BE A MUSIC CRITIC, GET POWER OVER WOMEN?

Yeah, I've made love, yeah, I've been fucked-- so what?
The Smiths: Reel Around the Fountain (1983; live at the Hacienda)

The majority of my mailbag lately has been surprisingly supportive, as I just noted. Not all of it, of course:

From: antony@[redacted]
To: marc@pitchforkmedia.com
Date: Apr 20, 2007 9:29 PM
Subject: from antony

dear marc

i felt compelled to write after reading your disgusting review of Cocorosie's new album. did you even read the credits? for your information, i do not appear anywhere on the album. But besides that, I am writing to urge you to retire from "journalism", you have no gifts as a writer. why not explore an interest that brings joy to yourself and those around you, instead of just stewing in the bile of your own resentments towards others? you are a parasite among artists. please, please retire. Is your goal to make people feel sick? perhaps writing that "review" lent you the illusion that you have power over others, over women, over artists. Perhaps you are lacking in empowerment in your own frustrated life.

I recommend that you start to do something new.

antony



From: marchogan[at g mail dot com]
To: antony@[redacted]
Date: Apr 21, 2007 7:48 PM
Subject: Re: from antony

Dear Antony,

Thank you so much for the thoughtful note. Are you seeking a correction? To be honest, I never received a copy of the credits, but several other reviews from reputable sources also indicate you appear on the track on "Miracle," though you would clearly know best.

Are you saying it's not you, or merely that your appearance was uncredited?

If my facts are indeed wrong and need to be corrected, of course I will ask my editors to make the fix as soon as possible.

Thanks again for reading the review and taking the time to write, and I hope all's well otherwise.

Best,
Marc



From: antony@[redacted]
To: marc@pitchforkmedia.com
Date: Apr 22, 2007 4:10 AM
Subject: fyi

From: antony@[redacted]

Subject: from antony re: cocorosie review

Date: April 20, 2007 10:44:37 PM EDT

To: ryan@pitchforkmedia.com

dear Ryan Schreiber

I am writing in regards to the very unpleasant review of Cocorosie's new album that was printed in yesterday's Pitchfork.

I was bitterly disappointed when I read it. It was filled with inaccuracies. For instance, I do not even appear on the record, and yet Hogan snidely referred to a guest appearance he somehow imagined I had made.

But It is an album I would have been proud to be a part of. Please assign writers who are open and receptive to understanding the work of America's more challenging young artists, instead of printing reviews that try to cover up their lack of comprehension with bad wit and cynical one-upmanship. We desperately need artists who will take risks and put their hearts forward in this cultural climate, now more than ever. Why would you print a review that only seeks to oppress performers who are among those taking some of the biggest and most generous risks?

Please assign writers with some sense of vision to review Cocorosies work in the future. Marc Hogan, a financial analyst (!!), is completely in the dark about Cocorosie; he cannot even fathom their intent or the usefulness, the generosity, and the deep originality of their work. I remember the Pitchfork review of their last album in which the writer even admitted that he was panning the album simply because he didnt understand it. Cocorosie are a brave pair of visionary young Americans who are pushing the dialogue forward. They are treasured by their peers, many of whom are artists that you have written about with respect, and by audiences around the world. We all read Pitchfork, and rely on it as an important outlet of information for independent artists. Please rise to the challenge and represent Cocorosie fairly, instead of publishing checklists of incomprehension that are tinged with misogynist resentment.

I did send an email that was a little hot under the collar to Marc Hogan, which should be laughed at and disregarded. I send this now to you now in all earnestness.

yours sincerely

Antony Hegarty

I've sent an e-mail to the label and am investigating the possible factual error. Does anyone have a straight answer on this?

For the record, I've never worked as a "financial analyst," only as a lumpen financial journalist. On the other hand, what's wrong with people having, like, jobs?

The Mercury Prize is £20,000, which currently converts to $40,086.19 in U.S. dollars.

UPDATE!!!: Touch and Go has identified the guest artist on "Miracle" as French beatboxer Spleen. A Medill F for me; it's certainly true I shouldn't have assumed something without official confirmation. Other publications getting it wrong first is no excuse.

I do take exception with the label calling me "lazy," though. Before I checked other publications to confirm my Antony hunch, I read Touch and Go's official album description. Sample quote: "The Adventures Of Ghosthorse & Stillborn is the 3rd ventricle of the CocoRosie liturgy." Gee, I'd really better get back to sifting through SEC filings...

Does that mean I'm one of those horrible people with "jobs"? Gross! Cooties! No valid opinions on pop music!

MY BLOG IS LIKE THE INTERNET... FOR LUDDITES

Sorry, it must still be the CR talking. Thank you for the unexpected support, unexpectedly non-batshit letter writers!

I had him pegged as more of a "Kokomo" guy, but whatever:

"D" is for "delightful," and try and keep your trousers on.
John McCain: Bomb Iran (Beach Boys cover)

A week earlier, ingeniously disingenuous Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan praised McCain for "sound[ing] like a serious man addressing a serious issue in a serious way" (via ThinkProgress).

At the same time, worm-tongued New York Times columnist David "Brooksy" Brooks was suggesting McCain might be "the candidate who is the most substantive, most mature and most consistent," Ezra Klein points out.

Best one-line response: "Just wait until his second term!" (Isaac Chotiner, writing in The New Republic's blog, The Plank)

On a more serious note (McCain's defense: I wuz joking-- WE KNOW! Maybe if you spent more time in a POW camp you'd understand the horror of war, or at least the negative foreign policy implications of acting like a total douche), somehow I only now saw the news of Flying Canyon frontman Cayce Lindner's untimely passing back in February. Sad and pointless. Why didn't you people listen to Flying Canyon's great self-titled album last year? Pitchfork's Brandon Stosuy called it "an erudite haze that foregoes caricature and wardrobe changes in favor of melody, inventive instrumentation, strong songwriting, and an honest, riveting charisma." You can still grab an MP3 of my favorite song from the album, "The Bull Who Knew the Ring," over at Raven Sings the Blues.


Slam your body down and wind it all around.
Los Campesinos!: You! Me! Dancing!
signed, sealed, etc.

Elsewhere: K-Punk interviews Simon Reynolds. Fascinating stuff, but me being me, a quibble: I take issue with (only) one of Reynolds' complaints about rockism, namely, that "any approach that fixates on the song" is contemptible. I like songs, and I like tracks, but from an Arctic Monkeys fan it seems uncharacteristically purblind to suggest liking songs is inherently bad. I suspect he might rephrase this if asked again. It's just as ridiculous to suggest that the song is an inherently awful form as it was for rockists to say the same about dance music, rap, et alia back in olden times. Worse, it's pointlessly elitist: We music critics may have time and the free music to appreciate textures, atmospheres, whatever, but many song-weaned ordinary people don't, and I'm not sure that makes them worthy of Reynolds' contempt. DAMN, REST IN PEACE APOLLO CREED.

At the Times, Nate Chinen reviews David Torn's Joe's Pub show.

PEOPLE IN LOVE LIE AROUND AND GET FAT

Art Brut never wanted us to end up like that. The new songs we haven't heard before are good!

Is everybody supposed to know now what the title to "Rusted Guns of Milan" (fan vid) means? I still honestly don't know that or why "18,000 Lira" is about red brigades and guys named Enrique. Probably a think piece in there on how knowing this information probably couldn't make me love the songs more. Imagine you're reading it.

Side note: We've got a little Deerhunter backlash developing, seems (link #1, link #2). It's like the smart, funny person version of the band's MySpace page! Hmm, just because a few people don't like something doesn't mean everybody else who likes (loves) (gets embarrassingly evangelical about) it is pretending, does it? Eek, or vice versa: my CocoRosie review today on Pitchfork (on an unrelated note, my Crayon Fields review ran today, too-- listen to them here).

Pretending to like stuff gives you warts, which your dad can usually help you get off with some Compound-W, but it's a hassle, and your dad isn't here. I understand there are also some topical treatments for "epidermotropic human papillomavirus", AKA genital warts, AKA not what Howie Day takes Valtrex for. HE LIKES 'EM TOTALLY SHAVED!!!

P.S. Matthew Fluxblog has posted UGK's offnotes-dug "International Players' Anthem" (feat. Outkast) in downloadable form. Yes that means you can download it.

P.P.S. An enlightening interview with skronky jazz-fusion guitarist David Torn, whose "tones and textures" you probably heard in The Departed (and whose new album, Prezens, is pretty stupendous).