OK, is this the worst piece of music writing ever?

way way too stupid to bother being incensed about

"too stupid" is not something this thread is concerned about, as it has been demonstrated previously

I find this guy persistently awful. It upsets me that he's the head of a music department at what's supposed to be a progressive college.

Moyer pretty effectively slays one sacred cow implicated in this: not all improvised music is great. Yes, improvisation has produced some wonderful music, but it has also imposed plenty of tedium on audiences over the years.

The strawman of "everyone, everywhere, throughout recorded history has consistently stated that all improvised music is always great" aside, how is he even allowed access to a computer, much less employed by a college?

Also, all music is improvised, but that's another argument.

solid takedowns:
http://shujaxhaider.tumblr.com/post/96913433533/in-response-to-john-halle
http://dothemath.typepad.com/dtm/2014/09/without-a-song.html

Ugh at original article, yay at takedowns.

ahahaha at all this

all this poor writing out of a dumb parody piece that only hardcore sonny rollins fans would understand anyway

listening to miles davis' "get up with it" at a loud volume has helped me ignore these stupid jazz arguments. jazz is best when you listen to the music and avoid dumbfuck jazzheads arguing tired debates

^ yes, and this also applies to almost every other form of music.

halle condescendingly underplays how truly revolutionary jazz was from a modernist standpoint, as a form of collage 1,000,000x more vital and generative than, say, cubism. however, he is right that it is like rock music now, or poetry, or the novel: an art form whose performance and appreciation is inseparable from nostalgia. it's "dead" in the sense that it's cultural moment has passed. in the present tense of listening, it can be vital and moving and everything else, but it is an activity that is neither mainstream nor underground, a museum piece. museums are great though.

museums are great though

the first takedown forks linked is incredible:

This is not an argument against jazz. This is an argument against capitalism. To deny its victims pleasure, expression, and selfhood in the name of the Left is as odious as the apparatuses of the state themselves...Leftist cultural criticism becomes tedious when its practitioners claim that any artwork that does not single-handedly dismantle capitalism is thereby reactionary. It seems to me that the field should instead be characterized by a spirit of empathy and debate, two ideals epitomized by jazz. John Halle should listen closer.

paragraph 2:

Any doubts on that score can be answered with a trip to the wall of corporate sponsors of jazz in Lincoln Center, followed by a visit to Dizzy’s Coca Cola club, the center’s flagship concert hall.

Dizzy's is a dope place to see a show

Best set at Dizzy's is the aftershow, afterhours thing with the other band.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/2771-the-eminem-show/

Just came across this old pitchfork review -- i'm fine with the casual style if there's substance behind it, but this seems pretty flimsy. Maybe if i read p4k more i'd get it, idk

you dun goofed

idk. i think it was you who said that ilx is the old sow that eats her farrow.

is that review by glorious ilm saint and what?

all this poor writing out of a dumb parody piece that only hardcore sonny rollins fans would understand anyway

― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu)

my thoughts exactly. i'm glad this thread is here to document the weird chain reaction that rollins satire piece generated.

Apologies if so, i might not be in on the joke. But i don't think the homophobic stuff is really acceptable either, even for '02

i did some contract work for jalc and have seen numerous shows at all the rooms; dizzy's is a great place to see a show and the aforementioned afterparty is loads of fun.

Apologies if so, i might not be in on the joke. But i don't think the homophobic stuff is really acceptable either, even for '02
--chilli

Hope you don't like Lil Wayne!

I don't really, but that's not relevant. When i'm listening to rap, reading messageboards etc i have a different set of expectations than when i'm reading music journalism

oh, ffs...

http://johnhalle.com/outragesandinterludes/?p=149

lol @ chilli

https://medium.com/cuepoint/were-all-djs-now-8d94ee912c6d

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtLnies1IIw

This question can be a superb segue to a conversation about a genre or artist, but also I get to size up the depth of a person’s music knowledge and the quality of his or her tastes. If the friend replies “Britney Spears’ wedding to K-Fed,” I know I need to be more selective about who I spend time with.

I feel the same way about writers who make a K-Fed joke in 2014

Around 30 years ago I saw my first real DJ — the scratchy-scratch kind — and began to understand what music selection and turntable talent and rocking a party was all about.

http://mic.com/articles/98310/scientists-prove-what-we-all-secretly-think-about-people-who-love-pop-music

Oh, so creativity is a quantitative measure.

Each summer, it’s like we dive into the pool in May and never clean the water from our ears. The Song of the Summer almost always sucks (except that one summer when, miraculously, Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love” beat out “Magic Stick” by 50 Cent and “Unwell” by Matchbox 20 to take the title); and yet we keep on breathlessly anticipating the Song of the Summer, as though by some miracle it will be made by Deerhunter this year.

Pro tip: Most people aren’t going to play Deerhunter at their kids’ pool party.

think you can be done for child abuse if you do

I pity this "we"

But what really got people going nuts over Ryan’s sets was that he was playing songs from all these new bands that were emerging at the time. Most of these groups were coming out of the electroclash and NYC indie rock scenes, and many of them had “The” in their name. This prefix was how you could distinguish the cool new bands with the edgy new sound.

The Strokes, The Postal Service, The Hives, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The White Stripes, The Stills. The list goes on.

those are some alarmingly bad sentences; also there's no "the" in front of yeah yeah yeahs.

"the cool new bands with the edgy new sound"

The List Goes On were so overlooked

The GAPDYs

The List Goes On - Etcetera (Rough Trade, 2002)

Right around that time, there was a local band that was making noise in town. A friend who wrote in my high school ‘zine, Hey, Hipster, happened to play bass in the band, and Ryan was buddies with them too. Word was that they had been picked up by a big record label and they were going to do some shows in Europe. So we asked them if they would do one free show at our party before they left town. They agreed, and packed the house strictly through word of mouth, as for some reason we were not allowed to promote the appearance.

They entered the building already dressed like famous rock stars, wearing tightly-fitted sportcoats, black jeans with white belts and Reservoir Dogs’-esque skinny ties. They hit the stage and proceeded to rock the house, and shortly thereafter were quickly whisked away on a plane to the UK. The next time I saw them, it was on television.

That band was The Killers.

and that's....

the rest

of the story

GOOD DAY

and that little boy who nobody liked...

...was brandon flowers.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/03/-sp-in-defence-of-iggy-azalea-on-racism-naivety-and-a-twisted-cluster-of-exploitation

"Further, the interplay between gender and race occurring here only makes sense when you view it through the lens of neoliberal capitalism. Azalea thinks she is making art; TI, and the various producers and heavyweights who are behind her may legitimately appreciate her performance and her songwriting, but they also know they’re making money."

even worse than that pretty bad piece is seeing the uk liberal media class honking about how no one's allowed to make jokes any more like some harrumphingly unselfaware latter-day "pc gone mad" brigade

Hey if you want to weigh in on my Facebook thread please do. Aren't you in the UK liberal media class?

Lex, I think the dominant theme of that Facebook thread is not "PC is stopping us making jokes" but "If you're going to write a think piece, display some evidence of having thought about the subject in hand."