Snippets from Chuck Eddy’s Village Voice review of Introspective (“18 Shopping Days Left,” December 13, 1988), which I’ll hopefully comment on later (feel free to jump in yourself). My only general comment is that the review is not as over-the-top about PSB as I half-remembered it being. In fact, it skews somewhat in the other direction: Chuck seems unconvinced by (and skeptical of) PSB overall … Continue reading Pet Shop Boys, Critically (10)
Classic Morrissey, on “kindred spirits” the Pet Shop Boys, from the April 1991 issue of Spin. (Full interview of which can be found here.) Continue reading Pet Shop Boys, Critically (9)
As promised, a few snippets from Barry Walters’s Voice review of Please, dated June 3, 1986. There’s a lot of funny and interesting stuff in this review, and it’s tricky quoting bits from it sans context — much of the review is centered around the then-merely perceived notion of the Pet Shop Boys’s gayness — so I’ll limit my sampling to specific bits which hopefully … Continue reading Pet Shop Boys, Critically (8)
A reader, Tom Scarlett, was kind enough to send me a copy of Simon Frith’s (once upon a time) much-ballyhooed Pet Shop Boys feature from the spring 1988 edition of the Voice‘s “Rock & Roll Quarterly” supplement. The piece, which I hadn’t read in approximately 23 years (when I lost for good two large boxes worth of Voice clippings) was brought up in my podcasts … Continue reading Pet Shop Boys, Critically (7)
The Status of the Gay Question: Phil Dellio’s 1988 Interview with Neil and Chris of the Pet Shop Boys (audio) Getting this interview transcribed—or, even better, digitized and posted—was something Scott and I first discussed a few years ago, but there wasn’t any real context for doing so at the time. I wasn’t even sure I could still find the cassette where it resided—I knew … Continue reading Pet Shop Boys, Critically (6)
Here’s the third in our series of PSB podcasts. This time Alfred Soto and I are joined by Ned Raggett to discuss Pet Shop b-sides, which leads into a discussion of: PSB’s Alternative (their double-disc b-sides collection); Sonic Youth vs. Pet Shop Boys; Diane Warren; Mick Jagger; Simon Reynolds… and much, much more! LISTEN PART ONE PART TWO PART THREE PART FOUR (Or download part … Continue reading Pet Shop Boys, Critically (5)
In light of recent and future Pet Shop Boys podcasts around here, this post from a couple years ago is probably worth a revisit — Neil Tennant Recalls Smash Hits Days in Word Magazine Podcast (the podcast is still available) — but even better is this interesting BBC program from 2012 on the same topic, which someone posted for our listening pleasure at YouTube. Continue reading Pet Shop Boys, Critically (4)
For our second Pet Shop Boys conversation, Alfred Soto and I are joined by critic, and self-described “chart nerd,” Chris Molanphy (whose chart musings can be found at Slate and NPR). Over a roughly 90-minute chat, the three of us delve into the Pet Shop Boys’ monumental, if short-lived, American chart run, which leads into (among other things) a meditation on what Neil Tennant once … Continue reading Pet Shop Boys, Critically (3)
“Also, I can’t help feeling that I prefer the music of the Pet Shop Boys to the music of, say, Erasure partly because it is more authentic, more sincerely meant and much more, well soulfully, delivered, even (especially) in its flatness. I feel the same way about comparing the music of Joni Mitchell to – I’ll say it – the music of Britney Spears. Jimi … Continue reading Pet Shop Boys, Critically (2)
As a follow-up to our lengthy series of conversations (in 2010 and earlier this year) about Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry, Alfred Soto and I embark on a similar excursion into all things Pet Shop Boys. Over a series of who-knows-how-many discussions, we will delve into the music and the guiding aesthetic behind our mutually-agreed-upon favourite synth-pop duo of all time (better than Erasure, better … Continue reading Pet Shop Boys, Critically (1)
