Can I just ask a question? Something I’ve been curious about…
what’s your ratio of female-to-male writers at CMG?
Or is it really as much of an old boys club as I thought?
But hey, I still like you guys anyway.
(I may or may not be bitter at your review of fever ray during the Montreal pop festival, the woman has much more than simple theatrics. Maybe if you actually enjoyed/respected the music she made before going into it, you would love both the theatrics and the musical element? You can’t really expect to find new love for songs you already 73’d, can you? Her show was one of the first truly mindblowing shows I’ve seen, but maybe you’ve just got to not be so straight white male to enjoy it.)

Oh, and yeah, this song is pretty good.

Our female-to-male ratio isn’t at all what we’d like it to be, clearly, but this is no “old boys club”—it’s not a conscious, sinister decision on our part. As we just blog posted, we’re very much hiring right now, and encourage anyone interested—including females, of course—to apply. For whatever reason, though, the ratio of female-to-male applicants is equally lopsided.

And re: Fever Ray…well, regardless of Calum’s take on the record itself (which can differ from Joel, who 73’d it, no?), or of her Pop Montreal set (which, even if he loved the record, could still not be his thing), trust me, it’s not some racial or sexist or misogynist agenda on his/our part. Sometimes people, y’know, just don’t like a show. It’s cool.

Sorry sorry, I wasn’t trying to link those two points as much as it may have come across. Kind of related, but I think I should’ve been more clear.
I think that perhaps he only noticed the theatrics of it because since it seemed that he wasn’t a huge fan of the music (which, in my opinion, came across as much improved in live form than on record form), and since he wasn’t such a fan, he did happen to notice the exuberant or impressive theatrics only.
I’m not saying “you hate her cus she’s a girl!” I too, after hearing Fever Ray at first, missed The Knife’s tendency to incorporate house and other more enlivened elements to the album, but over time I’ve found the album (and the live show, of course) to be great in its own right, with less comparison to Silent Shout or whichever else is your Karin cup of tea. (Oh, and I chose the collective score of “73”, assuming Calum’s score might be near to it)

And yeah, hopefully you find some talented female writers to provide a broader scope of music brains in your reviews. Or maybe not always ones that assume the reader is the straight white male. (Your Hercules and Love Affair review contained probably the most hilariously misinformed line —> “confusing queer as art”, as if a guy whining about his ex-girlfriend is any more artistic. Also assuming the group thought they’d be given special critical treatment due to their pansexualism.)
I know it’s not a conscious effort whatsoever, it’s just a product however of getting a bunch of guys together in one small community, it’s bound to produce that kind of energy. You are all talented in your own individual right.

Alright, enough griping, keep up the good work.

Song sounds like a weak Bejar impression. These guys are done, huh?

1) Fever Ray’s album: 79%

2) my opinion as stated in 1) has no bearing on Fever Ray’s live show, and I in no way expressed an opinion on the album or the music in that live review either way. so I’m not sure where you’re getting that I’m deriding that record.

3) theatricality is not a derisive term, anyway. have you SEEN this thing? it’s hard to ignore the spectacle side of the event when lasers are zipping past your face like incoming tie fighters and when you can’t see the beer in your hand for lack of focus through the fog. does that mean the music was bad, or that the experience was weak? Nope. pretty sure I said it was the most purely entertaining show of the festival, which it was.

4) what exactly do 1) 2) and 3) have to do with race or gender? fever ray’s lead artist may be female, but the show I saw was both broadly populated and effaced — there were five performers in full costume covered in dense fog. How does my liking that have anything to do with her being a woman and my being a man? Or with my being white? And I won’t even touch the straight issue, which given the content of my writing seems like 100% projection/investment on your part.

5) that said, we really do need some broader demographic representation. so. good point?

I don’t want it to sound like the writers are ganging up on you or we’re getting defensive, Steve, but I did want to note that the Hercules and Love Affair review was not written by a straight male. You can decide for yourself whether your critique still stands; I don’t want to speak too much for Danny’s intent, save to say that I do know that he intended the review in part to be a critique of the very artifice of straight interpretations of gay culture you’re arguing he commits.

Not to beat a dead horse, but, yes. I have seen the Fever Ray show. Forgive me if I took “theatricality” as a backhanded compliment to the show. Maybe I’m just another Karin worshipper who can’t see past his mock-pagan headdress, but I considered her show to be one of the best pulled off I’ve ever seen. I simply feel that in my understanding of 1) who I saw at the show (in line were a ton of us queer Karin fanboys/girls) 2) my straight male friends’ gut reactions to Fever Ray/The Knife. Often an appreciation, but not really an understanding of how EXCITING she is. Perhaps I tossed that on you as well. But really, my “straight white male” was just a throw-on to the end of my last post. My main issue was just that I didn’t think you, as an individual, gave it justice. My thoughts on the demographics of your writers were mostly another point altogether.

And re-reading the H&LA review, I find it to be very well-written, and I remember assuming that it was written, at the time, by a not-so-straight writer. I still disagree very strongly with what was appropriated to the album itself, however, regardless of how insightful the review was to gay culture (and his perception of Hercules & Love Affair making lame attempts at revival.) I just thought that when he kept pointing out “look how fabulous the transexual is” and “look at all the gayness dripping from these bass lines” it’s something he took from it, when it wasn’t the intention of the band to bring about these thoughts, but that it rather just came along with the fact that the artists come with queer worldviews. Nomi may be trans and fabulous, but her voice also sounds perfect among those beats.

And if it is about the straight interpretations of our culture, what relevance does this have to the album? Do we have to write about white interpretations of hip-hop culture when reviewing a Ghostface album? Can’t it be judged on its merits alone? (I’m assuming judged poorly because of the low score, which I assumed stemmed from his distaste for their flaunted sexuality, which put me off, which is why I brought it up.)

I’ve gone off on a very long tangent, but fuck it. Submit.

No worries about the tangent, Steve — and like I said, I don’t think Danny’s sexuality negates your critique of the review; I just wasn’t sure from your comment if you were constructing his identity as straight. I’m not sure I can respond to the rest of your questions since I don’t feel comfortable speaking for Danny, except to say that I think he’s poking a little fun at a specific vision of gay club life in New York from a vantage point in London. But since I’ve never experienced gay London, I don’t have much more to offer in the way of insight here. I don’t think, though we might argue over the validity of his cis-centric views of trans-identity, that he meant to marginalize Nomi so much as point out that the album itself seemed to him to be a collection of gay cultural tropes — which is the same thing I would say in response to your notion that Danny disliked the album’s flaunted sexuality. I think the review is more Danny struggling with the idea that the album was, to him, presenting a narrow view of queer culture to both queer and straight audiences, and whether this was old hat or not. But this is just me interpreting his review. It’s clear that you liked the album for a lot of the reasons that he disliked it, which is cool too.