New Music from Seattle

February 26, 2016 10:29 AM

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - Spoons (feat. Ryan Bedard) (SLYT)
posted by josher71 (64 comments total)

http://www.stereogum.com/1859524/macklemores-spoons-is-the-worst-song-ever-recorded/franchises/sounding-board/
posted by seiryuu at 10:31 AM on February 26, 2016 [10 favorites]

flagged as macklemore.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 10:31 AM on February 26, 2016 [12 favorites]

Is it mack-lemore or mackle-more? Asking for a friend.
posted by srboisvert at 10:44 AM on February 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Mack Remora, fish attorney.
posted by selfnoise at 10:45 AM on February 26, 2016 [4 favorites]

Anybody who's interested in Seattle hiphop definitely needs to check out THEESatisfaction! (SLYT)
posted by duffell at 10:47 AM on February 26, 2016 [13 favorites]

And related to THEESatisfaction: Shabazz Palaces.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 10:54 AM on February 26, 2016 [9 favorites]

Gross, no.

I don't know many Seattleites who claim him anymore.
posted by Tevin at 10:55 AM on February 26, 2016

This is like the worst of Sole as produced by Architecture in Helsinki at their twee-est. But this wouldn't even have been good in 2006. Has Macklemore been hanging with Calvin Johnson lately or something?
posted by special agent conrad uno at 10:55 AM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

rolling our eyes at Macklemore is the one hope Americans have at coming together as a nation in 2016
posted by roger ackroyd at 10:56 AM on February 26, 2016 [13 favorites]

for reals though this post is sort of brilliant and diabolical, because now everyone from Seattle's pretty much obligated to put up links to stuff by their favorite local musicians in order to counteract the.... macklemorosity.

Tacocat!
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 10:56 AM on February 26, 2016 [7 favorites]

for reals though this post is sort of brilliant and diabolical, because now everyone from Seattle's pretty much obligated to put up links to stuff by their favorite local musicians.

Mwahhahahaha

Master Bedroom.
posted by josher71 at 10:58 AM on February 26, 2016

My favorite Seattle band is Aerosmith.
posted by 7segment at 11:03 AM on February 26, 2016 [4 favorites]

I'm not from Seattle, but the Green Pajamas are better than Macklemore. Their bass player showed me the Space Needle in 2000! True story.
posted by pxe2000 at 11:04 AM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

And related to THEESatisfaction:Shabbaz Palaces

I was going to post #CAKE by Shabbaz Palaces, which someone sent me, and I can't seem to stop playing, glad to see them mentioned upthread.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 11:09 AM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis played at Ball State several weeks ago. For a brief moment, I toyed with actually going to see what the big deal was. Glad I didn't. Yeesh.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:18 AM on February 26, 2016

I heard this song, Stereogum, and this is in no way worse than Nickleback's entire oeuvre, or anything by Buckcherry, or the one song anyone knows Lee Greenwood for.

I disagree.
posted by josher71 at 11:18 AM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

"She said Fifty Shades of Grey was the best read
I'm more of a Giving Tree type of guy, Shel Silverstein"

I MEAN COME ON
posted by josher71 at 11:19 AM on February 26, 2016 [9 favorites]

>> Their bass player showed me the Space Needle in 2000! True story.

> ...euphemism or no?
posted by qcubed at 11:16 AM on February 26 [+] [!]

so I gotta say, the first thing that out-of-towners generally observe about the Space Needle is that it's much smaller than the pictures of it imply.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 11:19 AM on February 26, 2016 [9 favorites]

See I'm a man, but every now and then in bed I know when to say: "Alright, it's my turn to be the small spoon."

Large spoon / small spoon? No. It's whose buns are being snuggled. And I am emphatically in favor of it being my buns, because it is the best.
posted by grumpybear69 at 11:24 AM on February 26, 2016

so I gotta say, the first thing that out-of-towners generally observe about the Space Needle is that it's much smaller than the pictures of it imply.

Seattle uses trick photography in its sexts postcards.
posted by duffell at 11:26 AM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

I was actually listening to the new Macklemore album just now, AND ENJOYING IT. This song doesn't appear on it, for good reason.
posted by redsparkler at 11:29 AM on February 26, 2016

This song is clearly having a bit of fun. The Shel Silverstein line is very self-aware in its ridiculousness. Is it a great song? No. But listened to in the spirit that it was created … it isn't awful. Calling it out as terrible I think demonstrates missing the point.
posted by wemayfreeze at 11:29 AM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

or reals though this post is sort of brilliant and diabolical, because now everyone from Seattle's pretty much obligated to put up links to stuff by their favorite local musicians in order to counteract the.... macklemorosity.

Oh it's on.
posted by humboldt32 at 11:34 AM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

While Googling this awful, awful song, I learned that Carla Morrison has the Mary Lambert spot on Macklemore's album. Everyone, go listen to Carla Morrison instead.
posted by pxe2000 at 11:36 AM on February 26, 2016

Also, I'm trying to figure out if Lavender Country mastermind Patrick Haggerty is Macklemore's gay uncle and the subject of "Same Love".
posted by pxe2000 at 11:38 AM on February 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

I mean the thing with Macklemore is how uncomfortable it is. You never felt uncomfortable hearing Nickelback or Buckcherry on the radio – you just felt angry, maybe, or annoyed, vaguely pissed off, a little taste of righteous indignation in your mouth, because you knew those guys were just generally douchebags, and their music was douchebag music. But Macklemore makes you embarrassed, because you just know he totally means well, he's a nice guy, he wants the world to have a fun time and get along... but it's just so incredibly cloying, right? He's got those puppy-dog eyes, just begging you to see him as your wise older brother you look up to, but he also knows he's a rapper and rappers are supposed to do certain things, but still he wants you to know that he feels conflicted about the things he's supposed to feel conflicted about, like white privilege, but he's also trying to do the strong rappery things like bragging, but all at the same time. So he comes out with weird things like having a song about going to thrift stores (family-friendly! maybe too family friendly? hrm...) – in which he nonchalantly announces that he has a large penis (see, rapper braggadocio! er - yeah!)

And so when he gets around to doing sex rhymes, which you gather he's doing because it seems like he knows deep down that he's supposed to, it's got this weird vibe, like he really wants you to know that he's trying to be totally cool about this, he's an equitable guy, a totally cool and chill dude, but talking about sex is totally natural! So he's going to do it, but in this way where he wants to make it clear that it's in a very safe context, and body-positive, so he'll mention thickness here and bellies and there in a way that's totally supposed to be non-gross.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I can't even begin to explain how weird it is to listen to Macklemore smilingly – you can tell he's smiling! – talk about "my d." Eugh. It's just weird, in an almost unquantifiable way.

wemayfreeze: “This song is clearly having a bit of fun. The Shel Silverstein line is very self-aware in its ridiculousness. Is it a great song? No. But listened to in the spirit that it was created … it isn't awful. Calling it out as terrible I think demonstrates missing the point.”

Don't you see? That's what makes it awful. Other bands, it's totally easy to say, "oh, I can't stand those guys." But not Macklemore – he's an okay dude! You could have a beer with him, maybe! But then he talks about his penis, which he is mentioning clearly because rappers mention their penis, and because this is a song where he is rapping about sexy love in a playful way, and nonchalantly revealing his very earnest sexual fantasies. Isn't that... isn't that really weird?

Also: Gucci Mane? Really?
posted by koeselitz at 11:42 AM on February 26, 2016 [11 favorites]

Oh boy, I just love not enjoying things!
posted by cmoj at 11:44 AM on February 26, 2016 [5 favorites]

really though maybe the best move for Macklemore career-wise at this point is follow in the footsteps of the Presidents of the United States of America guy and re-invent himself as a children's musician, cause I think (going mainly off of the Sesame Street episode where he gentrified Oscar's trash can) that he'd be legit good at it.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 11:45 AM on February 26, 2016 [9 favorites]

qcubed: “But the douchebag music? It's aggressive. It tries to grab your attention. And then it tries to shit in your ears.”

Ah, but they're upfront about it. Macklemore tries to grab your attention, wants to be famous, wants to be a hitmaker, wants people everywhere to be listening to his song, but also wants to spend a whole lot of time talking about how he feels very conflicted that he is allowed to make music while other people are not, and insisting that he wants to give credit to a whole lot of other wholly unrelated musicians who he thinks are just as deserving, even as he's happy to take the money and the fame, although he won't do it without reminding you that he totally gets that he's really privileged.

I mean, yeah. Macklemore's music – generally totally listenable, much more listenable than Nickelback or Buckcherry, especially if you just sort of tune in and don't listen too closely. But we're talking here about a dude who, when he won a Grammy for Best Album in 2014, sent a text to Kendrick Lamar saying he was sorry Kendrick hadn't won instead, and weirdly insisting that he was totally about to say so onstage when accepting the award but then "the music started playing... and I froze" – and then, after he sent that sort of weird but okay I guess text, he took a screenshot of the text and posted it on Instagram. I mean, there's some weirdness here, right? But even Kendrick Lamar can't bring himself to flat-out hate Macklemore, because that would seem pretty weird. Macklemore is just – well, he's just this guy.

I don't know. I've got a friend like him, a friend who's totally friendly and happy and puppy-dog all the time but also sometimes weirdly revealing about stuff I totally don't want to know and then also misbehaving in ways he should know better about but then you know if you told him to please not be weird he'd be kind of devastated but then earnest about learning a lesson or something similarly self-absorbed so you just realize you need to let him do him and try to live your own life as much as you can because it's not really worth the hassle.

Really, hanging out with guys like this constantly brings home to me the way I feel like most women must feel about most men – it's all about them, even when it's not, and they're so preternaturally incapable of letting anything not be about them that it's kind of pointless to try so you just sigh and let them go on about whatever it is they're going on about. But then maybe I'm just projecting my own troubles on a minor national celebrity again.
posted by koeselitz at 12:10 PM on February 26, 2016 [15 favorites]

well and also there's something just like quintessentially Seattle (or at least, white Seattle) about Macklemore's brand of earnest self-obsessed awkwardness.

Like, I want The Lesson of Macklemore to be something like "everyone we should not be like Macklemore please let's all try to not be Macklemore," but the problem is, one of the key things that makes Macklemore so Macklemore is how he seems so desperate to not be Macklemore. So there's a sort of Chinese finger-trap quality to trying not to be Macklemore; the more you think about Macklemore, and about how to not be Macklemoreish, the more thoroughly you're imbricated in his Macklemorosity.

and so maybe the only way out of the trap is to just listen to THEESatisfaction and Blue Scholars until you stop thinking about Macklemore altogether.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 12:17 PM on February 26, 2016 [10 favorites]

It's the inverse of "you hate us cause you ain't us."

I hate him because I am him.

I am Macklemore.

I am Spoon.
posted by Tevin at 12:24 PM on February 26, 2016 [8 favorites]

I don't know, I think the song is funny. Clearly he's in on the joke. I feel like comedy in music can be a tricky thing, especially considering that hip hop often takes itself fairly seriously (not always, of course, but I'd say as a dominant voice.) Macklemore has a sense of humor about much of his subject matter, rapping about thrift stores, or Cadillacs, etc. There's a good natured, self depreciating, self aware quality to the material that's really quite charming.

Everyone is, of course, free to like whatever they like. But I think this is fun. It's not M&RL's best work, but it's not intended to be. Even the instrumentation is silly.
posted by MythMaker at 12:25 PM on February 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Is "My Ding a Ling" in on the joke?
posted by josher71 at 12:28 PM on February 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

man though you type the word "macklemore" enough and it just loses all meaning altogether amirite?
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 12:28 PM on February 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

i love pan-seared macklemore, in a bowl, on a bed of kale and quinoa salad
posted by Tevin at 12:29 PM on February 26, 2016 [6 favorites]

Awesome song. Thanks for sharing!
posted by Bovine Love at 12:32 PM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

At this point I love Macklemore for existing as a Rorschach test for Seattlites. He's too mainstream/too cool/too catchy/not good enough music/so last year/never made any good music anyway/sold out/doesn't involve enough black people/has too many collaborators/too white/talks too much about racism/too lame/not a real success/too rich/has never been cool/too nice/not even gay how dare he/too omnipresent/I've never even heard his music/probably a jerk anyway/too everything and anything. Has anyone ever asked him if he makes friends with people from out of town?
posted by the agents of KAOS at 12:40 PM on February 26, 2016 [5 favorites]

> Has anyone ever asked him if he makes friends with people from out of town?

He says he'll meet up with you and that he's really looking forward to it, but then he always flakes out day-of.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 12:42 PM on February 26, 2016 [4 favorites]

and like he always tries to come up with a good excuse, but everyone knows that really he just got too high too early in the day and can't be bothered to leave his apartment.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 12:44 PM on February 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

Meanwhile butter knives are just lonely and sad waiting faithfully, all straight edge and awkward, on the edge of the sink in case you decide you want another sandwich.
posted by srboisvert at 1:03 PM on February 26, 2016 [4 favorites]

Plus: Grace Love
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 1:10 PM on February 26, 2016

At this point I love Macklemore for existing as a Rorschach test for Seattlites.

He's kind of like the Seahawks really. Are you too cool to watch football/listen to earnest white guy rap or are you so blindly enamored with this lovely place we call home that you root for the home team that more or less accurately represents us? Both answers are correct.

The only thing we all agree on: Sounders til we die.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 1:21 PM on February 26, 2016 [4 favorites]

see that's another perfectly Seattle thing: we realized it's sort of hackneyed and annoyingly smug to be categorically opposed to all professional sports fandom, so we all collectively decided to get really, really into a sport that's not popular in the U.S.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 2:12 PM on February 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

oh my god I figured it out. I figured it out!

You guys, Macklemore is the Marius Pontmercy of rap music.
posted by nonasuch at 2:14 PM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

You are going to have to explain that a little.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 2:20 PM on February 26, 2016

marius pontmercy? great, now when i think of macklemore i'm gonna think of this.
posted by palomar at 2:31 PM on February 26, 2016

I don't get it either, but I'm picturing Macklemore in les miz and for some reason it's really working for me.

like srsly can't you picture him interrupting "Do You Hear the People Sing" to earnestly talk about how the gendered language in the line "singing the song of angry men" is exclusionary and how the line "who will not be slaves again" minimizes the distinct horrors of actual slavery? and everyone's like "come on, dude we agree with you kinda, but, please work on your timing?"
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 2:32 PM on February 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

For some obscure reason my 18 month old nephew fucking loves Downtown. I mean he loves it.

Watching him dance around and shake his diaper clad booty while my sister in law reads trashy magazines is a constant source of hilarity in my life.
posted by Sphinx at 3:38 PM on February 26, 2016 [4 favorites]

Do you guys actually not like this? It's charming. It sounds like the people who made it enjoyed making it.
posted by escabeche at 4:15 PM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

Macklemore is playing a free "secret" show a few blocks away from my apartment tonight and I have a visitor coming in from out of town and some tough stuff going on personally and my neighborhood is going to be a shitshow because of him and I'm grumpy about it.
posted by palegirl at 4:52 PM on February 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

sorry, some context:

In Les Mis, Marius' attempts to be a romantic starving artist are constantly undermined by his essential Mariusness. He keeps sending huge amounts of money back to his rich relatives with a no-thank-you note despite being completely broke. He once attended a meeting of anti-monarchist revolutionaries and gave an earnest speech about how great Napoleon was. He kept a handkerchief under his pillow because he thought it was a love token from Cosette but actually it was Valjean's, who left it by accident. He fled his apartment after a whole thing involving the Thenardiers and just showed up on Courfeyrac's doorstep, announced "I have come to sleep with you," and moved in. When Cosette told him she was moving to England, he spent the next two hours crying on a nearby tree.

Basically, he tries incredibly hard all the time at everything, without ever being less of an embarrassing human disaster.
posted by nonasuch at 5:32 PM on February 26, 2016 [7 favorites]

Do you guys actually not like this? It's charming. It sounds like the people who made it enjoyed making it.



If it's a joke, it's not funny and if it is not a joke it's hilarious.
posted by josher71 at 6:25 PM on February 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

Does anyone know ... whatever became of rock???
posted by Twang at 6:25 PM on February 26, 2016

really though maybe the best move for Macklemore career-wise at this point is follow in the footsteps of the Presidents of the United States of America guy and re-invent himself as a children's musician, cause I think (going mainly off of the Sesame Street episode where he gentrified Oscar's trash can) that he'd be legit good at it.

I agree. This song is like listening to Rafi singing about getting it on. Cringe-inducing is the least of it.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:12 PM on February 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

I agree. This song is like listening to Rafi singing about getting it on. Cringe-inducing is the least of it.

I read this thinking of Rafi from The League and it totally made sense.
posted by Special Agent Dale Cooper at 7:18 PM on February 26, 2016

I like that song where he buys a moped.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 8:12 PM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

I miss MCA.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:24 PM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

Made it to the line about "boobooing" and noped out. I'm sure he's very nice but it's all just no, no. No.
posted by EatTheWeek at 12:04 AM on February 27, 2016

Cibo Matto - Spoon
posted by yeolcoatl at 8:25 AM on February 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

I prefer to mackle a lesser amount.
posted by jonp72 at 9:09 AM on February 27, 2016 [3 favorites]

we all must resolve to mackle less and do more.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 11:29 AM on February 27, 2016 [5 favorites]

P Smoov & Fatal Lucciauno - Sun Tzu Em
posted by foobaz at 6:54 PM on February 27, 2016

Either size spoon can go on either side. Or all the spoons can be the same size. I don't know why this bugs me so much but it does (possibly because Mr. Corpse and I are almost the same height).
posted by The corpse in the library at 6:56 PM on February 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

I was expecting this to be mortifyingly awful but it actually made me laugh. With it, not at it! The Macklemore hate does kind of baffle me. Oh this too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqDu47GbQWk
posted by stoneandstar at 7:51 PM on February 27, 2016