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bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen
@bradluen.bsky.social
260 followers 95 following 1.1K posts
https://bradluen.substack.com/
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bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 5d
Hilda Tloubatla and Pulp are indestructible, Maria Muldaur and Sabrina Carpenter have more comfort with dick jokes than [REDACTED], Djrum and Barker digest club music for those of us who don't get out much, plus jazz, B-pop, and more in this month's Semipop Life
bradluen.substack.com/p/semipop-li...
Semipop Life: Indestructible libido
Mahotella Queens, Maria Muldaur, Pulp, Sabrina Carpenter, and more!
bradluen.substack.com
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bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 5h
Max Roach, We Insist! Freedom Now Suite (1960). The gold standard for political jazz, and a huge part of that is due to Abbey Lincoln, who passes thru holy and blood-curdling to open up a space nobody had been to before. (The clip is from Belgium '64: a reminder of what they wouldn't show on US TV.)
Max Roach 5tet wt Abbey Lincoln Driva Man 1964 HD
YouTube video by Aggtown Nation Radio
www.youtube.com
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bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 8h
#GWE Jaguar Yokota/Devil Masami vs. Crush Gals 9/26/84. The editing makes this seem rushed, but in 3 falls under 20 mins we see Chigusa looking like she's about to become best in the world, Masami selling the indignity of getting manhandled by Lioness, and ultimate gamer Jaguar. Best: Chigusa (4*)
bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 9h
MLB game of the decade (i.e. the one game per decade I actually watch most of)
bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 11h
Eric Dolphy, Out to Lunch! (1964). I don't agree with this becoming the consensus non-Trane 1960s free-mostly jazz pick. But Dolphy keeps the ideas coming thick and fast, easily earning an exception to my "no flutes please" rule, and the rhythm section and occasionally the others keep up with him.
Eric Dolphy - Gazzelloni
YouTube video by jazzhole13
www.youtube.com
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bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 17h
The song I posted with 14 YouTube views has soared to 19, a 36% boost. All hail the viral power of Bluesky music challenges
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bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 18h
yeah "Mr. Magic" is a great groove, love how the trumpet solo doesn't overblow but matches the mood of the piece—it's magic, not effort

(only have time to catch up on one group per day, good choice me)
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bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 19h
#GWE Jaguar Yokota vs. Devil Masami 7/19/82. Some futuristic work, with Devil dropping Jaguar all kinds of nasty ways, but what I'll take away from 80% of this is its fundamental soundness, from matwork to expressions. Last bit of unhinged weapons violence isn't Jag's strength. Better: Masami (4¼*)
Jaguar Yokota vs Devil Masami 7/19/1982 - AJW
YouTube video by Evito-X-Puro
www.youtube.com
1
bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 19h
StayC are perhaps the K-pop group most underappreciated by snobs (a group that usually includes me) because they're so sugary, but I've said before that it's important to stand up for the tooth-decaying stuff too

bradluen.substack.com/i/98330746/s...

bradluen.substack.com/i/142482898/...
Semipop Life: Globalization and its discontents
Blackpink, Homeboy Sandman, BTS, Todd Snider, and more!
bradluen.substack.com
bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 19h
#TheTwen2ie5 ranked:

10. StayC: "Beautiful Monster"
South Korea 2022

The chorus has big tuned-gong synths and one of the great melodies in K-pop. "Love is ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, love is ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh" is as grand and uncanny as whatever you wop bop a loo bop at me.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=juQv...
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bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 1d
Ben Webster & Sweets Edison, Ben and Sweets (Wanted to Do One Together) (1962). Swing greats do their thing. Tho Webster's well into his ballad stage, he can add toughness for contrast. Edison's a more up-and-down player, but his straightforward muted solo on "Embraceable You" shows it ain't broke.
Did You Call Her Today
YouTube video by Ben Webster - Topic
www.youtube.com
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Reposted by bradluen
amateurreader.bsky.social
Amateur Reader (Tom) @amateurreader.bsky.social · 1d
I wrote about "Seiobo There Below," which I think is K's most interesting book, in two parts:

wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2013/11/who-...

&

wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2013/03/art-...

But "The Melancholy of Resistance" likely gives a better sense of why he won the big prize.
who can say what is essential and what isn’t - <i>Seiobo There Below</i> - Krasznahorkai's defense of the picturesque
If it took me so long to read the latest László Krasznahorkai book, Seiobo There Below (2008), it was because the novel has, based on the n...
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com
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bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 1d
Favorite '60s jazz albums, a thread:

Gene Ammons, Boss Tenor (1960). Legendary battle saxist/soul jazz pioneer stretches out. He leans into his huge ripe tone, occasionally double-timing to show his former sideman Trane's steps don't impress him much, before returning to crafting exquisite phrases.
Gene Ammons 04 "Canadian Sunset"
YouTube video by Penta Shack-G
www.youtube.com
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bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 1d
Blurb of an album I heard about from Chuck E and which neither us expended enough hyperbole on to convince anyone else to listen to:
Tamara Stewart: Woman Australia-to-Nashville singer, a couple of decades into the grind. She’s not the most prepossessing vocalist, and the arrangements offer no special excitement. But the standout tracks are among the year’s most poignant country. “Just a Woman”, an answer to both “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” and “Stand by Your Man”, notes there hasn’t been as much change since the Sixties as one might wish. “Mondays” is an elliptical song about trauma as well as a reminder that it’s a victim’s right to be elliptical. And “The Orphan” is possibly the finest song ever written about childlessness, not least because of its apparent ambivalence. Grade: B PLUS (“The Orphan”, “Just a Woman”, “Mondays”)
bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 1d
#TheTwen2ie5 ranked:

9. Tamara Stewart: "The Orphan"
Australia 2023

The best song ever written about childlessness, in large part because of its ambivalence—whatever her choice, whether she could or wouldn't, it's a future foregone. 14 YouTube views.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNt5...
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bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 1d
anyway nobody alive deserves the Nobel more, unless Fujimoto has an ending that shows Chainsaw Man Part 2's actually been great all along
bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 1d
can't believe I didn't wake up to a hundred "Krasznahorkai finally did it" notifications, do my friends even know me
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bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 2d
#GWE Midnight Rockers vs. Buddy Rose & Doug Somers 12/25/86. A normal good match, with everyone reasonably obedient to the tag rules despite the cage. The limitations of the Rockers' brawling offense are apparent, so Somers and especially Rose have to make eeverything happen. Best: Michaels (3¾*)
The Midnight Rockers vs Rose & Sommers (cage match)
YouTube video by AWA stuff
www.youtube.com
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bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 2d
#GWE Buddy Rose & Doug Somers vs. Midnight Rockers 8/30/86. This ruled, maybe the best '80s US tag I've seen. Most shocking is that career dickhead Shawn Michaels is an incredibly sympathetic underdog in peril. Rose/Somers are clearly in control, but it's not a carry job at all. Best: Michaels (4¾*)
Buddy Rose & Doug Somers vs Midnight Rockers (AWA TV) (08.30.1986)
Dailymotion video by MegaSting1981 .
www.dailymotion.com
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bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 2d
Alexander Boldizar, The Man Who Saw Seconds. A guy with a limited precog window stares at a NYPD cop on the subway; things escalate. Boy, do they escalate. This has some value as a critique of the National Security apparatus, but mostly it's a Watchmen-like reductio that superpowers are scary shit.
Alexander Boldizar - The Man Who Saw Seconds — CLASH BOOKS
Preble Jefferson can see five seconds into the future. Otherwise, he lives an ordinary life. But when a confrontation with a cop on a New York City subway goes tragically wrong, those seconds give P...
www.clashbooks.com
bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 2d
Original sarky April 2022 blurb. Definitely a song that's benefitted from me being someone who spends the week after Christmas listmaking

me in spring: well the fireworks are a bit much

me on Dec 31: WHIZZ BOOOM BANG!!!
my original April 2022 blurb for Let's Eat Grandma, "Happy New Year": "Epic Morodersynths, literal fireworks, a wisp of a song that doesn’t derive any tension from the fact that time passes despite four thousand years of precedents and is kind of moving anyway. Now that’s what we call indie pop!"
bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 2d
#TheTwen2ie5

8. Let's Eat Grandma: "Happy New Year"
UK 2022

Like Heavenly Creatures, this is about the most intense phase of teen BFFship burning out, except instead of murder they decide to become minor pop stars and allow each other personal space. Sensible, IMO

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R9q...
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bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 3d
#GWE Midnight Express vs. Rock N Roll Express 2/23/86. Fun sprint rather than one of their great matches. R&Rs dominate early, then Morton plays Morton, then Gibson plays Morton, and Ricky teases getting a shot on Cornette with the racket before everything disintegrates teasingly. Best: Morton (3½*)
Midnight Express vs Rock N Roll Express 1986
YouTube video by CWAMemphis
www.youtube.com
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bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 3d
What I wrote in May 2024:

'Fifth octave choruses are back: mostly head voice until it's time to belt "I told you so"… Song of the summer in a slightly higher RPM world; in this one it feels more likely to stall at number 18.'

BAD CALL, SEMIPOP
bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 3d
#TheTwen2ie5 ranked:

7. Chappell Roan: "Good Luck, Babe!" USA 2024 It takes a song 2–3 years to fully vest in my mind, so this is in a prime position to do very well with me in whatever the finale of all this is. Might do well with other people too! Conceivably!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RKq...
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bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen @bradluen.bsky.social · 4d
#GWE Jerry Lawler vs. Bill Dundee 12/30/85. Maybe the greatest punching match ever. Lawler's exceptional as the one-eyed man taking wild swings; it's so satisfying when he hits. Dundee's work is hard to judge structurally b/c of the clipping, but moment to moment he's great too. Better: Lawler (4½*)
Jerry Lawler vs Bill Dundee Loser Leaves Town 12 30 85 Memphis
YouTube video by CWAMemphis
www.youtube.com
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