| Douglas Martin’s Dirty Shoes: Noctiluca, the Alluring Darkness of Dunes, and the Smell’s Second Wave | March 14, 2012 |
Douglas Martin owns Dune on Laserdisc. As far as ridiculously publicized micro-scenes go, The Smell’s Graduating Class of 2008 was a treasure trove for lovers of weird guitar music. Drone music wunderkinds (Infinite Body) and looped out experimentalists (Lucky Dragons) occupied the same space as some of the most forward (and backward) thinking punk bands […]
Douglas Martin once quit a band called the Mansiere. It’s excruciatingly difficult to take an angle on a band like The Men. They’re a quartet of punk dudes rapidly approaching thirty who make exactly the kind of music you’d expect from a quartet of punk dudes rapidly approaching thirty. They come from a bygone era […]
| Douglas Martin’s Dirty Shoes: Killing Time and the Blown Out Bubblegum of Terry Malts | February 24, 2012 |
Douglas Martin also likes Razor Ramone(s). In a scene of The Wire pretty much only pivotal to rock nerds, Jimmy McNulty famously asked, “What the hell is wrong with the Ramones?” Well, what the hell is wrong with the Ramones? (Author’s Note: I’m mostly asking this question rhetorically, but am fully aware someone will take […]
| Douglas Martin’s Dirty Shoes: Dirty Cupcakes – “I Want It (Your Love)” | February 13, 2012 |
No, Douglas Martin didn’t coin the name for this band. Or did he? I strongly recommend against watching this video if you have any qualms with the following: Tight jeans, bike messengers, C’s 81 and 86, matching dresses, Mickey Mouse ears, light homoeroticism, vintage Cramps t-shirts, mini-binoculars, pillow fights, Talulah Gosh, Vespa scooters, Girl Scout […]
| Douglas Martin’s Dirty Shoes: 20 Questions Raised by Cloud Nothings’ Attack on Memory | February 9, 2012 |
Cloud Nothings do not qualify as Douglas Martin Music. 1. If you could go from lo-fi guitar pop to mall-punk to Serious Punk Musician That Everybody Should Take Seriously in about two-and-a-half years, wouldn’t you prefer to have a wider template than Wipers and emocore? 2. Are we witnessing the Great Emo Revival of 2012? […]
| Douglas Martin’s Dirty Shoes: No Death Can Tear Us Apart | January 31, 2012 |
Mirel Wagner – No Death from Aki Roukala on Vimeo. Mirel Wagner, a Finnish singer/songwriter born in Ethiopia. A voice and an acoustic guitar. A dark room with one window and one mirror. A lover whose hair smells like mud, whose kiss is marked by the taste of a rotten tongue. An eerie blend of […]
| Douglas Martin’s Dirty Shoes: Guided by Voices Eat the Factory | January 27, 2012 |
Douglas Martin was in the Sandbox-era lineup of Guided by Voices. He was the greatest four-year-old bassist in indie-rock history. No need to put the word classic in scare-quotes. Between 1994 and 1996, the lineup of Guided by Voices released some immeasurably great output. If most pop-rock bands had the opportunity to slap their name […]
| Douglas Martin’s Dirty Shoes: Lower Dens – “Brains” | January 19, 2012 |
Douglas Martin has returned after finally climbing to the top of Mt. Vesuvius. Wherein Jana Hunter and her road dogs take a ride on the Autobahn and come back with gold. Twin-Hand Movement was shoegaze guitars and sock-hop songwriting. Here, the Baltimore quartet reaches their same textural brilliance through understated rhythms, “Believer” synths, and sampler […]
Douglas Martin listened to 1,498 records this year. By a rough estimate. A bunch of great indie labels released music this year. If I paid tribute to them all, it would feature over 100 albums with a word count that rivals The Iliad. Sub Pop, Matador, Merge, Domino, 4AD, Slumberland, Captured Tracks, Woodsist, In the […]
Douglas Martin does not have a subscription to The Believer. John Maus’ sprawling philosophical ideas and inflammatory opinions get him into trouble. He uses four-syllable words and threatens the intellect of insecure music journalists. “John Maus celebrates the imminent demise of record stores” was 2011’s “Kanye bumrushes Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech.” John Maus could very […]
