#129: Psychedelic Weirdos
Psychedelic Weirdos
I’m Todd L. Burns, and welcome to Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. I highlight some of the best stuff I hear, read, and watch every week; publish news about the industry; and interview writers, scholars, and editors about their work. My goal is to share knowledge, celebrate great work, and expand the idea of what music journalism is—and where it happens. Questions, comments, concerns? You can reach me anytime at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com. And if you’re not already subscribed to the newsletter, you can do so at musicjournalisminsider.com.
Today in the newsletter: Interviews with Rolling Stone editor Christian Hoard; Elephant 6 historian Adam Clair; and Richmond music expert Doug Nunnally. Plus! Reading Rainbow on TikTok, Klaus Nomi, and more! But first…
There’s Really No Following That Up
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Reading List
- Annabel Ross chats with the folks behind electronic music’s biggest artists
- Zachary Lipez reflects on a parent’s death
- Christian Adofo charts the history of how African music has crossed over into wider pop culture
- Isaac Chortiner chats with two musicologists about Ukraine’s musical identity
- Three Austin Chronicle writers talks about SXSW through the prism of NFTs (h/t Music REDEF)
- Stacey Anderson reports on the rappers being targeted by governments around the world
- Patrick St. Michel celebrates Japan’s love of CDs
- Jim Farber details the pains of digital archiving in a physical world
- Water and Music has published its second research mini-series on the state of music and Web3
- Katherine Rosman profiles Jay Penske, owner of Rolling Stone, Variety, Vibe, and more
Q&A: Christian Hoard
Christian Hoard is music editor at Rolling Stone. He’s been involved with the magazine in one way or another for nearly two decades now, and overseeing the music department for the last five. He got his start writing about music at his college newspaper, the Michigan Daily, and then went from an internship at The Village Voice to writing at Rolling Stone. As he puts it, “for the son of a truck driver from Michigan, all of this has been pretty exciting.” In this excerpt from our interview, Christian breaks down a typical day at the magazine.
I begin most days walking my dog, Fritz, trying not to check email before I leave the house. If I’m working from home, as has been the case most of the past two years, I’ll usually log on at 8 or 8:30, then start working through my to-do list. We have 10am and 5pm meetings where we run through digital story lineups. Then, it’s a mix of editing pieces, meetings, phone calls with publicists or sources, seeing how writers are doing, and answering emails, all while drinking too much coffee. Making sure the music team is on all the stories we need to be on and planning coverage as far ahead as I can are big focus points.
What’s the best way to pitch you on doing a story?
Send a concise email with a strong original idea. Most pitches are too long! I usually turn down profiles pegged to new releases, since we generate a lot of those in-house. I’m looking for extraordinary stories that we might not come up with among the staff. Most times, it’s a reported piece, but not always. Yarns, essays with a strong point of view, deeply reported pieces, scoops—all of that is welcome.
Read the full interview with Christian here.
A Cause Worth Supporting
From Christian Hoard:
The pandemic highlighted how vulnerable so many in the music industry are; as many have pointed out, it’s a literal gig economy. So, especially in the past two years, Rolling Stone has covered the struggles of behind-the-scenes workers in the music business more than ever. It can be a tough way to make a living, so I’m glad there are several organizations dedicated to helping folks in the industry. I’ve been particularly impressed with the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund, which provides assistance to musicians and industry workers who are having difficulty making ends meet.
Check out all of the causes highlighted by folks I’ve interviewed.
Podcasts!
- Hanif Abdurraqib talked about his craft on Longform
- Joe Carducci broke down his career on Rock’s Backpages
- The Stack spoke with Record founder Karl Henkell
- Apple will soon unveil a follower metric for podcasts
- The Lydian Spin featured Byron Coley late last year (h/t Jay Babcock)
Good Interviewing Tip
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Q&A: Adam Clair
Adam Clair is the author of the new book Endless Endless: A Lo-Fi History of the Elephant 6 Mystery, which shines a light on the beloved Athens, Georgia, label associated with bands like Neutral Milk Hotel, The Apples in Stereo, and Olivia Tremor Control. As Adam explains in the interview, it’s not a straightforward history. In this excerpt from our interview, Adam describes the end results as something like a “mix tape.”
I began working on this project in 2008, the summer before my senior year of college, and I submitted my final manuscript in 2021. I realized early on that, given the experimental nature of the musicians I was writing about and the sheer volume of people involved, a linear chronological narrative would be insufficient and likely impossible, but I had a lot of time to develop and experiment with how best to tell the story. At one point, I was dead-set on a structure that started at both the beginning and the end, moving forward from one point and backward from the other, alternating between the two until the narrative zippered together into the climactic middle. At another point, I was fully committed to rendering this story as a choose-your-own-adventure.
I eventually settled on a mix tape structure, reflecting the time period and a motif that appears throughout the book. The concept of a handmade cassette also seemed to manifest the essence of the collective: a modest but personal gift of curated music through which two people can bond. It also helped me tell the story through a pastiche of methods and styles that, in an abstract sense, captures the chaos of an anarchic collective of psychedelic weirdos.
Read the full interview with Adam here.
A Cause Worth Supporting
From Adam Clair:
The International Rescue Committee supports people affected by all sorts of humanitarian crises around the world, offering healthcare, food and water, education, money, and other forms of assistance to those who need it most urgently. It’s a great way to give to Ukrainian survivors, many of whom will be refugees, but the IRC’s work is global, and despite some real ghouls on its board, it’s done consistently impactful work for nearly a century.
Check out all of the causes highlighted by folks I’ve interviewed.
Trivia Time
What artist appeared on the prototype issue of Smash Hits?
Stuff You Gotta Watch
Stuff You Gotta Watch celebrates music journalism in video form. This week’s column is by Ana Leorne.
When David Bowie performed “The Man Who Sold The World” on Saturday Night Live in 1979, many were hypnotized by a bizarre mise-en-scène that consisted of Bowie, dressed in a plastic tuxedo, transported down the stage by two robotic cabaret-like backup singers. One of these singers was New York-via-Berlin countertenor Klaus Nomi, who had been introduced to Bowie at the Mudd Club—one of many places where Nomi performed his operatic, vaudeville-like covers of pop classics and originals.
The story of Klaus Nomi is a tragic one, not only due to the lack of visibility customary for those ahead of their time, but also for having his career cut short due to his death at the age of 39, of AIDS-related complications. His legacy, however, would extend beyond the East Village art world, inspiring musicians such as Soft Cell’s Marc Almond and Ernesto Tomasini.
Andrew Horn’s The Nomi Song, which the director describes as “part documentary, part music film, part sci-fi,” is greatly responsible for Nomi’s posthumous recognition. Gathering interviews, live footage, and other seemingly unrelated visual references, the 2004 film is a fitting portrait of an artist who left an indelible mark on the early ’80s New Wave/punk scene.
Q&A: Doug Nunnally
Doug Nunnally is a journalist based in Richmond, Virginia. He’s the founder of The Auricular, a publication that seeks to cover anything and everything having to do with the city’s music scene. Earlier this year, he also brought local folks together to launch the Newlin Music Prize, an award given to Richmond’s best album of the year. In this excerpt from our interview, Doug explains a bit about these projects and why he’s devoted to them.
In fall of 2018, I launched The Auricular, a new publication solely focused on the Richmond, Virginia music scene. There have been several ups and downs since I launched, with some period of inactivity due to the pandemic and personal issues, but I’ve done a lot of great work through there and I think that work has helped ensure every musician in Richmond has a chance to get featured and highlighted, no matter what they sound like or what their social media following is.
This year, I’ve launched the Newlin Music Prize. $1,000 to the best album from the Richmond area released in 2021 as decided by a jury of 55 members of the local music scene. A lot of work went into this and it’s a level of stress I don’t think I’ve ever experienced before. But I can see the value instantly from how the scene reacted to it. I’m planning for it to be an annual thing and hoping that the organization behind it will do more work throughout the year with other local charities and organizations. Right now, it’s just me doing about 90% of the work, but there are plans to put together a board together for people to help on the workload and make decisions so it can evolve and grow alongside the scene.
Oh, and all of this was being done in my free time outside of a normal, unrelated 8-to-5 office job. Lot of late nights. Lot of rough mornings. It’s a lot to juggle. Family life, regular work, and all these side jobs and projects. But it’s what helps me feel alive and really overcome the stress and drain of everyday life. There’s been periods, before and during the pandemic, where I haven’t written articles or worked on any project. And I just feel… less alive during those times. Is that the right way to word it? I don’t know. The goal is for us all to make a living doing what we are passionate about, but that’s not always feasible. But I also don’t want to let go of what I’m passionate about either. So here I am. Grinding away still in my free time, making sure this person making music out of their tiny apartment without the means to tour can still find an audience.
Read the full interview with Doug here.
A Cause Worth Supporting
From Doug Nunnally:
I’d like to shout-out The Virginia Anti-Violence Project. They’ve partnered a lot with the local music scene so I’ve become pretty familiar to them. I think their message of connection and acceptance is as vital as it’s ever been. Check them out and throw them some money if you’re able!
Check out all of the causes highlighted by folks I’ve interviewed.
Butterfly In The TikTok Sky
- @pablothedon wonders why you think R&B is dead
- @scenequeenrocks skewers “name 3 songs” dudes
- @vjblee seamlessly blends the Reading Rainbow song
- @name3songs has an epiphany about misogyny
- @gradywsmith wonders whether he should take music so seriously
For The “Music Is A Universal Language” Folks In The Audience
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Academic Stuff
- New issues: Popular Music, ARSC Journal, Contemporary Music Review, Popular Music and Society, Ethnomusicology, Acoustics, and Music & Politics
- Ludo2022, the Eleventh European Conference on Video Game Music and Sound, will take place April 21–23
- The Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, Washington, has opened a new online collection vault
- Project Spectrum has launched its first zine
- Art Song Augmented is a new online forum devoted to art songs by underrepresented composers whose music has been marginalized
- The Eileen Southern Initiative is launching a series of events called Lift Ev’ry Voice: Celebrating the Music of Black Americans
The Closing Credits
Thanks for reading! In case you’ve missed them, I’ve published a number of special features in the newsletter, including articles about music journalism history, what music journalism will be like in 2221, and much more. You can check out all of that here.
I also do a recurring column in the newsletter called Notes On Process. The premise is simple: I share a Google Doc with a music journalist where we go into depth on one of their pieces. It hopefully provides an insight into how music writers do their work. You can check out all editions of Notes On Process here.
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Trivia Time Answer
Plastic Bertrand graced the cover of the issue that came before the first issue.
A Final Note
Thanks for reading! I make playlists from time to time. Check them out if you’re interested! And, full disclosure, my day job is at uDiscover Music, a branded content online magazine owned by Universal Music. This newsletter is not affiliated or sponsored in any way by Universal, and any links that relate to the work of my department will be clearly marked.
Feel free to reach out to me via email at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com. On Twitter, it’s @JournalismMusic. Until next time…