Archive for the ‘Soapbox’ Category

Oh, we’re doing lists? Yay, lists!

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The Middle East – Pig Food

Three meals that were eaten at least once a week, throughout the year after I discovered that they existed, as I desired to sit bloated and content in the sun, slowly recovering from a hangover.

3. The BLT — with a smudge of avocado — sandwich on Turkish bread from Newscaf, Newtown.
Mammoth and messy, it smears green and drips red. Swine strips on your tongue. Terrible for your arteries, great for your hangovers. You decide which is more important.

2. Ham, cheese and tomato open grill sandwich on Turkish bread from Newscaf, Newtown.
Cheese, so much cheese. A town of tomato and ham situated near an erupting volcanic cheddar, molten queso terrorising the townsfolk’s livelihoods and sating their taste-buds all at once.

1. The beef Chimichanga from Beach Burrito Company, Newtown.
Hey, God. Is this what you eat? I think this is what you eat. You spent, like, a day on the planets and the sun and the wind and wireless internet, then you spent six days on this. Intoxicating, addictive. I would better understand Eve’s unbearable temptations if this were hanging from the tree in Eden.

Three songs that inevitably burrowed their melodies into the crevices of daily listening, whether or not they fit the weather patterns, life occurrences and time constraints.

3. Paul Banks – The Base

Yes, yes. Why? It’s simple. It flickers and flickers and spins itself into an earthly refrain. Paul — can I call him Paul? — offers a morsel of poignancy: “Now and then / I can see the truth / above the lies. / Now and then / I can see you’re truly / anesthetized.”

2. The xx – Chained

“Separate / or combine / I ask you.” The xx’s follow-up was hotly anticipated, sourly received, carefully neglected. This is right. Sad and right and easily repeated. More of Oliver’s twists of tongue and the instrumental minimalism that so compelled audiences to listen to lovelorn tales quietly.

1. Freedom Fry – Summer In The City

Freedom Fry have been here once before. They were chirpy and sanguine-sweet then, in the middle of winter, and now as the mercury rises their rotation in the household — as cupboards are cleaned or in the car as the road to the sand and ocean gets shorter — is unquestioned.

Songs that mean more now than they did before, or “Songs That Joan Has Professed To Love All Along When Once He Ignored Or Under-Appreciated Them And Now He Is Really Sorry, Please Forgive Him.”

3. Bloc Party – Positive Tension

AND YOU CANNOT RUN OR EVER, EVER ESCAPE. AND YOU CANNOT RUN OR EVER, HIDE IT AWAY. SOMETHING GLORIOUS IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN. OH MAN OH MAN I FUCKING LOVE THIS SONG NOW. I DIDN’T BEFORE BUT THE DRUMS, MAN, THE DRUMS! “RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN.” THEN THAT GUITAR KICKS IN AND THEY GO, THEY SAY…

WHY’D YOU HAVE TO GET SO HYSTERICAL? WHY’D YOU HAVE TO GET SO HYSTERICAL? WHY’D YOU HAVE TO GET SO HYSTERICAL? WHY’D YOU HAVE TO GET SO HYSTERICAL? WHY’D YOU HAVE TO GET SO HYSTERICAL? WHY’D YOU HAVE TO GET SO HYSTERICAL? WHY’D YOU HAVE TO GET SO HYSTERICAL? WHY’D YOU HAVE TO GET SO HYSTERICAL? WHY’D YOU HAVE TO GET SO HYSTERICAL?

WHY’D YOU HAVE TO GET… SO FUCKING USELESS?

2. Radiohead – Myxomatosis. (Judge, Jury & Executioner.)

I remember: Thom Yorke, frenzied and impassioned with his microphone clasped sweatily to his bearded lips. The distortion rang out and shook the arena. Droning and droning. The crowd cheering and waving, twitching and salivating. I know why I was so tongue-tied.

1. The Smiths – This Charming Man

Somewhere this song was lost. When The Smiths were every song played, this song was lost and that was a goddam shame. Infectious and, yes, charming. Rooms rise when this song comes on, limbs jerking and heads shaking from left-to-right while the bartenders call Last Drinks and nobody hears them. The year is ending and the stores are closing and the jobs are lost and they don’t hear it. They just keep dancing. Uh-ah!

[Yeah, take the time out of your day, and buy these albums and singles and soundtracks to your years to come.]

Posted on December 27, 2012 - Soapbox - No Comments » Share

My five favorite albums this year

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high five!

1. Shearwater – Animal Joy
Song. Post. Buy.
“With the blood from your nose running hot on your fingers.”
2. Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
Song. Post. Buy.
“Why see the world when you got the beach?”
3. Delta Spirit – Delta Spirit
Song. Post. Buy.
“I want you to wander silent past my outstretched arms.”
4. The Mountain Goats – Transcendental Youth
Song. Post. Buy.
“The yoga of self-mutilation.”
5. Deerhoof – Breakup Song
Song. Post forthcoming, one would assume. Buy.
“Like a robot on the dance floor, a muscle in the heart.”

Posted on December 17, 2012 - Soapbox - 1 Comment » Share

A note about piracy

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Hello beloved reader,

A couple days ago, an email from TV Girl plopped unexpectedly but delightfully in our email inbox. Dan previously wrote a charming little piece which initially introduced me to the catchy band. You can find the entire correspondence copied below:

Hello (It’s Me). This is Trung and Brad from TV Girl. Today we were unpleasantly surprised to find that the Warner Music Group started making good on their promise to remove our music from the web. Several blogs reached out to us after receiving takedown notices regarding our music. We noticed that you posted our music, so we thought we would reach out to give you a heads up and give our two cents.

Just to clarify, TV Girl had nothing to do with the takedown notice. We have no affiliation with Warner Music Group or any other songwriting association or record label. The copyright claim is on behalf of Todd Rundgren for the use of a sample from his song “Hello, It’s Me”.

Even though it’s a bummer that our particular song is being silenced in this way, we feel that this is representative of a larger issue that will only get worse as blogs continue to gain influence over an increasingly desperate music industry.

When the song started getting really popular late last year, we reached out to the copyright holders to get the sample cleared so that we could avoid this mess. Their responses were completely unreasonable. To give you an idea, one company demanded 100% of all proceeds from any money made, in addition to us paying a $5,000 clearance fee. Basically they were saying: “Fuck you, we have all the power, either pay us or take the song down.” Because we weren’t making any money off the song anyways, and because it had already spread around the net thanks to blogs, we declined their offer.

The fact is, because of the amazing independent promotional capacities of music blogs and sites like Bandcamp, it’s increasingly unnecessary for bands like us to align ourselves with major labels or music companies like WMG. Our use of the sample easily falls under the protection of “fair use”. WMG’s actions are a rather blatant attempt to bully independent artists and blogs into playing by their rules. It’s easy to see tactics like this becoming more common as the industry continues to shift.

Obviously, we wouldn’t recommend keeping the song up if there’s any chance of your site being affected. We just thought that you and your readers might want to know about this issue as it directly affects every band, blog, and music fan operating outside the mainstream music machine.

Thank for listening, and feel free to post about or reprint this e-mail. We are truly grateful to all the blogs and fans that have supported us.

-Trung and Brad
TV Girl

I mentioned above that Daniel introduced me to this band to illustrate a point: We hope this humble blog serves as a place to find new, heart-warming music to buy, as opposed to a means to separate artists from their due wages.

The music industry is in an odd, transitional phase. At some point it will need to accept that new media exists and come up with inventive ways to earn a living through, rather than despite, technology. (The pay-what-you-will albums ala Radiohead‘s In Rainbows are a start, but not the solution.) Throughout my adult life, I’ve collected compact discs and vinyl meticulously; however, since moving to Malaysia, I’ve found it difficult to procure physical copies of albums I enjoy. In the cases in which fans don’t live near an independent record store or a city which the band will graciously stop by on tour, more inventive means are necessary for earning a living.

This blog is not that means, nor is it even highly useful in the grander scheme of financial plans (note the lack of ads or the cobwebs in our bank accounts). Eventually, perhaps soon, music blogs will become obsolete. That’s not the case just yet, though.

Joan, Daniel, and myself started TUNETHEPROLETARIAT over a year ago for selfish reasons: We wanted to control just one corner of the Internet, to have one nook of the web reflect our creative and cultural leanings. In many ways, we selfishly use songs to bring attention to our own self-absorbed narratives.

For our own self-involved interests, we still quite enjoy the site (despite Joan’s recent absence). The layout’s sexy, the pictures are crisp, the music thumps infectiously along, and the prose . . . well, the prose could be worse. But this site was never meant to (nor do I think it does) take the place of purchasing music.

I’m a professional writer. For the past handful of years, my entire income has been built solely on the words I write (and edit). I become rather frustrated when outlets offer or ask to use my writing free of charge. The creation of art is a skill, and one that should be compensated. I firmly believe that, and all the corporations which cash my checks tacitly do as well.

The same goes for musicians.

It’s our hope that if you like songs on this little blog of ours, you’ll invest in the artist either by buying the music we link to or by attending a show (musicians tend to get a bigger cut from merchandise purchased at live shows than online). A society which does not support the arts is soulless, brittle and not worth living in.

My sincere apologies for the rare sincere post. Irregular service to resume tomorrow.

Zac Lee Rigg and TUNETHEPROLETARIAT

P.S. While we’re being momentarily sincere, a huge congratulations goes out to New York for becoming the sixths U.S. state to legalize gay marriage. TUNETHEPROLETARIAT has, and always will, support equality in all forms, however inconsequential our voice may be.

Posted on June 26, 2011 - Soapbox - 1 Comment » Share

Just be a queen

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Lady Gaga – Born This Way

I kind of hate this song. The clunky transitions, the obnoxious intro, the longer and even more obnoxious music video intro, the atonality of the chanted chorus, the preachiness, the pretentiousness – it’s all bullshit.

But there are two redeeming qualities. One is the adorable double stomp of the dancers in the music video. The second is that the jingoism, the triteness of the message, the sheer banality of it all is absolutely necessary.

For years homophobes have dominated that corner of the public discourse. There are plenty of articulate, compelling works in a variety of mediums about homosexuality and homosexuals’ particular brand of struggle (pick up Middlesex if you’ve got a free summer to flip the page 529 times or just happen to like really good fiction), but the reductive banners, the regurgitated cliches, and the mind-numbing arguments – that sphere belonged solely to the homophobic.

Until now. Lady Gaga is hitting back. Gays, too, can be entirely unoriginal and bland and gain huge amounts of public traction despite it. So suck it.

It’s the ’90s again, when singers appear in their own music videos, one costume is enough, old black guys have belting saxophone solos, everything is in earnest, boobs jiggle, and dancing to your own music is actually pretty cool. [Born this way.]

Posted on June 17, 2011 - Soapbox, Tunes, Videos - 1 Comment » Share