Surfer Rosa is an absolutely brilliant album. The first seven tracks, from "Bone Machine" through "Where is My Mind," are among the best the band wrote and constitute some of the most important music recorded in the last two and a half decades. "Tony's Theme," the reworked "Vamos," and "Brick Is Red" merit similiar accolades. But some of the album's other tracks, while they would have stolen the show on bossanova or trompe le monde, have always failed to hold my attention in the context of Surfer Rosa's more rigorous standards of experimentation and songwriting than the Pixies' bland third LP or their hit-or-miss finale. I think specifically i'm talking about "Cactus" and "I'm Amazed" (minus the Kim Deal high school scandal monologue) more than i'm talking about "Oh My Golly." Doolittle doesn't do this. It's absolutely perfect, a bizarre and occasionally psychotic pop masterpiece . And i don't buy the argument that Surfer Rosa is somehow "more experimental," than its predecessor as a number of friends whose musicality and musicianship i respect tremendously have recently alleged. On the dirge-funk of "Hey," the plaintive, surreal slide guitar jangle of "Silver," the one-two punch of the reggae-inflected "Mr. Grieves" and the the frenzied "Crackity Jones," not to mention "La La Love You"'s unique admixture of biting satire and heartfealt saccharine goo, Doolittle transversed frontiers which Surfer Rosa had barely dreamt of.
This is a solid YDN article stressing the importance of a continued activist stance on Levin's part for academic visa reform. It's right, and it's actually timely, which, for the YDN, is quite a stretch - usually they back things after the federation wins them - although, of course, that is partially what is happening here, but it also conveniently ignores the fact that this issue wouldn't even be on Levin's radar if international students hadn't organized and fought to put it there. Face it YDN, the Federation of Hospital and University Employees is the future of the academy, and it's a future worth fighting for.
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