My name is Marshall Gu, born and raised in Toronto.
I love music. I spend quite a lot of time listening to it – a stereo is set up in my washroom to make my morning routines more exciting, I work in a grey cubicle where headphones are allowed, I spend two hours commuting daily, etc. I also love writing, so writing about music lets me combine passions, sort of like George Costanza bringing salami to bed. Except there’s less consequences in this case (or at least, no immediate ones that I can think of).
A brief word about my rating system: A+ means a 10.0, or 5 stars (out of 5), etc; A means 4.5 stars, A- means 4 stars, B+ means 3.5 stars, etc. Anything below a B is basically varying levels of bad. In an
A brief word about my genre system: it’s not accurate, and you shouldn’t care that it isn’t.
I also occasionally write for popmatters and prettymuchamazing and spectrum culture.
If you want to see a review of something specific, just hit me up and I’ll gladly see what I can do!
Hey man, dig your writing style a lot. You definitely know your music, both old and contemporary. I visit Rate Your Music regularly and have always enjoyed reading your reviews when I stumble across them (where’s the This Is Hardcore one, though? loved that one). Anyway, if you don’t have anything better to do, try reading an article or two from my blog. I’m doing an “album of the year” series at the moment going chronologically and I’d love to hear your opinion on the subject matters. Keep up the good work.
P.S. Hilarious Seinfeld reference. 😀
Hey man, do you have an account on RYM? As for This Is Hardcore, it’ll be up soon after some major edits, just haven’t had time to get to it yet.
I do have an RYM account, but I only rate the albums for which I’ve already written a review on the blog. So it’s really not all that interesting.
https://rateyourmusic.com/~Baron_Saturday
Hey Marshall, I read a review by you on Double Nickels on the Dime and you stated you were going off of the 1987 Watt Mix. I have been looking for a copy of that cd to have a listen. can you email me if you still have it? would love a digital copy. thanks.
Hi todd, my life is really busy right now but send me an email / lemme know your email address and I’ll see if I can make it happen.
Hey Marshall, just checking in. Hope you have a moment to rip or copy that OOP Double Nickels CD for me when you have a second, thanks! Todd (Toddmp at gmail dot com)
Awesome. Toddmp at gmail dot com. Thanks so much!
Hey thanks for the Follow! Returning the favour now, looking forward to seeing what’s up over here. Cheers!
Thanks! You had a lovely setup so it was an easy add
Hey, I enjoy your writing and music taste. There’s a lot I can relate to and a hell of a lot that I’ve not heard of, which is great.
I loved your review of Village Green Preservation Society. Do You Remember Walter might be my favourite song.
I’m inclined to agree with everything you said about Screamadelica too.
But how can you not like Can Utility and the Coastliners?That’s probably the best 6 minute distillation of early Genesis you’ll hear. Peter Gabriel’s vocals, that weird mellotron/synth thing in the middle, that grinding bass and keyboards solo, those melodies, there’s so much going on and it works for me…
I’ll have to listen to it again – haven’t heard it in years, to be honest! But thanks for the comments 🙂
hi, love your writing style, really cuts to the bone on things and isn’t afraid to call out pure nostalgia when it is the elephant in the room, def doesn’t always happen. want to send something your way, drop me a line or comment with how to submit. thanks!
Thanks for dropping by! You can send it to me via email @ m_gu_1991@hotmail.com