Richie Unterberger: All that is bad about music criticism?

If this is were a Classic/Dud thread, I'd say the guy was a dud, but that the two books are okay if you are interested in these artists. By the way, that Lambchop review is unbelieveably stupid and his concept of "musical progress" and "aesthetic quality" is laughable. Thanks for the laughs.

What a crock of shit. Pet Sounds would take up almost all of one side, for starters. So fifty minutes for all the good pre-66 stuff and the best moments of Friends, 20/20, Wild Honey, Smile, Sunflower, Surf's Up, Holland and Love You? I don't think so.

But if you are just asking whether or not the idea of a band going "pop" being equated with some sort of inherent sign of progression/quality is stupid, I'd say, yeah, that sounds pretty stupid to me.

Do you actually buy Lev's little theory, Josh, or are you just playing devil's advocate?

For Tolstoi this wouldn't just mean that you should sell out - and all the sellouts have their own problems anyway, like not expressing the right things, or in the right way, so that the spiritual communion can occur. The standard for accessibility is there just because the best art should not shut people out, if it's supposed to result in spiritual communion.

(Where did this assumption that chart music, or music on major labels, or whatever, is automatically the accessible stuff?)

Re: Mr. Reynolds. I have no problem with subjectivity (and there is no such as "real" objectivity) but in both these books the author's have alarming tendency to pop up and remind the reader that the musician's aren't the main characters, but Mr. R and Mr. U are, as if we (I) are constant danger of forgeting the author existed. It's ham handed and strikes me as the insecure attention getting tricks of little children who feel forgotten. I'm not reading Energy Flash and Unknown Legends to learn more about Mr. R and Mr. U and therefore these little pleas to be noticed strike me as obnoxious (whereas Mr. Bangs conceits annoy me very little, I'm reading his work because it IS as much about him as the music). There is a time and place for everything, I suppose, but this tactic struck me as very out of place in the two works in question.

Richie Unterberger, who was my editor at Option, will be discussing his latest effort, a 400 page coffee-table volume entitled "The Unreleased Beatles: Music and Film," and showing films and playing rare recordings featured in the book, from 7pm-9pm at the Library of Congress Mary Pickford Theater, Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. SE It's free. I have not read the book yet, just skimmed through it at a bookstore.

That Lambchop review is pretty good.

I don't know about C or D, but his two books on 1960s folk-rock turned me on to a bunch of records I had never heard before.

Because he was a nice guy to me as Option editor I don't get as bothered as some by his nitpicky AMG reviews. Maybe that's not logical but oh well, I feel like I understand his tastes even if I don't always agree with them.

He's not a poptimist and his aesthetic is easily critiqued/mocked by those with a theoretical bent, but if you are interested in the kind of stuff that he likes, those books are pretty useful guides. If he doesn't like say, ABBA, too bad for him, but we have lots of other ways of finding out about ABBA.

As a sixties-centric guy, he strikes some kind of sane middle ground between those who worship the big bands to the extent of excluding anything else on the one hand and the only-barely-released-obscure-outsider-records-for-me-thanks cratediggers on the other.

Not as good as Andrew Unterberger.

Yeah, I always wondered if they were related.

IIRC, Richie is Andrew's uncle.

Richie Asperberger

If he doesn't like say, ABBA, too bad for him, but we have lots of other ways of finding out about ABBA.

― ilx chilton (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, January 5, 2009 3:16 PM (57 minutes ago) Bookmark

this pretty much sums up my attitude towards all music criticism and underlies my incredulity at anybody that would bother mocking a critic's stance.

Aye, it is uncle /nephew.

Nephew Andrew must be pretty young then.

Early 20s; he was writing for Stylus when he was 16, if not younger, back when we started.

He's 22 now.

also champion team member of 3-person vh1 world series of pop culture winners

big up that guy

he brought the brains fyi

It may have been Andrew that told me about ILM. We were both posters on some other music boards before I came here.

Another book out...below is from his website--

On Monday, August 3 from 7pm-9pm, I'll be discussing White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day-By-Day at the Mary Pickford Theater on the third floor of the Library of Congress Madison building at 101 Independence Ave. SE in Washington, DC. Rare audiovisual material from throughout the Velvet Underground's career will be featured. Admission is free, though seating is limited to sixty patrons.

On Tuesday, August 4 from 7pm-9pm, I'll be discussing White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day-By-Day at Robin's Books/Moonstone Arts Center at 110a S. 13th Street in Philadelphia. Rare audiovisual material from throughout the Velvet Underground's career will be featured, and signed copies of the book will be available for purchase. Admission is free.

On Wednesday, August 5 from 7:30pm-9:30pm, I'll be discussing White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day-By-Day at the Port Washington Library at One Library Drive in Port Washington, New York. Rare audiovisual material from throughout the Velvet Underground's career will be featured, and signed copies of the book will be available for purchase. Admission is free.