Rolling Music Writers' Thread

Matos is way OTM about something there -- it's funny how writing well sometimes asks you to be both (a) confident enough in what you're saying to put out frank opinions, and (b) open-minded and curious and fair. Those things are by no means mutually exclusive; the whole point is they go well together (and often it's fun and exciting to see someone just do one, so long as they're honest about it). But sometimes, especially with criticism, the stuff that allows you to do one of them can be on a pretty fine and confusing line with not doing the other. Personally I think I often err toward the latter and don't do enough of the former.

anyway, i do enjoy reading reviews, but moreso when i actually already heard the record or saw the movie.

I think that's universal, and it's also a reason there's less and less of an audience for music criticism, or so it seems: fewer widely shared experiences. It isn't that music all sucks now; film seems to suck a lot more than music does these days but there's a lot fewer of them, which makes it easier to talk about. And people get mad if you're covering something they're not likely to encounter without seeking it out--they think you're trying to pull a fast one. It's disheartening, especially when, as I've experienced, your bosses basically think this as well.

I always thought Gina Arnold was a better writer than her detractors thought, a worse writer than her champions thought, and way too romantic about rock generally, but I wish I still had my copy of Route 666. (Kiss This isn't very good, though.)

I am ending my self-imposed retirement from music writing (except for Singles Jukebox) this weekend. I got disgusted with my own bullshit for too long, but I just have too much to say and no one to say it to.

I don't think I'm the best writer nor do I have the best taste in music but I do okay on both fronts. I know I'll never make money writing again but I'm fine with that now, plus I like getting discs in the mail from strange places so there you have it.

Matos OTM upthread about supply/demand

ILX had some huge argument of whether a 6-graf Clark review was any good because [the argument was] that it was just an extended metaphor. And I was just thinking today, how i'd be more likely to read it/care about it if it was a 6-graf metaphor about Green Day or Animal Collective or something that more than 4 people on the earth care about.

which is generally why I think the Voice runs the best extended music reviews.

whiney, can you hook up a PTW best-of book?

or is that wishful thinking on my part

haha I mean, one reason I've been enjoying my Stranger singles column more is that I feel less obligated to go long or even longish on everything; say what you've gotta say and get out (but hopefully not to the point where it's just hieroglyphics). (column archives, if anyone cares: http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Author?oid=1708&category=247534. end of plug.)

like, before I figured I should try to be substantive with each one. now I'm a lot more relaxed about it and I think that shows up.

speaking of columns - one reason i love doing 5ingles in the Minn City Pages every week is because it gives me license (not very much given that i have a space limit but some) to write about all kinds of things, to riffle through the zillions of promos and downloads and zero in on stuff that's great or ok or outright terrible. i mean, if i didn't have that column, i don't know where i would write about all of this music.

and i can sorta veer from being serious to being dismissive to making up dumb stories to offering horrible prescriptive advice.

x to ray

I don't know how much demand there will be for an omnibus of stuff that happened in 2006-2007.

I was planning on waiting 20 years and seeing if i could package it all on a nostalgia thing, but I highly doubt we'll be that well remembered by then

I was thinking about a "So Tell Me A Story" book curated by Jessica, Kory and myself--maybe even pitched to a book company. But I doubt I could get anything beyond lifehacker/kickstarter pay-to-play bs, and that isn't worth the time of a bunch of 30 year olds already struggling to stay afloat, imo afiac

what i love about writing for pitchfork is that it is the most popular outlet for long form music writing with relatively good editorial freedom

meaning that i feel like im writing for a large audience, which i like because i want to communicate with lots of people & think my ideas about music are worthwhile. this is probably pretty egotistical, but i think in order to be good at criticism in general you have to be at some level

i want to communicate with lots of people & think my ideas about music are worthwhile.

fwiw, the problem is that pretty much everyone in the world from age 17-35 REALLY TRULY believes this and have since flooded the earth with their shit writing

you can also replace that with "I think my band is worthwhile," I think my photography is worthwhile," "I think my DJ skills are worthwhile" and "I think my opinions on food are worthwhile"

thank god you pointed out this brand new phenomenon

i think my twitter is worthwhile

i dont care for whiney's twitter personally

devastated to hear that a guy who posts Gucci Mane lyrics to twitter 20 times a day doesn't like my writing

some people think their bands are worthwhile, deej thinks gucci manes lyrics are worthwhile

devastated to hear that a guy who posts Gucci Mane lyrics to twitter 20 times a day doesn't like my writing

clearly, since you "deigned" to reply

matos, your steady stream of "WELL ACTUALLY" zings on ILX are like an eighth grader who just discovered sarcasm.

LOL

What are the responses of everyone else who clowns you around these parts like, then?

Usually about sandwiches

Actual Question Time: What is the longest you have sat there staring into the abyss of a piece you knew would be fun to write when you pitched it and then found out it was exactly the opposite? I'm going on four days on one right now, and it's interrupted almost everything else in my life. Ugh.

Well, I've been working on my 33 1/3 book for about two years...

I'd imagine that's every book, yeah.

Usually when there's an article/review that I realize I DON'T want to do, I clear my schedule, chug a coffee, sign off AIM and try to burn through it and put it behind me... Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't

I can't drink coffee most of the time--it really screws my nervous system up--but yesterday and the day before I'd gotten so little sleep I had to resort to it or else pass out mid-afternoon. (Up late trying to finish w/no luck, get up early a.m. to try again.) It helped with bursts of plow-through-it, which is usually enough; once I get a bead on something it can be pretty easy to follow through to the end. Not this time.

A lot of times I'll work on other, smaller stuff as a break from whatever's giving me trouble, and I got a few things done I needed to, so that's been nice. But this is pretty ill-timed: I have more assignments right now that I have in a while, which is a relief, or would be if this roadblock weren't in the way.

i don't think i've ever met a writer who doesn't leave the writing until the last possible minute. i know i need the deadline to focus my thoughts, whether its a 150 word album review, or a 160,000 word book.

Ever since I went fulltime freelance that shit ended fast. Now I just bang out shit as fast as possible in hopes of having time to pitch more stuff..

Yeah, fuck that hanging around waiting on the muse bullshit. This is work. Get it done, and start the next thing.

http://www.gao.gov/about/history/articles/images/wecan.jpg

http://www.steverrobbins.com/getitdoneguy/get-it-done-guy-traveling-notepad.jpg

i need the deadline to focus my thoughts, whether its a 150 word album review, or a 160,000 word book.

a 160,000 word book? jesus that's 600 pages! i couldn't even review a 600 page book at the last minute.

xp Yeah, I've never comprehended the wait until the last minute thing. That'd drive me into the crazy house to work that way (and as an editor, writers working that way drove me even more nuts, usually because they tended to go way past the last minute.)

Actually, that's the reason editors work up fake deadlines, without telling writers they're fake.

have recently returned to freelancing after a few yrs off, and have recently clued in that my longest-term editor has been feeding me fake deadlines for a few months. But I have been actually meeting them, so I'm not going to tell him I'm hip.
what xhuxk said "I came up covering zoning boards and sewage commissions, where objective detachment is strived for", likewise (sorta). Objective detachment is practically a survival technique in that environment.
Also, writing mostly in a newsy-style, record reviews used to be great no-one's-looking chances to play around with different writing ideas/styles/whatevers. Y'know, 150-300 wds once a week with which to play.

Actually, that's the reason editors work up fake deadlines, without telling writers they're fake.

i've been on both sides of this equation. found that fake deadline usually don't work from either direction. writers can sense where the real deadline is. but it does help focus the mind.

(i think of it as sort like keeping my clock 10 or 15 minutes fast. i know it's not the real time, but it still reminds me that the real time is coming up soon.)

probably biggest part of my hitting deadlines is less editor faking me out, more maturity/concerted effort

a 160,000 word book? jesus that's 600 pages! i couldn't even review a 600 page book at the last minute.

by the last minute, i mean of course the last month or two of an 18 month project! though last time i had loads of interview sources holding out on me and meaning i *couldn't get started any earlier...

Yeah, fuck that hanging around waiting on the muse bullshit. This is work. Get it done, and start the next thing.

this is so much easier said than done. i wish i could be one of those writers who could just sit down and bang words out, but...no :(

yeah... i'm not revelling in my slothfulness, i wish i could be more 'professional' too - but have been full time freelance for eleven or so years now, and this is just the way i work, so.

BTW, who said anything about waiting for the muse until Phil brought it up?

I'm just not the type to wait until the last minute. Depending the length of the piece, I'll usually have started three days to a week before, in large part because I allow myself time for revision. The number of assignments I'm working at once is another factor.

Music writing shouldn't be about crimping the stuff out but it is for a lot of people and you can always tell. That said ^^ it is a job; so if I get stuck on one thing I move immediately to something else. So if I've always got a list of ten or more things to be writing there's no need to stop.

It was hard to train myself to stop downing tools the second I couldn't think of anything to say about Marillion. Just move on to something else; it's not an open invitation to have half an E and play guitar hero for the rest of the afternoon.

What Alfred said actually made me curious about how other people handle revising their own work, before sending it in. Give or take certain haiku-length reviews for Rhapsody or wherever, or if I have very very very tight deadline (which I usually find ways to avoid) I almost never file copy the day I finish it. I generally prefer to sleep on it overnight -- or, for longer pieces, maybe over a weekend -- before making final tweaks/overhauls/ massages to it and sending it in (which tends to be the first thing I concentrate on the next morning, before moving on to other work). How common is that? I honestly have no idea how others handle this. (As an editor, though, I got the impression that certain writers even more neurotic than myself had a tendency to worry and overthink pieces into oblivion and missed deadlines. I really hated that.)

yeah, i always, always, always finish at least one day before; sleep on it; look at it with new eyes; revise and turn in.