music critics who are also musicians

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david toop.

mt, Sunday, 11 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Jack White reviewed the Charley Patton box set for NME. It was quite good. Electric Music (or Electric Music AKA) were supposedly music writers of some sort...

Mr Swygart, Sunday, 11 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Tobi Vail (Bikini Kill); David Nichols (Huon); David Keenan (Telstar Ponies); Staurt Braithwaite (Mogwai); Ben (Dirtbombs); Jimmy Possession (The Guy Who Invented Fire); Matthew Corwine (DJ); Conrad (Trail Of Dead); Gary Valentine (Blondie); Captain Sensible (The Damned); Jeremy Gluck (Barracudas); Jamie Sellers (Quint); Steve Albini (Shellac); Sarah Dougher; Joey Ramone (wrote a series of articles for addicted to noise); Jim Irvin (Furniture); Sally Margaret Joy (Furniture); Chris Roberts (Catwalk); Dickon Edwards (Fosca/Orlando); Lou Barlow (Sebadoh); Bob Geldof (Boomtown Rats); Neil Kulkarni; Taylor Parkes;

How many would you like? It's annoying that whenever this question is trotted out the same dull names are always cited - Lester Bangs, Bob Stanley, Chrissie Hynde, myself even. Morrissey wrote far less than all the people on the above list; yet he always gets mentioned.

There are tens of thousands (the list above took me 5 minutes to compile)... and, if you start including people like Taylor and Neil, then it goes on and on. It's the norm for writers to dabble in music, not otherwise. And vice versa.

And I haven't even begun to touch on DJs.

Jerry, Monday, 12 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

It's the norm for writers to dabble in music, not otherwise.

In that case I violate the norm. Then again, I'm astoundingly lazy.

Ned Raggett, Monday, 12 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Apologies if that answer seems unneccessarily grumpy.

I've just had to read through an entire 340 page manuscript AGAIN - and found mistakes on the chapter headings. Why don't book companies employ proof readers?

Jerry, Monday, 12 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Astonishingly lazy? You, Ned? That reminds me... isn't that Negativland interview a little overdue... like eight months?

And yes, it is far too early for me to be up.

Jerry, Monday, 12 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Duane Zarakov! He's only a music critic to get girls though.

maryann, Monday, 12 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Right. Like *that* works...

Jerry, Monday, 12 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

How about him what's in the Regular Fries? I think he used to be a journo, that's what my May 1999 copy of Select says.

Dom Passantino, Monday, 12 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

How about Utensil, the (now hiatusing) band featuring Ira Robbins on guitar and Michael Azzerad on bass?

Yancey, Monday, 12 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Astonishingly lazy? You, Ned?

I feel it most days. Maybe I'm not, who knows!

That reminds me... isn't that Negativland interview a little overdue... like eight months?

I'll be reviewing the new album, but beyond that I'm despairing of ever getting that together. I can try again, though!

Ned Raggett, Monday, 12 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

shouldn't critics make great musicians, since they understand music so well?

I think there's a better case to be made for this in the world of film where you have the whole Cahiers du Cinema crowd: Godard, Truffaut, etc. I can't think of a comparable accomplishment by a music critic. Of course there's Jim Greer who went from being an avid Guided By Voices backer at Spin to being a bassist for the band, but you have to wonder how much talent that requires.

o. nate, Monday, 12 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

five months pass...
Resurrecting this...

Regarding the Cahiers du Cinema crowd...well, correct me if I'm wrong - I've only started reading some of their stuff, but wasn't the magazine essentially a collaborative personal effort. (ie - not for money/pay?) That's always the impression I've had. I think that all real musicians have some next-level critical skills. But I would guess that the criticism coming from musicians would be more likely found at a place like Freaky Trigger/ILM than as a gun for hire at a rag like Rolling Stone.

In other words, the real critics fled to the internet, websites, and blogs.

Snobbish and elitist? Of course. That's what I'm into.

Girolamo Savonarola, Sunday, 19 January 2003 20:41 (twenty-one years ago) link

Never seen this thread before. It only convinces me even further that I should give up writing.

kate, Sunday, 19 January 2003 20:47 (twenty-one years ago) link

david shepperd is another

weasel diesel (K1l14n), Sunday, 19 January 2003 20:49 (twenty-one years ago) link

Surprised that no one has mentioned Metal Mike Saunders. I suppose some would argue that he is neither... Not me, though.

flightsatdusk (flightsatdusk), Sunday, 19 January 2003 20:59 (twenty-one years ago) link

is lois maffeo a good writer? cause her records are pathetic.

keith (keithmcl), Sunday, 19 January 2003 22:01 (twenty-one years ago) link

Nick Kent's Subterraneans (also featuring Glen Matlock) were prety good.

Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Sunday, 19 January 2003 22:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

a compact example of lotsa renowned musicians writin'n'writin':
"ARCANA: musicians on music" (Granary/Hips Road, 2000; edited by ...J.Zorn) -- the approaches differ and... so forth and etcetera, but there're FRED Frith (Simon's brother), Z'EV, Mike Patton(!),Ikue Mori, Marc Ribot, George E. Lewis, B.Frisell, Myra Melford, Guy Klucevsek in there, a.o. ...some of them may appear rather "technical" for a non-muso-reader's taste, i think

A ?UESTION: re STEVE LAKE ?! a great, great writer -- but has he ever made music himself? the reason i'm asking, i saw some catalogue once, and there were a coupla records listed where Steve Lake seemed to be credited as one of the performers; as these were Improv kinda things, it *could* been him... but has anybody here actually HEARD a 'Steve Lake record'?

t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Sunday, 19 January 2003 22:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

MARK PRINDLE!!!

Evan (Evan), Monday, 20 January 2003 03:33 (twenty-one years ago) link

somebody said all the real critics fled to the internet?
are you old enough to shave?

Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Monday, 20 January 2003 04:07 (twenty-one years ago) link

Steve Harley was a music journalist before his Cockney Rebel days.
Cub Koda (after years with his Brownsville Station) began writing a column called "The Vinyl Junkie" for Goldmine magazine, later published in DISCoveries.

another one (another one), Monday, 20 January 2003 11:39 (twenty-one years ago) link

two months pass...
What about Mia Clarke? She plays well, writes better...and is hot as hell.

sandy k, Wednesday, 9 April 2003 18:57 (twenty-one years ago) link

ILM's own Sasha Frere-Jones.

oops (Oops), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 19:07 (twenty-one years ago) link

Hrvatski
Eugene Chadbourne

dleone (dleone), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 19:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

I "make" "music" sometimes.

Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 19:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

Samir Khan of Kepler (ex-Pitchfork scribe)

jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 19:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

Wasn't Lester Bangs in Schrapnel?

SplendidMullet (iamamonkey), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 21:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

All musicians are just frustrated rock critics.

Keith Harris (kharris1128), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 21:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

or was it Leggs McNeill? fuck

SplendidMullet (iamamonkey), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 21:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

greg tate has his burnt sugar bigband

H (Heruy), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 21:24 (twenty-one years ago) link

shrapnel was with legs mcneil

H (Heruy), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 21:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

thank you! its coming back to me now

SplendidMullet (iamamonkey), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 21:31 (twenty-one years ago) link

Andrew Beaujon from Eggs writes for Spin. And at least one ILMor has heard my rockin' bandz.

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 22:18 (twenty-one years ago) link

seven years pass...

doveman.

forksclovetofu, Wednesday, 21 April 2010 15:15 (thirteen years ago) link

Charles Rosen, excellent at both btw

Now, Wednesday, 21 April 2010 15:22 (thirteen years ago) link

Robert Forster

If you can believe your eyes and ears (outdoor_miner), Wednesday, 21 April 2010 16:24 (thirteen years ago) link

wasn't chrissie hynde a music journo originally?

Dr X O'Skeleton, Wednesday, 21 April 2010 19:02 (thirteen years ago) link

seven years pass...

Had no idea that Chris Richards was in Q and Not U.

Spent the holidays digging through boxes and was pleased to find myself in excellent company. Entertainment Weekly Oct. 8, 2004 pic.twitter.com/t1BltlQDod

— Chris _ _ Richards (@Chris__Richards) January 1, 2018

Beret McKesson (jaymc), Monday, 1 January 2018 23:51 (six years ago) link

Robert Schumann.

pomenitul, Monday, 1 January 2018 23:54 (six years ago) link


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