My Friend Made a Zine Out of Her Dad’s Reactions to Pitchfork’s Top 10 Albums of 2014

“Why do you need new bands? Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974. It's a scientific fact.” Homer Simpson once said, his carpool soundtrack a strict Grand Funk Railroad regimen washed out by Bart and Lisa’s backseat groans. But dads have been steadfast in their musical ways long before Homer smiled politely at Billy Corgan. Maybe yours is convinced Deep Purple is on par with the Doors. Mine likes the Cars and occasionally, Lil Kim. My friend Liz Talley’s dad is a 56-year-old guy who plays with a jam band every Tuesday night in his barn.

One night, Liz got her dad a little tipsy and made him listen to Pitchfork’s top 10 albums of 2014, a compendium including Ariel Pink’s pom pom, FKA Twigs’ LP1, and Aphex Twin’s Syro. (Unfortunately Ariana Grande’s My Everything clocked in at 46, disqualifying her angelic vocal register and her ponytail from the project.) Liz recorded these “reviews” and paired them with illustrations in one of the funniest zines I’ve read in a long time: "Produced to Hell and Back" a Review of Pitchfork's 2014 Album Review. For Father’s Day, I caught up with Liz about why Swans plus Walmart is a bad idea and why her mom probably wouldn’t stand for this shit.

Continued below

NOISEY: First off, let’s start by talking about your dad’s musical taste. What’s he into typically?
Liz Talley: Stevie Ray Vaughn, Allman Brothers, Santana, Skynyrd, early Journey ("before they got that clown Steve Perry")… Basically anything with a wailing lead guitar. He came of age in the 70s and unfortunately keeps reminding me that "everybody's favorite kind of music is the music they were listening to when they first got laid."

Would you describe your musical relationship as one of pride in handing down his favorites to a receptive ear, or more of a “you just don’t get what Avril Lavigne means to me, dad”?
Haha, we actually agree on a lot of stuff. I mean, I can't do Stevie Ray Vaughn and take myself seriously, and I do like a lot of stuff completely subject to my dad's ridicule. But we both have a soft spot for like 60s and 70s cheeseball stuff. We'll go on YouTube and drink beer and talk over each other while forcing the other one to listen to some obscure polyester-wearing band.

So how did the idea for this zine come about? Talk me through the starting points.
I came up with it during this past year at art school, where you're exposed to kids and professors explaining all these outrageous conceptual art projects. I like to think I'm progressive and into radical ideas, but sitting there listening to this stuff I always feel my dad's unsolicited opinions creeping in. You know, on my shoulder, like one of those little Looney Tune devils laughing his ass off at this crap. I'm not cool, but since I make art I have to deal with cool people. It gets depressing how seriously everyone can take themselves. My dad's unabashed "ugh-dad-you-don't-get-it-eye-roll" commentary is so far out of the loop of what's cool, it just cuts everything down to size and cracks me up. So I wanted to do something that captured that. Music seemed good. Pitchfork seemed perfect. I lured him in with beer and YouTube, told him it was for an "art project."

Before discussing it with your dad, what were your opinions on the albums selected?
I only knew like half the artists and liked some of them, but hadn't heard anything off these new albums. I kinda felt bad putting certain artists in the direct line of fire of my dad, who is so clearly not their audience and then putting out this thing that gives them a bad review, but hopefully no one takes it too seriously. As far as what Pitchfork deemed the best of 2014…I'm sure they know what they're doing.

I laughed out loud multiple times while reading this. What are some of your favorites of his reactions?
Oh God, the Swans one was my favorite. I used to listen to Swans a bit when I was younger. Over-ear headphones, trudging through the Pacific Northwest in all-black, you know? Trying to summon some dystopian nightmare. So I knew what we were getting into with this one. I put it on and my dad and I are just sitting at the computer for like ten seconds while these insane noises are coming from the speakers. I don't say anything and try not to laugh as my dad just has this horrified look on his face. Honestly I think it was the only time he actually sat and listened to the song before talking throughout this whole thing. He finally blew up with, "What the fuck IS THIS SHIT?"

Was he into stuff you thought he’d never go for?
You know, he was kinda into Ariel Pink. Which is understandable; it's like… even if you hate everything about Ariel Pink, you still like him because you're human and he's just so fucking catchy that no one is safe.

Do you agree with any of his observations?
Yeah, I really do think you could start a riot by putting Swans on in Walmart for a few hours.

How are you feeling about the state of popular music today?
I don't know anything about new popular music. It's like i can't understand it at all. So there's that kind of new music and then there's a lot of other stuff out there. My dad picked up on an 80s vibe in almost every song we listened to and I totally agree that today there is this complete resurgence of past trends, effects, and styles. It's almost like we know too much. Before it seemed like people really believed in new ideas, now we rely a lot on association. One of the Pitchfork folks said how we "live in the great age of diary." I think they've got a point, and I really like the idea of lyrics using super personal details to capture an overall experience.

Do you guys have any plans to make this a recurring project? Maybe get mom in on it for 2015?
I've thought about it. I've been bumming around my dad's house for the summer so I have plenty of material, like too much material. And mom, man… she's not one of those cute dingy older ladies you see being put up to playing GTA on the internet, hamming it up. She'd probably just sit there, suffering in silence until finally snapping.

Liz Talley is an artist and musician from Santa Cruz, CA. She is the founder of Stick N Polka Press and author of the comic series ‘Nice Folk.’ She came over to Emily Manning’s dad’s house for Christmas and we they watched Jurassic Park 3. You can pick up a copy of “Produced to Hell and Back” here.