Reverse Ramones
May 15, 2013 2:10 AM Subscribe
The Talkhouse gets musicians to review albums, so you get articles like Hunter Hurt-Hendrix on Death Grips, Laura Jane Grace on Savages and Matthew Friedberger (Fiery Furnaces) on Vampire Weekend.
Now get back to the music, maestro
Otherwise known as "shut up 'n play yer guitar".
But some musicians are good writers. Maybe not *most* musicians, but definitely some, and ideally those musicians who can actually write cogent and elegant prose and critique will be drawn to this site, to contribute. Seems like a new thing, too, so... maybe cut 'em some slack? Could turn into something good.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:10 AM on May 15, 2013
Otherwise known as "shut up 'n play yer guitar".
But some musicians are good writers. Maybe not *most* musicians, but definitely some, and ideally those musicians who can actually write cogent and elegant prose and critique will be drawn to this site, to contribute. Seems like a new thing, too, so... maybe cut 'em some slack? Could turn into something good.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:10 AM on May 15, 2013
Their sidebar seems a bit mushed in the text. Not sure if that's intentional; if it is, it shouldn't be.
But the reviews are pleasingly patchy, looking back through the archives. Laurie Anderson's favourite Animal Collective song is Grass and she wants them all to sound like that. A guy from Das Racist has disjointed impressions about Kendrick Lamar. A Broadcast album which is probably all samples is dissected carefully on a musical level. I feel like good things will come out of this sometimes.
posted by solarion at 3:32 AM on May 15, 2013
But the reviews are pleasingly patchy, looking back through the archives. Laurie Anderson's favourite Animal Collective song is Grass and she wants them all to sound like that. A guy from Das Racist has disjointed impressions about Kendrick Lamar. A Broadcast album which is probably all samples is dissected carefully on a musical level. I feel like good things will come out of this sometimes.
posted by solarion at 3:32 AM on May 15, 2013
Matthew Friedberger's review reads a lot like Fiery Furnaces lyrics, which is pretty awesome. I don't really understand why he doesn't like Vampire Weekend, having never heard them before and having no context, but I enjoyed the experience.
posted by sixohsix at 3:51 AM on May 15, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by sixohsix at 3:51 AM on May 15, 2013 [1 favorite]
I'd be more interested to learn what other musicians actually listen to. A list of what they actually play fpr themselves all day, every day, song by song, as recorded over a long time (so they wouldn't adjust their listening for the one day they were being monitored). Don't tell me what you like or don't like; show me.
posted by pracowity at 4:44 AM on May 15, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by pracowity at 4:44 AM on May 15, 2013 [1 favorite]
Musicians I've never heard of reviewing musicians I think I may have heard of, somewhere, once.
Not bad, actually.
posted by tommasz at 6:01 AM on May 15, 2013
Not bad, actually.
posted by tommasz at 6:01 AM on May 15, 2013
Being entertained by these sort of paratext elements is not merely warranted, it's necessary. Progress implies it. These are the interests which our dearly beloved "content" has been made to serve.
Fucking too righ-ey.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:14 AM on May 15, 2013
Fucking too righ-ey.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:14 AM on May 15, 2013
Wow MrMerlot, that was a really uncharitable way to sum up a review that subsequently devoted eight paragraphs to the music in minute detail.
posted by valrus at 7:38 AM on May 15, 2013
posted by valrus at 7:38 AM on May 15, 2013
a really uncharitable way to sum up a review that subsequently devoted eight paragraphs to the music in minute detail.
Cherry-picking quotes to bolster one's argument is a time-honored tradition, however.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:04 AM on May 15, 2013
Cherry-picking quotes to bolster one's argument is a time-honored tradition, however.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:04 AM on May 15, 2013
Aha! I knew I remembered seeing this site -- it was for Dessa > Fiona Apple. "Fiona Apple talks, looks, and acts like she makes music — a great forum for the strange, the maladapted, the beautiful, and the severe." ♥♥♥♥
Another good one: Jonathan Meiburg > David Bowie. Other than JM and the one dude I've been friends with for over a decade, I must admit that I haven't even heard of >75% of the reviewers and at least 50% of the reviewees, which makes me feel hopelessly out of touch. There is always simultaneously way too much and never enough music.
John Darnielle's peerless Last Plane to Jakarta and Will Sheff's contributions to Audiogalaxy (most of which have been sadly lost to the sands of time, save this review of Bright Eyes' Fevers and Mirrors; I was very surprised to have spotted my own wildly embarrassing and utterly inept review of that record listed alongside the inimitable Mr. Sheff's) as well as his AMAZING liner notes for Roky Erickson's True Love Cast Out All Evil are my personal gold standard for musicians writing about music, so I hope they will eventually be featured on this site as well. Thanks for the link!
posted by divined by radio at 8:52 AM on May 15, 2013 [1 favorite]
Another good one: Jonathan Meiburg > David Bowie. Other than JM and the one dude I've been friends with for over a decade, I must admit that I haven't even heard of >75% of the reviewers and at least 50% of the reviewees, which makes me feel hopelessly out of touch. There is always simultaneously way too much and never enough music.
John Darnielle's peerless Last Plane to Jakarta and Will Sheff's contributions to Audiogalaxy (most of which have been sadly lost to the sands of time, save this review of Bright Eyes' Fevers and Mirrors; I was very surprised to have spotted my own wildly embarrassing and utterly inept review of that record listed alongside the inimitable Mr. Sheff's) as well as his AMAZING liner notes for Roky Erickson's True Love Cast Out All Evil are my personal gold standard for musicians writing about music, so I hope they will eventually be featured on this site as well. Thanks for the link!
posted by divined by radio at 8:52 AM on May 15, 2013 [1 favorite]
I read the Matthew Friedberger piece, as he's the only one I'd heard of of the reviewers, and not surprisingly he writes extremely well and in a pretentious-precocious voice. Carl Newman tweeted yesterday about FF's Tropical Iceland, how they can write "the catchiest song in the world when they feel like it." I thought, well so why don't they do it more often? And now Mr Friedberger himself has delivered (part of) the answer.
posted by Flashman at 9:53 AM on May 15, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Flashman at 9:53 AM on May 15, 2013 [1 favorite]
I read the Matthew Friedberger piece, as he's the only one I'd heard of of the reviewers, and not surprisingly he writes extremely well and in a pretentious-precocious voice.
Bleh, I can't agree. His sentences are tortuous, the piece as a whole is almost entirely unstructured, and probably half the review is meta-commentary. The meta-commentary in particular is a tic you see in a lot of writing by intelligent people who have a decently analytical mindset, but who lack a natural facility with writing and try to compensate by injecting this kind of self-awareness. You're right, though: his writing style does explain a lot about why the Fiery Furnaces sound the way they do.
posted by invitapriore at 11:35 AM on May 15, 2013
Bleh, I can't agree. His sentences are tortuous, the piece as a whole is almost entirely unstructured, and probably half the review is meta-commentary. The meta-commentary in particular is a tic you see in a lot of writing by intelligent people who have a decently analytical mindset, but who lack a natural facility with writing and try to compensate by injecting this kind of self-awareness. You're right, though: his writing style does explain a lot about why the Fiery Furnaces sound the way they do.
posted by invitapriore at 11:35 AM on May 15, 2013
You see this makes such a good case that the world needs music critics just as the restaurant game needs gourmets. That review of Savages sounded read as if a drunken 17-year old had spoken it on the metro after a bad night out. "The cover fucking rules". Yeah, insightful. Now get back to the music, maestro
Counterpoint: Laura Jane Grace has written more great songs than most singers. But if for some reason you don't like Savages (I haven't heard them), there's always this vicious review from Autralian gadfly Everett True.
Matthew Friedberger's review reads a lot like Fiery Furnaces lyrics, which is pretty awesome. I don't really understand why he doesn't like Vampire Weekend, having never heard them before and having no context, but I enjoyed the experience.
This is the key line, for me: Nearly all of indie rock or "indie" rock or modern or alternative or college-time-directed products and promotions and outlets are Satisfaction Guaranteed outfits and outlooks, and are therefore desperately boring. And not only that. And even worse — and more exciting — this corner of the culture works, if not in the Last Instance, then in the Effective one, as training and proving ground for more and more, and deeper and deeper, and, worst of all, less and less complicated, Identifying with the Aggressor.
I think that says all that needs to be said about modern indie music. Matt Freidberger's a strange and prickly person, but he makes amazing music (with his sister) and interviewing him got me my sstart in music journalism).
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 4:31 PM on May 15, 2013
Counterpoint: Laura Jane Grace has written more great songs than most singers. But if for some reason you don't like Savages (I haven't heard them), there's always this vicious review from Autralian gadfly Everett True.
Matthew Friedberger's review reads a lot like Fiery Furnaces lyrics, which is pretty awesome. I don't really understand why he doesn't like Vampire Weekend, having never heard them before and having no context, but I enjoyed the experience.
This is the key line, for me: Nearly all of indie rock or "indie" rock or modern or alternative or college-time-directed products and promotions and outlets are Satisfaction Guaranteed outfits and outlooks, and are therefore desperately boring. And not only that. And even worse — and more exciting — this corner of the culture works, if not in the Last Instance, then in the Effective one, as training and proving ground for more and more, and deeper and deeper, and, worst of all, less and less complicated, Identifying with the Aggressor.
I think that says all that needs to be said about modern indie music. Matt Freidberger's a strange and prickly person, but he makes amazing music (with his sister) and interviewing him got me my sstart in music journalism).
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 4:31 PM on May 15, 2013
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posted by MrMerlot at 2:48 AM on May 15, 2013