Friday, June 01, 2007:

Swedish pop and riot grrrls: in celebration of fun

Komeda -- Binario
Le Tigre -- After Dark
Is it a hyperacute critical sense or a complete lack of critical sense that leads to judging everything harshly, to watching a brilliant film or listening to a complex and demanding album and thinking it mildly interesting? What changes to cause a reassessment, to allow a three-year-old album or an eight-year-old album to register as what it is rather than what it was seen as needing to be? And why is that, in all the characteristics a work of art can be judged by, fun is typically considered the least pressing or, by some dour critics, even something to be merely tolerated? Why honor this Puritanical streak insinuating that only the unpleasant has merit, that life is duty and nothing more? Wouldn't (couldn't) humanism serve as a useful antidote?

A constellation of questions, all ones I don't know the answer to and put to myself more than to anyone else.

Which is by way of saying I've only just discovered I very much like these two bands, and I'm sad that Le Tigre is on hiatus but I'm happy they've left behing some discs worth listening to. And there are more from Komeda to search out.
[What Makes it Go?]
[This Island]

I don't know if anyone is still reading this site, especially given the sporadic nature of posts lately. I'd like to blame it on a new job and moving, but the truth is that I've become unsure of what I'm doing with the space or why. I remember having a clear purpose when I started (way back in the 13th century internet days of 2004)--to put together the kind of playlist I'd like to hear on the radio--and that still holds, but more and more I find I don't know how to write about the music I like the most. And so I find myself gravitating towards approaches which might not make any sense to anyone else, which leads back to fundamental questions about art and communication. I'm not ready to pretend solipsism.

Readers, what do you want from this site? Why do you read it? Which posts did you like and which did you dislike?

Labels: , ,

posted by Tuwa @ 12:16 | permalink |

Comments:
I like your taste dude!
Komeda are a major thing for me; I'm glad you found them. Drop me a line sometime; I have an offer for you I'd like you to consider.
∼ posted by Blogger John @ 12:39 PM, June 02, 2007  

I bookmarked your site because you pulled together intriguing mixes of songs and performers that I knew with more obscure recordings. You have a point of view that matters. I don't think your posts need to be complex, just current.
∼ posted by Anonymous Anonymous @ 12:57 PM, June 02, 2007  

i come to you to find things i've never heard before. though i like some of the tunes providing the soundtrack for the short short stories, i mostly like your simple reflections on music you love--your original intent, i guess. i visit all the time. i really understand the feeling that things get undirected over time. but whatever your direction, i've always enjoyed stopping by. just as you are.
∼ posted by Anonymous Anonymous @ 12:58 PM, June 02, 2007  

Oh yeah, one more opinion. Please change your masthead. The creepy film still is not cool anymore, just slightly off-putting. Just one man's opinion.
∼ posted by Anonymous Anonymous @ 1:00 PM, June 02, 2007  

Thanks, John. I just sent you an email.

Thanks for the comments, anonymous. I've changed the masthead back, and I've glad you've liked some of the more obscure tracks: it's heartening to find something you like a lot and share it with others who feel the same.
∼ posted by Blogger Tuwa @ 1:55 PM, June 02, 2007  

I changed the header again and reworked the color scheme; the drabness/austerity of old design has been bugging me for awhile now.

If anything needs changing about the new design, please don't hesitate to say so.
∼ posted by Blogger Tuwa @ 4:17 AM, June 07, 2007  

I've been coming here pretty regularly for maybe a year and a half. As far as music goes, everybody's got their thing that gets their foot tapping, and it all interacts and changes with your own complexity as you yourself grow and go through life, which you write about here and there, and that interacts with the ever changing music world itself, as you discover it, and it creates its own form of art, this music blog. And it's good for just having been as natural as life itself is.
∼ posted by Blogger Unknown @ 7:43 PM, June 07, 2007  

Thanks, Aaron. That's a kind and generous way of assessing mp3blogs and art in general, and probably one I should adopt. :-)
∼ posted by Blogger Tuwa @ 9:37 PM, June 07, 2007  

By the way, there were a couple of us "anonmouses" (mouses? hmmm.) We just happened to have similar good feelings about your blog. I was the one talking about the site's look. So I want to thank you for the change. I think it looks good. Warm and clean.
∼ posted by Anonymous Anonymous @ 11:45 PM, June 14, 2007  

You're right, anon. I did assume you were all the same person. ^_^

Thanks for the feedback; I'm glad you like the changes.
∼ posted by Blogger Tuwa @ 11:11 AM, June 15, 2007  

Just relax.

Do you think that what we now call "classical" composers sat around saying to themselves, "This Is Serious A-R-T"?

Their compositions (as is all "art") are a ecstatic blend of compulsion and joy.

Just let 'er rip. Yer doin' fine.

--Hawkster
∼ posted by Anonymous Anonymous @ 4:52 AM, June 28, 2007  

All right. Thanks, Hawkster.

I've been offline for two weeks as my ISP stumbles through what should be a routine change. Back now. Music post later today.
∼ posted by Blogger Tuwa @ 10:51 AM, June 28, 2007  

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