[Decayed Rhapsody]

I was watching that Dan Graham interview with Thurston and Kim again and Kim mentioned how rock writing is kind of a dead art. I just got done reading Lester Bangs' "Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung" (excellent) and I'm about to read the biography Jim DeRogatis wrote about him (I heard it's pretty good, even if DeRogatis is an insufferable hack). The thing about people like Bangs, Meltzer, sometimes Coley, is that they're amazing as writers first and foremost, irrespective of the critical clout they bring to the table. Oftentimes Bangs will go on some elaborate tangent that has nothing to do with the music and you're still captivated. "James Taylor Marked For Death" is stunning. I can't think of anyone being that polemical and brilliant in recent times. I'm not enthused by many music publications today. Mark Prindle's reviews are truly funny stuff, he's honest and isn't looking to kiss anyone's ass. I don't even need to address Pitchfork. The Wire is way too academic and self-important most of the time. Certain Blastitude features have been awesome. Are there any music writers active now that are good WRITERS besides being music critcs? It doesn't have to be "rock" necessarily. The jazz writing world is one major area I'm wholly ignorant in.

[chrome noise tape]

the only Contemporary Music Writing i care is that:

 

Luciano Berio

 

[me.]

A book i keep meaning to pick up is Alex Ross's 'Rest is Noise:Listening to the 20th century', not really in the Lester Bangs style ,but might be worth reading, here's his blog, look whats on his playlist... s.y...

http://www.therestisnoise.com/

[demonrail666]

Good topic for a thread.

I think Lester Bangs nailed that whole gonzo Rock writer as Rock star thing. He was helped by having decent taste but I increasingly can't read his stuff simply because after a few lines it becomes achingly clear how he really wanted to be a musician more than anything else. Ditto Nick Kent (minus the good taste). I think this is probably true of all music critics but in the case of Lester it was just taking things a bit too far.

Greil Marcus I like. His 'Presliad' essay on Elvis is still my favourite piece of writing about RnR, as well as a short piece he wrote about Neil Young that I can't remember the name of.

Stanley Booth's 'Rhythm Oil' about Southern Blues is fantastic but probably a bit too specific in its topic to have broad appeal. A great piece of music writing nonetheless.

More recently, I always find Simon Reynolds interesting even if i rarely find myself agreeing with him and hate the whole dissensus thing that he's spawned.

I don't read any of the really contemporary writers. I don't even know who they are. Although I reckon a few people who post here would make a decent fist of it, assuming they aren't already.

[Toilet & Bowels]

Jeff Chang, his book Can't Stop Won't Stop about the birth & rise of hiphop is fascinating.

Roland Woodbe, best record reviews ever. Here: http://siltblog.blogspot.com/

Byron Coley, if you don't know him then flick through a copy of the Wire and read his singles review column, it's pretty much the only tolerable thing in there.

Dave Tomkins, he used to write for the Wire but doesn't seem to anymore, his hiphop reviews were always a lot of fun to read even though I usually finished reading them none the wiser about what the record sounded like, or if it was any good. One of my favourite quotes from him was something he said about the Neptunes at the height of their popularity, he described them as "sitting on a bean bag full of unused vacation hours"
here's an article of his i just found through google http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?f...ogId=301888715

Phil Shapiro, another Wire writer, he seemed to go the way of all Wire writers who have a sense of humour, i.e. I don't think he's at the magazine any more.

[Toilet & Bowels]

The dudes who wrote for Ego Trip magazine were all fun to read too.

[Decayed Rhapsody]

Thanks! I will check them out.