Favorite Piece of Music Writing So Far in 2002...

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Here is your chance to point to some of your favorite pieces of music-related writing for the first half of 2002. Books, reviews, thinkpieces, blog pieces, ILM posts...anything is game, as long as it was first published in 2002.

― Mark, Monday, 8 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The Eminem review. Maybe not the best, but at least the most memorable.

― paul, Monday, 8 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I absolutely loved the review of the Charlie Patton box set by Mike McGonigal in the first issue of the Sound Collector Audio Review. That was an almost perfect record review to me -- funny, informative, personal, self deprecating. That's my No. 1 so far in 2002.

― Mark, Monday, 8 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

ILM wise I would say this completely knocked me off the floor.
Golden Boy by Res. It perfectly encapsulates what Pop is.

― nathalie, Monday, 8 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ethan's posts and Eminem review trailed closely by Griel Marcus on Jennifer Love Hewitt and that Thurston Moore/Jim O'Rourke list from the Wire.

― J Blount, Monday, 8 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

This thread on Usenet on the genealogy of the genre.

― Siegbran Hetteson, Monday, 8 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ben Blackwell's piece on the Rondelles in the last CTCL. It's like every single emotion I've ever had about a band I loved finally explained to me.

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 8 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The photo of Mick Collins in his shiny checkered shirt on the cover of CTCL #11. So dyam cool. The fact you could see his eyes peeking over the shades just made it, like when he came back onstage after their support slot with the Hives, his shades replaced by what looked to be proper NHS specs (or Detroit garage rock equivalent), and that some how made him even cooler...

― Mr Swygart, Monday, 8 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Either Mark Prindle's reviews of the post-Paul Rodgers Bad Company albums or Mark Prindle's David Bowie reviews.

― Oliver, Monday, 8 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The only things I've remembered from this year are things I've written. Toshes' Where Dead Voices Gather is from last year, and I liked that. I also liked that ODB article in the Guardian, but I forget when that was.

Year before last I woulda picked Josh Blog but it's been on and off hiatus. Year after that Skykicking, but it hasn't whammo! connected lately, possibly because I just find Microhouse sorta nice.

― Sterling Clover, Monday, 8 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

John Darnielle's blog, particularly the pieces on Cabaret Voltaire's "Hai", Chuck Schuldiner's death, and Roky Erikson. He writes beautifully, seems to know everything, is funny, and has a big heart.

― dan, Monday, 8 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Pure Rock Fury- On doing reviews for an online zine: "Doing rock criticism is like sucking a dick that's just fucked you in the ass -- it leaves a bad taste in your mouth." I actually liked his reviews, too.

― Vic Funk, Monday, 8 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah, that sounds just, uh, fabulous. really great.

― the ghost of rock critics past, Monday, 8 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sterling's review of Tweet's album was fantastic. Hyperdub and Phil Sheburne's Needle Drops column both do great things every so often.

Frank Kogan's piece on Shakira and Pink misses out by dint of being published on December 26th.

Obv. anything by Michael Goldberg is brilliant - perhaps the most forward thinking music critic around ;-)

― Tim, Monday, 8 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

In case it's not clear, hyperdub and needle drops.

― Tim, Monday, 8 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Tim, you read my mind!

I must say, Sherburne's piece on the M UTEK festival in Vancouver was fantastic. I'm also quite fond of Keith Harris's Cornersh op reivew in City Pages, Paul A. Toth's "Masterpiece" look at More Songs About Buildings and Food on Salon, and Phil Dellio on Alanis in the Village Voice.

― M Matos, Monday, 8 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Best new music weblogs so far this year - Wisdom Goof and Spizzazz. Individual articles? Don't know really. The best thing I've written this year is the Dexys article.

― Tom, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

At the risk of plugging my own site shamelessly, I think Chris Smith's "classic album" reviews of Pere Ubu were pretty good. Which can be found here.

On other sites, I'm continually in awe of Mark's own Resonant Frequency column (scroll down on that page for links).

Also, Mr. Matos finally put into words why I don't like Moby all that much, which I was happy to read.

And finally, Matthew Weiner's take on Prince was very informative to me, a relative Prince novice.

I'm forgetting tons of things, of course...

― Todd Burns, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I liked the ODB piece aswell, if that was this year.

Other than that I can only think of things I've written, I was quite happy with a few of the live reviews I did, and I like the last thing I did for FT too, I thought saying what I wanted to say about the George Harrison thing would be a bit difficult but it worked out ok.

― Ronan, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I fucking hate music critics. Especially paid ones.

― Jerry, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh, and while I'm thinking about it...

Much as I hate people who rip off others' styles (and believe me, I do), I despise people who compare critics to Lester Bangs even more. How many times am I going to read it the line "so and so reads like Lester Bangs"? It's a fucking DULL ASS CLICHE, the musical equivalent of comparing every rock band to Rolling Stones (equally as valid)... It reflects more on the carper's own lack of knowledge about criticism then on whether Lester was any good (or indeed, the critic under attack is original or otherwise). Find a few other reference points. Live a little.

Either that, or quit bringing me down with yr lack of imagination and knowledge. Seriously. Think of that Stones parallel. Imagine how dull it would be if the only band that (say) Sleater-Kinney, Pop-Off Tuesday, Hawksley Workman, Blue and Les Mystere Des Voix Bulgares got compared to was Mick N Keef. Cos that's what yr doing.

Right enough, you shouldn't be dwelling on critics anyway, as they're mostly a piece of crap... but if you are, then, please...

― Jerry, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You're the only one who mentioned Lester Bangs on this thread you fucking retard.

― Applauds, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Daddino on Willie Nelson.

― Tim, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh sorry, Smart Guy.

Didn't realise you were incapable of reading anything that doesn't have big SIGNPOSTS against it. Is this the first thread on ILM you've ever read? How exciting for you.

― Jerry, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Don't flatter yourself.

― , Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

There's been some good writing this year...I really liked Tom's Dexy's article, and everything Tim Finney and Mike Daddino have to say about music is grebt, obv.

Other than the usual suspects though, I have been kind of underwhelmed. It could be related to me thinking 2002 hasn't been a particularly good year for music.

― Nicole, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think I have to echo Nicole here -- this just hasn't been a good year for listening for me, as I've muttered elsewhere. As a result I've been a bit hard-pressed to answer the question with sudden enthusiasm -- which depresses me, since the good writers are obviously out there.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I thought this was a pretty good one..probably my favorite of this yaer: http://www.dustedmag.com/reviews/?id=253

― James Allen, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Another vote for Sherburne, this one for his DJ Shadow review on neumu that I posted about a while ago.

― Yancey, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sherburne's great but not nearly quotable enough and fairly uninteresting when he's writing about something I have no interest in (eg. Ryan Adams). Unlike Frank Kogan, whose Celine Dion review I forgot to list first and foremost above. Sherburne's Shadow review is fine, but there's nothing in there that tops Christgau's "Accusing Josh Davis of repeating himself is like bitching that Between the Buttons came after Aftermath—or that Light in August begat Absalom, Absalom!". There are music writers I like to read because of their taste (Sherburne), their are writers I like to read because of their writing (Metal Mike Saunders, Ethan), and their are writers who manage to do both (Christgau natch, but Simon Reynolds falls in this category also and I don't nearly agree as much with him as I go with Sherburne). And then there's Griel Marcus on Jennifer Love Hewitt.

― J Blount, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Comparing Shadow to the Rolling Stones and Faulkner is a bit... much... in my book. And I like Shadow. Christgau tends to latch onto one or two "electronic" artists (see also: Tricky), praise them to the high heavens, and dismiss everyone else.

― Ben Williams, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Right you are. Xgau seems to have little middle ground.

― Yancey, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(i wasn't much taken by the sherburne-shadow review, not least cuz sherburne surely miscues barthes in it => which means he's hoiking in a big-name intellectual to big up a maybe-maybe electronica muckity-muck, except then blaming the BNI for his own lame version of BNI's ideas, and saying YAY this is what MMEMM is all about... major damp squid time, foax) (sorry yancey)

― mark s, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

no need to apologize for being wrong, mark.

kidding.

― Yancey, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Of course, this has nothing to do with the fact that you were going to use the same passage from Barthes ;o)

― Ben Williams, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i'm pretty sure penman cited it years ago in ref god knows what, heh

― mark s, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Goes without saying, really.

― Ben Williams, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Today's piece in Slate (http://slate.msn.com//?id=2067716)wondering why people like Moby so much.

― Dave Beckhouse, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

A pretty decent little review site that's completely unpretentious (and it's just one guy doing it all) is at http://www.almostcool.org It's mostly electronic and indie / post rock stuff, but there's some interesting reviews there, and the rest of the site is kind of neat too.

― charles bogan, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

that's a nice piece on Moby. disagree with the "music must be played in real-time by musicians to be soulful" insinuation and last line a clanger but almost everything else is on-point - some beautiful language - "bits and orts of music"

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Simon Reynolds review of the Streets album in Uncut - it sounded great and was an interesting read so I bought the album and the review was spot on in its description and actually enhanced my enjoyment of the music. Can't say fairer than that.

― Winkelmann, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

What passage from Barthes?

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

well kind of the whole book really, except he hadn't read it very carefully

― mark s, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

What book?

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

If I am not mistaken it is the fantastic Camera Lucida they are talking about.

― nathalie, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

nath = on the punctum

― mark s, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'd have to say young Ronan's writing is really something.

― Fitzy, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Even BETTER than Radiohead porn...

STROKES SLASH!!!

Dear god, help me, I'm laughing so hard I can't breathe!!!

― kate, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Albert rested his hand on Julian's sexy man thigh which delighted him."(!!!)

― Sterling Clover, Thursday, 11 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

MAN LUV, dude! ::"Boy, I just can't wait to get home and have some sexy Man Luv with you and Albert!" Julian gleefully exclaimed to Nick.:: is my new .sig!

I mean, it's got McCauly Culkin, loads of MAN LUV and Death By Julian Casablancas' Fat Ass.

What else do you WANT from rock writing?

― kate, Thursday, 11 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ah, the joys of fanfiction.net. I've spent many an hour enjoying its wares. Look for the one where Kurt Cobain rises from the grave (because he's Christ, obv.) to join up with Kathleen Hanna to fight corruption in the music industry. The story should be subtitled "15 Year Old Girl Bitter That Courtney Fucked Kurt And She Didn't". There's also one on their where Brian May rapes John Taylor, as well. And lots of cacky Radiohead angst fiction.

And people wonder why my Yahoo ID is i_hate_fan_fiction?

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 11 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"I've seen his shadow and isnt pretty" mouths Sean, destroying crisp after crisp with sheer relish. This was the night that the Manics played Top Of The Pops. Sean sat still in his dressing room with posters of snooker champions all over his walls. "147 Break yeah I could achieve that" howls Sean in a bloodcurdling manner. "Tonight is the night things get broken" Sean produces a snooker cue from his trouser pocket and begins to smash everything up right and proper. "Foul and a miss, Richey Edwards 4" howls a voice from the now opened door. Sean wheels around, panting "I'll teach you that snooker should not be played by transexuals" Sean begins to repeatedly dash the Richey around the head with the cue, again and again. Richey appears to be enjoying it "Could you whack here, fuck that feels good" at this moment Sean takes an extremely huge swing with the cue and forwards it towards Richey's head. Richey's head drops on the floor. "In all my time as a professional snooker player, I've never seen such a break" Suddenly there are roars of laughter coming from every direction. Richey's head stirs and turns around to face Sean "Yo whatsup brother" At this moment the lights begin to flicker and as if out of nowhere, the decapitated welsh man begins to chant "Three Lions on the shirt, Jules Rimet Still Gleaming" The head begins to talk again to Sean "Here brother do you have an umberalla, then we can do a crazy mutha of a dance" mouthed the Welsh head. "Why of course I do" replied Sean. So out came the umberalla and the head used it as a sort of balance and dancing aid, beating out rythms on the ground. Sean begins to breakdance to the frenzied beat of the head, chaos reigns in this world. "To be honest Richey, this is the first time you havent been a bastard when headless" Sean stated. "Yeah brother, wanna a form a side-project, the Headless Street Preachers?" enquires Richey "Fuck yes, our first song can be Motorcycle Headlessness!" enthuses Sean

The two men laugh in unison, brings a tear to your eye, or to your arse if you dont have a head

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 11 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I was just looking through the Nirvana stuff and it's all BORING! I was hoping for some serious Kurt/Richey Edwards MAN LUV, but no such luck.

Best Duran stuff isn't on ff.net, it's on UMF. I've lost the Primal Scream link again... shit! The BritPop fan fiction site, unfortunately, is now GONE! Gone forever!

I love fan fiction. I think it's the best rock writing out there. The closer rock criticism gets to fan fiction, the more I like it. Probably why I still continue to read Everett True's writing... ;-)

― kate, Thursday, 11 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I discovered an astonishing weblog - must have been easily over 100,000 words, no exag - dedicated to one fan's fixation on Brian Molko, with detailed sexual shenans. I particularly enjoyed the intricacies of the 10,000 word chapter that went into extremely lurid detail about MY crush and former relationship with Mr Molko (sourcing any number of MM articles in the process).

I have once been mentioned in passing in a similar Alex from Blur story, but this...!

Mama! My glasses are still steamed up.

― Jerry, Thursday, 11 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

And you're not SHARING the URL of this story? Come ON, give us the GOODS!!!

Actually, Jerry, I once read a story that involved you and all five members of the Spice Girls. Now, THAT was filth. I think there was beastiality involving Baby Spice and a basket full of kittens. It was so lewd, I wouldn't even have it on my site, and that's saying something!

― kate, Friday, 12 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(Kate he will not give you the URL because he wrote BOTH those stories)

― Tim, Friday, 12 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

But there's no Radiohead fan fiction at fanfiction.net, Dom! (Should I remedy this?)

― Melissa W, Friday, 12 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes, there is.

But, really, fanfiction.net has a bad reputation in the fanworks community. It's infamous for being a garbage dump. (Warning--adults only links ahead.) Many of us only use it because it has a very large readership. If you're looking for good bandfic, I recommend Vain Girl, November Tuesday, and Anyathe. There's more things out there than just the crude teeny wish-fufillment stuff.

― Christine "Green Leafy" Indigo, Saturday, 13 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Shitty Kurt and Kathleen vs Courtney fiction and Brian May gets down to some raping.

― Dom Passantino, Saturday, 13 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I do apologise for not having written them, my fan fiction career is sadly non-existent. The potential for culture jamming with these things, though, is quite high...

― Dom Passantino, Saturday, 13 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

None of that is proper Radiohead fanfic. It's all songfics and stories about other bands!

― Melissa W, Saturday, 13 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'd love to see more culture jamming in bandfic, myself. It's strange, because fanworks culture--especually older fandoms like Star Trek and Ultima--tends to be very self-reflexive. There's also more irony there than most outsiders realize.

― Christine "Green Leafy" Indigo, Saturday, 13 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

But there's a couple crossovers in there, too. That's why I posted that link.

― Christine "Green Leafy" Indigo, Saturday, 13 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

None of that is proper Radiohead fanfic. It's all songfics and stories about other bands!

And Melissa's stuff is downright inspiring. Seriously.

I haven't forgotten about the magazines Mel, I have just been busy with school. I will send them when I get time.

― Nicole, Saturday, 13 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

four months pass...

It's time for an update on this question -- what music writing from '02 stands out?

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 6 December 2002 14:42 (twenty-three years ago)

Actually, Mark-I liked the Nirvana piece on Pitchfork, whoever did that. And the Bobby Conn review on there, just for the line "friends don't let friends listen to Bobby Conn",

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Friday, 6 December 2002 14:46 (twenty-three years ago)

That Bobby Conn review was completely awful otherwise, though.

― charlie va (charlie va), Friday, 6 December 2002 15:33 (twenty-three years ago)

James Surowiecki (sic) in Slate on the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

― James Blount (James Blount), Friday, 6 December 2002 16:34 (twenty-three years ago)

All hail financial analyst rock crits!

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Friday, 6 December 2002 16:46 (twenty-three years ago)

Quite!

― James Blount (James Blount), Friday, 6 December 2002 16:48 (twenty-three years ago)

My new favorite (I still love Sherburne's Shadow piece, btw (and I've still only heard one song from that album)) is Ira Robbins' Andrew WK piece at TrouserPress.com. Great criticism, funny and some fantastic writing.

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Friday, 6 December 2002 16:48 (twenty-three years ago)

Glenn McDonald on Shania Twain in this week's The War Against Silence column, at http://www.furia.com/twas . ESPECIALLY the last paragraph.

― Douglas, Friday, 6 December 2002 22:31 (twenty-three years ago)

That is a good piece, thanks for linking to that, Douglas.

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Friday, 6 December 2002 23:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Scott Plagenhoef's Plastic Ono Band review was one of the best reviews from this year:
http://www.stylusmagazine.com/musicreviews/john_lennon_plastic_ono_band-john_lennon_plastic_ono_band.shtml

Agreed on the ODB article and Resonant Frequency as well.

― Colin Beckett (Colin Beckett), Saturday, 7 December 2002 03:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Julian Cope's insane rant about Iggy Pop and the Comets On Fire album

― Chris Barrus (xibalba), Saturday, 7 December 2002 08:49 (twenty-three years ago)

Seward on El-P. Kogan on Paulina Rubio. Myself on Ja Rule (still working on it, but I love what I'm doing). Daddino on Send In The Clowns.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Saturday, 7 December 2002 19:19 (twenty-three years ago)

ditto to Daddino on Send In The Clowns. I can't wait to see your Ja Rule piece!

― James Blount (James Blount), Saturday, 7 December 2002 19:39 (twenty-three years ago)

That Glenn McD piece is awesome!

― B.Rad (Brad), Sunday, 8 December 2002 12:25 (twenty-three years ago)

Marcello's Trina review on Church of Me, Tom's playgroup review (even better now I have the thing). Also Dr C's Stockholm Monsters piece from a while back.

― Ronan (Ronan), Sunday, 8 December 2002 19:49 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

do you like neumu?

― cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 6 March 2004 01:57 (twenty-one years ago)

do you yahoo?

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 6 March 2004 02:00 (twenty-one years ago)

oh you.

― cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 6 March 2004 02:04 (twenty-one years ago)

hello...moto.

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 6 March 2004 02:07 (twenty-one years ago)

how do you pronounce 'neumu' anyhow?

― cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 6 March 2004 02:08 (twenty-one years ago)

"nu-mu"?

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 6 March 2004 02:09 (twenty-one years ago)

haha we're like morecambe and wise but both straight guys!

― cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 6 March 2004 02:10 (twenty-one years ago)

saddest "simple pleasure" ever ahoy?

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Saturday, 6 March 2004 02:12 (twenty-one years ago)

haha this is my life

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 6 March 2004 02:16 (twenty-one years ago)

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