Category Archives: John

Everything written by John Stull

by | October 3, 2012 · 9:00 am

John Vs. “No Love Deep Web” by Death Grips

(I’m not posting the cover, but not because I object to it. It’s because I don’t know where anyone will be when reading it, and it’s unfair to assume it’ll be somewhere without prying eyes. I’m also not posting the “censored” cover because fuck a cop-out.)

I thought I had nothing left to say about Death Grips after witnessing one of the few shows they did for The Money Store. That experience fucked my life up for a few months as I had to compartmentalize and come to terms with everything they showed on those screens. I thought by making the front of the website that fucking jacket I wouldn’t budge on that stance. And then No Love Deep Web came out, and a bunch of crazy shit came out with it. I have theories. Here they are. Continue reading →

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by | August 28, 2012 · 8:33 am

John Vs. “The Seer” by Swans

Before we begin, I’d like to apologize for downloading the leak of the record. Gira wont read this, but I just want it public that, yes, I’ve had it for like a month, and that was a month before the general public had it, when I wasn’t supposed to have it. To make up for it, I bought it twice, and I am now going to spend my power praising it.

I’m also going to take a moment to indulge in detailing the way I listened to this record. You don’t have to listen to it this way for it to be good, but I found it to be a positive experience overall.
I’ll put a big bold “actually talking about the record” thing afterwords if you want to ignore this. Continue reading →

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by | May 26, 2012 · 6:15 pm

John Vs. “Open Your Heart” by The Men

The last time I had such a childish, underdeveloped first response to a record was when I bought Shine A Light by the Constantines. I’d bought it because I really enjoyed the song “Nighttime/Anytime (It’s Alright),” and had expected it to be a record full of songs like that, and was actually disgusted when only one song was kind of like it (“Tank Commander”).

I waited two or three years, until later into my time in high school, to put it on again. Now I vehemently defend The Constantines as being the finest rock band of 2000-2005, refer to four of those five releases as wholly perfect, intend to get “Modern Sinner Nervous Man” tattooed on my right wrist, and will probably have “Blind Luck” play during my funeral. Continue reading →

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by | May 4, 2012 · 11:36 am

In Your Area

Alright, so, it’s probably obvious at this point that I’m a minimalist. The site is sparse, our podcast is raw, the cover of my record is pretty plain, et cetera. Now, by some measure, this is a choice. There is elegance in simplicity that I find enjoyable to take in. Plus some half-hearted attachment to the idea that belongings get in the way of enlightenment, whatever that means. Here’s the heart of the matter: I’m a sensitive person. Continue reading →

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by | April 13, 2012 · 12:01 pm

Bad Isn’t Good Enough

Five minutes before I started writing this, I had just listened to “Stupid Hoe” by Nicki Minaj for the first time ever. It was presented in a “worst song ever” thread on a music forum, by someone acting like nothing could ever be that bad.

I thought it was kind of fun.
Twenty minutes before than that, I was busy sculpting gum for fun.
Hours before that, I woke up screaming from a nightmare about a funeral for the still-alive.*
Now I’m preparing to write essentially a thesis on all modern music.
It’s been a weird day.

*the nightmare thing wont be covered in any greater detail, don’t worry about it

page:part
1. This page, right here.
2. John Vs. “Stupid Hoe” by Nicki Minaj
3. The Industrial Revolution and Music (radio edit)
4. John Vs. “New Slaves” by Zs
5. Bad Music

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5

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by | February 21, 2012 · 10:07 pm

Only Salt Remains

Since January, we were toying with an idea. Andrew and I listen to Public Strain frequently, to a point where we were coming around to having something else to say about that record. The idea we had was that everyone on the site would write something about the album. Andrew would’ve covered his attatchment to the record. I would’ve written about the lyric decoding process (you can see the results of that here). Matt hasn’t heard the record since we called it the 2010 Album of the Year. Metal Dan hadn’t heard it at all.

The deadline we set for all of this was last week. No one wrote anything (me included), and it seemed like that’s the end for that idea. At the same time, I’ve still felt urgency behind writing something about Women, as it’s been over a year since their meltdown. The sadness from reading that turned to jealousy at a certain point- what an amazing thing to just throw away. At the same time, I’ve got no right to say something like that, since I wasn’t someone that actually dealt with the people in the band. All I have is my perspective. Continue reading →

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by | February 14, 2012 · 8:33 pm

John Vs. “The Malkin Jewel” by The Mars Volta

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WINNER: “The Malkin Jewel” by The Mars Volta

WHY: It’s always the punch you don’t see coming that gets you.

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by | January 23, 2012 · 12:36 pm

John made a record.

You can get it here.

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by | January 12, 2012 · 11:11 am

John Vs. “Please Heat This Eventually” by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez & Damo Suzuki

TAG: Skippable*
PERIOD: Amsterdam

I don’t like Can.

I can acknowledge that Can and krautrock as a whole are a huge influence on what Omar Rodriguez Lopez is doing with all of his recorded music. That doesn’t mean my opinion on it has changed just because I cite Omar as someone who influences me.

Please Heat This Eventually ends up coming off tailor made for Damo Suzuki. It was recorded as a live performance, as part of Omar’s 2005 touring with the ORL Group. As a digital file, it is one 24 minute track of improvised music. To the credit of Omar’s band, the majority of the song does sound like a Can piece. Presumably done to put Damo in his element instead of the acid-salsa attack of Omar’s normal style. Continue reading →

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by | January 5, 2012 · 11:10 am

John Vs. “Omar Rodriguez” by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez

TAG: Standard
PERIOD: Amsterdam
With the self titled, we’re into the first album of the Amsterdam period, and also the first publicly available sign that Omar was serious about recording as a solo artist. It does make sense, as apparently the record label contract for The Mars Volta requires an eighteen month gap between records, and since they don’t tour for that long, a burning mind like Omar’s had to be put to something. Still, I personally find self-titled records to be obnoxious. It presupposes a horrifying statement, that “This one recorded instance is this person.” And as Omar’s compositional and playing style expanded, his self-titled record seems like the fastest one to age. Continue reading →

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