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Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
And Maury dials up…“Now, all MLBAM needs to do is hire Rush, and you have the Red Sox/Yankees.”
MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM) announced today that it has hired anchor, sportscaster and journalist Keith Olbermann as an at-large columnist. Olbermann’s columns, currently available three times per week at keitholbermann.mlblogs.com, will provide fans with his “Baseball Nerd” perspective of the game across various platforms. He also is the first national journalist hired as part of MLBAM’s digital newspaper initiative, currently scheduled for a May launch.
At his request, Olbermann’s full salary for his work as an at-large columnist will be split equally among three charitable organizations. They will be: the Baseball Assistance Team, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital and the Jayden Braden/Ariana Marzano College Fund, established in support of the late John Marzano’s grandchildren. Marzano, a former Major Leaguer and MLB.com host, died just over one year ago in a home accident in Philadelphia.
“I’ve long respected MLB.com’s editorial independence and I’ll be delighted to test it,” said Olbermann. “Seriously, it’s an honor to be able to write about all the obscure things I love inside the game I love, and to help some worthy causes in the process, and to honor an old friend. Not to mention that it will be my politics-free oasis. Unless another cat jumps up at another Governor.”
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I was gonna correct that glam thing, too, but I snoozed and, uh, lost.
Wow- you learn something new every day. What "you" are calling "Glam Rock" was generally referred to as Glitter Rock where I got my musical chops. The "hair metal" was called Glam metal or glam rock. I used the latter as a courtesy, I believe the most appropriate term is "#### rock performed by guys who think that tapping is the height of musical accomplishment."
The wiki seems to agree with the panel however, so I'll happily concede as long as no one fires up an acoustic "Unskinny Bop."
Guessing there's not many fans of techno / Deep House / Glitch / Minimal here...
One of my highlights from the 90's was Basic Channel / Chain Reaction labels in Germany. Juan Atkins, Richie Hawtin, Josh Wink, Scott Mills, etc. and then theres Autechre, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, Orbital...
Yes, basically everyone thinks the years they were in high school and college were the best musical years ever. In part that's because there is SO MUCH good music every year that you could make a case for any period of time and have it be reasonable as long as you're willing to dig.
This is especially true because most people rapidly lose the will to explore and dig once they get past 20, so they relate to all later eras only through what's in the mainstream. Which is almost uniformly bad in every era.
I was born in 1981, and I'd say 1997 is the single best musical year of all time. Modest Mouse - Lonesome Crowded West, Old 97s - Too Far to Care, Built to Spill - Perfect From Now On, Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Super Deluxe - Via Satellites.
The funny thing is, I didn't really listen to any of those bands at the time. It was only when I got to college that I really went back and dug into all the great late 90s stuff.
The one record I did listen to incessantly in 1997 was the Third Eye Blind debut, which I will defend to this day as a legitimately great record. The crazy thing is that although a bunch of the singles were good, probably the three best songs never even got played on the radio.
Best R.E.M. album is easily Automatic for the People. "Nightswimming" is probably one of the 10 best songs of all time. "Find the River" is sheer brilliance. "Man on the Moon" is wonderful. "Try Not to Breathe" is great. I like their early stuff alright, but I'd say my second and third favorites of their's were New Adventures in Hi-Fi and Document.
Nirvana are both overrated AND totally amazing. It's always seemed weird to me that they get categorized with grunge, though. They really weren't. Bleach was a punk record. Nevermind was a loud mix of a 60s pop record and a Pixes cover band. And In Utero totally transcended everything that grunge ever was.
Nirvana got called grunge because they played loud guitar rock that wasn't metal, had long and dirty hair, and were from Seattle. Mudhoney, Soundgarden, etc. Those were actual grunge bands.
As for whether a kid born in 1990 could consider the present era the pinnacle of music, sure why not. The last couple years have been relatively good and 2006 was a monster of a year.
I was born in 1957, and the music I love the most comes from about 1983 to 1987, which would take me up to age 30. But really, there's been music from every year since 1964 that I've loved. Fave albums of the 1990s:
Loveless - My Bloody Valentine
Whatever - Aimee Mann
The Hot Rock - Sleater-Kinney
Rumor and Sigh - Richard Thompson
Fireboy - Grant McLennan
Achtung Baby - U2
Gentlemen - Afghan Whigs
Car Wheels on a Gravel Road - Lucinda Williams
Jordan: The Comeback - Prefab Sprout
Laughing Stock - Talk Talk
I'm sure I'm forgetting lots...
"Car Wheels" is a great, great album. Maybe in my top 10 all-time. I heard Richard Thompson play in a community theater building in Jackson, MS in 1997 or so. It was just he and an acoustic, but it sounded like there were three, four guitars and a percussion going on. I was amazed, even if the music itself wasn't quite to my liking.
Yep, I don't know if you read the whole topic but I made a comment to that effect about what I did.
60's - Can, Neu!, classic jazz releases, Os Mutantes, Jorge Ben, Motown, etc.
70's - Sly Stone, all kinds of great funk
80's - R.E.M., Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, Juan Atkins, other techno pioneers
90's - Pavement, Polvo & other Chapel Hill/indie bands, the Seattle stuff, all kinds of techno from both the US and Germany, Autechre, Aphex Twin, Orbital, etc.,
00's - Battles, Squarepusher, Rastor Noton in Germany, dubstep, Holy ####!, Archetecture in Helsinki, Four Tet and more I've forgotten.
There is brilliant stuff in most any decade.
Also two great 90's albums were the Jesus Lizard's Goat and Liar, those two hold up pretty well to my ears.
Modest Mouse, on the other hand, I've always hated because I saw them in 1997, they were too drunk to finish their set, and the lead singer fell down trying to pick a fight with me (and others) after the show.
Music: Elvis Costello
Soft drinks: root beer
Desserts: strawberry shortcake
What a coinkydink -- for some reason, as I was getting ready for work about an hour ago I was mentally playing the "Grey Cell Green" chorus.
No doubt. For me, at least at this point, the cutoff point was more like 43 or so. I guess I hope that holds up, because otherwise I'll wake up any day now & realize I've got about 7 years of music to catch up on, & there's no way my finances could handle it.
I like I'm With Stupid best, partly because it was my first exposure to her (beyond 'Til Tuesday - that was a shock to learn), partly because the backgrounds were more varied.
I found Fireboy in a bargain bin a year after it was released - got it and 2 other McLennan albums (not knowing who he was) for 50 cents.
vi/216, fine list. I love, love, love early EC. Love it. Candidate for favorite artist (along w/ late 90s Magnetic Fields and Pavement (when I'm feeling irascible)).
Wheelhouse disappointments: Jellyfish, actually. I love Jason Falkner and Jon Brion, have (and like) some Manning solo stuff, even own some of the Moog Cookbock tracks - but those two albums really disappointed me.
Music burnout: Can't really listen to REM, U2, or the Police any more (particularly U2).
Or the time. Since my second kid was born 7 months ago, my music searching time has dwindled significantly (I'm 35).
1977? I guess I can live with that (though I didn't know it at the time; didn't discover punk till the following spring), though my favorite stuff is more likely to come from my college & grad-school years -- '78-'84, which in retrospect was more or less the heyday of postpunk, New Wave & old-school rap.
Niiiiiice. My own list above includes the first Jack Frost, which was McLennan & Steve Kilbey of the Church. Some great songs, especially "Didn't Know Where I Was."
My omisson of their first one, International Pop Overthrow, from my list (deliberately limited to the very early '90s, pretty much) calls everything about me into question.
and you guys thought the women of the 70's were ugly?
I'd add the Commodores to my Ipod from that list. Maybe an isolated single from some of the rest of the albums. A few of those albums are an affront to God, of course.
Backlasher mentioned her.
Hey, you gave it your best shot. Chipper up, buckaroo!
Don't make me quote Eminem, of all people.
Not much, no. Some ambient stuff, er - does µ-Ziq count? Hey, somebody mentioned Squarepusher! (scans) Oh, that was you.
That's a fair point. "Hair metal" is a more accurate term.
The funny thing is, I didn't really listen to any of those bands at the time. It was only when I got to college that I really went back and dug into all the great late 90s stuff.
Ditto. I was in high school from 86-90, and during that period listened mostly to classic rock and motown. I thought the music of that time period sucked, but my reference point was mostly popular music, which during that period did, for the most part, suck. It wasn't until I got to college and started diving a little deeper that I found a lot of great stuff from my high school years, like the Pixies. However, I disagree with the comment that popular music always sucks. There are periods when legitimately great music is also popular and gets played on mainstream radio and MTV, and there are periods when all of the good stuff is buried.
Rumor and Sigh - Richard Thompson
Great album.
What's considered techno? Are the Chemical Brothers techno? I've got some of that on my Ipod. I like the Run, Lola, Run soundtrack. I've got nothing against techno, I just know zilch about it.
Are you warning me that my naive query may have opened the gates of Hell? Should I log off and go hide an an abandoned subway tunnel until the carnage subsides?
Chemical Brothers is Big Beat which has more in common with Acid House and Breakbeat. Propellorheads & Fatboy Slim are both big beat. It's slower than Techno, Big Beat is around 70-100 bpm techno is 120-150 bpm or there abouts, and makes greater use of breakbeat samples.
And yeah I think Techno Love is much more mainstream in Europe than the US, which is odd considering it originates from Detroit!
1977 --
Wire -- Pink Flag
Sex Pistols -- Never Mind the Bollocks
The Clash -- The Clash
Eater -- The Album
Adverts -- Crossing the Red Sea with the Adverts
Suicide -- Suicide
The Stranglers -- No More Heroes, Rattus Norvegicus IV
Television -- Marquee Moon
Talking Heads -- Talking Heads '77
Ramones -- Leave Home, Rocket to Russia
Saints -- (I'm) Stranded
Radio Birdman -- Radios Appear
The Jam -- In the City, This is the Modern World
They don't, your list is much more palatable. Pink Flag indeed.
No offense and realizing that there has to be a spoonful of hyperbole thrown in there somewhere, this is a ridiculous statement.
not a slack year by any account
Sure. And there's also no era when ALL popular music is bad. It's clearly a matter where shades of gray come in. I should have been a little less declarative with my original statement.
I just mean that if you know one era really well (all the popular stuff PLUS all the subterranean stuff), you'll almost always enjoy it a lot more than other eras when a huge percentage of the stuff you hear is the limited set of stuff that got through the mainstream filter.
Clearly the widely popular music of 1968 and 1991 is better than the comparable stuff from 1975 and 2005. But judging any of those times solely through what tops the charts isn't going to actually tell you a lot.
For folks out there who wish they could stay a little more plugged into what's good these days but lack the time/effort to go actually get the records, can I recommend emusic.com? 10-15 bucks a month and you can download 40-50 songs (DRM-free MP3s). They've got a pretty good and wide selection of stuff from independent labels. I think you could just download whatever is topping the emusic popularity charts for a month and end up picking up a few albums you'll absolutely love here and there.
Between this and 206 you do really kind of pour on the empirical conclusions.
It's over, let go.
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