Here, SFJ answers questions for Keetologue.

Where did you grow up?
Fort Greene and Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn.

How long have you been criticizing music and did you always want to be a music critic?
I wrote a short story about The Jam in high school and then wrote a best of 1986 in 1986 but that was about it. It happened by accident in 1994 when I was trying to get Ann Marlowe, then a Village Voice writer, to write about my old band, Ui. She said no but asked me to write for her new 'zine, Pretty Decorating. It went from there.

What genre of music did you start off listening to?
Moog synthesizer records and Beatles records that my Dad brought home from his job. He worked at Ziff-Davis, the parent company that published Stereo Review, along with other magazines. First single: "A Fifth of Beethoven" by the Walter Murphy Orchestra, first album, Elton John's Greatest Hits.

Did your dad review music too?
No. My father wrote copy for advertising agencies, as well as libretti for amateur operas, and an unpublished thriller.

They always say that reading a lot makes you a better writer - what do you read?
Montaigne, blogs, notes my kids write to me, AJ Liebling, Joan Didion, People.

What are your thoughts on Strunk's The Elements of Style?
It's too long. I don't use it nearly enough.

Do you believe in the phrase "there's no such thing as a stupid question?"
Yes.

What was your most interesting article you've had to write over the past three years?
From my perspective? They're all interesting, but the one that came out today, on ringtones, involved a massive amount of research and I learned oodles.

Has any one artist made you nervous when you were interviewing them?
Not really. I kept wanting to bow to Beyonce, but she was really nice. Timbaland can be a little standoffish.

Why did you want to bow to Beyonce?
It doesn't feel voluntary. It just happens, like digestion.

Has music reporting become an extended public relations department?
Yes.

What's the big kerfuffle over Conor Oberst?
There was a smaller kerfuffle over him and it was just getting a bit worn out, so we got an extra-big kerfuffle on sale and swapped them out.

How did you get the gig with the New Yorker? What's it like on a regular day?
I had to joust with several, less robust bloggers. On a regular day? After the manicurist leaves, my time is pretty much my own.

What would be your advice to someone who wanted to eventually get to where you are today?
Don't lose your Metro Card.

Do you take the pictures on your blog?
Yes.

With so many people blogging, can anyone be a critic?
Yes.

What is your computer desktop photo?
A picture I took of a swimming pool.

Do you have one of those belt buckles from Canal Street?
No. I am not worthy.

What's happening with Ui right now? Did you ever get to write about your own band?
Ui broke up some time in the last few years, though it's hard to tell when. I haven't written about my own band, but I did do a column for the NY Post on a Stereolab show we had opened for, but I didn't mention the band.

I was reading how your brother designed the logo for your band in college - what has your own involvement been like in making music other than with Ui?
No, he didn't do our logo. My friend Georgie Stout did our logo in 1991, when her husband Dave Weeks was still in the band. I have a band called The Sands and another called Canal. And lots of other miscellaneous, sucky stuff.

Are these bands similar to Ui?
Nope. The Sands (me, Chris Lee, Nicholas Marantz, Andy Hawkins and a variety of drummers) is loud, vocal hard rock with two or three singers on every track. Canal (me and Melvin Gibbs) is plastic synthetic harmolodic [sic] dance music. The Sands are entirely live, and Canal will never see the air of day, for it is all done on laptops, save for some singing and bass playing.

Will you ever put out a book of your best articles?
I won't but maybe someone else will.