art pop.

In Los Angeles opening acts at concerts often operate as performance art pieces as well. #PARQUETCOURTS

— turbo grafx. (@OneTokenBlack) February 29, 2016

Can I take a minute to talk about the end of the opening act's set at the Parquet Courts show I attended last night?

Okay?

Cool.

So, this dude came on the stage and performed for about 20, 30 minutes.

A one man animal collective channeling Kid A in a white tee and jeans. Very nondescript. So much so that when he walked onstage to set up and begin his set it took a good minute or two before many of us realized he was the opening act and not a member of the stage crew.

So anyway, decent set. Good rhythms. And then right before the last "song" he lets a drone sound echo and reverberate throughout the concert hall.

Then he grabbed a giant white bucket.

His set piece was a mic and a single drum kit that he beat with one hand while singing his set.

At some point in the noise he removed the drum set's top. I missed this. Could not and did not miss the glitter paint like goo he began to pour into the now open drum kit.

Then he climbed the baby ladder that had been ignored the entire set until now.

Drone noise still going. No vocals. No speaking.

And then, from the ladder's mountain top he began dropping drumsticks (SO MANY DRUMSTICKS! WHERE DID THEY ALL COME FROM ALL OF A SUDDEN?!).

Yes, he began dropping drumsticks into an open drum kit filled with glitter goo from the top of a baby ladder. In silence. As drone noise played. He dropped like 10 to 15 sticks into this kit.

And then the noise stopped and he came down and waved.

It. Was,

...Something.

During the set I got my bond on with a black male photographer/concert blogger around my age. We both turned to each other, exchanged "what the fuck was that?" looks, and agreed that we definitely needed another drink after that.

Good times, Highland Park.

Good times.

ebony & ivory.

a moment of clarity.

juicy fruit.

mood.

stone cold.

a video.

starring demi lovato. 

been to the moon.

a video.

starring corinne bailey rae.

superheroes.

a video.

starring chief keef & a$ap rocky.

sunday.

starring iggy pop & josh homme. 



ROLLING STONE: Hear Iggy Pop and Josh Homme's Winding, Scorching 'Sunday'

black on both sides.

FILE UNDER: a moment of clarity.

THE WASHINGTON POST: America has locked up so many black people it has warped our sense of reality

a moment of clarity.

words. 

"Let’s be clear: Trump is no fluke. Nor is he hijacking the Republican Party or the conservative movement, if there is such a thing. He is, rather, the party’s creation, its Frankenstein monster, brought to life by the party, fed by the party and now made strong enough to destroy its maker. Was it not the party’s wild obstructionism — the repeated threats to shut down the government over policy and legislative disagreements; the persistent call for nullification of Supreme Court decisions; the insistence that compromise was betrayal; the internal coups against party leaders who refused to join the general demolition — that taught Republican voters that government, institutions, political traditions, party leadership and even parties themselves were things to be overthrown, evaded, ignored, insulted, laughed at? Was it not Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), among many others, who set this tone and thereby cleared the way for someone even more irreverent, so that now, in a most unenjoyable irony, Cruz, along with the rest of the party, must fall to the purer version of himself, a less ideologically encumbered anarcho-revolutionary?

 ...Then there was the party’s accommodation to and exploitation of the bigotry in its ranks. No, the majority of Republicans are not bigots. But they have certainly been enablers. Who began the attack on immigrants — legal and illegal — long before Trump arrived on the scene and made it his premier issue? Who was it who frightened Mitt Romney into selling his soul in 2012, talking of “self-deportation” to get himself right with the party’s anti-immigrant forces? Who was it who opposed any plausible means of dealing with the genuine problem of illegal immigration, forcing Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to cower, abandon his principles — and his own immigration legislation — lest he be driven from the presidential race before it had even begun? It was not Trump. It was not even party yahoos. It was Republican Party pundits and intellectuals, trying to harness populist passions and perhaps deal a blow to any legislation for which President Obama might possibly claim even partial credit. What did Trump do but pick up where they left off, tapping the well-primed gusher of popular anger, xenophobia and, yes, bigotry that the party had already unleashed?..."

THE WASHINGTON POST: Trump is the GOP’s Frankenstein monster. Now he’s strong enough to destroy the party.

berlin got blurry.

a video.

from parquet courts.

fuck that's delicious!

episode one.

with action bronson. 

boom add.

starring m.i.a.



PITCHFORK: M.I.A. Takes on the NFL in "Boom ADD"

hate.

starring mannie fresh, juvenille, birdman, & lil wayne. 

 
PITCHFORK: Lil Wayne and Birdman Reunite on Mannie Fresh's New Track "Hate," Featuring Juvenile

omg x woman's world.

a video.

from bj the chicago kid & jay rock. 

fresh.

ARTSY: Amar’e Stoudemire Is Igniting a Fast Break for Emerging Art in the NBA

kevin.

a video.

from macklemore & ryan lewis + leon bridges.

meanwhile with kanye west...

THE RAP UP: Kanye West Debuts New Song ‘Closest Thing to Einstein’

being there.

with wilco & npr.

roxy.

starring follin.



PITCHFORK: Cults' Madeline Follin and Guards' Richie James Follin Start New Band Follin, Share "Roxy"

hxlt.

an album stream.

starring hxlt.



PITCHFORK: Kanye's G.O.O.D. Music Signee HXLT Streams Album

trophy.

starring charli xcx.

stream here.  

voodoo in my blood.

a video.

from massive attack. 

who am i.

a video.

starring katy b, craig david, & major lazer.

freddie gordy.

a video.

starring freddie gibbs.

singularity.

a video.

from new order.

 

the highline.

starring glitterbust. 



PITCHFORK: Kim Gordon's New Band Glitterbust Announce Debut Album, Share "The Highline"

"can we get much higher?..."

words.

for your consideration...

"...A theme has intensified, however, one that has been there since the beginning: bold declarations.

The boldest might have been “George Bush doesn’t like black people.” And Kanye’s mother was right, he did get flak for saying it. But he also became a heroic figure, the first of many times where Kanye’s more brazen actions were justified on the grounds of “Well, he’s not wrong.” Of course, there have been a lot of times when he was wrong. When Kanye tweets “BILL COSBY INNOCENT,” as he did a few weeks ago, you feel let down. And when he rationalizes referring to women as “bitches” as a term of endearment, you begin to question all the years of hanging on to this man’s every word. But there’s another side of Kanye happening right now — on Twitter and in real life. It’s not new, exactly, but it’s certainly revealing. “My number one enemy has been my ego,” he tweeted a few days ago. Amazing — he’s beginning to try to explain himself. The most interesting Kanye has never been boastful, blanket-statement Kanye. It’s Kanye on Kimmel, giving a lengthy monologue on creativity. It’s Kanye in an interview with Sway, attempting to explain the degree to which he’s studied fashion (and the frustration he felt when it closed its European doors in his face).

When Kanye is like this, the response to him changes. Overnight, it goes from “He’s a dick” to “He’s crazy,” or even “He’s not well.” As a public, we love to diagnose — it’s a convenient way to distract from our own problems. And, as Trump shows, we can be seduced by those pretending they have no problems at all. When someone complicated comes around, it makes us uncomfortable. Because there are few things more human — and messier — than not having it all figured out and saying that out loud..."

VULTURE: What Kanye Has in Common With Trump. And Martin Luther King.

work.

a video.

starring rihanna & drake.

america the beautiful.

FILE UNDER: a moment of clarity.

"I am so happy to have a black president [with a ] black wife." https://t.co/mToqPaX3Ye

— Broderick Greer (@BroderickGreer) February 22, 2016

a moment of clarity.

FILE UNDER: america.

"i miss south central."

FILE UNDER: interlude.

clearest blue.

a video.

from chvrches.

QUESTION!

UPROXX: Is Barack Obama’s Black History Month Joke The Blackest Moment In U.S. Presidential History?

WATCH: POTUS: "We know it is black history month when we hear someone say 'heeey, Michelle! Girl. You Look so good!"https://t.co/3u36Y3iede

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) February 19, 2016

a moment of clarity.

the big big beat.

starring azealia banks. 

i do.

starring bat for lashes. 



PITCHFORK: Bat for Lashes Returns With New Track "I Do"

where your girl at.

a video.

starring ilovemakonnen.

somebody else will.

starring tweet & missy elliot. 



SPIN: Tweet Just Dropped a Single With Missy Elliott, ‘Somebody Else Will’

99 cents.

an album stream

starring santigold. 

stream here.

youth without love.

starring har mar superstar. 

stream here.

good to love.

a video.

starring fka twigs. 

waves.

a video.

starring miguel & travis $cott.

victorious.

an album stream.

starring wolfmother.

stream here.

stand up & speak.

 starring dj dodger stadium.



L.A. WEEKLY: Kanye West Just Called DJ Dodger Stadium Up to the Big Leagues

and anotha one...

FADER: MikeQ Remixed "Formation" And It's Flames

sadie hawkins.

starring murderland. 

stream here.

plastic!

a video.

from seth bogart. 



THE PITCH: New King of Camp Seth Bogart on Turning Pop Music Into Pop Art

learn from each other.

a video.

from majid jordan.

action.

starring mavis staples. 



PITCHFORK: Mavis Staples Shares Songs Written by Nick Cave and tUnE-yArDs

l.a. girlz.

starring weezer. 

stream here.  

nocturnal.

a remix.

from disclosure.

"ain't that america!"

FILE UNDER: an ongoing discussion/moment of clarity.

words. 

"Racism divides the American political system, strengthening opposition to social programs and reinforcing a plutocratic agenda. This is the lesson to draw from new YouGov data, which reveals that most Americans wrongly believe African-Americans make up a majority of welfare recipients and are net “takers.”

...As political scientist Jason McDaniel and I have shown, racial resentment strongly predicts opposition to government aid to the poor and support for the Tea Party. Extensive political science research shows that racial animus strengthens anti-welfare views and motivates right-wing movements like the Tea Party.

 ...According to the YouGov survey, 41 percent of all respondents say the government does “a lot” to help black people, but this disguises deep partisan and racial divides. For instance, 48 percent of white respondents say “a lot” compared to 6 percent of black respondents. Similarly, 23 percent of Democrats say “a lot” compared with a whopping 66 percent of Republicans. On the other hand, only 27 percent of respondents say the government does “a lot” to help white people. Among white respondents, 16 percent said “a lot,” and 30 percent said government does “nothing.” Among black respondents, 68 percent said “a lot and 8 percent said “nothing.” And among Democrats, 43 percent said that the government helps whites “a lot,” compared with 17 percent of Republicans.

...The study makes it clear that American politics is still deeply driven by race. As Demos President Heather McGhee and scholar Ian Haney Lopez write, “In the post-war era, racism helped create the white middle class. Since the Reagan era, racism has helped destroy it.” They warn that progressives who worry about the weakness of the safety net often fail to appreciate that “racism has been the plutocrats’ scythe, cutting down social solidarity to harvest obscene wealth and power.” It’s clear that distorted views about who’s really benefiting from government spending remain widespread. For progressives to be successful, they need to fight these racist myths."

ALJAZEERA AMERICA: Racism undermines support for government spending

a moment of clarity.

words. 

"As ever, one of pop culture’s preeminent provocateurs was hanging over all this without actually being in the building. Kanye West’s valid complaints tend to get lost in his increasingly prolific stream of nonsense, but one of the most resonant points he ever made was this one from his 2013 New York Times interview: Despite winning an entire trophy case worth of Grammys in less than a decade, he had never sniffed any of the four major categories. Or as Kanye quasi-accurately put it, “I’m assuming I have the most Grammys of anyone my age, but I haven’t won one against a white person.”

I couldn’t help thinking about that as I watched his frenemy Swift take the stage to celebrate being “the first woman to win Album Of The Year twice.” That’s a big deal for women, and Swift is as deserving as any woman in the business. I wish she would have taken down Daft Punk in 2014, to be honest — give me Red over Random Access Memories any day. In a vacuum, a win for Swift is something to celebrate. But it felt wrong to see a low-stakes rom-com like 1989 carry the day over To Pimp A Butterfly, a universally recognized masterpiece that had meaningful things to say about these tumultuous times.

At this point we’re 12 years out from the last rap Album Of The Year (Outkast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below) and eight years from the last black Album Of The Year (Herbie Hancock’s soporific Joni Mitchell covers album). In a pop cultural context ever-more defined by hip-hop and young black sensibilities, that’s a ridiculous gap. But it’s not just a race thing or a rap thing. It’s not even an underground vs. mainstream thing so much as a need to acknowledge how much more expansive and electrifying the mainstream has become, how many mainstreams continue to proliferate outside the narrow and bizarrely gerrymandered borders the Grammys have drawn for themselves."

STEREOGUM: The Grammys, As It Turns Out, Are Still The Grammys

make me like you.

a video.

starring gwen stefani.

dedicated.

starring mavis staples. 



PITCHFORK: Mavis Staples Shares "Dedicated" Written by Bon Iver's Justin Vernon With M. Ward

golden gal.

starring animal collective.



PITCHFORK: Animal Collective Share New Song "Golden Gal"

i don't really care.

a video.

starring bilal.

amazing.

slow jamz.

with hudson mohawke.



COMPLEX: Hudson Mohawke Shares His Annual Valentine's Day Slow Jam Playlist

EARLIER:

SOUND & COLOR: THE ALBUMS, 2015: 15/hudson mohawke/lantern

formation.

FILE UNDER: a moment of clarity/america.

danger.

starring vic mensa.

make me like you.

starring gwen stefani.

sick.

starring wench. 



DAZED: Listen to ‘Sick’ by Wench

naked.

a video.

starring jason derulo & k.michelle.

thirty hours.

starring kanye west.



PITCHFORK: Kanye West Shares New Song "30 Hours," Adds More Songs to New Album The Life of Pablo

modern soul.

starring james blake. 



OKAYPLAYER: James Blake Bears His “Modern Soul” On A Gorgeous Surprise Single

jabba flow.

starring shag kava. 

PITCHFORK: Rick Rubin and A-Trak Remix J.J. Abrams and Lin-Manuel Miranda's Star Wars Track "Jabba Flow"

cosmic love.

a video.

starring mayer hawthorne. 

free drink ticket.

a (nsfw) video.

starring peaches. 

freak.

a video.

starring lana del rey & father john misty. 

summer breaking/daffodils.

a video.

from mark ronson & kevin parker.

i'm in control.

a video.

from alunageorge & popcaan.

we all fall down.

a video.

from a-trak & jamie lidell. 

stream here. 

together.

starring hxlt & kathleen hanna.



PITCHFORK: G.O.O.D. Music's HXLT and Kathleen Hanna Team Up on New Track "Together"

money cash hoes.

PITCHFORK: Freddie Gibbs Shares "Money, Cash, Hoes"

king city.

a video.

from majid jordan.

F Cancer.

a video.

from young thug.

perfect.

a video.

from tyler the creator. 

touch me interlude.

a video.

starring teyana taylor.

a moment of clarity.

words. 

"It is hard to describe the bittersweet sting that many African-Americans feel witnessing this national embrace of addicts. It is heartening to see the eclipse of the generations-long failed war on drugs. But black Americans are also knowingly weary and embittered by the absence of such enlightened thinking when those in our own families were similarly wounded. When the face of addiction had dark skin, this nation’s police did not see sons and daughters, sister and brothers. They saw “brothas,” young thugs to be locked up, rather than “people with a purpose in life.”

To be clear, no one laments the violence that the “crack bomb” set off in inner cities more than African-Americans. But while shootings, beatings and robberies cannot be tolerated anywhere, the heroin epidemic shows that how we respond to the crimes accompanying addiction depends on how much we care about the victims of crime and those in the grip of addiction. White heroin addicts get overdose treatment, rehabilitation and reincorporation, a system that will be there for them again and again and again. Black drug users got jail cells and “Just Say No.”

It would be cruel and perverse to seek equal abandonment of those now struggling with addiction as payback for the failures of the ’80s. Nor do I write in mere hopes of inducing cheap racial guilt. The hope, however vain, is that we learn from our meanest moments..."

THE NEW YORK TIMES: When Addiction Has a White Face

formation.

a video.

starring beyonce.

"this can't be life."

FILE UNDER: a moment of clarity/america.

mood.

the names.

a video.

starring baio (of vampire weekend).

so much it hurts.

white lines.

a moment of clarity.

words.

"Much of the energy on both the left and the right this cycle is coming from white Americans who are rejecting the direction of America and its institutions. There is a profound disappointment. On one hand, it’s about fear of dislocation of supremacy, and the surrendering of power and the security it provides. On the other hand, it’s about disillusionment that the game is rigged and the turf is tilted. It is about defining who created this country’s bounty and who has most benefited from it.

White America is wrestling with itself, torn between two increasingly distant visions and philosophies, trying to figure out if the country should retreat from its present course or be remade.

...Much of America’s past is the story of white people benefiting from a system that white people designed and maintained, which increased their chances of success as it suppressed those same chances in other groups. Those systems persist to this day in some disturbing ways, but the current, vociferous naming and challenging of those systems, the placing of the lamp of truth near the seesaw of privilege and oppression, has provoked a profound sense of discomfort and even anger.

In Sanders’s speech following the Iowa caucuses, he veered from his position that this country “in many ways was created” on “racist principles,” and instead said: “What the American people understand is this country was based and is based on fairness.” Nonwhite people in this country understand that as a matter of history and heritage this simply isn’t true, but it is a hallowed ideal for white America and one that centers the America ethos.

Indeed, the current urgency about inequality as an issue is really about how some white Americans are coming to live an experience that many minorities in this country have long lived — structural inequity has leapt the racial barrier — and that the legacy to which they fully assumed they were heirs is increasingly beyond their grasp..."

THE NEW YORK TIMES: White America’s ‘Broken Heart’

dust.

a video.

from parquet courts.



PITCHFORK: Parquet Courts Announce New Album Human Performance, Expand Tour, Share "Dust" Video

who's gonna miss me?

starring loretta lynn. 

stream here. 

EARLIER:

Tauwan's Top Albums 0f 2004: 9. Van Lear Rose, Loretta Lynn

hand in the fire.

a video.

from mr. oizo & charli xcx.

whatever happened.

 starring murderland. 

stream here.  

 

chains.

a video. 

from usher.

magic.

a video.

starring tweet.  

lying in the grass.

with animal collective. 

where the light gets in.

a video.

starring primal scream & sky ferreira.
PITCHFORK: Primal Scream and Sky Ferreira Vamp It Up in "Where the Light Gets In" Video

where do we go.

a video.

starring lion babe.