Thoughts after Pitchfork Music Festival

for some reason, i've been thinking about this a lot lately, and in Diplo's P4k interview today, I kinda got inspired:

"So this year I realized, if I don't do the stuff I feel like, if I make rules about what I can't do, someone is going to take my rules and fuck it and do it better than me. Someone like will.i.am will do a record that sounds like something I did and sell a million copies. What are we fighting for? You just have to do, you can't live by the rules of what you're supposed to do. I think every person is good at something and you just have to push that forward. If I can go from doing a record like Snoop Dogg, and then Rolo Tomassi, a punk record, and then work with Robyn and then Tiësto, I just think that's funny."

okay, maybe this quote doesn't totally capture it, but I realize a lot of what I/Everyone tends to do is try to recreate what other people have done in the past. Or, more often, take a bunch of things they've already heard and put them together in a blender and spit out the results. I mean, the Major Lazer show is a great example of something that really seems like something paving its own way. Let's look at it like this and break it down. You have:

-An insane hype man that seems like a dude from a different planet
-A DJ that plays everything from crazy-ass minimal miami bass music to dubstep to Ace of Base to Ska
-A completely bonkers theatrical narrative to an hour set (from chinese dragons to ballerinas to dudes jumping off of ladders and tying chicks in military outfits up with rope and "daggering" them)

Keep in mind Major Lazer has only been a real thing for about a year. ONLY ONE YEAR!!!

When people talk about there not ever being another MJ or Beatles or whoever, I don't think they are following things the right way. They're looking for someone with a TALENT larger than these idols in a kind of old-school way. Like looking for a better singer or dancer or better chord progressions or whatever. In my opinion, the new next level talent lies within what Diplo is talking about. The ability to evolve. The ability to break rules and make things that are amazing. To constantly push ones self and allow for mistakes to be made. While the Beatles and, to a lesser extent, MJ evolved from record to record, what I'm starting to see now are the great artists evolving in very large ways ON A MONTHLY BASIS. Which is something I find myself struggling to keep up with. Like I feel like by the time I figure out how to be as good as some of my current idols, they will have already gone on to somewhere five-levels beyond that.

Anyway, this is all exciting and exhausting and kinda makes me want to give up making music sometimes. But most of the time, it inspires me. Every time I think of giving up making music and just being lazy and listening to it and being a DJ or whatever, something out there online gives me a kick in the teeth and gets me back to my laptop, headphones and keyboard.

Balearic as Fuck

So the sun is out. People are shedding layers of clothing and skin as music seems to keep pace with genres being shedded and metamorphizing into new rebirths. Not to be one of those dudes that lumps thing into groups and declare some sort of overarching humanistic movement, but this is the way we get the blog hits, I guess, so here I go.

Indie rock seems like all about dead. Chillwave is splitting and self-replicating into sub-stems of even more hilarious monikers: Witch House, Chill House, Beach Glitch, Sun Pop. Some of these will come, some of them will go. There is no doubt, however, we all like to feel something when we hear music, and lately that vibe has been mostly, well, good.

This post is basically an excuse for me to post about one of my favorite bands this year, whom I consider an important precursor to a lot of stuff that is coming out now and is very, very good and very, very under-appreciated. That band is the Tough Alliance, and they look a little something like this and sound a little something like this:


Tough Alliance- Hung Up on a Dream (Zombies Cover)

And then here is some other great stuff:







So yeah, they're basically like the Beach Boys meet the dudes from the movie "Funny Games" meets Swedish production. They fall into what some are calling the "New Balearic" movement. Not to be too reductionist, and this genre can probably mean a lot of things, but to me it means electro-tropical with a retro sentimentality. Kinda like the beats from Gloria Estefan's "Conga" slowed down a bit with people singing sort of nostalgically over it.

So what else is following suit? Groups like Delorean, Aeroplane, and Tanlines riff heavily on this kind of stuff, but I feel like the best is yet to come. Get ready for more posts on this and enjoy the fucking weather when the sun is shining down.

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti- Before Today album. Disgustingly good. Maybe a little mind-blowing.

Here is a song from it:



PS the image above is a drawing by Pink. The rest of the fuckupness can be found on his Angelfire account

Look I Found Her

James Blake, yep he's good.

I wish I was an electronic computer wizard at 21.

This really works best with headphones and non-Youtube quality.

Lone

Like if Flying Lotus, J Dilla and Boards of Canada had a beach party. You're all invited.

A whole ton of chillwave

Ride the chillwave until you get sucked out into the peaceful ocean of forgotten dreams.



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New Das Racist Mixtape

These guys are as divisive as health care. I feel like I'm on the right side of things when I say they are a Big Fucking Deal. I also feel like I should have posted this a week and a half ago when that reference would be relevant and this was fresh out. Anyway, peep this:

Das Racist- Shut Up Dude Mixtape