Is Born to Harangue as serious as they say?

[Born to Harangue]

I still love this song

I remember on an iPod I had back in the late 2000s it was in my top 25 most played songs, from the 12,000 or so that I had on that iPod.

I’ve barely listened to it since the beginning of the 2010s but I listened a few times today and yesterday (because I saw the band has a new single out, which is fine but not as as this) and it sounds as fresh as ever

 

[Light Housework]

I think I might love this song more than Rifke loves booze. Actually, no, I don’t believe that’s possible!

I just listened to it. It’s hypnotic.

 

[Born to Harangue]

Here’s March’s list even though you don’t deserve it . It features the strongest and most varied batch of songs yet! It’s got jazz, metal, hardcore punk, country, indie rock, R&B, synthpop, shoegaze, dream pop, UK bass, various singer-songwriters.

Like last month, I went for a left field pick for #1. Veronica Flair manages simultaneously to be nostalgic and futuristic, and as with Rent Free even though there’s something familiar about the sound I like the fact that I can’t pinpoint the song’s exact influences. It features two minutes of verse/chorus followed by a 55 second saxophone solo and then a 45 second keyboard(?) solo. You’d think the chorus would then come back in to close things out, but instead Devin reappears vocalising until it all fades away. I love how the song is structured.

And maybe I’m easily pleased but of the 136 singles from 2024 that I listened to for the first time in March, I only rated 15 of them lower than 6 out of 10. I got rid of my ‘one song per artist’ rule for this list because it didn’t make sense to me to keep doing it that way:

47. Solomon Fox - weird
46. Wand - Help Desk
45. Billy Morrison with Ozzy Osbourne and Steve Stevens - Crack Cocaine
44. The Sorcerers - Yasuke in Roppongi
43. Shabaka (feat. Floating Points) - I’ll Do Whatever You Want
42. Spectres - AM Gold
41. Amaro Freitas (feat. Shabaka) - Y’Y
40. Vampire Weekend - Mary Boone
39. Strand of Oaks - More You
38. Tyler Ramsey - These Ghosts
37. Two Shell & FKA twigs - Talk to Me
36. Sofia Bolt (feat. Stella Donnelly) - Bus Song
35. Mount Kimbie (feat. King Krule) - Empty and Silent
34. Julian Lage - 76
33. Cola - Bitter Melon
32. Wisp - Enough for you
31. Bullion - Affection
30. Laufey - Goddess
29. Gesaffelstein - Hard Dreams
28. Job for a Cowboy - Beyond the Chemical Doorway
27. Sir Chloe - Over Again
26. Devin Morrison - Anita Valentine
25. Friko - Where We’ve Been
24. Willow - symptom of life
23. Underworld x Kettama - Fen Violet
22. NewDad - White Ribbons
21. Night Tapes - Every Day is a Game
20. DIIV - Soul-net
19. Amaro Freitas (feat. Jeff Parker) - Mar de Cirandeiras
18. Jessica Pratt - World on a String
17. Fabiana Palladino - I Can’t Dream Anymore
16. Sam Evian - Stay
15. Gouge Away - Dallas
14. Adrianne Lenker - Free Treasure
13. Machinedrum (feat. Tinashe) - Zoom
12. Bolis Pupul (with Salah Pupul) - Ma Tau Wai Road
11. St Vincent - Flea
10. Kamasi Washington - Prologue
9. Gouge Away - Stuck in a Dream
8. Willie Nelson - The Border
7. Friko - Get Numb to It!
6. Justice - Incognito
5. The Lemon Twigs - A Dream Is All I Know
4. Justice (starring Miguel) - Saturnine
3. Sam Evian - Rollin’ In
2. Vampire Weekend - Classical
1. Devin Morrison - Veronica Flair

I stopped making these lists back in March but here are the five singles I was considering for the #1 spot on April’s list before I decided not to proceed with it:







All five were released in April. I think I would have given the #1 to Charli because that’s a song I can see myself still listening to a couple of years from now, whereas there’s a chance I’ll forget about the others.

 

[Gaylord Deepstar]

Born to Harangue is a Billy No-Mates who needs every bit of attention he can get on this site because he’s a total loser who lives in his mommy’s basement.

 

[Gaylord Deepstar]

Born to Harangue is a Billy No-Mates who needs every bit of attention he can get on this site because he’s a total loser who lives in his mommy’s basement.

Yeah, funny because it’s true.

 

[Born to Harangue]

PONY

 

[nicky wire's legs]

PONY

 

[Born to Harangue]

If I get around to making a ‘best singles of 2024’ list at the end of the year, here’s five singles with under 20,000 views on YouTube that as of now look likely to make that list:

Evanora Unlimited (feat. She Diamond) - Sequoia Tide (2.3k views)


Cindy Lee - Darling of the Diskoteque (this is the B-side to a limited edition single; the most popular YouTube video with this song has 10k views)


Spirit of the Beehive - Let the Virgin Drive (the official video has 17k views)


Lozenge - Interloper (3.1k views; one of their other singles, Precious, would probably make the year end list as well)


Rinse - Breathe (the most popular YouTube video with this song has 3.6k views)

 

[Born to Harangue]

I’m not a rap fan any more but this is easily the best, most innovative rap music I’ve heard this year:





My general feeling though is that rap needs to die to create room for other music styles to emerge. One reason I think we’ve been forced to endure rap music dominating the airwaves for 20+ years is that in the 21st century white people have lost the ability to criticise black people and their cultural contributions (and black people generally refuse to criticise themselves as well). It’s my understanding that white people helped to kill - or at least tarnish the reputation of - disco back in the late ‘70s, through a sustained campaign of collective public negativity towards it (even though disco was pretty good!). In the 21st century we’ve been collectively gagged, which may be PART of the reason why boring one-dimensional rap has had the freedom to fill the charts for decades in white majority societies even while it’s well past its sell-by-date. If we still had any kind of ability to influence culture surely the kibosh would have been put on rap (as a mainstream force) about 15 years ago. Instead we’re forced to grin and bear it, or try our best to ignore it. I have to imagine a majority of white people in white majority societies dislike most rap music but it won’t go away because we forfeited the ability to make it go away. I’m not sure how accurate all that is, it’s just something I was thinking about recently, but I think it’s a factor. If more modern rap attempted to be innovative like in the videos above then I wouldn’t have as much of a problem with it, but it doesn’t, and 90% of it is demoralisingly bad and uninspired and drags down everything else around it.

 

[Born to Harangue]

I know this site is filled with open minded music aficionados who love exploring new music…… so, I was looking through the singles from 2024 that I listened to in May and June and here’s what I think I would have chosen as my #1 for both of those months if I had continued making monthly lists:

May: Sheena Ringo & Ikkyu Nakajima - Offering Sake

Other songs I rated highly in May include (not a great month overall, with a quarter of what I listened to taken up by Eurovision songs):

Spoiler

Colin Stetson - The Love It Took to Leave You, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Frogs, tindersticks - New World, Charles Lloyd - Monk’s Dance, Tommy Richman - Million Dollar Baby, Sheena Ringo & ATARASHIO GAKKO! - FRDP, Cassandra Jenkins - Delphinium Blue, Peggy Gou - Lobster Telephone, Amyl and The Sniffers - U Should Not Be Doing That, Billy Tibbals - Out of Touch, DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - Come Find Out, Loreen - Forever

June: Burial - Phoneglow


I was impressed with a lot of what I heard in June and I probably could have got a strong 40 song list out of it but oh well, I’m afraid you musos will have to do without

 

[Vesper Nocturne]

I know this site is filled with open minded music aficionados who love exploring new music……

I know! And the queue of them is out of control, they are wrapping all the way around the corner now!

 

[Born to Harangue]

After all the engagement my previous post received…… I thought it would be remiss of me not to come back and add my favourite singles from 2024 that I listened to in July, so here you go:

Songs that stood out to me:

Spoiler

Mildlife - Yourself, Dr. Dog - Talk Is Cheap, Chrystabell and David Lynch - The Answers to the Questions, The Jesus Lizard - Alexis Feels Sick, The Burkharts - Always On the Run, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Le Risque, Primal Scream - Love Insurrection, Luke Temple - I Can Dream, Clothesline from Hell - You Don’t Know, Chat Pile - I Am Dog Now, Kelly Lee Owens - Love You Got, A Place to Bury Strangers - Disgust, FM Skyline - Fresnel, Foster the People - Take Me Back, Skeleten - Deep Scene, Public Service Broadcasting - Electra, Glass Beams - Mahal

Joint 5th place: Pixies - Chicken & The Last Dinner Party - The Feminine Urge
4. JPEGMafia - Sin Miedo
3. Floating Points - Key103
2. Father John Misty - I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All
1. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Hog Calling Contest



Statistics:

Spoiler

January: #1 The Lemon Twigs - My Golden Years (120 singles listened to)
February: #1 Faux Real - Rent Free (132 singles listened to)
March: #1 Devin Morrison - Veronica Flair (136 singles listened to)
April: #1 Charli xcx - B2b (137 singles listened to)
May: #1 Sheena Ringo - offering sake (121 singles listened to)
June: #1 Burial - Phoneglow (105 singles listened to)
July: #1 King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Hog Calling Contest (105 singles listened to)
Total singles listened to as of July 31st: 856
Where my #1 singles for each month would place if I were making a year end ‘favourite singles of 2024’ list today: The Lemon Twigs - #1, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - #2, Faux Real - #3, Devin Morrison - top 5, Burial - top 10, Charli xcx - top 15, Sheena Ringo - 25-30

 

[Born to Harangue]

My role here was simply to mitigate the awkwardness when no one responded!! I was looking out for you, honey bunny, cause let me tell you, there were times when the cringe factor was HUGE. I'm not asking you to thank me but you should really thank me!!

While I’ve sung Rifke’s praises many times on this site over the years, it recently dawned on me that I never FULLY appreciated what a wonderful, fascinating, compassionate (to those who deserve it) person she actually is. There’s an openness to her which is rare and a purity in her soul that a lot of us lost a long time ago. She’s generous with her time even towards those who aren’t really worthy of the amount of consideration she shows them— but that’s because it’s this simple: if you respect her, she’ll show respect back to you. The reason for that is she has MANNERS but she also has a low tolerance for bullshit, so when you start taking liberties she’ll let you know about it. I’ve also come to realise her IQ is higher than what I was prepared to accept— higher than mine. She has something that I don’t have and it’s essential: speed. If you give me time I can work things out but her brain processes the information at lightning speed, and that’s why she would always score higher than me on IQ tests or at something like Jeopardy where there’s no time for dawdling which is what I typically like to do. I had a public falling out with her recently and I came out the worse for wear; there’s nothing that can be said to embarrass her because she’s the same person in private as she is in public. She has always been open and some have tried to exploit that openness while hiding their true selves. I was the one whimpering in private and that’s why I’m toast. The falling out was my fault: I pretended she was speaking ill of a friend JUST to get her attention which was a big mistake and I regret it. She was then obligated to defend herself and it was a dickhead move on my part to put her in that position. Even though I’ve had a funny way of showing it I retain a deep affection and appreciation for her and I’ll never take the side of someone who wants to dox her and stress her out because they feel bitterness towards her for reasons that are unclear to everyone else. I had a good friendship with her and I destroyed it but I’m grateful for the time I spent talking with her and for the humour and patience she always had with me.

(I didn’t mean for this to sound like a eulogy; she’ll probably be back on the site soon!)

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

While I’ve sung Rifke’s praises many times on this site over the years, it recently dawned on me that I never FULLY appreciated what a wonderful, fascinating, compassionate (to those who deserve it) person she actually is. There’s an openness to her which is rare and a purity in her soul that a lot of us lost a long time ago. She’s generous with her time even towards those who aren’t really worthy of the amount of consideration she shows them— but that’s because it’s this simple: if you respect her, she’ll show respect back to you. The reason for that is she has MANNERS but she also has a low tolerance for bullshit, so when you start taking liberties she’ll let you know about it. I’ve also come to realise her IQ is higher than what I was prepared to accept— higher than mine. She has something that I don’t have and it’s essential: speed. If you give me time I can work things out but her brain processes the information at lightning speed, and that’s why she would always score higher than me on IQ tests or at something like Jeopardy where there’s no time for dawdling which is what I typically like to do. I had a public falling out with her recently and I came out the worse for wear; there’s nothing that can be said to embarrass her because she’s the same person in private as she is in public. She has always been open and some have tried to exploit that openness while hiding their true selves. I was the one whimpering in private and that’s why I’m toast. The falling out was my fault: I pretended she was speaking ill of a friend JUST to get her attention which was a big mistake and I regret it. She was then obligated to defend herself and it was a dickhead move on my part to put her in that position. Even though I’ve had a funny way of showing it I retain a deep affection and appreciation for her and I’ll never take the side of someone who wants to dox her and stress her out because they feel bitterness towards her for reasons that are unclear to everyone else. I had a good friendship with her and I destroyed it but I’m grateful for the time I spent talking with her and for the humour and patience she always had with me.

(I didn’t mean for this to sound like a eulogy; she’ll probably be back on the site soon!)

all you need is Rifke !

 

[Vesper Nocturne]

While I’ve sung Rifke’s praises many times on this site over the years, it recently dawned on me that I never FULLY appreciated what a wonderful, fascinating, compassionate (to those who deserve it) person she actually is. There’s an openness to her which is rare and a purity in her soul that a lot of us lost a long time ago. She’s generous with her time even towards those who aren’t really worthy of the amount of consideration she shows them— but that’s because it’s this simple: if you respect her, she’ll show respect back to you. The reason for that is she has MANNERS but she also has a low tolerance for bullshit, so when you start taking liberties she’ll let you know about it. I’ve also come to realise her IQ is higher than what I was prepared to accept— higher than mine. She has something that I don’t have and it’s essential: speed. If you give me time I can work things out but her brain processes the information at lightning speed, and that’s why she would always score higher than me on IQ tests or at something like Jeopardy where there’s no time for dawdling which is what I typically like to do. I had a public falling out with her recently and I came out the worse for wear; there’s nothing that can be said to embarrass her because she’s the same person in private as she is in public. She has always been open and some have tried to exploit that openness while hiding their true selves. I was the one whimpering in private and that’s why I’m toast. The falling out was my fault: I pretended she was speaking ill of a friend JUST to get her attention which was a big mistake and I regret it. She was then obligated to defend herself and it was a dickhead move on my part to put her in that position. Even though I’ve had a funny way of showing it I retain a deep affection and appreciation for her and I’ll never take the side of someone who wants to dox her and stress her out because they feel bitterness towards her for reasons that are unclear to everyone else. I had a good friendship with her and I destroyed it but I’m grateful for the time I spent talking with her and for the humour and patience she always had with me.

(I didn’t mean for this to sound like a eulogy; she’ll probably be back on the site soon!)

If this isn’t someone in grave need of the immediate services of a dominatrix, I don’t know who else would be

 

[Born to Harangue]

I signed into my last.fm account last night for the first time in years and noticed I received a message back in May from someone I hadn’t spoken to in 8 years. It turns out she’s an OnlyFans model now! What does an OnlyFans model want with me!? Oh, that’s right, probably my money, silly question. She was an Art student last I remembered. I read back through our messages from 2012 and it seems all I ever did was insult her, but apparently she liked that if she still remembered me and messaged me a decade later. Here’s a few of the messages I sent her in 2012 (aged 22) for anyone wondering if Born to Harangue always came across as a flagrant nutcase:




I was walking the line between humorous and obnoxious. Obviously there are women out there who get a kick out of that kind of behaviour, something which terminal “nice guy” @Gregor Samsa would NEVER be able to understand! He’d have to advise her to stay away from me because she has the potential to be good but not if she continues to talk to me. Are there any women who randomly appeared back in your inbox after you hadn’t spoken to them in almost a decade, Gregor?? A long line of them, I bet!

 

[Born to Harangue]

I’ve decided on my #1 songs released in August and September of this year. I considered five songs for the #1 place in August: Some Days I Drink My Coffee By the Grave of William Blake by The The, Stylistics by Tim Reaper, Galina by Allie X and Empress Of, and briefly Don’t Get Me Started by The Smile until I found out the song is about the singer’s (Thom Yorke’s) support of Israel and his belief that he shouldn’t have to defend those views and that no one even has the right to question him about it. After discovering that’s what the song is about, I paid closer attention to the music video and noticed at the end of the video a man walks into and becomes absorbed by a giant Star of David. So that ruled that song out of contention! It’s a shame about the lyrics; I don’t particularly care for Radiohead but these electronic type songs similar to this one (Idioteque, etc.) are the only ones I tend to like. In Rainbows was good too I suppose but I’m not interested in any of their pre-2000 music.

So I chose this song instead: Masc by Chat Pile. I looked up what the lyrics of THIS song are about and right away I saw people on Reddit saying it’s a song about toxic masculinity and even that it’s some sort of transgender anthem. Can straight white gentiles have ANYTHING for themselves any more!? How about a PRO-toxic masculinity song for a change!? I think that would really appeal to an emotionally abusive flagrant nutcase like my good self. The singer of the song says the lyrics are about “the horrors of interpersonal intimacy” and at least THAT’s a theme I can connect with, so as far as I’m concerned that’s what it’s about and nothing else, because if it were about anything else then the song would be ruined and I’d never listen to it again. And I’ve seen NO proof for the interpretation of the song that the freaks on Reddit came up with!

‘Masc’ is exactly what I would have been into at 20 years old. I listen to it and a flicker of my old self is still there; I can imagine myself listening to it at 20 before going out somewhere and being imbued with a sense of confidence while walking around the streets that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. But I also listen to it in mourning that that version of myself isn’t returning: the youthful enthusiasm, the desire to figure things out, the time, the various paths that were open to me. When you’re 20 you can’t conceive of ever not being 20. There is a light that goes out . If I may be self-indulgent ( ), I’m picking this as my song for August and calling it an ode to myself at that age; back when I was watching Taxi Driver/Mulholland Drive, reading whatever I was reading in 2009– let’s say The Catcher In the Rye and Philip K. Dick although they may have been a bit earlier, listening to The Cure and (if it had existed— it sounds like it should have) THIS:

(I’m not posting the music video even though most of the visuals add a lot to the song, because the video features a severed pig’s head and we ain’t about that on the Born to Harangue thread )



I’ve already chosen my #1 song for September as well. I was waiting for this to be released and it met my expectations so there’s no point holding off until the end of the month and pretending that anything else has a chance. My praise of FKA twigs on this thread almost a year ago to the day was fully justified!

Spoiler

I’m an FKA twigs enjoyer. Below is the song that got me into her music a few years ago. I loved the fusion of Frozen era Madonna with modern trap beats. She sings beautifully and her visuals are always captivating. The one thing I’m not so enamoured with is that her latest songs have too many featured artists, but the features are worth sitting through to get back to the twigs parts. What a talent she is

 

[Born to Harangue]

I signed into my last.fm account last night for the first time in years and noticed I received a message back in May from someone I hadn’t spoken to in 8 years. It turns out she’s an OnlyFans model now! What does an OnlyFans model want with me!? Oh, that’s right, probably my money, silly question. She was an Art student last I remembered. I read back through our messages from 2012 and it seems all I ever did was insult her, but apparently she liked that if she still remembered me and messaged me a decade later. Here’s a few of the messages I sent her in 2012 (aged 22) for anyone wondering if Born to Harangue always came across as a flagrant nutcase:

View attachment 111498View attachment 111499View attachment 111500View attachment 111501
View attachment 111502View attachment 111503View attachment 111504View attachment 111505

I was walking the line between humorous and obnoxious. Obviously there are women out there who get a kick out of that kind of behaviour, something which terminal “nice guy” @ Gregor Samsa would NEVER be able to understand! He’d have to advise her to stay away from me because she has the potential to be good but not if she continues to talk to me. Are there any women who randomly appeared back in your inbox after you hadn’t spoken to them in almost a decade, Gregor?? A long line of them, I bet!

Update on what happened here
I replied, then she replied to that as you can see here:

So I replied again, and she responded with a couple of paragraphs which I read but then forgot about. I remembered last night and signed back in and this additional message was waiting for me:

G***** S**** could NEVER! I should probably say something though, it’s been about 10 days. Maybe I should ask her if I can direct a few of her OnlyFans videos, or perhaps even appear in them!

 

[Born to Harangue]

I’ve already chosen my #1 song for September as well. I was waiting for this to be released and it met my expectations so there’s no point holding off until the end of the month and pretending that anything else has a chance. My praise of FKA twigs on this thread almost a year ago to the day was fully justified!

I spoke too soon by saying that nothing had a chance of overtaking FKA twigs as my #1 song for September; if I had waited a few days I might have picked this instead (if ‘Masc’ represented me at 20 then this is me at 22 in 2011-12, hopped up on Hollywood babylon and lounge music):



An account of mine from late 2012

Hooray for Hollywood on Listal

Hooray for Hollywood on Listal

garbotalks.listal.com

 

[Born to Harangue]

Limmy’s World of Glasgow (2006)
https://ia802907.us.archive.org/5/items/limmysworldofglasgow/15 - Xander - Alky (09-17-2006).mp3 - Limmy captures the spirit of the predatory homosexual male PERFECTLY in all the Xander stories! He wouldn’t get away with playing this character any more, no matter how accurate it is. The accuracy is what would offend people.

https://ia802907.us.archive.org/5/items/limmysworldofglasgow/37 - John Paul - The Beast (10-09-2006).mp3 - I grew up around psychopaths like John Paul! I’m thinking of three in particular who’ve spent most of their adult lives in prison, mainly for GBH (which involved the use of hammers and pool cues) and sexual assault. I know one of the three has dozens of convictions (including for attacking our school principal in a shopping centre one day, a couple of years after we left school), and he’s the one who reminds me of John Paul most of all. There was another person who was years older than me and took a liking to me for some reason and used to give me Power Rangers badges when I was about six years old. Eventually he wound up in prison, I think for assault, then got more years added to his sentence for beating up a police officer. His name was also John Paul!

https://ia802907.us.archive.org/5/items/limmysworldofglasgow/34 - Phil - Barras (10-06-2006).mp3 - I came across plenty of English bullsh!tters like Phil during family holidays in Benidorm between 1996-2005; that place is full of them.

https://ia802907.us.archive.org/5/items/limmysworldofglasgow/54 - Dee Dee - Teletext (10-26-2006).mp3 - I’m not sure that I ever knew anyone like Dee Dee, there are elements that are familiar, but he’s a relatable character nevertheless!