The Music Issue

April 14, 2005

The Hook-Up Defined

Ah, the Hook-up: the quintessential college social experience. More
which survives the weekend to circulate ’til the next Thursday. Delightfully suggestive of scandal, the very term “hook-up” is perfectly suited to describing to one’s friends a wide array of encounters: specific enough to provide gossip fodder, vague enough to spare the listener unnecessary detail.

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The Not So Rinky Dinky

With a mere 2.7 miles of track, the Dinky is the shortest regularly scheduled passenger route in the USA. The two-car train has 117 seats and carries some 1860 riders a day.

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The Great American Album

“Joanna Newsom and the New Weird America.” That is the title of the BBC web site’s feature on Miss Newsom, a singer and songwriter who’s our age and, like many of us, sounds much younger.

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In the Nation’s service

I love idealism. I have marched in anti-war demonstrations. When Howard Dean roared his infamous “Yeearrrrgh!” I roared right along with him.

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The Bald Soprano and The Chairs

Princeton’s drug culture is like a moon. Once a month it is full, lustrous and can be seen from all over campus. For some, this metaphorical moon is perpetually full and bright while for others the sky above is eternally dark.

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Many paths to the kingdom

To some degree, these albums are all contemporary, not only in the sense that they have been released within the last ten years, but also because of their connectivity to and influence on the musical world today. I claim no expertise here, only the knowledge that these ten albums offer ten different avenues (not the only ones, by any means) to listen to music in a new and more satisfying way.

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The Next Big Thing from Liverpool

I finally get a hold of Howie Payne as his band, The Stands, is en route to a gig in Cleveland. This is only the second time the Liverpool natives have played in America, but Payne is cautiously optimistic.

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Untangling “Tanged Up in Blue”

“Tangled Up in Blue” is not Bob Dylan’s most convoluted song; “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” with its references to eleven-dollar bills and hanging around in ink wells, probably wins that title. It is not even the most confusing ballad on Blood on the Tracks; Wendy Lesser is right on in her analysis of “Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts”: “There are these huge gaps…what [Dylan] leaves out is more interesting in some ways than what he puts in.”

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M.I.A’s Arular

I write this review with a simple purpose: to tell you that M.I.A.’s Arular is perhaps the best damned pop/rap/hip-hop/dancehall/electronic album in existence, and if you do not want to pick it up then you are intentionally depriving your ears … Read More

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Weezer Invites You to Make Believe

There is good reason to be excited about Dean’s Date. On May 10th, after all the computer cluster bickering ceases and the papers are handed in, you would be well-advised to take a walk to the Record Exchange and pick … Read More

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Our Top 10 Top 5 Lists

Top 5 Pop Songs I Love No Matter What They Say 1) “Beautiful,” Christina Aguilera 2) “Always be My Baby,” Mariah Carey 3) “Kissed by a Rose,” Seal 4) “Crazy in Love,” Beyonce Knowles 5) “I Try,” Macy Gray Top … Read More

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Verbatim

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Overheard on NJ Transit

High School Guy 1: Do you stay friends with your ex-girlfriends?
High School Guy 2: (shrugs) Some of them.
HS Guy 1: Man - you gay. I stay friends with all of them. Never know when you might need a booty call.

Overheard in 202 1901

I figured, I already have my pants down; I might as well rape somebody.

Overheard over AIM

Guy: I've just written a children's parable.
Girl: What's it about?
Guy: It's about a sister who has nothing to give her brother on his birthday so she gives him her AIDS.

Overheard in the Wilson College Quad

Wilson RCA: Who the hell is Powell Fraser and why is he being a hater?
NOTE: these words are not without an "agenda," according to Wilson RCA.

Overheard in GER 210

Professor: We're going to be engaging Heidegger from the rear. (pause) It's the best way to engage him.