Tower of Sleep: A Defense of John Maus and Bratty Artists

You took umbrage? I totally thought those (hilarious) image macros were a tribute and homage to what might be the single most awesome PFork Guest List I’ve ever read. I read that piece with a huge, shit-eating grin of pure glee on my face. Good piece here, anyway.

I think Maus was being sincere in his (entirely justified) remarks, but he was also trolling PFork pretty hard, and trolling the internet publicity machine with high theory is some good fucking trolling, if you ask me.

I think Saelan gets at something important here about the John Maus brouhaha (Maushaha? Mausgate?): It’s in huge part a matter of taste. Eric’s interesting post also, obviously, speaks to how personal affinities/antipathies can exaggerate your response to something like Maus’ provocative interview.

It’s been more than a decade since I’ve seen the inside of a grad school seminar and I’ve always been a little suspicious of, if not totally antagonistic to Showing Off. So I stick to my original, two-sentence gut reaction. I choose words carefully, so when I said “tedious sophomore” I meant that he sounds like a bright undergrad who just discovered Important European Thinkers and can’t shut up about them at a party where everyone else is busy getting wasted. And when I said he should “break character,” I meant that he’s obviously very engaged in the performative aspects of his role as a musician (which, when it comes to his records and live shows is a terrific thing to be!), but not so sensitive to context.

The risk is that you end up insulting your fans, which I think his didactic performance of, as someone commented “code switching,” absolutely does. That’s why I called him a “condescending asshole.” On the internet, I’ve found, it’s almost always better to overestimate your audience. And if Maus really believes that the Guest List dog-and-pony show is incompatible with the John Maus Project, he should by all means turn it down!

That said, I agree with Eric’s argument about needing brats. Rabble-rousers keep shit interesting. They keep tumblr in venture capital dollars, anyway.

(Source: marathonpacks)

Link tagged as: john_maus mausgate music reblog - Reblog from towerofsleep
  1. opticsponge reblogged this from lowerdens
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  5. anythingcouldhappen reblogged this from towerofsleep and added:
    think Saelan gets...something important here about...John...
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  7. annamack reblogged this from towerofsleep and added:
    totally gonna post about his article yesterday after i read it. i had something snarky all written out,
  8. raptoravatar reblogged this from towerofsleep and added:
    me love Das Racist initially.
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