OK, is this the worst piece of music writing ever?

i guess it's hard for me to feel too much for either party, it's just two people from the same culture of eggheads that have made a cottage industry of fetishizing and collecting and hoarding precious facts and recordings about old blues singers. i guess if geechie or elvie were alive or if their families were complaining about how they never wanted to be found out or revealed i would have a problem, but honestly i feel for mccormick who seems like a real character and obviously is going through a lot of stuff, and who knows? maybe the sullivan is shady, but i kind of feel like none of this stuff really BELONGS to either of them

it was a hell of an article i will say that

He added, however, that he was legally in the clear, as one cannot own somebody else’s speech

But Sullivan published someone else's research without consent or (presumably) compensation. As a journalist, he should fucking understand that.

i think the phrase "legally in the clear" draws an obvious distinction from "behaved ethically"

Yeah seems like a dick move

i'm glad he did it. who knows, that old coot could burn his house down in the middle of the night. i support this theft. it was iphone pictures of documentation, right? i don't know the rules of consent when someone invites you into their home. can you get sued if you take a picture of someone's cat without their knowledge and post it on the internet?

i am also in favor of frivolous lawsuits against the new york times for reasons of mental anguish though. i've wanted to sue them for this many times over the years.

i mean i definitely did think about what that old coot was gonna think when he read the thing or if he was gonna have a heart attack or possibly burn his collection out of anger. but i think overall the thing was worth it. it's love and theft. that's the blues, baby. truman capote isn't really your friend. and neither are the hell's angels.

'every journalist who is not too stupid or full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible. he is a kind of confidence man, preying on people's vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse.' - janet malcolm

fair points

i don't think that family is comparable to a biker gang or a convicted murderer?

truman capote didn't just write about murderers. mentioned the hell's angels merely to point out that if you write stuff like the NYT piece you are gonna get heat. not beat up, probably, but heat nonetheless.

A guy told me one time, "Don't let yourself get attached to any blues memorabilia you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/10744192/10-ways-Britpop-changed-modern-manhood.html

scott, it felt like a fair assumption you were doing an in cold blood / hst comparison there

answered prayers is where capote drew the charges of betrayal and was ostracized by his friends

Not terrible but sexist:

http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/crossfade/2014/04/haim_review_photos_miami_2014.php

Throughout their hour-plus set, the three sisters shook their luxurious manes and showed emotion by running fingers through their perfectly conditioned hair. If the music thing does not work out, they can count on a lucrative contract endorsing Neutrogena or Herbal Essences.

Remember when they said this about the Screaming Trees?

and they can play!

what a fucking douche. Just when I start to think rockism is an irrelevant concept now.

look at those bitches with their hair

https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-prn1/t1.0-1/c40.0.160.160/p160x160/1969162_10203528575675858_44142269950046880_n.jpg
Christopher Lopez from Facebook
1 day ago

My thoughts in print lol

Because, at the moment, not only do their lyrics and stage presence not only lack sophistication, but none of their songs contain the timeless stupidity of a catchy hook like "MMMbop" had, though their "Wire" comes the closest.

lol at hurting going HAIM in the comments

yeah didn't mean to triple post that, hope that's fixed now

girls aren't sophisticated see

If you scroll back far enough in his reviews you find out he like Cat Power though so

fortunately every Bryan Ferry review I've ever written mentions his hair

A poll on that telegraph article up thread
Worst Thing In This Daily Telegraph "10 ways Britpop changed modern manhood" Article

Possibly the most notes I ever got on a Tumblr post was that time I went to an Interpol gig and reviewed their haircuts!

(granted, it may have been semi-parodic)

Pretty sure most reviews of Hanson mentioned their hair too.

and Nelson, remember them? "The Timotei Twins"

And the Beatles.

Yeah but that was because they looked like girls with girl hair and as such were unworthy of anything more complex in terms of criticism than "lol ur hair"

to be fair who didn't lol at Nelson's hair?

not damaged/depressed = "not sophisticated" is an annoying trope in its own right, and one that probably overlaps with the gender stuff at issue here but is not exclusive to it

vmg's overall music-bloggage quality was pretty awful with a few exceptions (hi reed, thanks for being awesome) but miami's was always the most consistently embarrassing. good to see they're keeping it up

I've thought about pitching stories but

holy shit that quietus britpop article upthread

britpop's idea of a controversial loudmouth was louise wener? DO YOU THINK YOU MIGHT BE FORGETTING SOME PEOPLE

every member of HAIM has incredible hair. but i can't agree with that writer's assertion that their songs are unsophisticated.

Yeah that's some lousy writing. They have hair, their songs are dumb like Hanson, and they have long hair like Hanson. That's pretty much all of the review, and yet it takes 2 pages to read.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ0v6pBkmdc

Yeah that's some lousy writing. They have hair, their songs are dumb like Hanson, and they have long hair like Hanson. That's pretty much all of the review, and yet it takes 2 pages to read.

― ▴▲ ▴TH3CR()$BY$H()W▴▲ ▴ (Adam Bruneau), Friday, May 2, 2014 12:39 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Don't forget the bit where everyone liked the songs (except for him) and how Haim should just shut up and not talk and just play with their hair instead.

One of the band's biggest strategic mistakes was that while Danielle Haim does most of the vocals, her older sister Este was charged with the onstage patter, which seemed to be influenced by the Shoshanna character from the HBO series Girls.

A strategic mistake? Were they overrun by an army of Cimbri half-way through the set?

(also, I doubt a 27 year old based her personality on a character from a show that premiered 2 years ago.)

yeah but Haim are girls and the show is named GIRLS so you know i mean there's a pretty good link there

I hear they mapped out their strategy in kindergarten: Este would grow up to be more talkative and Danielle more reserved.

Excited to see some genuinely execrable writing again itt. Now with added life coaching.

With the sisters ranging from being young to being kind of young (Este's the oldest at 27 and Alana's the youngest at 22), there is time for them to fall in and out of love, hitchhike around the Southwest, or have other meaningful and meaningless experiences that might help their lyrics and personas catch up to their musical skills.

hitchhike around the Southwest,

is he basically telling them to go get murdered?

the southwest seems like a terrible region to hitchhike, so many long desert roads and stuff, wouldn't it make more sense to hitchhike in like the southeast where it's still warm but more dense?

also i'm p sure the haim album did well enough that they could buy like an old honda accord or something

hitchhike around the southwest, collecting topaz necklaces, bald eagle statuettes, and actual living lizards