Really enjoying the new album, as I said above.
Ned, I don't so much have a direct question, but I do wonder about his recording process. I believe he's still a philosophy professor, no? Does he pick a period to retreat in a home studio and write and record the album, or is it something that comes together over a long period of time, when he's got some spare time?Not a real question but I'd be interested to learn more about this.
― Frogbs Day Afternoon (Le Bateau Ivre), Tuesday, 28 June 2011 08:58 (twelve years ago) link
Could be fun! I'll ask and see.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 28 June 2011 17:45 (twelve years ago) link
Fun interview! Dude talks mile a minute but I like it!
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 28 June 2011 20:49 (twelve years ago) link
PUSSY IS NOT A MATTER OF FACT
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Tuesday, 28 June 2011 20:52 (twelve years ago) link
the last show I saw of his, his performance was pretty eclipsed by geneva jacuzzi's
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Tuesday, 28 June 2011 20:53 (twelve years ago) link
funny that geneva jacuzzi hasn't really blown up yet in any way I know of and the last show I went to, one of the acts was a clone of hers
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Tuesday, 28 June 2011 20:54 (twelve years ago) link
xp Was she wearing mime makeup?
― bamcquern, Tuesday, 28 June 2011 20:55 (twelve years ago) link
The forthcoming tour will allow for compare/contrast again there -- he was also talking about how he's looking forward to playing with Puro again, loved them at the SXSW shows they did.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 28 June 2011 20:56 (twelve years ago) link
yeah her face was all made up
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Tuesday, 28 June 2011 20:57 (twelve years ago) link
Did you get to discuss the recording process, his working ways? And if you don't mind me asking, for which publication are you writing this interview?
― Frogbs Day Afternoon (Le Bateau Ivre), Tuesday, 28 June 2011 20:58 (twelve years ago) link
Great record, kicking myself for not seeing him live when he played round here 6 months back.
― Neil O'Jism (Craigo Boingo), Tuesday, 28 June 2011 21:01 (twelve years ago) link
just want to say that jacuzzi is a must see live imo
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Tuesday, 28 June 2011 21:01 (twelve years ago) link
saw her years ago and she was rolling on the floor screaming in sparkly clothes while a bunch of strobe lights went off and now she has like a whole fuckin stage performance, like she is a real live performer
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Tuesday, 28 June 2011 21:02 (twelve years ago) link
But she's just a cdr performer. I would've been happy to see her when she came to town a couple weeks ago, but they doubled the ticket price from $10 to $20 ($7 for preorders).
― bamcquern, Tuesday, 28 June 2011 21:04 (twelve years ago) link
Also, it was dance music and nobody was dancing. Trite complaint, I know, but I felt a little like dancing at the time.
― bamcquern, Tuesday, 28 June 2011 21:05 (twelve years ago) link
man I didn't even mention the prerecorded aspect of it because I've just seen so many performances like that and was so happy to see one that was good
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Tuesday, 28 June 2011 21:06 (twelve years ago) link
but yeah you made the right call $20 is way too expensive for her
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Tuesday, 28 June 2011 21:07 (twelve years ago) link
I did, and you'll find out more when the piece runs next week in the OC Weekly. :-D (In brief, it's very much an on the fly thing.)
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 28 June 2011 21:11 (twelve years ago) link
Maus/Puro playing in LA when I'm in town, I think the Echo.
― joyless shithead (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 28 June 2011 21:11 (twelve years ago) link
Great Ned! :-) Looking forward to it!
― Frogbs Day Afternoon (Le Bateau Ivre), Tuesday, 28 June 2011 21:12 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, that lineup's playing earlier that week in Costa Mesa (thus the story).
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 28 June 2011 21:26 (twelve years ago) link
Meanwhile, interview up at the Quietus:
http://thequietus.com/articles/06499-john-maus-interview
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 1 July 2011 15:08 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, good album. Interviewing the guy tomorrow, anyone want me to ask him anything?
man do i regret not reading this thread last week! i didnt have the record until this wknd tho...
― google butt (Lamp), Monday, 4 July 2011 19:12 (twelve years ago) link
This is a great record, I want to write more but my thoughts are mostly about "degradation" plug-ins, mastering to VHS, "Is this chillwave and what does liking it say about a man" etc.
― Boehner & der club of GOP (Ówen P.), Tuesday, 5 July 2011 01:07 (twelve years ago) link
"Is this chillwave and what does liking it say about a man"
hope it says good things!
― Z S, Tuesday, 5 July 2011 03:20 (twelve years ago) link
yeah this is the sorta record that tempts you into writing/saying a bunch of grandiose garbage about it, mb? it also feels like the sorta thing that i might be embarrassed about liking cuz its so pseud-friendly
my thoughts are mostly like: '...'
― Lamp, Wednesday, 6 July 2011 05:32 (twelve years ago) link
I'm kind of worried about attending to it in too much depth.
Would love to see him live.. there's a great YT of him doing 'Matter Of Fact' in Paris, he looks like he gets into it.
― One Big Craigo, Full Of Bad Boingos (Craigo Boingo), Wednesday, 6 July 2011 10:36 (twelve years ago) link
Absolutely not making any grand theoretical statements about it, but... it is undeniable that it is a fucking great record.
― emil.y, Wednesday, 6 July 2011 12:28 (twelve years ago) link
It is a great record! Also thx this record for alerting me to the existence of Molly Nilsson, since "Hey Moon" was the track to leap out at me on the first few listens.
― sticky crisco (a passing spacecadet), Wednesday, 6 July 2011 13:26 (twelve years ago) link
That is the first one that jumped out at me, as well. Molly Nilsson, eh? Any relation?
― Trip Maker, Wednesday, 6 July 2011 13:30 (twelve years ago) link
The grand theoretical statements about this record are wildly offputting.
― Trudi Styler, the Creator (ithappens), Wednesday, 6 July 2011 13:42 (twelve years ago) link
Probably so (ditto Ford & Lopatin), but the record IS pretty great. As is, of course, the Ford & Lopatin thing.
― henry s, Wednesday, 6 July 2011 16:38 (twelve years ago) link
Hooray my interview. (Euclidean thoughts? Not my headline!)
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 7 July 2011 22:38 (twelve years ago) link
Nice piece, Ned! And you indeed get him to talk about what he sees as the "artist's process", the unveiling of artistic work.
It does read as if you could've written an article four times as long!
― Asamoah Nyan (Le Bateau Ivre), Thursday, 7 July 2011 22:56 (twelve years ago) link
Hahah I could well have done. But wordcounts are wordcounts!
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 8 July 2011 01:31 (twelve years ago) link
That's not a bad headline! I thought it was gonna be "The Maus That Floored...Me" or something like that.
― henry s, Friday, 8 July 2011 01:39 (twelve years ago) link
Every interview I read with that guy he's so Tragic and Heavy I LOVE IT
― Boehner & der club of GOP (Ówen P.), Friday, 8 July 2011 02:34 (twelve years ago) link
He actually sounded pretty exuberant! If intense.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 8 July 2011 02:42 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/click-track/post/in-concert-john-maus-at-black-cat/2011/07/06/gIQAInK50H_blog.html
Washington Post writer hates the live showan excerpt:
A number of questions run through your mind during a John Maus concert.
What's he saying? Is he being serious? Is he okay? Isn't this a Kajagoogoo song? Who told that kid dancing up front that was an acceptable haircut?
But one question comes up more than any other — what's the point?
When Maus performs, as he did Tuesday at the Black Cat's backstage, it's like '80s karaoke night minus the hits — plus a hint of crazy. For 25 minutes the 31-year-old electronic music composer stalked the stage, leaped into the air, pulled his hair and howled along to his pre-recorded music that sounded like the third generation audio cassette dub of a long-forgotten new wave band. The way he shouted, flexed and bulged his eyes you half expected his skin to turn green and for him to transform into The Incredible Maus.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 8 July 2011 12:19 (twelve years ago) link
Sounds like a review of mid-2000s Ariel Pink
― Z S, Friday, 8 July 2011 13:22 (twelve years ago) link
All week I've been planning on picking this up after wory today, but now that BNM is going to mean it'll be sold out if they didn't order enough copies. Thats really my only beef with Pitchfork.
I've been a little lukewarm on his stuff prior to this album, but "Cop Killer" and all the iTunes samples I've heard make this sound like pretty much the perfect fit for my ears in 2011.
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Friday, 8 July 2011 13:50 (twelve years ago) link
I've never seen him live, but the pics at that Washington Post link are pretty hilarious.
― She Got the Shakes, Friday, 8 July 2011 14:23 (twelve years ago) link
(to be fair, there are tons of bands I love where live pics of them wouldn't do any justice to how intense the shows can actually be)
― She Got the Shakes, Friday, 8 July 2011 14:24 (twelve years ago) link
Hmm. Do people really have a problem with "Rights For Gays"? I'm surprised that people would write it off as a piss-take.
John's live show reminds me of the live shows of other people I know who also went to CalArts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLpadyo9cFw
― Boehner & der club of GOP (Ówen P.), Friday, 8 July 2011 14:55 (twelve years ago) link
When I saw him last, his laptop was screwing up with the playback and he shook it and pounded it, in character, 'til it fixed itself. I love this guy.
― Boehner & der club of GOP (Ówen P.), Friday, 8 July 2011 14:57 (twelve years ago) link
Pfork article also singles out the gorgeous (imo) "Tenebrae" as a misstep.
― Trip Maker, Friday, 8 July 2011 15:01 (twelve years ago) link
Although I disagree with some people who see "Rights For Gays" and "Tenebrae" as missteps, or others who say "Cop Killer" or "Matter Of Fact" are missteps... there's something about John's ironic approach to lyric writing-- real, literate irony, the duality of meaning etc., not 'moustache on a trucker hat' irony-- that kind of makes these differences of opinion a non-issue? I mean, I feel like the unimpeachable pop hit "Believer" is in fact unsophisticated in comparison, but I am cool with the fact that somebody would prefer John Maus when he's singing about Jackie Chan instead of riskier stuff
― Boehner & der club of GOP (Ówen P.), Friday, 8 July 2011 15:10 (twelve years ago) link
0 stars in Slant
http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/review/john-maus-we-must-become-the-pitiless-censors-of-ourselves/2552
― merked, Tuesday, 12 July 2011 09:43 (twelve years ago) link
When I find nothing redeeming in 90% of an album's content I will usually, out of something like sportsmanship, at least entertain the hypothesis that I just didn't get it. In this case, I can't bring myself to care. There's obviously some kind of art-school mindfuckery afoot here, and I suspect that Maus aspires to some meta-theoretical point on the level of "But really, what is music anyway?" And maybe reality is just the hallucination of a five-dimensional computerized intelligence! Generous guy that I am, I'll concede that We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves does, on some level, constitute music. Really shitty music.
I just...
There's obviously some kind of art-school mindfuckery afoot here I mean seriously, dude, what? How cynical must one have become to even think this is "obviously" what is going on? Critic in completely-not-getting-it and not-being-able-to-detect-earnestness-and-sincere-music-so-it-must-be-mindfuckery shocker...
― Asamoah Nyan (Le Bateau Ivre), Tuesday, 12 July 2011 10:08 (twelve years ago) link
What a piece of shit that review, gah. Can't get over it.
fwiw i didn’t realize he’d donated to DT4PREZ and winred when i wrote my post above, obviously that’s beyond the pale
― flopson, Sunday, 17 January 2021 00:09 (three years ago) link
He's a dead maus to me now
― kieth chagrin (NickB), Saturday, January 16, 2021 4:20 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
lol
― flopson, Sunday, 17 January 2021 00:10 (three years ago) link
vector control has been called
― sarahell, Sunday, 17 January 2021 17:22 (three years ago) link
please tell me Gary War doesn't suck too
― You guys are caterpillar (Telephone thing), Tuesday, 19 January 2021 23:23 (three years ago) link
So where does donating to Winred sit on the cancellation scale in comparison to rape, sexual assault and openly sexist verbal abuse (thinking in relation to say Mark Kozelek, Derrick May, and Michael Gira) or marrying an anti-labor billionaire who relishes in toppling governments to retain supplies of lithium (thinking Grimes)?
― octobeard, Wednesday, 20 January 2021 00:25 (three years ago) link
There's no Cancellation Bureau, you can make your own decision (or: Instances where you can't separate the art from the artist. vs. instances where you can.)
― one of the only artist who is genuine (morrisp), Wednesday, 20 January 2021 00:43 (three years ago) link
"basically the Gen X hipster bros are dividing into factions: the ones that are actually kinda stupid and sexist / racist / transphobic and the ones that aren't."
I suppose it's inevitable that our generation would go through this same thing, we saw it happen to our parents.
― akm, Wednesday, 20 January 2021 01:10 (three years ago) link
"I learned it from watching you!"
― one of the only artist who is genuine (morrisp), Wednesday, 20 January 2021 01:40 (three years ago) link
lol all those ppl suck too
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 20 January 2021 01:57 (three years ago) link
xxp - I think our parents' generation went through it earlier on? This is like the hippies that became yuppies after getting older and making $$$, minus the making $$$ part, because some of these dudes still live in the same rent controlled apartments.
― sarahell, Wednesday, 20 January 2021 02:38 (three years ago) link
some people graduate but be still stupid
― treeship., Wednesday, 20 January 2021 03:03 (three years ago) link
xp It’s hard to say because Bush won every age group (including the youngest voters) in ‘88, and the same with Regan (by a much wider margin) in ‘84. Anecdotally, the former-hippie Boomers I know who became Republicans didn’t do so until the early ‘90s, when they were in their early ’40s, and earning $$ wasn’t the driving factor (as that had already happened) as much as other cultural factors.
― one of the only artist who is genuine (morrisp), Wednesday, 20 January 2021 03:13 (three years ago) link
(Also keep in mind that white voters in every age group voted for Trump in both ‘16 and ‘20—it’s not like it’s some anomaly—but I don’t know how to account specifically for supposed non-Trumpers who went Trump only recently.)
― one of the only artist who is genuine (morrisp), Wednesday, 20 January 2021 03:21 (three years ago) link
(White millennials seem to have turned out even harder for Trump this year than last time; though CNN shifted their exit-poll age group brackets, so it’s not apples to apples.)
― one of the only artist who is genuine (morrisp), Wednesday, 20 January 2021 03:24 (three years ago) link
fun situation brewing in the vaporwave community thanks to this guy, apparently George Clanton invited him to headline Electronicon 4, which caused a big stir due to him being at J6 and donating a ton of money to Trump and just being an idiot in general, to the point where George uninvited him, which is now causing all these people to whine about safe spaces and cancel culture and what not, it's just a big dumb mess that could've easily been avoided
George deserves the benefit of the doubt on this imo and he ultimately did the right thing, but the dude can be tone deaf sometimes
― frogbs, Thursday, 29 June 2023 21:35 (nine months ago) link