M.I.A. Interview Part 2 | Pitchfork.tv

October 17th, 2008 • interviews
Tags: M.I.A., pitchfork.tv

Part II of my epic pregnancy-inducing interview with M.I.A. is up at pitchfork.tv.

M.I.A. Interview Part 2 | Pitchfork.tv.

M.I.A. interview part 1 | Pitchfork.tv

October 15th, 2008 • 1 comment interviews, music
Tags: M.I.A., pitchfork, pitchfork.tv

I look really eager, don’t I? I told Maya I wore that top because it had a pattern that reminded me of her Kala artwork (it’s why I bought it too), a sort of blue handmade digital design.

M.I.A. interview part 1 | Pitchfork.tv.

Weekend update

October 13th, 2008 • interviews, music
Tags: diesel, interview, M.I.A., man man, pitchfork, pitchfork.tv

Friday night: 1,430th Man Man show. More importantly I got to see Ryan and meet his friends Martin, Marc, and Charlyne.

Saturday night: Diesel circus, M.I.A. interview for Pitchfork.tv–she’s got that very serene pregnancy glow about her. It’s a good look. [Photo above from another Ryan, Ryan Schrieber]

Sunday night: Glasslands for Marc and Charlyne’s show. And a re-run of the Pick-Up Artist.

Guys, I’m the worst interviewer IN THE WORLD!

August 22nd, 2008 • general, interviews, music
Tags: blog, interview, music blog

Watch worst-interviewer-in-the-world/Pitchfork staff writer Jessica Suarez interview the Black Keys in their hotel room. It is fairly entertaining to see how high they are. If you need an example, they take the people in Oprah’s life and assign them roles as McDonald’s characters. MP3 below.-It Fits Good

LIKE ANYONE CAN EVEN KNOW THAT.

I never get a lot of writing-related hate mail, and when I do it is mostly from superfans offended over a single mediocre review. I’ve responded to maybe four of them since I started. But this irked me because I’m proud of most of the interviews I’ve done. I’ve salvaged even the worst ones, really loved and cherished the best ones. Now, the Black Keys thing was awkward, I know. What you don’t see in the interview is an hour of “yes” and “no” answers to all my music-related questions. So, the editors cut it and kept in all the tangents and non-sequiturs. It was smart and kind of the Pitchfork.tv staff. I was, of course, a lot less awkward in my Mastodon / Neurosis interview, though most of my questions were cut out to keep the “bands talking to each other” concept consistent.

The above blog doesn’t have any comments except for three people pitching their bands. I don’t want to link to it because I don’t see much point. But for my vanity, here are some of my favorite past interviews:

Kevin Blechdom - Pitchfork Media
Feist - Pitchfork Media
Beck - Nylon (um, I have a clip, no link online though)
Clipse - CMJ New Music Monthly (online somewhere, also in PDF form on my work page)
Gnarls Barkley - CMJ New Music Report (One of my first in-person interviews, Cee-lo called my boots ‘crazy’ — ZANG!)
Islands - Pitchfork Media
Man Man - Pitchfork Media (of course)
Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson - Paper Thin Walls

Pitchfork is one of the few places that I’ve done long Q&A’s for. Another place was Rhino online. I had a great new Linda Ronstadt to transcribe. She’s famously brusk but we got along wonderfully. Then my laptop was stolen. Tragedy.

Note: I didn’t say this was the worst blog in the world, because LIKE ANYONE CAN EVEN KNOW THAT. But, I probably do, I have a lot of RSS feeds.

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, ninnyish noblemen boast in major

July 15th, 2008 • albums and songs, interviews, music
Tags: miles benjamin anthony robinson, paper, paste, pitchfork, tumblr, writing

The only good anagram I could find for Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson was “ninnyish noblemen boast in major.” I didn’t talk about this with Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, but I did talk to him about his LP Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson. The guy was awesome, actually: self-deprecating but super confident, funny and full of stories. There was one I couldn’t include about his grandmother disappearing to follow a traveling tent revival. Or another about how he doesn’t own a computer, but does have a Blackberry. Sometimes talking to a nice guy can make that nice guy’s CD even better, and I don’t know if that’s a good way to form opinions about a record. Luckily, I had formed mine a month or so before.

Possibly the song of the year:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I’ve also updated my work page with some stuff from Pitchfork, Paper and Paste—I realized I hadn’t put up anything since Sept 2007, which seems to imply I hadn’t worked since then. I most certainly have been working, and for places that don’t start with P, too.

Should I have a tumblr? I registered one a long, long time ago, but didn’t really update, and now it seems like everyone has one, especially people that write. I think that the work/stress of writing all day makes one-button photo/quote publishing extra appealing. And someone told me my blog was very ‘plain’ and ‘texty’ but! I like text, I haven’t gotten tired of text.