How many of his letters start out with something about the sixties or the classic era being "different"?
― & other try hard shitfests (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, 5 November 2009 22:03 (fourteen years ago) link
Lefzetz meets Pitchfork, world implodes.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 13 October 2011 18:30 (twelve years ago) link
this guy's paragraph breaks are so psychotic.
― the-dream in the witch house (difficult listening hour), Thursday, 13 October 2011 18:31 (twelve years ago) link
someone needs to get the Pitchfork Reviews Reviews guy and Bob Lefsetz together
― unorthodox economic revenge (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 13 October 2011 18:42 (twelve years ago) link
Have you heard of the Weeknd?
― tylerw, Thursday, 13 October 2011 18:44 (twelve years ago) link
is this revive actually from 2011
― yung huma (J0rdan S.), Thursday, 13 October 2011 18:47 (twelve years ago) link
Psychotic Paragraph Breaks would be a good name for a genre.
― moley, Thursday, 13 October 2011 23:31 (twelve years ago) link
I still read his column all the time. Setting aside his stylistic tendencies towards a hranguing tone, I like his open, straightforward style, his siding with a certain kind of artist who doesn't particularly want to be a publicity hound, and his fairly enlightened and, these days, quite rare advice about the importance of concentrating on developing your craft over a long period of time. It's a tonic to all those 'Zap Pow Future Music Biz 2.0 Ideas Machine' type blogs. Also: how often do you get this forward looking, optimistic, rallying kind of pep talk from an avowed baby boomer? He recently he even got turned on to Deadmau5, which was a delightful thing to behold. So my view of him is that he's a character, and not without a certain uncanny capacity to hit on the important things to do with art and the creative process that get lost in the wake of internetty and publicity oriented stuff.
― moley, Thursday, 13 October 2011 23:42 (twelve years ago) link
thing is even when he talks and talks about ART and CREATIVITY he still sounds like a suit who knows to pay lip service to those values as opposed to a serious music buff. also this is his idea of insight in October 2011:
Throw out all your twentieth century thinking.
There’s more ways to make money in music than selling discs.
But the old players can’t see this.
So they’re going to be left behind.
― some dude, Thursday, 13 October 2011 23:48 (twelve years ago) link
and his next line is
Ian Rogers never worked at a major label.
not at a label, but he he worked for a major label act for the first five years of his career, worked with major labels at Yahoo, and works with major label acts now. not to denigrate the dude's genuine forward-thinking in any way, but Lefsetz' point is offset by Rogers' cashflow having pretty much always originated at majors, no?
― front-man for British post-punk turned pop chart-topper’s, Scritti Polliti (sic), Friday, 14 October 2011 00:03 (twelve years ago) link
i always imagine this guy as looking like the monopoly guy, except dressed as a parrothead.
― strongo hulkington's ghost dad, Friday, 14 October 2011 00:19 (twelve years ago) link
even when he has the occasional point there's not much sadder than people whose central motivation is making sure you know that whatever the kids believe, that's what they believe too
― pathos of the unwarranted encore (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Friday, 14 October 2011 01:08 (twelve years ago) link
The 10,000 Hour Rule"In Hamburg, we had to play for eight hours
He is so obsessed with this point from Gladwell's Outliers book regarding what you have to do to be good at something
― curmudgeon, Friday, 14 October 2011 15:25 (twelve years ago) link
does malcolm gladwell have a use besides blowing the minds of first year business majors?
― the 500 gats of bartholomew thuggins (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 14 October 2011 16:06 (twelve years ago) link
You can turn him upside down and scrub out your toilet.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 14 October 2011 16:15 (twelve years ago) link
― the 500 gats of bartholomew thuggins (upper mississippi sh@kedown
You might be right, but he still writes for the New Yorker so more folks than just college kids quote him. A parent of a kid on my son's high school baseball team is frequently quoting him to me.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 14 October 2011 19:31 (twelve years ago) link
x-post-- yep that hair of Gladwell's is something
― curmudgeon, Friday, 14 October 2011 19:32 (twelve years ago) link
Today everybody's so into image, everybody's got such narrow tastes, but back then you could like Zeppelin AND Loggins & Messina. You were open to everything, we were all in it together.
I don't think this music is going to be remembered, there's not going to be a Loggins & Messina renaissance, but "Mother Lode" holds up. Play it on a long, dreary drive, you'll see your whole life unfold in front of you.
Yeah.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 14 October 2011 21:18 (twelve years ago) link
back then you could like Zeppelin AND Loggins & Messina.
people's taste seems so much broader to me than it ever was now
Jesus Christ people who fetishize the 70s AOR era will just always always be even more annoying than any other era-specific cheerleaders, which is a bummer, because buried amidst their starry-eyed walks down memory lane are some actually true things about that era and what made the records good (in short: more studio budget, engineers with more open ears i.e. dudes who weren't yet locked into a style, less tech to smooth out takes that needed to be redone)
― pathos of the unwarranted encore (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Friday, 14 October 2011 21:42 (twelve years ago) link
(Have you heard Eminem recently?)
― Maybe more Danson and Galifianakis would help (Eazy), Friday, 14 October 2011 21:47 (twelve years ago) link
You were open to everything, we were all in it together.lol that's great. the 70s, a time of great cultural unity.
― tylerw, Friday, 14 October 2011 22:10 (twelve years ago) link
lol otm
― pathos of the unwarranted encore (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Friday, 14 October 2011 22:16 (twelve years ago) link
and fwiw loggins messina renaissance is already underway, come on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpmr9P2_K4g
― tylerw, Friday, 14 October 2011 22:20 (twelve years ago) link
so everyone is mad at lefsetz for this today: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
"I wasn’t sure what to do after Beyonce’s appearance, join a gym or masturbate." stupid line, and the guy is an awful writer, but i fail to see how this piece is sexist or racist. maybe it's because I personally can't stand Beyonce because I hate her music and everything about her. But I restrained myself from saying anything in person or online last night because I knew I'd get my head bitten off. I don't doubt the dude is a pudgy Boomer prick with an ancient outlook, but what about this piece is getting everyone so pissed off, aside from his dislike of Beyonce's performance?
― you are my capitalism (spazzmatazz), Monday, 4 February 2013 19:11 (eleven years ago) link
another egregious line tho - "hip hop is full of attitude"
― you are my capitalism (spazzmatazz), Monday, 4 February 2013 19:16 (eleven years ago) link
x-post
On what are you basing your suggestion that this piece is getting more people pissed at Leftsetz than other ones? Tweets? facebook? ???
― curmudgeon, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:20 (eleven years ago) link
I've read almost as much twitter vitriol on the subjext today as I read about the superbowl itself yesterday.
― Oblique Strategies, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:22 (eleven years ago) link
in addition to the masturbation thing this part was pretty sexist (and just gross generally in other ways:
Who do we blame? Madonna? Who invented a new paradigm and then went for a victory lap wherein she dieted down to nothing and spent hours a day working out? Do you think Adele works out? Ha!
"Do you think Adele works out?" Go fuck yourself, Lef.
― :C (crüt), Monday, 4 February 2013 19:24 (eleven years ago) link
"the Lumineers are bigger than Alicia Keys" Yikes.
― Deafening silence (DL), Monday, 4 February 2013 19:26 (eleven years ago) link
but i fail to see how this piece is sexist or racist
you mean as in only one or the other?
lol j/k who cares what this nobody-guy writes on a blog
― sleepingbag, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:26 (eleven years ago) link
x-post -- Tweets About Beyonce or about Leftsetz re Beyonce?
Leftsetz has a huge mailing list of industry people and musicians who always seem to put up with his cluelessness
― curmudgeon, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:27 (eleven years ago) link
I saw Ned talking about it on twitter and then saw the deluge of music crits and randos going nuts...
@LauraSterritt I'm so so appreciating all of the men I'm seeing calling out Lefsetz's Beyonce post. Really heartwarming.
@1000TimesYes Everyone please quit calling the Lefsetz post "sexist." It's racist too!
@robmitchum So McCain and Lefsetz both committed social media suicide before noon today. This could turn out to be a pretty great week.
@randlechris lefsetz confused here. "ONLY MUSIC MATTERS" but if women made it you apparently prefer to write about their bodies with a pair of forceps?
@Marcissist Truth RT @maura hey bob @lefsetz: you are a gross sexist scumbag and the fact that anyone takes you seriously about anything is embarrassing
@lfitzmaurice The easy joke there is that Bob Lefsetz would be better off choosing the gym^lol
@lfitzmaurice What RT @Lefsetz: Alicia Keys is the new Sheryl Crow. Showing up everywhere. Hey Alicia! There's a supermarket opening around the corner!
@killquilty if there's anything more infuriating than the lefsetz letter it's the lefsetz letter wasting time focusing on amanda palmer
@brandon_weigel @notrivia Couldn't get past the second sentence of Lefsetz's garbage.
― you are my capitalism (spazzmatazz), Monday, 4 February 2013 19:27 (eleven years ago) link
The assertion that the Lumineers are bigger than Beyonce was pretty lol.
― Ulna (Nicole), Monday, 4 February 2013 19:27 (eleven years ago) link
there's not one sentence of this that rings true at all.
― goole, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:29 (eleven years ago) link
I wasn’t sure what to do after Springsteen’s appearance, join a gym or masturbate. It was spectacle befitting the game, one could argue strongly it was more dynamic and exciting than the game. You had no desire to check your Twitter feed, all you could do was pay attention.But how much did this have to do with music?Who do we blame? Tom Petty? Who invented a new paradigm and then went for a victory lap wherein he embodied blue collar America in a tight t-shirt? Do you think Tom Petty works out? Ha!Springsteen made Tom Petty look old. He proudly strutted his beefcake arms, in one fell swoop making a whole swath of America’s men feel good about themselves.
But how much did this have to do with music?
Who do we blame? Tom Petty? Who invented a new paradigm and then went for a victory lap wherein he embodied blue collar America in a tight t-shirt? Do you think Tom Petty works out? Ha!
Springsteen made Tom Petty look old. He proudly strutted his beefcake arms, in one fell swoop making a whole swath of America’s men feel good about themselves.
― mh, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:30 (eleven years ago) link
She proudly strutted her luscious thighs, in one fell swoop making a whole swath of America’s women feel good about themselves.
― downton arby (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 4 February 2013 19:30 (eleven years ago) link
Stupid Beyonce liking ladies.
― Ulna (Nicole), Monday, 4 February 2013 19:31 (eleven years ago) link
man I'm glad no one sexualizes Prince
― mh, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:31 (eleven years ago) link
x-post- you should send that Springsteen satire to Leftsetz
― curmudgeon, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:31 (eleven years ago) link
Scroll down to the previous Lefsetz Letter for pure Patrick Bateman vibes - an ode to Phil Collins' Face Value.
― Deafening silence (DL), Monday, 4 February 2013 19:34 (eleven years ago) link
even the under-the-radar digs are just meaningless, like:
The thought of her drinking Pepsi is akin to believing Alicia Keys uses a BlackBerry!
uhh you can very well believe keys uses a blackberry. shitloads of people use them! she endorses them, right? (esp if lefsetz means "BB" as a stand-in for smartphones in general) and no, it doesn't make it more likely that beyonce drinks soda.
really annoying that i feel compelled to direct any brainpower toward this crap, but this guy is inexplicably influential
― goole, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:35 (eleven years ago) link
i saw the twitter hate but not the reason why til now. feel slightly unclean.
why DO people pay attention to this guy though?
― lex pretend, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:35 (eleven years ago) link
For posterity, here's the link to the actual super bowl/beyonce post rather than his blog's generic url:http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2013/02/03/beyonce-at-the-super-bowl/
― mh, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:35 (eleven years ago) link
"She proudly strutted her luscious thighs, in one fell swoop making a whole swath of America’s women feel good about themselves." nvm somehow i missed this one, moronic and offensive. but. man i hate beyonce's music and thing.
― you are my capitalism (spazzmatazz), Monday, 4 February 2013 19:35 (eleven years ago) link
...though i wonder if he really is. is there a term for people who don't advance thought in any way but have a career bravely telling people what they already think? it's not really 'influence' but, idk, management
― goole, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:36 (eleven years ago) link
Blame the CD, where subtlety doesn’t sound good.
you are totally illiterate about your own field of expertise, jesus
― goole, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:37 (eleven years ago) link
The pundit class?
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 4 February 2013 19:38 (eleven years ago) link
Xpost
wish wcc had saved her powder for this dude
― mookieproof, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:39 (eleven years ago) link
well of course, but i meant a succint term as opposed to 'influence'
"confluential" maybe, lol
― goole, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:39 (eleven years ago) link
Putting Damon Kurkowski on blast in the new letter, ugh.
― paisley got boring (Eazy), Thursday, 28 March 2024 19:45 (three hours ago) link
if the history of language (+discourse in general) was a game of uno, the word "HOWEVER" is the draw 4. and some fucking assholes absolutely cannot wait to drop that fucker on you.
― interstellar anthropologist+music philosopher, (Austin), Thursday, 28 March 2024 20:13 (three hours ago) link