Tuesday, September 30, 2014

bang bang.

a video.

starring lady gaga.

foreigner.

with ryan adams.



STEREOGUM: Ryan Adams – “I Want To Know What Love Is” (Foreigner Cover)

no labels.

for your consideration...



STEREOGUM: Jaden Smith – “Blue Ocean”

everything will be alright in the end.


an album stream.

PITCHFORK: Stream Weezer's New Album Everything Will Be Alright in the End


pretend.

a video.

starring tinashe. 


why.

starring les sins (toro y moi’s chaz bundick) & nate salman.


our love.



an album stream.

starring caribou. 

STEREOGUM: Stream Caribou Our Love

happy idiot.

a video.

starring tv on the radio (and paul reubens).


aquarius.



an album stream.

starring tinashe. 

stream here.  

thievery.

a (nsfw) video.

from arca.





it girl.

a video.

from pharrell williams.


old 45s.

a video.

starring chromeo.


Monday, September 29, 2014

-INTERLUDE-

ten.

for your consideration...

words.

"We're going to make this magazine reflect our world, and our world is segregated, and we need to have that as part of the conversation.

Because, in truth, our entire lives are uncomfortable. America is segregated, even in urban centers like New York. This is a larger critique that needs to happen. We have, in publishing, created a space where we can exist in our own community. Ultimately, the long-term goal may be that these kinds of publications are not necessary, though I'm not sure that's the case. Assimilation is cool, but it has its downsides. Because for us, gay assimilation is moving towards whiteness, not celebrating as excellent anything that's happening in blackness.

Being black and being gay creates an interesting other space, because we feel like “others” in both of those larger communities, so we’re saying let's build our own institutions, lets support each other, let's create our own rules, our own sense of order. I think every society needs those things."

VICE: A Glossy Zine for the Black, Gay, and Talented

animals.

a video.

from maroon 5.



rollin' in the deep.

the aretha version. 



PITCHFORK: Aretha Franklin Covers Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" on New Covers Album

rips.


an album stream.

starring ex hex. 

stream here.  


...and star power.



an album stream.

starring foxygen. 

stream here.  

skulls.


starring royksopp.

stream here.


back to the shack.

a video.

starring weezer.

here.

nehruviandoom.


an album stream.

starring doom & bishop nehru.

stream here.  



yellow flicker beat.

starring lorde. 



PITCHFORK: Lorde Shares "Yellow Flicker Beat" From Hunger Games: Mockingjay Soundtrack

danny glover.

a video.

starring young thug.


crime.

a video.

starring mayer hawthorne and kendrick lamar.

wonder where we land.


an album stream.

starring sbtrkt.

stream here.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Friday, September 26, 2014

glory days.

starring carl barat and the jackals.



PITCHFORK: The Libertines' Carl Barât Announces Album With New Band the Jackals, Shares "Glory Days"

lonely girl.

starring weezer. 


coming attractions.

with action bronson.



PITCHFORK: Action Bronson and His Aunt Show You How to Make Albanian Pastries

low key.

a video.

from tweedy.


tommorrow's modern boxes.









here.

life jacket.

starring dj quik, suga free, & dom kennedy.


lean on me.

a video.

starring b.o.b.

new new.

a video.

starring ryan leslie. 


i don't think so.

a video.

starring buddy. 


why we fight.

a moment of clarity.

words. 

"Early in his term, Holder got a lot of flak for saying, in a speech on black history, that we were “a nation of cowards” for not confronting our racist legacy. Perhaps he could have chosen better words, but I suspect the sharp reactions were more a response to the truth he had articulated. We have a long way to go if we are ever to bring the criminal-justice system into line with its promise of equality before the law. Many will remember Holder for his about-face on trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in criminal court in Manhattan, or his run-ins with Congress over a gun-running investigation. But those were blips on the horizon. Holder’s real legacy lies in his refusal to be a coward on matters of race, and his courage in using the power and influence of his office to press the arc of our criminal law a little closer toward justice."

THE NEW YORKER: No Coward on Race 

SEE ALSO:

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Eric Holder's Legacy

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

nightcaps.

rhythm nation.

a moment of clarity.


words.

"There is something out of whack in America. Instead of promoting equality, public policy has left millions locked into lives of restricted opportunity while bestowing the benefits of growth on the very few.

 We know this and yet we let it continue.

 ...Not only has the wealth of the very rich doubled since 2000, but corporate revenues are at record levels. From 2000 to the present, quarterly corporate after-tax profits have risen from $529 billion to $1.5 trillion. On an annual basis, growth was from $2.1 trillion to $6 trillion in annual after-tax profits.

...The question is: Why don’t we have redistributive mechanisms in place to deploy the trillions of dollars in new wealth our economy has created to shore up the standard of living of low- and moderate-income workers, to restore financial stability to Medicare and Social Security, to improve educational resources and to institute broader and more reliable forms of social insurance?"

THE NEW YORK TIMES: America Out of Whack

one time for.

a video.

starring rome fortune. 


deja vu.

a video.

from cibo matto. 


pull it.

a video.

starring asher roth.


studio.

with kendrick lamar.



PITCHFORK: Kendrick Lamar Freestyles for Six Minutes on Power 106, Gets Interviewed

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

-INTERLUDE-

-INTERLUDE-

bad thing.

starring kiesza & joey bada$$.


do girls.

starring theophilus london.


i don't want to change you.


starring damien rice.

stream here.

snapped.

a video.

from cam'ron & two chainz.


the british are coming.


starring weezer.

stream here.

for your consideration.

 words.

"Compared with all past periods, American cities and suburbs are sweeter and more interesting places. Of course there are the problems of inequality and poverty that we all know about, but there hasn’t been a time in American history when so many global cultures percolated in the mainstream, when there was so much tolerance for diverse ethnicities, lifestyles and the complex directions of the heart, when there was so little tolerance for disorder, domestic violence and prejudice.

...I mention all of this because of the despondency and passivity and talk of unraveling that floated around this summer. Now there is a mood of pessimism and fatalism evident in the polls and in conversations — a lack of faith in ourselves.

It’s important in times like these to step back and get clarity. The truest thing to say is this: We are living in an amazingly fortunate time. But we also happen to be living during a leadership crisis, and a time when few people have faith in elites to govern from the top. We live in a vibrant society that is not being led.

We don’t suffer from an abuse of power as much as a nonuse of power. It’s been years since a major piece of legislation was passed, and there’s little prospect that one will get passed in the next two.

This leadership crisis is eminently solvable."

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Snap Out of It

whole damn year.

starring mary j. blige.



STEREOGUM: Mary J. Blige – “Therapy” (Co-Written By Sam Smith) & “Whole Damn Year”

"I agree with these statements."




words.

"...Too Bright is, by far, Hadreas' most extroverted album to date, a record about shattering illusions, defiantly looking away when you feel like it, and boldly staring back at those who hate you. It's also about personalizing your experience, and rejecting the clichés placed on it by outsiders. As Hadreas has explained, "A lot of these songs are me trying to claim some power in situations that would typically depress or alienate or victimize me...I've seen faces of blank terror when I walk by. Sometimes from seemingly strong, macho dudes—somehow my presence confuses and ultimately scares them. There is a strange power to it that I've only recently begun to understand and embrace..."

PITCHFORK: Perfume Genius: Too Bright. A Review.

perfume genius.



FLAVORWIRE: Perfume Genius, Angel Haze, and More Queer Music Icons for 2014

i.

starring kendrick lamar.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

my wrecking ball.

a video.

starring ryan adams.


kind of sometimes maybe.

 starring jessie ware & miguel.


breathe easy.

a moment of clarity.

words.

THE WASHINGTON POST: America’s B-minus economy

everyone and us.

starring peaking lights. 



PITCHFORK: Peaking Lights Share "Everyone and Us"

twice as hard.

a video.

from interpol.


partynextdoor.

with hudson mohawke and them.



PITCHFORK: Hudson Mohawke Brings Out Busta Rhymes, Flying Lotus as Captain Murphy During Boiler Room Set

smokin' & drinkin'.

a video.

starring danny brown.


jealous.

a video.

starring nick jonas. 


"game recognize game."

words.

for your consideration...

 "“First things first: I’m the realest.” This is the first line of “Fancy,” a single that has dominated the hip-hop charts since June. “Fancy” is by Iggy Azalea, a white woman from Mullumbimby, Australia, whose self-presentation—Barbie-doll tresses, callipygian glamazon physique, perfectly placed beauty mark—dares us to wonder what about her, if anything, is real. “I’m still in the murder business,” she continues, though this is clearly meant to be figurative. (Before she was in the rapping and modelling businesses, she was in the house-cleaning business.) The music video for “Fancy” is an homage to the movie “Clueless,” which was an homage to “Emma,” a comic novel about a calculating young gentlewoman. In interviews, Azalea speaks with her natural Australian accent; in “Fancy,” she raps the phrase “hold you doooown” in a bad pastiche of a Southern African-American twang, all pinched vowels and vocal fry. If this person is “the realest,” what can “real” possibly mean?"

THE NEW YORKER: Who Is “The Realest”?

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

another go round.

starring beat connection.


STEREOGUM: Beat Connection – “Another Go Round” (Stereogum Premiere)

see me on top 4.



a mixtape.

starring big k.r.i.t. 


jacksonville.


STEREOGUM: Ryan Adams – “Jacksonville,” “I Keep Running,” & “Walkedypants”

l.o.v.e.

with lupita & elmo.


a-list.

a video.

starring sisqo & waka flocka flame. 

goodbye, yellow brick road.

a moment of clarity.

words.

"Imagine two cities. In City A, town leaders notice that every few weeks a house catches on fire. So they create a fire department — a group of professionals with prepositioned firefighting equipment and special expertise. In City B, town leaders don’t create a fire department. When there’s a fire, they hurriedly cobble together some people and equipment to fight it.

We are City B. We are particularly slow to build institutions to combat long-running problems.

 ... it’s not just a failure of governance in Africa. It’s a failure of governance around the world. I wonder if we are looking at the results of a cultural shift.

...A few generations ago, people grew up in and were comfortable with big organizations — the army, corporations and agencies. They organized huge construction projects in the 1930s, gigantic industrial mobilization during World War II, highway construction and corporate growth during the 1950s. Institutional stewardship, the care and reform of big organizations, was more prestigious.

Now nobody wants to be an Organization Man. We like start-ups, disrupters and rebels. Creativity is honored more than the administrative execution. Post-Internet, many people assume that big problems can be solved by swarms of small, loosely networked nonprofits and social entrepreneurs. Big hierarchical organizations are dinosaurs.

The Ebola crisis is another example that shows that this is misguided.

 ...When the boring tasks of governance are not performed, infrastructures don’t get built. Then, when epidemics strike, people die."

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Goodbye, Organization Man

human voice.









an album stream.

stream here.

blank on blank.

with michael & janet jackson.



ROLLING STONE: Michael Jackson Talks Perfection, God in Odd 'Blank on Blank' Interview

wanna party.

a remix.



PITCHFORK: Future Brown (Fatima Al Qadiri, Nguzunguzu, J-Cush) Share "Wanna Party" Remix Featuring Tink, 3D Na’Tee, Sign to Warp

high & wild.

a video.

starring angel olsen. 


Monday, September 15, 2014

take u there.

starring jack u & kiesza.



STEREOGUM: Jack U – “Take Ãœ There” (Feat. Kiesza)

-INTERLUDE-

no love remix.

a video.

starring august alsina &  nicki minaj.


holy ghost.

a video.

starring jeezy.


in the house of yes.

 starring mr twin sister.


look away.

starring sbtrkt & caroline polachek.

here.


mr twin sister.



an album stream.

stream here.  



bang bang.

part one.

with beyonce and jay z. 

Saturday, September 13, 2014

don't be gone too long.

a video.

starring chris brown & ariana grande.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

say you love me.

a video.

starring jessie ware. 


a moment of clarity.

for america.

words.

"We can kill anti-American fighters and even their leaders, but we can’t kill anti-American sentiment. To some degree, every time we commit our forces in the Middle East we run the risk of further inflaming that sentiment.

For every action, there is a reaction. And there are also consequences, some of them unintended.

...When we invaded Iraq in 2003, about three out of four Americans approved of President Bush’s handling of the situation, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll.

Three years later, that approval had fallen by half. We don’t want to look back three years from now and ask, “What have we done?”

...We are doing this at a time when many of our roads and bridges are crumbling beneath us. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that we need to invest $3.6 trillion in infrastructure by 2020.

The Department of Agriculture released a report this month saying that the percentage of Americans who are “food insecure” (lacking “access to enough food for an active, healthy life”) has remained relatively unchanged (14.3 percent) since the numbers spiked during the recession in 2008.

...We are still arguing about the cost of the Affordable Care Act and Republicans are still wasting time and money trying to repeal it.

We, as Americans, must think long and hard about what it will really mean for us to engage in another foreign war and weigh that against the urgent needs we have right here at home."

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Cost of War

crush songs.



with karen o.


PITCHFORK: 5-10-15-20 Karen O

the power of yet.

with janelle monae. 


this is happening now.


starring parquet courts.

stream here.

trainwreck 1979.

a video.

starring death from above 1979.


trong song.

a video.

starring thundercat & eric andre.


mercy.

a video.

from boots. 


kick the can.

a moment of clarity.  

words. 

"As popularly conceived, however, the bucket list is far from being a reckoning with the weight of love in extremis, or an ethical or moral accounting. More often, it partakes of a commodification of cultural experience, in which every expedition made, and every artwork encountered, is reduced to an item on a checklist to be got through, rather than being worthy of repeated or extended engagement. Dropping by Stonehenge for ten minutes and then announcing you’ve crossed it off your bucket list suggests that seeing Stonehenge—or beholding the Taj Mahal, or visiting the Louvre, or observing a pride of lions slumbering under a tree in the Maasai Mara—is something that, having been done, can be considered done with.

This is the YOLO-ization of cultural experience, whereby the pursuit of fleeting novelty is granted greater value than a patient dedication to an enduring attention—an attention which might ultimately enlarge the self, and not just pad one’s experiential résumé.

...What if, instead, we compiled a different kind of list, not of goals to be crossed out but of touchstones to be sought out over and over, with our understanding deepening as we draw nearer to death? "

THE NEW YORKER: Kicking the Bucket List

my favourite fantasy.

 starring damien rice.



STEREOGUM: Damien Rice – “My Favourite Faded Fantasy”

trainwreck nineteen seventy nine.

LIVE.

with death from above 1979 and david letterman.



STEREOGUM: Watch Death From Above 1979 Bring The Wreckage To Letterman

Tuesday, September 09, 2014

rainy taxi.

a moment of clarity. 

words. 

"The steady deregulation of election financing has disenfranchised ordinary voters. Part of their disenfranchisement comes from the capacity of donors to remain unaccountable to the electorate at large. The combination of lax regulation by the F.E.C., weak oversight by the I.R.S. and a Supreme Court majority blind to the corrosive power of money in politics has created a system of campaign finance dominated by those with vast fortunes answerable to no one but themselves.

A two-class structure of election financing is emerging. The first is the traditional system of federally regulated individual contributions in which the small donor has become increasingly important. The second is the combination of “super PACs” and tax-exempt independent expenditure groups, including 501(c)(4)s, which together operate without limits and cater almost exclusively to those at the very top of the economic pyramid. Policing the hodgepodge of regulations, statutes and rulings governing elections has become virtually impossible. A kind of lawlessness prevails that is incompatible with the goals of democracy."

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Who Needs a Smoke-Filled Room?: Karl Rove, the Koch Brothers and the End of Political Transparency

-INTERLUDE-

the hilton.

a moment of clarity.

words.

"That’s what dominates our politics: a war to gain or maintain turf, not a battle for a better America. You see that in the negativity and political gyrations of the 2014 campaigns.

...But what are all these politicians running toward? I know more about what they want to destroy than about what they yearn to create. That’s partly because of all the campaign spending that’s funneled through outside groups, which tend not to produce inspiring ads for the candidates they support but blistering ones against the candidates they oppose.

The system is toxic that way, and seems to have only enough oxygen to recycle known people and ideas, not to introduce and nurture new ones.

...How a country so rightly anxious about the days ahead stays fixed in the days behind is the great paradox of the 2014 elections."

THE NEW YORK TIMES: American Horror Story

hands up.


starring vince staples.

PITCHFORK: Vince Staples "Hands Up"

inside out.

LIVE!

with Spoon & Dave Letterman. 





coming attractions.

 with mary j. blige.

where does this disco?

starring yacht. 


heigh ho.





an album stream.

starring blake mills.

stream here.

friendsmyabe.

starring rome fortune & ilovemakonnen.



PITCHFORK: Rome Fortune and iLoveMakonnen Team for "FriendsMaybe", Turn Into Puppets for Single Cover


grid.

a video.

starring perfume genius.


rambunctious.

starring beatking, danny brown, & riff raff.



PITCHFORK: Beatking Recruits Danny Brown and RiFF RAFF for "Rambunctious"

i'm not the only one.

a remix.

with sam smith & a$ap rocky. 



songs of innocence.


 with U2.



PITCHFORK: U2 Surprise Release New Album Songs of Innocence for Free on iTunes

where no eagles fly.

a video.

from julian casablancas + the voidz.


bend ova.

a video.

from lil jon & tyga.

bother.

a video.

from les sins (aka a "toro y moi side project").


rich homie quan.

words.

THE NEW YORKER: The Eternal Paternal: Bill Cosby’s never-ending tour.

Monday, September 08, 2014

put your number in my phone.

starring ariel pink.



THE FADER: Ariel Pink Announces New Double LP; Listen to "Put Your Number in my Phone"

love & happiness.

american style.

words. 

 "• “By increasing support for punitive policies, racial perceptions of crime have made sentencing more severe for all Americans. The United States now has the world’s highest imprisonment rate, with one in nine prisoners serving life sentences. Racial perceptions of crime, combined with other factors, have led to the disparate punishment of people of color. Although blacks and Latinos together comprise just 30 percent of the general population, they account for 58 percent of the prison population.”

 • “By increasing the scale of criminal sanctions and disproportionately directing penalties toward people of color, racial perceptions of crime have been counterproductive for public safety. Racial minorities’ perceptions of unfairness in the criminal justice system have dampened cooperation with police work and impeded criminal trials. In 2013, over two-thirds of African-Americans saw the criminal justice system as biased against blacks, in contrast to one-quarter of whites. Crime policies that disproportionately target people of color can increase crime rates by concentrating the effects of criminal labeling and collateral consequences on racial minorities and by fostering a sense of legal immunity among whites.”

There is no way in this country to discuss crime statistics without including in that discussion the myriad ways in which those statistics are informed and influenced by the systemic effects of racial distortion."

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Crime, Bias and Statistics

kiss and not tell.

a video.

from la roux.


higher.

starring sbtrkt & raury.



MISS INFO: New Music: SBTRKT Feat. Raury “Higher”

tragically alright.

starring ex cops & ariel pink.



PITCHFORK: Ex Cops Team With Ariel Pink on "Tragically Alright"

bodies made of.

a video.

starring parquet courts.


manipulator.

an (interactive) video.

from ty segall.



PITCHFORK: Ty Segall Shares Interactive "Manipulator" Video

where no eagles fly.




starring julian casablancas + the voidz.

PITCHFORK: Julian Casablancas + The Voidz Share "Where No Eagles Fly"

don't wanna dance.

a video.

starring elle varner & a$ap ferg.

month of sundays.

a video.

from metronomy.




fire like this.

starring boys noize & baauer.

THE FADER: Tourmates Boys Noize & Baauer Meet Halfway on "Fire Like This"

Saturday, September 06, 2014

words.

for your consideration...

"...we should talk as much about the way college can establish patterns of reading, thinking and interacting that buck the current tendency among Americans to tuck themselves into enclaves of confederates with the same politics, the same cultural tastes, the same incomes. That tendency fuels the little and big misunderstandings that are driving us apart. It’s at the very root of our sclerotic, dysfunctional political process. And college is the perfect chapter for diversifying friends and influences, rummaging around in fresh perspectives, bridging divides. For many students, it’s an environment more populous than high school was, with more directions in which to turn. It gives them more agency over their calendars and their allegiances. They can better construct their world from scratch.

...Mix it up.

That’s also how students should approach classes and navigate their social lives, because they’re attending college in the context not only of a country with profound financial anxieties, but of a country with homogeneous neighborhoods, a scary preoccupation with status and microclimates of privilege. Just as they should be girding themselves for a tough job market, they should be challenging the so-called sorting that’s also holding America back.

...Now more than ever, college needs to be an expansive adventure, yanking students toward unfamiliar horizons and untested identities rather than indulging and flattering who and where they already are. And students need to insist on that, taking control of all facets of their college experience and making it as eclectic as possible.

It could mean a better future — for all of us. And there’s no debate that college should be a path to that."

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Demanding More From College

groove theory.

FILE UNDER: -INTERLUDE-

-INTERLUDE-

FILE UNDER: Current Theme Music.

right now.

starring mary j. & disclosure. 



SLATE: Mary J. Blige Reunites With Disclosure and Sam Smith in “Right Now”

coverage.

w/sam smith & fka twigs.

PITCHFORK: FKA twigs Covers Sam Smith's "Stay With Me"

running away.

a video.

starring sabi.