Buffy ,'Empty Places'
There's a lady plays her fav'rite records/On the jukebox ev'ry day/All day long she plays the same old songs/And she believes the things that they say/She sings along with all the saddest songs/And she believes the stories are real/She lets the music dictate the way that she feels.
No, because that was like a parody of crappy music writing. So enjambed and gnarled with both hipoisie referents and jargon that it made my skin crawl.
Don't worry, I'm not interested in quitting writing. Just feeling like music writing is bankrupt.
Oh, thank goodness. I thought I was crazy.
The Village Voice has a long, long tradition of illucid music writing.
The Village Voice has a long, long tradition of illucid music writing.
New coinage for Tom!
"The professor then began to illucidate his point by speaking in some pig latin variant of Esperanto, citing works which didn't exist and authors of dubious character."
Well, yeah. Does "robo-skank" mean anything to anyone?
Well, yeah. Does "robo-skank" mean anything to anyone?
That's what I don't know! I mean, I can't tell the diff between Greil Marcus and Robert Christgau; robo-skank might have a long tradition starting with Robert Johnson at the crossroads!
No, not really, funny image of like a Bender-date though. Ok, so, I had a fifty-fifty shot at the reasons writers might want to quit. So that was a "Why bother when people buy junk like that?" I have it, too, sometimes, every time one of those "The Cat Who..." mysteries comes out, especially.(I need to stop thinking I am provincial and not cool because my instincts *told* me that sucked, but then I felt like "Well, that's fine for you, Miss Stuck In The Seventies and went to a state college, but if it was really deep, you'd never get it anyway.") That's all it takes to make me mistrust myself. Somebody is gonna make me buy a canvas with a dot on it, aren't they, if I ever make any money. I need to cut that shit out.
I can't tell the diff between Greil Marcus and Robert Christgau
To be fair, they look a lot alike.
To be fair, they look a lot alike.
Ahhh, the old David Lee Roth putdown: "You know why rock critics like Elvis Costello? They all look like him."
Their writing styles and aesthetics are very different though. Christgau actually enjoys music and isn't embarrassed to love something dumb if it rocks or pops or grooves or whatever. Greil will apologize sheepishly for admitting he likes "Surfin' Bird." Christgau spent umptyjillioni years doing the Consumer Guide so his writing style got condensed and gnarled - thus spawning the evil sentence I cited upthread. Greil's writing is better longform where he can stretch out with his notions. (He only really listens to music because it makes him think Deep Thoughts. I think he'd have preferred to be a movie critic if given a do-over.)
Greil peaked with Lipstick Traces when Punk dragged him away from his Dylan brooding. But he's done some serious backsliding then and I doubt he's listened to more than five bands that came up after 80s. Certainly no hip hop. Whereas Christgau was the first rock critic to write extensively about hip hop. And African music too, for that matter.
In short: Christgau much more reliable for music opinions; Greil more interesting to read, broader range of references, doesn't really like music, should stop writing about Dylan and Elvis altogether.
My In the Aeroplane book arrived. I got a grin reading Hec's name in the Acknowledgments. I'm on pg. 12 AIFG! (Coincidentally, I also ordered Marcus' Mystery Train but I have a few other books to read before I get to that.)
In totally unrelated news that matters not because no one here knows what I look like - I just got a kerbillion inches cut off my hair and it's all rockstar and I love it. (Sorry I am digital camera-less or there would be pics. You'll just have to take my word for it.)
Oh - back to music - An Emusic find (I saw it on lots of year-end Best of Lists) I am loving a lot right now is Alligator by the National. Anybody?
Allmusic sez:
Setting up their tunes on a creative territory amidst American electric rock and indie rock's mellowest tunes, The National ultimately present melodious and inspiring compositions also enlightened by a set of influences, including country-rock and even British pop/rock. Originally coming from Ohio, the band eventually formed in New York in the late '90s
Hard to describe as I've only listened to it twice but I find myself wanting to put at least three of the songs on mixes and that's always a good sign.