Rolling Music Writers' Thread

"people like you" = people who can write, but waste too much time listening to metal/noise/prog?

Also, I really want to see a vintage pic of Phil in his fishing vest full of tapes. Please?

A strong desire to see, and thus think, clearly is important. But neither of these can really be taught in a crude classroom environment. Journalism can't be absorbed through a series of lectures and assigned readings. It must be done. No one can teach you how to go up to strangers and ask rude questions. You just have to do it. Repeatedly.

I love Coates, but is the state of education really so bad that he thinks classrooms are only places where you absorb lectures? Of course these things can be taught. I was teaching them to a bunch of high-schoolers just a few weeks ago. You practice, scaffold, role-play, then have them go out and try it themselves.

xp: Scott, yeah, that was my dad.

xp: Xhuxk, yeah, "have to" as in compulsion. I'm sure I'm taking "obsess" more literally than others on this thread: Of course I deeply care about and love writing and music, and think about both every day, but is that obsession? These streams of advice are really about the nature of learning, but the thing is, you can know a lot about music or writing, and know very little about how people learn.

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/126317-whats-the-write-word-part-3-greg-kot-to-ann-powers

Amy Phillips: "Pithy one-liners and jokes just make you sound like an asshole. And nobody wants to work with an asshole."

u_u

Amy Philips: "At the same time, don’t be a breathless, gushing fangirl/fanboy."

http://pitchfork.com/news/27770-new-radiohead-album-aaaaaaahhh/

To be fair, at the time I posted:

This is the best thing ever.

Atease thread: http://www.ateaseweb.com/mb/index.php?showtopic=235019104

― three handclaps, Sunday, September 30, 2007 7:50 PM (2 years ago)

before i read meltzer's thing i wondered what kind of shit job he would say to get instead of being a writer. it was burger king.

Johan Kugelberg: "Don’t post shit-talk on forums."

Oh man, scott, it's worth quoting Meltzer in full:

Here is my advice: don’t. Don’t be a music journalist. All you will become in doing so is a shill. On the other hand, if you wish to be a genuwine actual WRITER, whatever the hell that might entail anymore in a functional “real world” sense (now that nobody reads; now that writing as a full-time “occupation” no longer exists), be prepared to eat shit for the rest of your life. Period. Better to change the grease, or mop floors, at Burger King.

Amy Philips: "At the same time, don’t be a breathless, gushing fangirl/fanboy."

http://pitchfork.com/news/27770-new-radiohead-album-aaaaaaahhh/

loooooooooooooooool

:-)

Andrew Philips is right with this, I think:

The key is listening. I can tell the difference between a writer that’s heard 2000 albums in their life and one that’s banked 20,000+ (so can readers, even if they don’t know why). The intangible is this: Once you’ve listened to every kind of music imaginable (even if you hated a lot of it), you understand where things fit in the larger sphere. You see associations. You have context. You have a relative sense of what an album or musician actually means. Even if that understanding isn’t made explicit in your writing, it is there, and it makes a difference. You don’t overreact; you don’t fall prey to half-assed analysis or over-aggrandizing. You have to feed your (hopefully inherent) need to understand everything. The best writer in the world isn’t worth anything in this business if they’re not in search of that kind of understanding. There’s no faking it. We’re at war with algorithms and to win we have to understand music in ways that computers can’t. You have to sit down and obsessively, methodically listen, listen, listen, listen.

Did someone pay Amy Phillips for that Sonic Youth "Murray Street" review?

xpost And then gimme an idea of what it actually sounds like or gtfo

Ann Powers also massively OTM here:

Expertise in your chosen field will come naturally, as you fulfill your lust for information about and experiences of whatever fascinates you.

Jon: it sounds like a metaphor crunching into a simile while exaltations rain down courtesy of some obscure half-referenced singer now getting a reissue. Plus, whales.

WHALES?!?!?!

Ordered.

I'm sorry, these kind of whales:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_t44siFyb4

That was after the record company rejected the original demos.

As long as the cetacean explosion was recorded with a single judiciously placed binaural mic, I'm in. I like a realistic concert hall perspective.

wait, what if you have heard 20,000+ records, but are REALLY fond of half-assed analysis and over-aggrandizing.

cuz that about sums me up in a friggin' nutshell.

:-D

I sympathize with Whiney here:

http://twitter.com/1000TimesYes/status/15195228274

xpost - Thanks for the Oregon shout-out Ned! That whale footage is classic.

Real talk: do y'all writer types find value in using Twitter? i don't currently have an account -- just manually type in the URLs of some feeds i like to check in on -- but i'm thinking of joining

As someone who basically used Twitter to review the Bottled Smoke fest this weekend, yes, I do find value in it.

I never use Facebook or my blog for quips, so Twitter is beyond me now; besides, I don't want any more chances to waste time online.

genuinely, yes

I do find Twitter valuable. I don't live-tweet events, but I exchange ideas with people and find links to interesting things.

I don't want any more chances to waste time online.

^^^^^^^^^^

My official stance on Twitter is that I think it's very important that everyone use ONE social networking tool, be it Facebook, MySpace, tumblr, blog or Twitter. But this constant pressure to use ALL OF THEM is complete and total bullshit and a waste of time.

I don't use any of them. Honestly don't get what I'm missing, either.

With Whiney there. At this point for me it's pretty much Facebook and Twitter with Tumblr as this adjunct I'm porting stuff from the blog over to -- but if I tried to keep up with all the talk on there to, uh, no.

you're on this social networking site now, aren't you chuck?

what i like about twitter is that it doesn't feel like a compulsive timesink in the way most of the others (like ilx lol) do. it putters away like background chatter that you can join in or not as you wish, and if you miss something it doesn't feel, like, important.

I exchange ideas with people and find links to interesting things.

― Born In A Test Tube, Raised In A Cage (unperson), Tuesday, June 1, 2010 7:03 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark

^^this basically. and with so many journalists and writers in/near my field on it, it's extremely valuable for making connections as well.

My brother doesn't use social networking. And he has the same argument as xhuxk for not having a cell phone. Doesn't see what he's missing.

I felt the same way about both cell phones and Myspace/Facebook, until I started using them.

Yes, you can go through life without learning to drive a car too, if you want. But I get more out of life because I open myself up to these things. And I don't consider my use of them as wastes of time. It's actually improving my ability to do my job, interface with my friends, and learn and share information.*

*(now somebody from Facebook should cut me a royalty check.)

Yes, you can go through life without learning to drive a car too, if you want.

Hi there!

what i like about twitter is that it doesn't feel like a compulsive timesink in the way most of the others (like ilx lol) do. it putters away like background chatter that you can join in or not as you wish, and if you miss something it doesn't feel, like, important.

Yep. This is why blogs and Facebook never clicked with me. I pretty much do everything on twitter. About once a week someone tells me i'm "ruining my brand" by not being on Facebook, but I think I'm doing just fine tbh

xp Yeah, I guess if this counts, I'm sort of here. And at Singles Jukebox. And other places. And I sort of do a quasi/not-really "blog" at Rhapsody. And I post comments on other people's livejournal blogs etc; guess I technically have an "account" there, even my own "page", though I've never used it. People have asked me to do Facebook, Twitter, etc. My problem is the same as Alfred's I think -- I have enough places (ILX for one) to use to procrastinate already; I can't imagine adding more to my plate without getting sucked in to them whole-hog. I tend to get obsessive-compulsive about such things.

But I do have a cellphone now! No landline, though, since moving to Austin.

I tend to get obsessive-compulsive about such things.

So true on this end too. You have to know where to draw a line for yourself.

I also drive a car again, since moving down here!

Hahah well there you go. Been twenty-two years in LA then OC without one for me.

i have a facebook account - i think that much is important, people who don't have my email address are much more likely to contact me there with actual offers of paid work - though these days i only really use fbook as a diary, rarely log in and kind of hate it. but i think it's important to have it.

Ned, come to Portland. I will drive you all over the place :)

yeah, I'm thinking of joining Twitter again mostly just to read other people's feeds -- don't have much interest in posting there too often myself

if i were to ever join Tumblr again, i'd be doing so primarily to use it as a publishing platform. as of right now, i've just added the couple tumblelogs I'm interested in to my Google Reader. pretty much try to use Google Reader to follow whatever sites I'm interested in following b/c having everything in one place that only tells me when sites add new stuff is extremely convenient

as far as choosing which social services to join, though, i'd just recommend that people join whatever ones actually add value to their lives. for some, this might be none, for others this might mean several. but, at least in the spirit of what Whiney said, you really probably don't need to join them all. or even most of them

I'm kind of a Twitter asshole. I only use it once or twice a week to post about my events and I never check other people's tweets. Maybe I'm using it wrong?

I will say that both Myspace and Facebook have actually gotten me laid though. So that is a "value add".

Ned, come to Portland. I will drive you all over the place :)

Too kind, but you already have good mass transit up there! I am thinking about a visit to friends and family there in fall, in any event.