Tag: music criticism

• Positional pricing, positional leverage

  To understand positional leverage, we first need a theory of public belief. My contention is that—to give a “just so” story from our evolutionary history—humans have traditionally lived in relatively small communities, where individual opinion held some sway in group decision-making, if only by exerting tacit pressure on a chieftain or council of elders. (We…

  suspendedreason

  August 4, 2021

  Essays

  art criticism, belief, Camille Paglia, Game B, Jane Austen, metacriticism, music criticism, Pierre Bourdieu, strategic interaction

• Bodega’s Endless Scroll

  The band members’ silhouettes are soft against Brooklyn Bazaar’s trademark stained-glass as Bodega starts their set. Madison of ONWE channels David Byrne’s hollow stare, set in concentration. Nikki Belfiglio plays a converted computer keyboard as percussion before bite-smooching frontman Ben Hozie’s cheek. Live audio, Bodega at KEXP. Catch lyrics from Neil Young’s “Harvest” and Can’s “Vitamin C” from…

  suspendedreason

  December 5, 2018

  Blog

  Bodega Bay, music criticism, ONWE, pop music, Tom Ewing

• Regarding Rockism, pt 1: Black Truths, Noble Savages

  I. Introduction Controversy over Lana Del Rey has centered around everything from her singing ability and views on feminism to her interview last year with the Guardian in which she opined on musicians who have died young. (“Glamorous?” she was asked. “Ummmm, yeah.”) But within music criticism circles, one of the primary topics of conversation has been…

  suspendedreason

  November 23, 2015

  Essays

  authenticity, blues, fetish, folk, Lana Del Rey, meta-criticism, music, music criticism, Nitsuh Abebe, nostalgia, Pitchfork, pop music, poptimism, rockism

• Our Brand Could Be Your Life

  1. Belgian metafictionist Jean-Philippe Toussaint, like many of his postmodern peers, focuses the attention of his novels not just on their immediate stories but on how stories in general operate: the ways that truth and artifice intersect or overlap, and how narrators can bias narrative or vice-versa. In Bodega Bay’s debut LP Our Brand Could Be…

  suspendedreason

  August 24, 2015

  Essays

  Aiko Masubuchi, Ben Hozie, Bodega Bay, Elaine Scarry, Joe Wakeman, lo-fi, music criticism, pop music, The Velvet Underground

• How To Leave Town

  “I don’t think it’s possible to make art that makes sense to people if you don’t spend some time doing normal things,” Car Seat Headrest’s Will Toledo wrote earlier this week in response to an anonymous Tumblr fan question (echoing David Foster Wallace’s now-infamous quote to David Lipsky about treasuring his “normal-guyness”). To both Wallace and Toledo’s work, establishing…

  suspendedreason

  July 27, 2015

  Blog

  Brian Wilson, Car Seat Headrest, David Foster Wallace, music criticism, pop music, The Beach Boys, Will Toledo

• Oh Boy: Christopher Owens, Headspace, and Artistic Irony

  I’ve been thinking a lot lately about two songs in my record collection. One is Jimmie Rodgers’ “T.B. Blues,” considered by some musicologists (e.g. Hugh Barker and Yuval Taylor) to be one of the first popular autobiographical songs. Rodgers made a career out of singing songs about other people—miners, gamblers, gunslingers, jailbirds. But in 1931,…

  suspendedreason

  January 28, 2015

  Blog

  alt lit, authenticity, Bob Dylan, Christopher Owens, Jimmie Rodgers, music criticism, New Sincerity, pop music, Ryder Ripps