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19 Dec 2009 14:17

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About: ShortFormBlog is stuck in its apartment. Julius is getting cabin fever.

  • We’re not going out today. We had a few things we wanted to knock off our Christmas list, but there’s no way Julius will be able to get out of this mess without being super-rusted. So we’re giving up like the pathetic beasts of blogging that we are. We’ll be blogging next to an open fire created by broken dreams.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Dec 2009 17:14

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Music: Near the end: Our Saturday Mixtape decade roundup hits 2008

  • 1. “What’s gonna happen to you?” As we noted in last week’s mixtape, Plants and Animals was going to be a part of our 2008 list, too. And “Bye Bye Bye” may only be the second best song with that title, it’s certainly a  close second.
  • 2. Cut Copy’s attempt to synthesize New Order into something fresh and new worked surprisingly well for 2008. The record, “In Ghost Colours,” got a little beat heavy, but when they mixed the beats with pure pop, like on “Feel The Love,” it worked better than good.
  • 3. It’s funny how different you feel about an album after a year. A year ago, we felt like Titus Andronicus’ “The Airing of Grievances” was a great album, sure, but not one of the best of the year. But we kept finding ourselves coming back to it – repeatedly. Ragged but by no means dull, these Jerseyites bring passion to every chord they touch, especially on “Titus Andronicus” (the song).
  • 4. Fellow Jerseyites The Gaslight Anthem also brought pathos with them on “The 59 Sound,” but they brought it with a little more punk and a lot more Bruce. The Killers’ attempts at Bruceisms were misguided, but they also paved the way for Gaslight’s success, so we’ll give them a break.
  • 5. We were really torn about putting Atlas Sound over Deerhunter in this spot. Ultimately, Deerhunter won. It’s because Bradford Cox’s full band has amazing singles even if their full records don’t hold together as well as his side project. At least that’s our take on the world of Bradford Cox. Anyway, “Nothing Ever Happened” is simply sick.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Dec 2009 20:54

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Music: Our Saturday Mixtape wants to live in Montreal or something

  • 1. This song has been embedded in our brains for approximately two weeks. Montreal’s Think About Life, who come out on paper as a combination of TV on the Radio and Chromeo, is somewhat hit-and-miss, but when they hit, as on “Havin’ My Baby,” it’s a sugar rush you can’t ignore.
  • 2. Land of Talk – a fellow Montreal band fronted by Elizabeth Powell who comes off as a guitar superhero live – mixes the low-key and the guitar-smashers deftly. The centerpiece of their new “Fun and Laughter” EP, “May You Never” mixes calm and chaos (and the gift of hazy atmosphere) into a tasty stew.
  • 3. Disclosure: Plants and Animals will be in the mixtape two weeks in a row, because their 2008 album “Parc Avenue” is that good. “A L’Oree Des Bois” has this way of starting out loose and then expanding slowly.
  • 4. There’s a few obvious picks that can go on this list: Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Wolf Parade, and so on. Handsome Furs are sort of on the cusp of that, but we admittedly like Dan Boeckner’s non-Wolf Parade band a little more than the main act, especially on “All We Want, Baby, Is Everything,” which manages to come across as unpretentious dance-rock. At least it’s less pretentious than Toronto’s Crystal Castles.
  • 5. The Lovely Feathers have a little of the Arcade Fire rising hugeness going on with “Lowiza,” but what’s really interesting is that the chorus sort of breaks into a group oy-style endeavor. It’s like they’re the Dropkick Murphys doing “Neighborhood #1.” (Well, kinda.) It’s pretty awesome to hear, actually.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Nov 2009 18:47

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Music: Our Saturday Mixtape looks back at rock history’s greatest badasses

  • 1. Lou Reed is a badass because he managed to make a song like “Pale Blue Eyes” – an exercise in emotional nudity which few artists of his stature are willing to try – seem brave, not pansyish. It worked to strong effect in this year’s “Adventureland,” by the way.
  • 2. Marc Bolan is a badass because he lived fast, died young, and still managed to have a career full of badass moves. From his start as an off-kilter folkie (Tyrannosaurus Rex) to his peak as a glam god (T. Rex) who directly inspired the previous badass, his badassness set a pretty high bar.
  • 3. Paul Westerberg is a badass because he never gave into the mainstream when he was creating his greatest work. “Bastards of Young” is perhaps The Replacements’ catchiest tune, but instead of actively trying to push it on MTV, they made this video to go with it. That’s badass.
  • 4. Josh Homme is a badass because he released this song as a single. And then his band, Queens of the Stone Age, played it at a drug rehab center last year. It really is the feel-good hit of the summer. Or any year, really.
  • 5. James Murphy is a badass because he knows how to get down even though he’s getting old. Really, we could’ve picked any song Murphy did as LCD Soundsystem over the last five years and nailed it as evidence. But “Daft Punk is Playing at My House” works as both a sneering homage to Daft Punk and a homage to being a badass. So it wins. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Nov 2009 05:06

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About: We’re building a ShortFormBlog theme for Tumblr. Whaddya want?

Screen-shot-2009-11-20-at-4.39.22-AM
  • This is still early in the process, but recently, we figured out a major breakthrough in short-form blogging technology – using Tumblr – that doesn’t require any of the clunkier database-driven technology we’ve been using. It’s so simple, we’d be complete jerks if we didn’t share it with the rest of the world (possibly with a price tag on it), because it makes Tumblr way cooler. So, fellow bloggers, what would you want from a SFB-style theme? Our hard work could be your next blog. Click the source for a preview.source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Nov 2009 02:09

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About: A quick shout-out to our RSS readers: Hey guys!

  • If you didn’t know … … you can read ShortFormBlog’s posts without ever having to visit the site. We have a full-featured RSS feed with hundreds of readers that offers an experience that matches the bite-sized nature of the site. Numbers, photos, quotes, videos and so on show up on the feed. It looks particularly good in Google Reader. source
  • If you didn’t know … … you can read ShortFormBlog’s posts without ever having to visit the site. We have a full-featured RSS feed with hundreds of readers that offers an experience that matches the bite-sized nature of the site. Numbers, photos, quotes, videos and so on show up on the feed. It looks particularly good in Google Reader.
  • On recent issues Over the last few weeks, we’ve had some significant problems with our feed – both under the hood and above the hood. We admittedly worked really hard to get that feed in good shape, so this is frustrating. Please e-mail us if you find any further problems with that or anything else on the site. We appreciate it greatly. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Nov 2009 13:51

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Music: Saturday Mixtape: Our decade in review goes all the way to 2006

  • 1. Tokyo Police Club may have ushered in the era of the blog-buzz band, but that doesn’t mean their first mini-album doesn’t hold up. These Canadians, who weren’t even old enough to drink (in Canada!) at the time, brought a lot of energy to their post-punk stylings, if not a lot to say. Unfortunately, the Black Kids/Pitchfork fiasco can probably be blamed partially on their success.
    2. In 2006, TV on the Radio finally lived up to the potential of their first EP thanks to their amazing second album, “Return to Cookie Mountain,” which is on the shortlist for best album of the decade. “Wolf Like Me” is on the shortlist for their best song. If “Staring at the Sun” didn’t already exist, there’d be no contest.
    3. While Girl Talk’s “Night Ripper” is definitely of a single amazing piece of cloth, “Hold Up” deserves mention simply because it features the best single use of a Weezer song since 1997 – including by Weezer themselves.
    4. The great thing about The Thermals? They sound like a bunch of goofy grown-up kids playing punk rock, but (unlike Tokyo Police Club) the subject matter they tackle is dead serious. On “A Pillar of Salt,” Hutch Harris tackles religion with lyrical book smarts but with the energy of a six-year-old.
    5. If girl-group pop was slowed down to just before the point where the life was completely sucked out of it, you’d have Grizzly Bear’s “Knife,” their calling card into the top tier of indie rock.source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 4 Comments • Permalink
 

03 Nov 2009 10:40

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About: It’s official. We have a redesign. It’s up. Check it out, kids.



So here it is. Our redesign. We've spent months working on this bad boy. We've been talking about this in bits and pieces over the last few months, but now here it is. And we hope you guys like it. Because you're awesome and make us look good when you like stuff we do.

  • What hasn’t changed The commitment to providing people with short, info-packed bites that provide quick insight into the day’s news. Most of the post styles are still exactly the same as they were on day one of the site. Oh, and Julius is still the mascot. (And one of the trademarks, referring to the site in the “editorial we,” continues unabated.) source
  • What hasn’t changed The commitment to providing people with short, info-packed bites that provide quick insight into the day’s news. Most of the post styles are still exactly the same as they were on day one of the site. Oh, and Julius is still the mascot. (And one of the trademarks, referring to the site in the “editorial we,” continues unabated.)
  • What has changed Over the last ten months, it’s become clear what’s worked and what hasn’t, and what was needed to take that basic idea and turn it into something more useful for readers. So with that, we’re adding focus on navigation, improving our content focus and pushing a design that encourages exploration. Read more above. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 10 Comments • Permalink

31 Oct 2009 16:52

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Music: Our Saturday Mixtape’s decade-in-review lands in 2005

  • 1. Between this and The Walkmen’s “The Rat,” you have two of the three best songs of the decade right here. (The third is coming in the next few weeks.) A surreal, beautiful, simple song, Antony deserves the high praise this song (and album) earned.
    2. The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn is a walking Wikipedia entry on the city of Minneapolis, something that straight-up defines the sound of “Your Little Hoodrat Friend,” a four-minute explanation of why this band is so awesome to people not in the know.
    3. Sort of a ying to The Hold Steady’s yang, Art Brut’s Eddie Argos is nearly as self-referential as Finn is. On “Emily Kane,” Argos counts down to the second when his first relationship ended. And not surprisingly, the whole album is this clever.
    4. People seem to give Conor Oberst crap for being too pretentious for his own good, but for one shining moment this decade, he was able to get past all that and create a truly shining piece of work, “I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning.” “Land Locked Blues” is our favorite highlight.
    5. Perhaps the best story to come out of 2005 was the long-gestating return of Vashti Bunyan, a former Andrew Loog Oldham protégé who released a spectacular, unheard album, “Just Another Diamond Day,” in 1970, only to disappear for 35 years. Thanks to Devendra Banhart, Animal Collective and other hipster fans, she returned with “Lookaftering,” an amazingly assured victory lap. “Wayward Hum” doesn’t even need words to be a highlight.source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 4 Comments • Permalink

29 Oct 2009 21:02

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About: We’re going to come up with the best damn set of twitter lists EVAH!

My Twitter List
  • We’re sure Twitter is still working out the kinks of it, but their new lists feature is pretty awesome. To help with our ever-important goal of giving short bites, we’re going to curate the hell out of our “Sources I recommend” list. You should become a fan or something. And if you have any suggestions, of course, throw them this way.source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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