Worst Music Writing 2007

"Never daring to stand still, this record dances alongside the strange landscapes of melody, dirge and oddity which were built into the pop lexicon by Damon Albarn's ceaseless 15-year writing career. Where once harmonious melody and grimy fuzzcore existed only at polar points of the musical spectrum, both Blur and Gorillaz have seen them learn to sit side by side - and the shadows of Albarn's idiosyncratic touch are all over Klaxons' debut. 'Modern Life Is Ravish' apparently - the godly 'Golden Skans' is 'London Loves' worshipping at a tin-foil altar, while 'As Above So Below' may well have escaped from 'Think Tank''s colourful off-cuts. Still, although they may be picking up Damon's baton of pop alchemy - a desire to pull melodious nuggets from thick swathes of dark noise - Klaxons are charging towards an apocalyptic finishing line which is all their creation."

Ozric Tentacles are possibly my least fave band ever. Jeez, the amount of time's I've had to listen to that crap w/smoking pals. They make me feel ill just thinking about them.

i.e., prior to The Kinks

The rave expert featured above's Myspace.

That line alone has earned him immortality.

Is that an MC Hammer reference?

xpost

I'm beginning to like this Marcello chap.

Indie Rock Music: Alternative Rock, College Radio Stations And Promotions

Published: May 22, 2007

A lot has been made over the last several years about the dominance of highly produced and commercialized pop music over the airwaves. Many purists long for the days when music was more raw and unpolished, and the indie rock music scene flourished across the United States. During the early and late 90s, there was even a push in the radio industry to make indie rock music mainstream, resulting in the smash success of bands like REM, Nirvana, Green Day, the White Stripes, and The Strokes creating the genre of Alternative Rock.
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Of course, as soon as those bands hit the big time the community that helped create them abandoned them, adding to the constant paradox that is the indie rock music scene.

The term indie rock music is a kind of misnomer. Taken at face value, indie rock music is any unsigned rock band playing shows. However, to members of the indie rock music scene, it means much more. True alternative rock has to have a kind of non-commercial stance usually with some kind of social or political message. This kind of alternative rock with a meaning has fostered the creation of the indie community which celebrates their non-commerciality and perceives major labels and those who don't share their sentimentalities as the enemy.

There are several hotbeds for this kind of underground music. Probably the most famous club for indie rock music, punk, new wave, and other kinds of underground music was New York's CBGB. CBGB was the launching point for many popular indie rock music acts like The Ramones, The Talking Heads, and Mike DeVille. In a huge blow to the indie rock music scene, CBGB has been closed since 2006, though the owner Hilly Kristal is looking to open a similar club in Las Vegas.

The last bastions for indie rock music acts to appeal to a wider audience than the local club scene are college radio stations.
Given the slant of college radio away from big brand music acts and allowing its DJs to play whatever music appeals to them, indie rock music has gained a foothold in college radio stations across the country. For many acts, college radio promotion allows them to put across their musical message to the masses without the perception that they've sold out to commercial radio. For many of these acts over the years, college radio promotion has lead to such a large foothold in the public consciousness that they attract the attention and money of major record labels. For an act that is tiring of toiling in obscurity for a few hundred dollars a gig, this is often too much to pass up.

Indie rock music is both a blessing and a curse. Truly great indie rock acts can make a living touring the country playing to crowds of a few hundred with their artistic integrity intact. For a lot of bands, however, this is just not an option, and if getting the label of selling out from the indie rock music scene means that they can get a decent salary and play to big crowds, they will. The indie rock music scene is a volatile and ever changing one, but it always thrives just beneath the consciousness o f the public. Those that bemoan the lack of a good indie scene to ward off the mass market acts probably only need to look to their local clubs and bars to see the future of indie music in action.

Source:
“Indie (music).” Wikipedia. 19 May 2007. 20 May 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indie_(music).
Hibbett, Ryan. “What is Indie Rock. Find Articles.” Popular Music and Society. Feb. 2005. FindArticles. 20 May 2007. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2822/is_1_28/ai_n9507897.
Peake, Steve. “College Rock - Alternative When Alternative Wasn't Commercial.” About: 80s Music. 2007. About, Inc. 20 May 2007. http://80music.about.com/od/genresmovements/p/collegerock.htm.
Kristal, Hilly. "The History of CBGB." CBGB. 2007. 20 May 2007. http://www.cbgb.com/history1.htm.

http://www.nylonmag.com/

any piece that uses about.com as a source loses at life.

There are so many gems in that one. Indie rock music is both a blessing and a curse.

"For my report I decided to write about indie rock"

http://www.indieradiolive.com/

This site is a goldmine!

"With the current pop music charts mostly dominated by dance hall hits and rap music, what seemed like a new rock revolution in the late 90s lead by indie rock bands like The Vines and the White Stripes fell off in favor of more stylized acts and heavily produced pop tracks."

WHO LOST GARAGE REVIVAL?

The conflation of "indie" and "alternative" is making my head hurt.

Oh, go listen to your dance hall hits and rap music, you reactionaries!

The about.com article is also informative, with helpful Smithereens recommendations.

I chuckled at this when I saw it on pfork today:

Indeed, seeing members of self-proclaimed "gypsy punks" Gogol Bordello on stage with the Material Matron during the naval gazing Live Earth festival hints that Eastern European folk-influenced rock acts may have reached maximum visibility.

Yeah, whatever happened to Mike DeVille?!

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0900entertainment/0050artsnews/tm_headline=songs-are-why-i-got-into-musical-rat-race&method=full&objectid=19724848&siteid=50082-name_page.html

This is from my local (tabloid-sized) broadsheet and the fella writing the article is a Welsh singer-songwriter. He's also the paper's CD reviewer.

We got one of these threads for the 08? Ben Walsh (such a 90s lads mag journo name) decides that an Eagles review is the best place for him to desperately reassert his a) masculinity and b) love of obscure underground counter-culture acts like Neil Young.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/the-eagles-o2-centre-london-799750.html

Dissing Level 42 = AUTOMATIC CARLIN FATWA

bad writing, but where's the masculinity stuff?

british standards of masculinity

the whistle only dogs can hear

guy goes to Eagles show, gets all mad that the band he is seeing are the Eagles

I'd guess he's bringing up Neil Young to highlight the turns his career took after a successful period in the early 70s, how he managed to reinvent himself now and again, whereas the Eagles got kinda stale. Compare and contrast, innit. Nothing to do with Young being "obscure".

The Eagles didn't get stale, they just quit.

We got one of these threads for the 08? Ben Walsh (such a 90s lads mag journo name) decides that an Eagles review is the best place for him to desperately reassert his a) masculinity and b) love of obscure underground counter-culture acts like Neil Young.

-- Dom Passantino, Tuesday, March 25, 2008 11:47 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Worst Music Reading 2008.

^^ lives up to name

wtf, that terrible article about joshua bell busking won a PULITZER?!