www.fakejazz.com

Here’s a link to a music website, fakejazz, that I’ve been reading for awhile now, but which I’ve unfortunately never heard anyone else talk about. I was always somewhat mystified by it as it lists one of its homebases as Bryn Mawr, PA, right around the corner from my hometown of Springfield. I always wondered if maybe I would run into to one of the writers and have the mystery solved. Of course, I could just send them an e-mail and have all my questions answered, which I probably will do as soon as I finish this post.

Their coverage is sometimes inconsistent and erratic, and they often run distracting features, but a few years ago I didn’t think there was anywhere better to turn for coverage of psych music old and new, and interesting forays into the more experimental and avant-garde sides of ‘independent’ rock. Right now, I dig their newer feature ‘Cooler than You,’ which consists of mini-essays on the writers fav bands, some super-obscure, and the chance for the readership to rate and rank them. Last night, I unseated Camper Van Beethoven from the top spot by giving them an 8 out of 12 rating. I figure that any band ranked a 12 is a true classic, say, Syd Barrett-era Floyd, or Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys, or Nick Drake or something like that. CVB was a great band for their day, and definitely cooler than most bands around today, but only slighter better than average over the great expanse of rock history.

A fun exercise, and it has also inspired me to codify some of my thinking on rock in a form that I had never really considered before — exhaustive essays on individual bands and artists, either currently working or in the past. Two that immediately came to mind for me, in order to gauge the state of pop/rock today were Animal Collective and Xiu Xiu, which I might do soon. My goal would be to compile them into book of sorts at some point. I’m also influenced in this effort by reading literary criticism from the 17th and 18th centuries for the class I’m teaching now, and stuff like Plutarch’s Lives and Emerson’s book on great personalities. I will keep the blog posted.

Lazy Saturday

Somebody found my blog yesterday by searching “can a housecat kill a squirrel.” Like the Animal Collective search a few days back, serendipity.

Today, it’s 3:30 or so and I still haven’t even cracked a book, which is awful, but I did spend a good chunk of my morning listening to the Australian Broadcasting Co. radio program The Philosopher’s Zone, which is always worthwhile. The past few weeks have been great, especially last week on “where philosophy is now”, which starts off slow, but gets really great near the end, especially when the guest claims that poststructuralism/postmodernism is dying or dead as a philosophical movement. While I’m far from wholeheartedly agreeing with him on this matter, I think that he puts things in great perspective and reminds us of how underdeveloped and faddish recent continental philosophy can be (especially if it’s being discussed in an English dept.).

Anyway, now I need to go grocery shopping.