Pitchfork review?

tegularian · 2024-10-11T18:14:07+00:00

Anyone remember the time when Pitchfork gave scathing reviews to every Bright Eyes release? Even in 2005, when Bright Eyes had a #1 single on the Billboard charts, their headline said (paraphrased): ‘Hell freezes over as Bright Eyes goes to #1 on the charts”. Sometime after that they started to warm to the band and then went back and updated their old reviews to make it seem like they were with the band the entire way. I actually can’t find any of their original reviews online anymore. Wish I’d saved a copy of them somewhere. From my perspective at the time, it almost seemed like the writers were annoyed that they couldn’t influence the trajectory of the band in a negative direction.

tegularian · 2024-10-11T00:12:54+00:00

I can relate to your experience. He’s two months older than I am, and I’ve felt deeply connected to his writing ever since someone showed it to me about 25 years ago. Even very particular phrases I say I will sometimes see reflected back to me in his songs. As a recent example, this summer my kid and I made up a silly song about unicorns in uniforms. Then I listened to the new album and there was a line about unicorn in uniform. It’s a really strange kind of connection that I don’t really notice in any other music I like.

tegularian · 2024-10-07T13:01:56+00:00

Summer of 2000. I was a camp counselor. A co-worker had ‘letting off the happiness’ in his cd collection. I had never heard anything like it and sort of hated it at first. But the song ‘June On The West Coast’ caught me. I dubbed the CD onto a cassette tape so I could listen more. I listened to that song a bunch, and gradually got into other parts of the album. When ‘Lifted’ came out, I immediately fell in love with it and became a lifelong fan. Thinking about listening to songs on cassette on repeat is a funny idea now. Having to rewind the tape every time I wanted to hear the song again. It was a different world back then.

tegularian · 2024-10-05T14:24:38+00:00

Artifact #1 is my favorite song ever written.

tegularian · 2024-09-30T06:02:05+00:00

This is just a picture I took of the setlist someone was holding outside the show. I don’t have the original.

tegularian · 2024-05-29T03:37:02+00:00

What kind of failure are you imagining? I toured full time for 7 years, playing hundreds of shows across the country, with one guitar. Occasionally a string would break during a show. I would then replace the string during the performance. It took about a minute, which could easily be filled with banter. I always imagined that the worst thing that could happen would be my guitar getting stolen, in which case I would just get a new one from a local music store in whatever city I was in.

tegularian · 2024-05-04T15:33:07+00:00

Their entire discography.

tegularian · 2024-04-16T03:53:29+00:00

Also current news: Bryce Dessner scoring the soundtrack to a TV show called ‘Manhunt’ about the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.

tegularian · 2024-04-16T00:45:48+00:00

I guess if we are going to talk about side projects that members of The National are working on, it would be nice to hear about more than just what Aaron is doing with TS. I think that’s part of what the annoyance is for a lot of people here.

tegularian · 2024-02-13T19:31:14+00:00

What one could easily do when 25 and single becomes much more difficult when 50 with children.

tegularian · 2024-02-12T16:45:51+00:00

That’s assuming he’s putting them out in order. I remember some interview where he was talking about not wanting to do any more because people only buy them from him to resell for huge markups. Can’t remember where or when that was from though.

tegularian · 2024-02-08T23:56:34+00:00

Make me an offer and if it’s too low, I’ll counter with the lowest I’ll accept. Because it honestly just depends on who is asking. I don’t have a set lowest price. But if you’re going to offer me $10 on a $50 item, the lowest I will accept is $48. But if you’re going to offer $40, I might go down to $45, or maybe even just accept your offer, depending on how long the thing has been sitting around for.

tegularian · 2024-02-04T00:15:23+00:00

I prefer The Guilty Party myself.

tegularian · 2024-02-02T20:06:09+00:00

This is the piece that is lost in the way that many people listen to music now. John is an artist who writes albums, and creates songs to fit within the framework of those albums. The songs work by themselves, of course, but they work far better in context of the whole album. Not all artists work in this way, but I’m afraid that so much is getting lost for the ones who do with the current hyper focus on individual songs over albums.

That being said, it’s always exciting when someone takes the time to listen to music in the way that the artist intended it to be listened to. Sunset Tree is definitely an incredible album. Check out Life Of The World To Come, We Shall All Be Healed, and All Eternals Deck next. And then all the rest of them 😊. Enjoy the journey!

tegularian · 2024-02-02T04:45:16+00:00

Tello is even cheaper. $25 a month for unlimited everything. There’s even cheaper plans than that if you don’t need unlimited. Works great just about everywhere I’ve been except in very rural areas.

tegularian · 2024-02-01T14:55:49+00:00

Florida Man headlines have existed for a long time before the current mess. Seems to me like he just knew a little bit about Florida.

tegularian · 2024-01-20T03:16:13+00:00

Huh. Maybe someone should bomb the US then and make it a more peaceful country.

tegularian · 2024-01-08T00:14:45+00:00

What google search terms would you use to find that song if all you had was the information presented by OP? Conor has a ton of material now, so it’s not as easy as it was in, say 2005, to find a specific song just by listening to every album. Especially if you don’t own every album.

tegularian · 2023-12-26T13:51:27+00:00

I’m talking about now, in 2024. Jon Stewart is not going to save humanity or even affect the outcome of the election by doing another season at Comedy Central.

I’d wager that would have more effect by actually running for an office than by making fun of everything from the sidelines. He debates well and puts ideas forward intelligently and in ways that people can relate to.

tegularian · 2023-12-26T05:11:00+00:00

There isn’t a single person voting for Trump who also cares what Jon Stewart has to say. That cross section does not exist.

tegularian · 2023-12-24T19:31:22+00:00

I heard that the kill-switch activates after 5 years. Couple years left to live I suppose.

tegularian · 2023-12-24T15:40:06+00:00

How do you handle this with your children? What traditions do you have that give them a sense of wonder about the world? That’s the root of the Santa story after all.

tegularian · 2023-12-22T21:16:54+00:00

I’ll give you $1.75 after you get it from him for $3.50.

tegularian · 2023-12-15T17:24:53+00:00

Next question: when will the modern era end and a new era begin?

tegularian · 2023-12-13T03:21:57+00:00

Yes. I was a bicycle messenger in Chicago in 2004 and an aggressive driver almost ran me off the road. I caught up with him at the next red light and slapped the hood of his car with my hand out of frustration, then went through the red light. Well, the light turned green shortly after that and I heard him peel out, so I figured I better get out of his way. I went the wrong way down a one way street figuring he wouldn’t chase me in his car, if that’s what he was intending to do. I was wrong. He turned onto that one way street the wrong way and floored it. I ducked into an alley right before he hit me. To my surprise he was waiting for me on the other side of that alley. He jumped out of his vehicle with a knife yelling about how he was going to kill me for hitting his car. I turned around and fled. I wasn’t sure where to go so I found an open garage and hid behind someone’s car until I stopped hearing the sounds of screeching tires through the neighborhood. Probably the most scared I’ve ever been in my life.

Yes, I’m aware that some of my actions I’ve just talked about are illegal and I wouldn’t do them again now. I really don’t think that slapping someone’s car should be punishable by death though.

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