Categories
GUEST EDITOR

Best Of 2011, Guest Editors: Richard Buckner On Live Shows

As 2011 comes to an end, we are taking a look back at some of our favorite posts of the year by our guest editors.

This week, singer/songwriter Richard Buckner releases Our Blood (Merge), his first new music since 2006’s Meadow. The nine-track LP was recorded by Buckner at his upstate New York home studio with pedal-steel guitarist Buddy Cage (New Riders Of The Purple Sage) and drummer Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth). Buckner kicks off a co-headlining tour with labelmate David Kilgour (the Clean) on August 16 in Los Angeles. In the meantime, Buckner will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.

Buckner: Live shows can be challenging experiences for the audience and artist. Here are a few ways to have positive moment or two: Pay to get in. Commerce for art serves the artist and the community. Witness or tune-out the performance with phone and other devices turned off. Unhappy with the performance? Easy: Just leave the listening area without any audible parting thoughts and go order a drink. Now, you can relax and sip while you check your email or whatever. If the only reason you know about the artist is through a burned CD from a friend, first of all, let your friend know that he/she is a music terrorist, but you’ll forgive them of their flaw if they have pot. Now, as retribution, go to the merchandise table after the show and purchase a product from the artist without critiquing the show that just ended. Finally, get home somehow, satisfied with your adult social-arena decision-making skills, knowing you have supported the arts, have not freaked out the performer (who is probably already a freak) and triumphantly passed another test of tolerance in public. Congrats!