In a fascinating interview with Roots drummer Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson at Westwood's Backbeat Online blog, we learn of ?uestlove's, um, love of former Village Voice rock critic Robert Christgau, calling him the last of his generation:

Christgau is the last true-blue record critic on earth. He gave us an A-plus. That’s pretty much who I make my records for. He’s like the last of that whole Lester Bangs generation of record reviewers, and I still heed his words. He gets my vision, and I’m cool with that. But half these people, they read Pitchfork, and they base half their opinion and quotes on that.

Among the other numerous highlights include his analysis of the current political climate: Most of hip-hop’s generation is like, “Who cares about the political process when people are going to do what they want to do anyway?” I guess it’s their indifferent attitude toward the Republican party, where Bush said, “You don’t have to vote for me for President. I’m still your President.” That line alone, in Michael Moore’s documentary, that’s a quote I heard from everybody under the age of thirty when I was campaigning for Obama. When I asked them, “Why are you not voting?” And they were like, “The political process is already fixed. Why should we spend time voting when they’re just going to choose who they want to choose?” That said, I understand why there’s indifference. But I don’t excuse it. So I’ve got to take a stand. And the news that ?uestlove, after engineering the new Al Green record, will be moving on to Tom Jones (!) in his, um, quest to revive '70s soul stars. [The Daily Swarm]