pretty sure xgau was talking about a trait in regards to popular rock not like "well if the jackie gleason orchestra is at #1 it must be good"
― da croupier, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 16:13 (fourteen years ago) link
don't think marsh embraced sabbath at all, populist sympathies or o/wise - he certainly gave their recs really stinky reviews in the ROLLING STONE RECORD GUIDE
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 16:15 (fourteen years ago) link
i've been flipping through the 1983 edition of that puppy a lot lately and man, it's a shame that in a time of so much dross (just in sheer numbers) that you don't see a ton of one-star discography slams of Pete Yorn or whoever in newer books.
― da croupier, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 16:19 (fourteen years ago) link
"Lester Bangs and I have both been listening to Black Sabbath a lot -- actually, I sort of leave it up to him to put it on, since I'd OD'd on Master Of Reality before his return from Sweet Home San Diego, and sometimes things need a rest." -- Dave Marsh, "Crazy About the La La" (his defense of Grand Funk, Sir Lord Baltimore, and other "third generation rock"), Creem, 1970 (reprinted, and also recanted actually, in Fortunate Son: The Best Of Dave Marsh.)
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 16:38 (fourteen years ago) link
― da croupier, Tuesday, February 9, 2010 11:13 AM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
pretty sure "xgau" was talking out of his fucking ass.
― Bill Magill, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 16:38 (fourteen years ago) link
"Doubt their American audiences were all that dissimilar, fwiw."
How is this relevant at all?
― Bill Magill, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 16:39 (fourteen years ago) link
^^^iommi sock
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 16:41 (fourteen years ago) link
man it must be flattering when people are frothing at the mouth about your capsule dis almost forty years after the fact
― da croupier, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 16:52 (fourteen years ago) link
Totally -- I wish people would do that to my 25-year-old Rock-a-Ramas.
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 16:53 (fourteen years ago) link
what's a rock-a-rama
― da croupier, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 16:54 (fourteen years ago) link
this revive mainly revolving around Sabbath and Walkmen reviews that have been discussed on ILM many times before makes me think the guy can't really have that many reviews that make easy targets for ridicule
― some dude, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 16:59 (fourteen years ago) link
wait, hold on.
the grand funk reference appears to be to xgau himself. he's saying he spearheaded, or at least joined, a critical bandwagon that claimed that GF was returning to the rock 'n' roll verities. xgau thinks this has gone too far, and so for some obscure reason he wants to compensate by putting the brakes on ANOTHER supposed critical cliche, the celebration of black sabbath. or something.
like a lot of xgau it's sort of hermetic but whatever he's saying he's not really likening GF to black sabbath sonically.
― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:07 (fourteen years ago) link
xpost
xgau has TONS of weird capsule reviews which we've discussed ad infinitum on ILM.
― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:08 (fourteen years ago) link
i sometimes admire the density of xgau's capsule reviews on a level of linguistic invention (except when they become SO compressed and elliptical that practically nobody can follow what he's saying, which we discussed on a thread about one of his missy elliott reviews) , but in terms of what he is actually saying about the music i often find it wanting.
― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:09 (fourteen years ago) link
really tempted to repost that "her varieties were delicious" freaky-sex-tales-with-Sarah-Vaughn one again, even though I'm sure it's been discussed on ILX before
― da croupier, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:09 (fourteen years ago) link
kneejerk dismissals of xgau are about as boring as other folks' ardent, sometimes clannish, defense of everything he has ever written.
― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:10 (fourteen years ago) link
xxpost
shame rockcrit is too ghettoized for that to have placed in the annual "bad sex in literature" awards
― da croupier, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:10 (fourteen years ago) link
ah, hell.
Sarah caught my eye at a Romare Bearden opening. Two nights later I bought her dinner at Alison on Dominick. The sex was lush, cushiony, companionable, matter-of-fact--no tricks to speak of, but she knew her own body and had ideas about mine. The subtlety of her variations was delicious. Later, though, I heard she'd wrinkled her nose at my personal hygiene. Sassy, my sweet, what are a few skid marks between friends?
After Lucille beat me at nine-ball in the back of a keno parlor, we went out for ribs and ended up bringing some Bacardi back to her place. The sex was hot and candid, lots of tongue, teeth, and growl, and though I'd expected raunch, only toward the end did she get all "I'll do it to you honey till I make you shit." This wasn't literally true, but it might as well have been. Later, though, I heard she'd bad-mouthed me for not delivering on that rim job. Bessie, I swear, it just slipped my mind.
― da croupier, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:11 (fourteen years ago) link
seriously though let's get back to that mama cass review. what the hell? is that supposed to be some meta-offensive thing (like he's cryptically distancing himself from the "fatso" line)? is it a lame shock tactic--"i'll offend propriety and good taste in the name of insulting this terrible album"?
seems like the pre-internet equivalent of trolling, honestly.
anyone who describes anything sexual as "delicious" is instantly creepy.
― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:13 (fourteen years ago) link
^
― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:14 (fourteen years ago) link
good christ what in the fuck is that
― goole, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:16 (fourteen years ago) link
full link (from 2005): http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/recyc/vaughan-05.php
as much as i can appreciate the metaphorical attempt of that review, i dunno if anyone can defend publishing the sentence "sassy, my sweet, what are a few skid marks between friends?"
― da croupier, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:17 (fourteen years ago) link
so he's basically comparing vaughan's sophisticated-but-sultry ballad singing to lucille bogan's raunchy single-entendres via an elaborate narrativized sex metaphor? seems sort of show-offy.
― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:18 (fourteen years ago) link
if some kid at a college newspaper wanted to review a sarah vaughn comp and the "shave em dry" dirty blues comp by talking about how it was when he fucked both the singers, well, what would everyone think of that?
― goole, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:20 (fourteen years ago) link
ask Chuck, he edited it after all.
― the not-strawman one (Ioannis), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:21 (fourteen years ago) link
i would want to see a photo of the college student who wrote "the subtlety of her varities was delicious" is what i'd think
― da croupier, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:21 (fourteen years ago) link
actually a college newspaper would probably be dunderheaded enough to publish that.
honestly the review doesn't really offend me, it's just a dumb literary conceit that should have been ixnayed by the editor on the grounds of its stupidity. hi chuck.
― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:22 (fourteen years ago) link
xgau dot com should have comments boxes
― goole, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:23 (fourteen years ago) link
ilm would die a lonely death.
― the not-strawman one (Ioannis), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:24 (fourteen years ago) link
"kneejerk dismissals of xgau are about as boring as other folks' ardent, sometimes clannish, defense of everything he has ever written."
Fine either be bored or dont read the thread. The guy is a fucking putz.
― Bill Magill, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:25 (fourteen years ago) link
we'd have to pick which review to have the 1400 post excursus on the dark knight tho
― goole, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:25 (fourteen years ago) link
Fine either be bored or dont read the thread.
i'm glad i have your permission to be bored, mr. magoo.
― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:27 (fourteen years ago) link
xp Hey, I printed weirder stuff in the Voice by other people back then, I'm sure. And for Xgau especically, it was definitely...a change of pace. And for an oldtime-music review, definitely not what you'd call stodgy. Variety is the spice of music sections. At least I didn't have to edit the Valentine supplement. (Bob wrote for that sometimes, too, I think.)
But anyway, I'll bite -- Who, exactly, has ever defended "everything he has ever written"? Name names, please.
Rock-a-ramas were old capsule reviews in Creem, Anthony. They generally took less time to write than it took to listen to the albums in question, but they were a lot of fun.
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:27 (fourteen years ago) link
ok that was perhaps a straw man. but on some threads you and matos seemed unwilling to brook ANY criticism of the dude. i admit that isn't the case on all threads.
― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:28 (fourteen years ago) link
At least I didn't have to edit the Valentine supplement. (Bob wrote for that sometimes, too, I think.)
do tell.
― the not-strawman one (Ioannis), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:30 (fourteen years ago) link
xgau hates metal and prog; i don't. big deal. moving on.
― the not-strawman one (Ioannis), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:31 (fourteen years ago) link
I've been criticizing stuff Xgau wrote for more than a quarter century, Am. (And I've probably even been an asshole about it once or twice.)
Anyway, that Bogan/Vaughan review already had a thread of its own (and also fwiw, those Bogan songs were pretty filthy in the first place):
Xgau takes music criticism to a new level
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:33 (fourteen years ago) link
just plain people love skid marks
― velko, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:35 (fourteen years ago) link
xp (Most recent time I publicly criticized something Xgau wrote: Less than 24 hours ago, on the Vampire Weekend thread. You can look it up.)
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:36 (fourteen years ago) link
Unless what I wrote about Metal Mike Saunders a few posts up counts, in which more like 1 or 2 hours ago.
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:38 (fourteen years ago) link
and also fwiw, those Bogan songs were pretty filthy in the first place):
very true. but at least they are funny.
― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:38 (fourteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOjOji6sDYY
― the not-strawman one (Ioannis), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:40 (fourteen years ago) link
Matos is usually pro-Xgau but at one point he said about the Consumer Guide something to the effect that his style has decayed over the years.
― the clones of tldr funkenstein (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:41 (fourteen years ago) link
the "skidmarks" thing gave me the willies― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 17:14
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:47 (fourteen years ago) link
― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, February 9, 2010 12:27 PM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark
Jeez, you really put me in my place. Im so hurt.
― Bill Magill, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:48 (fourteen years ago) link
butthurt?
― Inculcate a spirit of serfdom in children (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:49 (fourteen years ago) link
blood in the skidmarks
― velko, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:51 (fourteen years ago) link
poop on the plow
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:52 (fourteen years ago) link
http://www.weeklyreader.com/readandwriting/content/binary/AB50249~Dancing-Bears-Posters.jpg
― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:53 (fourteen years ago) link