NPR is turning my mom into a corny indie fuxx

dad is 63 and looks like neil young.

mom emails $$

Yeah, I was gonna say. Is this that 'regressing' thing I've heard about?

Adamrl, you're cynical. Oh I know.

My dad (65) shocked me recently by admitting that he keeps his XM tuner almost exclusively on the techno channel. "After 15 years of listening to you talk about it and hearing your records, I finally get it!!!" he said. If I go home and he's sucking on a pacifier, we will be having words.

the nice thing w/ hey ya is it killed the burgeoning jangle hop fad.

Only if he's waving a glowstick though. (And if he's wearing a diaper just back out quietly.)

Request for Urgent Indie Music Fan Relationship

I am your mother -- as well as the group managing director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and a member of the ad hoc committee set up by the federal government of Nigeria to review contracts awarded by the past military administration between 1985-1993. The members of the committee are interested in the importation of goods into the country with the funds presently floating in the Central Bank of Nigeria/Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) foreign payments account. And corny American indie music.

Our request is anchored on our strong desire to establish a lasting business relationship with you and your company, and to listen to shitty indie-rock on NPR. We hence solicit your partnership to enable us transfer into your account the said funds and to purchase Shins CDs. You have been recommended to us in confidence and we were assured of your ability and reliability to prosecute business transaction that require maximum confidentiality and a fast Internet connection to download indie mp3s.

Origin of Fund

This fund is presently floating in the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) foreign payments account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). This is as result of grossly over invoiced contracts which were executed for the NNPC during the last administration in Nigeria, and are presently under verification. To this effect, the present administration in Nigeria set up an adhoc committee to identify, scrutinize and recommend for payment all valid contracts that have been fully executed. In the course of our assignment, we have identified a lot of misappropriated and inflated funds which are presently floating in the suspense account of the Central Bank of Nigeria ready for payment. The companies who executed their contracts have been fully paid. It is now part of the over inflated sum of USD25,320,000.00 that we intend to transfer into the foreign account. I should also add that all of the members of this adhoc committee are Franz Ferdinand fans, son.

My son, I have therefore been mandated as a matter of trust by the members of the committee to look for a foreign partner into whose account we could transfer the sum of USD25,320,000.00 (twenty-five million, three hundred and twenty thousand US dollars) only, and obtain recordings of music from the most obscure American indie bands. Hence I am writing you this letter. We have agreed to share the funds thus:

(1) 65% for us (the committee members) and
(2) 25% for account owner (you)
(3) 10% to be used in settling taxation and all local and foreign expenses that will be incured in the course of this transaction.
(4) The latest Decembrist Plan CD.

It is from the 65% that we wish to commence the importation busines. Please note that this transaction is 100% safe and guaranteed since the law under which our committee was set up has empowered us to disburse all the funds found to be floating in the Central Bank of Nigeria redundant account from 1985 till date. We shall commence the transfer of the funds immediately we receive the following information by telefax: (number omitted):

(1) your company's name and full address
(2) your banker's name, address, telephone and fax numbers
(3) the account number and name of beneficiary.

The above information are to enable us put up letters of claim and job description to the respective ministries for the issuance of the mandatory fund release approval/recommendations. This way, your company will become recognised and accepted as the beneficiary of the contract entitlements before the final remittance to your nominated account by the Central Bank of Nigeria being the paying bank. As well as having excellent taste in indie rock.

We are looking forward to doing this business with you and solicit your absolute confidentiality in this transaction. Please acknowledge the receipt of this letter using the above telefax numbers for more details regarding the transaction.

Yours faithfully, MRS. MITCH DUB

N.B. This letter is being sent by ordinary mail for confidentiality purpose. Also, please remember to bootleg those Shins concerts at school, or I will not pay your tuition any more.

FOR REAL! One of his friends is Masta Ace's father-in-law and he is constantly sending me Masta Ace news by e-mail and asking me if I want to interview Masta Ace! And telling him that I really liked Masta Ace's last album only made things worse.

That...is....fucking....awesome.

Yr dad is cooler than us.

(to my dad's credit, he kept turning it back up to an audible level, heh)

I fucking fear some gene in me that's going to cause me to snap ten years later that's going to make me renounce my entire musical upbringing, only to buy greatest hits CDs by Lee Greenwood and Andrew Gold.

I think Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan is all the crossover in musical taste we have.

Leonard Berstein & NY Philharmonic - "Mahler 2"
Pink Floyd - "The Wall"
One of the James Brown live albums, don't remember which one.
Steely Dan - "Can't Buy A Thrill"
Vanilla Fudge - s/t, I think
Dave Brubeck Quartet - "Take 5"

my parents love that song too!

Hot!

And he keeps nagging me to listen to the Interpol and Wilco live recordings in the archive section...

since my grandmother liked "beautiful" music (what elevator music was called before burt bacharach became hip and all), i wonder what she would think about stereolab. (will never know b/c granny is dead.)

"You've probably never heard of ALTERNATIVE ROCK BAND THE SHINS. But now thanks to a surprise hit INDEPENDENT MOVIE, you'll be hearing a lot about them."

"The Shins are an ALTERNATIVE ROCK BAND, but some of their ALTERNATIVE FANS worry that they're SELLING OUT"

I've also never seen the movie, so I was a bit shocked by the idiotic-sounding direct plug Portman's character gives in the movie: "It's this band The Shins. Listen to it, it will change your life (etc. etc.)"

ppppspsssAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

My dad tracks anything new that's pop country and western. My mom just likes whatever. (This is how I got her into Aphex Twin.)

I dunno, wouldn't he take that as a compliment?

I still cringe a little when she says "Ludacris is so FUNNY," with that slight Jewish mother twang.

I dunno, wouldn't he take that as a compliment?

-- Ned Raggett (ne...)

Hurting's mom OTM.

-- jaymc (jmcunnin...)

Of course she is, but I can't help but cringe nonetheless.

Has any one here done a review of a group's cd on NPR?

GENE SIMMONS y'all!

I actually really liked the way Terry Gross did the interview, as funny and awkward as it sometimes sounded. She always sounds a little embarassed at her (ahem) "whiteness" and yet willing to get past that embarassment.

yr mom's just trying to be nice and talk about something she thinks you might be interested in...i think that's pretty cool.

But my mother's really young so I don't think that counts...

While I kind of like Greg Kot, nice guy, pretty smart, I was sort of embarassed for him, at least based on the little pull quotes they used for the piece. I'm he sure he actually had some interesting things to say that they didn't include. But here's a grown man assessing "indie cred" and talking about "hey man, they have to get paid" and "DIY" uggghhhh ... rock journalism.

Kevin Whitehead on Fresh Air is awesome though. Big ups to tha KW

I played my mom Pinback once.. one of their "hits", and she told me.. "How can you call this music? They can't even make melodies or sing.".. then proceeded to play her Alan Jackson CD.
-- donut debonair (do...), April 7th, 2005 1:02 PM.

No offense or anything DB, but I would seriously listen to five hours of Alan Jackson before I'd listen to Pinback.

Exactly. Besides, I don't think The Shins have been "DIY" for a very long time. It was almost like he just had this ready-made statement for any indie band.

I played Future Sound of London at my parents once and mum said "ooh i like this, this is interesting". Usually, they have at me for playing my "funeral dirges" (ie, the bloody Cocteau Twins, or Dead Can Dance).

Stormy, my mom is single ;)

(KIDDING! KIDDING!)

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

It's time for your comments and, today, they're about Diplo.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "EXPRESS YOURSELF")

DIPLO: (Singing) Express yourself. Express yourself. Express yourself. Express yourself. Express yourself. Release your (unintelligible).

CORNISH: My conversation with the world famous DJ this week sparked a conversation among listeners at NPR.org. The gist of that conversation was this: Many of you expect smart music coverage from us about classical releases, jazz certainly, even the work of a 14 accordion orchestra.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

CORNISH: But Diplo is not the kind of music that some of you expect or want to hear from ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

CORNISH: Lance Glousky(ph) of Guadalajara, Mexico, is not alone when he writes: The staff of NPR seems mostly like sane adults. Why can't they use some taste when choosing this stuff? Could anyone really like this music without being on amphetamines at a rave?

And G.Q. Lewis(ph) from Charlotte, North Carolina, writes: I typically don't provide negative feedback, but perhaps we've grown apart. NPR, where are you now? Where did you go? I miss my old friend.

Well, as we said, there was a conversation online and there were Diplo defenders. Among them, Chris Thompson(ph) of Rochester, New York, who writes: I find it hilarious that you people are tuning in to a show called ALL THINGS CONSIDERED and getting upset at the fact that they're considering all things.

Those are exactly the kind of comments I hear in my head when the NYer publishes SFJ articles.

Release your (unintelligible).

Haha that reminds me of my boss at an old job who always played XRT, Chicago's sort of adult-alternative station, in the office. Anyway, back when they regularly started playing Moby on that station he called in to them all jovial like he was old friends with whomever picked up the phone saying, "Come on guys, you really aren't going to continue to play this absolute trash on your station are you?". I mean, I'm no Moby defender, but it was pretty hilarious.

A middle-aged partner at my firm the other day asked me what bands I was listening to lately, and then he asked if I liked the Shins or Broken Bells. I just said that I knew them but that I had kind of fallen out of touch with new music. He's a pretty cool guy, but it was still awkward somehow.

I think what I had actually been listening to most recently was Zs, which would have been too hard to explain.

God, feel like I've heard on a few occasions NPR doing a "several of you voiced complaints about our coverage of artist/s yesterday" and it is almost always some irritating, stodgy boomer (I would guess) bullshit being voiced. Whoever they are, they're the worst fucking people ever.

Aging "open-minded" boomers in not at all being open-minded non-shocker.

wow you guys are still raging against the baby boomers huh?

my mom is awesome. she likes linda rondstadt and kenny rogers and CCR and christmas music and shit like that.

it's funny too cuz diplo is basically an ILX punching bag in other contexts.

I don't really blame boomers for not wanting to listen to Diplo. I don't think it's so much a matter of open-mindedness as getting old and feeling more sensitive to fast, noisy music.

Which is also kind of why I don't get a lot SFJ reviews in the NYer, because it's like "Just face it, you are not going to get your readership to like this stuff except the young part of it that probably already knew the music before it was reviewed here."

I'm not so much faulting the boomers for not liking Diplo, but for actually taking the time to complain about it to NPR. Just, I don't know, suck it up, not every single new artist will be specifically tailored to your personal tastes. Chalk this one up as a miss and move on.

Well some older folks like it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9jXbp1jAZg

I heard the piece on Diplo, who I don't really listen to, and found it an interesting overview. But hearing the piece made me feel really old because his music was grating beyond belief. Every goddamn note was so loud. The vox were LOUD. The beats were LOUD. The synths were LOUD. There was no dynamics to anything, and I can't imagine how anyone can listen to that without getting really exhausted. Kids these days.

old people complained about rock n roll being too loud too yknow

I have no intention of ever listening to Diplo, fwiw

diplo isn't that young! he's like 33 or something

okay but 33 isn't exacltly old either lex

I liked diplo's first album, which sounds like endtroducing pt. 2

old people complained about rock n roll being too loud too yknow

Maybe, but waveforms of Bill Haley and the Comets won't look like a solid brick.

Yes, because waveforms were such a pressing issue for Bill Haley.

yeah I know, I'm familiar with the loudness wars etc nonetheless by this point it's a well established generational pattern for kids to like things louder than their parents. if it's too loud you're too old etc.

I think poliopolice's brain might explode if listened to the first Sleigh Bells record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSOSxXhoYn8&feature=relmfu

See sometimes in indie rock circles I feel like an opposite generational thing where stuff feels so wimpy to me compared to the 90s

Like botched mastering aside

Yes, because waveforms were such a pressing issue for Bill Haley.

The waveform represents how you experience sound. It's not irrelevant even though they might not have talked about in the same way we're talking about it.

See sometimes in indie rock circles I feel like an opposite generational thing where stuff feels so wimpy to me compared to the 90s

― wack nerd zinging in the dead of night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, June 15, 2012 1:35 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

seriously tho

definitely true in terms of rock music

well even in rap, it's almost like you must be an old retro head if you wanna hear rappers yell on the mic and for producers to use big booming drums

Which is also kind of why I don't get a lot SFJ reviews in the NYer, because it's like "Just face it, you are not going to get your readership to like this stuff except the young part of it that probably already knew the music before it was reviewed here."

― eggleston or instagram? (Hurting 2), Friday, June 15, 2012

I don't agree. As long as he has that platform and his editors do not mind, he should write about what he finds of interest, whether a stereotypical NewYorker reader is expected to like it or not.

it's almost like you must be an old retro head if you wanna hear rappers yell on the mic and for producers to use big booming drums

wait waht

Waka not enough for you

ha i heard this last night and was wondering if it would be brought up here! nothing like some olds quipping about "amphetamines at a rave" to get ilx defending diplo

I'll take Diplo over more typical All Things Considered crushes like the hideously sunshiney Regina Spektor, but NPR currently has a not-bad to sometimes awes range, especially some of the live/archived concerts (Newport coming up again next month) and new albums. Need to check Fiona's Idler Wheel again, but some of it got me instantly, and I'm really into Neneh Cherry & The Thing's The Cherry Thing (some of the sax solos go on too long, but don't bother the overall momentum)
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/10/154159413/first-listen-neneh-cherry-and-the-thing-the-cherry-thing?ps=mh_fl

i went through a srs "liking diplo and hollertronix" phase way back there in two thousand and something. baltimore club music! money studies! spank rock even. caught some flak for it hereabouts, but that shit was enjoyable. still like his MIA album. gave up when the novelty buzz wore off, perhaps not coincidentally when he started "discovering" rapping children from australia

NPR should throw the video for "Pon De Floor" up on their website if they REALLY want the complaints to roll in

Spank Rock's first album is totally fun

I like how most of our NPR discussions devolve into trying to figure out what exactly we find off-putting about the tone of NPR. It's usually not fully articulated.

It's like when people talk about a mutual friend and the tone is always "he's a cool guy, but I don't know..."

we like you but we're ambivalent about you too, npr

Well, as we said, there was a conversation online and there were Diplo defenders. Among them, Chris Thompson(ph) of Rochester, New York, who writes: I find it hilarious that you people are tuning in to a show called ALL THINGS CONSIDERED and getting upset at the fact that they're considering all things.

this is kind of top-shelf.

Ha ha yeah cunga so otm

we like you but we're ambivalent about you too, npr

Title of LCD's eventual comeback single.

i went through a srs "liking diplo and hollertronix" phase way back there in two thousand and something. baltimore club music! money studies! spank rock even. caught some flak for it hereabouts, but that shit was enjoyable. still like his MIA album. gave up when the novelty buzz wore off, perhaps not coincidentally when he started "discovering" rapping children from australia

― contenderizer

diplo did like 2 tracks on that album iirc. not that i care.

i mean piracy funds terrorism

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/how-all-songs-considereds-bob-boilen-went-from-tiny-desk-to-tastemaker/2016/04/08/354beb44-e492-11e5-bc08-3e03a5b41910_story.html

“I’m one of the people who didn’t care for Michael Jackson,” he says. “Talented, yeah, but there are so many other people that will never get their voices heard, and it’s so cool to be able to find the ones you connect with. I just try to find music that makes me think, ‘This needs a champion.’ ”

Many of the acts he loves, such as the Low Anthem and Taken by Trees, fall into the category of indie rock. And he’s been criticized more than once for his indifference to country and hip-hop in particular. Frannie Kelley, co-host of NPR’s “Microphone Check” podcast with rap icon Ali Shaheed Muhammad, was asked to create an “All Songs Considered” for rap music, but she declined. “We said we didn’t think hip-hop needed that, nor was recommending new rap music something that took advantage of either of our skills and assets,” Kelley says. “We said we would make something where we spoke with people in the culture.”

Boilen invited Kelley to his show a handful of times, before and after “Microphone Check” existed, but not to talk about the show. He wanted them to recommend new rap music to his listeners, “songs that he approved,” she says. “I couldn’t do the work I wanted to do within the context of his show. ... You can’t challenge Bob on his show. Ali and I had to create our own show to make NPR Music great.”

Boilen has acknowledged that he tends to play “music that speaks to me,” and his “lack of love for hip-hop, country, classical and metal stand out as big holes in our coverage.” He’s tried to fill them by inviting people with eclectic tastes such as Kyp Malone from TV on the Radio to play DJ. When Kelley suggested the NPR Music team invite hip-hop artist T-Pain to do a Tiny Desk show, Boilen was open to it. T-Pain’s October 2014 appearance is still the most-watched Tiny Desk performance, with nearly 9 million views on YouTube.

But Boilen doesn’t apologize for his tastes. In response to an email from a listener with the subject line “All Indie Rock Considered?,” he once wrote, “I won’t fake what I do when I host the show.”

tiny desk is painfully bad

I like when others (not Boilen) at NPR pick acts for it. Anthony Hamilton was great

Tiny Desk is good when it has good artists and bad when it doesn't. I don't understand how the entire thing can be described as "painfully bad."

long legs

Tiny Desk is good when it has good artists and bad when it doesn't. I don't understand how the entire thing can be described as "painfully bad."

― JWoww Gilberto (man alive), Friday, April 22, 2016 10:49 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah there's been great ones

The Dirty Three & the Sun Ra Arkestra performances were both great

Oh man, need to see those.

I liked the T-Pain one. They're kind of like nicer versions of standard in-studio radio performances -- the room sounds good and it's intimate.

i'm sure if i watched one of a band i liked it would be ok (you got me!) but c'mon the whole concept is hair-raisingly cutesy and early-00s indie sincere, the intimacy is so forcedly quirky 'oh how endearingly cluttered this office is'. and the curation, like the music they choose to play in this nauseatingly hungry for authenticity environment is all folky trembling indie vocalists and like wholesome alt-bluegrass bros and pop punk. also t-pain aside i feel like they adhere to what thing of like, only black artists if they play in a style that was popular 3 or more decades ago whats up with that

well and the whole point of the t-pain thing was steeped in language of authenticity, like "oh he can actually sing"

you seem fun

that said while i love microphone check i think its a little silly to abdicate critical advocacy of artists & songs, its not like indie bros will stop advocating for their favs

xp Well there are other exceptions to that last point, although looking at the list overall you may be onto something. But on the whole it seems like modern "NPR taste" is relatively broad enough that there is some good stuff in there. The name "Tiny Desk" is annoying but I don't really mind the setting, honestly it's nicer than just looking at carpeted studio walls and a bunch of gear.

i feel like they adhere to what thing of like, only black artists if they play in a style that was popular 3 or more decades ago whats up with that

That's Boilen. See the quote from the Post article above. He has also rationalized things by saying most rap and r'n'b is too foul-mouthed for npr. I wouold be fine with Boilen booking stuff he likes if they also let the folks who do the "Microphone Check" thing and the folks who do the alt-latino and the jazz online NPR stuff also have an equal hand in picking music for Tiny Desk. They only occasionally do

well and the whole point of the t-pain thing was steeped in language of authenticity, like "oh he can actually sing"

― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Friday, April 22, 2016 2:08 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

the jazz ones are often good. Christian Scott, Matt Ulery, etc.

Yeah the acoustics sound very good for jazz too imo.

obviously it's playing off of all things considered, but the name of the show should be Bob Boilen's Fave Tunes or something. all songs considered makes it seem like it'll be a wide ranging genre-free zone, which it isn't.

i guess i don't really care about the series as a series or what i means or w/e i've just watched specific ones with artists i already liked and i like it mostly because it's really really well engineered soundwise

We used the Steve Gunn Tiny Desk as an object lesson for our young teenager: this is how stoned people look and act. Great set, btw.

yeah what UMS said

yes.
wonder what the original poster's mom is into these days -- deep private press new age shit?

I love the original post

This song popped into my head tonite; I haven’t thought of it in 10 years (....bet you haven’t, either) —

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgBeu3FVi60

To the thread topic -- my mom sometimes emails me links to "Tiny Desk Concert" performance videos... usually I'm already aware of the band (or not interested), though that is how I first encountered Car Seat Headrest (of whom I later became a real fan). "Thanks, mom!"