Two new essay collections, published by Duke
University Press
Book Reports features reviews of not only the pop-music
tomes you'd predict but also literary fiction, Marxist-adjacent
cultural commentary, feminist debates over pornography, and even books
about the past decade's financial crisis. It follows a collection that
Christgau published last year, Is It Still Good to Ya? Fifty Years
of Rock Criticism, 1967-2017, which includes Christgau's takes on,
among many other things, classic rock, Kanye West, the music of Desert
Storm, Lollapalooza, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and so-called guilty
pleasures--a category that Christgau rejects, since, for rock critics,
as he puts it, "pleasure is where meaning begins." Together, these
collections make the sneaky case that Christgau is not just the Dean
of American Rock Critics, his self-awarded and perhaps slightly
off-putting nickname, but one of America's
sharper public intellectuals of the past half century, and certainly
one of its most influential--not to mention one of the better stylists
in that cohort. Fun is a big part of why.
--David Cantwell, The New Yorker
News
Xgau Sez Robert Christgau published his monthly
Xgau Sez q&a section -- Going underground with movies and the
Velvets, saying yes to sampling and no to Sidney Bechet and the War on
Drugs, and putting "Brown Sugar" out to pasture. --
as part of his subscription newsletter
And It Don't Stop. Like all of Xgau Sez, this is
archived here.
[posted by Webmaster on 2021-01-20] Consumer Guide: January, 2021 Robert Christgau published his
Consumer Guide: January, 2021: Music from Morocco, Senegal, Kingston
(Jamaica and New York), Minneapolis, and Omaha, Nebraska. Plus rhyme as
analysis and rhyme as meaning, and Taylor Swift's future Christmas classic.
Reviews of:
Phoebe Bridgers,
Drive-By Truckers,
Open Mike Eagle,
Fox Green,
Group Doueh & Cheveu,
Guiss Guiss Bou Bess,
McCarthy Trenching,
Munson-Hicks Party Supplies,
Sault,
75 Dollar Bill Little Big Band,
Songhoy Blues,
Taylor Swift,
Toots and the Maytals,
and Viktor Vaughn.
This is part of his subscription newsletter,
And It Don't Stop.
PS: We did a fairly major website update today, meant to fix
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[posted by Webmaster on 2021-01-13] Continuing Education Robert Christgau published a piece,
Continuing Education, on Jeannie Seely.
This is part of his subscription newsletter,
And It Don't Stop.
[posted by Webmaster on 2021-01-02] Doing It and Doing It and Doing It Well Robert Christgau published a piece,
Doing It and Doing It and Doing It Well, on Dale Cockrell's book,
Everybody's Doin' It: Sex, Music, and Dance in New York 1840-1917
This is part of his subscription newsletter,
And It Don't Stop.
[posted by Webmaster on 2020-12-23] Xgau Sez Robert Christgau published his monthly
Xgau Sez q&a section -- The art of storytelling and album covers.
Also: consensus meters, epic curation, and a protest playlist -- as part
of his subscription newsletter
And It Don't Stop. Like all of Xgau Sez, this is
archived here.
[posted by Webmaster on 2020-12-16] Consumer Guide: December, 2020 Robert Christgau published his
Consumer Guide: December, 2020, with reviews of:
Backxwash (2),
Bktherula,
Phoebe Bridgers,
Etran de l'Aïr,
Fontaines D.C. (2)
Mickey Guyton,
Clay Harper,
Jon Hassell,
Qwanqwa,
Serengeti,
Shopping,
Sunny Sweeney,
and Chuck Willis. This is part of his subscription newsletter,
And It Don't Stop.
[posted by Webmaster on 2020-12-09] Diplomatic Ties Robert Christgau published a piece,
Diplomatic Ties, on Antony Blinken ("the first rock critic Secretary
of State").
This is part of his subscription newsletter,
And It Don't Stop.
[posted by Webmaster on 2020-11-27] Xgau Sez Robert Christgau published his monthly
Xgau Sez q&a section -- Some thoughts on family, work, dancing,
and the permanent-collection CDs that come out at mealtime. Also: country
songs about systematic oppression & screwing with the hegemony of classical
aesthetics -- as part of his subscription newsletter
And It Don't Stop. Like all of Xgau Sez, this is
archived here.
[posted by Webmaster on 2020-11-18] Consumer Guide: November, 2020 Robert Christgau published his
Consumer Guide: November, 2020, with reviews of:
Will Butler,
Elizabeth Cook (2),
Slim Gaillard (2),
Low Cut Connie,
Thelonious Monk,
Margo Price,
Lee Ranaldo & Raül Refree,
Rodney Rice,
Sad13 (2). This is part of his subscription newsletter,
And It Don't Stop.
[posted by Webmaster on 2020-11-11] Twentieth Century Low Life, Illuminated Robert Christgau published a piece,
Twentieth Century Low Life, Illulminated, a review of Luc Sante,
Maybe the People Would Be the Times (2020, 328 pp.).
This is part of his subscription newsletter,
And It Don't Stop.
[posted by Webmaster on 2020-10-28] Xgau Sez Robert Christgau published his monthly
Xgau Sez q&a section -- Streamed lectures and streamed music, the
jazz apple and the rock orange, the enduring skippability of Oar,
the Lion King vs. the Black Panther, and the power of "WAP."
Special guest: Carola Dibbell -- as part of his subscription newsletter
And It Don't Stop. Like all of Xgau Sez, this is
archived here.
[posted by Webmaster on 2020-10-21] Consumer Guide: October, 2020 Robert Christgau published his
Consumer Guide: October, 2020, with reviews of:
Cornershop,
Dramarama,
Hanging Tree Guitars,
Island Presents Rock Steady,
Skip James,
Rich Krueger,
Dua Lipa,
Ashley McBryde,
Dawn Oberg,
On the Road,
Public Enemy,
The Rough Guide to African Blues,
Ebo Taylor,
Toots and the Maytals. This is part of his subscription newsletter,
And It Don't Stop.
[posted by Webmaster on 2020-10-14] Flag Still There Robert Christgau published a piece,
Flag Still There, a new version of his 2019
Los Angeles Time article on Jimi Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner"
at Woodstock in 1969. This is part of his subscription newsletter,
And It Don't Stop.
[posted by Webmaster on 2020-09-24] Love & Kisses / Lists and Lists and Lists Robert Christgau published two pieces --
Love & Kisses, on Isabel Miller's novel, Patience &
Sarah (1969), and
Lists on Lists on Lists --
as part of his subscription newsletter,
And It Don't Stop.
[posted by Webmaster on 2020-09-24] Stanley Crouch Robert Christgau wrote an appreciation for the Los Angeles Times:
Stanley Crouch, a Towering Critic, Loved a Good Fight.
[posted by Webmaster on 2020-09-21] Xgau Sez Robert Christgau published his monthly
Xgau Sez q&a section -- Several 30 seconds of greatness, formalists
formally considered, Ray Davies informally considered, list-making explained,
hip-hop unexplained, and the "The Harry Smith B-Sides" expurgated -- as
part of his subscription newsletter
And It Don't Stop. Like all of Xgau Sez, this is
archived here.
[posted by Webmaster on 2020-08-16] Heart of Darkness Robert Christgau published a piece,
Vote! It Ain't Illegal Yet!, on how to do more than just vote to
defeat "the fascist fraudster turned impeached president Donald J. Trump."
This is part of his subscription newsletter,
And It Don't Stop. It is also on the website
here.
[posted by Webmaster on 2020-09-14] Consumer Guide: September, 2020 Robert Christgau published his
Consumer Guide: September, 2020, with reviews of:
Black Thought [& Salaam Remi],
The Chicks,
Nat King Cole Trio,
The 81's,
The Human Hearts,
The Magnetic Fields,
No Age,
No Joy,
Billy Nomates,
Oddisee,
Jenny Reynolds,
Peter Stampfel & the Bottle Caps,
Taylor Swift. This is part of his subscription newsletter,
And It Don't Stop.
[posted by Webmaster on 2020-09-09] Heart of Darkness Robert Christgau published a piece,
Heart of Darkness, a review of Jeff Sharlet's book.
This is part of his subscription newsletter,
And It Don't Stop.
[posted by Webmaster on 2020-08-26] Xgau Sez Robert Christgau published his monthly
Xgau Sez q&a section, as part of his subscription newsletter
And It Don't Stop. Like all of Xgau Sez, this is
archived here.
[posted by Webmaster on 2020-08-19] More Ancient
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