Best Music Writing

That does look like a great May event:

Simon Frith , Paul Gilroy, Barney Hoskyns, Cynthia Rose, Charles Shaar Murray ,Bob Stanley Richard Williams and more

ILX's Michaelangelo Matos has the best Christgau interview from his book tour up on Red Bull Music Academy. Fantastic piece:
http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/magazine/robert-christgau-interview

Another good post from Damon http://pitchfork.com/features/oped/9667-drop-the-bass-a-case-against-subwoofers/ - apparently he's writing a book. Good news.

On a different note: I'm going to see the Patti Smith Horses tour in a month, and I was thinking I should read up beforehand and then I looked up the 33 1/3 book on Horses, but judging from the user reviews it deals mainly with post-structuralist thought / academia stuff, and so I figured nah I'll just reread Just Kids. Made me think about what I like in music writing, which is not really clever analysis, more like narrative and poetry.

I read that Horses book when it came out and I don't remember it being that academic-y. What I found strange about it was the amount of space the author devoted to Smith's life and career leading up to the album, only giving the album itself an inordinately brief song-by-song analysis. I think any fan of the record will find entertaining, if not particularly revelatory, but I can't really argue with the decision to reread Just Kids again instead.

A double dose of Taylors - love both of these.
Jia Tolentino reviews Taylor Swift in Washington DC for Jezebel: http://themuse.jezebel.com/taylor-swift-is-definitely-in-her-zone-1718196417
Taylor Parkes interviews Sleaford Mods for The Quietus: http://thequietus.com/articles/18327-sleaford-mods-interview-2

Not sure if this is the canonical Best Music Writing thread, but anyhow I'm greatly enjoying (most of) the writing on this site, as well as the tournament they're running and the 90s nostalgia it is inducing: http://www.marchfadness.com/

(also rooting for "Groove is in the Heart" to take the title)

who is voting on it? some pretty shameful results there so far

but i did just read some of the essays and i will agree there is good writing to be found

Anybody can vote! Look in the "current games" page. I think lots people are voting for the more faddish songs rather than the best songs, hence the embarrassing results.

the writing is good but scanning the list of writers I do not see many people known for writing about music, and do see rick moody, which is a trend that (selfishly, obviously) worries me

Anybody can vote! Look in the "current games" page. I think lots people are voting for the more faddish songs rather than the best songs, hence the embarrassing results.

*of

I wasn't familiar with Rick Moody but I will brace myself because I guess he'll be writing the Final Four analysis this year again.

Anyway, vote for Deee-Lite everyone!

If everyone could go and vote against "Torn" today, I'd be much obliged: http://www.marchfadness.com/#/championship/

http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2017/03/15/520133445/culture-wars-trap-innovation-atlanta-hip-hop

thought this was kinda worthy (mumble rap thread participants may disagree. I dunno)

what would be their objections?

Too superficial maybe. Others might say "well of course the city is not supporting 'trap' culture"

Damn, Quincy Jones has some stories: https://www.gq.com/story/quincy-jones-has-a-story