Does Art Need Critics? Foals, Jessie Ware & Airborne Toxic Event Disagree - Radio.com News

I wrote this piece for Radio.com over the course of a few months while conducting interviews with these three artists. 

Foals really kicked the idea off for me. When I was thinking of what to ask them, back in February, I knew I wanted to talk about their perception of the press and that they’d have something interesting to say.

Then when I had Jessie Ware, I thought she’d take a much more positive view as a beneficiary of good press so I asked her as well. 

And finally, Airborne Toxic Event — I was not planning to discuss the topic with them when our interview started, but they had very interesting points of view on the other things we talked about so I threw it out and they raised some good points that helped me get to my larger point.

Where do you stand on art criticism? Is it necessary in a world where consumers can access anything with the touch of a button? Do the artists themselves still need it to help evolve art? Or has the form devolved so badly that we should rip it up and start again?

Did an interview with Kate Nash for Radio.com — we talked about many things and there’s much more to come, but here’s a piece about feminism, how the music industry discriminates against women and media body snarking. “I’ve had everything you can think of being said about a person, I’ve had it,” Nash said. “I’ve been called too fat, too ugly. I’ve had my spots highlighted and zoomed in on in magazines when I had acne as a teenager touring for the first time. I’ve had death threats on the Internet. I’ve had really mean stuff said about me. It makes you fearless, in a way.” Read it here. And be fearless.
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Did an interview with Kate Nash for Radio.com — we talked about many things and there’s much more to come, but here’s a piece about feminism, how the music industry discriminates against women and media body snarking.

“I’ve had everything you can think of being said about a person, I’ve had it,” Nash said. “I’ve been called too fat, too ugly. I’ve had my spots highlighted and zoomed in on in magazines when I had acne as a teenager touring for the first time. I’ve had death threats on the Internet. I’ve had really mean stuff said about me. It makes you fearless, in a way.”

Read it here. And be fearless.

We’re making these mini rock docs at work now. It’s a fun thing. This is my first one, taking a look at the new wave of British soul and R&B acts in the wake of Amy Winehouse & Adele’s success.

This idea came to me after an interview with Conor Maynard, who put forward this assertion that the X Factor (with all it’s One Directions & Cher Lloyds & Little Mixes) in the UK is a big part of why the world is paying such close attention to British artists of late. I asked him if he thought that and other reality singing shows having all these old songs on them had anything to do with the on-going interest in younger generations of soul and R&B music. And then I couldn’t stop myself from asking all the other British artists we were having in — who all happened to classify themselves as soul or  R&B artists.

So I talked to Emeli Sandé, Olly Murs, Jessie Ware and Daley about it. I got the effervescent Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly to crack jokes. I had the British expertise of Hazel Sheffield from NME. My co-workers at Radio.com, Brian and Erik, agreed to weigh in and do some narrative storytelling for me.

And voila. Here are my little theories about why the UK is all up on soul and R&B these days. And exporting it like a mother.

I interviewed Ben Gibbard last October, around the release of his solo record and when he was still insisting INSISTING there would be no Postal Service reunion. 

It was an interesting conversation across the board, in part because I’ve known him for a decade and found the, “Ben is a sad person/I’m glad Ben got a divorce so maybe he can write some good songs because his best songs were written when he was unhappy!” diatribe of write-ups (and general sentiments) across the Internet to be interesting. And since I’ve known him awhile, I got him to talk about it a bit.

We also touched on nostalgia. I took a piece of the interview I hadn’t written up before and did an article for Radio.com (the CBS site I write for these days) around it because all the things he said about Death Cab fandom applied pretty well to Postal Service fandom, given that we’re looking at it a solid decade after the fact. 

Read that article.

What I didn’t expect was to feel so nostalgic myself when I watched their Coachella performance. That little dance move Ben & Jenny Lewis did in “The District Sleeps Alone”? So cute. So the exact move I saw them do at Bowery Ballroom in 2004 on tour supporting Give Up. Now I really want to go to Barclay’s and get my Postal Service on.

Excited for the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album? Me too. 

I did this lovely interview with Karen O’s longtime designer, Christian Joy. She gave some fun insight into her process and why she’s putting Karen in pantsuits for the new album. Oh and tells you what to wear to a music festival. 

But really, the part that was most interesting to me, was the stuff about the politics of dressing like a man/androgynous on stage. 

I really love Foals. So when I heard about their new album Holy Fire (which came out in Feb), I thought…hm. Making moves? Upstreaming to Warner from Sub Pop? Getting Flood & Moulder to produce? Signing to Q Prime management? Are Foals on the road to being the next Black Keys? You know, that midlevel band who burst into the upper echelon of rock? 

So I sat them down for an interview. And then I talked to people from Rolling Stone, Spinner and NME about it. I talked to my lovely friend Ultragrrrl. And…it seems the journalists said one thing while Foals said another.

Check it out. The band will be spending some more time in the US starting with their Coachella performance this weekend.