Arkansas Democrat - CRITICAL MASS

[theholyspook]

Well put Andy.. and indeed it is a shame that most Western rock journalists can't get past the issue of drink or that Shane is still alive. On a cultural note, when I read translated versions of Japanese reviews, not once do the words "drunken singer" ever come up. In my humble opinion, I feel it is because the way alcohol is viewed by the general population. Heavy consumption of alcohol is common place in Tokyo and every night I see someone far worse than I have ever seen anyone from the Pogues. Even at the recent Tokyo gigs, there was a well known Japanese musician quite obviously drunk and beaten but it was never in the Japanese music press. I asked my wife about it and she said "Who cares.. he is a brilliant musician and his words make people smile". If only the Western media could comprehend such simple sentiments.

[philipchevron]

I'll let you into a secret, though it's unlikely to be a secret to Spook, who lives among them. The Japanese people are more evolved than the rest of us.

[Benno]

o yeah
western society has this terrible invention..
it's called faith based morality
and i would choke on that days before i puked off of booze

[Chaitscasey]

CRITICAL MASS : Rowdy Pogues frontman still alive and kickin’
by Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat
24 Oct 2006
Full URL
<blockquote>
And Hell’s Ditch — Mac-Gowan’s final album as a Pogue — suffers from MacGowan’s obvious estrangement from his former mates. Not even Joe Strummer’s tender production could coax anything like the old manic fire from the band. At best, the band sounds comfortable in its own skin, but MacGowan’s sloppy, seemingly indifferent approach to the material is clear evidence that he had other things on his mind at the time. It’s no wonder he quit shortly after the record was released, leaving producer Strummer to step in and front the band for a brief period. So endeth the story of the Pogues, though they put out a couple of records in the 1990 s, with electric guitars and an almost canny accessibility. Others can point out that there were other great musicians in the Pogues — among them Spider Stacy and Jem Finer (who have done some very interesting work, like the Longplayer project and a song “composed” by the weather ) — but the Pogues were, for better and for worse, always Shane MacGowan’s band. And, against all logic, Shane’s not dead.

E-mail: pmartin@arkansasonline. com </blockquote>

Personally, I think Hell's Ditch is a pretty damn good album, even if it is just "MacGowan’s sloppy, seemingly indifferent approach to the material "

[R0gUE]

Well put Andy.. and indeed it is a shame that most Western rock journalists can't get past the issue of drink or that Shane is still alive. On a cultural note, when I read translated versions of Japanese reviews, not once do the words "drunken singer" ever come up. In my humble opinion, I feel it is because the way alcohol is viewed by the general population. Heavy consumption of alcohol is common place in Tokyo and every night I see someone far worse than I have ever seen anyone from the Pogues. Even at the recent Tokyo gigs, there was a well known Japanese musician quite obviously drunk and beaten but it was never in the Japanese music press. I asked my wife about it and she said "Who cares.. he is a brilliant musician and his words make people smile". If only the Western media could comprehend such simple sentiments.

One of the great magic(s) of The Pogues is Shane's drunken, slowed, blurred voice. It's what makes the music belong to the people, something that you feel you can relate and relax with like you do with family and friends. It is so much more REAL than if he were singing straight up, clear, and perfect. That would seem very distant and cold and weird: Not Pogues. While it hurts a little to see that he has suffered from this (I presume), that's who he is and that's what makes it all come together... his direction in life is to give us this music in his particular way... and the blurriness is really nice... kind of freeing. It's like saying, it's ok to be messed up (not perfect), we're in this together.

On US drinking... the Puritans started this... the hardline on alcohol consumption that leads to kids overdoing it in college when they are finally "liberated" is a whole other conversation. But that's what the reviews are born from.

Kanpai!

[philipchevron]

Well put Andy.. and indeed it is a shame that most Western rock journalists can't get past the issue of drink or that Shane is still alive. On a cultural note, when I read translated versions of Japanese reviews, not once do the words "drunken singer" ever come up. In my humble opinion, I feel it is because the way alcohol is viewed by the general population. Heavy consumption of alcohol is common place in Tokyo and every night I see someone far worse than I have ever seen anyone from the Pogues. Even at the recent Tokyo gigs, there was a well known Japanese musician quite obviously drunk and beaten but it was never in the Japanese music press. I asked my wife about it and she said "Who cares.. he is a brilliant musician and his words make people smile". If only the Western media could comprehend such simple sentiments.

One of the great magic(s) of The Pogues is Shane's drunken, slowed, blurred voice. It's what makes the music belong to the people, something that you feel you can relate and relax with like you do with family and friends. It is so much more REAL than if he were singing straight up, clear, and perfect. That would seem very distant and cold and weird: Not Pogues. While it hurts a little to see that he has suffered from this (I presume), that's who he is and that's what makes it all come together... his direction in life is to give us this music in his particular way... and the blurriness is really nice... kind of freeing. It's like saying, it's ok to be messed up (not perfect), we're in this together.

On US drinking... the Puritans started this... the hardline on alcohol consumption that leads to kids overdoing it in college when they are finally "liberated" is a whole other conversation. But that's what the reviews are born from.

Kanpai!

One of the things I really love about the USA is that it is perhaps the only country in the world where Prohibition (1919) and Alcoholics Anonymous (1935) could be born only 16 years apart.

[R0gUE]

One of the things I really love about the USA is that it is perhaps the only country in the world where Prohibition (1919) and Alcoholics Anonymous (1935) could be born only 16 years apart.

Dying laughing... but it should be noted that not all Americans feel this way, such as moi, a naturalized citizen, and many others. An older "gentleman" at work approached me after he saw that I was wearing a Pogues t-shirt and related to me that he also attended the concert and the first thing he said was "Did you see how drunk Shane was?"... but that was quickly followed by "But it didn't matter, because he did a great job singing. He didn't miss a line." - (or something like that). And then he said he wished he had bought a Pogues drinking glass!

Critics like to be critical because it's easier for them to write something negative. It's much more difficult to come up with something positive because sheer praise feels pretty useless, like maybe you're not doing your job as a critic, and writing neutral stuff takes more thought. I know this from architecture school reviews, having been on both sides of the fence. For reference, in arch. school you have to present your project throughout its development to critics invited from "the outside world." This is so you can practice presenting and so as to get useful feedback on whether what you're doing makes sense to anyone else outside of yourself, and to get "opinions" from other sources rather than the people immediately around you that you see and hear over and over. This can be very scary at first until you learn to ignore mean irrelevant comments. In a way, it's worse than the article criticisms because it's right there in front of you, in your face, and in some ways much better because you have a chance to talk to the critics.

What happens, unfortunately, and this relates to the negative criticism of The Pogues, is that often reviewers are there to try to position themselves in the market and really are only looking out for themselves and their careers, talking to sell themselves as good talkers and get teaching positions and make contacts and so on. So, basically, a lot of conversation that goes on at these reviews can often have nothing to do with your project (in the good case) or be really hard on your project (in the worse case) simply because the reviewer, intimidated by the fact that he/she has nothing creative to say that could help you move forward, decides to slam you in an effort to make themselves look good by providing criticism.

[anfield boy]

I can't believe I made it past the by-line: Arkansas Democrat. There's no such thing. Is he a fucking unicorn or something? I did make it half way down before giving up. Really, to go on about their age? WTF? I think one of the beautiful things about what the Pogues are doing now is their maturity. I'm not (in any lifetime) a musician, but it's not the easiest form of music by any stretch. So one would think that the older they are the better musicians they become. The fact that it takes 8 of them to create the sound they want commands and deserves respect. The Stones, on the hand, who simply play rock n' roll are the ones who are kind of sad. (What, does Bianca want a flat in Ibiza?) And I don't hear about Keith's herion problems of the past. Why is he still alive?

[DzM]

I can't believe I made it past the by-line: Arkansas Democrat. There's no such thing. Is he a fucking unicorn or something?

I believe the title is from the paper, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and has nothing to do with his politics.

I'm probably wrong though.

[anfield boy]

I can't believe I made it past the by-line: Arkansas Democrat. There's no such thing. Is he a fucking unicorn or something?

I believe the title is from the paper, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and has nothing to do with his politics.

I'm probably wrong though.

Oh gotcha, Stilll made me go cross-eyed though.