There is nothing like the ethereal monotonal droning of bow on string to amplify the dismal cacophony of human tics, our collective bodily disquiet.
Music
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Fagen’s Critical Catalogue (September 2013, Part 1)
This week, reviews of Vampire Weekend, Janelle Monaé, The Weeknd, and Neko Case.
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Fagen’s Critical Catalogue (August 2013, Part 2)
This week, reviews of J Cole, The-Dream, Robin Thicke, and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes.
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Fagen’s Critical Catalogue (August 2013, Part 1)
In part 1 of this month, reviews of Bombino, the Civil Wars, Deerhunter, and Savages.
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Margins of Error: Chelsea Light Moving
From the mid-’80s to the late ’00s, every few years Sonic Youth would come out with an excellent album. Their consistency and reliability are very nearly unmatched by anybody else in music: they have fifteen in total, well over half of which are worth owning. For their many fans, it became normal to keep expecting new albums to be released, regular therapeutic dosages of abrasive guitar rock.
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Fagen’s Critical Catalogue (July 2013, Part 2)
It’s Alternarock Week at Critical Catalogue Headquarters with reviews of the Yo La Tengo, My Bloody Valentine, Adult, and Laura Marling.
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Fagen’s Critical Catalogue (July 2013, Part 1)
In part 1 of this month, reviews of the So So Glos, Portugal the Man, Deafheaven, and Kanye West.
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For Ai Weiwei, Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word
We’ve been through this before. I’m a HUGE Ai Weiwei fan. He somehow continues to send out beautiful and challenging transmissions from behind the bonefart razor wall of oppression and torture that is the Chinese government. He was a 100 percenter as far as I was concerned, from intention to viewpoint to execution. Always on, never sorry. And then the music started. Golden art god, interrupted.
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Fagen’s Critical Catalogue (June 2013, Part 2)
In part 2 of this month, After Dark 2, The National, Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba, and the Rough Guide to African Disco
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Fagen’s Critical Catalogue (June 2013, Part 1)
In part 1 of this month, Chelsea Light Moving, Balquees, Brad Paisley, and Tyler the Creator.
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Skrillex: The 100th Greatest Guitarist of All Time
Everyone who said Skrillex was a novelty, a fluke, a parody, a caricature, a passing fad, the last straw, a new low, the most ridiculous music to ever hit the charts, the most ridiculous music to ever hit your eardrums, a one-hit wonder, oops-make-that-a-two-hit-wonder, or a man with bad hair was probably right. But he’s also the most important electronic musician in America.
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Fagen’s Critical Catalogue (May 2013, Part 2)
In part 2 of this month, reviews of Draft Punk, the Knife, Matuto, and Paramore.
