1. I interviewed Mr. Ryan Sambol, lead singer of Texas garage band The Strange Boys. They have a sick new album out on In the Red Records, titled And Girls Club. Go check it out!
My natural instinct towards hating Wavves' music has caused some frowns from my musically-inclined compadres. That's OK. I just don't hear where the noise ends and the tunes begin. I have the same problem with Times New Viking. It's a matter of taste. Whatever.
I didn't care at all about those bands and put them in the "over-hyped" bin that's stored in my head.
I still didn't care when Wavves frontman Dickhead McDick decided to do too many drugs at his first ever European gig and couldn't handle it. I thought he was pretty stupid, but it left my mind as soon as I read about it. Kind of similar to their music, right?
Then the dude from the Black Lips called him out on being a poopbrain. Which I found interesting, considering they run in somewhat similar circles. I decided to take the time to actually consider the cultural and social implications of blowing yr first European gig as horribly as Wavves did.
A lot of the "indie rock" that has been made popular today can thank a lot of bands from the 80's for forging a path to at least some success. Back then, weird bands had zero clubs to play in and would make negative dollars touring. Thanks to the efforts of bands like The Minutement, Mission of Burma, Black Flag, and other related groups, a touring circuit developed through networks of fans and friends. They did it all themselves at a time when there was no internet.
With that in mind, another major part of the independant rock movement in the 80s was the bands' decisions to tour in Europe. Sonic Youth is one great example of a band who actually toured in Europe with minor success before the states ever accepted their avante-garde music. And back then, any success was a victory.
Basically, motherfuckers ate up anything coming out of America, so it makes sense to go over and try to woo the Europeans. A lot of the money made from the ability to tour in Europe helped bands finance their recordings, further pushing their development.
So when I heard what Wavves did I pushed it aside as another stupid miscue by another mediocre band. But once they cancelled the whole tour, and I heard what Jared Swilley had to say about it, it made me hate Wavves probably as much as I hate Radiohead.
In conclusion: Respect the past, you made yourself seem like a very spoiled piece of poop, and stop making such bad music.
I finally have heard a post-Black Album Jay-Z track that I'll actually play more than twice: DEATH of the AUTO-TUNE
And if you didn't hear, Jay-Z shit-talks some prominent tuner-users at a Funkmaster Flex show, finally calling out the fad that I've always thought was a dreadful display of music laziness.
My favorite part was when Mr. Hova says "They got they little niche" or, when translated, "They got little wieners" depending on how far you want to read into it.
I thought the hullabaloo about the last Radiohead album was caused by their marketing strategy that made people overlook the fact that the music was rather mediocre. I risked my neck being chopped off by most fans of In Rainbows.
If three of my favorite musicians agree with me, does that make me right, or an asshole?
In conclusion, any band that sings about the evils of society, then comes back and asks you to pay sixty bucks to see them live, are pricks. Even if they give their music away for free on the internet, it doesn't matter, since most artists make money from touring and merch. It's not like they're giving away vinyl copies of In Rainbows to everyone. It's a fucking mp3.
Don't get me wrong, some of Radiohead's older stuff is pretty good, but FUCK RADIOHEAD.
