Monthly Archives: November 2013

50 Best Debut Singles in Music History? Do You Agree?


The Clash’s “White Riot” comes in at #8.

Today Flavorwire offers up what they say are the 50 best debut singles in music history. Given that #1 is the Bad Brain’s “Pay To Cum,’ I’d say this list, like all such lists, is a big dodgy. Still, you might enjoy disagreeing. Or not.

1. Bay Brains, Pay To Cum”
2/ Azealia Banks, “212″
3. Bauhaus, “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”

4. Boys Next Door, “Shivers”
5. Kate Bush, “Wuthering Heights”
6. Tracy Chapman, “Fast Car”

7. Neneh Cherry, “Buffalo Stance”
8. The Clash, “White Riot”
9. Leonard Cohen, “Suzanne”
10. The Cure, “Killing an Arab”

For the rest of the list, head to Flavorwire.

Final Velvet Underground Song A Tribute To Sterling Morrison

The remaining three members of the Velvet Underground — Lou Reed, John Cale and Maureen Tucker — performed this tribute to Sterling Morrison at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame awards dinner in 1995. The Velvets were inducted into the Hall of Fame that night.

Is Damien Hirst Bankrolling Banksy?

Street art by Banksy.

Is twelve million dollar sharp-man Damien Hirst funding Banksy? That’s what Daily Beast writer Lizzie Crocker theorizes today.

Crocker writes:

Despite this ostensible aversion to personal fame and publicity, Banksy agreed to be featured in Hirst’s 2006 show at the Serpentine Gallery in London, “In the darkest hour there may be light.” Speaking to The Guardian about Banksy’s work, Hirst praised the pseudonymous graffiti artist. “I’ve always thought he was great. The streets are boring…anyone like Banksy who makes it entertaining and treats people like people instead of consumers is brilliant.”

It was the beginning of a collaboration that has fueled rumors about Banksy’s identity and associations—particularly amongst those who speculate that “Banksy” is in fact a sort of performance art collective funded by art world mandarins.

For more, head to the Daily Beast.

Watch: Video Of Bruce Springsteen, Roger Waters Is Online From Stand Up For Heroes Concert

You can watch the Bruce Springsteen and Roger Waters performances now.

Springsteen starts at two hours, twenty-four minutes.

Roger Waters starts at one hour, thirty-one minutes.

Bob Dylan “Interactive Video” Teaser

Over at bobdylan.com a mysterious teaser for a “Like A Rolling Stone” interactive video has shown up in the “News” section of the site.

There’s no other info so far.

Dylan fanatic that I am, I’m curious.

Stay tuned.

Update! Watch the video here.

Meanwhile, why not give this a listen:

St. Vincent Reviews Arcade Fire’s “Reflektor”

Photo via The Talkhouse.

St. Vincent checks in with a fascinating review of Arcade Fire’s new one at The Talkhouse.

This crazy review starts like this:

Google search #1: Madonna “Like a Virgin” bass sound.
(The bass sound on “We Exist” vaguely reminded me of Madonna’s 1984 classic Like a Virgin.)
Result: Sequential Circuits Prophet 5
(Unconfirmed and will likely need to follow Nile Rodgers on Twitter and hope he @replies to my query directly.)

Unsatisfied, I contacted Jeremy Gara (Arcade Fire drummer) and asked what they’d used for the bass. Turns out it was NOT a Prophet but a Korg MS-20 — the vintage kind, not a new one or Reason, nerds! He even sent me a picture of the exact one! I was glad to have one pressing matter settled, but I continued down a Madonna rabbit hole and downloaded The Immaculate Collection. No “Oh Father”?????? Grievous oversight, Sire Records.

Related search: Is Seymour Stein still alive?
Result: Yes.

“FLASHBULB EYES” IS SUPER SICK AND DUBBY! KING TUBBY?! KING DUBBY?! AM I THE ONLY NON-STONED PERSON TO EVER MAKE THAT PUN?

For the rest of the review, head to The Talkhouse.

A Consideration of Joni Mitchell On Her Birthday

Today, November 7, is Joni Mitchell’s birthday, and to celebrate, Alex Macpherson has written a cool tribute for The Guardian.

Macpherson’s essay begins:

When it comes to confidence in one’s own talents, few can touch Joni Mitchell. When asked about a new generation of folk singers in 1990, she responded: “I don’t hear much there, frankly. When it comes to knowing where to put the chords, how to tell a story and how to build to a chorus, most of them can’t touch me.”

There was an irony to her entirely justified ego, though. It is her insistence on undercutting truisms and mythologies that makes her commentary so biting and her confessionals so piercing. What compels Blue, Mitchell’s 1971 masterpiece, is not so much raw honesty as the scientific precision with which she dissects herself – setting what she wants to believe against what she actually believes. It’s fitting that the album ends in a cynic’s stalemate: on ‘The Last Time I Saw Richard,’ she crafts a conversation in which the narrator and her former friend are both correct about each other and also lying to themselves.

For more head to The Guardian.

Meanwhile, give “The Last Time I Saw Richard” a listen:

Graphic Novel Publisher Fantagraphics Gets Kickstarter Funding

Graphic novel publisher Fantagraphics, facing a cash flow problem, turned to crowd-funding website Kickstarter and has raised $100,000 in two days, The Guardian reports. Cool.

Among Fantagraphics’ catalog are graphic novels by Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez, Joe Sacco, and Daniel Clowes.

“Using the catchline ‘We won’t sell out, so we need YOU to buy in’, the publisher called on readers and fans to help finance 39 graphic novels and books in its spring summer 2014 catalogue,” The Guardian reports.

For more of the story, head to The Guardian.