insofar as an indie rumor mill exists
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 23 August 2022 15:10 (one year ago) link
sounds like maybe he had subliminal crusties on his mind
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 23 August 2022 15:10 (one year ago) link
Haha, I'm going to guess Wet Leg
― marcel the shell with swag on (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 23 August 2022 15:11 (one year ago) link
That quote was from 2002. I just thought it was great that a print editor could see that and say "looks good to me - print it!" Alternative weeklies were awesome.
― birdistheword, Tuesday, 23 August 2022 15:14 (one year ago) link
(Also it was for Spoon)
― birdistheword, Tuesday, 23 August 2022 15:16 (one year ago) link
Indie rumor mill always noted for its remarkable flexibility.
― Panda bear, my gentle friend (morrisp), Tuesday, 23 August 2022 15:27 (one year ago) link
Well, with assholes involved, who wouldn't be?
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 23 August 2022 15:30 (one year ago) link
Were people still combing over James Agee and Otis Ferguson's reviews in the '80s and '90s? Is this an internet/social media thing?
― clemenza, Tuesday, 23 August 2022 15:43 (one year ago) link
I think it's more common with pop music, but also Xgau made it easier with his website. I think he said this in a recent interview, because he has a website (and because of the accessible nature of capsule reviews), he's frequently cited in Wikipedia, and that's drawn a lot of traffic to his reviews. It wouldn't surprise me if his older reviews get far more views than any other established critic for those reasons. (Probably helps that his site doesn't bombard you with ads and videos like some publications will.)
― birdistheword, Tuesday, 23 August 2022 15:47 (one year ago) link
I think Xgau/Fantano/Scaruffi/RYM doing lots and lots and lots of things with a quantifiable ratings scale and data appeals to people in the same lite-autism-spectrum way that someone might be obsessed with train schedules or whatever
― marcel the shell with swag on (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 23 August 2022 15:48 (one year ago) link
Like it's prolly no coincidence both Xgau and Scaruffi made and maintained SEARCHABLE DATABASES FOR THEIR LIFE'S OPINIONS in the early internet
― marcel the shell with swag on (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 23 August 2022 15:50 (one year ago) link
Yeah seems p obvious he wants people to comb through them.
― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Tuesday, 23 August 2022 15:54 (one year ago) link
There's that Pauline Kael Geocities site, but I don't know if it's searchable, and half the time your virus protection will block it. But we argue about her anyway.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 23 August 2022 15:56 (one year ago) link
Most of 5001 Nights at the Movies is searchable on Google Books.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 23 August 2022 15:58 (one year ago) link
To be fair, I think Tom Hull was the one who approached Xgau with the idea and voluntarily did it for him. (Hull also has his own site too.)
I know what you mean though - he seems to get a lot of questions laser-focused on grades rather than the reviews themselves. Xgau has downplayed the value of grades - for examples, when asked for clarity on star ratings, he just said "they're all B+'s" and he's said if he had to, he'd regrade a lot of things over time but he doesn't think it's worth it. You can see why RS got rid of the star rating, it really does take up far too much attention than the actual content of the review.
― birdistheword, Tuesday, 23 August 2022 15:58 (one year ago) link
*for example
― birdistheword, Tuesday, 23 August 2022 15:59 (one year ago) link
It still ticks me off that one of CMJ's last few owners tanked the entire database of old reviews. I used to really enjoy looking those up (and not just, er, the few that I wrote).
― Panda bear, my gentle friend (morrisp), Tuesday, 23 August 2022 16:36 (one year ago) link
I have a vague recollection of Q Magazine making all of their reviews available online and later Rolling Stone hosting a lot of entries from their album guide online (and updating them with every new release). In both cases, it felt like they did that for only a year or two then took it all down.
― birdistheword, Tuesday, 23 August 2022 16:41 (one year ago) link
The Voice keeps a lot of stuff online, but it's not perfect: this Mötley Crüe live review (warning: opening line contains a slur that was A-OK in 2009) doesn't carry my byline, so I had to search for it by band name.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Tuesday, 23 August 2022 17:01 (one year ago) link
Their links change! So I made my own archive of my Voice stuff years ago (also ones for stuff from other publications, having learned the hard way that older things can get flushed). Last year, I think, couldn't find anything of mine on the Voice site, but yesterday I checked again, and it was all there: mixed feelings about that now, since I've tweaked and improved some of the olde pieces in my own archives---xpost bird, Rolling Stone still has some ancient works in there, like Paul Nelson's celebration of the Ramones debut: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/ramones-206065/in the three collections of Consumer Guide columns, xgau mentions re-listening, and sometimes he'll give the original grade and a new grade. Also, sometimes he indicates in a review of a later album that he's changed his mind about an earlier effort, that it sounds better or worse by comparison, or that he'd already gotten tired of it.
― dow, Tuesday, 23 August 2022 17:18 (one year ago) link
xpost
https://c.tenor.com/HBsu7mTmizgAAAAC/bill-hader-popcorn.gif
― marcel the shell with swag on (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 23 August 2022 17:22 (one year ago) link
(warning: opening line contains a slur that was A-OK in 2009)
haha ok man
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Tuesday, 23 August 2022 19:15 (one year ago) link
My editor — which was either Rob H. or Maura J. at the time — let it pass without blinking. We are none of us angels.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Tuesday, 23 August 2022 19:26 (one year ago) link
We R none of us angels
― marcel the shell with swag on (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 23 August 2022 19:30 (one year ago) link
― clemenza, Tuesday, August 23, 2022 4:56 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
"we" = 2.5 people
neverending discussion of this jerk off here (xgau not pauline kael) is such a blight
― (grim) pump track (wales) (map), Tuesday, 23 August 2022 19:33 (one year ago) link
https://giphy.com/explore/who-gives-a-shit
― sarahell, Tuesday, 23 August 2022 19:45 (one year ago) link