sometime i read christgau and am amazed...

"threads"

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?

"Playa-hatin"? Vomit.

Or are you using that the way I used to use "transcendent" or something?

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.

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/99/pics/99pjenny1.jpg
These freaks are all player-haters. But you are player-participaters. I feel you! You know what I'm saying.

ok, i take it back then.

5:29

lolololololololol

6:28 - “Reality is the basis to Eminem’s work.” - Expert Bro

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

What's unclear?

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.

It means "This album is so wild that it reminds Cale of what his last few albums weren't."

Yeah.

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

maybe too cleverly

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.

it means Manzanera rules

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.

this adage has good intentions but is kinda bullshit imo

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

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?

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

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), 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.

but how many people would read him if he spoke in plain and clear english

uh, wrote

but how many people would read him if he spoke in plain and clear english

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.

he invented twitter.

see what I told you about heavy rock crit? ;-)

Also linked on the year-end polls 2013 thread. Wasn't sure which Christgau thread to post it on

http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Rock-Roll/The-Consensus-Has-Consequences/ba-p/12189 his essay

http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Rock-Roll/The-2013-Dean-s-List/ba-p/12191

85 albums but no singles

Here's some of the albums

1. Vampire Weekend: Modern Vampires of the City (XL)
2. The Uncluded: Hokey Fright (Rhymesayers)
3. The Julie Ruin: Run Fast (TJR)
4. Jeffrey Lewis & Peter Stampfel: Hey Hey It's...the Jeffrey Lewis & Peter Stampfel Band (self-released)
5. Live from Festival au Desert Timbuktu (Clermont Music)
6. Lady Gaga: Artpop (Streamline/Interscope)
7. Eminem: The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (Deluxe Edition) (Aftermath)
8. Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni ba: Jama Ko (Out Here)
9. Gogol Bordello: Pura Vida Conspiracy (ATO)
10. The Knife: Shaking the Habitual (Mute)
11. Parkay Quarts: Tally All the Things That You Broke (What's Your Rupture?)
12. Rilo Kiley: RKives (Little Record Company)
13. Rachid Taha: Zoom (Wrasse)
14. Deerhunter: Monomania (4AD)
15. Kate Nash: Girl Talk (Have 10P)

Anybody interested in this has probably already seen it, but if not, Christgau's 10 favourite movies:

Chinatown - Roman Polanski
A Hard Day’s Night - Richard Lester
Jackie Brown - Quentin Tarantino
Jules and Jim - Francois Truffaut
The Last Detail - Hal Ashby
Make Way for Tomorrow - Leo McCarey
Nothing but a Man - Michael Roemer
One-Eyed Jacks - Marlon Brando
Roma - Alfonso Cuaron
Where Is the Friend’s Home? - Abbas Kiarostami

Bill James announced he was giving up his online site today, so readers have been posting well wishes all day. In my comment, I mentioned the reader-question forums that Christgau and Marcus include on their sites, both of which came much later than James's "Hey Bill" feature. Another reader posted this after my comment:

I went to the same elementary school as R. Christgau, a few years behind, and he evidently had been so remarkable that some of the teachers would sometimes reference him, probably to both the pride and chagrin of his little sister who was in those classes of mine.

(My response to him: "Trying to imagine Christgau in grade school...The only kid ever who, at the end of the day, graded the teacher: 'Loved the math lesson, my attention started to wander during science, but overall, you're making progress from two months ago: B+.'")