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Da Capo Best Music Writing
Da Capo Best Music Writing 2005
Da Capo Best Music Writing has become one of the most eagerly awaited annuals of them all. Celebrating the year in music writing by gathering a rich array of essays, missives, and musings on every style of music from rock to hip-hop to R&B to jazz to pop to blues and more, it is essential reading for anyone who loves great music and accomplished writing. Scribes of every imaginable sort-novelists, poets, journalists, musicians-are gathered to create a multi-voiced snapshot of the year in music writing that, like the music it illuminates, is every bit as thrilling as it is riveting.Past writers have MEndez Berry * Ta-Nehisi Coates * Michael Corcoran * Robbie Fulks * Michaelangelo Matos * Alex Ross * Roni Sarig * Joel Selvin * Tour8E * Lynn Hirschberg * Chuck Klosterman * Elizabeth Gilbert * Jay McInerney * Elvis Costello * Susan Orlean * Jonathan Lethem * David Rakoff * Mike Doughty * Lorraine Ali * Greil Marcus * Richard Meltzer * Robert Gordon * Sarah Vowell * Nick Tosches * Anthony DeCurtis * William Gay * Whitney Balliett * Lester Bangs * Rosanne Cash * Eddie Dean * Selwyn Seyfu Hinds * Kate Sullivan * Alec Wilkinson * David Hadju * Lenny Kaye * The Onion * Mark Jacobson * Gary Giddins * John Leland * Luc Sante * Monica Kendrick * Kalefa Sanneh
224 pages, Paperback
First published September 26, 2005
63 people want to read
About the author
J.T. LeRoy
10 books288 followersLaura Victoria Albert is the author of writings that include works credited to the fictional teenage persona of JT LeRoy, a long-running literary hoax in which LeRoy was presented to the public and publishers as a gender-variant, sexually questioning, abused, former homeless drug addict and male prostitute. Albert described LeRoy as an “avatar” rather than a “hoax,” and claimed that she was able to write things as LeRoy that she could not have said as Laura Albert. Albert was raised in Brooklyn, and she and her former partner Geoffrey Knoop have a young son. She has also used the names Emily Frasier and Speedie, and published other works as Laura Victoria and Gluttenberg.
Albert did not publish her writing as “memoir” – she published her writing as “fiction.”
Albert attests that she could not have written from raw emotion without the right to be presented to the world via JT LeRoy, whom she calls her “phantom limb” – a style of performance art she had been undertaking to deal with experiences even as a little girl, according to a 2006 interview in The Paris Review.
In November 2010, Laura Albert appeared at The Moth to tell her story on video.
Laura Albert has also written for the acclaimed television series Deadwood. She collaborated with director and playwright Robert Wilson for the international exhibition of his VOOM video portraits, and with the catalog for his “Frontiers: Visions of the Frontier” at Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM). In 2012 she served on the juries of the first Brasilia International Film Festival and the Sapporo International Short Film Festival; she also attended Brazil’s international book fair, Bienal Brasil do Livro e da Leitura, where she and Alice Walker were the U.S. representatives. Brazil’s Geração Editorial has re-released the JT LeRoy books in a boxset under Laura Albert’s name, and she and JT are the subjects of the hit Brazilian rock musical JT, Um Conto de Fadas Punk (“JT, A Punk Fairy Tale”).
She has taught at Dave Eggers’ 826 Valencia and the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and has lectured with artist Jasmin Lim at Artists’ Television Access with SF Camerawork's Chuck Mobley, in conjunction with a window installation about her work. She has also written for dot429, the world’s largest LGBTA professional network, and been an invited speaker at their annual conferences in New York.
Albert did not publish her writing as “memoir” – she published her writing as “fiction.”
Albert attests that she could not have written from raw emotion without the right to be presented to the world via JT LeRoy, whom she calls her “phantom limb” – a style of performance art she had been undertaking to deal with experiences even as a little girl, according to a 2006 interview in The Paris Review.
In November 2010, Laura Albert appeared at The Moth to tell her story on video.
Laura Albert has also written for the acclaimed television series Deadwood. She collaborated with director and playwright Robert Wilson for the international exhibition of his VOOM video portraits, and with the catalog for his “Frontiers: Visions of the Frontier” at Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM). In 2012 she served on the juries of the first Brasilia International Film Festival and the Sapporo International Short Film Festival; she also attended Brazil’s international book fair, Bienal Brasil do Livro e da Leitura, where she and Alice Walker were the U.S. representatives. Brazil’s Geração Editorial has re-released the JT LeRoy books in a boxset under Laura Albert’s name, and she and JT are the subjects of the hit Brazilian rock musical JT, Um Conto de Fadas Punk (“JT, A Punk Fairy Tale”).
She has taught at Dave Eggers’ 826 Valencia and the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and has lectured with artist Jasmin Lim at Artists’ Television Access with SF Camerawork's Chuck Mobley, in conjunction with a window installation about her work. She has also written for dot429, the world’s largest LGBTA professional network, and been an invited speaker at their annual conferences in New York.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 27, 2008
In LeRoy's forward he talks about how he devours the writing of the old school music critics, dictionary and encyclopedia nearby, not only wanting to feel more connected to the music he loves but to be enveloped in it - to understand the language and the context and the layers of musical criticism. Camille Paglia and Ingrid Sischy's discussion of rock n' roll style and iconography from Elvis forward had me reaching for dictionary as well. Paglia uses a term like slatternly and then references Robert Mapplethorpe's photograph of Patti Smith like she's a walking rock wikipedia. Settle down there, big brains, let me catch up.
I didn't need my dictionary (or need to run back to the computer to search out albums and tracks and history) as much as I went from article to article, all published in 2004, but I was constantly flipping back through time in my itunes catalog. Not for the music of 2004, mind, but further back. I played through London Calling and other parts of The Clash library while I reminisced with Sasha Frere Jones and Michael Corcoran about 1979 and the crossroads of popular music that year (and that album in particular) was. I ventured through dusty and anemic areas of my music library while reading about Bob Dylan and Ray Charles. I lamented not having a single Buddy Holly track (or Nirvana for that matter but, shhhhh, don't tell anybody).
Kalefa Sanneh's The Rap against Rockism, however, is the one piece I found still immediately relavent to our current moment in music in 2006. Especially in light of the discussion of this year's most popular music over at Lynne's spot. The question to ponder is this - Why is an artist like Sufjan Stevens getting all the music critic love while Mariah Carey put out the year's most popular (and listenable and contemporary and, generally, critically well received) album and is nowhere to be found? It is essentially the same question that Sanneh asks
"...when did we all agree that Nirvana's neo-punk was more respectable than Carey's neo-disco?"
Or to ask it a different way, twenty years from now will you be begging your oldies DJ to whip out his retro video ipod and put on some Clap Your Hands Say Yeah or will you be grabbing your homeboys and homegirls and trying to line dance to Shake It Off or We Belong Together because those were your jams?
Don't front. Somebody is buying up all that fuckin' Laffy Taffy and My Humps on iTunes.
That said, while Sanneh calls the rockist elitism to task, the collection is woefully lacking in anything relaven to say about the important music of 2004. For these talented writers, it really is all about the long gone days of folk, punk, Nirvana and white guy rock.
But for the skill in their prose, the collection is recommended. The rockism snobbery is just being put on notice.
I didn't need my dictionary (or need to run back to the computer to search out albums and tracks and history) as much as I went from article to article, all published in 2004, but I was constantly flipping back through time in my itunes catalog. Not for the music of 2004, mind, but further back. I played through London Calling and other parts of The Clash library while I reminisced with Sasha Frere Jones and Michael Corcoran about 1979 and the crossroads of popular music that year (and that album in particular) was. I ventured through dusty and anemic areas of my music library while reading about Bob Dylan and Ray Charles. I lamented not having a single Buddy Holly track (or Nirvana for that matter but, shhhhh, don't tell anybody).
Kalefa Sanneh's The Rap against Rockism, however, is the one piece I found still immediately relavent to our current moment in music in 2006. Especially in light of the discussion of this year's most popular music over at Lynne's spot. The question to ponder is this - Why is an artist like Sufjan Stevens getting all the music critic love while Mariah Carey put out the year's most popular (and listenable and contemporary and, generally, critically well received) album and is nowhere to be found? It is essentially the same question that Sanneh asks
"...when did we all agree that Nirvana's neo-punk was more respectable than Carey's neo-disco?"
Or to ask it a different way, twenty years from now will you be begging your oldies DJ to whip out his retro video ipod and put on some Clap Your Hands Say Yeah or will you be grabbing your homeboys and homegirls and trying to line dance to Shake It Off or We Belong Together because those were your jams?
Don't front. Somebody is buying up all that fuckin' Laffy Taffy and My Humps on iTunes.
That said, while Sanneh calls the rockist elitism to task, the collection is woefully lacking in anything relaven to say about the important music of 2004. For these talented writers, it really is all about the long gone days of folk, punk, Nirvana and white guy rock.
But for the skill in their prose, the collection is recommended. The rockism snobbery is just being put on notice.
March 29, 2011
I read this collection of essays in a day, it's fast reading. I was particularly interested in Sanneh's "Rap against Rockism" (which is a condemnation of rock snobs) Eggers' homage to Big Country (a stirring tribute to one of the almost-forgotten one-hit wonders of the 80s) and Segal's piece on shortwave numbers radio stations. The latter is a Washington Post piece that is fantastically intriguing, touching on clandestine spy activities, as well as interrogating conceptions of rock music and outlining a breed of avant-garde sound/music. If you can believe it, it all makes sense and sent me scrambling to find the elusive 4-CD set "The Conet Project." Read it to believe it.
Though I agree with the others that the forward by the guest editor is maddeningly colloquial and irritating (and his selection of essays from different media is quite eclectic), there are a handful of excellent essays here.
Though I agree with the others that the forward by the guest editor is maddeningly colloquial and irritating (and his selection of essays from different media is quite eclectic), there are a handful of excellent essays here.
January 21, 2008
this collection is fascinating, fun, and extremely varied. some of the entries are so pretentious as to be unreadable (Robert Christgau's "In Search of Jim Crow" essay), or so falsely-colloquial as to be revolting (JT LeRoy's introduction), but the majority are educational and engaging, even when I didn't know the music being discussed. some big names are included (aside from Christgau, Dave Eggers and Sasha Frere-Jones are the two most impressive to me), but the people I've never heard of write just as well.
definitely worth it as a casual read.
definitely worth it as a casual read.
June 2, 2008
This is by far the slimmest of these annual volumes, and was released before the false identity of J.T. Leroy was revealed. If you're a regular reader of these anthologies, you may feel somewhat cheated by its shorter-than-usual length. I also find Leroy's ingratiating style extremely annoying, but other than a brief introduction and conclusion, you won't have to put up with much of "him."
Other than those caveats, this is, as usual, a fine selection of music writing from periodicals, journals, and blogs.
Other than those caveats, this is, as usual, a fine selection of music writing from periodicals, journals, and blogs.
August 29, 2007
The articles on john peel, bob dylan, and sexism in emo were the stand-outs for me.
December 7, 2010
They kept on mentioning the Strokes, different times...
March 24, 2013
Bargain Bin find at Hastings. Pretty good. Several stories already very dated in 8 years time (CD's? Albums? Huh?)
January 5, 2013
Especially love David Segal's essay.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews