David Samuels: Geniune Critic or Dishonest Young Sharpie?

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Matos pointed out David Samuels' recent writing for Slate (http://slate.msn.com/id/2075852/) and called him a "dishonest young sharpie." Which sent me to check out his roundup of the 5 best indie records of the year (http://slate.msn.com/id/2075314/), in which he offers such nuggets as that Toby Vail, who claps hands on Bangs' record, was once "Kurt Cobain's girlfriend" (Bikini who?). He also tells us that the indies are apparently a feeding ground for the majors, offering up Elliot Smith's Dreamworks relationship as evidence. Hm, what's he gonna tell us next: that a company called Clear Channel owns several radio stations?

What happened to Samuels? I loved his long-form journalism for Harpers and the New Yorker, reporting on Oregon anarchists, the fiasco of Woodstock '99, etc. But his music criticism for *Surface, Slate, etc has really fallen flat in my book. Is this another case of the dreaded Hornsby (Nick, not Bruce) Syndrome?

― philip sherburne (philip sherburne), Friday, 27 December 2002 20:03 (twenty-three years ago)

"My first impression after hearing GBV for the first time, way back in the '80s, was that I was listening to a poorly produced rock and roll record by a fourth-grade teacher from Ohio who wrote fractured, surrealist rock poetry, set it to atmospheric thrash, then sang the whole mess in a fake British accent."

But look how learned he was, even before he knew anything about them!

(serious reply after I finish the year-end piece)

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Friday, 27 December 2002 20:32 (twenty-three years ago)

I didn't actually make that call, Philip--Keith Harris did. I cut-and-pasted those links (w/comments) from his email. should've been more specific about that. But hell yes I think it fits. And I didn't think very much of his Harper's Woodstock piece, sorry. (haven't seen his anarchists one)

― M Matos (M Matos), Friday, 27 December 2002 20:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Like the Sweeney piece, tepid opinions delivered as if they were brutal truths while he isn't doing much more than rehashing popular thoughts (Yoko sucks! Lennon loved himself too much! Jeff Lynn's a shit producer! Harrison was spiritual! Macca writes fluff! Macca's jealous of John!). Not objectionable, just really goddamn boring.

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Friday, 27 December 2002 20:41 (twenty-three years ago)

...nor of this year-end thing, though it's god-help-us a lot better than the Beatles one or the Vines one. (the Nas one is sort of OK, too.) but let's face it: reporting and writing criticism are very separate disciplines, and it's at least as foolish that Slate.com expects Samuels to be as good at the latter as he is at the former, as Samuels is in that Beatles piece--which, Yanc3y, I'd say is objectionable based solely on the fact that he's parsing the Lennon ouvre based on fucking Mind Games! (next up: Prince sucks historically as proven by The Rainbow Children)

― M Matos (M Matos), Friday, 27 December 2002 20:45 (twenty-three years ago)

who?

― Josh (Josh), Friday, 27 December 2002 21:41 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm too amused by that quote of Yancey's to even think properly: "My first impression upon hearing 'Yesterday' was that I was listening to the work of a man born in Liverpool on June 18th, 1942 -- a man somewhere in the vicinity of five feet and eleven inches tall and most likely, judging by the melodic structure of the chorus, named 'McCarthy' or 'McCartney.'"

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 27 December 2002 22:10 (twenty-three years ago)

(NB: in the process of formulating that parody I discovered that apparently all non-drumming Beatles were 5'11".)

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 27 December 2002 22:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Formalism achieves a new sophistication then.

On the other hand, re. Richard Buckner: "At heart, Buckner is an honest craftsman writing country-tinged relationship ballads: I picture him living alone in Canada in some place with no furniture, a drifter-type in a Russell Banks novel."

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 27 December 2002 22:29 (twenty-three years ago)

Formalism achieves a new sophistication then.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 27 December 2002 22:30 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm really sorry about the double posts. I have no idea why this happens. I hit "submit" and next thing I know there are two posts.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 27 December 2002 22:30 (twenty-three years ago)

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