Before I head off for New Year’s, another anniversary – tomorrow marks the first birthday of Elidor, NYLPM contributor Robin Carmody’s music’n'culture website. Which, obviously, comes highly recommended.
And it being the end of the year, I’ll just say that I thought 2000 was – in the end – a pretty good year for reading about music. Not on the newstands, but here on the web. At the end of last year I had about six or seven music bookmarks – now I read 3 or 4 times that number of sites regularly, and best of all most of them are writing about music from a personal, impassioned perspective, not trying to weigh stuff up and dole out points and play Proper Rock Critic. In a fragmented-market, file-sharing era, that bullshit game is over, than goodness. I know you’ve heard all this from me before, so I won’t bang on, but it’s nice to have made even the very modest contribution I have to pop talk this year. 2001 should be very, very interesting. Happy New Year!
Tom in New York London Paris Munich • No Comments
MY FAVOURITE SONGS OF 2000
I’m sorry, other things got in the way and so here is – contrary to the new contributors’ guidelines – a list without commentary! Links are to the original reviews, where applicable. Unreviewed songs will hopefully get their due.
25. SLIMM CUTTA CALHOUN – “It’s OK”
24. GOLDFRAPP – “Lovely Head”
23. BLACK BOX RECORDER – “Weekend” (the first-ever NYLPM entry!)
22. DEAD PREZ – “Hip Hop”
21. THE BETA BAND – “To You Alone”
20. PULP – “Sunrise” (live bootleg thing)
19. KIRSTY MacCOLL – “In These Shoes?”
18. AALIYAH – “Try Again”
17. DMX – “Party Up”
16. MAZARIN – “Wheats”
15. THE GO-BETWEENS – “Going Blind”
14. KELIS – “Caught Out There”
13. JESSICA SIMPSON – “I Think I’m In Love With You”
12. KID 606 vs NWA – “Straight Outta Compton”
11. JAY-Z – “Big Pimpin”
10. BELLE AND SEBASTIAN – “There’s Too Much Love”
9. LE TIGRE – “Deceptacon”
8. DAPHNE AND CELESTE – “U.G.L.Y.”
7. THE MAGNETIC FIELDS – “Like A Move Star” (live bootleg thing)
6. LAMBCHOP – “Up With People”
5. ROBBIE WILLIAMS – “Rock DJ”
4. DAFT PUNK – “One More Time”
3. THE CLIENTELE – “(I Want You) More Than Ever” (studio and live)
2. EMINEM – “The Real Slim Shady”
1. OUTKAST – “Bombs Over Baghdad”
What a bleedin’ marvellous year for the pop song, is what I say.
Tom in New York London Paris Munich • No Comments
Three HipHop Moments is an article by Ethan Padgett, a new Freaky Trigger contributor. I like it. If you want to contribute yourself, you can check out our brand new submission guidelines.
Tom in New York London Paris Munich • No Comments
So much diffidence and heartbreak: it’s the Make Out Club, a site for indie kids to get together and spawn. I found it kind of depressing – it’s what happens when you’ve got so many records that all your emotional responses are learned and you find yourself paralysed into a kind of contorted hipster position: hey really i don’t care, i’m an individual, but love me, damn you. Or of course you just write twee shit about what your favourite sweet is. Three thoughts: i) there is nothing wrong with American college students which could not be solved by lowering the drinking age to 18. ii) We should have personal ads in Freaky Trigger. iii) Never date anyone who owns any records. All these thoughts have their flaws, mind you. Link stolen from Sarah, again, because I am lazy.
Tom in New York London Paris Munich • No Comments