If you have
been keeping track, you may have expected some music writing anecdotes last
week, and that didn't end up happening. What I was trying to get at turned out
to be more complex than I thought, or at least my path to it was more complex,
and so, I am once again off schedule. This is so normal.
Anyway, I
do have some things I can say. It will probably still be pretty disorganized.
I am almost
done with this phase of daily songs. That was just going to be a run of
Halloween videos, but I was realizing how many great songs there were, and so I
started going through the Guitar Sampler play list and the Best Bridges one. While
that was going on, Farewell My Love was promoting their music video, and a few
bands I had reviewed were coming out with new stuff, and I thought that I
should promote them.
I went
through my reviewed bands spreadsheet and made a list of bands to use. Not
everyone made it, but a lot did. There were some where maybe they are not my
favorite, but still, they are doing a good job at what they do, or I have
personal affection for them, and so I couldn't leave them out.
That's the
amazing thing. I have reviewed 117 bands. There have been two where I felt like
they were bad people and it was affecting the music, a few where I felt they
had insufficient depth for making their music good, and a few where what they
are doing is not really bad but just not my thing. Otherwise, there have been a
lot I love or like or can at least appreciate. That's been pretty cool.
Right now,
I have two from the reviewed list that have not been done yet, so Torche and
Closer to Closure get songs Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday night I will see
Northcote and Dave Hause, and they will get the Thursday and Friday songs,
which wraps up rather neatly. After that, I feel like I want to get in some of
the songs from the Greatest Guitar Songs list and comments that did not make it
into the sampler. Specifically, I will probably focus on the things that came
out in the Women Rock and You Get A Gold Star posts, but I'll look over all my
notes. It was a good project, and I learned a lot, so it bears going back.
I will be
reviewing new bands the whole time, and I hope to have similar luck, and I
suspect when the Emo listening is done, there will be a few songs out of that.
Also, right as we hit Valentine's Day I started regretting not compiling any
love songs, because there were some contenders, and the last time I did that
was so fruitful. However, a friend informs me that in Brazil they celebrate it in summertime. Lots
of stores do Christmas in July; I can do Valentine's in June. We'll see.
There's a lot of music out there.
Something
happened last week with my band reviews that relates to my previous points
about criticism and future points about honesty. I had one hip hop artist and
one hardcore band. I do not love either of these genres.
I have
questioned whether it is fair to even review them, because I am not as
familiar, and I hate giving negative reviews. Still, only reviewing bands I
like seems wrong, and I learn from trying the stuff that I don't expect to
like. I find things that work about hardcore, even though I never pull it up
for pleasure listening. I have found rap that I like, though it tends to be
pretty old school.
So, it
feels like for me to be a better writer, and for my writing to have any
relevance, I need that stretching. It also means sometimes there are negative
reviews, and the rapper got one that was pretty harsh. I debated just not
sending it to him, or only doing it via DM, but apparently you can sent links
via DM, so I did.
The first
response was " well
everyone has a right to there opinion, thanks for the review I guess. I'll try
to take what constructive and use it". Later he re-tweeted my blog with
" WTF moment of
the year. Thx for your time tho", following that quickly with "
thought I would retweet since
you took the time to write about me, even if it is random as all hell and super
negative, lol."
Actually, I
think that is pretty gracious, and it brings up something that maybe you don't
like the negative review, but still having someone write something about you
matters. Having someone pay attention to you resonates.
There are
basically two kinds of compliments that I get on my music reviews. One is when
they compliment my accuracy ("spot on", "nailed it"), which
I love. The other is that I will get feedback like "fair" and
"honest", and I wasn't sure what to make of the honest at first.
Having read some bad music writing, it makes more sense.
There was a
bunch of noise recently about snark versus smarm. There is one summary with
some links at http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/12/snark-vs-smarm-goes-mainstream-179666.html.
In the
referenced Tom Scocca article, he quotes Dave Eggers saying " I wish I could take it all back
because it came from a smelly and ignorant place in me, and spoke with a voice
that was all rage and envy."
Scocca's
criticism of smarm is valid, and his criticism of Eggers. And Eggers has a
point as well, because I do not doubt that there was something smelly inside of
him that came out in fetid criticisms. I just feel like they are all missing
the point.
There is an
element of snark that is gleeful about finding fault. It is not hard to slip
from that into losing perspective, and valuing the nastiness over the accuracy.
Too much emphasis on niceness can end up missing the point too. Maybe instead
of an emphasis on whether the review is mean or nice there should be some focus
on whether the review is accurate. Is it helpful?
Of course I
come back to honesty, because that is my thing and I will write about that more
tomorrow. Part of that honestly is knowing that with taste there is more than
one truth. Tool fills me with rage but they have fans.
When I
review a band, I try and make it helpful. I try and make it helpful to the
reader to know whether they are likely to enjoy the band, and how to find the
music, and I try and make it helpful to the band if I see areas for
improvement. Okay, the one band did seem to do a snarky indirect, but I have
also had bands engage with me, and defend things, and I respect that. They
should believe in their band and their music. I respect that, but also my
attempt to be fair is about respect. There are real people here, who are doing
something creative, and I am going to give them a fair shake.
And, given
the long lead time in reviews, I am usually kind of fond of them by the time we
get to the review. Sometimes it's different. Right now there is one guy - his
review is probably about four months out, and everything about him screams
"Tool!" When I get there and start listening, it may all seem
different, and he could win me over. Or, my instincts may be verified, and it
will be a relief to get the review done and never have to listen to him again.
But writing a scathing review will not be a relief, because I will feel badly
about that, so probably there will be nothing delightfully poisonous, but I
hope just an accurate assessment what the music is like, and maybe what could
be different.
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