Brad, let's start an email newsletter or something about awesome rock bands. fill an unfilled niche, enjoy writing again. maybe someone who has had some success with the newsletter format (which seems to be a thing?) can provide some guidance?
― alpine static, Saturday, 17 November 2018 11:06 (five years ago) link
Bandcamp is looking for a writer/editor to take the spot of Marcus Moore who is leaving to finish a book on Kendrick Lamar. Bandcamp wants someone who knows hiphop and jazz and more.
LA Times is hiring a music editor
https://www.journalismjobs.com/1649049-music-editor-los-angeles-times
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 17 November 2018 13:55 (five years ago) link
thanks y'all, it is especially heartening to read these things from some of my favorite posters here <3
i tried doing a newsletter a few years ago but couldn't really keep up with it, but that was more a vehicle for mixes and maybe if i took that side work out of the equation i could just focus on the writing. it def wouldn't be about new emo or rock music bc... idk, it gets harder and harder for me to write anything substantial about music i haven't lived with for a while. thinking about it still
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Saturday, 17 November 2018 14:11 (five years ago) link
very sad to hear this brad :( :(
― mark s, Saturday, 17 November 2018 14:19 (five years ago) link
"Quitting pursuits that are decreasing in personal enjoyment levels and/or compensation/sustainability is a super underrated move even if it feels shitty at the time so I can't help but support this decision."
Having sacked music journalism for similar reasons, I'd say this is wise. Good luck with whatever you do next.
― djh, Monday, 19 November 2018 18:14 (five years ago) link
Only just saw this, sorry for that (full week last week). Wish I had more concrete advice to offer but ultimately I'd say you'd want to find your best balance in what is ever more increasingly a shifting-sands landscape. And I've long since concluded that there is absolutely no one sure way to do that.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 19 November 2018 18:56 (five years ago) link
Brad, nooooooooooooooooooooooooo
I know, man. I KNOW. I have had very real frustrations in the last 2-3 years and felt myself close to walking away, too. But you're too smart and knowledgeable and insightful to leave this profession. So stay.
― Groove(box) Denied (Raymond Cummings), Monday, 19 November 2018 23:56 (five years ago) link
(Your review of the last Green Day album was deeply on point. Did I mention that?)
― Groove(box) Denied (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 20 November 2018 00:02 (five years ago) link
https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8530075/spin-stereogum-vibe-layoffs
Lay-offs at Spin, Stereogum, and Vibe. Includes an ilxor or maybe several.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 17 September 2019 14:05 (four years ago) link
Several friends posted updates on social media yesterday. Ugh.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 17 September 2019 15:01 (four years ago) link
Bezos shut down on 1 day notice the Express, a free Washington Post published paper that employed some arts writers
https://www.washingtonian.com/2019/09/13/the-washington-post-killed-express-in-such-a-shabby-way/
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 17 September 2019 15:38 (four years ago) link
Owner of the OC Weekly suddenly shut down that Orange County , California publication
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 30 November 2019 23:00 (four years ago) link
Jeff Weiss tweet excerpt: LA Weekly, OC Weekly, East Bay Express, and San Diego City Beat destroyed by greedy mayonnaise brained ghouls in the last 2 years alone. That’s basically four of the five biggest markets in California. Can’t stress how deep the impact is.
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 30 November 2019 23:04 (four years ago) link
Greg Kot took a buyout at the Chicago Tribune, which is currently capitulating to new corporate overlord Alden Global Capital. He was always great to me, and a boon to the beleaguered major city paper beat.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 6 February 2020 02:40 (four years ago) link
https://www.robertfeder.com/2020/02/05/music-critic-greg-kot-leaving-chicago-tribune/
Kot taking a buyout and retiring as Chicago Tribume music critic at age 62.
Still gonna do radio show
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 6 February 2020 04:13 (four years ago) link
I liked his book Ripped.
― clemenza, Friday, 7 February 2020 03:10 (four years ago) link
I wonder if Chicago Tribune will hire a replacement
― curmudgeon, Friday, 7 February 2020 18:17 (four years ago) link
My guess is they will appoint a nominal replacement, but everything I hear I hear out of there is dire. DeRogatis's wife worked in the arts section, and she just took a buyout, too. Budgets (and assignments) have been decimated.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 7 February 2020 18:30 (four years ago) link
Chicago Tribune has done itself no favors. Just running itself into the ground for the last decade plus. Endorsed Gary Johnson ffs. Best wishes to Kot who is by all accounts an incredibly good human.
― Indexed, Friday, 7 February 2020 19:20 (four years ago) link
A friend tweeted "I honestly don't remember a time when Kot wasn't the pop music critic of the Trib," which is the same for me. He'd been in that role since 1990. I haven't read his Trib reviews in a while, but I'm a longtime Sound Opinions listener, and I've always been super-impressed with his thoughtfulness and the range of music he's open to (including jazz and international stuff).
― jaymc, Friday, 7 February 2020 19:31 (four years ago) link
In other news , the Ringer that has some music coverage, has unionized, but it also got bought by Spotify.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 7 February 2020 19:54 (four years ago) link
This applies to any kind of online writing.
I'm sure most do already, but if you have any kind of writing on a blog or a web page, I'd start backing it up on a flash drive or something. I was thinking that some of these platforms just aren't going to survive this. You would hope they'd give notice, but you never know. I've had a homepage on Tripod (true!) for 20+ years, so--always figuring they'd disappear overnight one day--I've already done this, and also with a couple of WordPress-related things.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 1 April 2020 21:54 (four years ago) link
I should do that Clemenza. A few publications I have written for , changed how the archived material, so the articles are now gone , although the publications are holding on.
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 25 April 2020 15:12 (four years ago) link
The Austin-American Statesman has eliminated the music/arts writer position of Joe Gross who had been there full time for 18 plus years, and writing for them for nearly 20. Joe also wrote a 33 & 1/3 on Fugazi ‘s In on the Killtaker
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 25 April 2020 15:15 (four years ago) link
I haven't had contact with Joe for 25 years, but he contributed to a couple of issues of a fanzine I put out in the '90s--hasn't he been with Rolling Stone, too?
― clemenza, Saturday, 25 April 2020 16:23 (four years ago) link
yes.
― curmudgeon, Monday, 27 April 2020 05:50 (three years ago) link
have been more or less continuously burnt out since 2013 but lately it seems particularly bad (not helping: all the opportunities I've squandered that might have improved outcomes for me)
― like, I’m eating an elephant head (katherine), Monday, 4 May 2020 16:31 (three years ago) link
Sorry about that. It's rough out there
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 6 May 2020 04:29 (three years ago) link
there just seems to be no winning. either you write a lukewarm-to-negative review and are yelled at for years (I'm still hearing from j*hn m*yer fans) from stans, or you write a positive review and are yelled at because you couldn't force yourself to dislike an album by an artist the internet has deemed a "plant" (a label that seems to be applied incredibly selectively, out of the pool of people it could be applied to). and that too has no statute of limitations
― like, I’m eating an elephant head (katherine), Wednesday, 6 May 2020 14:20 (three years ago) link
(or you don't write a review and then are yelled at because you aren't approaching it the right way and aren't "grounded in music," as we have seen)
― like, I’m eating an elephant head (katherine), Wednesday, 6 May 2020 14:21 (three years ago) link
The internet is full of idiots who will yell at you regardless. The only person you need to please as a critic is yourself (and obviously your commissioning editor).
A shitty Britpop band started a hate thread about me on their official Twitter page last week in response to an NME review I wrote 21 years ago. The thread was full of people saying horrible, shitty things about me that bore no relationship to reality, and a few of these numbnuts started posting messages on my personal website. It was annoying, but it died out a couple of days later, and it doesn't matter. Don't let these assholes get you down, Katherine - you can't win with them, and they don't deserve your concern or attention. Just write the review that aligns closest with how you feel in that moment. That's all you can do. If they don't like it they can choke on it.
― Pinche Cumbion Bien Loco (stevie), Wednesday, 6 May 2020 14:34 (three years ago) link
that's awful, I'm really sorry
― like, I’m eating an elephant head (katherine), Wednesday, 6 May 2020 14:36 (three years ago) link
(that said, in the latter case, it isn't coming from "idiots" but colleagues I respect. and yet I cannot force myself to dislike the artists in question or think their music is bad. shaming has not accomplished it.)
― like, I’m eating an elephant head (katherine), Wednesday, 6 May 2020 14:51 (three years ago) link
You shouldn't! And if those colleagues aren't idiots then they'll respect that you won't dislike those artists just because they won't. I know this sort of thing can be rough, especially as a freelancer. But in the end, the only thing you can do is be true to yourself and let the chips fall when they may. You have to believe other people will respect your fidelity to your own beliefs, and if they don't, well, you could never have won them over anyway.
The Shed Seven thing was more bizarrely amusing and a depressing index on how thick huge swathes of people can be, really. The thing that bummed me out was this insinuation that, even 21 years ago, I was some kind of cynical hack out to take bands down and be cruel, when actually I've spent most of my career championing lost causes and leftfield artists. (Also, the review they were pilloring me for was legit awful, so I didn't even want to defend myself). But at the end of the week I had a conversation with one of my favourite artists who told me that a question I'd asked him and his bandmate in an interview a year before had helped them confront issues in their relationship, and led to them making music together again. It's that sort of thing that really matters, not the yelling from people who don't like what you like.
― Pinche Cumbion Bien Loco (stevie), Wednesday, 6 May 2020 15:28 (three years ago) link
https://www.startribune.com/city-pages-is-closing-ending-the-era-of-alternative-weeklies-in-twin-cities/572897771/
City Pages is being shut down in Minneapolis. Occasional ilxor Ke*th H*rris was an editor there. Bad decision, partially Covid driven.
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 28 October 2020 17:39 (three years ago) link
this sucks all around but yeah keith is one of the best living music writers and it sucks to see him out of the job
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Wednesday, 28 October 2020 17:43 (three years ago) link
sorry should've google-proofed
The biggest of bummers.
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 28 October 2020 18:27 (three years ago) link
I don’t think anyone should publish a year-end list in 2020. The plague has completely fucked the musical ecosystem. Artists who can't tour are out the money they'd have spent publicizing their albums, which skews critics' attention even more heavily than usual toward the shit that bigger labels can afford to push their way. If you *must* run a list this year, run it like a mutual aid society. Draw attention to artists who really, really need the spotlight to shine on them for just a minute. Pop acts already have all the money and most of the attention; do they really deserve the critical love, too? In my heart of hearts I believe that if more than 25% of your year-end list is made up of major label releases, you're a lazy hack and should get out of the game, because you're not helping artists.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Monday, 2 November 2020 14:09 (three years ago) link
That doesn’t really work in the pop/r&b space, where majors sign cool/interesting/offbeat artists pretty quickly these days.
― Tim Simms (morrisp), Monday, 2 November 2020 15:00 (three years ago) link
https://memecrunch.com/meme/C3S7I/guess-whos-back-back-again/image.jpg
"I’m not going to say we’re retarded, or slow, although both things have definitely been said about us and, sadly, more than once, but we just haven’t grown up much."
https://www.spin.com/2020/11/times-flies-when-youre-having-fun-spin-is-35/
― Frozen CD, Monday, 2 November 2020 15:32 (three years ago) link
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/02/arts/music/minneapolis-city-pages-music.html
Keith H in NY Times on legacy of music critic writing in the now shut down City Pages in Minneapolis
― curmudgeon, Monday, 2 November 2020 19:42 (three years ago) link
Cool.
― Meet the Anti-Monks! (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 3 November 2020 03:31 (three years ago) link
I write one album review a month for a publication that has to cover certain "big" albums, which means often I'm reviewing something to meet the publication's priorities. Which is fine! I fully understand how this all works, and I appreciate that they let me hang around.
But I'd like to find a place to review smaller, more underground / fringe stuff. I'd really love to avoid a super competitive pitch environment and just find a low-key / DIY-type spot that will let me do a review or two per month on stuff I'm interested in / excited about. (While I believe strongly that writers should get paid for their work and have been doing so for many years, I'm willing to do this for free for a place that's trying to cover cool stuff on a shoestring budget.)
Anyone write for (or know of) a place that sounds like it fits the bill?
― alpine static, Thursday, 25 March 2021 05:37 (three years ago) link
Aquarium Drunkard?
― Paul Ponzi, Thursday, 25 March 2021 09:08 (three years ago) link
I run Burning Ambulance and am very open to contributions. What have you got in mind? Email burning ambulance at gmail if you like...
― but also fuck you (unperson), Thursday, 25 March 2021 10:29 (three years ago) link
Have written for Aqua Drunkard, which I love and am proud to have some bylines there and hope to have more. And thanks for the heads up, unperson. What you're doing is (and always has been) awesome. I may very well take you up on that.
I probably wasn't very clear. I'm not so much saying "Who's taking pitches" ... more like trying to get a sense for what other sites are out there that do something like this: http://post-trash.com/reviews
But not, like, Pitchfork and other big places that everyone is trying to crack.
― alpine static, Thursday, 25 March 2021 17:53 (three years ago) link
Hit me up too if interested.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 25 March 2021 17:54 (three years ago) link
You mean for Humanizing the Vacuum, or something else? (Sorry, I don't keep up with the Web these days.)
― dow, Friday, 26 March 2021 00:08 (three years ago) link
RIP Ed Ward---good interview from the Fresh Air archives, replayed this week: can read, stream, download (incl.one of his early faves, by the "5" Royales)https://www.npr.org/2021/05/06/994267788/fresh-air-remembers-rock-historian-ed-wardHe was our rock historian from 1987 until 2017, sharing music he loved. Asked if he listens to much recent music, he replies,Oh, I listen mostly to contemporary rock music. It's only when I have to do these shows that I pull out...
GROSS: (Laughter) We make you go back to those old records.
WARD: I pull out the old records and go, geez. This happens to other people too,
― dow, Saturday, 8 May 2021 18:22 (two years ago) link