The Atlantic - Latest Comments in I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

justin — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 17:15:27 -0000

I'm late to this party (this happens when I take a day off from work) but TNC posting an Okkervil River track is just this absurd collision of awesome that I never dreamed possible. In an interesting twist, I've spent the last three days rocking exclusively boom bap, so, you know, small world after all 'n shit.

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

AJ — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 12:42:37 -0000

I felt like I was getting too old for new music at around 25... then i was rejuvenated by music blogs. A great one is the Daily Growl.... it is a UK blog so it is especially good for this US citizen as it gets the best indie filtered from the US and introduces me to all kinds of UK acts like Emmy the Great, Ed Harcourt, and Noah & the Whale (now featured on a van commercial)

The blogger just posted his top 20 albums of 2008 so now is a perfect time to stop on by

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

Jonathan — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:48:00 -0000

Okkervil River is amazing, and one of my favorites after TVOTR. If you like them check out Glassvegas and Frightened Rabbit- you will be a geeky white boy in no time.

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

Brandon — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 23:48:14 -0000

TNC, I can't really relate to your late arrival to the wider world of music, but I do understand feeling out of touch with the zeitgeist of music. Now 39, with two kids under four, I worry sometimes that I might be getting a bit codger-ish in my listening, but then I look at what I'm actually listening to, and I get a reality check.

I've realized that I'm about six months, sometimes as much as a year, behind the hip kids in hearing new bands. But I'm hearing *about* them early on. This is mainly because I don't have a lot of friends who are buying new bands' records, and I haven't been in the habit of buying records solely on the strength of a positive review in years. I do, however, read Pitchfork (I know, it's not really cutting edge anymore, right?) and I also like Daytrotter for hearing new bands. And, it's the hearing that does it for me.

I don't really think that I'll ever stop looking for new music to enjoy. I've been hooked on it since before I can remember. All kinds, too. Although I'm much more catholic in my taste than they'll ever be, my parents are the blueprint for my life in music. Mom would throw a record on the turntable (one of those all-in-one Panasonic joints with the matching speakers!) in the morning when we were getting ready. O'Jays. Steely Dan. James Taylor. Elton John. Whatever she liked, we heard. And she was my black parent! Dad, the white one, had a great record collection. Allman Brothers, Dylan, Sly Stone, Traffic, Dead (which I still don't like), Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder.

I just can't pigeonhole music. Every genre has something to offer. The musicians themselves usually get this; the fans are another story.

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

yo-z — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 22:52:25 -0000

Indie rock, more than 90's hip hop even, can be stylized by looking at the label, especially if its a small label, like Okkervil's label, Secretly Canadian (which is based in Bloomfield, In).

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

bwaage — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 22:07:47 -0000

I agree with everyone else that says to get Black Sheep Boy. That album as a whole is brilliant.

Also, I no longer trust Pandora after i put in Olivia Tremor Control and it suggested I listen to David Hasselhoff.

I'd strongly recommend giving Andrew Bird a try. It's great music, he's incredibly talented and plus he often looks kinda like a coked-out Bill Nye.

Some samples:

Heretics

Fake Palindromes

Armchair Apocrypha

The last one is just an absolutely beautiful song. I love the way it restarts itself at about the 5:30 mark and builds to a nice finish. Plus these lyrics are great:

I dreamed you were a cosmonaut

of the space between our chairs

And I was a cartographer

of the tangles in your hair

[...]

In time you need to learn, to love

The ebb just like the flow

Grab hold of your bootstraps, and pull like hell

until gravity feels sorry for you, and lets you go

As if you lack the proper chemicals to know

the way it felt the last time you let yourself fall this low

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

Robert M — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:37:22 -0000

you've become ROTFLMAO.

One thing I noticed w/ my kids is that I never heard their music the way my parents heard mine(and all we had was the radio and stereo. my mother scared us off that because she put the release arm to the outer side and played the vinyl off a Love Supreme). Everything is on a personal player now and that is what you're dealing w/. People everywhere cocooned to only what they want to hear. The crazy thing is the diverisity. All the services let you hear everything.

So keep on listening and just ask someone what they are listening to.

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

NS — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:25:52 -0000

TNC, You might enjoy Lightspeed Champion. Falling Off The Lavender Bridge was one of my favorite records of 2008.

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

Stacy — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:22:16 -0000

Electric Feel is hotter than Kids.

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

Communist Virginian — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:13:03 -0000

TNC -

If you wanna taste of what's really hot with the kids these days, best to check out this song:

MGMT - Kids

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIEOZCcaXzE

First head this song when their cd came out early this year but this song has just started to get "big." I'm currently in college and everydude loves it.

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

JC37 — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:54:08 -0000

TNC, like other posters have said already, you gotta cop "Black Sheep Boy"--it's Okkervil River's "Illmatic".

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

keith — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:18:46 -0000

Yeah I feel ya, I am a 33 yr old mexican dude who has noticed a variance in musical tastes. A few "obscure" bands that might meet your new aquired tastes:

Midlake- just youtube them, Van Occupanther and Young Bride are good starters but they are just bad ass

The Shins- I have played the sh-- out of Pink Bullets

The Theater Fire- a local Texas band, very folksie- These Tears Could Rust A Train- is a good starter

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

Ned Raggett — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:40:31 -0000

Okkervil River has a surprisingly wide range of fans around, I've found. One of their biggest fans I know is otherwise pretty much a straight up top 40 freak, and UK top 40 at that. Go figure!

At 37, and having spent about half my life (and most of my freelance writing time) talking about music, I'm a bit wary of the Genius/Pandora approach, not because it can't be handy, but because I resist grouping and prefer either albums straight through or utterly random track by track chaos -- for all that I have very known tastes (as PR people have noted a long time back), I don't only listen to what I write about, nor do I want to. Then again lately my thoughts on music and how I work with it have increasingly veered away from cataloguing and more towards endless and never-revisited flow from song to song, artist to artist. I find that more...I hate to use the word 'honest,' but interesting, at least in terms of wider exposure. (Thinking out loud here more than anything else!)

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

miwome — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:17:19 -0000

Whoa. I am a big fan of both bands, but I would never have made the connection between them.

Try Voxtrot.

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

Stan — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:37:57 -0000

Damn another black person that listens to Okerrvil River. They could fit all of us in a Yugo. Saw them when they came to Portland. Beyond awesome.

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

TKOEd — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:59:48 -0000

T-NC, getting older is no excuse. I turn 30 next year & i think I'm more tapped into music than I've ever been. I'm just less tapped into "pop" music, i.e. stuff on the radio. But every new artist or group I've learned about the last few years I've learned about through use of my computer. I know you got one of those so stop being lazy.

Another band I like, the Artic Monkeys

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

Gully — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:53:31 -0000

Well... they sold another album (two actually).

iTunes is a great thing for those 35+ who don't get out.

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

TKOEd — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:42:27 -0000

I like this. I don't know if I would compare them to these guys but I also like the Stills a lot

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

Miles — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:04:48 -0000

Man, Okkervil River is so good. The latest album is pretty awesome, but you should check out some of their older stuff if you haven't already. Black Sheep Boy is a great album, as is Don't Fall in Love with Everyone You See.

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

tcole — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:57:18 -0000

For eons, the marketing of music was assisted by race and genre. At least here in the states. Rarely did R&B stations play The Style Council, Lewis Taylor, or Jamaraqui. They're not soulful? Obviously Justin Timberlake has carved a niche. But for years Michael McDonald and Phil Collins only received black radio play courtesy of Patti Labelle and Phillip Bailey respectively.

Why else was Eminem afforded rock radio space and his black mega producer was not?

The color of music is obviously more gray now than ever. This may be more of a reason than age to why some life-long hip-hop apologists are just turning the corner to Sigur Ros, Alpha, Stone Roses, their former front-man Ian Brown, Cat Power, Damien Rice, Spoon, Ibrahim Ferrer, Keren Ann, or Fiona Apple for that matter.

Taste in music originates in your community.

That's why black kids reared in the stale forest of the suburbs or predominately white communities possess an affinity for The Cure as well as EPMD long before their college years.

And it's why Baltimore natives hop-scotched North Avenue litter so we could spend the evening sweating through our leather Westwind jackets to filthy club anthems at Odell's.

I hope, rather trust that as our minds and communities change, so will our taste in music.

For there are only two genres of music: good and bad.

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

AJ — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:53:57 -0000

Okkervil River is awesome live... and in my opinion a couple of their more poetic songs are as follows:

A Stone

Plus Ones

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

Andrew Fly — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:30:49 -0000

Man, Only built for Cuban linx. I taped(!) that of my uncle back when I was, oh, 15 or so. On the tape, it cut of in the middle of Verbal Intercourse, so I heard that track twice every time i listened to the album. Nas at his best. First Wu-track with a non-Wu rapper.

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

Nav — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:11:46 -0000

If you like this record, definitely check out their release from last year, The Stage Names. As has been said, this song is from the companion record, but The Stage Names is even better.

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

canuckistani — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:48:57 -0000

The last mainstream "alternative" (pardon the oxymoron) band I heard that really turned my crank was Nirvana. Since then, the musical streams that sustained me through my youth have failed me. So I went back to prewar blues and jazz, and found a gold mine of music that will keep me discovering new things until I'm older and greyer.

I'm making tentative steps into hiphop as well. Like Black Star, NWA not so much. But I'm keeping out of the rut that was waiting for me.

Re: I was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems

Gabe — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:35:33 -0000

Ta-Nehisi:

I guess I know a little bit about them. The newest cd is sort of a companion to a cd they released last year(?). (I applaud bands that put out multiple, short-ish albums rather than 16 songs/75 minute cds. I'm an old LP guy and I think bands need to be good editors.)

By the way, I'm a dad and husband. My 15-mo old baby loves my music. Just this weekend, she went over to the stereo (still an old school component system in our house), pointed to the record player and began dancing. This was her way of telling me "let's get this party started", and I obliged happily by playing one of her favorites: Raffi (which is actually damn good).