It took me going to Seattle to learn about The New Yorker magazine. I was visiting my friend Rob and he was really surprised that I didn’t read the magazine all the time (my reading always seems to surprise people, see The Believer.)
Upon my first read of the magazine, I was surprised to see that the first twenty pages or so are taken up with upcoming shows: films, concerts, sports, everything. I actually wondered how much content would be left after all that small print.
Since then I have learned that Sasha Frere-Jones writes columns in here quite of
ten. For reasons known only to my head, I was convinced that Sasha was a black woman. Little did I realize that he is not. And that he was in a band that I have a CD of called Ui. He is an excellent resource for all things music, whether I like the artist he’s talking about or not. Some entries are here. This audio entry about Auto-Tune is simply fantastic.
But of course, there’s a lot of content. And the first thing you get are letters. I don’t think I have EVER looked at the letters section. (more…)
This is a periodical I haven’t mentioned before. Wholphin is a “DVD Magazine of Rare and Unseen Short Films.” So yes, the reason I hadn’t mentioned it is because it is a DVD and not a book. However, as I have been watching Vols 1-8 over the last few months, I have noticed that a few writerly names keep cropping up in the credits. Plus, it’s got that whole McSweeney’s connection.
film possibly ever by Scott Prendergast called “The Delicious” which you can watch, and I encourage you to, 
SOUNDTRACK: THE SMITHS-The Queen Is Dead (1986).
Years ago, when I was a young metal head, my friend Garry expanded my musical palette by introducing me to a lot of college rock (or whatever it was called back then). The album that had the most impact on me back then was this one, The Queen Is Dead.
30,000 views may not be a milestone for many blogs. But, for a blog like this which was intended mostly as a record of what I’ve read, the fact that I’ve had 30,000 views is pretty exciting. And it seems appropriate to let you, the readers know what you the other readers have been reading here. So, here is the top ten most read posts on I Just Read About That… with a director’s commentary tacked on.
SOUNDTRACK: FISHBONE-Give a Monkey a Brain and He’ll Swear He’s the Center of the Universe (1993).
I had actually forgotten about this album, because it was so overshadowed by Truth and Soul and Reality….. When I put it on I wasn’t expecting much (Fishbone had something of a precipitous decline around this time). So, I was amazingly delighted with how much I remembered this album and how much I enjoyed it (which shows to me that I must have listened to it a lot back in college).
SOUNDTRACK: THE GO! TEAM-Thunder, Lightning , Strike (2004).
The Go! Team have a new album out and so I dug out their first to see if I liked it enough to check out the new one. This first one is such a weird album. It feels intensely like what I would call a joke album. There are cheesy horns, crazy samples of cheerleaders cheering, and hooks hooks hooks! It all sounds like the soundtrack to the best 70s action TV show that never existed. And yet the whole thing works so well. It is just so damned catchy. I listened to it about 3 times today and never got sick of it.
SOUNDTRACK: THE ATARIS-So Long, Astoria (2003) & THE STARTING LINE-Say It Like You Mean It (2002).
THE ATARIS-So Long, Astoria. I am only reviewing this CD because of the circumstances in which I acquired it. Driving out of my driveway this morning, I was surprised by a shiny thing in my lawn. It turned out to be a CD. This one. Indeed, someone had thrown this CD out of their car (I assume) onto my lawn. [Later inspection uncovered two more CDs, one by a band I didn’t recognize and the other a burned CD with no writing on it… I can’t WAIT to see what it is!] So, anyhow, I had not heard the Ataris before, but had heard of them. And the record is okay. It’s sort of generic pop punk, meaning it is really catchy and fairly fast and I probably would have loved it if I were 18. Or maybe 16. This also features the cover of “Boys of Summer” that I remember hearing on the radio oh so many years ago. The only distinguishing feature of the song is they change the lyrics to a “Black Flag sticker on a Cadillac.” Otherwise, not much else of note.
SOUNDTRACK: NADA SURF-High/Low (1996) & The Proximity Effect (1998).
High/Low. This CD features the “novelty” hit “Popular” from some years back, you remember, the spoken word bit about trying to impress your high school sweetheart by washing your hair “every two weeks, once, every two weeks.” The song is pretty great, even after the novelty factor has worn off. However, you may feel that you got screwned (see What I Learned… (5)) if you thought the rest of the record would sound like that. For the most part High/Low is kind of forgettable, and a surprising lead off point to what are some really fine follow-up albums. Overall the sound is, not quite murky, but very samey. So that even the catchy parts sort of blend together. It was not until their next album that they start to show some great songwriting.
The Proximity Effect. As I understand it, when Nada Surf didn’t produce a hit like “Popular” for their second album, the label dropped them. Which is typically short-sighted because The Proximity Effect is a much better album. In fact, it contains a song akin to “Popular” called “Mother’s Day” but it is so much darker–almost the anti-“Popular.” It too has a spoken word type vocal, and yet the song is an anti-rape song. A dark subject to be sure, but the guitar riff is so great it stays in your head, and you wind up thinking even more about the song. The first four songs really break Nada Surf out of the sameyness of High/Low by introducing high notes! It really cracks through the grungy sound by including some contrast. However, it’s the next album, Let Go, that really shows Nada Surf taking off.
I Just Read About That... 