*Da Capo Best Music Writing 2007 Book*

didn't see thread...if there is one...please delete...

oh man, so happy to see that Daniel Johnston piece in there. nabisco did such a great job - def one of my favourites of last year.

awful

At least there's none of the "dumb rich white girls write about the rap and the indie" shit like there was last year, but other than that, aw otm

nick... southall.

delete world

Chris Ryan's great but "Gabe Said" blog entries don't seem like a very good fit for a collection like this, and the one they picked isn't a particularly good one.

SFJ's Mariah piece was just a vapid press release and a year late in analyzing her comeback, Rich Juzwiak wrote a pretty good blog post pretty much demolishing that article.

show me a good gabe said post

c'mon, they're pretty funny sometimes.

man you are on some crazy double standards considering the other stuff you clown!

i think i had a weak smile at the jay/beyonce/tyra banks pic one

lol yeah i guess

awful

-- and what, Friday, 7 September 2007 13:14 (1 hour ago) Link

solve the problem by writing the good long-form pieces of which you're more than capable or stfu

Congrats to Matos, Nabisco, and Nick S. (And Douglas and Carl and SFJ, if you're reading.)

Beat Research = Back and Forth, right?

Back and Forth is beatresearch2.blogspot.com

Does the book really misspell Elisabeth Vincentelli and Barbra Streisand's first names?

I'm totally hiring jaymc as a proofreader if I ever write a book, seriously.

shipley quit posting here post on carl mo poll

haha ok, i didn't even see it

Al, it's what I do.

GODDAMN BBCODE

Carl Wilson, If Music is the Answer, What's the Question?, Said the Gramophone

Ann Powers, Latinos Give New Life to Neil Diamond Anthem, Los Angeles Times

Michaelangelo Matos, A Double History of the Supremes' Love Child, Beat Research

Jane Dark, white bread black beer, Jane Dark

Sasha Frere-Jones, On Top: Mariah Carey's Record-Breaking Career, The New Yorker

Daphne A. Brooks, Suga Mama, Politicized, The Nation

Chris Ryan, YEAH I'M THREATENING YA! I KEEP HEDGE FUNDS! I'MA F--- AROUND AND BARF!, BUY KINGDOM COME AND GET A F---ING FREE TOTE BAG!, Gabe Said "We're Into Movements

Jonathan Lethem, Being James Brown, Rolling Stone

David Kastin, Nica's Story: The Life and Legend of the Jazz Baroness, Popular Music and Society

Erik Davis, Always Coming Home: Joanna Newsom, Arthur

Rob Harvilla, Spankmaster and Servant: On the Psycho/Genius Double Helix and XXX Appeal of Kool Keith, Village Voice

Jody Rosen, G-d's Reggae Star: How Matisyahu Became a Pop Phenomenon, Slate

Arye Dworken, Straight Outta Israel, Heeb

Jack Erwin, Sean A. Malcolm, Andrea Duncan-Mao, Adam Matthews, Justin Monroe, Anselm Samuel, Vanessa Satten, I Told You So: The Making of Reasonable Doubt, XXL

*Kris Ex, The History of Cocaine Rap: All White, XXL

*Elisabeth Vincentelli, The Eurovision Song Contest is Moving Control of European Pop Music Out of the Hands of the Old-School Powers-And European Politics Might Not Be Far Behind, The Believer

Dave Simpson, Excuse Me, Weren't You in the Fall?, Guardian

Will Hermes (as Robert Barbara), #32 - Just Because It's a Song Doesn't Mean it's True, Loose Strife

Brandon Perkins, Industrial Psychology, URB

Sarah Godfrey, Multiple Personality Disorder, Washington City Paper

Dylan Hicks, Man in Love: Barbra Streisand, Barry Gibb, and the Autobiographical Criticism of Doug Belknap, The Rake

Jessica Shaw, People, People Who Love Barbra, Entertainment Weekly

Nitsuh Abebe, Making Plans for Daniel, Pitchfork

Jessica Hopper, SWF, 45, Chicago Reader

ay Boronski, Gimme Back My Bone: Pondering the Ineffable Sound of Classic Rock that Rocks, San Francisco Bay Guardian

David Byrne, 5.31.06: Heavy Theater, David Byrne Journal

Nick Southall, Imperfect Sound Forever, Stylus

Robert Forster, A True Hipster, The Monthly

Richard Hell, Rock 'n' Roll High School, New York Times

John Swensen, The Bands Played On, Offbeat

Kelefa Sanneh, Gangsta Gumbo, New York Times

Douglas Wolk, The Syncher, Not the Song: The Irresistible Rise of the Numa Numa Dance, The Believer

*EXCERPT ONLY

I know, jaymc, I respect your pedantry gangsta because I have the same compulsions. And I just know that that html flub is going to keep you up at night now.

oh jeez, I didn't even see that Lethem's cringe-inducing James Brown profile was in there. really a lot of these selections register more as notable or zeigeist-capturing than "best" by any stretch of imagination.

Lethem's cringe-inducing James Brown profile

Er? Best thing that Rolling Stone ran in years, though I can see how that would still be evidence for the prosecution.

i had never seen "gabe said we're into movements" before but thats the worst shit ever

shipleys taste is crazy questionable

Kris Ex, The History of Cocaine Rap: All White, XXLKris Ex, The History of Cocaine Rap: All White, XXLKris Ex, The History of Cocaine Rap: All White, XXLKris Ex, The History of Cocaine Rap: All White, XXLKris Ex, The History of Cocaine Rap: All White, XXLKris Ex, The History of Cocaine Rap: All White, XXLKris Ex, The History of Cocaine Rap: All White, XXLKris Ex, The History of Cocaine Rap: All White, XXLKris Ex, The History of Cocaine Rap: All White, XXLKris Ex, The History of Cocaine Rap: All White, XXL

The better link for the Carl Wilson piece at Said the Gramophone is here.

can i retroactively nominate dk's post about kris ex

o-dub must contemplate

loool

i liked the chris ryan post abt stack bundles

oh wow, i didn't make the connection that carl's was his pere ubu post. that's awesome -- i loved that essay.

(mad congrats to all the other honored ilxors too)

Kris Ex, The History of Cocaine Rap: All White, XXLKris Ex, The History of Cocaine Rap: All White, XXLKris Ex, The History of Cocaine Rap: All White, XXLKris Ex, The History of Cocaine Rap: All White, XXLKris Ex, The History of Cocaine Rap: All White, XXLKris Ex, The History of Cocaine Rap: All White, XXLKris Ex, The History of Cocaine Rap: All White, XXLKris Ex, The History of Cocaine Rap: All White, XXLKris Ex, The History of Cocaine Rap: All White, XXLKris Ex, The History of Cocaine Rap: All White, XXL

-- deej, Friday, September 7, 2007 3:53 PM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

hey, at least his crack rap retrospective went back further than the Pitchfork one that started at 2002.

link?

or do u just mean whenever they talk about the clipse

just joking in general but also kind of specifically about the 2005 year end essay that was all "GET IT? JEEZY DA SNOWMAN!"

2005 Comments & Lists: Trap-Hop and Art Brut
Staff List by Sean Fennessey and Nick Sylvester

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/10350-staff-list-2005-comments-lists-trap-hop-and-art-brut

lol

Of course, the line between fleeting metaphors and definitive statistical damning is a thin one. Now is the time to try parsing Jay-Z's "I'm not a business man, I'm a business, man" with your racquetball partner. Forget Def Jam. What about the Grand Wizard of the Almighty Blizzard? --Sean Fennessey

i think they sell those at dairy queen

MISSING:

1. Perez Hilton
2. Stereogum

3. pete l'official

RIP

who was that masked man, anyway?

I think his real last name was Macia.

We/I really have to stop turning every 10th thread into a round of Fennessey LOLZ, it's admittedly kinda lame, and funnier anyway to just make those jokes in instant messages.

t/s

50 vs. kanye

or

ilm rap posse vs. p'fork rap posse

it's more like Cage and Travolta in Face/Off than 50 vs. Kanye, really.

calling juelz a cling-on toy is kinda hilarious/otm though

Talib Kweli
“Getting Up Anthem, Vol. 1 [ft. Rakim]”

Erm, what the fluck? "It seemed like just yesterday/ I had to take the 2 or the 5 to the juncture/ and walk the rest of the way/ You could catch a bus for the transfer/ but waiting for that surface transfer was a bitch/ I avoid it like a cancer." Me, I avoid the L on weekends and the A late nights, but that don't mean I can rap.

Please, unbelieve: Kweli and Rakim (wtf ii?) cut this track for a smarty-art graf-head vid-game starring the horned-mammals on their Ecko pant-legs. Fitting given the lyrics, beat-design's tailored strictly for weak, like, clock-radio speakers-- unobtrusive for max-button clack/blunt-choke-echo. But I don't discrimihate. When the Clipse vs. Jeezy trap/rap-PSP-joint, "Move Brick Like Mason", streets, I'll probably cop it regardless.

Posted by Pete L'Official in hip hop

sorry for bringing up hurricane f but 'grand wizard of the almighty blizzard' was too good to pass up

yeah, combining the phrase "Grand Wizard" with a euphemism for the color white is pretty o_O

the problem w/ the kris ex piece is that it's futile to try and time a 1,300 word "history of cocaine-rap" expose with the release of a clipse album bcuz your going to have to leave too much history unsaid/under"reported" for it to have even a modicum of relevance.

i thought it was good, though.

learned a lot, huh

Ha, pedant-wise: I couldn't help auto-proofing the galleys for this and sending corrections. I'm looking forward to seeing people discuss Christgau's introduction, which is ...

There were two small things in Lethem's James Brown profile that REALLY bothered me, very weaselly concessions to James Brown's being James Brown -- one seemed to suggest that if you were ever abused by James Brown, the real tragedy is that James Brown was abusing HIMSELF -- but Brown's attempts to be down with Lethem totally make up for this.

dont d-dont d-d-don't do it! do it! do it! b-b-b-baby

somebody find that breihan run dmc review where he says their rapping was like a 'vanilla version' of white lines

fwiw, jaymc asterisked the link to that article to denote that it's just an excerpt preview, not the whole thing. but yeah, not gonna be much room for history after spending 500 words explaining why all those "keys open doors" puns are so monumentally brilliant.

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/21440-run-dmc-king-of-rock-raising-hell-tougher-than-leather?artist_title=21440-run-dmc-king-of-rock-raising-hell-tougher-than-leather

(xpost in reference to the Kris Ex article i mean, although nabisco touched on some of what bothered me about the James Brown thing pretty well)

Lyrically, it's nothing special; their street reportage is just another take on their first single "It's Like That", which is itself a vanilla version of Melle Mel's rap on "The Message".

http://www.hypebeast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25189

^^^kris ex article

I've always taken umbrage at use of the word "vanilla" as shorthand for whiteness/blandness. in most forms it's not white at all, and the flavor really isn't bland either!

deej that's the same partial text 'preview' as on the XXL page linked upthread.

oh never mind

that review isnt as bad as i remember but seriously, a dude who makes up best-of-the-year lists with like lily allen and lcd soundsystem cds spending 1000 words telling me not to buy classic run dmc joints is questionable as fuck

'run dmc are overrated! check out my new interview with diplo!'

ethan, we're aware of your "anyone who likes any rock music has no right to criticize any rap music" platform.

anyone who likes lily allen has no right to criticize run dmc

ok that I'll roll with.

anyone who likes M.I.A. wants to turn Sri Lanka into a giant Starbucks.

lily allen & lcd soundsystem are rock music??

http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/statusainthood/archives/2007/07/status_aint_hoo_26.php

look at this best of the year and then tell me if he has the right to wage a bullshit campaign to stop ppl from buying classic run dmc albums

i guess 'rock box' is no dizzee rascal

McCain-Feingold banned negative campaigning.

its the same if i mention that dude rides for brother ali or some such bullshit

ban "ninja"

ok, a) rock, indie/dance that you typically hate on, same difference, right? b) that's not his best of the year, c) he gave one Run DMC album an 8 and the other a high 7, that's not exactly saying noone should own them even if you think all the scores shoulda been higher

co-sign on ban "ninja," though, I've practically begged Tom to stop doing that

http://dallaspenn.com/pics/albums/album01/soulman0.jpg

a) run dmc are more rock than ten million lcd soundsystem/lily allen/what the fuck ever b) his best of the year for any year is equally garbage if not more so c) he gave king of rock, one of the dopest albums of the 80s, a 5.7 - thats bullshit no matter what you fuck with but even more if you favor a bunch of wack tom breihan music

I've always taken umbrage at use of the word "vanilla" as shorthand for whiteness/blandness. in most forms it's not white at all, and the flavor really isn't bland either!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
so true

thank you max, bringing it back to the serious issues

its the only thing on this thread i really have an opinion about

oh that and the "ninja" thing

just for comparison, he gave cam's purple haze a 8.7

apparently that cam joint surpasses every album run dmc ever recorded

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/3175/hatersball03300019xc.jpg

Pete L'Official RIP

hahahaha

basically iap-tv is still down & carl mo poll wont be getting more than 8 posts

Wait, Tom edited Lil Wayne's quote to say "ninja"? When I first read that, I assumed it was Wayne himself, even though it struck me as dumb and out of character. If you're going to straight-up change the word, at least denote it with brackets.

the ninja thing is hysterical. wasn't that because kris ex made some joke about breihan quoting the n word too much or something?

substituting "ninja" for the n-word is easily the worst idea of 2007.

# Tom Breihan Says:
December 6th, 2006 at 1:44 pm

I probably shouldn’t jump in on this, but real quick: I use “ninja” only when I’m quoting from songs or interviews; I started doing it after Kris Ex took me to task for leaving the N-bombs in quotes. I don’t ever use the word when I’m not quoting.

worst idea of 2006, then.

didn't Ego Trip push the idea at the first EMP or something?

the ego trip panel was a joke

breihan is basically the rap blog equivalent of that episode of newsradio where phil hartman does the rocket fuel malt liquor ad

i wasn't there, couldn't say.

x-post

You guys realize Breihan isn't in this book, right?

(Ethan's hating is weak and straw-pulling, too: don't act like you don't know the difference between ratings for reissues and ratings for new releases.)

(Never mind that I said that.)

I've always taken umbrage at use of the word "vanilla" as shorthand for whiteness/blandness. in most forms it's not white at all, and the flavor really isn't bland either!

Haha, I just said this to a girl the other night (she said that she hadn't heard it used to mean bland or white!). Anyway vanilla is delicious.

otm

good work guys

also: vanilla is dark brown in color

oops al already said that.

I don't mind that "vanilla" is metaphorically inaccurate, I think it's still a useful term since it implies so much. Not just white but bland/safe/conventional. Like how the gay community uses the term to describe heterosexual missionary-style sex.

"Vanilla" works as sexual descriptor: Not saying there's anything wrong with missionary, just that there's so many other flavors.

Oops, x-post! One more good thing the culture got from lesbians and gay men.

Anyway, congrats, you guys, and thanks for the links. I was also grateful for the James Brown article when it came out. I remember thinking later I was glad someone wrote something like that before he died.

I don't mind that "vanilla" is metaphorically inaccurate, I think it's still a useful term since it implies so much. Not just white but bland/safe/conventional. Like how the gay community uses the term to describe heterosexual missionary-style sex.

you could say the same thing about the word "gay" being used as a synonym for "stupid"... now everyone thinks vanilla is a boring FLAVOR for, like, ice cream, which it just fucking isnt.

Both of those Believer articles were so good. I couldn't believe they were in the same mag. Good to seem em both representing.

But Vincentelli gets so wonderfully snippy and defensive about rock vs. Eurovision -- I kept wishing there could be some kind of update where she addresses Lordi!

now everyone thinks vanilla is a boring FLAVOR for, like, ice cream, which it just fucking isnt.

Are we talking homemade or gourmet? Because without chocolate chips or something else in there, low-end vanilla ice cream is pretty boring.

what about FRENCH vanilla

I really liked that Believer article on the Numa Numa dance and was completely unsurprised to see it torn to shreds here on ILM.

Vanilla was a popular drink-- and it STILL is.

Nabisco, for a bunch of sappy personal reasons, I just wanted to say thanks for that Daniel Johnston piece.

Umm, hey, you're welcome! It was my pleasure, I got to go to the Whitney, and Daniel bought me a really good hamburger.

This is out in stores now! Picked up my copy recently and I can't wait to dig in.

i would just like to point out that i have been otm on this thread

to recap: GABE SAID = a victory

Best Music Writing 2007 Reading featuring:

Robert Christgau
Daphne Brooks
Chris Ryan
Elizabeth Vincentelli
Jessica Hopper
David Kastin
[nabisco]
Arye Dworkin
Will Hermes
Rob Harvilla

Monday November 12, 7pm
126 Crosby Street, NYC 10012
(212-334-3324)
Subway:
* W / R to Prince Street
* B / D / F / V to Broadway-Lafayette
* 6 to Bleecker Street

vanilla rules. wanna party? get one of those vials with a vanilla bean in it and do a big whiff. better than poppers.

Hey New Yorkers let us know how that reading at Housing Works goes tonight

How wuz it

What's Hopper doing in NYC?

It was fun. Xgau seemed really enthusiastic about the book and said it was his most enjoyable editing experience. Chris Ryan was absent, but Kelefa Sanneh filled in ably. All the readers did an excellent job. Old school folks like John Rockwell and Lenny Kaye were in the house, watching the passing of the torch. No one was brave enough to ask a question, though, so the Q&A was kind of a dud.

I think Erik Davis's piece on Joanna Newsom is my favorite piece of rock criticism ever. It's a work of art in itself.

I'm always impressed by great reads about albums I have no desire to own.

What's Hopper doing in NYC?

-- jaymc, Tuesday, November 13, 2007 9:57 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Link

you'd be amazed what they can do with those aeroplanes and automobiles these days.

OK so I finished this last night.

Favorites:

Erik Davis' Joanna Newsom profile
Nick Southall's Imperfect Sound Forever article

Excellent:

mostly everything else . . . I can't really remember the subjects of the pieces I really liked right now though. Ah, the one about the Go-Between was good. Yes.

I'm as big a Go-Betweens fan as anybody on this board, but even at the time Robert Forster's obit read like a solid, intelligent valedictory that in no way felt like one of the best things I'd read in 2006.

Yeah, you're probably right. Looking at it that way, Richard Hell's obit for CBGBs and David Byrne's blog post probably could have been left out too. Haha.

Not to say they weren't interesting. Just . . . probably not among the best pieces of music writing from last year.

Dear New York NPR listeners and cubicle online-radio streamers: today, at 2pm Eastern, on WNYC (wnyc.org), there will be a segment about this book, with Christgau, Jonathan Lethem, and someone who may or may not be OTM.

lol this is the breihan/run-dmc thread

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck/episodes/2007/12/13

More than two dozen stories are included in this year's "Best Music Writing" anthology. Among them: Novelist Jonathan Lethem’s in-depth portrait of the legendary James Brown and Pitchfork Media writer [nabisco]'s profile of indie hero Daniel Johnston. We’ll talk with Lethem, [.], and the book's guest editor, rock critic Robert Christgau.

ILM puts people's usernames in the place of their real names since when?

Since we said so.

hahah thanks ned :)

Ha, the Jagger filter on my name is becoming more embarrassing than the thing it was deployed to kill! FYI, I am studiously avoiding becoming mega-famous, just so you don't have to have threads about "[ban me]." I've had chances, but I'm thinking about your comfort and convenience.

wow i love how the host just cut christgau off.

hahaha christgau just namedropped sick mouthy

nick, your article made christgau and his students fall asleep but he said it was a good piece hahahaha.

excellent piece, of course. one of the two reasons I bought the book in the first place, the other being erik davis' joanna newsom piece.

You know, per all of our arguing about people with compression, I told Nick a while ago that I would just bang on about his piece in all situations related to this book -- if I hadn't been so dramatically the least important person involved in the show today, I would have totally jumped in and been like "BUT IT'S SO IMPORTANT."

yeah, i really do think nick's article is very important. he's so on the money, and it's really getting to the point where i won't even bother to listen to any record that's too horribly overcompressed. more bands need to listen to nick (like 65daysofstatic did).

and it's really getting to the point where i won't even bother to listen to any record that's too horribly overcompressed.

OTMFM

My main hope is that the issue is at least recognizable enough to people that it can get discussed in criticism -- you know, so people can say "BTW, this is painfully compressed and ugly to listen to" without having to include a lengthy explanation of what they mean.

Aren't the complaints about dynamic range compression on CDs getting superceded by the fact that so many people don't listen to CDs any more: lossy formats like MP3s introduce a whole range of fidelity issues that tend to overshadow dynamic range compression, I'd think.

I'm not sure about that: the horrible loudness will stifle everything from the master on out, no matter what format it winds up in!

That's true - that once the dynamic range is gone, it won't come back. It's just that by listening to MP3s, people have already basically made the choice to forget about fidelity to the original source - and that dynamic range is probably the least of their concerns at that point. There was a recent article in Slate arguing this point:

In Defense of Audiophiles: The iPod hasn't made great sound obsolete.

In that article, Kaplan claims that MP3s have some built-in dynamic range compression of their own - on top of whatever was added during mastering.

ILM puts people's usernames in the place of their real names since when?

-- three handclaps, Thursday, 13 December 2007 16:44 (4 hours ago) Link

Since we said so.

-- Ned Raggett, Thursday, 13 December 2007 16:45

that is awesome

these are by far and away the best two examples of music writing i've read this year. i also like jess's piece about the overhype blog buzz black kids thing.

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/22/aa/d14c62e89da0af40e3275110._AA240_.L.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41M73vb9pLL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg

although i guess that carducci thing is essentially self-published so maybe it never really got out there much....but it's on amazon at least.

the alex ross thing was a great read, very informative on 20th century classical, but i was pretty much ignorant on the subject maybe people that know a lot didn't like it.

The people I know that are into 20th century classical stuff complain that it's "too much about the composers, not enough about the compositions," which has put me off from reading it a bit.

But you say you learned stuff about stuff? I might pick it up.

I enjoyed it. There are a lot of anecdotes about the composers, but he definitely goes through a lot of symphonies sort of play-by-play style like "Mahler transposes a tritone C chord over the brass, which blah blah blah E flat minor, causing overtones blah blah blah"

I have little to zero knowledge of theory and can't read music so the amount contained within was informative to me w/o being too over my head (although some of it was). I found the stuff about the composers and the culture going on around them at the time and how it affected their music to be interesting...but you know, I was mostly just happy to have something that put a bunch of names I'd heard over the heard into some sort of context.

Looking at that article o. nate is linking to and contemp classical side posts I'll just say its actually one of those areas where whether its on mp3 or not happens to be neither here nor there, despite what the guy says. There can be so much dynamic range, the instrumental timbres can be so incredibly particular, etc. I've been listening to compositions originally on cassette that have been digitized and none of this has mattered a great deal to me. Some detail can be lost but there is so much expressed already.

Keeps my ear busy and the brain wired. xp

I'm pissed I missed the radio thing (archived?).

The Alex Ross book is a little bigger than this thing at this point.

I've been listening to compositions originally on cassette that have been digitized and none of this has mattered a great deal to me.

I can certainly understand the view that MP3s are good enough - what I'm not sure I would understand (not that anyone has argued this yet) is the view that MP3s are good enough but that dynamic range compression is ruining music.

MP3s fit a purpose and if encoded right and played on decent equipment (proper headphones rather than iBuds, as a simple step) there's nothing wrong with them. But there's no reason to master a record as if it'll only ever be played by deaf people on an antique car stereo with no speakers.

Just to make it more clear I should say compositions, whose live performances were originally recorded and ended up on privately owned cassettes that have been digitized. xp

i'll second the praise for jess's blog hype article.