OK, is this the worst piece of music writing ever?

Yes, excellent piece, Kate. fwiw, I'm convinced. I'm a cis man and predictably the thought had never occurred to me, but all the details you mentioned were things that were super striking at the time. Back then I mostly mentally filed them under "androgynous" or "feminist" but in retrospect, being trans basically just makes more sense.

One minor question: I've never seen agnotology defined that way—is that derived from a specific source? I've only encountered it as the study of deliberate attempts to keep people uninformed (e.g., the tobacco industry & cancer; oil companies & climate change), mostly in social studies of science contexts. AFAICT, it's not technically a "real" word anyway—i.e., not in the dictionary—so I'm curious about your usage (I like the word a lot).

One minor question: I've never seen agnotology defined that way—is that derived from a specific source? I've only encountered it as the study of deliberate attempts to keep people uninformed (e.g., the tobacco industry & cancer; oil companies & climate change), mostly in social studies of science contexts. AFAICT, it's not technically a "real" word anyway—i.e., not in the dictionary—so I'm curious about your usage (I like the word a lot).

― rob

Nah I just picked it up somewhere and in the best tradition of language defined it to mean what I wanted it to mean haha

lol sounds good! Like I said, it's up for grabs.

Though now that I think of it, the other meaning would be extremely relevant to histories of trans people & cultures, including the one you outline in your piece

Yeah it really is, quite honestly!

I just went ahead and threw it on a tumblr.

https://www.tumblr.com/waskurttrans

Not exactly the best opsec in the world, but it's not the fucking Panama Papers or anything.

Really interesting piece Kate, it does connect the dots compellingly. I wish Cobain had found understanding. He certainly celebrated women and femininity at every opportunity and as you say, seemed to have a level of empathy far beyond the cis male range typical of the time.

ok, i'll say it. if you're a guy and you, in your heart, think of yourself as a "thwarted, sensitive young man" with a "teenage boy's blues", "beautiful, androgynous, too wounded to be threatening", you should consider whether you might possibly benefit from a blue pill made by Teva Pharmaceuticals with a lowercase "b" on the side.

― Kate (rushomancy), Thursday, October 6, 2022 9:05 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Or you could just be a fag? I find this conversation really fucked up tbh.

As in, Kurt could have just been a fag, sorry for the second person there.

You can see the receipts on ILX of when I came out to my parents the final time, when I was close to 23 years old. I'd come out to them at 13 and 16, too.

The idea that a young cis man is trans just because he is "androgynous, non-threatening to women," "wounded," "enlightened regarding gender issues, " etc, is absolutely ridiculous. And I say this as someone who has lovers who are trans, best friends who are trans.

And yes, I read the tumblr, so feel free to tell me to go fuck myself, but I will honestly say that I believe your thinking is wrongheaded and more about wanting to impose your vision of trans-ness on the world than anything else.

https://andrewdubber.com/over-saulted/

Jesus fucking christ.

way to write a review that tells me everything but what it sounds like (oh they're a "jam band", how helpful!). and scolding the band for making the music available for free.

oh jeez

writer is maybe a bit churlish and should probably have mentioned Inflo at some point but I basically agree with his premise tbh

I tried to comment but everything was there except...the button to submit?

there are enough breathless uncritical encomia to sault among the UK critical establishment that we can permit the occasional humbug, no?

sure, do it in one paragraph, then. as that's about all of the content his review contained.

also tired of 'get off my lawn' being used in writing as a joeky "lol see I'm self-aware of how pretentious and shallow my criticisms are, ergo it negates that criticism"

idk his criticisms seem pretty pointed and evidenced? maybe it depends on whether you see sault's self-presentation and public engagement practices as slick marketing techniques or, idk, sincere enigmatisation of the artistic process

I agree with a few points, but that piece is a firehose of opinions4u, some of which are quite bullshit (the Albarn hunch is basically racist)

idk I find it hard to square complaining that "it's just marketing" with "it devalues music" like which is it

also it is quite clearly a review of the release method rather than the music

yeah the Albarn hunch + the cast-of-thousands stuff sells Inflo way short

I don't have any opinions on Sault whatsoever and my reaction to seeing I could download some albums for free was "hmm, that's nice, I might have to check that out"

writing that many words seems to indicate this was meant to be something remarkable to someone, his retort is "this isn't remarkable, maybe the music isn't good, maybe this is marketing"

why would someone think it's remarkable? oh, because it's covered by music news. who thinks music news is remarkable? people who write about music. who is feeding into this being something worthy of comment? the guy writing an overly long bit about how it's nothing

ultimately the artist decides how much they want to sell their music for, one collective giving the shit away for free doesn't mean Anal Stabwound's career is over because nobody will ever pay for his music again.

like maybe it is a nice thing to give people some downloads and it's also marketing
"it's very 90s" oh ok so you've seen this happen before, wonder if anyone's written about album giveaways before

my theory was that Sault's game was flooding the listening-time of critics just when they should be recapping 2022 lol

also daerest Nikhil, childe of death, won't be short of sponsorship I suspect

ultimately the artist decides how much they want to sell their music for
well, I wouldn't go that far!

Byt yeah you should know you're getting too huffily defensive when you're including "Untitled is not a title" in your list of complaints. That said, I don't think that's a terrible piece of writing really, just smug & unfocused; I mean it's a blog post from someone I've never heard of (maybe he's known to you all?).

This, otoh, took years off my life expectancy: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-case-for-listening-to-complete-discographies

damn that new yorker article is playing all the hits

my theory was that Sault's game was flooding the listening-time of critics just when they should be recapping 2022 lol

― imago, Thursday, 3 November 2022 14:09 (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is good then: critics shd spend far less time (= none at all) "recapping 2022" or indeed any other year past or future

EOEOY

catching up on things they'd missed is surely fine?

releasing something during a year end wrap-up season or awards season to keep it fresh in mind? wow never heard of that

next thing you know, albums will start coming out early in the year right before summer touring season and ticket sales

A few good points, a few bad ones. The article is as scattershot as SAULT's latest batch of material. DO YOU SEE

Maybe...it IS Sault.

It's a Sault of sorts

A Sault with a deadly Pepa

andrew dobber morelike

Why isn't his blog called Dub and Dubber?

i really don't understand the "sault is a jam band" thing like at all

sault is a jam band
someone talking junk
yo i bust 'im in the eye
and then I take the punk's blog

i really don't understand the "sault is a jam band" thing like at all

He's not from America; he doesn't understand the American definition of "jam band." He seems to mean that their songs feel like loose jams halfway thrown together right before someone presses the record button.

the "actually it's not just available for 5 days" bit was so petty and pedantic, who fucking cares?

No, you see, it will *always* be available. All you have to do is download and run torrenting software, then rip and upload lots of rare CDs to build a good enough ratio to download five albums

Is that why I was never able to figure out how to torrent? I didn't upload anything first? what the hell is that bitcoin shit just gimme my rare music

y/s/I?

why torrent when slsk exists?

Shit I just paid $50 to jump the queue and now u tell me this

Gawd, that New Yorker article… I can’t do it, even as a “hate read”

lol yeah it's brutal, I was amazed it was published in 2022.

After I binged the new-ish High Fidelity tv adaptation, I thought about starting a "Rockism 2.0" thread but that nyer piece convinced me not to