I'm getting called out by one of the GOATs.

Yeah, that's right. I swear on my coffee here that, apparently, I'm not very well-liked by one of the greatest minds of indie music. One Mr. Julian Casablancas, frontman of The Strokes, somebody who, in my opinion, has had a hand in many amazing records, some that I'm not huge on as well. But you win some and you lose some. Not everything everyone does is going to be great I think that's just something you realize when you criticize things for work.

Anyway, Julian being a person of historical note, a talented man in his own right, he's a guy who's going to do some interviews here and there. I guess recently he had one with none other than Joe Talbot of IDLES Fame, another band I like quite a bit, another frontman I like quite a bit, who has been having a series of conversations lately through his Oh Gatekeeper podcast. I guess Julian is one of them. I guess on the podcast, they discussed a host of different topics, from a backlog of Voidz material to wanting to coach soccer, dealing with negativity, and also me. So I don't know.

Let's just look at what Julian said and respond to it, because I think that would be funny. And it's all just in the spirit of discourse and stuff.

Joe: "Anthony Fantanos."

Julian: "Oh, my God. How dare you?"

Joe: "How dare I what? Are you being protective of your brother?"

Julian: Oh, hell no. He's not my fucking brother. He should stick to... You know what he should stick to? He should stick to analysis when he's methodically and scientifically describing things. He does a good job of like, 'he used this studio and did this.' So he's good at that. When it comes to art taste, he's trash and knows nothing.

Whoa, hey, wow, wowie, zowie, ouch. Oh, Julian, man, God damn. Right in the heart, right in the heart. Right in the balls, Julian. Right in my nuts.

Okay, first off, to find out that I'm not Julian's brother is a shock because I thought we were related. I was hoping at the end of all of this, I was going to get a sweet, sweet taste of that neppo money, but now that dream has vanished.

But then Julian goes on to say that I'm decent or I'm fine or I'm good at what I do when it comes to analysis, or I guess, literally just stating the facts of where a song or an album was recorded or what instruments are on the song, which sure, I do that. I think I'm pretty good at that. I think that's literally something anyone can do. I mean, that's like reading liner notes. And while for a lot of reviews and a lot of recordings, that is important information to relay to the listener, to maybe give significant context for a critique. That's not all a reviewer should do. A reviewer, a review, should do a lot more than that.

So again, I'm okay at that. But when it comes to art taste, I'm trash and I suck and I'm terrible. Which, what does that say about the numerous very positive takes I've had in the past when it comes to anything Julian has done, be it with The Voidz or with The Strokes? Or was I right on all of that, but I didn't know why I was right, and I was just confused and bewildered, and I just so happened to be saying positive things about these albums by mistake?

I mean, it doesn't quite make sense as a broken clock, right twice a day type theory because pretty consistently I've had very positive things to say about Julian's work, Strokes or otherwise. If anything, me outright hating something he's done is more the exception than the rule. And from here, diverging into a different but related topic to Julian's argument, didn't you grace the last Voidz album with a tacky piece of AI art?

Julian: "I wouldn't know. And he reviews old albums to sound like he knows what he's talking about, which is like, wow, really. Yeah, like review an old Lou Reed record and say it's cool. That will give you cred."

It's so weird going on the internet a lot of the time and addressing criticisms of me. And it's not because I dislike criticism or that I can't handle people critiquing me. But a lot of the time when I'm seeing it and I'm reading it, I feel less like I'm having to actually justify and explain my own actions, but instead rather the actions and the thoughts and the behaviors of some made-up, invented Anthony Fantano in the head of whoever is leveling a criticism at me, the actual Anthony Fantano, not the imagined Anthony Fantano in your mind.

Be that either, Rodney Radke with his firmly held belief that I've never given an album a 10 out of 10. Or Julian over here professing that I just review old albums to get cred and seem cool, even though I've never done a solo, formal, focused review on a single Lou Reed album. Certainly, I have talked about Lou Reed's music. I've also reviewed the debut Velvet Underground record. Maybe he means that.

But I feel like if Julian were closely observing what I do on a regular basis, he would know that any and all classic reviews are pretty much limited to a week to two weeks at the start of the year. And the vast majority of everything that I do is just reviews of new records. That's really where all of my traffic and validity comes from for the most part.

And look, even if I was doing reviews of old Lou Reed records, let's say I hypothetically did a review of every single solitary Lou Reed record there was, especially all the classic ones. I don't think, personally, that would be a bad or a wrong thing for a reviewer to do, even if partially the intention was there to show viewers and show listeners that, yeah, I'm covering this older record. That's a classic. For you, dear viewer, I would like to analyze it and contextualize it and explain why even though we are far beyond the era in which this record was born, this album is still relevant and you should still give it the time of day.

I don't know if anyone watching this video agrees. You can tell me in the comments. Personally, I would not trust a professional reviewer who could not do such a thing for whatever classic or old-school albums are relevant to the curation and the genres that they cover, mostly. If you're a professional hip hop reviewer and you couldn't spend even a single minute talking about discussing the significance of and analyzing, let's say, Nas's Illmatic, personally, I don't think you should be a hip hop reviewer because that showcases a genuine lack of knowledge and appreciation for the lane in which you're operating.

And keep in I'm not saying in order to be a hip hop fan or a casual music enjoyer, you've got to have all these old albums that came out before you were born ingrained into your DNA. Anybody can spend whatever amount of time they want to spend listening to whatever the hell they want to listen to. I'm saying this expectation should be set for professional reviewers.

Joe: "I actually, before I listened to the last review of our album by him, I was like, It's better than whatever he gave it. Maybe a seven. I was like, It's definitely an eight or nine."

Julian: "Yeah, he shouldn't really share his taste because he doesn't have any."

Okay, first off, why is Joe so quiet? Why is Joe such a quiet boy here? Why does he sound like he's telling a secret? I will also say in his defense here, because I don't think Joe's doing or saying anything nefarious here against me, I feel like he is completely legitimate and being thrilled and excited and passionate about the art he is making.

That's not to say if an artist wholeheartedly believes that the album they're dropping is a 10 out of 10 album, that therefore it is. What I'm saying is that if you think the record you're about to drop is an eight out of 10 record, a nine, even a 10 And that shows to me, that says to me that you at least believe in the album. You think it's great, you think there's something to it. I don't think you should be putting out a new formal full-length album if you don't have that belief deep within your heart. Nobody should be dropping a record where they're like, "Hey, we made this, but it fucking sucks."

So again, if Joe feels that way about the last IDLES record, about even the IDLES record that came out before that, that I liked even less, I mean, cool. That's great. You should feel that way about the music you're putting out. That is ultimately the ideal, even if I don't share in that same exact level of passion and excitement. But then here comes Julian again with him saying, apparently, I don't have taste, and I just shouldn't share my takes. I just shouldn't say what my opinion is out loud.

I hate to go on this rant, but I do feel like we live in weirdly sensorial times where a lot of people, for a lot of different very personal decisions, just seem so painfully averse to hearing a differing point of view. And when I say a differing point of view, I don't mean like opposing thoughts on things like human rights. No, I mean situations like this where, honestly, the stakes are so much lower because it's ultimately, at the end of the day, a music take. Nobody's going to live or die because I don't like the new Strokes or Julian Casablancas' in The Voidz record. And yet we're going to come on here and advocate that nobody should be able to say anything I don't like that might hurt my feelings with the art I've made.

And maybe there are some people in the comments here saying, "Actually, Anthony, your takes are trash and your taste sucks. Julian says so. It has to be true." I get how personally you might be validated in hearing him say this. But the fact of the matter is, if I melted away into nothing because of this statement right here, and one of you watching here replaced me because there's got to be some new GOAT music reviewer to rise to the top to take care of things, and you ended up not liking some Strokes or Julian Casablancas album that came out four, five, or six years from now, he'd say the same thing about you, too. I can't even take anything he's saying here personally, even though my name is coming up, because there's nothing personal about what is being said. It's just a general fear of criticism, and that's it.

Joe: "But when I listened to his thing, I was like, 'Oh, he's got some good points.'"

Julian: "Yeah, no, he's good. Like, technical. It's interesting sometimes, or it used to be, but now I can't really look at his face."

Well, I mean, okay, good thing he doesn't have to. Nothing in his life requires him to look at my face. Not only because, personally, I don't really think there's anything for him to gain out of seeing any reviews of what I do of his work. But in addition to that, if he does actually want to put one of my reviews on out of curiosity of what I actually think, he could just listen to the audio, I suppose.

It's all water under the bridge, though. Thank you, Julian, for giving me something to talk about today. Looking forward to the next album under whichever name it happens to come out. I mean, some of those recent Voidz singles have certainly sounded better than what was on the last release, that's for sure. I don't know if that's my taste tricking me or something, but we'll just have to see.

Anthony Fantano, Julian Casablancas, forever.