Re: (TV) Meltzer, Tom, Costello, critics

[Maurice Rickard <maurice@mac.com>]

At 7:18 PM -0400 8/2/00, Casey, Leo J wrote:
> I claim (half seriously) that a considerable part of Costello's 
> success was that many males in the late 70's  to early 80's who did 
> not possess the archetypical male looks/body that the media were 
> always selling, could better relate to someone who looked as nerdy 
> as they might have

I'm going to show my age here, but in my own misspent youth, warped 
considerably by access to Creem Magazine, I encountered some rock 
star's comment on exactly this point.  ("The reason so many critics 
like Elvis Costello is because they all _look_ like Elvis Costello!") 
Anyone remember who said it?  (btw, I also have and enjoy the first 
four EC LPs.)

And:

At 10:30 PM -0400 8/2/00, Jeff Strell wrote:
> And in fear of (again) sounding like an old fogey, why can't any of the modern
> rock crits come even close to generating the exitement for their subject that
> seemed to come so effortlessly to that first wave?

Oh, but you haven't been looking hard enough.  I submit: 
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/
Particularly check out these reviews, which got me excited about 
record reviews again: (Get rid of any spaces in the URLs, or if 
there's a short line after it, stitch it together in your browser. 
I'm still having trouble sending long links in email.)

Extra bonus mention of Verlaine:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/p/phelps_joelrl/blackbird.shtml

True music-fan enthusiasm that took me back:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/b/billy_bonnieprince/i-see-a-darkness.shtml 


Nice short one:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/b/bedhead/transaction-de-novo.shtml

Classic, classic, classic put-down, an absolute must-read:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/n/nine-inch-nails/fragile.shtml

Lately they've been getting a bit full of themselves, but there are 
some damn good reviews here.

Mark Donahue is a fine Weblogger with an addiction to writing 
reviews, which are here: http://www.westernhomes.org/critic.html 
Check out what one undergrad thinks of _Marquee Moon_!

In print, the reviews in _Puncture_ are just as good as anything from 
the old school.

And lastly, I'm not going to mention just yet why it might be worth 
reading some of the reviews on the All Music Guide, but the curious 
are welcome to contact me.

--
Maurice Rickard
http://mauricerickard.com/
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