Sasha Frere-Jones | |
|---|---|
 Sasha Frere-Jones (2009). | |
| Born | Alexander Roger Wallace Jones 1967 (age 57–58) New York City, U.S. |
| Education | Brown University New York University Columbia University |
| Occupation(s) | writer, musician |
| Notable work | Earlier (2023) |
Alexander Roger Wallace "Sasha"Frere-Jones (néJones; born 1967) is an Americanwriter,music critic, andmusician.[1][2] Frere-Jones was pop critic of theNew Yorker from 2004 to 2015.[3] In January 2015, he left theNew Yorker to work forGenius as anexecutive editor.[4] Frere-Jones left Genius after several months to become critic-at-large atThe Los Angeles Times;[5] he resigned the following year.[6][7]
Frere-Jones is a member of "avant-rock supergroup" Body Meπa.[8][9] In 2023, his published his first book, the memoirEarlier.[10]
Frere-Jones was born Alexander Roger Wallace Jones on January 31, 1967, inManhattan, the elder child of Elizabeth Frere and Robin C. Jones.[11] He is a grandson ofAlexander Stuart Frere, the former chairman of the board of British publishing house William Heinemann Ltd, and a great-grandson of the novelistEdgar Wallace, who wrote many popular pulp novels as well as the story for the filmKing Kong.[11]
Frere-Jones and his younger brother,Tobias Frere-Jones, both legally changed their surnames from Jones to Frere-Jones in 1981.
Frere-Jones attended theSaint Ann's School in Brooklyn.[12] As an adolescent, he wanted to be a playwright and work in theater.[13] In 1983, Frere-Jones's playWe Three Kings was chosen for the Young Playwrights Festival;[1] the reading included actorsJohn Pankow andŽeljko Ivanek.[13]
After graduating from St. Ann's in 1984, Frere-Jones attendedBrown University for three years but did not graduate. He subsequently attended theTisch School of the Arts atNYU, concentrating on Dramatic Writing, then transferred toColumbia University in 1991. He graduated from the Columbia School of General Studies with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology in 1993.[14]
Frere-Jones has written forPretty Decorating,[13]ego trip,[15]Hit It And Quit It,Mean,Slant,The New York Post,The Wire,[16]The Village Voice,[17]Slate,[18]Spin,[19] andThe New York Times.[20] Six of his essays have appeared inDa Capo Press'sBest Music Writing anthologies.[21]
Frere-Jones debuted asThe New Yorker's pop critic on March 8, 2004 with "Let's Go Swimming", an essay onArthur Russell.[22] He covered independent acts likeArcade Fire,[23]Joanna Newsom,[24]Grizzly Bear,[25]Manu Chao,[26] andBon Iver,[27] as well as mainstream successes likeNeil Diamond,[28]Mariah Carey,[29]Wu-Tang Clan,[30]Lil Wayne,[31] andPrince.[32]
On October 22, 2007,The New Yorker published "A Paler Shade of White", an essay in which Frere-Jones examined the changing role of race in pop music.[23] The piece charges indie rock with suffering from the loss of "black influences," which Frere-Jones largely identifies as relating to syncopated rhythms, bass frequencies, emotive voicing, and "showmanship"; he explores possible reasons "why rock and roll, the most miscegenated popular music ever to have existed, underwent a racial re-sorting in the nineteen-nineties," and theorizes that the increased fame of black artists has led to a greater "potential for embarrassment" for white artists who historically could more freely imitate and steal from black music.[23] He also posits that hip hop has become increasingly racially segregated due to changes in copyright law discouraging sampling.[23]
The article elicited responses from dozens of news outlets and blogs,[33] includingThe Village Voice,[34]Slate,[35]Simon Reynolds, andPlayboy, which said that Frere-Jones had ignored "huge swaths of indiedom that might undermine the particulars of his premise" and that his underlying ideas about racial attributes and dichotomies were fetishistic and racist.[36]Stereogum declared the controversy a 'war' between music writers.[37]The New Yorker received more mail about "A Paler Shade of White" than it did for any other essay sinceAdam Gopnik's 1996 essay "Escaping Picasso."[38] Frere-Jones published follow-ups to his article to address some of the criticism, including defending his description ofHall & Oates as "equally talented" asMichael Jackson (though he admitted his wording had been "slightly mischievous").[39]
In 2008, Frere-Jones was named one of the top 30 critics in the world byIntelligent Life, the lifestyle publication fromThe Economist.[40]
In 2009,The New Yorker published Frere-Jones's first profile, of British pop singerLily Allen.[41] Later that year, he helped bring mainstream attention to then-unsigned indie rock bandSleigh Bells.[42] He also appeared in the 2009 documentaryStrange Powers, about Stephin Merritt and his bandThe Magnetic Fields.[43]
Frere-Jones published his final column for The New Yorker on January 15, 2015.[3] He left the magazine to work as executive editor for the media annotation websiteGenius.com.[4]
After several months at Genius, Frere-Jones took a position as critic-at-large of theLos Angeles Times; he left after less than a year following allegations that he expensed $5,000 at a strip club.[44]
Frere-Jones plays bass, guitar, and various electronics. He founded the band Dolores during his time at Brown.[45] The band made two full-length tapes: one in 1987 and one in 1990. After moving to New York in 1988, the band played for two years before breaking up. (Their only recordings during this period were two contributions to a compilation on Fang Records calledLive At The Knitting Factory.)
In 1990, Frere-Jones co-founded the instrumental, two-bass rhythm bandUi with Clem Waldmann.[46] They played their first live show in 1991, and spent the following years touring across the United States and Europe, opening for bands likeTortoise andStereolab,[47] with whom they collaborated on theFires EP in 1998.[48] The band released three full-length albums––Sidelong (1996),[49] Lifelike (1998),[50] and Answers (2003),[48] all on Southern––before they stopped performing in 2003. Reunion performances have includedNumero’s 20th Anniversary Fest in 2023;[51] the label has also reissued past Ui releases.[52]
In 2023, Frere-Jones appeared as “The Body” in the music video forOneohtrix Point Never’s song "Nightmare Paint."
Frere-Jones's younger brother,Tobias Frere-Jones, is founder of the typeface design company Frere-Jones Typography, and is on the faculty of theYale School of Art.
In 1994, he married lawyer Deborah Holmes,[11] with whom he has two sons.[53] They divorced in 2006. In 2020, Holmes was diagnosed with cancer; Frere-Jones wrote the first draft of his memoir for her to read before her death in 2021.[54]
In 2019, Frere-Jones entered a psychiatric ward followed by rehab.[2] In January 2024, he stated, "I'm coming up on five years sober."[55]
He married Heidi DeRuiter in 2021.[1][56]
| Year | Artist | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Ui | Sidelong | Southern |
| 1998 | Ui | Lifelike | Southern |
| 1998 | Frere-Jones &Loren Mazzacane Connors | Standing Upright on a Curve | Sub Rosa |
| 2003 | Ui | Answers | Southern |
| 2021 | Body Meπa | The Work Is Slow | Hausu Mountain |
| 2024 | Body Meπa | Prayer in Dub | Hausu Mountain |
