Paste, America’s #1 Triple-A music magazine, has been crushing on singer/songwriter/erotic poet Joseph Arthur for a while, with raves for 2006′s Nuclear Daydream and this year’s follow-up Let’s Just Be (3.5 stars). The editors invited him to perform for Paste‘s December podcast and March issue launch party. They even named him one of the best 100 songwriters alive.
It must’ve stung, then, when Joe sent the high-brow rock rag this letter (printed in the current issue)…
A CHALLENGE TO PASTE BY JOSEPH ARTHUR
Paste should be more like its name
Meaning it should smack you about more
Have reviews by poets like me about itself
(hey wait a minute)
Paste should take more chances
Offend more
Be more misunderstood
It tries too hard to appeal to some fantastical
demographic of pretend people who like
pretend music
Singing pretend songs
To plastic ears bleeding internally into a brain
folding over itself just because
Paste is a caricature of itself
If it were a color it would be beige
It goes on, but you get the point. Why the haterade? A recent blog entry on josepharthur.com may shed some light:
I sent dude from paste
Some writings to try and get a column
I figured out a good name for it
Letters from a self depreciating megalomaniac
Aw, all he wanted was a column. That’s cute.
Joey, Stereogum will give you a column. We want to be more misunderstood! And our demo isn’t “pretend people who like pretend music.” We cater to real people who hate everything. Can we bum a smoke?
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Twatever!
pretty sure joseph is bipolar and/or untalented
Whether he got his column or didn’t, he’s right on about Paste. Bleh.
Joseph Arthur sucks, as does everybody else not named me.
Hmmm, this might make JA’s show in Atlanta in a few weeks a little more interesting…
JA should embrace whatever attention he gets, ’cause in 5 years, when he still sucks, people are gonna stop caring.
“We cater to real people who hate everything.”
I think that should read “we cater to real people who hate everything but Arcade Fire.”
This prompts Question of the Day — Which is more boring: Joseph Arthur or Paste?
He’s right about Paste – when Norah Jones is the cover girl two (or so) months before Modest Mouse and The Hold Steady – just HOW sincere are they about liking or feeling like their readers those bands? Wishful thinking, I bet.
I’m guessing they’re trying to appeal to the demographic (pretend or real) parents who want to smoke up with their post-grad offspring, knowing the missed better opportunities to do so when their kids were in high school.
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Better yet, “We cater to real people who hate everything but Of Montreal.”
@Christopher…
Say what? I like Norah (wrote the cover story, even) and also am completely gaga for Modest Mouse and The Hold Steady. (Particularly the latter.) And I’ll be seeing Arcade Fire tomorrow night before catching John Legend over the weekend.
I guess I didn’t get the memo that my tastes were supposed to be narrow… fortunately, our readers didn’t either.
Did he just call himself a “poet”?
Pot calling the Kettle beige….
i just saw J.A. in Minneapolis and he opened a show like no other. it blew everyone away it was FANGTASTIC!!! regardless of Paste (which i like actually), you should go see him live, he never stops and his band has some kickass lady strummers.
Paste isn’t perfect, but what music publication is? I subscribe, and enjoy something in every issue. They may do the adult contemporary thing a little too much sometimes, but who else mentions The Selmanaires, Silver Lakes, and has a pretty nice indie film section these days? No other music/culture pub I’m aware of.
By the way, that Norah article was a good read… and I haven’t heard anything she’s done in years but a few El Madmo tracks.
“…raves for 2006′s Nuclear Daydream and this year’s follow-up Let’s Just Be (3.5 stars).”
Paste gives every album at least 3 stars. They give so many 4.5 star ratings that you would think every folk/singer-songwriter/Americana record was genius. It’s obnoxious and ass-kissing.
Otherwise, I kinda like that beige magazine.
why are we ragging on one of the best music mags out there? so underrated it’s unbelievable. do you know the amount of work those people go though to filter all the shit out? for god’s sake, think of the workers! think of the workers!
It couldn’t have stung but so much or it wouldn’t have been printed…and in the same issue that Arthur appeared on the CD sampler. It’s a testament to the savviness of the editorial staff, I think, that they’re not so self-aggrandizing that they can’t print a rather scathing letter from an artist that they’ve promoted quite a bit. After all, every publication has room for improvement…and so does every artistic endeavor.
Of course I think Paste is pretty awesome, so I’m somewhat biased.
It couldn’t have stung but so much or it wouldn’t have been printed…and in the same issue that Arthur appeared on the CD sampler. It’s a testament to the savviness of the editorial staff, I think, that they’re not so self-aggrandizing that they can’t print a rather scathing letter from an artist that they’ve promoted quite a bit. After all, every publication has room for improvement…and so does every artistic endeavor.
Of course I think Paste is pretty awesome, so I’m somewhat biased.
Paste?
Paste magazine can go to hell… just like StereoGum. Why is that every article on StereoGum makes reference to his “erotic poetry” (when the vast, vast majority of his poems are NOT erotic) or “bumming a smoke”? Have you checked out his blog lately? Losers.
PASTE IS JUST A MAGAZINE. STEREOGUM ISN’T EVEN A MAGAZINE. BUT JOSEPH ARTHUR IS A GENIUS!
A genius? His blog is full of grammar and spelling mistakes. Good voice but his last album stinks. He was talented but he lost it. I think he’s up his ass.