Is that the Live in Rome set? That one's a favorite of mine. That version of Take Me to the River they use to centerpiece it is a thing of beauty. The whole thing has a great dirty skronky NY vibe that feels mostly polished out by the Stop Making Sense era. https://www.youtube.com/wat…

I'm pretty sure that was mostly Sasha Frere Jones- the Jessica Hopper stuff was just a couple tossed off comments on her personal blog… you can hardly call that a hit job. Either way it strikes me as funny that people were/are so protective of Mr. Merritt when he's so often contemptuous of his own fans (of which I…

http://therunout.com/post/9… I'm gonna leave this here for anyone one else who scrolls through the comments in hopes that this dumb bands name would lead to a conversation about Rudimentery Peni. One of the better pieces of music writing I read this year.

Hate to be that pedantic guy, but it was Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields, not Magnetic Zeroes on TAL this week. I really enjoy and look forward to your recaps btw!

It really can't, at least not initially. Non verbal, implied consent is only ok when you're operating within boundaries that have been explicitly agreed upon. I get that that can seem formal or not sexy*, but establishing an explicit "yes" is the only way to ensure one person's confusion isn't another person's…

NOPE. not consent at all. It doesn't matter how long someone waits to talk or what recourse they had- if consent isn't explicitly given then it's fucking rape, end of story. period. This goes for anyone, unlikeable famous people included.
Believe me, I'm no fan of LeBouf, and if somehow it's revealed that this is some…

DJ Quik. Saying career longevity and continuing relevance in rap is rare is an understatement, but he's been at it 25 years, and he's still killing it. He just put out his ninth record and it's brilliant.
For film, Jeff Nichols right now. Everything he's done has really connected with me, and as each movie kind of…

Ha, totally forgot and was reminded by an old episode of the Best Show, according to an on set call from Paul Scheer, Piranha 3D is an unofficial sequel to Jaws.

The web series the article mentions is called Delusional Downtown Divas and it's super funny and people should watch it. http://www.indexmagazine.co…
Also, I enjoyed that article quite a bit.

To be fair, the article is pretty much saying this song is a departure from their usual stuff because it's super ordinary and straight forward. Check out Inches or Go Forth to get a way better idea of why people found them exciting. Their show really is a beast too, not just for the antics, but for the really tight…

I can't decide if I'm irritated that my favorite burrito places in Austin got ignored, or if I'm glad that I can continue to get my burrito's cheaply and without lines and long wait times. People here really really like to line up for things.

They explained it a while back- if I remember correctly, it's pretty much just to get AV Club's tv coverage included in review aggregators like Metacritic that don't feature episodic reviews

As flawed as it is, I've loved this movie ever since it was daytime staple on Comedy Central, and after hearing that Hoffman had passed, this was my go to movie to watch first. Before remembering him in some of his more spectacular but harrowing roles, it was nice to just watch him in something kind of sweet.

Or claimed it was right at the moment that their management and a bunch of dudes in their crew was getting busted? I think being obsessed with verisimilitude in rap is silly in general, if it sounds dope, it sounds dope- but damn that timing sure was convenient.

Ever since My Name is My Name, I've really wanted a Re-Up Gang reunion- or even just a Pusha T / Ab-Liva release. Him and Pusha on that old Neptunes beat for Suicide were such a highlight for me. (Ab also is credited for writing on Send it Up, my favorite track off of Yeezus- he's low key kind of great, and I wonder…

Say what you want about Jermaine Dupri, but So So Def was pretty instrumental in bringing Atlanta Bass and Rap to the foreground, and helped pave the way for more experimental and more regional sounding southern rap getting taken seriously by the industry. Also Money aint' a Thing is a fucking jam.
Similar can be said…

I will take Lollipop over Stan and day of the week. Especially the remix- that things a fucking monster. I will say that I think 03' was one of the best years in radio rap, but I think that's just a mix of nostalgia and random timing- there's plenty I love about late 00's rap, or current stuff for that matter.

I would just like to put it out there, that while I miss a lot of the writers I was used to reading on here, and brought me to this site I really really appreciate how diverse the writing staff is becoming. It's so easy for pop culture writing, especially from a nerdier perspective, to be super monolithic and "clubby"…

Agreed. I'm pretty impressed with how compelling the "issue" based discussions in their own right, on top of being fodder for some great improv (case in point, when Besser used the clips from Valentine Road a few episodes back… seems like a fucking awful idea on paper, and ended up being both a really great…

The Memory Palace is released pretty infrequently, has really short show lengths, and is totally worth delving into. It's a tough thing to describe- a hyper personal take on a historical event with radio-lab-esque production, but it's uniqueness is part of what makes it really special.