St. Vincent - a.k.a. Annie Clark;

If that’s what she’s saying then comparing “taking a blog post down” to “the law” is also really weird

https://memegenerator.net/img/images/72429049.jpg

Is the idea that St. Vincent's people filed a DMCA complaint or something? The article doesn't say anything about the post being taken down other than calling it "now-deleted."

Sounds like she's saying Clark's label (Loma Vista Recordings, part of Concord Music Group, which is distributed by Universal) filed a takedown notice against her blog host, which then yanked her post.

Having worked at a major label that had a whole department devoted to filing takedown notices, this is not in any way shocking to me. Asshole-ish, but entirely in keeping with major label record company practice.

If DMCAs have now or ever applied to interviews that’s news to me

If that’s true then this is a much bigger story!

I mean, they shouldn't. Unless the "unnamed publication" somehow claims to own copyright in the interview (and they're the ones who filed the notice).

I would guess she got paid by the original publication that spiked it and they claimed ownership?

that's the only possibility. a label can't file a DMCA over something they don't own (an interview)

I guess that would make sense but what corporation-level publication has a legal team that would A) waste time with this and B) combat a piece of bad PR with ... another piece of bad PR!

i mean, she prob got notified that the outlet would pursue legal action and took it down voluntarily

Think this album might be her ‘Rudebox’.

Sensible take

for the past decade, just about every conflict between a journalist and a famous musician has been the same: the celebrity feels that any kind of scrutiny or interpretation is a violation, so they take it out on a relatively powerless, underpaid person who can't hurt them

— Judy Berman (@judyberman) April 26, 2021

Absolute dogshit take.

St Vincent didn't do a single fucking thing to the writer!

St. Vincent took it out on the *editor*. The writer's beef should be with the *editor* that let St. Vincent steamroll her work and (presumably) cut her rate in half for a kill fee

i think it is fair for the writer to be mad at both st vincent and the editor

Absolute dogshit take.

This is not a rational way to respond to Judy Berman.

Did you read her other tweets?

Jezebel has also reached out to Clark’s publicity company MBC for comment and will update this story if they respond.

Even if you don’t agree with Whiney, why didn’t Jezebel reach out to the publication for comment? Or even name the publication? They definitely seem to be letting it slip out of the causality chain here.

xpost, yeah it does make more sense with the other tweets

Think this album might be her ‘Rudebox’.

https://i.imgur.com/dfzbMN1.jpeg

I am sympathetic to the writer of the piece because I know what it's like to prepare for an interview and have an idea how it will go but then find out that the artist isn't on the same page as I am. Then you throw in the extra bit about how she had a very small amount of time (and constant reminders of this) which makes it hard to gracefully shift gears when the conversation screeches to a halt.

Also, I don't understand why St. Vincent and/or her handlers would be "terrified" about that interview. There were a couple of interesting quotes and none were particularly incriminating or could be made out to make St. Vincent look bad. If I looked at a transcription like that after an interview in my writing days, I would sigh and realize I really have to use more of my word count on my own observations than artist quotes. And then I would do that. But I don't see a reason those observations would be accusatorial or mean.

All that said, posting it on a blog was terrible form. Nothing good can come of it other than to point out how mean/terrible St. Vincent and/or her handlers are, but as we see above just as many people think it's all the writer's fault in the first place. Meanwhile she shot herself in the foot and might have even dragged the publication down with her (my guess is the author took it at the bequest of the publication, maybe she just thought better of it when she got negative feedback; I doubt "the man" could have forced that).

Also, maura is pretty wise and if she says the writer is not trustworthy, she has a good reason for saying it. Ultimately the writer winds up looking worse here which is sucks because I am generally on Team Writer in these cases.

it's also possible she just said "sitar" as shorthand instead of saying the full phrase "electric sitar," like how nobody says the full phrase "electric guitar" anymore

Fwiw, this is definitely possible but I don't think these two things are equivalent - an electric guitar is a guitar, just an amplified one; an 'electric sitar' is not an amplified sitar.

I don't think her terminology or identification skills are that important, though, as much as I think it would have been more interesting for her to follow up on it - still, we've done a p good job of it here so it's all good in the end.

From Jezebel: “editors and publications like the one Madden said she was writing for”

This sounds like they couldn’t even confirm she was actually writing for who she said she was.

Maybe this is all just a layered PR blitz for the new album that somehow plays into her new character.

The whole thing is just weird and no one really walks away from this looking good. If anything, the interviewer came across sounding underprepared or at least not ready for Clark's standoffishness in interviews, but nothing I saw that was worthy of a PR team freak out.

Well, I haven't read the interview and have little interest in St Vincent and yet I still looked at this thread.

*"Don't ask questions about _____" policy.*

This reminded me of the time I telephone interviewed a band who were promoting some live shows for a brewery. I was asked not to talk about getting drunk/messy on alcohol. Obviously, I did. This was when I discovered that PRs listen in. I was a naive journalist.

If you cant get the personal basis for this request for exception, i dunno. Not that i think it’s unforgiveable, just cmon, that’s a maelstrom for her—

I used to really like this artist when they weren't famous for bullshit

It saddens me to see the backlash she is getting, TBH. I think she's a very talented musician; that run from Actor through s/t is a pretty perfect run of three albums that show steady and impressive progress and absolutely any artist would be lucky to do as well. Like most musicians, she might be kind of a fucking pain in the ass and have an ego. Whatever. I think the press thing for the last album where journalists had to crawl through a tunnel was funny. I think her new thing is contrived and not to my taste. Whatever!

I was yesterday years old when I learned she got her start in The Polyphonic Spree.

It really is insane watching 15 years of nerds hyperbolically overpraising indie rock people and then just absolutely tearing them down on some "Actually, this was never good"

cf. CYHSY, Tune-Yards, Grimes, AnCo, Arcade Fire...

 I think the press thing for the last album where journalists had to crawl through a tunnel was funny. 

she sounds like an asshole

wait polyphonic spree? woah

Are there really people, like on ILX of all places, that didn't know she was in the Polyphonic Spree? that was the main reason I dismissed her in the first place! and then I came around to her circa Strange Mercy and then etc.

Are there really people, like on ILX of all places, that didn't know she was in the Polyphonic Spree?

I had no idea until now. But I'm not exactly a fan either.

oh man this explains so much

it was the main talking point when her first record came out

Huh. I just knew about the Sufjan connection.

It really is insane watching 15 years of nerds hyperbolically overpraising indie rock people and then just absolutely tearing them down on some "Actually, this was never good"

cf. CYHSY, Tune-Yards, Grimes, AnCo, Arcade Fire...

― bruce spr!ngisH3r3 (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, April 27, 2021 9:59 PM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's almost as if none of it matters

she must’ve left The Spree before the Mother 13 incident on Mt. Everest.

To be fair, everyone was in The Polyphonic Spree

To be fair, everyone was in The Polyphonic Spree

So far, have there been any post-millennial indie artists who have been acclaimed, derided, and then rehabilitated?

have any died at 27? i actually hate having typed that, because it's atrocious, but the tropes they predate memes

shockingly old when I learned the founder of Polyphonic Spree was also founder of Tripping Daisy

A band superior in every way.

This thread is increasingly confirming to me that for much of the computer-owning world, musicians are indistinguishable from magic cards or pogs or something

I hear St. Vincent didn’t tell a journalist that their round of pogs was “for keeps”

very prog pog whiney drop

is it true a st vincent interviewer got sonned over a pog beef?