I'm Jason Diamond

America: fuck yes dudes

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 20:14:38 -0400

America: fuck yes dudes

Video

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 10:58:00 -0400

Vol. 1 Brooklyn’s Birthday Party: The Greatest 3-Minute Record Reviews Ever

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 14:26:39 -0400

Last summer, Vol. 1 Brooklyn was created in a Brooklyn coffee shop. I wasn’t exactly sure what we were doing then, and I’m happy to report that a year later, not much has changed.

Since the beginning, people have been incredibly supportive of this site, and we figured that we should say thanks to everybody by throwing this blowout celebration at Bar Matchless on July 22nd. We’ve asked 25 people we really like to go up on stage and talk about a record they love, and do it in under three minutes. How they choose to review it, is up to their discretion, but we’re pretty sure that with the group of people we’ve assembled, The Greatest 3-Minute Record Reviews Ever, is going to be a pretty unforgettable evening.

Vol. 1 Brooklyn Presents

The Greatest 3-Minute Record Reviews Ever

With special musical guests: Xray Eyeballs

Aaron Lefkove (Creator: Summer of Megadeath)
Adam Wilson (The Faster Times)
Andrea Bartz (Stuff Hipsters Hate)
Ben Greenman (The New Yorker, new book called What He’s Poised to Do)
Bill Pearis (Sound Bites NYC/Brooklyn Vegan)
Brenna Ehrlich (Mashable/Stuff Hipsters Hate)
Brandon Stosuy (Stereogum/The Believer)
Claire Shefchik (The Faster Times)
Emma Straub (Author)
Jared Bloom (The Full Ginsburg)
Jason Diamond (Vol. 1 Brooklyn)
Jason Orlovich (Brooklyn the Borough)
James Yeh (Gigantic Mag)
Jed Smith (My Teenage Stride)
Jens Carstensen (Limewire/The Giraffes)
Jeremy Krinsley (Impose)
Maggie Serota (New York Press)
Marisa Meltzer (Author of Girl Power: 90′s Revolution in Music)
Marty Beckerman (Online features editor at Esquire/author)
Maura Johnston (The Awl)
Rob Tannenbaum (Playboy Magazine/Rolling Stone)
Sara Jaffe (Writer/musician)
Scott Lindenbaum (Electric Literature)
Tobias Carroll (The Scowl/Vol. 1 Brooklyn)
Zachary Lipez (Freshkills/Author of “Please Take Me off the Guest List”)

At: Bar Matchless – 557 Manhattan Ave. Greenpoint, Brooklyn

7 PM, no cover

(Via)

Dear Wife of Steve Albini, who the fuck isn't obsessed with your husband?

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 17:42:35 -0400

Dear Wife of Steve Albini, who the fuck isn't obsessed with your husband?

VIA

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:07:34 -0400

VIA

sweethomestyle: binds:by ernieland

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 14:05:11 -0400

sweethomestyle:

binds:by ernieland

I may have called bullshit on Jacket Copy. Or maybe not...

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 14:01:32 -0400

I may have called bullshit on Jacket Copy. Or maybe not...

I call bullshit.

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:24:13 -0400

I call bullshit.

Here I am talking to Joshua Cohen, author of the book Witz.

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 09:06:01 -0400

Here I am talking to Joshua Cohen, author of the book Witz.

Here I am talking to Joshua COhen, author of the book Witz.

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 08:57:11 -0400

Here I am talking to Joshua COhen, author of the book Witz.

Keith Gessen on dystopian novels.

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 18:14:31 -0400

Keith Gessen on dystopian novels.

Reading it/loving it

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 10:34:10 -0400

Reading it/loving it

"Then things just got weird and bad, and then things got quiet as a new year of lackluster releases..."

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:20:10 -0400

“

Then things just got weird and bad, and then things got quiet as a new year of lackluster releases and “chillwave is the new shit-fi” became this weird banner we (the people who write about this stuff) became disgruntled about.

So now we have Wavves, 2010. New album is coming out during the dog days of summer, and after a few quick listens, it sounds like Williams is attempting to be the next Rivers Cuomo, but post-Pinkerton Rivers Cuomo.

That’s a shame, because in a perfect world, Wavves could just fly under the radar and give us an album that is just one big “fuck off, I’m awesome and worth the hype”, but instead we get him doing the least awesome thing I can think of: releasing his first single to the world via the music website of that soda that kills your sperm. Which is fine, I don’t have any attachment to Williams or his music. I’m not going to find the guy and tell him he’s a huge sellout because he’s taking money from Mountain Dew. I’m not fifteen anymore, I’ve accepted the dark side of capitalism.

”

- If we all crucified Wavves…

Wish I could Write a Good Bolaño Essay

Sat, 05 Jun 2010 13:25:43 -0400

Wish I could Write a Good Bolaño Essay

Photo

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 18:18:49 -0400

Boris + Ian Astbury Together ='s Holy Shit

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:21:00 -0400

Boris Collaboration With Ian Astbury Announced
Southern Lord proudly announces an incredible collaboration between label artists Boris and Ian Astbury of The Cult and The Doors! This finely-crafted four-song mini release, simply entitled BXI, was tracked and mixed in Tokyo in late April. Asbury’s vocals are a perfect match for Boris’s straightforward, laid-back, but still raw and imaginative songwriting constructed for the EP; another intriguing display within the band’s ever-morphing, extensive résumé of releases, tours and collaborations. To see official CD, LP and digital release this September via Southern Lord, BXI will showcase the already unclassifiable rock of Boris in an entirely new light, and shows a new side one of rock and roll’s most notorious singers. The release features three new original tracks, as well as a cover of The Cult’s song “Rain”, ethereally vocalized by Boris guitarist Wata. Art and design for the release was commissioned to Stephen O’Malley (Ideologic.org, SUNNO))), etc.). Pitchfork briefly interrogated Boris drummer Atsuo about this collaboration this week. Check out this exclusive piece on the EP and find out how this collaboration came to light: http://pitchfork.com/news/39000-boris-team-with-the-cults-ian-astbury/ This past weekend, Ian Asbury made an unannounced appearance with Boris at the band’s performance at Sydney, Australia’s Vivid LIVE appearance, blowing fans away with this unexpected set which showcased some of the material from the BXI EP as well as a cover of the classic “The End”, by The Doors. BXI EP Track Listing:
1. Teeth and Claws
2. We are the Witches
3. Rain
4. Magickal Child

Plugging the Gulf oil leak with the works of Ayn Rand.

Sun, 30 May 2010 12:12:21 -0400

Plugging the Gulf oil leak with the works of Ayn Rand.

Music Notes for the Week

Sat, 29 May 2010 12:56:07 -0400

1. The question isn’t if Woods have put out the best album of the summer, it’s whether At Echo Lake is the best album to bubble up out of the Brooklyn underground this year. It’s really hard to say, and to be honest, I shouldn’t even make a statement like that — it’s barely June!

2009’s Songs of Shame has stayed on my turntable since I made the proclamation that it was one of the best albums of the year, and even though I was a total skeptic, the band has followed up with a total winner full of more too-much-sun-psych led by a singer that sounds like Jad Fair doing Neil Young covers. Woods has become a songwriting juggernaut without giving up the experimental side, one of the only bands around who I find myself getting more and more excited about.

2. Speaking of Neil Young, he played in upstate New York with Bert Jansch a few weeks ago. I was (sadly) unable to make it, but thankfully I follow Largehearted Boy on Twitter. He hipped me to these live recordings from the show, including Jansch tackling “Katie Cruel”, adding his own haunted twist on a song that I consider one of the greatest ever.
As I listened to this, I noticed that Young doing “Helpless” gets better as the man gets older. His voice is more fragile than ever, but just as perfect as it ever was.

3. I’ll admit that going from Woods/Neil Young/Burt Jansch to commenting on the forthcoming album full of Health songs remixed by the likes of Crystal Castles, Tobacco, Small Black, and Gold Panda might seem a little forced or awkward, but then again, so does Health’s place in the landscape of American music. Are they the new Nine Inch Nails all covered in dayglo paint, or are they tapping into the same channels that Throbbing Gristle was picking up on when they wanted to actually make music? Whatever the case, the upcoming Disco2 (Lovepump United) is worth your time + money for so many reasons.

4. There are probably 6 million bands that “could have been huge”, but there is only 1 Crushed Butler. I’d heard one or two of their songs on some glitter rock comps I’d bought a few years back, but it was until this week, when I picked up the Radio HeartbeatLP of the 70’s English rock bands “definitive” recordings, Uncrushed, that I realized how much the world missed out on this band. Proto punk that brings to mind Black Sabbath and pub rock. Each song is bliss.

(Cross posted with Vol. 1 Brooklyn and The Faster Times)

Aaron Lefkove talks to Emily Gould

Mon, 24 May 2010 15:08:15 -0400

What is it that gives people a license too hide behind some wall of virtual anonymity and really just rip into someone else?

When my boyfriend’s book came out he did this great interview with Young Manhattanite and he said something that I think about a lot, which is that “I know exactly what kind of asshole I am, and it’s a different kind of asshole from the one depicted on Gawker, etc.”. It’s hard to have insight into why people feel they have license to be so awful and also just as hard to see why people also have such really extreme intense positive reactions, which happen in equal measure although the people with the really positive reactions don’t seem to be as vocal on the internet because they are sane and happy. There is all this stuff swirling around about this horrible fear that people have about the amateurization of what used to be a professional field which is writing and also issues that people have about women being honest about things like sex and money where fear just gets transformed into hate.

Via Jewcy

Exile on Main St. never gets old, but I do

Thu, 20 May 2010 21:02:59 -0400

Exile on Main St. never gets old, but I do