I've probably heard that song 100 times, and I never realized that Atomic Dog was the sample.

MY SUMMER VACATION IS ICE CUBE'S BEST SONG AND I WILL FIGHT ANYONE WHO SAYS OTHERWISE.

If Daft Punk wanted to avoid market saturation, they picked an interesting time to start.

True that. Which makes the fact that Merge is now a profitable, respectable indie who's won a goddamn album of the year Grammy all the more impressive. But I feel like most of the indie label issues arose out of the fact that they were created by punk rock types who didn't know the first thing about business and may…

Vague memories of a Kim Gordon interview where she discussed the irony of getting blatantly, thoroughly screwed by the most respected punk rock indie label of the day, only to subsequently sign for a major label run by a ruthless media robber-baron who treated them relatively fairly and honestly.

In all honesty, except for the word "seemingly," that entire first paragraph could have been copied straight from the press release that accompanied this album.

Had I done at least one of those things, I assume I'd be a more patient, forgiving person.

I've never done a junket interview, but I've witnessed them. They're pretty dire. A star sits in a room for a good 6-7 hours forcibly smiling, repeating the same answers over and over, and feigning geniality. Since a star has to do these for every major territory, we're talking more than a week of full-time junketing…

I love the way the photographer tries to cover his face after the "assault." Two possible reasons: 1. It's much harder to exaggerate the injuries he suffered being mildly jostled by Kanye West when you can see his face; 2. Despite being a paparazzo, he greatly values his anonymity and right to privacy from scumbags…

"They say the fuckin' smog is the fuckin' reason you have such beautiful fuckin' sunsets."

Wait, here it is, from the editor of Spin:

I'm sure someone is already hard at work on his think-piece right now about the racial politics of VW doing this song, particularly with the rather professorial reading of T.I.'s rap verse. 

I'm amazed it hasn't yet. It's stalled at No. 2, somehow.

It's completely understandable that Pitchfork suffered some growing pains and embarrassing missteps en route to becoming one of the few relevant pop music voices currently publishing. They had no idea they were writing for posterity at the time, and the crazy reviews from the early days don't lessen their authority,…

If by "disowned somewhat" you mean "deleted from the site and tried to pretend it was never published," then you're on the money.

I guess the main difference is that most of the decent film/literature/music critics out there seem to be enormous fans of the medium they critique, and their sometimes unreasonably high standards are clearly a result of that appreciation. Reading so many of the bigger Broadway critics, you feel like a night at the…

Neil Young's "Needle and the Damage Done," written about the death of Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten.

Seriously. I consider myself something of a connoisseur of good, nasty, knives-out takedowns. But I'll read even relatively moderate pans of Broadway shows and think, "fuck, this guy needs to find a better therapist."

True, I'll give it that much. Also, the cover of "The Boxer" on "Self Portrait" is also an interesting little curio. But that's all I can extract from either of those records.

I love the fact that "Self Portrait" exists. Just like I love the fact that Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music" and Neil Young's "Everybody's Rockin" exist. It's a reminder that once upon a time, we had rock stars who really were serious about their anti-authoritarian postures, serious enough that they would risk…