Friday Trivia Quiz: thought it might be a larf to go back and excerpt the FIRST EVER POSTS from some prominent-ish blogs, both ancient and recent. Wag of the finger to those whose archives don’t work, though. Some obvious candidates have been avoided, some haven’t. NB: Some spoilers in the comments box, so don’t look there before you make your own guesses.
1. “Tempting to shift from the ironic soft-focus idyll of the long-shot into the unforgiving grisly detail of the close-up, to look for the id beneath the suburban superego. More interesting to recognize that the surface is already psychotic, that Nothing lies beneath….”
2. “The last band to prod mundanity’s surface like this were Frazier Chorus, and Black Box Recorder answer the same question they did – can you turn the absolutely ordinary into extraordinary music?”
3. “don’t call it a comeback. this is XXXXXXX: only two years late for the weblog party.”
4. “Yes, aged 19 I dearly loved that line, as a sardonic assault on the deluded revolutionary airs some scene punkers gave themselves. But even then I was dimly aware, I think, that all unawares such scenesters were onto things and into things ? totally despite their own burn-it-down rhetoric ? that a Unabomber intellect fools itself into missing”
5. “Guy Sebastian sounds comfortable and at-home singing this fifth-rate drivel. Even though he is capable of so much better. Even though his talent is going to waste. You don’t get the sense that he winces just a little bit at the utterly wet tripe emanating from his mouth, and even though I wanted Cosima to win, I deeply hope that his heart sinks just a little every time he has to sing this, and that this will spur he and his writers to make sure his next song is better.”
6. “Why Do I Care? Because rarely has writing been so passionate, inspiring and all-consuming in its voracious search for the lone kernel of truth that resides at the heart of this meaningless world. Or, because you enjoy reading “”crazy academic mumbo-jumbo” from someone too young to back it up with intellectual cred. Anyhow, welcome!”
7. “(yes, Rachel Stevens’ new poppification of Goldfrapp is no bad thing, and indeed was the only good thing about that mess in the Mall last weekend, but put it next to luscious Lynsey de Paul cooing “Sugar me, my baby – CRACK OF THE WHIP – baby, sugar me” (wow, palindromic sex!) and you realise that lovely Rachel has a little way to go yet)”
8. “It’s like this: if you like my prolific postings on Barbelith, here’s where you can come to get a little bit more. Though I can’t imagine anyone wanting to read MORE of me, because I never do shut up over there.”
9. “Part fanzine, part diary, part pointless meanderings about music. All from the loins of XXXXXXXXX, the bisexual’s guide to indie music.”
10. “1999
Anathema – Judgement (MFN/Peaceville) 1999 UK
Botch ? We are the Romans (Hydra Head) 1999 US
Capitol K – Sounds of the Empire (planet Mu) 1999 UK
Chemical Brothers ? Surrender (Virgin) 1999 UK
Death in Vegas: The Contino Sessions (Concrete ) 1999 UK
Dodheimsgard ? 666 International (Moonfog) 1999 NOR
Faultline – Colder Closer (Leaf) 1999 UK
Hocico – Sangre Hirviente (SPV/ Out of Line) 1999 MEXICO
In the Woods – Strange in Stereo (Misanthropy) 1999 NOR
Layo and Bushwacka – Lowlife (End Recordings) 1999 UK
Mice Parade – Ramda (Fat Cat) 1999 US
Mogwai – C.O.D.Y (Chemikal Underground) 1999 UK
Paradise Lost – Host (EMI) 1999 UK
Regular Fries – Accept the Signal (JBO) 1999 UK
Rico – Sanctuary Medicines (Chrysalis) 1999 UK
Surgeon ? Force and Form (Tresor) 1999 UK
Trans Am ? Futureworld (Thrill Jockey) 1999
Ulver – Themes from William Blake… (Voices of Wonder) 1999 NOR
VNV Nation ? Burning Empires (Dependent) 1999 UK”