![]() ![]() I loved the disrespectful photo captions (done by Lester Bangs and Billy Altman) but my fave writer there was some guy with a weird name- Robert Christgau- who was studious, knowledgeable, funny and snarky at the same time.Īfter years of learning about all kinds of weird white rock shit I never heard of before in Creem (Pere Ubu, Captain Beefheart, all the early Rough Trade stuff), I noticed that Christgau's byline came from something called The Village Voice, which I'd never heard of before but that happened to be on sale at the newsstand. This would have been August 1978 where I picked up my first copy with Bob Seger on the cover. They had Billboard and Circus but what really caught my eye was Creem magazine, which looked as wild and irreverent as the music itself. I started listening to local NYC stations like WPLJ and WNEW and seeking out music mags at the same candy store. At school, I heard the older kids listening to classic rock tunes that were still in their heyday and it got to me as something vital I needed in my life alongside the superheroes I worshipped and candy bars I devoured. In the tiny little suburban town that I grew up in North Jersey, there was a candy store called the Hobby Shop where I'd buy Marvel Comics. ![]() As for me, I'm a sushi-eating liberal and a decent writer and editor who was able to get a number of other gigs because of that rag and I'll always be grateful to the Voice for that. I do some name-dropping here to show that a number of people I worked with and worked for there went on to other great things themselves after working at the Voice. ![]() I wanted to share some memorable tales about my time working there (sorry, no dirt, but plenty of funny crap), plus the story of how the paper shaped and warped me in many ways as I know it did for plenty of other people inside and outside of NYC. A lot of it seems like a blur now but there's good memories (working for Gary Giddins' Jazz Supplement on an extensive George Russell profile), not so great memories (getting bombed on eggnog at the Dylan listening party), bizarre memories (seeing a review on the shrink rap sticker on a Konono album and not realizing it was my writing) and just plain freakin' hair-raising shit (the phoner for the Arthur Lee story, which was a psychotic one-sided shouting match). sound effects record, a great series of semi-legal sub-indie punk compilations ("Homework"), Canuck teen heart-throbs Hot Hot Heat, Bronx blues man Poppa Chubby and Bob Dylan's Xmas record. For their live review section, "The Sound of the City," I did get to do a bunch of write-ups, mostly covering people coming out of hiding/retirement (Howard Tate in 2001, Arthur Lee in 2002, Ari Upp and T-Bone Burnett in 2006, Roky Erickson and Sly Stone in 2007, Tina Turner in 2008, Leonard Cohen in 2009) alongside a bunch of unlikely, odd band reunions (Plastic People in 1998, ESG in 2000, Camper Van Beethoven in 2002, Undertones, Incredible String Band and remnants of the MC5 in 2004, the Raspberries in 2005, Os Mutantes in 2006, Cluster and the Feelies in 2008).Įven after doing all of those write-ups, it was still tough to get into the album review section but I was able to find my niche to cover all kinds of bizarro stuff- reunion records from Big Star and the Soft Boys, novelty items from Eric Idle and Rick Moranis, flag-waving country singer Darryl Worley, electro-African band Konono No. In the paper's online archives, my articles there are mostly 'Voice Choices,' weekly mini-write-ups of upcoming shows, which serves as kind of a weird time capsule of events then. I did get kinda sentimental about the time I worked there and the people I worked with and the stories I got to cover so I started plowing through my old notes and emails to remember all the fun, nutty, infuriating times there. Their end was telegraphed years ago, even before the print edition was gone in 2017 and it was just a matter of time before it disappeared online too as print-legacy pubs usually fade off unless they have rich sugar daddies to keep 'em going (see this Digiday round-up for some recent examples). ![]() When the word came that The Village Voice was finally giving up the ghost and not publishing any new material, I wasn't sad, even through it had been a vital, influential part of my life for so long and I had worked for them as a freelance writer for over a dozen years (1998-2013). Perfect Sound Forever: Village Voice RIP THE VILLAGE VOICE ![]()
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