In Which the Critic Critiques the Critic's Criticism of the Critic

It appears that many people were outraged by Village Voice music critic Chris Ott's personal attack on Colin Meloy of The Decemberists in this week's Voice. That's not a surprise. Ott's "review" of the band's CMJ performance at Hammerstein Ballroom doesn't even mention the music that was played at that show. As far as valid criticism goes, it's a joke. But it was surprising to learn that the piece ruffled the feathers of Meloy and his girlfriend, artist Carson Ellis. If you scroll down to the bottom of the comments left below the article, you will be treated to an entertaining ping-pong match of insults between Ellis and Ott.

Since Ellis fired off the first retaliatory attack, the war over Ott's review has spilled out all over the Internet. From Stereogum to Brooklyn Vegan, battlefields have sprouted up all over the Web and have inspired some pretty hilarious message board repartee. Here are some highlight snipes from the comment sections:

“he hates the decemberists just for the crime of being white. there is nothing wrong with meloy being proud of his white Irish heritage. i bet if he was black and talking about the jungle guys or whatever it would all be fine.”

“most ‘indie’ music sucks. regurgitating the same fey, ironic, no-talent, generic crap under the guise of being 'smart music for smart people' when in reality it's boring middle of the road, forgettable poo.”

“Oh, their old ‘intimate’ shows SUCKED. I mean, really, really sucked. I don't think anyone besides maybe Dave Eggers or Helen Keller would argue otherwise.”

“Can we all just agree that Hemingway would beat the living sh*t out of Colin Meloy? That's one thing to like about the guy...”


The biggest shock to me was that Ellis and Meloy cared to respond to Ott’s review. It was clearly a below-the-belt punch, but Meloy and Ellis have to realize that Ott is small potatoes. The Decemberists recently made the leap from Kill Rock Stars to Capitol Records; and any band that aspires to play on a bigger stage will inevitably face a backlash. In The Beatles Anthology documentary, there is footage of teenage girls sobbing outside of the Cavern Club in Liverpool. The girls were furious that The Beatles left to play America, and they vowed never to buy Beatle records again. That was 1964. Something tells me The Beatles didn’t give a shit that those girls were crying, and something tells me that today (if they’re still alive) those girls probably own everything The Beatles ever released. Meloy should be more concerned with his band, and less concerned with what some failed musician/music critic has to say. Goddamn it, you can always learn something from The Beatles.


Clearly, Ott has some hidden agenda for writing such an incendiary attack piece. Both Meloy and Ott have written books for the 33 1/3 series; maybe Meloy’s sales have outpaced Ott’s and there’s a little jealousy about that? Maybe Ott’s attack on The Decemberists’ Wes Anderson aesthetic reveals a pang of envy in Meloy’s talented girlfriend (Ellis) who does all of the band’s artwork? Ott has his own band, The Grace Period – maybe he is just bitter over the fact that Meloy plays to thousands of fans each night while he has to write 600 word pop music reviews for the Village Voice? Who knows?

Whoever you choose to side with in the Great Decemberists vs. The Village Voice Debate, pretty much everyone can agree that we all hate Chuck Klosterman. But oddly enough, Chuck made some smart and relevant comments about the nature of pop criticism in this week’s Onion A.V. Club section:


The people who review my books, generally, are kind of youngish culture writers who aspire to write books, or write opinion pieces about what they think of Neil Young, or why they quit watching ER or whatever. And because of that, I think there's a lot of people who write about my books with the premise of, "Why this guy? Why not me?" The thing is, if I write about Van Halen, no one really thinks I'm writing this because, in truth, I would rather be a successful guitar player. And if I wrote about Marie Antoinette, no one thinks, "Well actually, he wishes he were Sofia Coppola." But when someone writes a book review, they obviously already self-identify as a writer. I mean, they are. They're writers, they're critics, and they're writing about a book about a writer who's a critic. So I think it's really hard for people to distance themselves from what they're criticizing.

Discussion about self-referential criticism usually makes my head spin, and it's doing that right now. But I guess I threw that Klosterman quote in their because it makes some sense out of all of this. As a musician, Ott clearly had a hard time distancing himself from his subject, The Decemberists. I'm sure some of the personal attacks he made on Meloy are spot-on, but you can't write a review and not bring up the music. As a Decemberists fan, I am admittedly biased. But read the Village Voice piece, go see The Decemberists live, and decide for yourself.