Q – After reading articles, interviews, etc. posted on the blog, I wondered at your thoughts on rock journalists. Are there any really good ones? Even when they’re complimentary, they seem cloistered and petulant. I always thought the Lester Bangs stuff was overrated and wonder if ANYONE does good work in this field.
A – It is indeed hard to take some of it, which is one major reason for having this weblog – so we can collect and archive the writings, without me having to read it. There is good stuff out there – Jon Pareles at the New York Times is usually good and actually wrote a nice review a couple of years ago. I’m actually reading a collection of Nick Kent’s work right now, entitled ‘The Dark Stuff’. If it wasn’t for Kent’s writings for the MNE in the seventies I wouldn’t have known about Television, or The Only Ones. Unfortunately, I don’t think there has been a new breed to fill the shoes of Kent, Burchill, Parsons, Morley et al…
I should also mention that I tend to meet a much more mature and better prepared journalist in places like Germany or Sweden, so although I can’t read what they have writen, I’d assume it might not be bad… There’s another weblog thing – we can post translations, so if you’re able and willing, please feel free to translate to or from English for us.
Publication date: 05/05/2004