Category: Let’s Talk About Love

33 Things: April Edition

333sound

Every month, 33 1/3 editorial assistant Kaitlin Fontana will compile the best, weirdest, most interesting music and sound news from the past 30 days and serve it up to you in one handy, easy to digest list. May we present 33 Things that happened in April? Where the hell did April go? We don’t know either. But some stuff happened in it. 33 stuffs, actually. 1.    Courtney Love is about to release a new album, and this song is UNREAL. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=316ZjRu-UEM?rel=0] 2.    Avril Lavigne is about to release a…

Let’s Talk About Love Week: Video Vault, Episode 25

333sound

We wrap up Let’s Talk About Love Week with a video vault to end all video vaults. Carl’s analysis of the relationship between Celine Dion and schmaltz is one of the defining features of LTAL, and it’s revisited often by contributors to the revised and expanded edition. Herein, Carl takes another look at schmaltz, complete with video evidence. Hold onto your seats. Video Vault: A Brief History of Schmaltz by Carl Wilson The main text of Let’s Talk About Love: Why Other People Have Such Bad Taste is divided into…

Let’s Talk About Love Week: Excerpt: Giving Up On Giving Up on Good Taste by Jonathan Sterne

333sound

Welcome back to Let’s Talk About Love Week. On Day 4 we visit an excerpt from one of the essays that make up the revised and expanded edition, this one from renowned Sound Studies scholar Jonathan Sterne. It’s easy to overlook that all our experiences of art works are mediated by the physical forms and devices that embody them, which have their own designs and subtexts. Jonathan Sterne’s expertise on the ever-evolving history of communications brings that element to the foreground. Sterne is a Montrealer who teaches in the Art History and Communications Studies program at…

Let’s Talk About Love Week: Stop the Presses

333sound

Welcome back to Let’s Talk About Love Week. One of the best things to come out of the original release of LTAL back in 2007 was the profound effect that Carl’s writing had on other arbiters of taste (ie: other cultural critics, academics, and music fans). The book has always inspired a lot of meaningful unpacking and analysis, which is one reason why we thought an expanded edition with other essays made a lot of sense. The re-release has, unsurprisingly, started generating similar hubbub, with coverage on Carl and his…

Let’s Talk About Love Week: Excerpt: With the Lights on, It’s Less Useless by Krist Novoselic

333sound

Welcome back to Let’s Talk About Love Week. On Day 2 we visit an excerpt from one of the essays that make up the revised and expanded edition, this one from former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic. Krist loved the original, and was happy to take time from his goat farm in Washington State (yes, that’s right) to reflect on themes of taste and politics. And while seeing Krist out and about has been rarer in the past, last week, frequenters of Greenpoint’s famed dive bar Saint Vitus were treated to…

Let’s Talk About Love Week: The Sound of Post-Taste Pop: Future Islands play “Seasons (Waiting on You)” on David Letterman, March 2014

333sound

Welcome to Let’s Talk About Love Week, in celebration of the new edition of our now-classic 33 1/3 title by Carl Wilson (affectionately referred to as LTAL around these parts). In this newly released expanded text, Carl’s original groundbreaking treatise on taste is joined by the reflections of numerous other writers, musicians, and tastemakers, including Nick Hornby, James Franco, Sheila Heti, Ann Powers, Owen Pallett, Krist Novoselic, Mary Gaitskill, and more. Carl was kind enough to take time from his busy schedule (as the Slate music critic, among other bonafides)…