deuxlits

last week, music snobs’ most beloved bittorrent site, oink, got the smackdown. [nymag just posted a whole bunch of stuff here, here, and here] and my heart sagged a little as a result. as a total music dork, oink had it all. really, everything that you could imagine, in the most obscure genres, the most random labels.  it was really amazing to dig through people’s collections and i always thought searching in oink was like digging through people’s dusty music bins. one guy likened oink to “tower records on steroids” which is a pretty funny and accurate description.

trent reznor spoke in the NYT about oink and had this to say:

“I’ll admit I had an account there and frequented it quite often. At the end of the day, what made OiNK a great place was that it was like the world’s greatest record store. Pretty much anything you could ever imagine, it was there, and it was there in the format you wanted. If OiNK cost anything, I would certainly have paid, but there isn’t the equivalent of that in the retail space right now. iTunes kind of feels like Sam Goody to me. I don’t feel cool when I go there. I’m tired of seeing John Mayer’s face pop up. I feel like I’m being hustled when I visit there, and I don’t think their product is that great. DRM, low bit rate, etc. Amazon has potential, but none of them get around the issue of pre-release leaks. And that’s what’s such a difficult puzzle at the moment. If your favorite band in the world has a leaked record out, do you listen to it or do you not listen to it? People on those boards, they’re grateful for the person that uploaded it — they’re the hero. They’re not stealing it because they’re going to make money off of it; they’re stealing it because they love the band. I’m not saying that I think OiNK is morally correct, but I do know that it existed because it filled a void of what people want.”

as an profitable and successful artists, i was mega stoked that trent reznor said this. i think his statement  testifies to the state of ambivalence surrounding filesharing more generally. but how do we begin reframeing it beyond legal terms? trent tosses an aside about the “moral correctness” of OiNK, suggesting that due to its illegal nature, filesharing is morally suspect, but i don’t think that’s the case.

i think this last sentence gets it right on the effing head (never mind how dead-on the sam goody reference is!).  i get so frustrated about the whole illegal music sharing debate because by couching it in terms of legality alone, the   issue gets cast wholesale as something wrong.  and i really disagree with that. because it’s not just about legality but it’s about alternative spaces. i suppose it’s one thing to share your latest john-mayer CD. it’s another thing if one of your best friends is an amazing musician and just made an kick-ass 2-song recording that he wants to put out himself and share with everyone. clearly sharing these things fills a cultural void that a lot of us feel. being spoon-fed the media equivalent of chee-tos–while tasty–gets orange cheese dust all over your hands…and doesn’t really consist of a cultural diet of sustenance. and something about sharing music and finding new music is not only really exciting, but also, i would argue, part of the creative process of making new music as well.

oh schnap! nick turned me onto dan deacon this summer and of course filed it away in the grey matter of my brain under “more bands to maybe one day check out.” but i found this video clip on music thing and i’m officially a fan:

i will one day do a cover of this song.

OMG, the new panda bear album, person pitch, is just too perfect: psych-y, flowy, how to describe? well, it’s definitely more dramatic and dynamic than the previous panda bear album, with a good deal more variation. the looped vocals and guitars are all there, but there’s a much more varied pallette of sound…but what would this guy do without reverb? i love love love love love it though. so so so good. it’s 11:35pm, i’m writing a paper, listening to panda bear, and it’s raining in LA. could not be more perfect.

deerhoof, new album, friend opportunity === awesome.

wow. so good. how so good?! the production quality on this album is amazing and it’s such a departure from previous deerhoof records that i’m just gob smacked. there’s the recognizeable guitars. there’s greg’s crazy drum madness. there’s programmed drum beats that compliment the regular rhythm compostion you expect, but in such an undeerhoofy it’s kind of shocking like really cold water when you’re really thirsty. satomi’s vocals sound like they’re right next to your ears. i’ve always liked deerhoof. actually. there was a moment a couple years ago when reveille came out and i wasn’t so into it, but then everybody told me i was wrong and i realized they were right. and then i saw them live and was totally amazed. anyhow, what i mean to say is that this album is actually an *experience* you don’t just listen to it, you feel it. i was listening to it while i was coasting down sepulveda blvd, while it was dark, heading home after a long day at school and it made me feel kind of crazy because i felt like i was being bumped and jostled at all sides. and that’s a good thing.