Problem World

thediscography:

I hate hearing my mom and brother play the same shit in their cars as New York DJs. My brother’s playing New Order, which I’ve been listening to since I was 14. My mom played Lady Gaga. I told them, ‘I should get you over there and you can play your MP3s in New York at a hotel.’ I always imagined you come here ‘cause you want to hear music you can’t hear at Chili’s in the airport. Go to any art-world event—it’s people playing R. Kelly’s most famous song. I feel like I’m on a Ukrainian cruise ship in Williamsburg. I went to Daddy’s. They had some guy playing all these ’90s radio hits. Fine, but I didn’t come here for that.

I interviewed the fantastic Jonathan Toubin for the Village Voice. His mixes are available here.

Oh man, this bit is crucial:

Toubin is no mere snob. “What makes culture is inclusiveness and showing people that the world doesn’t have to be what they see,” he says. His regular Friday night at the Lower East Side bar Home Sweet Home demonstrates that inclusiveness. “You get a bunch of stragglers from the street. Those people are my favorite. I love it when people walk in like, ‘I don’t get it.’ I don’t consider regular people wrong at all.
“I can’t tell you how many times my guests that were collector guys criticized the people for not dancing, saying they just don’t know what anything is,” he continues. “No. It’s never their fault. Even if they don’t really care for it, you should be the guy [who makes them say], ‘I don’t really like Thai food, but this restaurant’s really good.’”

It’s not a matter of thinking familiar/canonical/critical-darling stuff is terrible — it’s thinking that those things should be the beginning of something bigger, that there’s always more.

I hate hearing my mom and brother play the same shit in their cars as New York DJs. My brother’s playing New Order, which I’ve been listening to since I was 14. My mom played Lady Gaga. I told them, ‘I should get you over there and you can play your MP3s in New York at a hotel.’ I always imagined you come here ‘cause you want to hear music you can’t hear at Chili’s in the airport. Go to any art-world event—it’s people playing R. Kelly’s most famous song. I feel like I’m on a Ukrainian cruise ship in Williamsburg. I went to Daddy’s. They had some guy playing all these ’90s radio hits. Fine, but I didn’t come here for that.

I interviewed the fantastic Jonathan Toubin for the Village Voice. His mixes are available here.

Oh man, this bit is crucial:

Toubin is no mere snob. “What makes culture is inclusiveness and showing people that the world doesn’t have to be what they see,” he says. His regular Friday night at the Lower East Side bar Home Sweet Home demonstrates that inclusiveness. “You get a bunch of stragglers from the street. Those people are my favorite. I love it when people walk in like, ‘I don’t get it.’ I don’t consider regular people wrong at all.

“I can’t tell you how many times my guests that were collector guys criticized the people for not dancing, saying they just don’t know what anything is,” he continues. “No. It’s never their fault. Even if they don’t really care for it, you should be the guy [who makes them say], ‘I don’t really like Thai food, but this restaurant’s really good.’”

It’s not a matter of thinking familiar/canonical/critical-darling stuff is terrible — it’s thinking that those things should be the beginning of something bigger, that there’s always more.