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Archive for September, 2007

Rockcritics Bookshelf: Paperback Writer (w/guest correspondent, Richard Riegel)

Posted by s woods on September 30, 2007

Richard Riegel and I recently exchanged some thoughts via e-mail on Mark Shipper’s classic novel, Paperback Writer.

From: Scott Woods
Date: Wednesday, September 19, 2007
To: Richard Riegel
Subject: Paperback Writer (I)

Hi Richard:

Thanks for agreeing to chat with me about Paperback Writer. I’m interested to hear what you have to say about the book because you mentioned in your rockcritics interview what a big fan you were of its author, Mark Shipper. I’ll quote what you said in its entirety because it actually fills in a few details of this mysterious fellow you referred to [in an earlier e-mail] as the “J.D. Salinger of rockwriting”–in fact, I bet it’s the most detailed thing anyone’s ever written about the guy.

“A rockwriter who was as influential upon me as Lester Bangs early on, but who’s barely known now, since he left the field, was Mark Shipper–his Flash fanzine of 1972, which celebrated bargain bins and his (and Teresa’s) beloved Paul Revere & The Raiders, and brilliantly ridiculed all sorts of rockstar/rockcrit pretensions, was a major major inspiration to me that year. His later Paperback Writer and How To Be Ecstatically Happy 24 Hours A Day For The Rest Of Your Life books were just the kind of satires I would like to have done myself, if I’d had more time. Unfortunately Shipper vanished from the rockwriting scene in the early ’80s, but I still revere (so to speak) the sarcritic impulse he gave me back in the day.”

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Posted in Scott's Bookshelf | 9 Comments »

Generous Critics

Posted by s woods on September 29, 2007

Last night I got into an interesting back-and-forth with my friend Matt on Facebook about Roger Ebert. Matt was arguing that Ebert wasn’t a “discerning (read: critical)” critic, which he later elaborated on by saying that he “gives positive reviews to a lot of dreck”; also, because “he has a sliding scale that reviews films relative to the rest of their genre”; also, because (and I didn’t know this) “he gave Godfather III a better review than Godfather II.”

I countered by saying that Ebert was a “generous” critic, an adjective I had to try twice to flesh out, as it just sort of came to (and made sense to) me without putting much thought into what it actually meant. Here’s me fumbling around for an explanation:

  1. “Granted, [Ebert] maybe comes across a little soft on TV, but I prefer to think of that as ‘generosity,’ which is something I never take for granted in a critic–someone who can see beyond the obvious. (For instance, I think he’s right in placing so much emphasis on actor’s looks; it’s an essential part of movies, and most critics are too ashamed to admit it.)”
  2. “I don’t really explain ‘generosity’ well: Ebert’s the sort of critic that is willing to acknowledge the good stuff you often get in bad movies. So, by pointing out something that works in an otherwise negligible movie (a particular performance, say, or some of the camera work–whatever), he may come across as not all that ‘discerning,’ or perhaps too easy, but in fact, I’d say he’s being more discerning. He’s digging further into the movie and looking beyond what is just plainly lousy about it. So he ends up sometimes saying positive things about second rate movies–but I don’t think that’s all he does, he also acknowledges what’s bad. “

To be honest, this was one of those arguments in which we were both probably over our heads a little. I don’t think either of us has actually read enough of Ebert to talk knowledgeably enough about him as a critic, though I’ve read enough of him to at least argue that you don’t really get the best of Ebert on TV, and that the Thumbs-Up/Thumbs-Down thing is the most meaningless and unfortunate aspect of that program (reducing critical judgments to grades is one thing; reducing them to either-or choices is ridiculous).

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Posted in Blabbin' | 2 Comments »

Rockcritics Bookshelf: Capsule Preview Possibilities

Posted by s woods on September 27, 2007

Here are ten music books sitting on my shelf–some have been there for years–that I’m currently contemplating reading (or skimming really hard) so I can write them up and add them to the rockcritics bookshelf. There’s no way I’ll get through most of these anytime soon, so I clearly need to prioritize. Anyone have any thoughts about any of these? Which (if any) of these are worth spending time with? Which (if any) intrigue you most?

  • Twenty Minute Fandangos and Forever Changes: A Rock Bazaar – 1971 collection edited by Jonathan Eisen (who also edited the two Age of Rock collections), feat. R. Meltzer, Sandy Pearlman, Bud Scoppa, Danny Fields, and a bunch of people I’ve never heard of. True to its era, I honestly can’t tell if at least half this book is a joke.
  • H.L. Mencken on Music – Anthology, mostly about classical though with a few things, it appears, on jazz as well. I know about and am interested in Mencken, but I’m not familiar with his writing. Maybe a collection of his music criticism isn’t really the place to start?
  • The Encyclopaedia of Classic 80s Pop, Daniel Blythe – Bought a remaindered copy at Indigo recently. The “classic 80s” (the MTV ’80s) right now don’t interest me a whole lot, but I flipped through some of this and the writing seemed, at first glance, cheeky. Which I assume would work in this book’s favour, but maybe not.
  • This is Uncool: The 500 Greatest Singles Since Punk and Disco, Gary Mulholland – Purchased in the same cheapie bin as the Blythe book. British response to Marsh’s singles collection by a guy who’s 20 years younger and who really likes Madness and the Jam.
  • Starlust: The Secret Fantasies of Fans, Fred and Judy Vermorel – This collection of fan talk has a reputation among more sociologically-minded critics. Everytime I’ve flipped through it, I can’t imagine the thought of reading the entire thing–it strikes me as an interesting article stretched into a book. Perhaps I’m missing some particular subtlety.
  • The 20th Century’s Greatest Hits, Paul Williams – Another list book, this one from the founder of Crawdaddy! (Exclamation is part of that mag’s title and does not necessarily reflect my interest in this!)
  • Will Pop Eat Itself, Jeremy J. Beadle – Actually, I read this years ago, liked it enough to write the author a letter, and now can barely remember a single detail. I think I’ll need to be in the mood for some KLF and Colourbox before I delve in.
  • Vital Signs, Ian Penman – Highly regarded UK music critic, but I don’t think music dominates this collection. Introduction by Julie Burchill.
  • Getting It On: The Clothing of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Mablen Jones – I’ve always just assumed this is either a pile of dog-doo or a secret hidden treasure; it’s certainly an open field of study. A little hard to see past the opening notes on the inner cover: “You can love rock ‘n’ roll. You can hate rock ‘n’ roll. But you cannot escape rock ‘n’ roll.”
  • England’s Mine, Michael Bracewell – It looks really pretentious, which I suspect is maybe what’s good about it.

Posted in Scott's Bookshelf | 3 Comments »

YouTube vs. wordpress?

Posted by s woods on September 26, 2007

Apparently, some people are having issues accessing this site, and it seems to be (potentially) because of the YouTubes I’ve been posting. Not sure if this is a problem specific to wordpress or if it’s related only to certain browsers, but for now I’ve removed the images from those posts and provided direct links to YT instead.

If anyone out there is still experiencing issues reading stuff on here, please let me know, either through e-mail or in the comments box. We’ll be working out the kinks in this new format for a while, I suspect.

Posted in Tech & Leisure | Leave a Comment »

More Arguments In Rock Criticism

Posted by A.C. Rhodes on September 24, 2007

This one dates back two and a half years to Stylus, which features Creem quotes about Rock Criticism from 20 years before that. It turns out people were just as curmudgeonly about it back then. Only within the pages of Creem it’s more hilarious. Do look back, won’t you?

http://stylusmagazine.com/turntable/2005/02/13/some-excerpts-from-creem-magazine-february-1986/

Posted in Blabbin' | 1 Comment »

Quotes on the Auteur Theory

Posted by s woods on September 24, 2007

Two clips of various directors and critics discussing the auteur theory. Featuring Robert Mitchum, Frank Capra, Pauline Kael, John Frankenheimer, Peter Biskind, Peter Bogdanovich, Elwy Yost, et al. A fairly intelligently edited piece (cf. the back and forth sequence between Capra and Phillip Dunne), though no strong critical proponents of auteurism could apparently be bothered to chime in: the closest you get to Andrew Sarris is a dazzling shot of his book!

File under “Lightly Likable.”

Posted in Kael, Movie Critics, YouTubes | Leave a Comment »

Question of the Week: Sex, Drugs or Rock & Roll?

Posted by A.C. Rhodes on September 23, 2007

More specifically, have the first two ever eclipsed your attention to or hampered productivity level with the latter?

Posted in Question of the Week | 2 Comments »

Bad Poetry Makes Good Copy

Posted by s woods on September 23, 2007

The New Yorker‘s recent decision to print the lyrics to an upcoming Joni Mitchell song (“Bad Dreams Are Good”) and bill it as “poetry” inspires some lively skewering online…

  • In Oy Canada Rickey Wright notes: “If this all weren’t so carefully, if not well, wrought, it could serve as a parody of any number of folkie platitudes. (Ask me about my all-time favorite, ‘Virginia Woolf’ by Indigo Girls, which assures its heroine that ‘you weathered the storm of cruel mortality.’ No she didn’t. She died.) As it is, Mitchell is working a whole other plane of awfulness…”
  • Meanwhile, the Slog (in-house blog for Seattle’s The Stranger) points the finger back at the New Yorker‘s new poetry editor: “Yeah, but Paul Muldoon RULES. He’s like some kind of freaky scientist. The only way something like the Joni Mitchell, uh, ‘poem’, would be published under him is as some kind of performance art gesture. Which maybe it was anyway. Hmm. Nah…”
  • A chat board in metafilter entitled, “What is Poetry, and Does it Pay?” inspires a lively back and forth: “[Joni]‘s curmudgeonly, she’s self-important, she’s not released a good album in close to 30 years, and I’d love to know what William Shawn would have thought of the New Yorker publishing free verse from the Proud Poetess of Fort Macleod… But I’d still take bad poetry from Joni Mitchell over most of the other content of the New Yorker.”

Posted in Links | 1 Comment »

The Walrus, The Postman, The Comix and Other Things

Posted by A.C. Rhodes on September 22, 2007

 

If models want to act and actors want to be musicians, then what do musicians want to be? In the case of the Lancourt twins, Ansley and Branwyn, the answer is everything.

Starting their career at a tender age, with a record contract and national showcases straight out of college, they saw some major label indie fame and got kicked around fairly early, too.

It’s okay, almost. They lived to tell about it and have since moved on, adding other mediums of expression. Cartoons, critiques, short stories, interviews and a blog can be found at their year-old site, Walrus Comix.

Anyone who goes there will be pleasantly surprised that they have kindred spirits in the esoteric characters that comprise the comic section (Walrus, the cynic; Buddy his more idealistic pal). And commentary from the young artists themselves.

Angry about America’s lack of culture, downward spiraling mentality and general malaise? You’ve got a friend in this site. In fact you may read sentiments that are your own or wish you would hear more from people in positions of power.

Why not go there now and embrace the blue cheer?

http://www.walruscomix.com

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Ralph J. Gleason (YouTube)

Posted by s woods on September 21, 2007

I swear I’m not trying to turn this into YouTube central, but some of these clips are irresistible. David Aron in the comments box for the Ben Fong-Torres post a few days ago pointed me to another early ’70s gem from his YouTube channel: Ralph J. Gleason. In the first clip Gleason talks briefly about the “effect on American society of rock ‘n’ roll”; in the second clip he talks briefly about drugs.

[David notes that the interviews on his YouTube channel are "from a 4 part Danish documentary on the American counter culture revolution aired in Europe in the early 70’s."]

Posted in YouTubes | Leave a Comment »

Dave Marsh on ‘Later With Bob Costas,’ 1988 (YouTube)

Posted by s woods on September 21, 2007

Pretty great interview, despite both interviewer and interviewee looking a bit ghostly. Marsh is best in part one, talking about the credentials of mall girls (though of course he’d have been wiser to say that it’s “their music” as well as “guys with pencils music” rather than suggesting instead of).

Posted in Interviews, YouTubes | Leave a Comment »

Question of the Week: What Motivates You?

Posted by A.C. Rhodes on September 20, 2007

You’ve just finished a good interview, or perhaps one where despite all open-ended questions, turned out a bit dry. You’re going to start transcribing/writing your story, but the momentum wanes. How do you get it back? What do you find works?

Posted in Question of the Week | 3 Comments »

Lester Bangs vs. Bryan Ferry (YouTube)

Posted by s woods on September 19, 2007

Watch here…

Footage taken from a seventies British documentary called All You Need is Love.

Posted in Lester, YouTubes | 4 Comments »

He Really “Blew It” This Time

Posted by A.C. Rhodes on September 18, 2007


Sentiment doesn’t seem to have a high price if you’re Peter Fonda; unless, of course, you’re auctioning it off for gain. Ranching it in Montana must be costly.
Let’s hope Dennis Hopper doesn’t pull an O.J. before the WWII bronze star, American flag decal and real Rolex (you didn’t think that was the one he threw away), are put up for bid.
But does he still have George’s helmet?

Posted in Movie Critics | Leave a Comment »

Rockcritics Exclusive Interview: Douglas Wolk

Posted by s woods on September 17, 2007

[rockcritics.com kicks off phase 2 of is existence with an exclusive interview with music and comics writer, Douglas Wolk. An archived version of this interview is available here.]

Douglas Wolk… Dean of American Comics Critics

By Steven Ward

That title was not self-proclaimed by Douglas Wolk. I came up with the unofficial designation as soon as I finished the last page of Wolk’s Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean ($22.95 Da Capo Press). It occurred to me that sometime in the near future–if not already–the comics fanboy community as well as the pop culutre world will consider Wolk one of the premier critics of all things graphic novels.

Wolk knows his stuff.

When delving into Reading Comics, you find out that Wolk has definte favorites when it comes to comics authors. He seems to know the entire history of the medium off the top of his head and he isn’t afraid to criticize legends in the business.

How good is Wolk’s book? I’m no comics guy. I haven’t picked up a comic book since I was 12 or 13 when I was reading Tomb of Dracula in the ’70s. (Wolk has a whole chapter on that fine Marvel title BTW.) But the appeal of those graphic novels I always look at longingly in book stores, combined with Wolk’s reputation as an excellent music critic, made me want to explore what all the fuss was about.

Well, before I finshed the book, I went to my local comics store, and bought volume one of Alan’s Moore’s Saga of the Swamp Thing. If you know who Alan Moore is, you will want to read Wolk’s book. If you don’t know who Moore is you need to read this book. Wolk has me hooked. (My wife is eternally grateful to Douglas. Now I have to spend money on something else besides all those books and CDs I have stacked all over our house.)

During the e-mail interview below, Wolk talks a little about music criticism and a lot about comics and comic book culture.

- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – -

Douglas Wolk, Dean of American Comics Critics

Steven: Is there a Lester Bangs of comics criticism, and if so, who is it and where does he or she publish their stuff? If not, why not?

Douglas: That’s a hard question–partly because I reflexively twitch at the mention of Lester Bangs’ name. Not that I don’t love a lot of his writing, but I think he’s been a terrible influence on a lot of music critics who’ve tried to be idiosyncratic exactly the way he was, and holding him up as the example of what pop criticism aspires to doesn’t tend to yield very good results.

Another way to frame the question might be: what would it take for there to be an English-language comics critic whose writing would be as fresh and odd and powerful as Lester Bangs’ was in his time? My first impulse is that she’d have to be able to make a living at it, which I think is still functionally impossible–I’ve been doing this for a long time, but a lot of my income still comes from music criticism and political writing. But what overrides that first impulse is realizing that the best writers-on-comics right now (again, in English; I suspect there’s much better developed comics criticism in other languages) are writing on the Web, for no money or almost none.

It’s logrolling, but I’ll say it anyway: my two favorite writers on comics right now are both part of the Savage Critic collective, to which I also belong. Joe “Jog” McCulloch (who also writes at Jog – The Blog) is thoughtful and rigorous and goes deep into his subjects; I always come out of his reviews understanding his subjects more deeply than when I started. And Abhay Khosla is, I suppose, sort of Bangs-like in his approach–or mayb even Meltzerian, which is to say that he rips apart the unquestioned assumptions behind comics criticism and is also hilarious.

But it’s also worth noting that “comics criticism” no longer just means well-wrought prose essays. My favorite piece of comics criticism of the past year is probably Christopher Bird’s detournement of Ultimate Power #2–not just a brilliant commentary on its subject, but a more entertaining story than the one it’s replacing.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Interviews | 1 Comment »

Ben Fong-Torres on YouTube (1972)

Posted by s woods on September 17, 2007

Ben Fong-Torres talks about the origins and circulation figures of Rolling Stone magazine, circa 1972. Scintillating stuff. (No idea where this is from–some Danish TV documentary?)

Watch here…

Posted in YouTubes | 5 Comments »

HarpMagazine(.com) on RockCritics.com

Posted by s woods on September 16, 2007

Fred Mills in Harp profiles the quickly-progressing revamp thing-a-ma-jig taking place around here. There’s a great interview with A.C. about the site and her involvement in it, and Fred’s profile of rockcritics is very flattering–by far the kindest and the lengthiest (and it should therefore go without saying, the wisest) thing anyone’s ever said about us in print. Now let’s hope we make good on all these campaign promises.

Speaking of which, we have our first new rockcritics 2.0 interview going up early this week (you’ll have to check back to find out who it is…), plus a few other interviews currently in the works. So stay tuned and be sure to tell two friends.

Posted in Interviews, Links, News | Leave a Comment »

Yesterday With John Swain

Posted by A.C. Rhodes on September 16, 2007

Folks who lived in North Carolina during the pre-glory days of college rock and beyond, will remember John Swain of The Record Hole in Raleigh. The man who exemplified the classic record collector is shown here moving about the boxes of discs, talking with fellow buyers and sellers. Psst.. dig the kid in the Scientists t-shirt. Whatever became of him?

Posted in YouTubes | Leave a Comment »

Rockcritics Bookshelf: The Rock and Roll Reader’s Guide

Posted by s woods on September 15, 2007

The Rock and Roll Reader’s Guide: A Comprehensive Guide to Books by & About Musicians and their Music

Gary Krebs

Here’s a music reference book I don’t look at all that often, but which I’m grateful to own. I picked it up on a trip to New York several years ago, at which time I was not even aware that it existed (if I hadn’t found it during that trip, I’m pretty sure I’d still be unaware of its presence). Published by Billboard Books ten years ago, it is, as per its title, a reference guide to books on popular music. In a way it’s like the Christgau’s Record Guide of rock reads. Now, I admit that it’s thus far the only book about music books I’ve even heard of, but if there are others out there, I’d be hard pressed to believe that they’re anywhere near this extensive or well-organized. I don’t see a head count anywhere of how many books are actually reviewed, but the thing is 411 pages long, so I’ll take a stab and say there are probably around 4,000 reviews, and hundreds of other titles listed. The range of books covered is also commendably broad. I’ve yet to come across any serious omissions (in terms of the artists covered), and if one of the parameters of a useful “guide” type of book is the number of one-shots and weirdos and obscurities covered, Krebs catalog doesn’t disappoint: Pantera, Wolfman Jack, La Toya Jackson, Kansas, Deacon Blue, and Debby Boone all warrant their own sub-sections.

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Posted in Scott's Bookshelf | Leave a Comment »

David Edelstein Interview

Posted by s woods on September 14, 2007

Great recent interview with movie critic David Edelstein by Paul Morton in Bookslut.

Sample:

Natural Born Killers. I couldn’t even sit there while it was going on. I got up and walked around the back of the theater. I was so upset. I didn’t want to leave because I felt like I had to see the whole thing if I was going to denounce it. And I was going out with this girl at the time and she said to me [in a whiny voice], “I don’t understand. The Godfather was violent.” And that’s how I knew I wasn’t going to end up with that woman. Anybody who could dismiss my horror, my physical visceral fury at Natural Born Killers by saying, “The Godfather is violent.” No, there were plenty of reasons why we broke up. That and the fact that when we saw The Lady Eve, my favorite movie, she says, “I don’t get it. It’s not so good.” Also, she was bored by McCabe and Mrs. Miller. Three strikes.

(See also Aaron Aradillas’s 2005 interview with Edelstein in rockcritics.com)

Posted in Interviews, Movie Critics | 1 Comment »

 
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