Miranda Reinert: You know what has happened and what matters
Writer and podcast host on ‘Portable Model’, leaving Philly, meeting a Kinsella, and why we should be slightly optimistic about the music industry
December typically marks a period of reflection for music lovers. Tours are over, most major releases are out the door, and so we retreat inward, to the comfortable embrace of familiar Chunes.
There are Year-End lists to debate, Spotify Wrappeds to screenshot, Apple Music Replays to ignore.
On the surface, 2024 was a great year for music, one marked by releases from established artists like Ariana Grande, Beyonce, Billie Eilish, Charli XCX, Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift, and Tyler the Creator, as well as exciting up-and-comers like Chappell Roan, Cindy Lee, Eliza McLamb, Mk.gee, and MJ Lenderman (to name a few).
But there were also tectonic shifts including the demolition of Pitchfork, the collapse of music festivals, the ever-increasing cost of touring, and continued fallout from last year’s Spotify layoffs.
In aggregate, it often seems like the industry is teetering on a knife’s edge.
Speaking with Miranada Reinert however, I am reminded there are still passionate people trying to bridge the gap between the industry as we knew it, and whatever lies ahead.
As an independent writer, publisher and podcast host, Miranda has carved out a quite a niche for herself, both in her home of Chicago and online. I first discovered her via Stereogum, where she wrote a smart anniversary review of The 1975’s self-titled debut. I have admired her work ever since.
In January, she will release the second edition of her Extremely Good™ zine Portable Model, which includes a piece from yours truly. Pre-orders launch any day now so, in anticipation, we decided to engage in a little ✨ brand synergy ✨.
Our edited and condensed conversation touched on Miranda’s anti-turkey sentiments, The Last Waltz as Thanksgiving tradition, the lack of tall emo kings in Philly, that time she met a Kinsella, Timmy as Bob, and why cool people should be making cool stuff.
I’ll send a link to the Portable Model pre-order when it’s up.
ES: How was your Thanksgiving?
MR: It was great. It was me, my parents, and one of my sisters, so nothing major… We didn’t have a turkey, because it’s not practical to cook turkey for five people. It’s usually underwhelming to eat, anyway. But we had the other standards. Your mashed potatoes, your mac and cheese.
ES: Was there any Midwestern cookery afoot? Marshmallows in the salad perhaps?
MR: No. My family is not from the true depths of midwestern cookery. Laughs. That’s more the realm of Wisconsin, Minnesota… Illinois is interesting because it is the Midwest, and it’s very Midwestern in some ways, but it’s not quite as heavy on the weird foodstuff.
ES: You’re not as quirked up as those other states.
MR: Certainly not. My parents are from Indiana, and it’s not really like that there either. Their families were more of the mind that everything should be beige, and you should be ashamed, and you should not have anything interesting going on.
ES: You kinda came for turkey a second ago. What’s your preferred holiday entree?
MR: Well, we had ham. I don’t love ham. My dad makes a beef tenderloin.
ES: Ooh.
MR: It’s like steak but nicer. My dad has decided he’s going to make whatever he wants. He wants a special meal, and I’m more than happy to eat it.
ES: Did I see you were also watching The Last Waltz?
MR: I showed it to my parents for the first time this year. My dad is into The Band. I’ve been trying to force MJ Lenderman on him. He thinks ‘You Have Bought Yourself a Boat’ sounds like them and, you know, I don’t disagree.
But yeah, I started watching The Last Waltz a few years ago when I was living in Philly, and not coming home for Thanksgiving. I’d watch it with other people. My friends, my boyfriend at the time. I figured we should watch it this year because the Chicago Bears lost so badly.
ES: I’ve never actually seen that movie, but I know it’s a thing on Thanksgiving. Why is that?
MR: It was supposed to be The Band’s final performance. It happened on Thanksgiving Day 1976, which is why people watch it now. It’s a live concert film. It was directed by Martin Scorcese. They do interviews and stuff. There’s a bunch of guest stars. Bob Dylan is there.
ES: Well there you go. What do you think of this whole Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan thing?
MR: It’s a movie that will either be fine or really bad. I’m leaning toward it being okay. This is not the kind of role he should be doing I don’t think. It’s not gonna win him his Oscar, you know? He’s a perfectly serviceable actor.
Most biopics don’t fall apart because of the lead actor. It’s usually a faulty script that assumes the audience will be interested because of the subject, rather than making a truly great movie.
ES: Timmy’s not in charge of scripting.
MR: Right. So we’ll see. But I also don’t feel particularly precious about Bob Dylan.
ES: What was it like living in Philly — do you miss it?
MR: I don’t miss Philly, but I do miss my friends.
ES: You didn’t hesitate!
MR: Laughs. By the time I moved, I hated being there. Most of my friends who lived there have left the city. They’ve moved to Pittsburgh or New York…
Philly’s a fine city but I lived there for three years and it felt like I could move back to Chicago and be somewhere that I like better for the same amount of money.
ES: Either way you’re gonna have the same number of Midwest emo-y guys hanging out.
MR: Yeah the only difference is they’re taller in Chicago.
ES: Is that right? Are they noticeably taller?
MR: Anecdotally, yes. The men at shows here are taller than the ones in Philly… I saw Cap’n Jazz play at the Empty Bottle and I swear every man was like 6’3” or taller. I don’t think I saw a man over 6’ the entire time I was in Philly.
ES: Laughs. Show me a man over 6’ in Philly!
MR: You can’t!
ES: How was Cap’n Jazz? I’m jealous you got to see that.
MR: Very good. I’m a big Tim Kinsella person, if you couldn’t tell since I named my stupid magazine after Joan of Arc’s first record… I think Cap’n Jazz is just a cool band. They’re 50 years old and they’re better and more fun than any other emo band ever.
ES: The fun aspect is underrated, so I’m glad you mentioned that. The new wave of emo is so joyless. That’s something I liked about Algernon Cadwallader. They took everything from Cap’n Jazz, including the fun.
MR: You can tell when an emo band’s influences are other emo bands, and when they are more like hardcore bands or capital ‘P’ punk bands. Cap’n Jazz is coming from that hardcore place. That’s where a lot of their fun aspects come from. The energy of the show, the energy of the performances, is rooted in hardcore. Algernon feels that way, too. They are more engrained in an era of Philly punk than this sort of Ouroboros emo that is eating its own tail. That’s when you lose a lot of the fun. I’m a little bit harsh on newer emo stuff but I just think…
ES: It’s not very good? Laughs.
MR: It’s not very good! And there’s no reason to listen to it as opposed to something else. It’s not coming from someplace interesting. So many of these bands are ripping off Jeff Rosenstock, which is not emo music, and never has been.
ES: Also Jeff puts out a lot of music! This isn’t a gap in the market.
MR: We don’t need your band’s take on a Jeff song. I feel like the young people get too much out of Jeff’s ‘ska as gimmick’ as opposed to ‘ska as an extension of punk’, which can sometimes be cool. I don’t know why they haven’t latched on to any of the cool parts of Bomb The Music Industry! It’s just like, shitty horns. What is that? What are we doing?
I don’t think I saw a man over 6’ the entire time I was in Philly.
ES: Laughs. The worst horns you’ve ever heard in your life.
MR: And they call it emo. Jeff Rosenstock has never been emo. He doesn’t come from emo at all. These people yearn to make a Menzingers song but can’t access the cringe-y part of themselves required to make a good Menzingers song.
ES: Friend of the newsletter Dan Zajac was big into The Menzingers. I never really got it.
MR: I love that band but it’s been hard to watch them come what they’ve become. The cringe aspect has always been there. You can’t think about the lyrics too much. If you can do that, they’re pretty good up until about half of After The Party. It’s pop-punk, which is fun. Right?
ES: Yeah.
MR: Their recent material is a little hard to access because they stopped writing good hooks. They stopped writing fun sing-along choruses. It’s impossible to listen to.
ES: I did really like their song ‘Lookers’ at one point. That had a great chorus.
MR: Awesome song. They haven’t written a good one since. They really should’ve broken up after that. Laughs. They wrote two records after that which are tough listens. I say that as a fan.
ES: Have you ever interacted with a Kinsella in the wild?
MR: I met Tim Kinsella recently because my friend Josh was in town, and he stayed with Tim and his wife. Josh and I were getting drinks and the three of them were supposed to go to this weird jazz thing after.
Suddenly, Tim shows up at the bar… Josh is a super supportive friend and I had brought him a copy of Portable Model. He was showing it to Tim and I was like “Do not do this to me right now! Don’t show Tim Kinsella my zine.” But it was fine.
ES: It’s crazy to me that these guys are just roaming around Chicago.
MR: I’ve never met (Cap’n Jazz drummer) Mike Kinsella. I’m not sure I really want to. He’s definitely around, though.
ES: Yeah?
MR: He showed up at a bar one time back when I was still living in Philly. My boyfriend at the time went over to him and was talking to him about sports. He was wearing some piece of Chicago Bulls merchandise.
ES: We should talk about Portable Model. Pre-orders for issue two are going to launch soon. Which articles are you most excited about this go around? Present company included.
MR: Yes, yes. There’s a piece on DIY and the limits of how it’s interacting with U.S. politics which is great… There’s a meta-discussion on criticism and our attitude toward ‘living legends’ and how we should approach covering them. Taking art for what it is, rather than framing a comeback album, for example, as part of the conversation about what an artist means. And there’s a piece on alt-country and that trend within indie rock. It’s titled “Why is everyone talking about Dale Earnhardt?” I think alt-country is one of the true 2020s trends, and this piece connects it with mainstream country and how the two genres are converging.
ES: This issue is focused on the first half of the decade, and I wonder if — having edited every piece — you feel like you’re walking away with a better understanding of these past five years? Or did it make things more confusing or maybe harder to pin down?
MR: It’s hard to understand stuff when you’re in it. But if you’re honest with yourself, you know what’s happened and what matters. Maybe in 15 years, something will reveal itself as staggeringly important to people making music then. But so far everything in this decade is underscored by the pandemic. Everything is informed by it. And I think there’s a bit of a reluctance to talk about it.
We are far enough away from the immediate crisis that we have seen a couple of shifts in attitude. The zine includes a piece that looks at music videos and how the ones produced at the height of the pandemic have a certain look or feel. It’s clear that people are not together because artists are appearing alone or animated. There was a shift away from that style for a couple of years but now it’s coming back. Billie Eilish’s video for ‘BIRDS OF A FEATHER’ is just her in a big empty office building. It’s very 2021. But that visual doesn’t necessarily signal the pandemic to people anymore. They see it as an artistic choice, which is an interesting shift.
It’s hard to understand stuff when you’re in it. But if you’re honest with yourself, you know what’s happened. I know what matters,
ES: I hadn’t thought of that, but you’re right. It looks like a piece of pandemic art but it isn’t.
MR: I kind of picked this project because I want to discourage anniversary pieces and I want to discourage people from focusing on stuff that happened 20 years ago. On the other hand, I don’t think there’s any value in doing something super topical in print. I’m not interested in what you think of a record that came out in 2024. That doesn’t really hold up in a magazine that prints twice a year. It’s not the point.
Doing something about the recent past is really valuable, and you don’t need to have tons of hindsight to have that value.
ES: On that note, given that it’s December, I wonder what your candidate is for Most Interesting Music Story of the Year?
MR: I think festival collapse is really interesting. I think the single-genre festivals we’ve been seeing are burning bright and quickly going out. Like that nü metal festival, Sick New World, which was big last year just got canceled. Like, okay, yeah, that tracks. There’s not that many new metal bands!
ES: No, and it feels like you’d attend that festival once as a novelty.
MR: Yeah. It’s ridiculous. I also think we’ve gotta be on the back foot of this emo stuff. Maybe we’ll get some actually good emo bands after all the value has been extracted from the genre. That’s why the 3rd wave stuff was cool – there was no value in it.
ES: Emo works best when it’s left unobserved. Money is almost antithetical to the genre.
MR: Good emo comes when you have no aspirations of making money. And I think that’s like hardcore, too. Once hardcore starts making money it all turns into A Day To Remember.
From a journalism and writing perspective, though, I do think we’ve turned a corner. People are starting new stuff and I think that’s exciting. We’re beginning to see music websites try different things… A site like Hearing Things is still getting its footing but it’s cool that it’s happening. We’re on the front end of something, instead of the back end of something, which is good. For so long the story has been “There used to be all this cool stuff and now there’s no cool stuff!” Like, we need you to do it. You can’t just participate. It’s hard and it’s expensive but it’s the only way. You can’t opine about 2012 forever. You need to move on.