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October 29, 2007
Indie Rock contains more than two bands.
Some MS.com'ers had a bit of discussion Friday re: this Sasha Frere-Jones article, (what I deem) a bad exercise in using an important publication to draw tenuous conclusions and justifications based on a personal opinion.
Sadly, the New Yorker, one of my favorite publications, tends to allow this from time to time. The piece had the lack of cohesion and rhythm as the bands (he claims) that seemed to influence his thesis. Also, Wilco and Decemberists do not make up indie rock (and are not incredibly relevant today, when compared to other artists). Spank Rock, LCD Soundsystem, Rapture, Of Montreal... I could go on.
I won't belabor my dissatisfaction with the piece (and subsequent podcast), but to say that it's my belief that SFJ truly does think (and know) way more about music than me, and, thus, he will be likely to have transcendent pieces and very bad pieces mixed in his resume, while I will be doomed to good, average, and pretty bad. What did you think (about the piece, not my mediocre estimations of my music criticism career).
And also (via Gawker), here is an update.
Posted by Keith O'Brien at October 29, 2007 10:28 AM
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Comments
I think it's silly for SFJ to criticize an entire genre of music (well, what he makes into a genre, anyway) for being too much of a genre. If he wants to listen to music with rhythm, then he should listen to something else. It's ridiculous for him to want Arcade Fire and Wilco to make music he wants to hear. If they put some soul into their songs, they're doing it for themselves and not for a critic from The New Yorker.
Posted by: Tyler at October 29, 2007 11:42 AM
Aren't these ridiculously biased proclamations sort of the m.o. of the New Yorker?
Posted by: Randall Monty at October 29, 2007 02:24 PM
