I’m writing again! I had a bit of a break because I was employed by publications that didn’t want me doing music writing for other places, which was a bummer. But that’s a common part of full-time staff life. Anyway, I wrote my first little bits for rollingstone.com and a new review for Pitchfork — my first review for them in four years. Links over on my clips page.
reviews
New pieces: rollingstone.com and Pitchfork
I’m writing again! I had a bit of a break because I was employed by publications that didn’t want me doing music writing for other places, which was a bummer. But that’s a common part of full-time staff life. Anyway, I wrote my first little bits for
Recent stuff: ABC, Stereogum, Spin, Pitchfork, Sound of the City
ABC World News Webcast: Loney Dears’s Dear John Pains Of Being Pure At Heart S/T Progress Reports on Stereogum: Nick Thorburn (Islands, Human Highway) The Wrens (in Q & A form, because they’re hilarious) Grizzly Bear Spin Magazine reviews (I think this is the same print issue
ABC World News Webcast:
Loney Dears’s Dear John
Pains Of Being Pure At Heart S/T
Progress Reports on Stereogum:
Nick Thorburn (Islands, Human Highway)
The Wrens (in Q & A form, because they’re hilarious)
Grizzly Bear
Spin Magazine reviews (I think this is the same print issue as the last batch, but I think Spin staggers print reviews when they put them online):
Beirut / Realpeople March of the Zapotec / Holland
Black Gold Rush
Asobi Seksu Hush
Vetiver Tight Knit
Pitchfork reviews:
Deerhoof Live EP
Benjy Ferree Come Back To The Five And Dime, Bobby Dee Bobby Dee
Sound Of The City:
Listening to Sufjan’s “The Lonely Man of Winter” in Crown Heights
Recent stuff: Pitchfork.tv, Stereogum, Paste, Spin, Sound Of The City
I interviewed Okkervil River for Pitchfork.tv: Part 1 and Part 2. I reviewed Beyonce’s I Am Sasha Fierce for Paste. New Project Reports are up on Stereogum for Röyksopp and Phoenix. I also reviewed Matt and Kim’s Grand, A.C. Newman’s Get Guilty and Andrew
I interviewed Okkervil River for Pitchfork.tv: Part 1 and Part 2.
I reviewed Beyonce’s I Am Sasha Fierce for Paste.
New Project Reports are up on Stereogum for Röyksopp and Phoenix.
I also reviewed Matt and Kim’s Grand, A.C. Newman’s Get Guilty and Andrew Bird’s Noble Beast for Spin.
I wrote about a “conversation” between LCD Soundsytem’s James Murphy and novelist Sam Lipsyte for Sound Of The City.
Limbo, Panto review on Pitchfork
My review of Wild Beasts’ Limbo, Panto is up on Pitchfork right now. One of my favorites of the year.
My review of Wild Beasts’ Limbo, Panto is up on Pitchfork right now. One of my favorites of the year.
Recent stuff (Stereogum, Pitchfork, Sound Of The City)
My new “Progress Report” column on Stereogum started last week. So far there’s Midlake and Andrew Bird, but there will be so, so many more. I saw Drew Daniel read from his new 33 1/3 book and dance with a golden pillow penis between his legs at Housing
My new “Progress Report” column on Stereogum started last week. So far there’s Midlake and Andrew Bird, but there will be so, so many more.
I saw Drew Daniel read from his new 33 1/3 book and dance with a golden pillow penis between his legs at Housing Works. I was amazed. Then I wrote about it for Sound Of The City.
I also reviewed Danielson’s Trying Hartz and Nissenenmondai’s Neji/Tori for Pitchfork.
Then I reviewed Desolation Wilderness’ White Light Strobing for eMusic. That album’s really great, I hope it gets more attention.
Then I learned the choreography for about five seconds of “Single Ladies.”
Hallelujah The Hills, Deerhoof, time management
It seems like ever since I got my iPhone (installed the WordPress application), I haven’t had much to blog about. I am working, as usual (here’s a new Hallelujah The Hills EP review. I like this band but I’m still waiting for…something. I don’t know.
It seems like ever since I got my iPhone (installed the WordPress application), I haven’t had much to blog about. I am working, as usual (here’s a new Hallelujah The Hills EP review. I like this band but I’m still waiting for…something. I don’t know. Their moment’s forthcoming).
On Paper Thin Walls, editors Chris, Kory and I recorded our own version of Deerhoof’s sheet music project. Writer Tom Mallon produced it! My Ableton Live was set wrong (still on DJ mode, which means it warped the beat a little bit), so it meant my keyboard track was almost 10 seconds too fast. Tom kindly recut it. I had never recorded anything to a track before on Ableton. I kind of loved it. I might have to do more of that soon.
That’s also gotten me thinking about projects and dividing up my time. I use GTD, I do a lot of checklists and time tracking. But I’m still wondering how I could better spend my time. I’m spending the rest of the month asking people I know how they read / write / curate shows and exhibits / get to shows so much and still exercize / make dinner / have time to answer questions from me.
No Age in Paper Magazine
My review of No Age’s Nouns is in Paper Magazine this month, and up on the site as well. I am realizing that deciding to only post MP3s labels/bands have said are okay to post is quite difficult when it’s not the song you want to talk
My review of No Age’s Nouns is in Paper Magazine this month, and up on the site as well. I am realizing that deciding to only post MP3s labels/bands have said are okay to post is quite difficult when it’s not the song you want to talk about, and when it’s your personal blog and not Forkcast or Paper Thin Walls. Well.
[audio:https://jessicasuarez.com/audio/no_age_eraser.mp3|titles=Eraser|artists=No Age]
Paste Magazine review - Liz Phair's Exile In Guyville reissue
My first longer, featured review for Paste is in mailboxes and available via the digital version of the magazine. “Ant In Alaska” was one of the bonus tracks I wrote about, and it’s the most interesting of those unreleased bits. (courtesy of Stereogum). I tend to approach albums lyrics-first,
My first longer, featured review for Paste is in mailboxes and available via the digital version of the magazine.
“Ant In Alaska” was one of the bonus tracks I wrote about, and it’s the most interesting of those unreleased bits. (courtesy of Stereogum). I tend to approach albums lyrics-first, a good approach when it comes to Guyville especially, and I love Phair’s sparse, but deadly seriousness here.
[audio:https://jessicasuarez.com/audio/liz_phair-ant_in_alaska.mp3|titles=Ant In Alaska|artists=Liz Phair]
I just want more of the same
Yesterday I paid the last $20 of my library fine. I didn’t have anything new to pick up since my fine stopped me from reserving books. I tried browsing at the New York Ottendorfer Library branch, an easy/difficult thing to do since their fiction section is entirely contained
Yesterday I paid the last $20 of my library fine. I didn’t have anything new to pick up since my fine stopped me from reserving books. I tried browsing at the New York Ottendorfer Library branch, an easy/difficult thing to do since their fiction section is entirely contained within a dozen small shelves. There were two Edith Wharton books, neither of which I wanted. No copies of “Confederacy of Dunces.” But I did noticed a large number of mystery novels (three shelves’ worth), books that no one reads but everyone reads. Mark mentioned a friend who used to proof(listen) mystery audiobooks. He’d check the audio against the book, feeling for certain the reader had misread, but more often it was a grammar/plot mistake in the book. He was given two days per audiobook. That’s the kind of quality control they put into mystery novels, and it makes sense. They’re obviously segregated by genre because readers care about the genre, the ingredients, more than they care who’s cooking.
My favorite example of this is the “The Cat Who” series. I guess it’s easy to make fun of the housewives this series is directed toward, the people who like mysteries and cats so much that they had to read about them together. This fan site for the author (Lilian Jackson-Braun, who is in her seventies and lives with her husband and two cats), doesn’t help: there are links to fan fiction, a broken message board, and ‘your daily horoscope.’ The author also has a link to a page about her ‘hubby,’ along with the dates he left the military and went to a WWF matchup.
I think being a fan necessarily means accepting that you’ll like someone or something regardless of diminishing quality, so I guess being a fan is necessarily lowbrow. I don’t think you can be a fan of a static thing: you can’t be a fan of a single TV episode, a single book, or film. You’ve got to be a fan of the author, series, characters, actor and then hope for the best, though quality always diminishes. Maybe it’s the lowbrow-ness that makes being a fan of something uncool, more than the fan-ness itself. Taste, an aspect of being cool, means discernment, fandom means no-discernment. You can’t qualify, you can’t say you like Weezer, but only the first two albums and maybe Make Believe, Simpsons but only the first five seasons, Star Wars but only the last three episodes. You’ve got to embrace it all.
On another note, the lady with the Lilian Jackson-Braun fansite also put up a Jim Carrey fan page. As someone who made her dad drive 10 people to the opening night of the Mask, who still has every word of Ace Ventura memorized, and who wrote Jim Carrey a fan letter every week for a year, I, uh, agree/approve. This has had its ups and downs: down, quite a bit, when The Majestic came out; back up for Eternal Sunshine, back down since.
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I have a track review on PTW, of a pretty bad Architecture In Helsinki track. It reminded me of the similar, but much better Scottish twee band Bearsuit. I’ve been meaning to occasionally post (legal!) MP3s I’ve been listening to, once in a while. Here’s one.
[audio:https://jessicasuarez.com/audio/bearsuit-itsuko_got_married.mp3]
Recently in IRL
Two short profiles of M. Ward and Emily Haines, in the last and current issues of Paste (along with a couple of reviews in the former). Paste is becoming my favorite place to write for (next to Pitchfork, because nothing beats hate mail), and I’m not just saying that
Two short profiles of M. Ward and Emily Haines, in the last and current issues of Paste (along with a couple of reviews in the former). Paste is becoming my favorite place to write for (next to Pitchfork, because nothing beats hate mail), and I’m not just saying that because my editor there reads and comments on my entries.
Also, some short reviews in Paper and something for Resonance. I don’t have much coming up, because I’ve been doing more at CMJ, and trying to catch up with stuff on the Pitchfork and Paper Thing Walls side.
I’m working on a singles review of the Women Take Back The Noise comp. Playing around with the packaging over the last two nights, Mark and I discovered that Tobey hates noise. He doesn’t seem to mind the playing, but the making. Proof. Check the glockenspiel moneyshot at the end. I found it in the trash a few month ago, and I can play the opening eight notes of “Chicago” by Sufjan Stevens and “Be Gentle With Me” by Boy Least Likely To.
Also, I’ve been reading a lot of this blog over the last two days. It belongs to Sean Nelson, whom I talked to for a story last week, and whom I possibly offended by calling the interview ‘funny and sad’. Anyway. His blog is ostensibly about music but is a lot more personal than most music writers’ blogs (and yes, it’s funny and sad too). I should know better than to keep favorite interviews locked away in (senti)mental files, but whatever. This one can sit next to the Unicorns, Man Man, Danielson, and Feist.
Finally: 