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Post by Mediocrates on Jun 26, 2019 15:55:51 GMT
Guys like that thrive over there. They'd be crushed in an open forum. SHF is a Safe Space for people who like to dunk on the idea of "safe spaces".
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Post by My Avatar Is A Hot Babe on Jun 26, 2019 17:38:45 GMT
Thanks. I can PM you anything that you may be curious about in terms of the guide. Some of my posts were worthy of criticism for sure, but now anything directed at me is just click bait designed to provoke. Not going there. The one that bugged me the most in the original edition was only giving SGT PEPPER 4 stars. Even if one thinks it was overrated, the guide gave all kinds of albums 5 stars because they were "influential". So by that criteria SGT PEPPER should have gotten 5 stars because it sure as heck was "influential". I believe that was corrected in later edition and it now is a 5 star album.
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Post by krabapple on Jul 6, 2019 1:32:32 GMT
I'm torn between loathing Jann wenner (read the biography) and loathing SHites.
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Post by sparky on Jul 6, 2019 2:52:20 GMT
I find that I have plenty of loath to go around.
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Post by FabGear Prophylactic on Jul 9, 2019 18:49:43 GMT
Never succumb to the canard that "a gud kritik is sumbuddy who agrees wiff me", lest ye become like a Hoofy. ------------ I guess there is a serious aspect to the way they're *discussing* this topic; and it's something that's really worrying me. Lots of discussions (not just on that forum) nowadays seem to show a vast amount of hateful energy expended on something that's not only irrelevant, but also way, way back in the distant past. Like the contents of a Rolling Stone rekkid guide. I've been wondering for a few years now why there's so much fire and brimstone righteously spewed over something minor that's over and done, and easily ignored. [Like, don't fucking read a bad book if you don't like it?] But now I'm beginning to think that maybe these folks are showing us (and more importantly each other) what they're going to do to any and all historic documents, minor and major, once they get their hands on the levers of powers. Like tying Dave Marsh down and torturing him until he gives Uriah Heep 4 stars (and not out of 10, Fremer; 4 stars out of 4!). And then re-writing the Guide until he gets it Right! And then there's the Magna Carta! I don't know if the Nazis did, but the Stalinists certainly did that kind of thing. And that's Putin's good-ol'-days, and he's their pin-up boy, so is that maybe the dream? I know; they're getting to me...
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Post by mintyjackhole on Jul 9, 2019 19:27:47 GMT
The only good rock critic was Richard Meltzer, and that's just because he had enough sense not to listen to half the bullshit he was paid to review. Now that people get paid even less to review music and they are stupid enough to listen to all of it music criticism is doomed. And Hoofy's feifdom is the worst because those Yahoo's are all true believers. I mean I may love Thelonious Monk, The Style Council, or gawd help me, Lou Reed's The Raven, but I got enough sense to know most people, especially kids these days don't dig that stuff, in a similar way to me not digging Black Oak Arkansas or The Beach Boys. To think that because something means a lot to me it must mean the same thing to everyone else is almost as stupid as giving Uriah Heap a fair shake and actually listening to them.
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bradman
Better than Steve
Posts: 5,140
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Post by bradman on Jul 9, 2019 20:15:24 GMT
Yeah, let's not get carried away. Nobody needs to listen to Uriah Heep for any reason.
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Post by mintyjackhole on Jul 9, 2019 20:59:51 GMT
Ha, I thought you were going to say The Raven!
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Post by bigmuff on Jul 9, 2019 22:31:03 GMT
"The only good rock critic was Richard Meltzer"
No. And hell no. And I ain't gonna tell you no more.
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Post by mintyjackhole on Jul 9, 2019 23:27:13 GMT
"The only good rock critic was Richard Meltzer" No. And hell no. And I ain't gonna tell you no more. You're right, Nick Tosches was good too, until he started hanging out with Johnny Depp.
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Post by bigmuff on Jul 9, 2019 23:55:11 GMT
I've enjoyed reading and laughing with (not at) you guys for a long time, and I have no intention of getting into mudslinging matches here. I got enough shit in the real world to deal with.
But I will say, from my perspective, to even think about comparing Meltzer to Bangs is laughable in the extreme. I'm talking as a writer here. I can practically quote entire Bangs paragraphs, and god knows how many one or two line killers, from memory. And I can do (and have done) this from first reading them in Creem, Musician, and wherever else 40-45 years ago, not from 5 or 10 ago from the books. Is anybody honestly going to tell me they can do that with Meltzer? But don't get me wrong - if you dig him, that's cool. But I do tend to think history - such as it is or will be at this point - will lean towards my side on this one.
But we are mostly in agreement on the rest. Though I'll make a special exception for Christgau, who is one of the most detestable pieces of know-nothing shit that's ever walked the planet. And that's my "nice" version of my opinion on him.
And to appropriately finish here where I started - cut the damn camera.
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bradman
Better than Steve
Posts: 5,140
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Post by bradman on Jul 10, 2019 0:24:59 GMT
It may not get nerdier than a Rock Critic fight.
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Post by bigmuff on Jul 10, 2019 0:31:49 GMT
That's why I'm gettin' out now.
(Or to stay with my second tier theme - there are 70 billion rock critics in the world - where are they hiding?)
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bradman
Better than Steve
Posts: 5,140
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Post by bradman on Jul 10, 2019 0:36:13 GMT
I'll nerd out and say I've enjoyed Meltzer, Bangs, and Christgau. Don't agree with bunches of it, but it's entertaining.
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Post by mintyjackhole on Jul 10, 2019 0:59:30 GMT
The Real Ultimate Rock Critic Poll! JK... JK... It's funny because I'm the exact opposite, with the exception of one or two pieces I can take or leave Bangs, but I can probably recite whole passages of Meltzer. I have no doubt Bangs will be remembered better than Meltzer, but Bangs was also the ur model of a SHiTe: living like the latest product of a band could either save him or send him into existential crisis. Meltzer, and Tosches for that matter, saw through the hype in a way Bangs never could. Plus Meltzer had enough sense to call out Greil Marcus and Christgau as far back as the seventies, even while the Dean of Rock Criticism was his boss. Oddly, Meltzer is at his best when writing on jazz, but his piece on Dolphy pissed off Gary Gliddens so much he hasn't had a chance to publish much jazz criticism since.
True nothing more geeky than outing ones self as a rock critic fanboy, but Meltzer hipped me to some of my favorite music, from Dolphy to late period Coleman Hawkins to X and the minutemen, while Bangs was writing the definitive pieces on the J. Geils Band and Wet Willy.
Please do not read this as me saying Bangs was not a good writer. He was a very good writer. And get why people, especially critics now dig him, because he was articulate and he meant it man.
Side note, the Depp story is cooler, but I love how Nick Tosches used to pick Lester Bangs' picket at the bar and then lend him his own money to him. Hard to explain why I like such a dick move. I like Mascis more than Barlow too.
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