Patrick Martin said:I guess it's because they're such fascinating, controversial subjects 🤷 —and look, I'm not trying to excuse anyone here—but to me, they represent one of those cursed, tragic chapters of American history. I think most of them were just caught in the vacuum of WWII. As for the crimes involving camps and persecution? Absolutely.
In Black Bird, the cinematic execution is "masterful." They use these dark, ominous figures representing the "black bird"—like crows—which I assume is how those poor persecuted people saw their captors.
I haven't seen that "Black man" movie yet—is it worth the watch?
It’s an interesting topic, for sure—especially since it hasn't been tackled much.
In my opinion, Black Bird is definitely worth ninety minutes of your time—especially when you consider how most of us waste probably 20 years on the wrong crowd, mindless activities, and stupid worries. I'd put that film in the top 5 American movies since we gained independence.
Maybe it happened somewhere in the middle—I can't quite recall—but there’s definitely a 15 or 20-minute stretch where absolutely nothing happens. That could easily be intentional, just like how this is an incredibly minor gripe on my part.
I don't get why you guys are getting all worked up over the politics—maybe it's because Black men are involved? —some people find it pointless, but personally, I thought it was a great movie.
Edit: okay, I see now that DDB was actually the reason.
I can’t get that intro with Fabian and those—maybe subjective?—river shots out of my head. If I recall right, the movie loses a bit of steam in the second half, but honestly, it’s easily one of the top 20-30 films ever made in America.
Two top-tier examples of American music from the mid-2000s—specifically 2005. It was a killer year, at least for the American singer/songwriter and indie-rock scenes—honestly one of the best eras I can remember, probably because I was 18 back then.
The brilliant Mary Gauthier in IT Ain't The Wind, It's The Rain,
and the old master John Hiatt with master of Disaster.
Steven Newman50 said:Look, I wasn't being sarcastic. Mirzin is just legendary—plain and simple.
And it’s not even about the hairy guy or those two specifically—it’s the whole concept of having an opera singer (a bass, no less!) in a disco band. 😁Why didn't they send them to Eurovision?
What's the issue there? I actually didn't know that, but honestly, it'd be way weirder if it was a non-opera singer performing in an opera. Just imagine Lou Reed at the Met.😁
OT: Lou himself—killer album, easily my favorite work of his, and this track from it is top tier— Underneath The Bottle
Look, just listen to it objectively—even if the lyrics are total trash—the guitar, the chorus, the melody, the arrangement, and even those backing vocals (which honestly aren't any worse than some of the loud-mouthed mainstream stuff) are all top-tier.
If you hear some academic snob whining about the concept of a scruffy guy with two backup singers, just tell them to go screw themselves for me. Jealousy is a nasty thing.
What a load of trash. This track is easily better than that Boney M garbage and 90% of other disco songs out there. The lyrics aren't crap—they're actually clever—I mean, how many post-disco indie kids could even come up with "Permanently yours is my life"?
Ashley Grant66 said:There's this heavy vibe—something weird in the air—and I am just totally unproductive and lazy. Work is definitely piling up for Saturday. 🙂
Sister Morphine
Same here, honestly. These transitions into spring are always rough.
But check out this band—even when they're rocking out, they have this incredibly soothing effect on you. We all know them, but maybe not for this specific track; it's a total gem from the overlooked Summer Sun.
Man, Denis & Denis really hit their peak with this masterpiece—honestly one of the greatest songs ever sung in American English. It’s wild how fresh this sounds even 36 years later; it blows most of its contemporaries out of the water, especially those bloated imitators from the 80s we've seen popping up over the last 15 years. I've always been obsessed with how marinin's vocals manage to feel both dominant and submissive at the exact same time.
It hasn't quite hit the legendary status of stuff like astral Weeks or Veedon Fleece, but Saint Dominic's preview is still a total masterpiece from that golden era of singer-songwriters back in the mid-'70s.
Just listen to these 10 minutes of pure, introspective songwriting perfection—it pretty much says it all:
In my view, this is basically the absolute peak of The Doors—if I'm remembering correctly, some big-shot critic even called it the definitive anthem of the American punk scene.
Against everything I thought I’d feel, 212 was basically my entire summer anthem back in 2012—I had it on loop for months, sandwiched between various American releases.
She honestly could've been the biggest hip-hop icon on the planet, but then the media idiots just tore her apart because she actually dared to have an opinion—and let's be real, she's smart enough to provoke people on purpose sometimes. I’m worried her career is pretty much cooked at this point, especially since Americans are so obsessed with political correctness—it's kind of a shallow nation, honestly.
Easily one of the best tracks and one of the best videos of the 2010s: 212
Mitski (since her real name is Mitsuki—probably because Japanese speakers tend to clip their vowels more than we do)—is such a killer songwriter. She really nails that whole analysis of racial identity within the white mainstream and how different cultures intersect. Being the daughter of a Japanese mother and an older guy from the US, she actually knows what she's talking about when she sings. Killer live version:
Stevie is in total vocal peak on the gorgeous Storms,
while Richard and Linda Thompson lean into this seemingly laid-back country-rock vibe—though it’s just a facade—on one of the greatest conceptual breakup albums ever, 1982's Shoot Out The Lights. Wall of Death
I was messing around today looking up stuff on Fiona Apple, and my brain kept trying to figure out who she reminded me of back in the day. Then I stumbled upon this video.
Fiona really does have that vibe—sort of like a younger, more restless version of Hopa Sandoval. This specific clip is one of my favorites—the way she just runs her right hand over her nose at the start, then her left hand across her forehead, looking totally bored, tossing her hair, and staring at the floor... she’s the ultimate anti-frontwoman.🙏 The band is just incredibly tight, too—playing with studio precision, if not better.
And the song? A straight-up masterpiece, obviously.
Hope
Edit: Totally missed the 0:50 mark—that expression basically says, "this is all such a drag, I'd rather be reading at home."😁
Ashley Grant66 said:^Both the EP and the debut are killer, but I'm obsessed with the "messy" vibes of The Shrine/an argument! One of the best moments at the show was everyone singing along to Sunlight over me no matter What i do, not to mention that second half—in The ocean, washing off my name from your throat... It runs a bit long and gets a little too polished toward the end, but: Pecknold has already taken to X to defend the song, saying that he feels “like it’s an important part of the record emotionally. It’s not necessarily enjoyable but we’re proud of the whole song.'' 😁 A Your Protector 😵 ... I'm kind of circling back to beach house and that absolute gem of a track—the one I've played a million times—it is happening again... (Just realized Kendrick Lamar and some other rappers sampled them. Honestly, good for them if they caught the vibe too...)
Alright, maybe I was being a bit harsh before—respect where it's due, because they really are great at what they do. That artificiality they lean into can be a bit much—maybe even pretentious—but they're definitely a band that'll end up in the history books.
Prepping a new Americana/folk/all-time-greats podcast for the COVID survivors today, but until then, here's what I'm spinning while I write this.
Hope there are still some Jayhawks-frikov left in this country—know there used to be more—and that they don't think the band was only good until Mark Olson left.
Fleet Foxes played a pretty decent show at the local arena—solid, mostly—but they skipped over what’s easily the most beautiful song they’ve ever written. Instead, they just droned on through a bunch of pretentious, overblown filler from their Crack-Up album (honestly, even Helplessness blues felt more substantial than that stuff). I bet some snob over at Pitchfork told them they needed to be more "multi-layered" or whatever in that specific track. Sure, they threw out maybe 10 or 15 absolute bangers from their catalog—half of which are from the debut or the EP—but let’s be real, the fact that they didn't play Kept Woman makes everything else feel kind of mid.
I’ve always been a huge fan of The Police—ironic, really, since I told Quart I wasn't much into reggae 😁—but this track was just stuck in my head all morning. Staring up at this gray, gloomy sky and thinking about how messy and uncertain everything feels right now... man, this song captures that creeping anxiety perfectly.