OK, is this the worst piece of music writing ever?

A feat, a feat!

in that review keith seems to just KNOW things that he can't possibly know, i.e. the post-9/11 Springsteen is vague because, like the Democratic party, he doesn't want to alienate anyone. really?

The Rising argues, implicitly but unmistakably, that in a time of crisis we should shrug off our individual concerns in the interest of "healing." Sound familiar?

That's not to equate the heartfelt pieties of one of rock's most decent millionaires with the demands for unanimity launched by those gutting the Fourth Amendment.

except actually it is. cake = had and eaten! and nice job getting the "millionaire" reference in there dude

FEAR THE BOSS! FEAR HIM, I SAY!

xp

also his first instinct that "if 9/11 hadn't existed bruce would have had to invent it" is a snide aphorism was the right one; it's a risible thing to say

it's also funny as hell.

Sometimes critics use albums as an excuse to write zingers – wow!

And sometimes non-critics use critics to encapsulate the shortcoming of a particular era -- no harm done to anyone.

(Not critics in general -- specific reviews.)

suggesting that Bruce Springsteen actually welcomes national tragedy because it will boost his own "relevance" is funny as hell??

http://culturekitchen.com/files/images/web_Lee_Greenwood.jpg

i just deleted like four bruce live albums off my ipod last night, i think i'm getting defensive because of my guilt - sorry bruce

suggesting that Bruce Springsteen actually welcomes national tragedy because it will boost his own "relevance" is funny as hell??

no, it isn't. but suggesting that "If there hadn't been a September 11, Bruce Springsteen would have had to invent one." is, imho.

c'mon RI-I-I-I-I-I-I-SE UP. RI-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-SE UP.

just you wait til i fetch my Cain, you.

what would we do without music critics--how would anyone ever understand music

by abusing copious amounts of illegal substances, natch.

haha @ the rapreviews.com writer eventually outing himself as an animal collective stan and comparing merriweather post pavilion to veckatimest

uhhhh i first read that as "rape reviews" and then as "ra previews" pls let's pretend this says nothing about me except that i'm about four deep.

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/newsfocus/article.html?Straight_Edge_is_no_sex,_no_drugs,_just_rock_and_roll&in_article_id=741802&in_page_id=65

This is from today's Metro and actually worse than the URL would lead you to expect

I like that they transcribe the guy's t-shirt as "Party F******g Sober!" and then run a photo of the whole fucking thing right below that.

SleeveNotes: Tim Jonze:

It's not every day you get to compare Sugababes to the band who wrote Nazi Punks Fuck Off. But this week the pop trio followed in the footsteps of extreme metal terrorists Napalm Death by soldiering on, despite the fact that, since Keisha Buchanan's departure on Monday, their lineup now has zero original members.

OK, what's wrong with the above?

Article on Creed in Slate today. Reads utterly incoherent to me and I'm not sure that it's not a joke, but it seems sincere enough I guess.

I'd hardly say its incoherent save for

"Higher" might turn out to be the nu-grunge "Don't Stop Believing": dismissed by cognoscenti on arrival as bludgeoning and gauche but destined for rehabilitation down the road as a triumphant slab of ersatz inspirationalism.

ersatz?

inigo_montoya.jpg

Oh just go for the clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2y8Sx4B2Sk

That article was fine. It was of a piece with Slate's baffling obsession with contrarianism and revisionism. It was a decent read.

It was a great read, except it would have read EXACTLY the same if it was on The Onion.

derivative blowhards with a self-righteous Christian agenda

i like how he describes in 8 words why no one likes creed and then spends 5 paragraphs defending creed.

I'm a sucker for a thoughtfully contrarian essay, so this worked.

Then you remembered the sex tape with Kid Rock and came to your senses.

I can share Brett Michaels' own tape with you.

Why is Creed "good" and "underrated"?

1. They write "first-rate schlock-rock."
2. "In his lyrics, Stapp is a well-meaning, Bible-fluent doofus, easy to chuckle at"
3. Stapp's stage presence is "obnoxiously anachronistic"
4. "Higher" is "a triumphant slab of ersatz inspirationalism"
5. "Tremonti was a brutally effective guitarist"

It's like he couldn't even take his own argument seriously. His defense is pretty backhanded.

the bar is pretty low for good music writing tbh

Why is Creed good? Cuz they write shit songs with bad lyrics and their frontman is irritating. THAT'S WHY!

Wait, it's that they're ersatz good.

the slate thing is just a space-filler, but its hardly terrible. or terribly written anyway. dunno if it was worth the effort...

what IS worth the effort these days? where's the good writing thread? i haven't read anything good in a dog's age. somebody must have written something good this year about music.

you don't need space-filler on the internet. it's not like a newspaper or magazine where you have to fill space; you choose how much of the theoretically infinite space of the internet you want to use.

but even internet newsmags have, um, theoretical space limits and such, no? they have sections. they need to fill a section. they need product, basically. same as a regular magazine.

that's probably because old people run it

it's the internet just throw up whatever

in case anyone was wondering why they ran that article, its because it gets forwarded around the internet and posted on message boards like this, and then people go to the site and some of them click on the ads, and then slate gets money, and pays its writers

Thanks for explaining the internet Max, you are a hero.

it's the internet just throw up, whatever (xxp)

np jon seemed like there was some confusion on this thread vis-a-vis the article, and why slate would publish something that wasnt particularly insightful but was contrarian enough that people seem to want to tell everyone about it

it's about as contrarian as a cannned ham.

cannnnnned ham

"utterly incoherent to me and I'm not sure that it's not a joke, but it seems sincere enough I guess."

Ha! sums up my feelings re: Creed and maybe Rammstein and Rush. Maybe ICP and Burial, too.
What groups are like that for you guys?

To compare Creed and ICP to Rush is sacrilege.

Bill Magill OTM. Faygo & Seminars>>>>>>>>Ayn Rand.

which awful alt-weekly cover story essay on jay-z is worse??

http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=19159
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/old-bull/Content?oid=2473786