This interview was completed in August 2010. Be sure to check out links to many of Sean’s contributions found below the Q&A’s.



Where do you live?

At this juncture of my life, I’m dividing my time relatively equally between the New York suburbs (where my family recently moved after a lifetime in Brooklyn), the city proper (my girlfriend resides nearby in the splendid city of Hoboken), and the quaint upstate village of New Paltz. The latter is best known for its integral role in the gay marriage movement and a relatively middling state university campus whose indefatigable scenic charm has continued to lure me after three years. I intend to return to Brooklyn full-time next year.





How old are you?

Alas, not old enough to drink in America, but old enough to register with the Selective Service and dance all night at Yellow in Tokyo. (In other words, I’m 20!)





Why do you write about music? Any formal/informal practice of music? Music theory/study?

Without sounding too disingenuous, I don’t really know. It’s something I’m fairly knowledgeable about, it’s a lot of fun, and it’s much easier to accrue clips in this fashion than submitting to hoary literary journals that 5 people read. Additionally, many music journalists (Nat Hentoff, Greil Marcus, Nick Tosches, Vince Aletti, Kurt Loder, Nelson George, Toure, Chuck Klosterman) have transitioned to careers as bona fide cultural/political commentators, TV personalities, and novelists, so I would be lying if I said that I didn’t intend to follow in a few of their footsteps. Meanwhile, just as the Klingons refuse to talk about the topic of their head ridges, I don’t discuss any past practice of music. Case closed.





What is your favorite genre(s) of music?

Anything and everything. Most contemporary country (of the mainstream and underground varieties) makes me want to keel over, but I can’t completely disparage a form that produced Gram, Jerry Jeff, and Townes. And, oh yes, the inimitable Gary Stewart.





Who is your favorite artist we have covered? Favorite artist/album you've written about for Groovemine?

I enjoyed the recent piece on Foxes in Fiction (which definitely convinced me to take that album seriously), while the review of Ariel Pink’s Before Today nicely complemented my own views. And it’s always nice to see something about The Monks. Among my own work, writing that piece about Julius Eastman stands out as a memorable experience.





What are your favorite albums of 2010, so far, and why?

Crooks and Lovers, Mount Kimbie: They really laid down the gauntlet with this one. I’m still trying to parse this relatively compact album, but it could very well be as epoch-shattering as Dare or Entroducing. Even though the dubstep and bass world is a veritable haven for tweedy theorists, it seems that the most innovative work is still being conducted in the contemporary equivalent of the garage by autochthons.

Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty, Big Boi: Chico Dusty is the Some Girls of contemporary hip-hop, with Big Boi as Dennis Wilson, the dumb angel who turned out to be prodigiously talented after all. Incendiary stuff, especially when you consider how strong Raekwon was last year.

Psychedelic Disco-Tech: They Live By Night, Darkstarr: Darkstarr is spearheaded by longtime David Mancuso confederate Cosmo Murphy (as always, no relation), and this mixed compilation ranges from Chicago’s “I’m a Man” (the disco hit of 1969) to Spaghetti Circus’s DFA banger “Still Going” (the disco hit of 2009), with plenty of transcendent remixes in between.





Tell us about your favorite live show?

Going to fly-on-the-wall north Brooklyn clubs like the Shank, Refuge, and Danger circa 2007-2008. Probably the last great flowering of New York dance culture, at least until Nanny Bloomberg is finally deposed.





What was your favorite music growing up?

Trout Mask Replica, Bitches Brew, lots of New Order, White Light/White Heat, Eno’s Here Come the Warm Jets, and James Brown’s Dead on the Heavy Funk. My parents had an outstanding collection to start out with.





What are your favorite music listening moments and/or environments? In other words, how do you like to listen to music?
 
Alone, very loudly, with headphones. Of course, going to clubs and concerts can also be a revelatory sonic experience as a sort of adjutant to the former. Arthur Russell once characterized clubs to Rhys Chatham as “temples of sound”, and I’m not inclined to disagree.





What media outlets do you turn to, other than Groovemine, to stay up on music?

Whether you love them, loathe them, or love and loathe them, Pitchfork and Stereogum are inescapable and surprisingly vital resources, while PopMatters offers a certain idiosyncratic flair; on the other end of the spectrum, Brooklyn Vegan compensates for a glaring dearth of stylish writing with pure, unencumbered information. He will be an institution in ten years. Among the old media barons, the Village Voice runs the very cogent Sounds of the City blog, Jim DeRogitas is still at it in Chicago, Robert Christgau has aged like a fine wine now that he really doesn’t have to cover rock, and Sasha Frere-Jones is our Foucaldian voice at The New Yorker. So much to read, so little time.




HIGHLIGHTS OF SEAN’S WORK:

• Tiga - Ciao!
• Subway - Subway II
• Black Rio, Vol. 2, Brazil Soul Power 1968-1981
• Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms
• Arthur Russell - Sleeping Bag Sessions
• Vivian Girls - Everything Goes Wrong
• Sleigh Bells - Treats
• Here We Go Magic - Pigeons

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