The hottest music writing in the world right now is not on the web, it’s in the music section of the Village Voice, which under (I believe) the editorship of Chuck Eddy has become the place where the wittiest, cleverest and most-up-to-date rock critics hang out and write about anything that takes their fancy. This fortnight it hits a particular hot streak which had me twitching with envy – Scott Woods of rockcritics.com talking about 2step, Alec Hedley Bemis writing up the various recent Angus MacLise/Dream Syndicate reissues, and Kembrew McLeod having fun with O-Town and S Club 7.
It’s not that any of these pieces are saying new stuff – they’re all very well-written, but the Woods is an intro, the McLeod treads a well-worn path and the Bemis I disagree with – but jeezus, what a line-up of topics. That’s the kind of range FT would love to achieve, and we don’t have advertisers to worry about.
For about the thousandth time in the last six months, I wish I lived in New York.