Posted by s woods on November 9, 2009
The RISE and SPRAWL of HORRIBLE NOISE
Mark Sinker, 2001
“Director’s Cut” (almost 18,000 words long) of a piece written for The Wire originally penned to mark the 20th anniversary of the publication of Bangs’s “A Reasonable Guide to Horrible Noise,” exactly the sort of anniversary more magazines should be noting. Not because Bangs’s (or anyone else’s) 10- or 20- or 25-year old articles need to be merely exalted (you know, exactly what I’m doing here with Sinker’s piece right now!), but because it’s always a good thing to ask questions like, “Where did this idea, expressed __ years ago, take us? how have we or how can we use such an idea today?” (Hey, it beats a bunch of writers waxing nostalgic about the umpteenth anniversary of Sgt. Pepper, no?) It’s easy to get lost in the thicket of ideas, arguments, counter-arguments, tangents, and so and and so-forth here, but a good place to start, maybe, is Sinker’s (a bit too heavy-handed in my view) skewering of DeRogatis’s Bangs’ bio:
“Glibly dividing the rockwrite world into Chinstrokers and Noiseboys (not to say thinkers and thugs), [Let it Blurt] elects the latter — Bangs, Richard Meltzer and Nick Tosches make three — as the only real rock critics by definition. Why? How? What do they say or do? That you should think to ask demonstrates little but the academic wankiness and redundancy of that pink sac you call your brain. Right?”
Posted in 2000s, Lester | Leave a Comment »
Posted by s woods on November 6, 2009
Emo: Where the Girls Aren’t
Jessica Hopper, Punk Planet, 2003
A powerfully poetic polemic with an awesomely informative (at least to me) overview of the genre’s slide from “something revivifying in the [boy singers] earnestness” and “girls with names, with details to their lives, girls who weren’t exclusively defined by their absence or lensed through romantic-spectre” to (fave line in the whole piece) “album length letters from pussy-jail” and “vessels redeemed in the light of boy-love.” Fabulous, passionate writing that takes me smack dab into the middle of a world I didn’t ask to go to but couldn’t escape from once there.
(I’m trying BTW not to include too many things here from the Da Capo “Best Music Writing” series, but some overlap is inevitable. Truth is — shocker alert — I don’t own every single edition in the series, and didn’t know this was in the ‘04 one until I Googled it.)
Posted in 2000s | Leave a Comment »
Posted by s woods on November 5, 2009
Came across two great pieces today, via Twitter, neither of which has anything to do with music (well, the roundtable features at least one music critic), both of which are absorbing reads that will interest any critically-minded person (I assume):
- In “Reviewing Altman,” Jim Emerson takes on Richard Schickel for a much-blogged-about tear-down Schickel wrote recently of a Robert Altman biography (though more to the point, it’s a thinly-veiled tear-down of the director himself). Lots of comments here, too.
- Still working my way through this massive comics critics roundtable but it looks pretty amazing. Features Gary Groth, founder of Comics Journal, one of the greatest ‘zines ever published in any field (I own and treasure a bunch of copies and know next to nothing about the world of comics… it’s that good).
Posted in Links | Leave a Comment »
Posted by s woods on November 4, 2009
The Return of Kraftwerk (and why you shouldn’t be disappointed)
Tom Ewing, Freaky Trigger, 2000.
A bookend of sorts to Bangs’s great 1976 Creem profile, though the problem with calling these two vastly different impressions bookends is it might suggest that there’s loads of good writing about the German electronic pioneers in between. There is not. Indeed, Kraftwerk might just be the most important terribly-written-about pop phenomenon of all time, with most writers reverting to: a) dreary future-shock tech-speak mumble-jumble (OMG, they “invented techno!” – yawn), or b) ha-ha funny-German-people-with-their-funny-accents clichés. Ewing rightly (and subtly) admonishes Kraftwerk criticism for over-emphasizing the group’s “cold or mechanical” side, and hears in their music instead a post-war poignancy — a “faded grandeur” — something I myself didn’t key into until reading this, something I’ve never stopped hearing in their greatest music since.
Posted in 2000s, Links | 2 Comments »
Posted by s woods on November 3, 2009
37 Record-Store Clerks Feared Dead In Yo La Tengo Concert Disaster
From the April 10, 2002 issue of The Onion – the true Y2K inheritors of the Creem ethos (precisely that it is not a “music magazine” bolsters rather than deflates that assertion).
Classic: “‘I was in the bathroom when it happened,’ said Gaer, a part-time cashier at School Kids Records. ‘There was this loud crashing sound, followed by even louder crashing, and then all these screams. If I hadn’t left to take a leak during Moby Octopad—to be honest, never one of my favorite songs on I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One—I’d probably be among the dead.’”
Posted in 2000s, Links | 1 Comment »
Posted by s woods on November 3, 2009
As a sort of preemptive strike against all the inevitable boo-hooing sure to take place as various writers wring their hands over “the decade in rock criticism” (not that I too won’t shed a few tears over some of what’s transpired) I’ve decided, between now and Christmas, to point you towards some of the music writing I’ve enjoyed most these last ten years — more or less since the dawn of this website (Steven Ward’s Paul Nelson interview kicked things off in March 2000).
I’m not listing these in any particular order, and I make no claim to have read all that I should have read over the last ten years or to have bookmarked all that I should have bookmarked or to have covered all the demographics and/or genres any right-thinking person would cover — I know I’ve missed or forgotten a shitload of stuff, and for sure, I have my own set of prejudices and blindspots. The only thing you can count on here is that everything linked to has provided me with some — by no means always equivalent — amount of thought-provoking pleasure. Even stuff which, in some cases, I have serious qualms with. (Credit where due: I should note that this feature is in many ways inspired by the yearly music writing summaries Jason Gross has been doing since 2002 — the first five episodes of which can be found here. Our respective taste in this stuff is wildly divergent, so I’m not overly concerned about repeating what Jason already chose to write about, though I certainly appreciate his concept.)
When I wrap this up, I’ll run down a much more brief list of some of the very worst (again, by my estimation) music writing of the decade too — that is, if I can stomach poring through the stuff all over again.
I’d also like to know what music writing in the 00s inspired or irritated YOU. To that end, you can e-mail me your own list and/or thoughts on the matter, and I’d be happy to publish here any responses received (if you just want me to note your choices but prefer not to publish your name, please say so). Of course, you can always just use the comments box to do the same.
We’ll kick things off with the next post.
Posted in 2000s, Links | Leave a Comment »
Posted by A.C. Rhodes on November 1, 2009
along with their records?
Posted in Question of the Week | 3 Comments »
Posted by s woods on October 28, 2009
Jay Babcock at Arthur magazine has information about an upcoming documentary about Robert Palmer (w/video trailer) and his time spent with the Master Musicians of Jajouka. To coincide with Blues & Chaos, an upcoming compilation of Palmer’s work.
Posted in Books, Robert Palmer | 1 Comment »
Posted by s woods on October 22, 2009
Some of you may recall “The Rock Critical List,” a xeroxed (read: actually photocopied, on paper) screed about the state of rock criticism that made the rounds ten years ago via various record stores in North America and the U.S. postal service (for a short time, it was also available on SPIN’s website — it was in fact one of the first things on the web I ever linked to). Thing set off a brief firestorm, resulting in a three part Village Voice feature [1, 2, 3] and much sniping among insiders about the true identity of the list’s anonymous author, “JoJo Dancer aka The Gay Rapper.”
In Same as it Ever Was, Daniel Nester marks the tenth anniversary of JoJo’s rant with a lengthy recap of the story along with interviews with some of the key players involved.
What follows (after the jump) are some comments I sent to Nester about the “RCL” after being asked for my two cents on the matter (I’ll spare you the jokes about the value of two cents CDN when placed up against the mighty U.S. penny). Unfortunately, the “RCL” itself is nowhere to be found online, though a badly formatted version of the list section (which is only one portion of the entire piece) can be found here.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Blabbin', Links | 2 Comments »
Posted by s woods on October 9, 2009
- “The question [Bruce] Sterling brings up here has nagged Bangs-the-original and Bangs-wannabes since the first rush wore off: It’s got a good beat and I can dance to it, but is it art?”
- Ray Davis
- “Too many [Pitchfork writers] are Lester Bangs wannabes, though each has less than half of Bangs’ talent for being interesting while not actually talking about music.”
- miguelsanchez
- “Though [Chuck Eddy's] Lester Bangs wannabe style is slightly interesting, as a guide to picking music this guy is strictly an amateur who I can’t take seriously.”
- Amazon customer review of Stairway to Hell
- “For nearly twenty years, the word ‘indie’ has been used by record company executives and pseudo-intellectual Lester Bangs wannabes, to the point that it’s lost all meaning. Since the term was originally used to describe punk rock, ‘indie’ should apply to all of its diminutive forms, but it doesn’t.”
- samhuddy, What is Indie
- “IMHO, it’s populated by a bunch of how’s-my-hair Lester Bangs wannabes who are better qualified to write reviews of the latest slim-cut jeans.”
- VicAjax on Pitchfork’s decade-end list
- “This Chicago-based online apparel store relies upon the collective creativity of its diehard members to produce quirky t-shirt designs. The ‘Music Snob’ tee name-checks faux music genres (children’s hardcore or Dixieland techno, anyone?) that’ll trick any Lester Bangs wannabe.”
- Rea McNamara, Gifts that Click (Eye Weekly)
- “I’m not confused like you, twit
You Lester Bangs wannabe
There’s something wrong with you
There’s nothing wrong with me
There’s nothing wrong with me”
- Lyrics to Of Montreal’s “There is Nothing Wrong With Hating Rock Critics“
- “United States Representative Thaddeus G. McCotter (MI) is Chair of the Republican House Policy Committee and a Lester Bangs Wannabe“
- A Health Dirge Night: President Obama’s Lefty Health Club Band (Must click link to see best doctored Sgt. Pepper cover ever)
- “Quite frankly, who needs us anymore? Do you honestly need to follow a Lester Bangs wannabe to tell you what’s cool when the entirety of music history is immediately available on Myspace, Wikipedia and your average MP3 blog?”
- Impboy, message on Boing Boing post
- “I could make up some metaphors involving edged weapons to describe the guitar work of John Reis and Rick Froberg, and some bludgeoning similes to express the crashing assault of Gar Wood’s bass and Mario Rubalcaba’s drums. But I’d just come off looking like a Lester Bangs wannabe, and quite frankly, what’s the point when I could just repeat what I said about the Camden Underworld gig and be done with it – Hot Snakes kick the shit out nearly every punk rock band you’ll see this year.”
- Nick Cowen review of Hot Snakes
- “In short, we’re fans and collectors (well, I’m the collector) who like to pass along information about the artists we enjoy. We’re not Lester Bangs wannabes out to shock and awe, and we’re not too-cool-for-school music snobs that lambaste everything in sight. There are plenty of sites that nitpick musicians and authors, so we’ll let them do their thing, and we’ll keep doing ours.”
- “On Negative Reviews and Turkish Rap“
- “As a wannabe Lester Bangs for the teen section of the local paper, I kept my feet still, listening for the beat. Roth, too, remained steady, his neck grooving slowly with the rhythm, his lips softly mouthing along the words. ‘Isn’t this amazing?’ squealed the girl next to me. I nodded. This was good.”
- Robert Costa, “Asher Agonistes: The Suburban Rise of Asher Roth” (PopMatters)
- “Morthland, for one, disagreed with my assessment of modern rock critics being sorry Lester Bangs imitators; he said the imitation was much more prominent in the 1970’s, when there was less of an established tradition. ‘It’s really common for rock critics of the last couple decades to say they were heavily influenced by Lester, tho’ I’ll be damned if I can see it in their writing.’”
- “The Ghost of Lester Bangs“, by Ethan Stanislawski (Perfect Sound Forever)
- “I am always perplexed by the fact that, whenever anyone weighs in on Lester Bangs, they feel the need to do a horrible Lester Bangs imitation. While it appears Mr. Leonard has been doing yeoman’s work covering the many different ways the Man is trying to keep you from your Internet, both his style and his interests seem out of synch with commenting effectively on L. Bangs, particularly a work of essentially speculative fiction on the subject of L. Bangs and what he might think of music today.”
- Squiny McGuinty, “The New Ships“
- “And while there have been plenty of Bangs imitators over the years, Let It Blurt proves that there was only one Lester, whose stream-of-consciousness gonzo humor and drug- and drink-fueled prose was balanced by a rare thoughtfulness.”
- Jim Walsh, Blurt review
Posted in Lester, Meme of the Day | 14 Comments »
