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4/14/2010 10:14:56 PM

Have you read "Free Culture" by Larry Lessig?

4/15/2010 12:42:13 AM

what do you think of goodbye, titan?

4/15/2010 1:57:18 AM

Do you like Titus Andronicus (the band not the play)?

4/16/2010 4:48:44 PM

vinylbundtcake

4/16/2010 4:53:03 PM

^^^^ Never read it.

^^^ Never seen them, though I've meant to a number of times.

^^ I fucking love Titus Andronicus. One of my favorite bands working today. I didn't know anything about them until I saw them open for Los Campesinos last year...TA blew them off the stage and I've seen TA three times since then. Both of their records are great. I'll shut up now.

[Edited on April 16, 2010 at 4:55 PM. Reason : froshkill'd]

4/16/2010 4:53:24 PM

Have you ever met anyone who didn't like Graceland? Is it the most most universally likable album ever?

4/16/2010 6:53:02 PM

I have never personally met anyone who didn't like it, but I know of a couple of folks who think it has aged poorly. It's not as universally likable as Pet Sounds.

4/16/2010 6:55:03 PM

What do you think of this cover?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8YFGU6OLMY

And this one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sfgJGFNwww

4/16/2010 6:59:08 PM

Both pointless and awful, especially the first one.

4/16/2010 7:01:13 PM

explain why you feel Selby Jr is "boring"

4/16/2010 7:01:54 PM

He's not boring in the grand scheme, but I got to Burroughs first and Selby just isn't as interesting to me.

4/16/2010 7:04:04 PM

Selby represents a time period and way of life that no other author has captured as accurately. Nor with near as much debate (see London: Last Exit To Brooklyn trials). Selby taught himself to write while in the hospital as a kid with his ribs being removed.

Eventually he was published in a few magazines and later in life he taught as a professor at USC, without ever graduating from HS.


Burroughs is a good author too, but Selby writes in a more realistic/raw style. They were both opiate addicts, but at least Selby had a reason.






[Edited on April 16, 2010 at 7:14 PM. Reason : .]

4/16/2010 7:07:46 PM

Naked Lunch went on trial for obscenity, too...and it's a much better book.

Selby's style isn't more valid just because it's more realistic. On top of that, one needs a reason to be a drug addict?

4/16/2010 7:12:49 PM

Last Exit To Brooklyn is far from Selby's best, it's just the most famous because of the trials. I think The Room or Requiem are the two best from Selby.

Tell me a book by Burroughs that became part of pop culture and was given multiple movie deals.

4/16/2010 7:16:12 PM

When, to you, is a cover worth doing?

When it realizes an entirely different take on a song (ala Hendrix with All along the Watchtowers, as the most obvious example) rather than simply performs the same song with a slightly modified sound?

4/16/2010 7:17:41 PM

^^ If you don't think Naked Lunch is a part of pop culture, I'm afraid you don't know anything about it. Also, if multiple movie deals are a sign of literary excellence, I guess Dan Brown deserves a handful of Pulitzers.

^ If you're going to do a cover, you should at least make an attempt to do something interesting with the song. Occasionally a straight-up cover is appropriate in context (the way Nirvana used Meat Puppets songs in their Unplugged set, for instance), but if you can't even be bothered to change the arrangement for a recorded version I don't see the point. For example, look at that "Whip It" cover you posted. It's exactly the same as the Devo LP version, but with crappier vocals and no cool keyboard effects. I don't get it.

4/16/2010 7:24:21 PM

^ Naked Lunch is part of counterculture and movie deals just shows the amount of respect an author is given. I don't dislike Burroughs, but Selby is a better author overall when you compare both complete sets of work.

4/16/2010 7:26:55 PM

^^For that Whip It cover, I'm pretty sure they just got asked to do a cover by the radio station and agreed, then tried to have some fun with it. They aren't marketing or selling it. And the Blondie cover by FF was done for a charity/aid album with a bunch of other covers, again not really marketed.

Pointless I can certainly agree with (at least, no artistic point, unless one considers charity or general dicking around to be art), but they're still kind of fun, IMO.

[Edited on April 16, 2010 at 7:33 PM. Reason : .]

4/16/2010 7:30:59 PM

^ I understand your point, but not having a lot of time or doing it for a charity is not a very good excuse to not be creative.

To be fair to FF, almost all of the stuff on War Child Heroes is pretty boring.

For another charity record, though, look what Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings did here:



The differences are subtle, but significant.

Or Rilo Kiley here:



Not reinventing the song as Hendrix did with Dylan, but enough to make it a fresh take.

4/16/2010 7:41:21 PM

Quote :

"not having a lot of time or doing it for a charity is not a very good excuse to not be creative. To be fair to FF, almost all of the stuff on War Child Heroes is pretty boring."

Agreed on both counts.

Mostly I feel like the FF cover is a fresh enough take, though. They put so much more focus on the guitar and bass parts and the whole song feels much sharper and more directed... that plus male vocals (AK's vocals, anyway) turn the whole thing into a much more aggressive song.


Also, loved the Rilo Kiley bit. Not familiar enough with Inspiration Information to really say much about that one, though.

[Edited on April 16, 2010 at 8:06 PM. Reason : .]

4/16/2010 7:59:15 PM

after Jimi Hendrix, who do you think is the best rock/blues guitarist?
where "best" should be interpreted so as to disqualify Steve Vai, for example, on the grounds that his work is not artistically outstanding, and John Lennon on the grounds that his work is not technically outstanding

4/16/2010 8:01:41 PM

I agree with you about Titus Andronicus. I've missed them twice, both times due to a show being scheduled that same night that I wanted to go to more (I think the first was Blitzen Trapper and can't remember the second). But, I'm way excited to go see them this Sunday.

4/16/2010 8:07:20 PM

do you ever go see a show live (someone you've never seen or heard before) and really like the show/music but then when you listen to the album (after the show, of course) you are like...underwhelmed?

4/21/2010 12:04:56 AM

Shannon Wright's early albums have none of the intensity of her live show.

I'll think of some others.

4/21/2010 2:13:54 AM

ay dog ay

where was you tonight?

will there be bingo tomorrow night?

4/21/2010 2:20:11 AM

I see you listed Naked Lunch as one of your favorites. What was so great about it? I really wanted to like it, but didn't enjoy it much at all.

4/21/2010 3:39:57 AM

It's hilarious, and at the time I first read it I was really into stuff with unexplained time/location shifts like Slaughterhouse-Five and The Sound and the Fury.

4/21/2010 3:57:03 AM

Except the way those last two examples use the technique being completely different, but yea.

Maybe I'll read Naked Lunch. If you haven't read House of Leaves, I'll tradesies read NL for it.

4/21/2010 3:59:51 AM

Eh, when I got into Burroughs I was 17. I thought I was being edgy by reading stuff where shit jumped around in an (at least initially) unexplained fashion. I was wrong, but I still enjoy the humor in it.

The other two are superior novels, though.

4/21/2010 4:04:55 AM

What's the point of a false start at the beginning of zeppelin's "tangerine"

4/21/2010 6:45:24 AM

It adds a little humanity to the track, just like any other false start on an album.

4/21/2010 2:24:09 PM

if you had to listen to one song on repeat, in headphones, for the rest of your natural life

what would you choose

4/21/2010 2:26:13 PM

flaming lips

"feeling yourself disintegrate"

4/21/2010 2:39:24 PM

i find that answer somewhat surprising

4/21/2010 3:35:31 PM

perhaps if i thought about it for a long time, it might change

but the hard jump-panning on the intro of that song is one of the coolest headphone effects i've ever heard on a record

and it's a great song

4/21/2010 3:40:45 PM

picking a netflix instant watch (so choices are limited) to watch. deciding between these...which one?

the firm - tom cruise, duh, never seen it though
breakdown - about a car that breaks down and some dude lets his wife go with a trucker to get help but then she gets lost
my left foot - about this author that was misdiagnosed as mentally handicapped for 10 years when really they had cerebral palsy
lord, save us from your followers - about religion...like interviews with the public. documentary type deal.

4/24/2010 9:42:55 PM

i'll say the last one

because none of them sound particularly appealing to me

4/24/2010 9:43:38 PM

haha i know me either. SIGHHHHH.

4/24/2010 9:44:38 PM

are the movies available on instant watch the same ones available streaming on a wii/ps3/xbox?

4/24/2010 9:45:39 PM

i still play tecmo super bowl

i got no clue

4/24/2010 9:46:53 PM

What is your opinion of The Clash?

4/25/2010 12:13:41 AM

my left foot is good.

4/25/2010 12:18:41 AM

What is your personal opinion of The Avett Brothers?

Fingerpick or use a pick?

Favorite Neil Young song?

Favorite song to play on guitar?

4/25/2010 4:14:01 AM

^^^ the clash are one of the best and most versatile bands of all time

^ i'm not big on the avett brothers and i'm especially not big on people who treat them like bob fucking dylan, but i'd be lying if i said they don't have a handful of great songs

picks are useful in certain situations, just like fingerpicking is

my favorite neil young song is either "winterlong" or "ohio"

favorite guitar song is hard..."tv eye" by the stooges, "lust for life" by girls, "my heart is a graveyard" by mount weather

4/25/2010 4:22:00 AM

favorite sci-fi writer past or present?

what do you think of the theory brought up by joseph campbell in the hero with a thousand faces?

zen and the art of archery or zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance?

4/25/2010 4:27:39 AM

i have absolutely no interest in sci-fi, so i guess douglas adams is as close as i get

i think the monomyth theory is true enough, but not really revolutionary thinking...it's just human nature

motorcycle maintenance

4/25/2010 4:36:22 AM

Is it weird that I like the Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack better than any Yeah Yeah Yeahs album?

[Edited on April 29, 2010 at 1:36 AM. Reason : I also may like the soundtrack better than the film itself.]

4/29/2010 1:35:40 AM

What instruments do you play? How's bass coming?

4/29/2010 1:36:18 AM

set em up

4/29/2010 2:33:33 AM