Pitchfork 08 in Brief

I was expecting less, given the allegedly cramped location and not-so-cooperative weather. But the location was very convenient, mostly clean, and not as wet as it could have been. I'll continue to wear my Wayfarers in selected situations, but it's pretty clear at this point that the trend has peaked. Also, being able to get fresh fruit for decent prices at a music festival is a very nice thing indeed. Scattered thoughts:

• Public Enemy seemed kind of weak and drained. I guess it has been a long time for them. Couldn't really shake the feeling that the majority of the crowd was there to see the guy from VH1. Oh well.
• Caribou put on a pretty amazing show for early afternoon. Almost made me forgive them for getting injured an not coming to Charlottesville, which caused me to skip the show that would have featured...
• Fuck Buttons, who didn't seem quite suited to an outdoor atmosphere. I thought they were good, but the crowd lacked energy. I suspect many people there were curious to see the band with the expletive in their name. That's totally fine, as festivals are meant to widen horizons. But it's also going to make the actual performance less fun than if it were an intimate show with a bunch of people who really like the band.
• This was also true of Animal Collective. They were incredible, of course. Not really suited to mass audiences, in my opinion, though.
• HEALTH are kind of interesting kids, but I'm not really into anything LA.
• Ghost and Rae are always fun to watch but seemed a bit bored and I can't say that I blame them. Of course, it would have been nice if they got excited when I saw them last at an actual Wu-Tang show... but they didn't.
• I really like Spiritualized but haven't been as up on the new stuff, and my enjoyment suffered because of it.
  

Fire Walk With Me Documentary

One quick word - if you're going to make a documentary about the production of a David Lynch film, I would highly recommend that you make it as straight-forward as possible. Not only are you just going to look foolish juxtaposed with an actual film, but you're going to anger your audience. After enduring 30+ hours of heavy texture and un-meaning (not meaning-less), you don't want to go through a half hour of stupid cross-cuts between Kyle MacLachlan laughing and the guy who played Hawk explaining why his scene got cut. At least, I don't.

Anyway, I'm blogging less recently because my internet at home isn't working... in case you were wondering.

Live at Leeds is definitely an album for later in life

As a 16 year old kid, I remember hearing about The Who and realizing that a band with such universal acclaim should be owned. I hated them. I hated it just as much as I hated the two Fugazi albums somebody gave me and more than I hated all of my parents' albums, which included every last Elvis album.

The moral of the story is that I can definitively declare that experience, in the absence of talent, lends one an ear for nuance. There are qualities in these albums which I could not have hoped to recognize in my bloody-emotion ridden phase of way back when. (Pure talent has an ear for nuance in the absence of experience.)

As for the album itself regarded with a contemporary disposition, it is really good.

Hidden reason why Obama might lose

Have you visited obama.com recently?

Also interestingly, neither omaba.com nor jonmccain.com redirects to their respective real websites.

[obama.com]

Chicago hipsters love to play early 60's music in their retail outlets

Seriously... in thrift shops, American Apparel, record stores... it's all Chiffons and Ronettes all the time. What's up with that?