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http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2004/01/01/rock_critics_may_have_worn_out_their_voices/

What say?

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Friday, 2 January 2004 17:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, the first problem is that Jim DeRogatis is cited as an authority on these matters...

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 2 January 2004 17:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't get that page to freakin' load.

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 2 January 2004 17:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I for one would like to spend days on the road with the Rolling Stones. I also think that it isn't just rock crit that has "lost its voice", but media in general. And it hasn't really lost anything, rather there's too much of it!

― dleone (dleone), Friday, 2 January 2004 17:08 (twenty-one years ago)

the voice is still their, it's just not saying anything.

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 2 January 2004 17:09 (twenty-one years ago)

La la la, no good records since Exile On Main Street, la la la, it's all noise, la la la, I don't get this dance stuff, la la la this is EXACTLY the same thing just with 'rock writers' rather than 'rock bands' and it's total horseshit.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 2 January 2004 17:09 (twenty-one years ago)

fuck! the voice is still THERE!!!

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 2 January 2004 17:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm also tempted to bark out a long exasperated rant along the lines of "BUT BUT BUT the online crit world is so groovy..." though I suppose McDonnell's take would be that either the online world doesn't even exist, or that it obviously exists but it just doesn't matter enough -- the stuff that matters has to be in print; otherwise, you might as well be talking about old blues '78s to the twenty readers of your fanzine.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 2 January 2004 17:12 (twenty-one years ago)

nick otm

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 2 January 2004 17:13 (twenty-one years ago)

How could I have missed this?

The second problem is that Nick Hornby is cited as an authority on these matters...

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 2 January 2004 17:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Hornby can eat my fuc.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 2 January 2004 17:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I think this piece originally ran a few months ago in Florida, where Evelyn actually writes. It was idiotic then, and it's idiotic now.

― chuck, Friday, 2 January 2004 17:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not a fan of any "Well the good ol' days are all gone now" article in just about any form of media. They always come off whiney and the good ol days were never as good as they claim.

― David Allen (David Allen), Friday, 2 January 2004 20:34 (twenty-one years ago)

that's the sole satisfaction of being old though!

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 2 January 2004 20:38 (twenty-one years ago)

this ran a couple weeks ago in the Miami Herald, I think there may have already been a thread on it. either way, whadda buncha shit.

― M Matos (M Matos), Friday, 2 January 2004 20:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Where all woo-lee masto-dons go?
me no like elly-fant!

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 2 January 2004 20:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Christ. Rachel Felder's "Manic Pop Thrill" is one of the worst music books I've ever read.

― may pang (maypang), Friday, 2 January 2004 20:44 (twenty-one years ago)

"The good old days weren't always so good and tomorrow's not as bad as it seems/ oh oh"

--William Joel

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 2 January 2004 20:50 (twenty-one years ago)

"DeRogatis dates the last great era of pop writing to the early '90s, when books like Gina Arnold's "Route 666: On the Road to Nirvana"...[was] published."

― Colin Beckett (Colin Beckett), Friday, 2 January 2004 21:11 (twenty-one years ago)

[[shudders]]

― M Matos (M Matos), Friday, 2 January 2004 21:28 (twenty-one years ago)

On a related topic, Salon.com has a shithead "rock iz dead becuz Outkast rulez" article on their front page today. I wish keyboards had lids like grand pianos, so you could walk up to people who write things like this (or the piece linked above) and slam their fingers.

― Phil Freeman (Phil Freeman), Friday, 2 January 2004 22:20 (twenty-one years ago)

really. rock was dead for years before OutKast ruled.

― M Matos (M Matos), Friday, 2 January 2004 22:41 (twenty-one years ago)

typically, of course, the "hey! radio is good! rap and pop are the shiznit!" cries are coming right as those things are starting to slide.

― M Matos (M Matos), Friday, 2 January 2004 22:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Ragging on terrible salon.com articles at this late stage of its living death is sorta like kicking puppies.

Anyway, I almost never ever emotionally connect to comprehensive year-end reviews o' rock -- they're usually smack full of some of the worst habits of the mainstream rockcrit (like trend-mongering and hero worship) only with a scoche more pretension.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 2 January 2004 22:52 (twenty-one years ago)

>>for the first time since the Beatles, the most vital forms of pop are found at the top of the charts.<<<

First time since the Beatles??????????? Horse. Fucking. Shit.

― chuck, Friday, 2 January 2004 22:52 (twenty-one years ago)

"For the first time since the Hudson Brothers."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 2 January 2004 22:53 (twenty-one years ago)

"For the first time since...uh...well, since the last time."

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 2 January 2004 22:55 (twenty-one years ago)

"Full disclosure: I know very little about hip-hop and have only recently started buying the albums rather than just listening to singles on the radio." At least he's honest about it.

― M Matos (M Matos), Friday, 2 January 2004 22:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I like his weird, probably unintentional implication that Johnny Cash died because he was so depressed about Williamsburg hipsters!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 2 January 2004 23:10 (twenty-one years ago)

OH NO! THE STROKES RUIN EVERYTHING YET AGAIN! LONG LIVE SPRAWLING UNEVEN WANKY DOUBLE RAP CDS FOR ROCKISTS!

If you'd told me in 2000 that Outkast worship amongst rockcrits would be almost entirely the domain of complete knobs then I wouldn't believe you for a second, but here we are.

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Saturday, 3 January 2004 00:17 (twenty-one years ago)

"...almost entirely the domain of complete knobs three years later then I wouldn't..."

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Saturday, 3 January 2004 00:17 (twenty-one years ago)

If only the Man in Black had lived to hear a reasonably-decent-at-best Missy track!

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Saturday, 3 January 2004 00:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Many ways to say many ways, even more ways to be stunned and
autism in pop music, too!

"In many ways, 2003 was a depressing year for music..."

"...in many ways the album everyone was hoping they would make..."

"...in much the same way that every day for the last three months an article has appeared somewhere..."

"...producers are particularly impressive in the way..."

The man was

astonished

, just astonished.

"These three men are responsible for an astonishing number..."

"...but they rarely fail to astonish..."

"...[he] never feel repetitive..." [Oop, how did
that slip in there?]

The sublime art of sort of but not really

autistic musicians.

Next month: Singer/songwriters who might have Asperger Syndrome.

"...[so & so] borders on autism..."

"The mood of autistic alienation in Cat Power's music can also be found ..."

Easily stunned.

"...Timbaland, and he provides a stunning array of beats..."

"...and his arrogance is every bit as stunning..."

"The sonically stunning record, produced by
[someone stunning]..."

― George Smith, Saturday, 3 January 2004 00:23 (twenty-one years ago)

That just makes me think of the Rutles.

"We're shocked."

"And stunned."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 3 January 2004 00:26 (twenty-one years ago)

"The police were puzzled by the puzzling puzzle." -- heard in
an old episode of "Astro Boy."

― George Smith, Saturday, 3 January 2004 00:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I've theorized that if Thomas Bartlett ever punched me in the mouth I'd be unwillingly breaking kosher. He's that hamfisted.

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Saturday, 3 January 2004 00:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I do admire Evelyn's piece for how it tries to exemplify its own theme. I don't admire Evelyn for writing it, however. I can't imagine her rough notes were half as boring as the published story. I can't imagine that whatever she mutters during her morning shower is half as boring as the published story.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Saturday, 3 January 2004 01:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh my, that Salon piece is... it's... Oh my.

― Keith Harris (kharris1128), Saturday, 3 January 2004 02:35 (twenty-one years ago)

you mean "oops," don't you?

― M Matos (M Matos), Saturday, 3 January 2004 02:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm starting to reminisce about the good ol' Joey Sweeney days...

― Keith Harris (kharris1128), Saturday, 3 January 2004 02:53 (twenty-one years ago)

well, you live in Philly now, right? you can read him EVERY WEEK!

― M Matos (M Matos), Saturday, 3 January 2004 02:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Evelyn M. was once at the Village Voice wasn't she? Then I thought she gave up the rock crit world only to surface in Miami writing again...

― Steve Kiviat (Steve K), Saturday, 3 January 2004 03:16 (twenty-one years ago)

"In many ways, 2003 was a depressing year for [Saddam]..."

"In many ways, 2003 was a depressing year for [Joe Paterno]..."

"In many ways, 2003 was a depressing year for [the airlines]..."

"In many ways, 2003 was a depressing year for [the unemployed]..."

"In many ways, 2003 was a depressing year for [the endangered Sumatran tiger]..."

"In many ways, 2003 was a depressing year for [Phil Spector]..."

"In many ways, 2003 was a depressing year for [the incarcerated]..."

Greatest sentence, ever!

― George Smith, Saturday, 3 January 2004 03:20 (twenty-one years ago)

The last installment of New York: A Documentary Film -- the one that's all about the WTC -- had at least ten sentences that started with "In the end..." in the space of three hours. Ergo, it must be even better.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 3 January 2004 03:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Or it just doesn't even matter.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 3 January 2004 04:10 (twenty-one years ago)

"We've been told for years now that hip-hop has arrived, that it is now the dominant genre in the music business, in much the same way that every day for the last three months an article has appeared somewhere with the news that Howard Dean is on his way to becoming the front-runner in the race for the Democratic nomination. Hopefully the Billboard stat and the Grammy nominations list will act as Al Gore's endorsement did, and put to rest some of the novelty."

What a useless metaphor. OTOH, if you want to read a REALLY shitty Salon year in review piece, check out 2002: http://www.salon.com/ent/music/feature/2002/12/24/joey/index.html

― sym (shmuel), Saturday, 3 January 2004 04:16 (twenty-one years ago)

2002 has nothing on 2001: http://dir.salon.com/ent/music/feature/2001/12/26/year_end_music/index.html

and 2003 may be worse than either. at least Sweeney sort of knew some of what he was talking about.

― M Matos (M Matos), Saturday, 3 January 2004 04:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Salon did run a year-in-review that I thought was actually pretty good. I can't remember who wrote it, but I think it apologetically followed another, much crappier one.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 3 January 2004 04:25 (twenty-one years ago)

when, in '99 or 2000?

― M Matos (M Matos), Saturday, 3 January 2004 04:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't remember. Maybe I hallucinated it.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 3 January 2004 04:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Come on, 2002 was the worst. The guy called Eminem "easily one of the most hateful people on the planet." Like, what about Mugabe? Saddam? Ariel Sharon? Sweeney just seemed to indiscriminately hate everything.
But yeah, recently discovering those wacky Outkast dudes and that crazy Missy Elliot lady, then using as proof of the supremacy of hip-hop = total dud.
I mean, they've been critical favorites forever, they've had relatively disappointing years, and that writer didn't even give
Jay-Z love.
Let's just agree that all Salon music writing is brutal and leave it at that.

― sym (shmuel), Saturday, 3 January 2004 04:31 (twenty-one years ago)

(1) it wasn't always brutal (and indeed Keith Harris's piece on John Mayer from a couple months back is excellent) and (2) no kidding, dude, the 2001 essay is even worse

― M Matos (M Matos), Saturday, 3 January 2004 04:33 (twenty-one years ago)

'01/'02/'03 Salon year-end pieces = TRIFECTA OF SHIT.

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Saturday, 3 January 2004 04:41 (twenty-one years ago)

They're like Lord of the Rings if Lord of the Rings sucked!

― sym (shmuel), Saturday, 3 January 2004 04:43 (twenty-one years ago)

But now that I've actually read the 2001 piece, I can safely conclude that Joey Sweeney hates fun. And is creepily envious of the
Strokes' sexual appeal. I'm still not changing my vote, however.

― sym (shmuel), Saturday, 3 January 2004 04:45 (twenty-one years ago)

damn, '02 must've left a LASTING impression on you.

― M Matos (M Matos), Saturday, 3 January 2004 05:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, that '02 article was shit, but it wasn't 8,000 words of shit.

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Saturday, 3 January 2004 05:06 (twenty-one years ago)

So, where does Thomas Bartlett come from?

― Keith Harris (kharris1128), Saturday, 3 January 2004 05:11 (twenty-one years ago)

the forehead of the Greek God of Liberal Arts [c. Jess]

― M Matos (M Matos), Saturday, 3 January 2004 05:12 (twenty-one years ago)

apparently Joey Sweeney now runs a nightclub in Trenton, NJ, ergo the Gods have taken their revenge.

― Dave M. (rotten03), Saturday, 3 January 2004 05:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Bon Jovi tribute bands for all!

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Saturday, 3 January 2004 05:31 (twenty-one years ago)

"Yeah, that '02 article was shit, but it wasn't 8,000 words of shit. "
Quality of shit over quantity of shit, man. But it was a close call.
Anyways after reading all three in a row, I now hate Missy Elliott. Fucking Salon.

― sym (shmuel), Saturday, 3 January 2004 05:36 (twenty-one years ago)

And is creepily envious of the
Strokes' sexual appeal.

Isn't that like being jealous of flavorless Jello?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 3 January 2004 06:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Ned has obviously never considered the sex appeal inherent in a tub of flavorless jello

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Saturday, 3 January 2004 06:13 (twenty-one years ago)

It would be a good centerpiece for the next Christina Aguilera vid

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Saturday, 3 January 2004 06:14 (twenty-one years ago)

i'll bet flavorless jello gets more ass than ned

― Dave M. (rotten03), Saturday, 3 January 2004 06:14 (twenty-one years ago)

The appeal of being flung onto a pool of wobbly clear Strokes for sexual gratification escapes me.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 3 January 2004 06:15 (twenty-one years ago)

kate to thread

― Dave M. (rotten03), Saturday, 3 January 2004 06:16 (twenty-one years ago)

NO NO NO NO NO

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Saturday, 3 January 2004 06:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Back to the original article:

"I would like to see the whole thing blown up and start all over," says Chicago Sun-Times critic Jim DeRogatis. "But it hasn't happened."

DeRo OTM. You ever see that video where they dynamite a beached whale and it crushes cars a 1/4 mile away? Pardon the fat joke, but, yeah, DeRo OTM about DeRo.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 3 January 2004 06:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Okay, so it's fashionable to bitch about how the good ol' days are dead. But calling "Almost Famous" a piece of sentimental hogwash. How THAT's bullshit. Makes me wonder if she got withing shooting range of the movie's point. There's a depth and catharsis to be had there for writers.

― Chris O., Saturday, 3 January 2004 09:40 (twenty-one years ago)

And a realisation that we're all making shit up.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 09:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Yup, exactly. Chasing down the dream even when you know the reality can suck. Crowe's great accomplishment.

― Chris O., Saturday, 3 January 2004 09:53 (twenty-one years ago)

"Anyways after reading all three in a row, I now hate Missy Elliott. Fucking Salon."

I almost agree with this. There really is something kinda painful about the way Missy's weakest record is held up as proof that pop (or hip hop) has *finally* come good.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 3 January 2004 11:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Caveat: I haven't read the salon.com things, I don't know what salon.com is and have never heard of it before so don't see as there'd be much point.

While I agree that, yeah, it's slightly late in the day (to the point of being ridiculous) for people to be claiming that pop (or hip hop) has *finally* come good, I've got to take issue with the previous statement - There really is something kinda painful about the way Missy's weakest record is held up as proof.

Who's to say that TINAT qualifiably or quantifiably is Missy's 'weakest' record? That's subjective opinion just as much as anyone claiming Speakerboxxx/TLB is great, or that pop has 'broken' in 2003. Just because you don't like it as much as her other stuff doesn't mean that anyone who does like it is wrong or foolish because they're accepting inferior retreads and xeroxes. That statement smacks to me of the kind of ennui that gets bemoaned so much when present in indie circles. How is it any different to people saying something like "oh well of course Sonic Youth's earlier stuff is much better than that accessible pop shit they did later on Dirty; "10%" even has a hook! What sell-outs!" Because it sounds scarily, scarily similar to me, and I abhor that kind of superiority-insinuating value-judgement-masquerading-as-universal-truth thing. The indie mentality is alive and well and living in hip hop/IDM/grime/pop/microhouse [delete as appropriate]'s basement.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 11:47 (twenty-one years ago)

"100%", obviously, indie-fascists!

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 11:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Except of course that Missy's been right under Sweeney's nose for, oh, seven or so years now. The line that hip hop/r&b is finally good now (and therefore hasn't been so good for the previous [x] years) is not offensive to my obscurant sensibilities - presumably Sweeney, like most radio-listeners in the US, was quite aware of Missy's work at the time, so I'm not sure how me liking Da Real World or whatever confers any implied superiority upon me. It's not that Sweeney wasn't in the know, or that he was somehow ignorant, or that he wasn't listening to the right radio stations or going to the right clubs. He was just (in my opinion) *wrong* in both his assessment of the value of pop at the time and of Missy. My belief that he is wrong is, it goes without saying, merely subjective, so carry on enjoying This Is Not A Test to your heart's content.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 3 January 2004 12:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I guess I am being pseudo-indie-through-popism in that a big problem I have with TINAT is the lack of good choruses on the hip hop tracks. Missy sold out pop!

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 3 January 2004 12:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I just much prefer it to Da Real World and Under Construction, and have been baffled as to why so many other people I thought would love it to didn't.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 12:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Would this be a good thread to laugh at Pause and Play's 2003 end-of?

"BEST COVER VERSION - "It's My Life," No Doubt (Interscope; originally done by Talk Talk in 1984). Significant others: "Drift Away," Uncle Kracker featuring Dobie Gray (Lava; Dobie Gray, 1973); "Big Yellow Taxi," Counting Crows featuring Vanessa Carlton (Geffen/Interscope; Joni Mitchell, 1970); "Solsbury Hill," Erasure (Mute; Peter Gabriel, 1977). (emphasis mine)

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Saturday, 3 January 2004 15:39 (twenty-one years ago)

You could emphasize the whole thing, I wouldn't mind.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 3 January 2004 15:42 (twenty-one years ago)

(Tim, Sweeney didn't write the new essay, Thomas Bartlett did. Sweeney wrote '01 and '02)

― M Matos (M Matos), Saturday, 3 January 2004 23:42 (twenty-one years ago)

So, where does Thomas Bartlett come from?

"Thomas Bartlett is a writer and musician in New York." If he is the same Thomas Bartlett as the singer in Doveman, he plays in a band whose name in Dutch reads as "Deaf Man". I rest my case.

― JoB (JoB), Sunday, 4 January 2004 01:28 (twenty-one years ago)

From the Doveman's site:

"This stuff is beautiful. Reminiscent of Vincent Gallo and Van Dyke Parkes, sometimes almost channeling early Bowie." -Marc Anthony Thompson aka Chocolate Genius

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 4 January 2004 01:43 (twenty-one years ago)

"Simply stunning, although the eclecticism and the humor become a little wearying after a while." - André 3000

― JoB (JoB), Sunday, 4 January 2004 02:06 (twenty-one years ago)

and Joey Sweeney of course is the star vocalist of The Trouble With Sweeney. Who I never actually heard despite my many nights and years spent on the floor of the Khyber pass.

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 4 January 2004 02:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Reminiscent of Vincent Gallo

Anyone said that to me about myself, my immediate goal would be to shave off all my body hair, become a monk named Zar, and go live in a mountain cave.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 4 January 2004 02:46 (twenty-one years ago)

It's not too late, Ned.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 4 January 2004 04:03 (twenty-one years ago)

DO NOT TEMPT ME, MORTAL.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 4 January 2004 05:51 (twenty-one years ago)

This is no big-ass observation, but still, as people ingest more music in smaller, disconnected bits, the more a central core of genre conversation simultaneously coalesces and fragments into continually further fragmented bits, and the less I can even understand how anyone can discuss what’s going on everywhere really fast with an aesthetic ruler that was pretty translucent when things didn’t seem nearly as complicated, usually.

I mean, the critical conversation—assuming‘discourse’ will be yucky for another cycle or two—is in such rapid, hermetic flux, the assumed backstory canon subject to such constant revision based mainly on inter-fraternal tiffs/ one-upmanship and such, and the finished product of the critic’s observations dense-packed by publication design into clarity-adverse word counts and the need for gig-securing stylistic edge-outs, you gotta wonder, like, Just what is the function, Kenneth? What’s the subject even?

I think it’s cool that the Voice has been covering more goth and metal stuff of late (or I seem to be noticing that it’s been doing so.) The absurdity isn’t that rock is or isn’t dead, it’s that you can claim to be a generalist and tag what you cover under the category of ‘rock’ or ‘pop’ as if that means anything in particular. Or even that it will get across a sense of what you’re talking about to a targeted audience that isn’t fully drenched in your particular revisions.

And there’s the default assumption that the writer has perused all the subgenres and sifted out with the sweetest bits. I mean, picking Basement Jaxx means you’ve carefully combed through which 92,8756 mini-genres of computer dance and this is the shit? Favoring the new Any Rigby displays a sure sampling of all tuneful middle age-istwhatever? No good nuclear doom metal this year? Jay-Z or Missy E cheek to jowl with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs or what-have-you? For real?

I honestly feel more naïve thinking about this or bringing it up, but something here seems, if not full out relevant, at least integral to a degree.

― Ian Grey (Ian_G), Monday, 5 January 2004 00:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think I have any great insight on the problem, other than to say that any truly engaged critic with a regular readership has to directly address their utter inability to catch everything.

Curiously, the product-glut issue you've raised isn't referenced at all in the article linked to at the top, not even by hazy implication. I wonder why.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 5 January 2004 01:03 (twenty-one years ago)

three months pass...

Oh GOD.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 16:37 (twenty-one years ago)

This part cracked me up:

But within the realm of indie-rock, preferences diverged radically. Franz Ferdinand, the most buzzed-about band of the moment, was mentioned more than any other -- and never fear, I'll feature one of the band's songs here as soon as their music is available for download. Following close behind the archduke, bands like the Decembrists, the Mountain Goats, the Von Bondies, the Kings of Leon, Iron and Wine, Death Cab for Cutie, Sufjan Stevens, Modest Mouse, and Belle and Sebastian all had a number of supporters. But beyond that, it was something of a free-for-all, with many hundreds of bands mentioned once or twice apiece.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 16:47 (twenty-one years ago)

salon is still going?

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 16:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm torn between thinking "people should listen to whatever they like" and thinking "listening to almost nothing but indie rock is as weird and hide-bound to me as eating nothing but Chinese take-out."

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 16:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Bravo told me that Salon's where I should go to find out the latest in arts & news & love & all that good life stuff. I will read this & find out the truth.

― David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 16:52 (twenty-one years ago)

BTW - anyone gonna pony up for that Salon cruise? Sounds invigorating (cf. paper cuts).

― David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 16:53 (twenty-one years ago)

there's a STING and TWISTA collab?! gosh.

― m., Wednesday, 7 April 2004 17:11 (twenty-one years ago)

One of the reasons that Salon readers like indie rock so much MAY be because the publication has alienated any fans of hip hop, dance music, metal, etc., by steadfastly refusing to cover it, or at least in an intelligent way. You've got lots of NPR-ish alt rock, and the occasional derisive nod at the pop charts. But that's about it. Salon's musical conservatism never fails to surprise me. Just like I don't get this new Wednesday Morning Download section -- they've flirted with so many formats for music coverage, but they've never done the really obvious, which is what Slate does -- hire great writers and trust them to follow their hunches. Salon once told me that they wouldn't break an artist, that hits on their music pages were too low, therefore they couldn't take any risks, etc. Seems like awfully recursive logic.

― hmm (philip sherburne), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 17:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Salon covers music? The last record review I remember reading there was one of Sea Change.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 17:54 (twenty-one years ago)

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Rock Critics May Have Worn Out Their Voices (link)

astonished

autistic musicians.

Easily stunned.