| Author | Message | ||
     Matsrep Member Username: Matsrep Post Number: 114 Registered: 10-2005 |
This week: the Go-Betweens. Written by a passionate fan. I have not read it all yet, and do not approve of everything said (about Grant the bass player), but it's well written, and with insight (the right picks from SMAL etc.). I guess it will continue all week? http://oneweekoneband.tumblr.com/tagged/ the_go_betweens/chrono | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 744 Registered: 04-2005 |
Cheers Matsrep, Wow, that'll certainly keep me occupied at work when there's not much to do! | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 745 Registered: 04-2005 |
Ah, I've just realised that the author is the occasional contributor to this very board, one Victor Edwin Prose. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 4787 Registered: 05-2005 |
Thanks for this link. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 2503 Registered: 10-2004 |
Andrew, so Ryan Maffei is Victor Edwin Prose? As for these posts, I appreciate the guy's passion for the subject, but lordy, that boy is in desperate need of an editor. He's a bit too much in love with his own "voice" to know when to stop. I mean, even Paul Morley could write a much more concise piece without sacrificing his penchant for colorful verbiage. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 746 Registered: 04-2005 |
Jeff, I strongly suspect so. If not then there were two Go-Betweens obsessives in the same band (The Pozniaks). Note: use of the term 'obsessive' is not meant to be derogatory ! I think that I am an obsessive when it comes to the Go-Betweens. But as with any art form writing, there can be just way too much analysis. I think that the articles stray into that area. I can't stand Frank Zappa's music but his quote 'Writing about music is like dancing about architecture' springs to mind. However reading them makes me want to listen to the records, so that ain't no bad thing ? | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 2504 Registered: 10-2004 |
Andrew, I definitely consider myself an obsessive as well, and I love reading good music journalism. And any piece of writing that makes you want to revisit old favorites is a good thing. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3017 Registered: 03-2005 |
Yes, it's too long and over elaborate but I think he can be forgiven a lot when he offers this description: "The glow of golden-era pop as projected through a broken-bottle kaleidoscope." I see the building in that dance step. Wonderful. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 2507 Registered: 10-2004 |
Randy, that is indeed a great line, and there are certainly others. But then you get stuff like this: "What is most striking about their history is embedded inextricably in the music, the audible war of the quality of an outfits work with the level of popular recognition and adulation said work undeniably warrants, and the damage that failure to register wreaks on the historical narrative said work is indissolubly affected by." It's like, how can we make a fairly simple concept sound as pretentious, convoluted, and verbose as possible? This guy is in his early 20s, and he sometimes writes with the kind of unfiltered ostentatiousness that English Lit majors in their early 20s sometimes exhibit, a bit like Pitchfork's writers when it first started out. Still, if these posts lure in any new potential fans, that's a good thing. Some of his pretentiously stated thoughts may say more for the band than the silly, pandering, will-be-dated-in-three-years cover photo for the upcoming comp. (Bellavista and the 78-90 comp had such tasteful and timeless cover art. This new one is just silly, which I at least hope was intentional). | ||
| Victor Edwin Prose Member Username: Victor_prose Post Number: 59 Registered: 04-2009 |
For the record, I wasn't an English Lit major. Or any kind of major for that matter, which is probably part of the problem. | ||
| Matsrep Member Username: Matsrep Post Number: 116 Registered: 10-2005 |
You did OK, Victor! One week, one band. And you picked the right one. Thank you. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 2518 Registered: 10-2004 |
Hey, if there is a band that is worthy of this kind of treatment, it's definitely the Go-Betweens. I hope the page has gotten a lot of traffic. |