Most tedious thing said by worthless VHS idiot JOHN MAUS in p4k interview

It's not as if features exactly like the Guestlist haven't been a regular music press fixture since Portrait Of The Artist As A Consumer. No one's being Cap'n defend-a-fork about this. For me it's just mind boggling that someone would have an ethical problem with a question like "What are your favourite books?". Maybe he's embarrassed by his choices and was trying to avoid the question? His music choices alone were pseudy enough...

It's not as if features exactly like the Guestlist haven't been a regular music press fixture since Portrait Of The Artist As A Consumer

well, yes. that's ... what his problem is.

also it's interesting that 80s nme thought that this kind of thing required a snarky maintaining-distance title for this sort of feature. well, okay, it's interesting to the subset of people who care about the journalistic practices of the nme in the 80s.

The other thing I don't get is that most articles I've read about this guy / this album focus on his background in critical thinking and very little on his music. For someone who can rant for pages about stuff that I personally find indecipherable, his lyrics are really really vague and repetitive. I was expecting verbose songwriting containing deep analytical content, but no it's "Rights for gays, yeah" and "Copkiller/Let's kill some cops tonight", which I guess are provocative in their own ways, but are also obscured by production so that any further message is lost. Am I missing something here?

this whole thing has already got me to the point of googling "john maus rapidshare", don't make me take it to the level of "john maus lyrics"

listen to his album on spotify

John Mausoleum n. An artist's tomb built solely out of Pitchfork quotations

Didn't people get kind of pissed off about Ariel Pink for almost exactly the same kinds of "Wow what a weirdo, why is he saying/doing these things and at the same time making shit music?" reasons back in 2005?

sorry if im wrong (note: i'm not wrong, that's sarcasm)

NBD pls

this whole thing has already got me to the point of googling "john maus rapidshare", don't make me take it to the level of "john maus lyrics"

― thomp, Friday, August 5, 2011 8:59 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

Many xps but whiney, I didn't start a thread about jay electronica creating a mystique-destroying mountain dew ad. And in this case the interview probably enhances rather than undermines his persona but feel free to keep justifying your awesome thread with oblique zings understood only by yourself, the target and j0rdan sargent

I spend quite a bit of money at Academy Records, and I have to admit that it disheartens me to think they'd stop carrying something or refuse to carry something because of the political beliefs of the artist. I mean, with John Maus I suppose I get it, and what he said was blatantly offensive to record store employees... But so what? Making a public statement about proudly taking his albums off their shelves gives him more power and his flippant remarks more gravitas than they actually have, it would seem. Of course it's their decision and their call, and yes shelf space is limited and curation must be severe, but I hate to think that my shopping experiences at probably my favorite record store in New York may be pre-emptively screened along these sorts of lines.

seems to me this guy would be a lot happier if his music was never released commercially!

hi i'm john maus, please listen to my new album on spotify

Clarke, we've never stocked John Maus in the first place. And it's not our fault someone took a snarky facebook post and re-posted it elsewhere on the internets. Also you can read upthread where I say that the only other items I have no interest in stocking are Skrewdriver LPs, because, you know, racist skins. Don't worry that anything else is being withheld from your ears.

also pls don't legitimize maus's ridiculous "record stores should all close and it makes me happy" statement as 'political.'

what is the meaning of the 'pls listen to my album on spotify' thing?

If you use the free, ad-ridden version of Spotify, one of the most frequent ones to pop up is John Maus asking listeners to please listen to his album on Spotify. It's annoying and repetitive, just like its appearance in this thread.

I understand, Ian, but my larger point is more, like, where do you draw the line? So you won't stock Skrewdriver because of racist/skinhead stuff, but what about church-burners? Murderers? I'm not trying to start a spat, it's just an interesting topic. I work in the wine business, and I remember post 9/11 when a certain famous Burgundy grower's (singular and amazing) wines were ceremoniously yanked from many shelves because of some unsavory anti-American comments he made. (And some stores went even further and gutted their stores of French wines altogether--not just because of this guy, though...) That left a really bad taste in my mouth, because I saw and continue to see wine as primarily a purely aesthetic realm where I don't have to worry about the beliefs or prejudices of the folks who produce them--and it's the same with music.

Freedom Wine!

i think if the wine dude was like "i hate all wine stores, they're full of snobs, i'll be glad when you can just buy wine online" the stores would be within their rights to pull his products! no one said he had to distribute his wine via stores in the first place!

There really isn't a 'line' to draw imo--these are more like two isolated cases, not a trend towards limiting anyone's shopping experience.

To be totally truthful, I don't like stocking Burzum records either, but I got outvoted by my co-workers on that one.

and I think, to me, the difference between say burzum and skrewdriver, is that burzum's songs are about the lord of the rings and shit, while skrewdivers are about white pride etc. So there's something offensive in the actual content of the latter, and it's not a decision based solely on the politics of the creator.

in this way it's sort of different from wine, because when you open a bottle of wine, hate speech doesn't come pouring out. ever.

fyi when you carry burzum records, you're giving money to an unrepentant and vocal white supremicist and thusly making his life as an unrepentant and vocal white supremicist easier

i am aware of this. like i said, i was outvoted on that one. shrug. feel like maybe i'm getting trolled at this point, and i'm too hungover to continue with this silliness. xoxo

I'm with you 100% on not stocking john maus btw. "My store, my rules" is as good a defense as any when it comes to record store stock

i think sommeliers should get into those kind of metaphors. "redolent of dried cherry, cut grass, shop closures, instability, and hate speech."

though the burzum thing in brooklyn is like super weird to me. like i remember in the 90s when record stores had a VERY STRICT "no racists" policy because they didnt want to suppoort them financially. But in 2011 it's totally Ok as long as cool people like them. I'm sure if Bjork wore a Skrewdriver shirt to a shoot, stores would be diving over each other to carry their records

I get you Whiney, but as ian said above I think a lot of it does come down to content. The content of Burzum's records is not hateful or racist, but Skrewdriver's is.

Honestly if John Maus has a problem with paying for his music then he should just give it away for free. The fact that he isn't kind of underlying the BS-ness of his BS.

like i remember in the 90s when record stores had a VERY STRICT "no racists" policy because they didnt want to suppoort them financially. But in 2011 it's totally Ok as long as cool people like them.

maybe you and I have p differing experiences here but it seems to me that in the 90s, as now, Burzum was more or less the singular exception to this because of various justifying getout clauses (and possibly the unspoken one, that people actually want to buy his records)

I mean ftr I have noticed a kind of fetishism of the 'taboo' re: Skrewdriver and one or two other bands among like Termbo type people and other scenes made up of guys who call each other faggot but I don't think that's specifically new or what we're talking about really

in this way it's sort of different from wine, because when you open a bottle of wine, hate speech doesn't come pouring out. ever.

True enough, and I do understand and appreciate the distinction between actual lyrical content versus egregious beliefs and behaviors of artists, but there are a lot of ugly things said on that Tyler record, for instance, as well as probably hundreds of albums on the shelves. I'm equally as uncomfortable thinking that stuff is being filtered out because of unsavory lyrical content, to be honest.

(Also, Ian, sorry you're feeling like you're being trolled; I hope I'm not contributing to that, I'm just enjoying this discussion a lot. I work closely with wine shops and so the fact that an independent store is not just "a place to buy stuff" and is the sum/result of a lot of choices (ethical, aesthetic, commercial, etc, etc), debates, and concessions is always at the front of my mind, and it's cool to think and discuss that stuff in the context of record stores. I'm also hung over!)

I ended up voting for "I've never been able to wrap my head around selling merch." because dude is participating in a pitchfork article so clearly self-promotion and market share aren't exactly foreign concepts to this guy.

John Maus is basically a Washington Outsider.

Dude clearly has issues

Nah, he's just real good at playing the indie rock attention game.

Fun interview! Dude talks mile a minute but I like it!

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, June 28, 2011 8:49 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark

maybe you and I have p differing experiences here but it seems to me that in the 90s, as now, Burzum was more or less the singular exception to this because of various justifying getout clauses (and possibly the unspoken one, that people actually want to buy his records)

― 'what's puzzling you' is the name of my dog (DJ Mencap), Friday, August 5, 2011 11:37 AM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i grew up in the suburbs in the 90s where no one was cool enough to listen to burzum yet, so idk.

xpost -- And I stand by that!

RITES 4 GAYZ O YEH

I mean, I can't believe this guy is singing such blatant cop-hate.

pow pow pow pow pow

hey i found the world's biggest John Maus stan

https://twitter.com/#!/KeepYourReceipt

i have the suspicion that person is from minnesota

she has tweeted the mountain goats, the fleet foxes, uh, aziz ansari and... martin zellar

srsly is this a joke?

KeepYourReceipt Keep Your Receipt
@MrHoratioSanz Not that he's playing Chicago, but have you listened to John Maus yet? Shit is hot!!
30 Jul

KeepYourReceipt Keep Your Receipt
@marcellocarlin Fuck off, John Maus is great.
26 Jul

woah harsh vibes directed toward ilxors

Horatio sanz is an ilxor??