The 12-track mix features songs and remixes from French House vets Etienne De Crecy and Alex Gopher, up and coming power diva Clare Maguire, and remix band The Swiss (who are actually from Australia).

Finally in serious matters, I managed to track down an old essay by ESPN columnist and native Detroiter LZ Granderson. Granderson wrote the article in October 2009; about seven months after Chris Brown violently beat Rihanna. Ryan O’Connell expressed a similar sentiment in a piece on Thought Catalog written a few days ago. Read both articles back to back and see how much has changed in 2 years (answer: not a whole lot). Brown is still very violent and never really did any time for domestic assault and yet there’s still a big media push to “welcome him back.”

Internet Roundup: Pop Pop ‘Pocalypse

Chris Randle has a review on Popdust of Jessie J’s performance on SNL. The review says the performance had an “unnerving level of ‘quirky’” which pretty much equated to Kathy’s impression of Jessie J – “British Katy Perry.” Duffy was catchier, Lily Allen was more interesting, Adele was classier, and Joss Stone was more fun.

If you’re looking for something more participatory, Shakesville’s Melissa McEwan poses the question “What Are The Worst Song Lyrics You’ve Ever Heard?” The emphasis is more on poor writing (see above for “Price Tag”) than offensive content, though sometimes those two themes go hand in hand (see Nickelback).

And after a dozen or two comments on the above thread, you’ll see a mention of this fine slice of unintentional comedy, “Friday,” by Rebecca Black. “Friday” is dance pop by the numbers. Vocal processing? Check. Hard 4/4 dance beats with heavy keyboards? Check. A rapper pops up to do the bridge? Check. Josh Liburdi of Thought Catalog has a pretty harsh takedown of what may well be a high-end version or one of those “star in your own video” booths you might find at a mall. It’s just that this song happened to find its way onto YouTube.