Rolling Music Writers' Thread

I haven’t worked there for a while and some of the work is less word based than data based, but Third Bridge Creative paid really well. You might reach out and see if they’re looking for folks.

Yeah, a lot of my spots dried up completely during the pandemic. They didn't pay great anyway, but still.

Thanks for the idea, Raymond!

yes but who is looking for a forgotten 80s dollar bin album column and will pay $$$. weed gummies don't grow on trees! $150 a column should cover it.

$150 a per is what I was getting for each Village Voice noise blog column!

Man, those were the days

A 150 column when I payed 450 for rent would have been great

i used to get a dollar a word from the village voice! that really helped me. its also the reason why for a brief moment in time i thought maybe i could really do it for real. as a job. but i couldn't. i was no good at hustling. and i was a diva. i had been spoiled by an eddytor who didn't edit me much at all. then some twerp at magnet wants me to rewrite a two hundred word review five times to make $10? i was happier at the corner store slangin' malt liquor and merit ultra lights.

Here's one to suss out. I got a message from someone that used to be in a band that I reviewed many, many, *many* years ago. So long ago that I don't remember the review or band. The review is not as negative as the person makes it out to be, imo, but it's not exactly positive, either, and I can see why they'd consider it negative all the same. Anyway, they want to talk to me about the record, what might have set me off, etc. I'm a little torn. They seem nice and promise it's not some sneak attack thing, but at the same time I'm thinking, 1) what can I possibly offer after so many years? and 2) why? why do they care now? isn't it alarming that something I wrote (and promptly forgot about) so long ago has stuck with them? Anyway, not sure what I should tell them. I'm a nice enough person, too, and like to talk, but I'm not sure what's ultimately in it for me besides a conversation with a stranger.

Someone needs to find stuff for Mick Jagger to do with his time.

Ha. I'd tell Mick to kick rocks.

I do know writers that have been contacted by high profile musicians, directors, etc. This person that contacted me is not that.

Yeah, that's weird. Not necessarily bad weird, but weird. This person should 100% move on, and unless they'd somehow become my friend in the years since the review, I'd ignore them.

They aren't even in the band anymore?? Or the band doesn't exist anymore?

In another era, you might have been hounded by Harry Truman.

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/trivia/letter-truman-defends-daughter-singing

xpost Band hasn't existed for close to 15 years. I think they are working on a book. Maybe My review broke up the band? I would feel terrible if that were the case.

They were pointed in my direction by a mutual friend, by the way, if that changes anything.

What exactly did they say in the message?

Anyway, they want to talk to me about the record, what might have set me off, etc.

I'm puzzled as to what they think they might learn that isn't already in the review.

xpost I don't want to doxx the person, but more or less how I put it. A nice note saying they're working on a memoir or some project about their time in this band, and that they've always wondered what the person that wrote this negative review many years ago was thinking at the time. Basically, "what was it about our music that rubbed you the wrong way?" They stress they are not picking a fight or anything, they just think it would lead to an interesting conversation.

So yeah, I'm a little puzzled, too. I have a draft response that says/asks as much, like, what do you expect to learn from me? Even if whatever was driving the review is not in the review, it's not like I remember anything about it (album or writing the review) at all.

Huh. Working on a book seems like a feasible reason for reaching out that I hadn't considered.

Still ... not your problem. And if that's the case, they should say so and what they're hoping to do / get out of it.

xpost that's the thing ... if i were in the same situation and some band wrote me about a review i wrote 10 years ago and wanted to know what i was thinking and all that, i'd have to be like "i was thinking 'goddammit it's 11:30 pm and i haven't started the review i have to write about music i don't care about by a band i know nothing about that was due earlier today and i really want to have it in the editor's inbox when they open their email in the morning so i guess i'm cranking out another one of these from midnight to 3 a.m. in return for a $25 check. at least i have established a little formula i can use to make it easier/quicker, get this done and get 4 hours of sleep before my kid wakes up.'"

obviously not all are that way, but a lot are.

Reading my old review, clearly I put some thought into it, at least a little. But then after that, no thought. Into the ether it went. I don't feel particularly good about playing a part, any part, in someone else's story, and I feel particularly weird that this thing I did then promptly moved on from has stuck with someone else for so long. But I also feel bad leaving this person hanging. Like I said, they seem nice enough.

Chasing someone up about a bad review they gave your band years ago is ludicrous behaviour and should not be dignified with a response, imo. You make a record, chuck it out into the world and some people like it, some don't. Best to accept the opinions, whatever they are!

I think it's nice to have a convo about something like this if theres like 15 years of experience behind it

For them there clearly has been, but for me there's been nothing but the passage of time.

Well, I'm sorry to hear that about you because I definitely think about things very differently than I did 15 years ago!

No, I mean, sure, I get that. I just meant that clearly me writing this review has followed this person for 15 years. But my review and this band specifically had no bearing on my subsequent 15 years.

like, I've had plenty of experiences in the last 15 years, but they have nothing to do with this person. This person has had plenty of experiences in 15 years, but the fact that they reached out to me shows that what I wrote apparently played at least some minimal part of those 15 years.

Yeah, I think it could actually be interesting to go back and look at a review I wrote 15 years ago. It would be extremely likely that I hadn't had a single thought about the record since filing copy, but if it was a for-real review, not just like a 150-word blurb for Alternative Press or something, it might be interesting to look at it with the artist, listen to the record in question again, and maybe find myself thinking "OK, I hear stuff now that I didn't hear then" and get the chance to ask the artist what they were actually thinking at the time they made the record, and how it sounds to them now. If all they want to do is bitch that you used an adjective they disliked back then, fuck 'em, but a conversation about how your opinion of their art all these years later compares to their opinion of it now could be interesting. Hell, that's the kind of thing I could get a whole newsletter out of. Assuming, of course, that the record was in some way interesting and wasn't just by-the-numbers alt-rock dross.

it sounds like he just wants to lecture you or something… delete

I don't know, I've definitely had conversations with people about old opinions. All you're really doing in these situations is giving that person some clarity about the headspace of where it came from.

Honestly pulling a Don Draper and being like "I don't think about you at all" about some '00s struggle band is a lot weirder to me than just answering a few DMs about what your mindset was at the time and what you would or wouldn't have done differently

Would you be reacting differently if an apparently neutral party, like a journalist, wanted to contact you about this same review for something they were writing?

Also like the "why? why do they care now?" is like ... a lot of musicians pour all of themselves into their art at the moment in life where they can afford to do that! There was a time where this person had all of his or her hopes and dreams on this CD. I imagine they've moved on from the dream but still could wonder why you did or didn't hear what they were hearing... Seems valid!

Yeah i suppose i was thinking from a fan’s perspective there

but I legit don't know! it's been 15 years. maybe I had a bad morning. maybe there was something in the news. maybe I just didn't like the record. (I did listen to it this morning, and my reaction was generally the same.) I really don't know.

if it was a journalist, I'm not sure what I would think. regardless, the guy is writing a book, so it is tantamount to journalism. someone I know suggested I request it be off the record, at least at first, until I get a better feel for what's up.

I don't think this person's inquiry is at all not valid. I totally get it. I'm just weighing whether or not I want to participate. the legitimacy of the request is why I'm considering it at all.

Maybe this is a good hypothetical. if any of you wrote a review that caused a band to break up 15 years ago - not saying that is the case, but let's pretend it is - would you want to talk to someone from that band who asked you, however politely, 15 later, to explain yourself?

I mean, for me, absolutely, if only to let them know it wasn't meant in maliciousness and to give a person some clarity about why I felt a certain way.

Like it's only going to be a GOOD and POSITIVE conversation for this person, and I generally would not want to deprive someone politely asking me for 5 minutes of my time to provide something good and positive for them

I've definitely had people step to me about my opinions about their work before, and more often then not, we become friendly just because we're both passionate about this stuff!

"not just like a 150-word blurb for Alternative Press or something".

Hey! I put a lot of thought into those!

Josh - if you genuinely don't remember writing the piece or have anything meaningful to say, maybe just send a brief, nice note saying that? Then they get the satisfaction of a response, and you're being truthful (and avoiding being drawn into something larger).

(I find the inquiry strange, but if they contacted you through a mutual friend, then this may be the way to go)

I would personally lean toward no. What could talking to you really give them at this point? You don't really remember them or the review you wrote, so you can't really give them any more insight into what you thought than the review itself provides. And even if you relistened to the album now and changed your mind about it - so what? That doesn't change what you thought about it when you wrote the review, or invalidate the judgment you made then. It sounds like they're looking for something from you that they won't get and shouldn't expect to get, and I wouldn't feel at all bad about saying, "Sorry, it was a long time ago and I can't tell you anything useful."

someone emailed me once and wanted to know if i would participate in a documentary film they wanted to make about finding all the records on a list i had done for a magazine. i told them i would be busy that day and wished them luck. i like to be done with things.

there are definitely people i would apologize to if i ever saw them. about reviews i had written. because i could be mean.

Was it the Decibel Top 30 noise records list?

People wrote negative things about records I made 15 yrs ago and though I def remember the reviews and who wrote them I have absolutely zero interest in engaging with them or asking them to clarify their positions. That feels...deranged, frankly.

"Hey remember when you said we weren't very interesting and that the band would be better off specifically without me? Hey could you expand on that? Thanks!"

no it was a stoner rock/proto-metal thing. 70s stuff.

thats funny that you mention the noise list though cuz noise nomads came in the other day and i said we should go take a trip up to Lowell to RRRecords on his day off from work. both NN and RRRon were on that list.

chr1sb3singer otm

i mean it doesn't sound like this person is truly deranged, but ... even if you're writing a memoir, man, don't do this. imo.

They'll just copy this thread as a chapter in their band biography to show how music writers really think.

I wrote an absolutely damning review of a collab track between Tiesto and Diplo, and Diplo mentioned the review in a SPIN article nearly two years later— I remember thinking at the time, “really? yr still butthurt over little old me calling your track “aural Santorum”?

recently, a review came out of my writing— it was clear that the writer didn’t really get what i am doing. you thanks the writer for their consideration , don’t promote it, and move on.

I would much prefer a mixed review than the brutally tossed-off one word 'reviews' and ratings on RYM, lol