7.1.13
I finished Dylan Jones' Biographical Dictionary of Popular Music, and although I'm less enthusiastic about it than I was when I first started reading it, it's still got enough good stuff in it for me to recommend it to others. One problem was the many, many glaring omissions——although I enjoyed some of the lesser known artists that he spent time on, if you're going to give something a name like "dictionary" that implies some level of comprehensiveness, you can't skip over major acts in the area you've chosen to cover.

Another big issue was the very long and very intenst mini-biographies of some artists that I just didn't care that much about. Maybe this is my own issue——I could have just skipped over those entries if not for my OCD completionist tendencies——but I really didn't need to read that much about Sammy Davis Jr. and Shirley Maclaine (two of the many Rat Packers who got more than their fair share of ink).

There was also a lot of stuff that was clearly written off the cuff with minimal editing, rewriting, or research. In that way it was very much like reading a blog that had been translated to book format warts and all. He would repeat some of the same thoughts, occasionally almost word for word in different entries, and sometimes even within the same entry if it was long enough. It didn't happen often enough to be grating, but it did happen frequently enough that you noticed it.

But there was some really great stuff in there, and overall it was a fun read. If you posess the ability to skip past the longer entries that are no interest to you, it will be all the better.

7.2.13
Now that I've finished the Dylan Jones book, I'm starting on a biography of R.E.M. entitled Perfect Circle, written by Tony Fletcher, the same music journalist who wrote the biography of the Smiths that I read earlier this year and enjoyed so much. I'm only a little ways in, but it's fun reading about a band that has such a strong connection to the place I now live, and to start to understand how Athens, which I've visited many times since moving to Atlanta, became the cultural icon that it is now.

7.3.13
The fact that I've spent so much time writing about other people writing about people who make music instead of writing about music itself should tell you all you need to know about the current drought of good new music releases...

7.8.13
In the book I recently finished reading by Dylan Jones, The Biographical Dictionary of Popular Music, he made constant reference to the Clash's song "Complete Control". I couldn't remember that one off the top of my head, so I dutifully went off to iTunes to re-listen to it.

Only it wasn't there. Turns out I only have the UK edition of the Clash's self-titled album, and I never realized just how different the two versions were——five tracks on the UK edition were deleted and replaced with songs that had only been released as singles in England. Digging around in my Clash collection, I also realized that I had never reaquired Give 'Em Enough Rope on CD, so that and the American edition of The Clash were immediately purchased (and immediately downloaded thanks to Amazon's AutoRip feature, which gives me the physical edition of many older CDs for cheaper than the digital-only version but the immediate gratification of being to download the tracks as soon as I buy the CD).

I still like the UK version better, but I feel complete now. And that matters a lot to someone with my mostly-under-control compulsions.

7.9.13
Working my way through R.E.M.'s catalog as I progress through their biography. The post-New Adventures albums are going to be tough...

7.10.13
of Montreal have given a release date for their new album, lousy with slyvanbriar, and also shared a track, "fugitive air" (and yes, all the titles appear to be intentionally lower case for this release):

This sounds a lot like the 60s-inspired guitar pop of their first few records when they were solidly part of the Elephant 6 collective (the records before I really started listening to them——the remnants of this sound were still present in the earliest album I own from them, Satanic Panic in the Attic, but they were already hinting at the experiments with electronic/dance music that would take over their sound for the next several records), and I'm honestly not sure how I feel about it. It's a decent listen, but not all that challenging, and I find myself sort of tuning out the way I do the more average tunes on Satanic Panic. As someone who has come to realize that Skeletal Lamping is my favorite of Montreal record, I'm not sure how much this one is really going to be for me.

I mean, I've already preordered it and everything because I'm such an of Montreal nut——I'm just hoping the rest of the record is a less predictable.

7.11.13
Islands have just announced a new record due out this fall, Ski Mask, and have shared the first single, "Wave Forms":

I loved loved loved the Unicorns lone album, and thought Islands' debut, Return to the Sea, was a good way to pick up where that release left off and rope in some of the weirder impulses (not that I wouldn't have minded more Unicorns weirdness, but the two songwriters could only apparently stand each other just long enough to record that one album together).

Since then, however, nothing has really resonated with me——Vapours was better than Arm's Way, but they were both pretty mediocre, and I was so unimpressed with what I heard from A Sleep and A Forgetting that I didn't even buy it. But "Wave Forms" sounds promising, the most like the tracks I loved on Return to the Sea since that album, and if there are even a couple more like this on Ski Mask, it will likely end up in my library.

7.12.13
Here are the best of the monthly offering of 100 MP3 albums for $5 from Amazon——or at least the ones that are available as of this writing.

Must-haves: the Police's Synchronicity, Prince's Purple Rain, and Radiohead's Amnesiac.

Definitely worth it: Gorillaz' Plastic Beach and the Decemberists' The Crane Wife.

Albums I'm considering: Daft Punk's Musique Vol. 1 (I don't think I'm ever going to be a Daft Punk fan, but it's probably worth spending $5 on a best-of collection to be sure), Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique, The National's The National, Massive Attack's Blue Lines, and Mos Def and Talib Kwali's joint project Black Star.

7.15.13
I finished A Perfect Circle, the comprehensive biography of R.E.M. that has now been expanded to include details of their decision to break up and their last days together as a band. It was a pretty good read overall——my only real complaint is the rose-colored look at the post-New Adventures in Hi-Fi years.

As a longtime fan who, despite my disappointment with their more electronic influenced direction after Bill Berry's departure, still bought every album except for the absolutely dreadful Around the Sun, those albums just don't stand up to the early work. Not even close. And not even close to their last two albums, which returned, if not to the sound of their heyday, then at least to the pop/rock sounds of some of their most popular records like Document, Green, and Out of Time.

The author, however, holds up some of this late career, very middling work as not only decent, but in some cases their best efforts, the biggest and most egregious example of which is that Reveal, the second album made after Bill Berry retired, is as good as Automatic for the People, the album which is likely the consensus for the best album of R.E.M.'s post-fame career (for me, New Adventures edges it out, but that might be because there were so many classic songs on Automatic that there's less left to discover on new listens).

I mean, seriously: Reveal is nowhere close to being Automatic's equal——it's hard for me to even argue that it's the best album of their electronica wilderness period——but the author repeatedly makes this assertion. I attribute some of this to the fact that he's British, where the press remained effusive in its praise and the record buying public remained loyal to the band long after many of their American counterparts had abandoned them, and some of this to the fact that, for a reporter, he's been a relative insider for over two decades now and certainly has a personal relationship with band members (especially Peter Buck) that likely colors his appraisal of their work (the band members themselves also seem to have a higher opinion of their later work than they should).

Still, it was a book I'd recommend for all R.E.M. fans, especially those not familiar with the early part of their career.

7.16.13
LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy is the producer behing Arcade Fire's upcoming record (which apparently has an official release date but not an official title), which I'm moderately excited about. First, because this is his first major project since disbanding LCD Soundsystem, and second, because if there's anyone who can make me fall back in love with Arcade Fire again, it's James Murphy.

7.17.13
No Age has shared another track, "An Impression", from their upcoming record An Object:

The last track they shared, "C'mon, Stimmung" was more what I think of when I think of a No Age track——noisy, catchy, weird——but its tempo almost made it feel almost like a Japandroids track. "An Impression" might be the most chill thing they've ever released, and although sonically it's very different than "Things I Did When I Was Dead" (a favorite of mine), the vibe kind of reminds me of that song.

In case I'm not being clear about this, I like "An Impression" a lot.

7.18.13
I finally broke down and bought the first two Pretenders albums on CD, mostly because, like a lot of records from that period, they are available for only $5.99 from Amazon and are part of the AutoRip program, so I get to download them immediately. Not only that, when I loaded them into iTunes Match, they were identified as the remastered versions from 2006, and one of them included a whole bonus disc of outtakes and demos (even though the physical copy of the CD I bought is the original mastering with no bonus tracks).

I'm not loving them as much as I had hoped I would, but I am enjoying them, and I have a feeling I'll hit a threshold with them where I'll suddenly fall deeply in love. I just need to keep listening.

7.19.13
I somehow missed this, but a few weeks ago Kathleen Hanna's Julie Ruin project (originally a pseudonym she adopted for a single album between Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, which anticipated a lot of what she would do with Le Tigre, but now a band name properly referred to as The Julie Ruin) shared "Oh Come On", the first track from their upcoming debut, Run Fast:

I'm trying to figure out where this fits into her catalog. It doesn't bear a lot of resemblance to the original Julie Ruin album, which was more introspective and pretty clearly the work of someone working alone, but it doesn't quite feel like Le Tigre either.

The music itself is pretty good, but the lead vocals are irritating, and seemingly intentionally so (and this is coming from someone who has a high tolerance for mediocre singers or singers who think screaming is a valid form of emoting). Maybe if they were buried a little deeper in the mix I could tolerate them better, but they're right up front where you can't really hide from them.

Still probably going to buy this record——I'm a pretty big fan of most of the Le Tigre records and of the first Julie Ruin project——but I hope these vocals aren't indicative of what I'll have to endure on every track.

7.22.13
Another track I missed a couple of months ago: MGMT's "Alien Days", which was their Record Store Day release and which will also appear on their upcoming self-titled album:

I was pretty into their debut album, Oracular Spectacular, but felt like they got way off course with their sophomore effort, Congratulations. But this song gives me renewed hope: it's chill and weird and cool in the way that some of the best tracks on their debut were. I think I'm still going to need to hear the whole record before I commit o buying, because Congratulations had a couple of good tracks that were in no way reflective of the rest of the album, but I'm encouraging by what I hear on this track.

7.23.13
Faye Hunter, the founding bassist for Let's Active, apparently committed suicide over the weekend. This was one of my favorite bands in high school, especially Big Plans for Everybody, and their catalog is still worth revisiting.

They were a North Carolina band through and through, and although a lot of their national visitbility came from having R.E.M. producer Mitch Easter as their frontman (the only time I ever saw the band, they were opening for R.E.M. at Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium on the Lifes Rich Pageant tour).

I don't know much about Hunter's life story, but I'm much more empatheic towards people who commit suicide than I used to be, so all I can do is miss the part of my youth that she represents and hope that, as much pain as she must have been in to even contemplate such an act, she's feeling less pain now.

7.24.13
On the fence about buying Savages' debut, Silence Yourself. There's some stuff that sounds good, but all too often I get this creeping feeling like I did with the xx or Interpol or other recent bands heavily influenced by the gothier side of 80s British postpunk——I'm drawn to that sound still, but there's something about it that just reads as unauthentic, the same way that an ultrarealistic videogame just quite get your brain to stop realizing that it isn't real. There are just too many nuances that can't be copied, and when you're purposely aping something, if you can't get those nuances right, the whole thing just feels wrong.

This could eventually end up in my collection, especially if it shows up for $5 on Amazon at some point, but for now, I'm taking a pass.

7.25.13
Amazon is definitely updating their previously-monthly selection of 100 MP3 albums for $5 from Amazon more than once a month now (although theirst of the month does still seem to be a constant switchover point). I looked at the list again today to find that all of the ones I recommended (and wanted to buy) from a couple of weeks ago has vanished, to be replaced with an entirely new set. So I guess the lesson here is that my recommendations are only good as of the day I post them, and if you see something you want, you better grab it while you can.

Anyway, here are my recommendations from the current set. The only must-have is the Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, but also recommended, especially at this price, are Nine Inch Nails' With Teeth, Death Cab for Cutie's Narrow Stairs, and Eleanor Friedberger's Personal Record.

I'm considering purchasing Sigur Ros' Takk, Rogue Wave's Nightengale Floors, Future Bible Heroes' Partygoing, and Iggy Pop's Lust for Life.

7.26.13
I'm entering another Frank Ocean phase. It's been just over a year since Channel Orange came out, and I'm dying for some material. I'd even be happy if he put out a complilation of all the non-album stuff he has floating around out there that I'm too old to be able to find on the internet.

7.29.13
Speaking of Frank Ocean...we're getting a decent ways into the release calendar for 2013, and it's looking like, just as with Ocean's free debut album Nostalgia, Ultra., one of my favorite records this year could be another free download from an up and coming hip hop artist, in this case Chance the Rapper's Acid Rap. I've probably listened to this 20 times or more, and it keeps getting better every time I hear it.

I don't really understand the economics of releasing one or two or three albums completely for free as a career-building exercise, but it means I get great records like this without having to pay, I can't argue with it too much.

7.30.13
TV on the Radio have shared a new single, "Mercy":

Not digging this one at all after a couple of listens. Early on it sounds like a ripoff of Tom Petty's "Runnin' Down a Dream", and then it turns into...something worse. My hope is they're releasing this a single not as a teaser for their next album but more as a holdover while fans wait for the new record. In other words, I hope this song is not on the next full length and isn't representative of that album.

7.31.13
Another month, and still no best-of album list for 2012. I'd be embarrassed if anyone else in the world actually cared about this.