"Good taste is what makes you end up with Tortoise."
I've said it before and I'll probably say it again, but The Onion's AV Club is one of the few outlets out there that actually gives "entertainment journalism" a good name. And they're actually getting better. One of my favorite new features is "Random Rules." While they aren't the only mag to get a celebrity to put their iPod's on shuffle and have them talk about what songs come up, The AV Club does it better than anyone else.
To date, it's usually a comedian, but this week they talk to LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy -- it's an absolute must-read. If you didn't respect the man before you certainly should now. Murphy is eloquent, erudite, refreshingly unexpurgated.
There couldn't be a more perfect song to come up first than The Fall's "In the Park." It's hard to imagine anyone listening to LCD Soundsystem's debut and not realizing what a massive Fall fan Murphy is (as am I), but this cinches it:
I love The Fall. To me, it's the best catalog in rock history. I'll take it over The Beatles or The Velvet Underground. It's really beautiful and broken, and it was the first thing I found that was completely unencumbered by bourgie tastes. Bands like Echo & The Bunnymen — when you're a teenager, that shit's great. You're like, "Oh, this is dark and mysterious and English." But it's really juvenile in terms of its aesthetic. The Fall was different. There's no candy.
He goes on to discuss Devendra Banhart, Lou Reed, Can, and the Finding Nemo DVD. Elsewhere, there are new interviews with Alan More (who knows the score) and Alan Arkin (maybe the best thing in the overrated Little Miss Sunshine), a wrap-up of the Pitchfork Music Festival and San Diego Comic Con, and a list of 14 Classic Tom Petty opening lines. Now if they'd just put their food section online...
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