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Re: (TV) greg reviews Joanna Newsome
I thought Greg's piece was wondeful as well. Not sure about other on this list, but over the past couple of years I found myself using the Pitchfork website as a method of identifying new music and new artists that I might be interested in. If Pitchfork gave a glowing review (9.0 or higher) then I made sure to pick up the CD. And you know what? I have already sold most of those CD's back to the used CD store. No matter how hard I tried, I just could not connect with the music.
At first I thought something must be wrong with me. How could I not absolutely love music that the arbiter of such things claimed was great. I honestly believe that there is social pressure to conform and to convince oneself that certain music is great, even if that cuts against what our guts tell us. It works in reverse as well - how many of us like certain artists that we are embarrassed to admit to others. The ipod is the true test of this - just look over the songs on someone's ipod and I'm sure you will run across tunes that they don't want others to know about.
After awhile, I decided that Pitchfork has become the US version of New Musical Express. Plenty of hype and flavors of the month, but a year later everyone has forgotten about it. They don't necessarily do as good a job as one would like in identifying "great" new music.
That's not to say that artists like Joanna Newsom, Fiery Furnaces, Decemberists, Shins, etc. are inherently lousy artists. I think each of them has talent in their own way. At the same time, however, I think these artists have a great deal of purely average ability as well. Some good songs. Some average songs. Some filler. Overall, nothing special. And certainly nothing that warrants the amount of praise heaped upon them by the press.
Maybe I'm just getting old and falling into to mindset of "I've heard that music before, and all I hear now are recycled ideas". But, I think not. I still become enamored with a handul of CD's every year that touch me both viscerally and emotionally. Some of those CD's are basic guitar, bass, drums, vocals that are not musically quirky (say, in the way of Joanna Newsome), but they still pack wallop. My favorite album this year is Jubilee Drive, by The Drams. Nothing unique about the music except that the tunes are exceptional, and the lyrics highly incisive.
Sometimes new and quirky things truly are works of art that deserve our full attention. But they deserve that attention because of their art, not simply because they are so different from the mainstream.
And just so you don't think that I reject music for simply being different, I'm now going to finish listening to Trout Mask Replica, which was playing here in my car before I started typing away.
-----Original Message-----
From: robin dunn <rdunnrn@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2006 09:00:43
To:tv@obbard.com
Subject: Re: (TV) greg reviews Joanna Newsome
--- grntg <grntg@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Sprout and Bean video - good thing I'm only slightly
> drunk otherwise all that spinning would lead to
> disastourous consequences for yours truly.
greg, i truly did enjoy this, and in fact was so
intimidated by it that i can't go forward with my
black angels live review as planned. good work!
r
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