Comments on: Friends With Dogs, The Restaurant Industry, and a Bad Review

By: Alejandro

Alejandro — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:40:34 +0000

I just got Mothertounge and I have to say it’s divine. Seriously. Pitchfork is good for some things, but sometimes they get a bee in their bonnet and it’s best to just roll your eyes and move on.

Bravo. I’m very happy to have discovered your work!

By: Conrad

Conrad — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 04:18:56 +0000

Donâ€™t forget to tour China. We have hong shao Everything.

By: Michael Vincent

Michael Vincent — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:35:18 +0000

This is a note to “Lucy”

I am a composer and have experience working with choreographers… I’m always open to a new collaboration. Feel free to email me if you would like to talk more about the possibility or working together.

info [AT] michaelvincent [DOT] ca

By: lucy

lucy — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:24:40 +0000

well, I have an incredibly random question, and I am afraid that it has terribly little to do with this particular blog post– but I am a choreographer in New York and I’m trying to commission some new music for a piece that I am doing and you are obviously too busy and too expensive for my low-budget company, but it seems like you might have some under-employed composer friends that might enjoy the opportunity to work in an open, collaborative and creative environment on a new project. So totally random and I would obviously have rather sent an email, but as I am scouring my acquaintances for composers (I’ve already worked with two of my musician friends and want to work with someone new) I thought I might as well ask you.

By: Will Mego

Will Mego — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:58:47 +0000

Well, it’s easy to take any opinion, positive or negative rendered, especially by strangers, deeply to heart. A stranger might seem at first glance to be more truthful than one you know simply due to a personal distance. This may or may not be true. However, in time you may not view this Pitchfork review as all that negative, but perhaps hopeful of a direction to be taken. Sure, any review from a guy like that has to have a certain level of snark and snob appeal. I think that’s a job requirement, and it probably infects everything from his views on lunch to his personal life..I don’t envy him or any such person their jobs, or the warped perspectives and misplaced values it must bring.

But that said, I read the review to mean (after the snark) that there’s a promise he wants fulfilled, the idea of a greatness he feels isn’t delivered with THIS work, but hopes will be someday. But after having been let down so many times by talents burning bright but ending in mediocrity, worries that you’ll never…actually…get…around to it.

I’ll admit that to some extent, I’ll agree, but I’m more confidant that you’ll deliver. I honestly think you’ll be the greatest composer of works for or involving a chorus of our generation. I suppose some people want to see a resolve to buckle down and lock yourself away from distractions, exterior or interior, and create great large scale works. Works for chorus, orchestra, an opera. Don’t be afraid to be serious. They’ll love it.

By: Mark Nickels

Mark Nickels — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:25:14 +0000

Bad review? Pish, tosh, balderdash…..

I saw you and friends at red fish. You are all daft sacred monsters.

I am devoted.

One thing: my friend had her 40 bones out for the cds but didn’t know where to go……

P.S. You have really big hands!

By: Haukur

Haukur — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:05:34 +0000

Philadelphia is a culinary lowpoint, as far as I’m concerned.

That review was funny in the way it focused on your press. I did not like it, and I am a man of refinement, taste and I read a bunch, too.

See you soon, friend.

Haukur S M

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:23:43 +0000

Circumstances were such that I took the train from DC to meet my wife for your New York show. Looking out the train window, I saw a certain graffito, a certain tag, several times: Saro! Then it was wonderful to hear that and other favorite songs performed live. So much love, inspiration, and hard work up there onstage. Bravo!

By: SteveSF

SteveSF — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 03:08:41 +0000

A fairly nice blog review of the San Francisco show. Really sorry I had to miss what sounds like a unique moment.

http://www.edwinoutwater.com/2008/08/23/new-music/

By: Judd

Judd — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 01:38:32 +0000

FYI, Dan said he very much loved the way Cheez Whiz and steak interacted. I think it may have been a “culinary highlight of the tour” for him.

Great great show last night!

By: matt

matt — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 04:50:28 +0000

Hey, Nico, I saw you in Philly last night at the First Unitarian Church and afterwards I just wanted to walk up and hug you, but I didn’t have the guts. Can I be nosy and ask where you ate? After reading this blog, I have the utmost respect for you in all matters concerning food and music.

nico responds: Dear Matt, actually, we went back to New York right afterwards, so I didn’t have a chance to go to, like, Le Bec Fin or whatever. Also, my boyfriend tried to provide the touring party with cheesesteak (he used to live in Philly) but I guess the place he used to like had closed or something. It was not, let’s say, a culinary highlight of the tour. N

By: Coelacanthony

Coelacanthony — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 07:56:06 +0000

I’m Feelin’ Tipsy As Fuck Off This Damn Pinot Noir but Can MT Exist as an Ethereal, Atmospheric Thang? Is it able, more than able? Does it need to be a life-affirming, cathartic moment for everyone/Jayson? From the review it seems like he was only interested in your collabos, as he seemed to compare your record to Other People’s Pop without ceasing. N E WAYZ keep on living The Glamorest Life, sweety.

By: Bunny

Bunny — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:35:41 +0000

very nice write up and photos of all three musicians on the 802 tour in today’s Boston Globe. On line version not as dramatic but worth seeing.
http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2008/08/22/three_for_one/?s_campaign=8315

By: Paula "Mad Angel" Warner

Paula "Mad Angel" Warner — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:13:07 +0000

Sooooo…hubby brought home his copy of the Globe today with a nice article about your upcoming concert. Phoebe and I are hoping to attend, and really looking forward to it.

Seems like that Pitchfork fella really went out of his way to be a b*tch. Pay no attention to that little man behind the curtain. Be YOU. I for one am delighted to hear news of everything you’re doing, and I am so far behind! I must order your two CDs forthwith!

The girls and I are still singing at Grace, though I have been playing hooky most of the summer, to bash out Shane MacGowan songs with filthy lyrics on my guitar while the rest of the family goes off to church. In my heart, I’d love to be a blues/rock musician, but I was born with a Byrd voice. C’est la vie…

Ah, it’s so good to read about you doing so well. Can’t believe all the time that’s gone by. I remember the fifteen-year-old who taught me how to make a wicked pasta sauce one summer at Ogontz, and used to loan me his Monty Python CDs, who I was forever forgetting was NOT an adult yet, much to a certain choirmaster’s dismay. But I always enjoyed talking to you, and you never did seem like a child. Ever. Very cool.

Well, before I get much more Old and Wistful here…hope to see you on Sunday!

By: killian

killian — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:56:13 +0000

Thing three: â€œI am sorry sir; you cannot use Viagra; the health regulations are against it.â€
thus, we are both victims. . .

Fabulous blog–very interesting the way you absorb the negative and turn it into very pithy, remarkable observations about your place in the world—Mothertongue IS difficult. So????
and ass-kicking AND Beautiful.

ditto jenny re: sorrow over lack of visits points south. sigh. . . but the blog helps. . . thanks.
ESPECIALLY you and Sam and Modern Dance.