swinging modern sounds
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Swinging Modern Sounds #7: On Repetition
The intractable problem of the moment in the arts—in music, in books, in movies, in almost every area of contemporary culture—is the problem of inattention.
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Swinging Modern Sounds #6: The Transcendental Signifier
Note: to the readers of this intermittent bulletin, I recognize in what follows that I am violating the compact I made a couple of months ago, to cover only unsigned, unreleased, or self-released music, and I want to assure you…
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Swinging Modern Sounds #5: Heliotropism
I love the city of Tucson, Arizona, because I like places that have run out of luck, and I think running out of luck makes for good music. Running out of luck makes for a lot of good things, in…
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Swinging Modern Sounds #4: On Being Unprofessional
I was going to start this post by talking about Bruce Springsteen. I was going to start by saying that there was a certain moment in the output of Bruce Springsteen when I realized I was no longer interested—because he…
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Swinging Modern Sounds #3: Time Has Done This To Me
I think it was in 1986 or thereabouts that my friend Jim Lewis gave me a bootlegged cassette of a live radio appearance by Peter Holsapple and Syd Straw (with, I think, Ilene Markell, on bass and backing vocals–all of…
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Swinging Modern Sounds #2: A Post Somewhat About Jazz
Arthur Danto, the Columbia University philosophy professor and frequent writer on contemporary art, has often referred to this “historical present” as a time after the history of art. What he seems to mean about this, I think, is that once Warhol…
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Swinging Modern Sounds #1: A New Blog by Rick Moody
Introduction Everybody knows the book business is in dire straits these days. The news comes in awful fusillades from the daily press. But in part the book business looks so dire right now because it has mainly been indemnified against…