And It Don't Stop on Substack
Robert Christgau's newsletter And It Don't Stop
appears three (or four) times a month on Substack. Subscribe
here.
Robert Christgau's Big-Hearted Theory of Pop
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
Recent Articles
Robert Christgau will be writing a monthly column at
Billboard. The first column,
plus an obituary, have been published:
Also:
[posted by Webmaster on 2014-07-22] Recent Articles
[posted by Webmaster on 2014-06-04] Recent Articles
Recent articles by Robert Christgau:
[posted by Webmaster on 2014-05-14] Recent Articles
Recent articles by Robert Christgau:
[posted by Webmaster on 2014-05-08] Website Update
Updated the website today. It now includes consumer guide entries
for all Expert Witness reviews, plus articles up to the current date,
plus a few golden oldies. For details, see
Changelog.
[posted by Webmaster on 2014-02-12] Recent Articles
Recent articles by Robert Christgau:
Also:
[posted by Webmaster on 2014-01-23] Recent Articles
Recent articles by Robert Christgau:
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-10-30] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Odds and Ends 037:
- Afuche: Highly Publicized Digital Boxing Match (Cuneiform '11) ***
- Sun City Girls: Funeral Mariachi (Abduction '10) ***
- Ben Folds/Nick Hornby: Lonely Avenue (Nonesuch '10) ***
- Jenny Owen Youngs: An Unwavering Band of Light (self-released '12) **
- The Wailing Wall: The Low Hanging Fruit (JDub '10) **
- Ashton Shepherd: Where Country Grows (MCA Nashville '11) **
- The Superions: Destination . . . Christmas! (Fanatic '10) **
- Toby Keith: Clancy's Tavern (Show Dog/Universal '11) *
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-09-30] This Week in Expert Witness
New post this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
Also at MSN Music:
These, by the way, are the last posts scheduled to appear in the
Expert Witness blog at MSN Music.
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-09-27] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Odds and Ends 036:
- Femi Kuti: No Place for My Dream (Knitting Factory) ***
- Nona Hendryx: Mutatis Mutandis (Righteous Babe) ***
- Firewater: International Orange! (Bloodshot) **
- Steve Earle & the Dukes (& Duchesses): The Low Highway (New West) **
- Kobo Town: Jumble in the Jukebox (Cumbancha) **
- Roger Knox and the Pine Valley Cosmonauts: Stranger in My Land (Bloodshot) *
- 121212: The Concert for Sandy Relief (Columbia) *
- Frank Turner: England Keep My Bones (Xtra Mile/Epitaph) *
- Nuggets/Flamin Groovies:
- Nuggets (Rhino) A-
- Flamin Groovies: Supersnazz (CBS Special Products '90) A
Also at MSN Music:
Christgau also wrote a note on the late Marshall Berman, published in
Dissent.
Christgau also wrote the following notice in the comment section of
the Expert Witness blog:
Just woke up so I won't go into too much detail at the moment, but
now I can make it official. As rumored, Expert Witness will be no more
at MSN as of October 1. As I understand it, Microsoft is shutting down
the entire MSN freelance arts operation at that time, including its
film coverage, where the estimable Glenn Kenny has done so much good
work, as well as my music colleagues Maura Johnston, Alan Light, and
the other bloggers. I got this news 12 days ago, at which time I'd
stockpiled enough reviews to get me through my last scheduled post on
September 27, and since I do write for money stopped all CG-style
writing at that time. I'll have more to say in the hours and days to
come, but that's the nub of it. Thanks to all who comment here and all
who lurk and all who never look at the comments because in the online
world that's usually such a waste of time, as it has never been
here.
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-09-20] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- ZZK Sound:
- ZZK Sound Vol. 3 (ZZK/Waxploitation) A-
- ZZK Sound Vol. 1--Cumbia Digital (ZZK '08) B+
- No Age/Burial:
- No Age: An Object (Sub Pop) A-
- Burial: Truant/Rough Sleeper (Hyperdub) A-
Also at Barnes and Noble Review:
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-09-13] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- The Julie Ruin/Neko Case:
- The Julie Ruin: Run Fast (TJR) A
- Neko Case: The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You (Anti-) A-
- Lloyd Price:
- Lloyd Price: Greatest Hits (MCA '94) A-
- Lloyd Price: Specialty Profiles (Specialty '06) B+
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-09-06] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Odds and Ends 035:
- The Pozniaks: Pozniak Street (Jamrag) ***
- Ezra Furman & the Harpoons: Mysterious Power (Minty Fresh '11) ***
- The Child of Lov: The Child of Lov (Domino) ***
- Crazy & the Brains: Let Me Go (Baldy Longhair) **
- Kreayshawn: Somethin 'Bout Kreay (Columbia) **
- Land of Pines: The Long Defeat 12" EP (Fin) *
- Billy Hough & the X-Loves: Venice (Garagedog) *
- Wavves: Afraid of Heights (Mom + Pop) *
- Sam Baker/James McMurtry:
- Sam Baker: Say Grace (self-released) A-
- James McMurtry: Live in Aught-Three (Compadre '04) A-
Also at Barnes and Noble Review:
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-08-30] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Sam Baker:
- Sam Baker: Mercy (Music Road '04) B+
- Sam Baker: Pretty World (Music Road '07) A-
- Clay Harper/Superchunk:
- Clay Harper: Old Airport Road (Terminus) A-
- Superchunk: I Hate Music (Merge) A-
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-08-23] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-08-16] Website Moved We've moved the website to a new server. The new service plan eliminates
disk quotas, which have caused us problems in the past. It also promises
fewer bandwidth restrictions, and at least initially seems to be running
on a faster machine, so response should be improved.
The move involves a migration to (much) more recent software revisions,
especially of the PHP scripting language and the MySQL database. Among
other things, that means some things may break. We're not seeing much
wrong at this point, but this is a pretty large site so it is impossible
to recheck everything. If you see anything wrong, please send email to
webmaster at robertchristgau.com and we'll look into it.
For now, some changes:
- In the left nav box, "Last CG" has been removed. It no longer links
to anything useful.
- In the left nav box, "Text Search" has been removed. This is probably
temporary, but it depends on some underlying technology that hasn't been
ported yet. "Google Search" still allows you to search for text inside
articles, using Google's search engine.
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-08-14] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Turn Around Bright Eyes:
- Rob Sheffield: Turn Around Bright Eyes: The Rituals of Love & Karaoke (It Books)
- Hailu Mergia/Spoek Mathambo:
- Hailu Mergia & His Classical Instrument: Shemonmuanay (Awesome Tapes From Africa) A-
- Spoek Mathambo: Escape From '85 (free download) B+
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-08-09] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Odds and Ends 034:
- Shemekia Copeland: 33 1/3 (Telarc) ***
- Tricky: False Idols (!K7) ***
- Moby: Destroyed (Mute) ***
- David Murray Infinity Quartet: Be My Monster Love (Motema) **
- LL Cool J: Authentic (429) **
- Big Boi/Killer Mike: Trackstar the DJ Presents the Shoes for Running Tour Mixtape (free Trackstar download) **
- Iggy and the Stooges: Ready to Die (Fat Possum) **
- John Fogerty: Wrote a Song for Everyone (Vanguard) *
- Gogol Bordello:
- Gogol Bordello: Pura Vida Conspiracy (ATO) A
- Gogol Bordello: Multi Kontra Culti Vs. Irony (Rubric '02) A-
Also at Barnes and Noble Review:
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-05-03] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Lil Green/Dionne Warwick:
- Lil Green: Why Don't You Do Right? 1940-1942 (Historic '96) B+
- Dionne Warwick: The Dionne Warwick Collection: Her All-Time Greatest Hits (Rhino '89) A
- Odds and Ends 033:
- Bettie Serveert: Oh, Mayhem! (Second Motion) ***
- Mariem Hassan: Shouka (Nubenegra) ***
- Kiran Ahluwalia: Aam Zamen: Common Ground (Avokado Artists) ***
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Mosquito (Interscope) ***
- Anaïs Mitchell: Hadestown (Righteous Babe) **
- Nikki Lane: Walk of Shame (IAmSound) **
- Bahar Movahed & Ali Akbar Moradi: Goblet of Eternal Light: Maqams of Kurdish Tanbour Music of Iran (Traditional Crossroads) **
- Lana Del Rey: Paradise (Interscope) **
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-07-26] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-07-19] Most Recent -- More Recent -- More Ancient
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