November 22, 2010

Sasha Frere-Jones’ Listening Pleasures

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Sasha Frere-Jones, The New Yorker‘s prolific pop-music critic, is about to get busier. Last week, the news broke that he had signed on as the new culture editor of The Daily, News Corporation’s soon-to-debut iPad newspaper. For now, Frere-Jones, a musician in his own right and current member of the bands Piñata and Calvinist, continues to write—on race in American pop music and the end of hip-hop, among other volatile subjects—and to document his surroundings in photos he calls “barely photography.” We caught up with Frere-Jones to quiz him about his current music faves and the perks of being one of the world’s Top 30 critics.   

Mother Jones: What’s your favorite new or upcoming release?

Sasha Frere-Jones: Robyn’s Body Talk Part 1 and Body Talk Part 2, two of three albums she has promised to release in 2010. At the Polar Music Prize ceremonies in Stockholm, I heard Robyn sing Björk’s “Hyperballad” and something felt right in the world, as if the good guys had won something significant. When pop as smart and exuberant and well-rendered as Robyn’s comes into the world, the idea of the underground seems less logical. If you can be Robyn, why would you need to escape the mainstream? (Both albums double as aerobic sessions, conveniently.)

MJ: Shuffle your iPod (or equivalent) and name the first 5 songs that pop up.

SFJ:
1. Ice Cube & Dr. Dre, “Natural Born Killaz”
2. Emeralds, “Candy Shoppe”
3. Fucked Up, “Magic Word”
4. Instant Funk, “I Got My Mind Made Up”
5. Beach House, “Walk In The Park”

MJ: What’s the latest song that super-glued itself in your brain?

SFJ: The Budos Band, “Black Venom”

MJ: Three records you never get sick of listening to?

SFJ: The Jesus Lizard, Liar
Outkast, Aquemini
Brian Eno, Another Green World

MJ: Any guilty pleasures?

SFJ: Don’t believe in guilty pleasures. Categorical impossibility. Pleasure is pleasure.

MJ: Favorite holiday-related song or album?

SFJ: It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

MJ: Favorite politically themed song or album?

SFJ: Everything is political, or nothing is.

MJ: Name the biggest perk of being pop-music critic for The New Yorker.

SFJ: I am paid to write and people read what I write.

MJ: Biggest irk?

SFJ: No irks!

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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