Showing posts tagged music criticism

It’s the London Social Degree

In the June 2012 issue of The Brooklyn Rail, writer David Shirley discusses Billy Nicholls’ late-1960s pop psyche debut Would You Believe? and runs down how it came to fruition.

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As a radio DJ, music writer, and borderline OCD case, it’s likely that I care a lot more about this than most, but record release dates are important, and in some cases they’re crucial.
Who Cares When Your Record Was Digitally Remastered? — Writer, DJ, (my) editor, and friend Dave Mandl on the importance of knowing when a record was actually first issued.
I wrote about HTRK, Walls, I Break Horses, Tropics, Max Cooper, Balam Acab, and Martyn for Blurt Magazine. Check out BEATS WORKING now.

I wrote about HTRK, Walls, I Break Horses, Tropics, Max Cooper, Balam Acab, and Martyn for Blurt Magazine. Check out BEATS WORKING now.

Writing update, scoring commutes

Over at The Whisper Council, I try to occasionally post what’s in my headphones in a series called ‘Scoring Commutes’. I’ve got a subway commute that lasts anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour during the week, and I try to add a post here and there about what records I’m digging into on the way to work. It’s meant to be a rundown of stuff that I’m listening to that falls outside of what I write for PopMatters, for Blurt magazine, or elsewhere. I’ve been lazy with them this year. There’s been a lack of that between my regular diet of writing, and I think the last Commutes post (School of Seven Bells, Tropics, Andre Obin) went up in October. In any event, it’s been mostly techno and bass-oriented stuff of late, with a little hip hop from Zavala, about whom I hope you read in my new-ish column/blog for Blurt. I’m going to post a few items here today that concern my commute listening. Stay tuned.

FOUND: Photo of freelance music journalist, 2011 One big, happy family: Heavily self-promoting, one-off musicians make simplistic and catchy, often crass Internet hits.  Publicists servicing artists/labels/events put together sprawling social media campaigns, slipping in provocative/pseudo obscure artist allusions, genre names.  Hugely lauded sites promote said artists, host ads for events, breathlessly post one-sheets in news sections/paste copy in reviews, SOMETIMES ALL IN ONE MORNING, WHEW! Some text disguised as actual criticism, sites paraded as providers of actually insightful and rich, in-the-know content. Publicists offer contacts physical and digital promotional music that is sometimes available before the delivery is made. Writers (who are part-time publicists, but might as well be full-time, right? *wink, wink*) get laminated badges for outdoor events in major metropolitan areas where in-the-knows can interact physically like they did in the 1990s over local beer served for $8 per twelve-ounce cup. Artists get HUGE DEALS, DUDE, front-pager profiles in print arm of enormously popular sites (disguised as providers of insightful content). Artists and helpful blogger friends come through secretly rich town of unemployed, purposely underfed late 20-somethings, play HUGE EXTRAVAGANZA EVENTS with laptop DJs and OTHER OVERNIGHT INTERNET STARS for LIKE FORTY SOMETHING DOLLARS. Everyone goes, posts photos, label-approved downloads and in-depth commentary like ”____ KILLED IT LAST NITE” to various enormously popular sites. Everyone dies a little, goes to bed, and re-lives the whole thing just a few hours later.

FOUND: Photo of freelance music journalist, 2011

One big, happy family:

  • Heavily self-promoting, one-off musicians make simplistic and catchy, often crass Internet hits. 
  • Publicists servicing artists/labels/events put together sprawling social media campaigns, slipping in provocative/pseudo obscure artist allusions, genre names. 
  • Hugely lauded sites promote said artists, host ads for events, breathlessly post one-sheets in news sections/paste copy in reviews, SOMETIMES ALL IN ONE MORNING, WHEW! Some text disguised as actual criticism, sites paraded as providers of actually insightful and rich, in-the-know content.
  • Publicists offer contacts physical and digital promotional music that is sometimes available before the delivery is made. Writers (who are part-time publicists, but might as well be full-time, right? *wink, wink*) get laminated badges for outdoor events in major metropolitan areas where in-the-knows can interact physically like they did in the 1990s over local beer served for $8 per twelve-ounce cup.

Artists get HUGE DEALS, DUDE, front-pager profiles in print arm of enormously popular sites (disguised as providers of insightful content). Artists and helpful blogger friends come through secretly rich town of unemployed, purposely underfed late 20-somethings, play HUGE EXTRAVAGANZA EVENTS with laptop DJs and OTHER OVERNIGHT INTERNET STARS for LIKE FORTY SOMETHING DOLLARS. Everyone goes, posts photos, label-approved downloads and in-depth commentary like ”____ KILLED IT LAST NITE” to various enormously popular sites.

Everyone dies a little, goes to bed, and re-lives the whole thing just a few hours later.

Al Horner: How Radiohead's 'The King of Limbs' is killing off music journalism

Writer Al Horner nailed this, but I’m unsure if people realize that instant opinionating isn’t a phenomenon reserved for Radiohead, and that esteemed Internet “critics” post one-sheet copy masked as “reviews” in an immediate fashion whenever [insert indie superstar label here] decides to fire an email blast to its mail list because something has “leaked” from a record coming out three months from now. This happens hourly during the work week, and when I’ve run out of things to write about music, I don’t know if I’ll ever get over the queasy feeling of opening an email with one of these “leaks” and, within minutes, seeing a 30-word blurb on a highly trafficked Web site known for its “criticism” of new music. Yuck.

alhorner:

The King of Limbs, the eighth studio album by Oxford titans Radiohead, will be “the world’s first newspaper album” according to the group’s website. After a frenzied day following the early digital release of the record, this now seems riddled with an irony I suspect Thom Yorke and friends…

(Reblogged from alhorner)
PopMatters Best Electronic Music of 2010. Thrilled to have shared a byline with these fine writers.

PopMatters Best Electronic Music of 2010. Thrilled to have shared a byline with these fine writers.