02 03 Stop Loving Everything: Writing Copy for Sasha-Frere Jones 04 05 15 16 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 31 32 33

Writing Copy for Sasha-Frere Jones

34
On April 16, in this here blog, I wrote about Battles:

"... even the "Atlas" single grates - it sounds like an Alvin and the Chipmunks version of a Gary Glitter song."

In this week's New Yorker, Sasha Frere-Jones writes (although usually an alright writer, this takes him two sentences packed with passive-voice constructions):

“Atlas,” a juddering song that is totally compelling though it is little more than a rhythmic vamp matched to Chipmunk slike vocalizing. “Atlas” is Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll Part Two” for the art-gallery crowd—a visceral and addictive bit of nonsense."


I don't think he took this from me; a google search shows I may have been among the first to ring this comparison true, but I'm far from the only one.

It proves that the song sounds like what we all think it sounds like. But when you get New Yorker bucks, ain't it responsible to not repeat comparisons you've no doubt come across on the web? Without acknowledgment? Rock writers are the laziest of journalists, maybe second to sports writers, but this is outstandingly lazy. I would require myself, at the very least, to add a qualifying statement like "embraced by a blogospshere which immediately recognized Battles' bouncy, futuristic song "Atlas" as akin to Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll Part 2," if sung by the Chipmunks.

Credit. If you don't give it, you don't keep it.

The Briefs - Looking Through Gary Glitter's Eyes



Labels: , , ,

35 36 37 38