the Bowie line always confused me, and excited me ("Ooh, Johnny Coug collaborated with Bowie!").
― Inculcate a spirit of serfdom in children (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 17:59 (fourteen years ago) link
Man is that a terrible "review".
― Bill Magill, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 18:00 (fourteen years ago) link
Bowie stablemate = poseur, or so i've always assumed.
― the not-strawman one (Ioannis), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 18:01 (fourteen years ago) link
Actually, from '82 to '87 xgau got Mellencamp right, and even stopped caring around the same time Coog stopped improving.
― Inculcate a spirit of serfdom in children (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 18:02 (fourteen years ago) link
from '82 to '87 xgau got Mellencamp right
Alfred, you're just trying to bait me now, right?
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 18:07 (fourteen years ago) link
ha - I bought Nothing Matters... at your recommendation a couple of years ago, and, well, sorry.
― Inculcate a spirit of serfdom in children (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 18:08 (fourteen years ago) link
The double-disc comp released in '04 and my old copies of Scarecrow and The Lonesome Jubilee are all I need.
― Inculcate a spirit of serfdom in children (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 18:09 (fourteen years ago) link
If anybody is interested on the truth on these matters:
What is John (Cougar) Mellancamp's best song?
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 18:09 (fourteen years ago) link
wait, that review isn't bad at all! people are just picking on xgau now!
― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 18:11 (fourteen years ago) link
stablemate is a bit off, bowie and defries were history by the time defries discovered Johnny Cougar right?
― Brio, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 18:18 (fourteen years ago) link
what a disaster for john cougar mellencamp
― da croupier, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 18:21 (fourteen years ago) link
This Is Bull [Paramount, 1971]Speak for yourself, Ferdinand. D
― the not-strawman one (Ioannis), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 18:22 (fourteen years ago) link
were u really amazed when u read these?
― chronicles of ridic (zvookster), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 18:25 (fourteen years ago) link
OK googling says Bowie split w/ Defries in 75, the same year Cougar signed on to Mainman, and Cougar was dropped by DeFries right after his first record, so calling him a "longtime Bowie stablemate" in 1985 is wrong. Or I guess it could be intentional, a real rock crit kneeslapper.
No idea why this captivated my attention.
― Brio, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 18:25 (fourteen years ago) link
GREAT album!
fun fact: Bull was friends with Chaki's dad.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 18:32 (fourteen years ago) link
i think i put the hot Bull guitar jam on one of my hothead mixes.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 18:34 (fourteen years ago) link
why am i not surprised?
― the not-strawman one (Ioannis), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 18:36 (fourteen years ago) link
Chaki's dad was in The Hook. One of my all-time fave guitar freakout bands.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 18:46 (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.
Excuse me?
― if I don't see more dissent, I'm going to have to check myself in (Matos W.K.), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 21:52 (fourteen years ago) link
haha never mind
― if I don't see more dissent, I'm going to have to check myself in (Matos W.K.), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 21:58 (fourteen years ago) link
"threads"
― the clones of tldr funkenstein (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 22:02 (fourteen years ago) link
really matos? i recall long stretches of threads where you and other folks spent much time essentially accusing critics of playa-hatin. am i thinking of somebody else? jess maybe?
― by another name (amateurist), Wednesday, 10 February 2010 00:38 (fourteen years ago) link
"Playa-hatin"? Vomit.
― if I don't see more dissent, I'm going to have to check myself in (Matos W.K.), Wednesday, 10 February 2010 01:19 (fourteen years ago) link
Or are you using that the way I used to use "transcendent" or something?
― if I don't see more dissent, I'm going to have to check myself in (Matos W.K.), Wednesday, 10 February 2010 01:21 (fourteen years ago) link
I mean there are long stretches of threads where I basically say, "He means this, not that," which boils down to knowing his stuff well vs. not.
― if I don't see more dissent, I'm going to have to check myself in (Matos W.K.), Wednesday, 10 February 2010 01:23 (fourteen years ago) link
http://snltranscripts.jt.org/99/pics/99pjenny1.jpgThese freaks are all player-haters. But you are player-participaters. I feel you! You know what I'm saying.
― the clones of tldr funkenstein (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 10 February 2010 01:25 (fourteen years ago) link
ok, i take it back then.
― by another name (amateurist), Wednesday, 10 February 2010 01:27 (fourteen years ago) link
5:29
― da croupier, Friday, 12 February 2010 00:44 (fourteen years ago) link
lolololololololol
― El GarBage (M@tt He1ges0n), Friday, 12 February 2010 00:49 (fourteen years ago) link
6:28 - “Reality is the basis to Eminem’s work.” - Expert Bro
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, 12 February 2010 01:15 (fourteen years ago) link
From his review of John Cale's Fear:With Phil Manzanera flailing his axe like rocksy music was a thing of the future and Eno doing his best Baby Cortez imitation it sounds as if somebody just played "Sister Ray" for Cale and he thought the world of it.
wait what
― a black white asian pine ghost who is fake (Telephone thing), Saturday, 15 May 2010 21:37 (fourteen years ago) link
What's unclear?
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 15 May 2010 21:46 (fourteen years ago) link
That blurb actually persuaded me to give Cale a try fourteen years ago.
The implication that "Sister Ray" is somehow unfamiliar to Cale, I guess, or am I misreading it? I just now realized that maybe Christgau meant someone played it to him and he went "OH MY GOODNESS I HAVE FORGOTTEN HOW TO ROCK OUT, I WILL RESUME FORTHWITH," but the phrasing "thought the world of it" makes it sound like it's something new to him.
― a black white asian pine ghost who is fake (Telephone thing), Saturday, 15 May 2010 21:50 (fourteen years ago) link
It means "This album is so wild that it reminds Cale of what his last few albums weren't."
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 15 May 2010 21:53 (fourteen years ago) link
Yeah.
― kornrulez6969, Sunday, 16 May 2010 01:25 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah - "it sounds like Cale has been reminded of what he's good at & in a way that makes doing it feel new & fresh to him," only put more cleverly
― in which we apologize for sobering up (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Sunday, 16 May 2010 02:28 (fourteen years ago) link
maybe too cleverly
― do you ever feel like some people are CHICKEN shit nowadays (some dude), Sunday, 16 May 2010 02:48 (fourteen years ago) link
Christgau clearly not a supporter of the old writing adage that anytime you're particularly proud of a turn of phrase, you should immediately chop it out and rewrite.
― Born In A Test Tube, Raised In A Cage (unperson), Sunday, 16 May 2010 03:04 (fourteen years ago) link
it means Manzanera rules
― all yoga attacks are fire based (rogermexico.), Sunday, 16 May 2010 03:28 (fourteen years ago) link
this adage has good intentions but is kinda bullshit imo
― in which we apologize for sobering up (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Sunday, 16 May 2010 03:56 (fourteen years ago) link
like, it's applicable to people whose ability to write is in question, maybe - I hope to fuck that all the writers I like publish as many turns of phrase that they're proud of as they can get published during their lifetimes
― in which we apologize for sobering up (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Sunday, 16 May 2010 03:58 (fourteen years ago) link
Lost in Space [SuperEgo, 2002]I've never understood this ice queen thing myself. What's the big thrill--getting to see them bite their lip when they come?
― abanana, Sunday, 16 May 2010 03:58 (fourteen years ago) link
i guess my only problem with this review is that it (maybe) implies fear is better than paris 1919 which i don't buy altho i love fear
― velko, Sunday, 16 May 2010 07:20 (fourteen years ago) link
― in which we apologize for sobering up (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Saturday, May 15, 2010 11:58 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
fair enough, but choosing a snappy one liner (or an inscrutably tangled one) over a plainer truth or insight all the time gets a little exhausting when the guy's reviews are frequently only one line long.
― some dude, Sunday, 16 May 2010 09:12 (fourteen years ago) link
but how many people would read him if he spoke in plain and clear english
― retarded candle burning at both ends (dyao), Sunday, 16 May 2010 10:11 (fourteen years ago) link
uh, wrote
Setting aside the plain fact that nobody reads music criticism, period, I do actually think Christgau is a "critics' critic"; his primary audience is his peers. (Which I think is true of all music critics, but even more so in his case. Even people like me, who find his writing little more than a collection of linguistic/rhetorical tap-dancing, reflexive praise for heroes of long standing, and blind spots, still feel the need to pay attention.) I have no idea what the traffic numbers on his Consumer Guide pages are, though MSN's clearly inflating them through click-for-the-next-review trickery. But I suspect that far more people read Jon Pareles or Nate Chinen or Ben Ratliff at the New York Times, each of whom writes far less gnomically than Christgau.
― Born In A Test Tube, Raised In A Cage (unperson), Sunday, 16 May 2010 14:51 (fourteen years ago) link
he invented twitter.
― _▂▅▇█▓▒░◕‿‿◕░▒▓█▇▅▂_ (Steve Shasta), Sunday, 16 May 2010 14:54 (fourteen years ago) link
see what I told you about heavy rock crit? ;-)
― NUDE. MAYNE. (s1ocki), Sunday, 16 May 2010 17:05 (fourteen years ago) link