Yeah, but you could argue (as Simon Reynolds did in his Rip It Up book) that that came off of the huge wave of experimentation in the early-to-mid 70s, and that post-punk was really a way to sneak various bits of that era back into pop after that whole Year Zero horseshit.

THE AV CLUB
human degradation…fluids spraying everywhere

HURK

Go on…

Eh, there were racial tensions and seediness in the SF scene as well, so that doesn't quite explain it.

Great album, but does everything worth remembering from The Sixties have to turn out to be a secret indictment of it? I realize that we're trying to balance out Boomer hagiography, but eventually it tips over into "no, really, they were actually Secret Punks, and thus worth paying attention to!"

I'm pretty sure that the McCartney thing was mostly a joke.

Fair point.

It's like Record vs. Song Of The Year - a holdover from when different artists might interpret a given song during the course of a year.

Noel Gallagher's a complete prick, but I can't help but feel a soft spot for him, and that quote is 87% of the reason why.

"Have the Grammys even been close to giving the right album Best of the Year BEFORE OR since the release of Speakerboxxx/The Love Below?"

I love Carole King and Brill Building pop, but something about that modern "poppy theater" sound gives me hives, so I avoided it like the plague. Good to know that some people liked it.

It means there's a banjo and/or a pedal steel in your music, but you're not a racist. Openly, anyway.

Best Liner Notes is a hopelessly outdated category left over from when most albums actually had them, but I still don't want it to go. They provide random music historians with some brief, untelevised glory!

Hearing Hannah's father's name invoked made me realize that the episode just before the next-to-last episode - "Tad & Loreen & Avi & Shanaz" - must be a bottle episode with them. Can't wait to hear about how Dunham writes old folks!

He's gonna turn into the next Scorsese?

Wow. When I spoiled Hannah's exit from Iowa back in the season premiere comments, I thought that they would make halfway through the season before pulling the escape hatch. Apologies - my mistake.

It's illness. There's been references to his health on the show before, and the second to last episode of this season is called "Daddy Issues", so he's clearly not long for this world.

Oh, he deserves it for more than that.

It's miscegenreation!