Is Everybody Who Edits the Village Voice Really This Stupid?

Are you saying Jan & Dean didn't rock (in their own way)?

I'm with Chuck. I consider band names and album titles to be minute details yet I still wish to discuss things even though I can remember little about them.

That's the best post evah.

What are you saying here, ultimately? That a critic who follows his muse, listens to volumes of stuff because that's what he/she likes to do, and writes from this particular hand-as-dealt-by-the-muses should turn away from these muses, put his/her nose to the goddamn grindstone, and study the *important* albums instead?

-- Tim Ellison (timejeanne...) (webmail), January 4th, 2005 7:00 PM. (Tim Ellison) (link)

i'm saying that perhaps chuck sets out to listen to too much music and write about it! (or "write" about it, if listing albums under "eddytor's dozen" with an often-inscrutable or irrelevant eight-word note can be considered writing.) as a result his standards of criticism ("this rocked!" "i liked it immediately!" "it was great when i listened to it once three months ago, now i can't remember what it is!") are more than a bit facile. he rarely gives any evidence of having *burrowed* into a piece of music, getting to know it really well. it's the old pauline kael phenomenon of "i trust my immediate judgment and never/rarely go back." but records were made for relistening, i believe. well, to qualify a little, there are definitely critics who can listen and review records at a high pace/volume and still manage to say something interesting about them, to get inside them, to get a real feel for where they fit in and how they work. unfortunately chuck shows little evidence of this IMO. i don't intend to be prescriptive here--i.e. i wouldn't know what chuck *should* do--, just diagnostive. (is that a word?)

anyway yeah i remember the labels and all the attendant info about any album i care about. why not? i've spent a lot of time with the music i care out. because i care about music.

read my books. and a few thousand reviews from the past 20 years on top of those. (and don't whine that i "always" tell you that, and then pretend that you know jackshit about my writing.) bye, shmuck.

Take me to your reader, Earthling.

I certainly don't see anyone shouting down Amateur(ist) with such *concerned* gusto on any other thread. That is, threads in which the subject isn't Chuck Eddy, the Man Who Could Take Me-and-My-Little-Rockwrite-Hobby to Real Paying Places!

Not saying that the shamelessly sycophantic displays seen at ILM can be attributed to Eddy's actions or desires, although he does seem to revel in the adoration -- and is kneejerk curt whenever any slight critique directed his way rears its head.

Then you haven't been around ilx very long.

Oh man, who do I have to fux0r to get off this thread?

You may have been looking at it, but it seems you have not been reading it.

read my books. and a few thousand reviews from the past 20 years on top of those.

i've only ever read 'accidental evolution' but amateur(ist)'s compaint is the same i had with that book. it just seemed like an endless string of witty lists and obscure references and oddball comparisons, many of which were amusing and interesting in their counterintuitiveness, but nothing was really *developed*, and after a while i felt like i was being pummeled with fragments. as a result, i didn't really learn anything or think about anything in a new way, which i guess is what i want out of criticism, regardless of what approach it takes.

So what is one to conclude from this? That Chuck Eddy's only critical criterion is that, upon initial listening, if he perceives a record to "rock" he sits up and takes notice, and if said record "doesn't rock" it is "rock hating"? Furthermore, if it leaves no real lasting impression, it can also be labeled "rock hating"? Which is it, then? I don't get it.

Request for Moderation: Please change title of thread to "Is Everybody Who Edits the Village Voice Really This Stupid Fresh?"

wtf they didn't lower rates did they? Usually its like $100. I haven't pitched in months (damn free net taking away my careerist drive).