Jarvis Cocker - Page 2

My Own Private 2008: Hey, There Were Actually Some Really Good Parts!

noah | December 31, 2008 12:30 pm
noah | December 31, 2008 12:30 pm

When 2008 started, I was sure it was going to be awesome. “It’s going to be two-thousand-great,” I told anyone who would listen, ignoring the various signs (MTV ringing in the New Year with Tila Tequila, hints of economic collapse, etc.) that things wouldn’t exactly go as planned. Or even be much good at all. But at least there was music to help the seemingly endless parade of bad news plod along a bit more jauntily, right?

THE GOOD: Getting back into R & B full-throttle thanks to Ne-Yo, Erykah Badu, Estelle, and Solange; Ida Maria’s twitchy “Oh My God,” which I am going to try and have every person I know hear at least once over the course of the coming months; Prince and Jarvis Cocker owning gigantic open spaces; Ne-Yo turning girls into goo.
THE BAD: You don’t want to hear about the bad aspects of my 2008. (And honestly, typing a blow-by-blow out would just depress me all over again.) So instead I’ll note that I often hate making lists because even though they’re supposed to be overviews, they’re inevitably of the specific moment at which the list was made, which means that completely worthy entrants will get slighted, or pushed out by space limitations, etc. Here’s a “sorry” to Black Mountain’s In The Future, the Air Miami demos that were reissued by Teen Beat, Panic At The Disco’s Pretty. Odd., Deastro’s “The Shaded Forests,” The Academy Is…’s Fast Times At Barrington High, Jazmine Sullivan’s “Bust Your Windows,” and the Robin Thicke record that was mysteriously forgotten about by everyone.
THE WHAAAA? Before August, if you had said that I would have put Billy Joel on any list that didn’t count down the reasons my ninth-grade social studies class was completely absurd (hi there, three-day lesson on “We Didn’t Start The Fire”), I would have laughed so, so hard. And yet, his show at Shea Stadium was totally solid, not only because of his undeniable showmanship but for the ways it stoked my nostalgia about growing up on Long Island.

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No. 9: Jarvis Cocker At Pitchfork Festival, July 2008

Lucas Jensen | December 30, 2008 2:00 am
Lucas Jensen | December 30, 2008 2:00 am

While watching Jarvis Cocker command the crowd at Chicago’s Union Park this summer, I knew I was watching an old pro at work, and I was glad. I’d already seen plenty of young bands—the Dodos, Fleet Foxes—strum and harmonize their way into indie-rock hearts with maximum earnestness. All fine and dandy, but I felt like they lacked gravitas. They didn’t own the big stages; they just rented them for a while. Despite some early troubles, Public Enemy had that weight, that importance about them during their Friday-night set; Jarvis had it tenfold. The minute he snaked his way onto the stage, right at sunset on that Saturday of this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival, he held everyone in his sway, despite not playing a single Pulp song.

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The Snow Is Making Me Want To Listen To Pulp

noah | December 19, 2008 2:00 am
noah | December 19, 2008 2:00 am

Productivity is slowing to a crawl. More »



A Party Affiliation That Pretty Much Anyone Can Get Behind

noah | November 4, 2008 5:00 am
noah | November 4, 2008 5:00 am


I went to PS 112 in Astoria to vote this morning, and while the school’s lobby was bake-sale-free, casting my ballot and walking to the subway put me in a good mood. The sun was shining, the air was crisp, and the promise of not being bombarded with election-related speculation was close on the horizon, at least until some idiot commentator utters the word “2012” while scrambling to fill space on whatever cable-news channel has given him airtime. Which is probably why I had Andrew WK’s “Party Hard” in my head: Sure, it was barely after nine in the morning and I was on my way back to work, instead of heading out for the evening, but my heart felt right–like it was enjoying some wine, canapes, and total fucking raging. And isn’t that what matters? A counterpoint party song, and a rundown of some notable stories that got lost in the Election Day shuffle, after the jump.

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Great Moments In Booking

noah | October 22, 2008 10:30 am
noah | October 22, 2008 10:30 am

Scott Walker won’t be singing his songs next… More »


noah | October 9, 2008 11:30 am
noah | October 9, 2008 11:30 am

In case you didn’t make it out to the In The City… More »



Hope Sandoval Flies Back Onto The Radar

noah | August 7, 2008 3:30 am
noah | August 7, 2008 3:30 am

In case you’re wondering what former Mazzy Star vocalist Hope Sandoval has been up to, one of the answers apparently is, “Recording a new song for Air France. (The airline, that is.) More »


noah | July 21, 2008 9:15 am
noah | July 21, 2008 9:15 am

Jarvis Cocker fans who missed his set from the Pitchfork Music Festival should check out his cover of Master C & J’s Chicago house classic “Face It” as soon as their mouse-clicking fingers will let them. More »


Jarvis Cooker Covers “Face It”

noah | July 21, 2008 9:15 am
noah | July 21, 2008 9:15 am

Jarvis Cocker fans who missed his set from the Pitchfork Music Festival should check out his cover of Master C & J’s Chicago house classic “Face It” as soon as their mouse-clicking fingers will let them. More »



Jarvis Cocker To Speak On Lyrics, Discourage Looking At Program During His Lecture

noah | April 9, 2008 3:00 am
noah | April 9, 2008 3:00 am

The man who kindly asked listeners to not read the lyric booklet while listening to his band’s masterpiece Different Class–perhaps because he was drunk while writing 90% of said words, and nursing a hell of a hangover whle penning the remaining 10%–may seem like an odd choice for a symposium on… More »