Acapulco Presents... Delightful Missives from the World of Music "Criticism"

[meshkalina]

Loy the Loyer - time to file a discovery motion. If you do, you find this:

http://www.myspace.com/criigs

Letter writer is Oberlin educated, classically trained and implicitly aghast that none of you fuckin' TB yokels know him and his music while most of you are digging the Orcutt like crazy, as you should be.

Riggs letter is nothing more than a failed NFL QB--now a commentator--saying this about a QB's 18-20, 400 yard, 5 touchdown performance:  "His footwork was all wrong." Caught up in technicalities, unable to appreciate what's  happening before his eyes or,  in the case of Bill O., his ears.

Orcutt sounds like Orcutt. I don't care what The Wire or Riggs think. The fact that the latter's "music" sounds like insects dying only make it more so. Bailey, Gold, Taylor, Riggs, The Wire, in the context of Orcutt's masterpiece, can all SUCK IT.

Riggs' letter especially is nothing but bullshit.

[Guy M.]

Loy the Loyer - time to file a discovery motion. If you do, you find this:

http://www.myspace.com/criigs

Letter writer is Oberlin educated, classically trained and implicitly aghast that none of you fuckin' TB yokels know him and his music while most of you are digging the Orcutt like crazy, as you should be.

Riggs letter is nothing more than a failed NFL QB--now a commentator--saying this about a QB's 18-20, 400 yard, 5 touchdown performance:  "His footwork was all wrong." Caught up in technicalities, unable to appreciate what's  happening before his eyes or,  in the case of Bill O., his ears.

Orcutt sounds like Orcutt. I don't care what The Wire or Riggs think. The fact that the latter's "music" sounds like insects dying only make it more so. Bailey, Gold, Taylor, Riggs, The Wire, in the context of Orcutt's masterpiece, can all SUCK IT.

Riggs' letter especially is nothing but bullshit.

woo hoo!
right on.

I still think that side 2 is a letdown after the brilliance of side 1
but might reconsider if I ever think of beginning the listening by side 2...

[meshkalina]

Yr a good guy Guy so I'll provide you w/ a euro sports analogy in the event the American football one is somewhat lost on you.

It's like a footy goalkeeper recording 10 saves on his team's way to a 1-0 shutout in a Cup game and the commentator, a failed goalkeeper, saying, 'His ponytail was all wrong."

[erickelric]

I like the Orcutt record. Need to give it more listens.

That is all.

[Whet Bull]

Yr a good guy Guy so I'll provide you w/ a euro sports analogy in the event the American football one is somewhat lost on you.

It's like a footy goalkeeper recording 10 saves on his team's way to a 1-0 shutout in a Cup game and the commentator, a failed goalkeeper, saying, 'His ponytail was all wrong."

Ha!  Seriously, though -- who is this?  I'm racking my brain tryina figger it, but I've no idea.  'Salright if you wanna be coy about it.  

Like I said, I love Orcutt's record and I don't particularly care that he leans on a single pedal-point throughout or whatever.  Pouncey's a good writer, but I think rock doodz tend to have an inferiority complex vis a fuckin' vis jazz and other academic musics, so if something comes along that smells like, you know, "serious musicianship," they're eager to talk about it in those terms, y'know?  

Your point's well taken that Riggs is missing the point.  There's an implicit argument in his letter that Orcutt's techie shortcomings are a problem, which is stoopid, but he's right to call Pouncey on his shit.  Would Orc have gotten the same treatment from The Wire et al. if he'd called himself sumfin' goofy, like Double Leopards, or Cave of Nazis, or Taint Shit (TM)?  Progly not.

[meshkalina]

Yr a good guy Guy so I'll provide you w/ a euro sports analogy in the event the American football one is somewhat lost on you.

It's like a footy goalkeeper recording 10 saves on his team's way to a 1-0 shutout in a Cup game and the commentator, a failed goalkeeper, saying, 'His ponytail was all wrong."

Ha!  Seriously, though -- who is this?  I'm racking my brain tryina figger it, but I've no idea.  'Salright if you wanna be coy about it.

Like I said, I love Orcutt's record and I don't particularly care that he leans on a single pedal-point throughout or whatever.  Pouncey's a good writer, but I think rock doodz tend to have an inferiority complex vis a fuckin' vis jazz and other academic musics, so if something comes along that smells like, you know, "serious musicianship," they're eager to talk about it in those terms, y'know?  

Your point's well taken that Riggs is missing the point.  There's an implicit argument in his letter that Orcutt's techie shortcomings are a problem, which is stoopid, but he's right to call Pouncey on his shit.  Would Orc have gotten the same treatment from The Wire et al. if he'd called himself sumfin' goofy, like Double Leopards, or Cave of Nazis, or Taint Shit (TM)?  Progly not.

Coy Loy - I don't think Orcutt called himself anything. He just teed it up and wailed. Plus, I coulda sworn someone told me he took the two MIDDLE strings off the board.

I think Riggs letter is more about jealousy than anything else--Orcutt's getting covered/praised and he's not. I find much of the writing in The Wire insufferable and impossible to wade through, but rock criticism has always been mostly (95%) bullshit, guys makin' up stuff, name-dropping, pointless comparisons, etc.  I honestly think the good rock criticism is part of the critic's autobiography. Anything else = crank yankin' and always has.

Pedants, mathaterians, and improv "theorists" like Riggs don't rock and they never will.

[Whet Bull]

Yr probably right.  I haven't looked at the dude's MySpace site but I guess he does sound like he's got a stick up his ass. 

Also... I might be overanalyzing Pouncey.  His eagerness to drop names might just be a straight-up failure of vocabulary or imagination.

[erickelric]

I Am a Dalek

[Guy M.]

Yr a good guy Guy so I'll provide you w/ a euro sports analogy in the event the American football one is somewhat lost on you.

It's like a footy goalkeeper recording 10 saves on his team's way to a 1-0 shutout in a Cup game and the commentator, a failed goalkeeper, saying, 'His ponytail was all wrong."

well, I did understand the american right away... but this one I only recognize the punchline
which is all that is needed

[Guy M.]

Pouncey's a good writer, but I think rock doodz tend to have an inferiority complex vis a fuckin' vis jazz and other academic musics, so if something comes along that smells like, you know, "serious musicianship," they're eager to talk about it in those terms, y'know?

no, no, no loy, only pseudo r*ck doodz in the wire do that
it is a culture that needs to be put in its place and destroyed.

[Guy M.]

Yr probably right.  I haven't looked at the dude's MySpace site but I guess he does sound like he's got a stick up his ass. 

Also... I might be overanalyzing Pouncey.  His eagerness to drop names might just be a straight-up failure of vocabulary or imagination.

dropping names sells records
people want to know what it all sounds like
(unfortunately)

[meshkalina]

Pouncey's a good writer, but I think rock doodz tend to have an inferiority complex vis a fuckin' vis jazz and other academic musics, so if something comes along that smells like, you know, "serious musicianship," they're eager to talk about it in those terms, y'know?

no, no, no loy, only pseudo r*ck doodz in the wire do that
it is a culture that needs to be put in its place and destroyed.

I don't mean to divert anyone from scrutinizing The Wire for purposes of directing ridicule and scorn at many of its writers (by the way, its editor Tony "Red" Herrington has rejected my requests for Teepee coverage, as one example of the mag's hypnagogic cluelessness) just pointing out that in this case the "solution"--Riggs' letter--is merely another example of the disease, maybe even a new, more virulent strain.

[Guy M.]

goes to show that this mag could be even worse than what it is if some readers became writers

[Whet Bull]

Tony "Red" Herrington has rejected my requests for Teepee coverage

Highlarious!  You actually wrote The Wire and asked that they cover Teepee?  Oh, man, now that is priceless.  Will you post the letter here, please?

[meshkalina]

Tony "Red" Herrington has rejected my requests for Teepee coverage

Highlarious!  You actually wrote The Wire and asked that they cover Teepee?  Oh, man, now that is priceless.  Will you post the letter here, please?

No, I didn't write to The Wire and ask that they cover Teepee. I wrote to The Wire to point out several errors in a recent issue and "Red" and I got to talking about bands that I thought might fit under The Wire's umbrella. He's a big fan of Sun Awk! and Dudtails by the way. I did get them to review The Bassholes. But I should  have kept the exchange because it wound up with him in high dudgeon over some perceived slight. I believe my last email to him was, "Lighten up Francis."