Happy Halloween

The politics of welfare

Dean Baker’s post is thorough but rife with redundancies and typographical errors. Paul Krugman does yeoman’s work in breaking down the lies issued by a particularly gross Washington Post article published today. Gross because an American who knows nothing about how the government pays for Social Security would take this for gospel. What the GOP

Money’s too tight: Margin Call

Margin Call is a movie about lizards that ends with a chimp burying a dog in his backyard. The metaphorical chimp is Sam Rogers (Kevin Spacey), the mid-level apparatchik of an unnamed Wall Street investment firm whose humanity is defined by his affection for a cancer-ridden dog (the only important scene, save one in Brooklyn,

Singles 10/28

The Jukebox debate over the politics (and semiotics) of the word “geronimo” overlooked how an act as divisive recorded an album’s worth of erratically rhythmic war chants. I mean of course Justin Bieber. Kidding. Look at my single of the week. tUnE-YarDs – Gangsta (8) Kate Bush – Wild Man (7) Aura Dione – Geronimo

Flame on, burn, desire

Heave-ho: Tom Waits’ Bad As Me

A musician whose first album purchased remains the prohibitive favorite, Waits hooked me with 1992’s Bone Machine, a clanking, clattering, nightmare that mitigates its Southern gothic cornpone and oleaginous melodic sense with consistently fresh percussion. Hooked me, but didn’t keep me; last year Rain Dogs finally revealed itself as the turning point album its reputation

Fourth quarter update

How the year looks so far: Pistol Annies – s/t DJ Quik – The Book of David Destroyer – Kaputt Britney Spears – Femme Fatale Serengeti – Family and Friends Marsha Ambrosius – Late Nights and Early Mornings Frank Ocean – Nostalgia, Ultra Shabazz Palaces – Black Up Raphael Saadiq – Stone Rollin’ The Mountain

The limits of fandom: “indie adult contemporary”

Welcome to indie adult contemporary: But if there is a consensus about what counts as respectable, adult music in 2011, [Wilco, Neko Case, Bon Iver, and Feist] are surely a part of it: While more people consider pop music inherently silly than enjoy it, few assaults are leveled at the seriousness or artistic value of

A Sunday prayer.

I must try harder to like John Foxx-era Ultravox.

Happy Saturday

Singles 10/21

Miss B takes this by default: nothing on this week’s list matches her panache, avidity, and talent for excellent gif captures. Beyoncé – Countdown (9) Emile Sandé ft Naughty Boy – Daddy (7) T.I. ft. Big K.R.I.T. – Flexin’ (6) The Wanted – Lightning (5) J. Cole – Work It Out (6) The Horrible Crowes

C’est plus chic

A double dose of Chic mystique: today’s NYT story in advance of guitarist-songwriter-producer Nile Rodgers’ memoir and a recent entry in The Guardian‘s “My Favorite Album” feature praising the elegance of 1979’s Risqué. Forgetting for a moment that Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, singly and collectively, have created — in every sense — a half