October 2nd, 2008 5:02am
Interview with Amanda Petrusich, Part Four
This is my favorite part of my interview with Amanda Petrusich, author of It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways, and the Search for the Next American Music. Enjoy.
Matthew: I think people use music in more utilitarian ways now.
Amanda: How so?
Matthew: Music gets prescribed to different roles — I listen to this to work out, this works well for doing homework. Which makes perfect sense a lot of the time. But it also can be weird in how it excludes things that don’t quite mesh.
Amanda: Oh right, I do that too. But it causes problems. Like, when do I listen to Sigur Ros?
Matthew: Yeah. There’s a few records this year that I’ve liked a lot and I rarely feel like I can put it on.
Amanda: Ooh, which ones?
Matthew: Well, the one that springs quickly to mind is the new Portishead, which I love but now associate closely with the day I lost my job and it was dark and raining. So, yeah.
Amanda: Oh no! I remember that shitty, shitty day. I can see why you’d want to shelf that one for a bit.
Matthew: And then there’s things like, say, Jaguar Love which I think is a good album but just rarely want to hear.
Amanda: Right. I get that. Have you heard the new Metallica record?
Matthew: No, I haven’t. I’ve never really been a Metallica guy.
Amanda: I was 100% uninterested in Metallica until I saw Some Kind of Monster, and then I got a little bit obsessed. But it’s one of those records I have a hard time finding proper context for; when I bought it, I was literally thinking to myself “When am I going to put this on?”
Matthew: Oh man, I love that movie. I don’t know how anyone could not love that movie!
Amanda: Right? It’s remarkable.
Matthew: It’s probably one of the very best films of this decade. It has so much to say about long term interpersonal dynamics.
Amanda: There are some scenes in that film that I find positively heartbreaking — like when Lars sells his art collection? THE SUBTEXT! Or when he plays the new songs for his father, who’s totally unimpressed — I mean, I wanted to die. Really, just the ways in which it captures the idea of being stuck — of trying, so hard, to make good, worthwhile art, and coming up with stuff that sucks, and you kind of know it sucks, but what do you do? There’s just so much going on in that film. I mean, talk about brave. Releasing that film took balls, man.
Matthew: Yeah. I think it’s good for people to have insight into this sort of unique situation that isn’t unique at all, really. It’s something most artists go through, and they go through it in the most bombastic and cinematic way possible.
Amanda: Exactly. I watch it all the time. I think anyone who does anything creative for a living could stand to watch it weekly.
Matthew: What’s your favorite Metallica song?
Amanda: Ooh, good question. Maybe “Whiplash” from Kill Em All. That’s a weird choice.
Matthew: I think my favorite Metallica song is probably “One.” It has all those really severe parts they do very well, but also a hint of the hooks that would come later. Also, I remember the video seeming really creepy and uncomfortable when I was a kid.
Amanda: That’s a great song. The video is terrifying!
Matthew: I think more people have to be okay with giving artists the permission to fail, or go through rough patches.
Amanda: Well, that’s part of the acceleration of culture, isn’t it? One fumble and you’re irrelevant.
Matthew: Yeah, exactly. That’s where we are, you have to be a genius every time, or you’re gone. It’s a state of constant backlash, and people don’t trust each other’s enthusiasms.
Amanda: I do think we’re cruel and unforgiving to artists, especially musicians, especially right now. As a critic, I am very much a part of that, and I feel guilty about it.
Matthew: I try really hard to be fair to artists. I definitely try to keep my negative, reactionary stuff out of the public for the most part. It’s probably more entertaining for people, but it’s not helpful to anything. I’m also really aware of how I never change my mind about things I like, but I change my mind about things I dislike all the time.
Amanda: But, you know, it’s the consumer-guide state of criticism — people aren’t so interested in gray areas. I think most critics probably have regrets about things they’ve panned.
Matthew: I hate reading reviews that kinda approach art strictly from a consumer point of view, and are more about “what have you done for me lately?” and less about the goals and merits of the actual art. I’m all for negative reviews that challenge the art. I’m all for, say, Michaelangelo Matos explaining just why that Katy Perry song is awful.
Amanda: Absolutely, that was such a great piece, and it stood out in a sea of lazily dismissive blurbs. Do you think that has something to do with tight deadlines and tight space and more restrictive editing, or do you think it’s a bigger, more sweeping trend?
Matthew: I think it kinda ties into how people think about art in our culture in general. I think overall, there’s very little empathy for artists and intellectuals over the past, say, 20+ years. It seems like very often we approach artists as people who make something that pleases us, or they are spoiled jerks. If they trip up, there’s a lot schadenfreude. The funny thing about living right now is that there’s so much in the world that invites that feeling of schadenfreude, but that feeling itself tends to be rather poisonous.
Amanda: It’s really kind of nasty, isn’t it?
Matthew: It makes you feel superior without doing much. It invites you to feel positive about not having power. There’s few things more depressing than being smug about being powerless.
Amanda: How do you think the web has played into that?
Matthew: I think it just gives people a venue. You can bond over it. If you’re good at it, you can get some recognition. But it’s all the same thing, this lack of power, being removed from the people who have cultural, economic, political influence. I mean, think about Emily Gould! That was what she did for a living, then she got successful enough to become the target, and now she’s off in a weird limbo. It must be totally bizarre; I feel bad for her. To have power that is almost entirely imagined in the minds of people who dislike you.
Amanda: It’s funny, you said “schadenfreude” and I thought “Emily Gould.”
Matthew: Yes! I think she’s in the wiki entry.
Amanda: I mean, how insane. I can’t even truly wrap my head around it.
Matthew: But she’s the perfect example of someone who’s been at every station of the schadenfreude cross.
Amanda: I wonder if this doesn’t circle back to what we were talking about earlier, about American communities, about needing to be a part of some small, manageable microsociety, and being able to exert power within that.
Matthew: Yeah. I think it does. I mean, the area of the internet that would even know who Emily Gould is, that’s rather smallish, but it’s a community. It’s a whole bunch of people who are in a similar place culturally, economically, similar values.
Amanda: It’s odd that something that was once so tangible — community — is now so virtual for so many people.
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