"Use other words please."

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Post-Schmaltz-Core Revivalists?

― Sterling Clover, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

six months pass...

"That says it all": no it doesn't you lazy fuckwit retard. Do some work for a change and PERSUADE us.

― mark s, Sunday, 25 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Thank fuck nobody uses "(x) is worth the price of admission" any more.

― dave q, Sunday, 25 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Spot on Dave, that one's always irritated the fuck out of me as well.

― Robin Carmody, Sunday, 25 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

High school journalism, featuring "Beg, borrow, or steal" "Run, don't walk" "I want my eight bucks back" and "classic" or worse, "perrenial classic" for a group's first album or something. In fact, perrenial classic for anything!

― 1 1 2 3 5, Sunday, 25 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Does anyone remember a Chinese cooking expert (=chef) from early 80s? His apron said "wok, don't fry" . Yes, I know...

― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 25 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

four months pass...

"Bland"

Heh: this just reminded me one of the original OBSCURE STRATEGIES requires you to eat a Red Chili pepper and tape yr mouth shut, then work — write, record, whatevah — in this state.

― mark s, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

The idea of putting Flea in my mouth and then taping it shut is morally repugnant.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Rockcritics.com's Top Five Lists has a huge-ass page of these. I recall submitting "zeitgeist", "(blank)-hop" and the phrase "call it [insert smarmy portmanteau genre/analogy here]" (i.e. "call it 'wonktronica'") among others.

― Nate Patrin, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Nate you are right

― mark s, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

post-dadrock

― geeta, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

'atmospheric'

― dleone, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

sqwonk
damn, things go out of date fast these days

― Paul, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'm clearly trying to avoid "clearly". And "obviously". And "stuff". And stacatto half-sentences.

― fritz, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

what i'd give to never read the phrase "balls-out" rock or of any band needing to "grow nuts"

― , Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

balls-out twee!!

― mark s, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

balls out twee jihad!!

(gently hug their balls, etc. i'm so sorry.)

― jess, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

two weeks pass...

"promiscuous"

― Graham, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

When I write copy I tend to use "tipped" quite a lot. Sometimes with "hotly" preceding it, sometimes on it's own.

I'll agree with whomever described "glacial" as a keeper. Except when you're describing artists from Iceland. I believe I may be guilty of this as well.

Confessions (i.e. more words that I tend to overuse): decidedly, melange, myriad, ornate and, erm (urp!) rawk

It's amazing I still find work..

― Mark, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

The "incestious" Chicago scene. (It's not as colorful as that.)

― Curt, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Ahem....nor as "incestuous".

― Curt, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

one month passes...

The word "experimental" has been causing me much consternation recently. How do the experiments run? "What do you suppose will happen if I blow on this saxamaphone, like, real real hard? For, like, ages?" "Uh, dunno"

What are the control conditions?

― Tim, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

control conditions = huey lewis and the news

― mark s, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I would describe my own form of experimental ahem music as just messing about. If I did this in a lab I'd be asking for trouble. Therefore, Tim is quite right.

― jel --, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'm guilty of overusing "seminal" and "angular."

― j.lu, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Took to the stage, took to the decks = yuck

It's like [something crap], but on drugs!

And most awful of all is any piece containing 'hey kids!' or similar. Don't patronise your readers.

― Anna, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

'Chin-stroking' to describe anything difficult/'experimental'! etc.

― Andrew L, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"(gasp!)"

― DeRayMi, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Ha, Tim, that's fucking hilarious about "experimental"! I say "amazing" too much, I know, and Mark, "stunning" doesn't bother me for its falsity (can you really determine this anyway?) as much as it does for its vagueness - it does no work in a review besides passing a "this-is-good" judgment.

― Clarke B., Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Engaging."

― DeRayMi, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"also and "sound" and "and".

― Sterling Clover, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

If i hear some bespectacled dweeb with a goatee refer to any...ANY...album as a Tour de Force one more time, I'm gonna nut up and start murdering musicologists! GodDAMN I hate that! Its a stale clichéd cop-out generic one-size fits all handwaving filling column inches and paid by the word pretentious prolix pseudo-profound look-I'm-now-Baudelaire-because-I-used-a-word-in-French-does-this-beret- make-my-ass-look-big piece of crap and it never EVER NEEDS TO BE USED EVER AGAIN! And I know that some people who write for Allmusic are out there, so just remember...you have been warned.

― Lord Custos III, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

[Custos is yanked from his seat and the men in white coats give him his tranqs]

― Lord Custos III, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

how do you feel abt "tour de france" then? *runs away*

― mark s, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Indeed."

― Arthur, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Calling an album a "Tour de France" would be cool...one time. But if they put in every freaking review for the next 20 years it will become as annoying as an uncle who changes a subject in conversation by saying "...anywho..."

― Lord Custos III, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"[x] reclaiming [his/her/their] crown as [genre's] best [lyricist/crafter-of-melodies/guitarist/sneezer]"

― Ess Kay, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I think some german dudes already did call an album that, custos.

― Sterling Clover, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Yeah. Kraftwerk, right?
But thats not what I meant. I meant a reviewer referring to an album as "a Tour de Fran^H^H^H^H Force."
...Anywho...

― Lord Custos III, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I find "'nuff said" completely unbearable.

― Patrick, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

- The "-esque" suffix drives me crazy, overused.

- "of [their/that] ilk" always reeks of smugness at the very least, but is also usually part of some larger, idiotic rant.

- I have an instinctive mistrust of any review that uses the phrase "cutting edge" in its praise of a band.

― Joe, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

yet one more joke crushed against the brutal shoals of ILM literalism.

― Sterling Clover, Thursday, 27 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

U&K: establishment of canon for best sneezer per genre.

― Tim, Thursday, 27 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"effective" - at either boring me to distraction or resembling mutant giraffosaurs: tell me which one, U cockfarmer!!

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 27 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Worst word ever = '*that'?

As in "Here on the G2 women's page we'd almost forgotten Liz Hurley - a far cry from the days when she caused an, ahem, flutter with *that* dress".

In fact that sentence is a compendium of crimes.

― *that* pinefox, Thursday, 27 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"pseudo-" -- because YOU Mr. Critic can see THROUGH the FACADE, right?!?

― Clarke B., Thursday, 27 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Re: '*that'

Didn't I say this on the "the whole [xXx] thing" thread. Also, add '*so', of the same American brandage.

― david h(owie), Thursday, 27 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I find "'nuff said" completely unbearable.
Thank You. I second that motion. It hated it whenever it came out Stan Lee's mouth and hated even more whenever Lester Bangs would repeat it.
And whats worse, Bangs never had the audacity to end his reviews with "Excelsior, True Believers! Make Mine the Monkees!"

― Lord Custos III, Thursday, 27 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

three weeks pass...

Canon

― Indieholic Anonymous, Tuesday, 23 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Eponymous"

EXCEPT when used by people unaware of the word's meaning. I seem to remember Jo Whiley would always use this to describe someone's first album

― chewshabadoo, Tuesday, 23 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Skipping 498 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

obviously it's an improvement on "is influenced by", which ppl shd stop saying

― mark s, Wednesday, December 6, 2023 1:48 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

"is influenced by" is definitely presumptuous, but surely "in dialogue with" can mean something other than "influenced by?" Like a band who's never heard Spirit of Eden could nonetheless unknowingly be "in dialogue" with that album, right? As in channeling something without awareness of its lineage? Unless I'm misunderstanding the jargon, which is totally possible

― Paul Ponzi, Saturday, 9 December 2023 18:39 (four months ago) link

I don't mind Don kee-ho-tay but Don quicks-oat bugs me.

Ditto Don Jew-on vs. Don Wan.

The explanation I have heard is that those anglicized pronunciations were prevalent when travel was rare.

― ; Powell (Ye Mad Puffin), Saturday, 9 December 2023 20:01 (four months ago) link

I’ve never heard those pronunciations (beyond how “quixotic” is pronounced)

― This field is required (morrisp), Saturday, 9 December 2023 20:25 (four months ago) link

....wait just a second! it's not pronounced like "smith"!?

― she fell asleep with her hand around my throat (Austin), Saturday, 9 December 2023 20:37 (four months ago) link

xps personally I prefer 'in conference with'. mostly because of it being a lot like 'in dub conference'.

I have been guilty of using the i-word in conversation - i have spent two thirds of my life reading wikipedia you see - but i wouldn't use it in prose. bcuz inspired/impacted/other 'i's are better/closer/other 'er's etc

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Sunday, 10 December 2023 00:43 (four months ago) link

two months pass...

"let's nut this out"

let's... not??

― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Monday, 26 February 2024 11:14 (one month ago) link

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