Rob Sheffield's Love is a Mix Tape

But Pavement was nothing at all like we pictured them. They were a bunch of foxy dudes, and they were into it. As soon as they hit the stage, you could hear all the girls in the crowd ovulate in unison. There were five or six of them up there, some banging on guitars, some just clapping their hands or singing along. They did not stare at the floor. They were there to make some noise and have some fun. They had fuzz and feedback and unironically beautiful sha-la-la melodies...

Which is why I was so surprised how good the book was. I read the excerpt first and it's pretty hard to deny the allure of reading a tragedy such as Rob's was. Or maybe it's just that I was so touched by his wife that the rest of the romance and observations seemed so good.

"I realize it's frowned on to choose a mate based on someting superficial like the music they love. But superficiality has been good to me. In the animal kingdom, Renée and I would have recognized each other's scents; for us, it was a matter of having the same favorite Meat Puppets album. Music was a physical bond between us, and the fact that she still owned her childhood 45 of Andy Gibb's 'I Just Want To Be Your Everything' was tantamount to arranged marriage. The idea that we might not belong together never really crossed my mind."

[talking about their various crushes--after they're married]

"Thank God neither of us was the jealous type, or the insecure type, or for that matter the cheatin' type, since sharing our crushes was one of the major perks of being married. Renée would catalogue my crushes. There was Bassist Cleavage Girl (from the Luscious Jackson videos), Tremble-Mouth Girl (Winona Ryder), Mick Jagger Elastica Girl (Angelina Jolie in Hackers), Painted on a World War II Bomber Girl (Jennifer Connelly), My Eyes Are So Big You Could Fuck Them Girl (Susanna Hoffs), and Madonna (Madonna). She introduced me to her own seraglio, from the Braves' Javy Lopez ('He sure is put together nice') to Evan Dando ('He must get more cookie than the Keebler elves')."

[finally, re: the aforementioned Avril reference]

"When Avril Lavigne sings 'Sk8ter Boi,' a song about how lucky she is to wait backstage for her rock boy, how is anybody supposed to remember that the Avril Lavignes of yesteryear were sold pop fantasies in which they had a place onstage, too? ('Sk8ter Boi' is a great song, too--which is part of the reason why there's nothing simple about these questions.) Something was happening in nineties pop music that isn't happening anywhere in pop culture these days, with women making noise in public ways that seem distant now."

(that last bit...I dunno.)

Had a sense when reading him in Radio On, WMS, and various other fanzines that we were getting a Rob Sheffield that no one else was. I remember a great entry of his in Radio On taking us to task for underrating Biggie, explaining how many of Biggie's raps were about marriage.

Btw, I hope there's a Renée Crist collection someday. Once my friend John Wójtowicz said to me, "Whenever I read an especially smart review in Option I'll look down at the byline and it'll be Renée."

It'd be great if there was an anthology of Renée's writing--I haven't read a thing outside of the Radio On/WMS/Spin record guide stuff, but that alone would be enough for a great collection. For some reason, I've always had a hard time thinking of her as a writer for Option, which I've always, probably unfairly, assumed was a kind of stuffy mag.

It was and wasn't. (I think the features were stuffier than the reviews in the back, but I admit that I was a bit swamped issue for issue for a bunch of obscuro modern jazz stuff that I admit I had no interest in.)

But on the larger subject -- good thoughts there. Perhaps more appropriate for a separate thread? (Not saying it has to be!) The issue of surprise is a good way of thinking about it, actually.

Curious about this, based on what we now know about Biggie and marriage.

Still really really need to read this book!

I did wonder if people had talked about this.

I read it on honeymoon. Perhaps not the most apt book (but in defence it was a present from my wife a few weeks earlier) and yeah yeah maybe I should've found other things to do with my time, but I thought it was lovely.

He's rubbish at making mixtapes, mind.

Where did you go for your honeymoon?

This is out in paperback. And still excellent.

I've always had mixed feelings about Sheffield's stuff. The reviews in the Rolling Stone guide often seemed silly and sloppy and much less informative than any of the three previous editions. His love for Pavement and Yo La Tengo escapes me. I saw Pavement live and I caught a horrible off night and walked out and their records have a few bright spots but their batting average is Mendoza line for me.

That said, MixTape was a great read. Heart-wrenching in spots, very funny in others and one of the few music books I have recommended to people who don't read music books, since it seems as both an essay on music geekdom and as something outside of it. I figure it somehow explains the obsession without torturing its onlookers....

so, he has a new one out, Talking to Girls About Duran Duran

http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780525951568,00.html?Talking_to_Girls_About_Duran_Duran_Rob_Sheffield

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Not sure how soon this is out:

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/bowie_zpssrcbnsym.jpg

I'll read it for sure, although I'm only a casual fan.

http://www.artfulaspreycartoons.co.uk/websites/billasprey/photogallery/4576197/loveisourstory.jpg

This comes out late April:

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/rob_zpslzflbfp0.jpg

No idea what angle the book will come at them from, but I'm confident it will be unique, and guessing it ends in a bar in Portugal with everyone drunk and singing "It's All Too Much."

I love Sheffield and I'm sure this book will be great, but ffs there's enough books about the beatles out there

There are, there are...A friend gave me one for Christmas (Magic Circles), and because it was a gift, I'll read that one too. And that'll be it forever. (Honestly, I don't think I even have read a full-length book on the Beatles--almost positive. So that won't be a problem for me.)

The Lewisohn one is so good, it's one of my favorite books, Beatles or no.

I have it, I just know I don't have the stamina for 1,000 pages of pre-history.

Think of it as a book not just about the Beatles but about that whole period of time. It's also fascinating to learn how many close calls almost kept the Beatles from ever happening, or all sorts of lucky breaks or coincidences that had they not occurred would have derailed the whole thing. Just page after page - as in, almost on every page. Really quite remarkable, keeping in mind the world-changing impact the band had. I actually think about the book a lot for that reason. Things like, had A not happened then B wouldn't have happened then C wouldn't have happened then the Beatles wouldn't have happened if A was, like, Paul going out to pick up some milk or something.

Also neat to read about how fully formed they were as personalities, and to read accounts of young John, say, that are perfectly in line with accounts of iconic John.

That's a great description that makes me want to dig in and give it a try. Went to a screening of A Hard Day's Night a couple of years ago that Lewisohn introduced.

The story in Lewisohn of how they got the Parlophone contract wasn't how I remember it ever being told before and one of those happenstance events - the role of Sid Colman and Kim Bennett and how they happened to hear the "Hello Little Girl" acetate when Epstein was getting it pressed.

"But while Brian remained determined to make something happen to get the Beatles a recording contract, those particular labors were receding in his mind - they were February events and it was now the end of April, beginning of May.

And yet, for this whole fantastical and fortuitous combination of reasons - which Brian probably never knew and the Beatles certainly never knew - the door of Parlophone Records, previously closed to them once and maybe even twice, was sliding open."

My favorite happenstance is when, a year after failing to successfully land the Hamburg gig, they bump into what's his name in London, on one of their rare sojourns south playing for nobody, when he was suddenly desperate for anyone to play his German clubs.

Also loved the little things, like how they are collectively known as John, Paul, George, Ringo ... because that is the order in which they joined the band, each one inviting the next into the fold.

Magic Circles is excellent

After Lewisohn I never thought I'd need to read another Beatles book either but this year I got gifted Steve Turner's - Beatles '66 and enjoyed it greatly.

Looking forward to this:

http://robertchristgau.substack.com/p/auriculum-episode-1-robert-christgau

Not sure if it requires a subscription or not.

I think part 1 is free, but the subsequent parts will require subscription to Christgau’s paid subscribers list

I'm not even as much of a Christgau hater as most, but I have a hard time imagining paying to hear what 2020 Christgau thinks about anything.

This made me smile:

https://i.postimg.cc/pLTtG2Sj/rob.jpg