Best Music Writing 2011

Not out till the end of November, but does anyone got any early word on what's gonna be in it?

Only one I know of so far that made it in is this:

"The Underground Rises," by Morad Mansouri

http://style.mtv.com/2011/07/15/lana-del-rey-style/

XD

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Music-Writing-2011-Capo/dp/0306819635/

last one of these i bought was 2007's

*Da Capo Best Music Writing 2007 Book*

lol

Does Daphne Carr makes the selections every year, with the guest editor signing off on those selections?

from what I remember from the intros, daphne carr makes an initial selection of a cpl hundred pieces which the guest editor selects from and is free to add other pieces not included in her initial list

Direction Nowhere by Nate Chinen, on Miles and Neil intersecting at the Fillmore East.

Daphne puts her own favourites in another list in the back.

And I saw on a website her request for people to send articles for consideration

That Davis/Young piece is a great read, thanks for linking it dr. phil.

From Publishers Weekly:
As Ross, New Yorker music critic, points out in his introduction, all music is subcultural and no music is everywhere beloved; thus, he and Carr chose pieces that lead the reader into an unfamiliar realm or mark new paths on well-trod ground—pieces that assume no prior knowledge, only a spark of curiosity. Written by both well-known critics like Geoffrey O’Brien, Wendy Lesser, and Kelefa Sanneh as well as by lesser-known writers such as Morad Mansouri, Jessica Hopper, and Amy Klein, the pieces range widely over classical, jazz, rock, and country music and often challenge boundaries of traditional genres. In his search for the heart of country music in “Nashville Skyline,” CMT editorial director Chet Flippo dryly remarks that looking for the heart and soul of country music these days is like studying a tornado’s path; the music, the artists, and the audience are all over the map. NPR’s music critic Ann Powers elegantly mines Wagner’s opera Das Rheingold for its similarities to pop music in “A Pop Music Critic Takes on the Ring,” while New Yorker critic James Wood offers a paean to the Who’s drummer, Keith Moon, and Moon’s disregard for the principles of drumming—“The first principle of Moon’s drumming was that drummers do not exist to keep the beat.” These collected pieces offer a soulful anthem to the vibrancy of music writing today.

From Kirkus Reviews -- Bogart on Ke$ha made it in!!!!
New Yorker music editor Ross (Listen to This, 2010, etc.) curates the year's finest scribbling about sound. The latest entry in the annual anthology of music journalism draws on a breadth of sources, from metro dailies and national magazines to websites, blogs and even Twitter. Ross brings in lively pieces from his primary discipline, classical music: Justin Davidson offers a measured contemplation of Beethoven's contemporary interpreters, and online contest winners risibly summarize opera librettos in 140-character tweets. Befitting the times, pop mega-stars are the focus of several penetrating profiles: Vanessa Grigoriadis on Lady Gaga, Chris Norris on Will.i.am, Caryn Ganz on Nicki Minaj. Jonathan Bogart's critical take on Ke$ha tells you more than you may ever want to know about pop's trollop of the moment, but does it hilariously. Rock gets comparatively short shrift, and the top selections are backward-looking: James Wood on the Who's maniacal drummer Keith Moon, Evelyn McDonnell on '70s femme rockers the Runaways, Nate Chinen on the unlikely yet apt onstage confluence in 1970 of Miles Davis and Neil Young. The writing about contemporary rock--Titus Andronicus bassist Amy Klein's hyper-feminist tour diary entry, blogger Mike Turbé's review of a metal show in a Brooklyn basement--never rises above the jejune. The most startling stuff drives boldly into new territory: Lauren Wilcox Puchowski's profile of a Washington, D.C., wedding band at work, Jason Cherkis on a Baltimore record collector's life-changing obsession with an early-20th-century Greek vocalist, Chris Richards' search for Parliament-Funkadelic's Mothership stage prop and Joe Hagan on the profound darkness revealed in Nina Simone's hitherto unpublished diaries. There is also a dizzying chapter from Dave Tompkins' book How to Wreck a Nice Beach, excerpted by NPR.org, about the vocoder's passage from cryptography to music. Though country and various roots styles are half-heartedly represented and a handful of solipsistic pieces tax the reader's patience, this edition mainly sidesteps the usual suspects while maintaining the series' high standard. A great incentive to fire up Spotify, or even the old stereo.

jeez who wrote that? kirkus for some reason has it behind a paywall.

"The writing about contemporary rock--Titus Andronicus bassist Amy Klein's hyper-feminist tour diary entry, blogger Mike Turbé's review of a metal show in a Brooklyn basement--never rises above the jejune."

Don't know, I just got it off the B&N site.

Kirkus reviews are all unsigned.

"The writing about contemporary rock--Titus Andronicus bassist Amy Klein's hyper-feminist tour diary entry, blogger Mike Turbé's review of a metal show in a Brooklyn basement--never rises above the jejune."

Yeah but I believe that LOL. This sounds good though...

better be some nabisco in there

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/13/AR2010081305087.html

Here's the Jason Cherkis piece in the Washington Post Sunday Magazine section on the Baltimore record store owner discovering old Greek singers

The missing P-Funk Mothership prop article by the Washington Post's Chris Richards was talked about on a George Clinton P-Funk thread

That Cherkis piece is a great read, but man I hoped for happier ending for that guy.

hey, fyi, i'm gonna be in a book coming out, uh, sooner or later. probably sooner than later. you can pre-order it from amazon.com!

http://www.amazon.com/Pop-When-World-Falls-Apart/dp/0822351080

my biggest fan provided a choice blurb:

“The voices in Pop When the World Falls Apart are so strong the book raises a new question: which critics would you take to a desert island? Everyone will have a different answer. For me, it would be Tom Smucker, Eric Lott, and Scott Seward. They’d argue til the sun came up, full of smiles and exasperation; I’d get to listen.”—Greil Marcus

not that it has anything to do with this book. but i felt like i should mention it at least twice in public. just in case anyone might be interested. so, i mentioned it on facebook and now here and now i'm done.

Congrats skot

Very nice Scott

rad

dog latin likes this.

lots of good people in it too. i mean, its a book i would actually read. and i mostly read sci-fi paperbacks these days.

Kudos and well deserved.

Congrats Scott! I have had to be in the same room with Eric Lott before, and I trust that, if Greil's proposed argument happens, you will beat the snot out of him. Thanks in advance.

This is why you all need to come to an EMP Pop Conference if you can! Because hearing Scott read his pieces out is a goddamn treasure and a half. (Hearing Tom Smucker do the same = equally so.)

So how do I nominate Dave Howell's Disco Inferno sleeve notes for the next issue?

And maybe Kulkarni on "The New Nineties" at The Quietus?

djh, see upthread a mention of Daphne Carr. Sent them to her.

Ta. Done.

Da Capo is out as publisher after this one, and Daphne Carr is gonna self-publish

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2011/12/best_music_writing_fundraiser_daphne_carr.php

this would also be the last edition of the series published by Da Capo Press. But that doesn't mean the anthology won't be published anymore: Series editor Daphne Carr—who's been working on the book's yearly issue since 2006—is heading out on her own, using Best Music Writing as the flagship title for a new publishing house that'll be focused on writing about music. She's launched a fundraising campaign to publish the book and get the house going; the goal is to raise $30,000, and donations over $15 will reserve you a copy of next year's Best Music Writing.

oh that blows

wish the Best American series would pick her up -- probably be as popular as the travel writing books anyway

http://funboring.com/fundraiser

Tuesday January 10th reading at Politics & Prose in DC at 7

Alex Ross, along with contributors including Ann Powers, Chris Richards, Frankin Bruno, and Jason Cherkis.

i was in the "other notable" list in the back of the book this year. i guess maybe i got in just under the wire.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pda/launch-the-best-music-writing-series-as-an-indie-p?ref=card

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2011/12/best_music_writing_2011_honorable_mention_links.php

does anyone know when the deadline is the submit suggestions to the da capo book? it doesn't seem to say on the ballot http://funboring.com/2012BMWballot

cuz there are a few things i want to suggest but i'm not gonna get a chance to sit down and think about it for a few days - last year i ended up forgetting

this is also the thread where we jog each other's memories about potential submissions!

mark sinker on whitney OBV http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2011/11/i-am-the-0-00000001-percent/
dan hancox on grime & the riots http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/aug/12/rap-riots-professor-green-lethal-bizzle-wiley
ann powers on authenticity in pop http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2011/10/26/141735626/whos-still-jenny-from-the-block-an-examination-of-autobiography-in-pop

there must be loads more that i've forgotten...

January 31st is the deadline (and the book will not be published by Da Capo any longer). It looks like Daphne Carr needs to get the word out about her kickstarter campaign to raise $15,000 to publish this next year. She's only raised a small fraction of that so far.

http://funboring.com/BMWsubmissions

If you are an editor, please limit the number of submissions to your publication's best, most favored, most original and important works, as we do get quite a large number of submissions and only reprint 30-40 pieces per year (and, historically, never more than three from any one publication). We ask that the limit be 15 per title, but you are more than welcome to ask your writers to nominate themselves as individuals or have other members of the editorial staff send their recommendations.

If you are nominating as an individual, please send no more than 3-5 of your best pieces from the year. You are more than free to nominate other people's work alongside your own.

The 2012 ballot can be found through this link. The submission process will end on January 31, 2012.

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amazing!

i have until 28 feb to submit nominations apparently - in this thread we remind each other what great pieces of music writing happened in the past year

yeah please, i have about three in mind but i can't remember anything else

well here's one that i'm definitely nominating, my friend stephen swift on lil b, misogyny, performance:

http://sshhiittttyy.com/post/12615859354/oldtobegin-thank-u-based-god-this-is-my

my fave:

http://skotrok.blogspot.com/2011/12/till-world-ends-top-ten-albums-of-2011.html

aw, thanks, that's nice!

Imma nominate this, more for the introduction than for the interview:

http://thequietus.com/articles/07056-a-new-nineties-an-introduction-part-one-main-feed-the-collapse

couldn't remember if scott's year-end piece came out before the end of last year; it's totally on my ballot now

Scott, your year-end piece is great! I love this thread; I'm always after outstanding music writing, but I don't put in the time I should or know about the blogs I should (I'm not in front of a computer that much during an average day)... This thread is a treasure trove.

not gonna submit it because dude already has his own book, but john jeremiah sullivan's music writing was maybe the best i read this year and his piece about bunny wailer is stellar http://www.gq.com/entertainment/music/201101/bunny-wailer-john-jeremiah-sullivan

I'm going to pimp my voice interview with c Spencer yeh

I want to read that Bunny Wailer piece (thanks for posting) but this line is a tad cliche for a reggae piece, no:

It had long been a dream of mine to meet Bunny Wailer—a pipe dream, sometimes a literal one in the sense that I dreamed it while holding a pipe.

oh i agree, that's like a pure smdh moment in an otherwise solid piece

and i really like that c spencer yeh interview, ray

long as we are pimping our own stuff, here is something i wrote about boz scagg's "we're all alone" last year that i think is still okay http://oneweekoneband.tumblr.com/post/14984902531/boz-scaggs-were-all-alone-final-track-from

anyone know for sure what the deadline for nominations is now? the site still says feb 7 but i heard that was pushed back to feb 21 but upthread lex says feb 28? very confusing.

Feb. 28, I've read.

ok good 2 know thx

well if it's not 28 feb i've missed it YET AGAIN

why can't i fucking organise myself, ugh

The submission process will end on February 28, 2012. We ask that you use that form even if you are emailing attachments or sending mail versions of things so we can keep track of all submissions.

http://funboring.com/BMWsubmissions

just submitted my woefully incomplete ballot, hopefully i'm not too late

i think they're accepting ballots as long as the ballot form on the site is still open, which it is. got an e-mail earlier in the week that said they'd keep it open til at least the 2nd and i put mine in on the 1st.

when are the 2012 winners going to be announced?