Battle of the Titans: Ryan Adams V. Jim DeRo

Classic.

(Also: my new number is unlisted.)

Someone remix this, please.

I think my provider is topping out at 20kb/s, which is pretty lame.

Ryan Adams would like us to think that it's incredibly difficult being Ryan Adams -- young, talented, clever and outrageously prolific.

In fact, what's difficult is watching the spectacle of the 29-year-old North Carolina-bred singer and songwriter acting out the whole tired "troubled artist" routine and trying desperately hard to convince us of his genius.

Adams came to a packed Riviera Theatre Saturday night with a six-piece band to promote his official new album, "Llor n Kcor" (that's "Rock 'n' Roll" backwards), as well as the two EPs that followed a few weeks after that release, "Love is Hell, Vols. I and II."

Midway through the show, the spiky-haired alternative-country poseur cursed his label for failing to see that the two EPs are as worthy of hype as the album, though the record company is absolutely correct in trying to reign him in and force him to focus: The concert was proof once more that Adams is his own worst enemy, detracting from his modest talent by thinking that every idea he has is a good one, and thereby giving us as much garbage as greatness.

Though Adams is now as notorious for his bad-boy behavior as he is for his music, the show started promisingly enough, as he and his accomplished band tore through hard-hitting versions of new rockers such as "1974" and "Note to Self: Don't Die." For the first five songs, it seemed as if he might finally be playing to his strengths -- delivering catchy and motivating roots-rock that is derivative of everyone from Paul Westerberg to Morrissey, but undeniable nonetheless.

Then things started to go to hell. Adams played "Wish You Were Here" (his song from the new album, not the Pink Floyd classic) four times in a row, giving it to us straight, then as hard-core punk, then as a spoofy country ditty and finally rendering it as sung by Cookie Monster, simultaneously dissing the barked vocals of the nu-metal genre and paying homage to "Sesame Street."

These 20 minutes of shtick derailed the momentum the group had built up, and so it went through the rest of the 100-minute set. The band would pick up speed over the course of a few solid songs, and then Adams would act out, inviting all of his musicians and the members of the opening band, the unimpressive Adams clones the Stills, to gather around two mikes for a hokey mock-hootenanny version of the sexist new ditty, "Miss America."

Later, he improvised an acoustic song about the snow in Chicago, using it as an excuse to further his pointless feud with local alternative-country heroes Wilco. "Buy me a video camera so I can make a movie called 'I Am Trying to Bore You to Death,' " he crooned, sneering at the Wilco film, "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart."

Adams can release three CDs in a three-week span, but the fact remains that he still can't write one song as original or as heartfelt as anything by Jeff Tweedy.

The set ended abruptly and jarringly after 15 songs as Adams threw down his white Stratocaster and stormed offstage -- he'd been whining about suffering from the flu, and for a while it seemed as if he might not return. But the delay was as calculated as the ridiculously long wait before the start of his set, the better to fuel anticipation.

Eventually, sure enough, the performer returned to offer five songs solo acoustic, playing the young Dylan role that made a fan out of Elton John, but offering nothing nearly as impressive lyrically or musically.

The show ended back in full band mode as Adams eschewed the guitar and ran around with the microphone, imitating Courtney Love by jumping into the crowd several times during the anthemic singalongs "Burning Photographs" and "So Alive."

The fans (who skewed younger than Adams) ate it all up, but you had to suspect that it was because they'd never seen the real Courtney, much less the Replacements or even Wilco.

Absent an historical musical context or a functioning b.s. detector, it is possible to mistake Adams for being as talented and clever as he thinks he is. But then there are plenty of people who can't tell the difference between plastic flowers and real ones, until they bend over to take a whiff.

Note to Ryan Adams: Wish you were anywhere but here

This is about where I suddenly sympathize with Adams.

I'm suer DeRog knew that "poking the bear" in this fashion could result in such an outburst, maybe he was praying for it all along?

Goddamnit... see... that's the kind of question I was hoping for on my "questions for DeRo" thread. I'm going to have to write him again now. Damn you.

Perhaps DeRog sent that girl to R Kelly's place as well? Scandalous!

....my phone call to Jim from the Chicago Sun Times was a personal response to someone I felt like was addressing me as a person, not as an entertainer.
its very sad when i want to play shows in Chicago and someone who obviously does not like ME or what i supposedly represent comes to the shows and acts like WE are all at fault.
I had a great time there and it seemed like everybody else did too.
for one person with the power of the local paper to review it like eveybody had a shit time is really bad for me because thats what i do, play live, make records, and im pretty sure we all had a killer time.
i am dissapointed at Jim because he could have at least said " well i dont get it but everybody else had fun"

but no.....he treats us like we are all, audience and band. like WE are wrong for getting together and kicking out the music.

I love all of you for wanting to come out and hear the songs so I try my hardest and i always want to try something new for all of you.

i dont think jim likes it that we do our thing and that its cool and okay.

im just making music and i really like it. he got fired from rolling stone and maybe he is bitter.......

ANYWAY....
my problems with Jim Derogatory,

1. that phone call was personal, just like the personal attack against me in the paper, and to let it out on-line just kinda shows you what kind of person he is. (it was me taling to you Jim)
2. when 1000 people love it and you dont, maybe its just not your thing and you shouldnt PUNISH people for that.
3.rolling stone used to put Jerry Garcia on the cover and hunter s thompson, and for what we are up against now picking me as some kind of SCARPEGOAT is pretty week. i mean, shit, i write my own songs as shitty as they are.

4. IF YOU DONT LIKE MY SHOWS DONT COME. please.....

plenty of people couldnt get in and there you are holding a ticket, ready to beat me down. you shouldve given it to somebody who wanted it.

5. people like john mayer and dave matthews get this kind of shit for being pedestrian but people like them. you cant take that away from them.

nobody is playing music to hurt you Jim. they just do it cause they like it.

i can see why you are so bitter, but please, this is music...its about giving..........i hope you see the beauty and magic of music as a language where there are no wrong and right words or notes...

these are our storys......and they are meant to be heard.............

good luck jim/ art is the voice of god and he is always speaking and he is never wrong.

p.s. i will kindly meet with you so you can see me as a "real person" with "real" feelings that can get hurt by irresponsible journalism.
would it alarm you to read your thoughts in front of people daily as your job? it must be easy to be so mean hiding behind all that ink and paper.
im scared like you, but i am OUT THERE. challenging myself. GIVING.

you will never appreciate how much of a fan of music i am and how that drives me to want to CONTRIBUTE to it, and how bad it makes me feel knowing there are people like you with nothing real to give that want to isolate and kill and anybody that does.

i pray i have the resolve of the grateful dead, phish, black flag, fuck, even dave matthews, and rise above people like you.

i am here to share my heart and soul with people. they are the ones that matter. not you.

i hope you can find it in your heart to leave me alone and let me go my path in the future.

i know everybody you crossed in new york and your whole story,

do you wanna play chess?

You would think at this point in his career, Ryan Adams would be done calling up journos like a little bitch.

Memo to cryin' Ryan: if you ever decide to call me up for the shit I've written about you and leave me a voice mail rather than confront me like a mature adult, it's going on the web.

Fucking fuck, kindergartners can do better.

art is the voice of god! and he is always speaking! and he is never wrong!

i even forgive the wilco/tweedy praise (as if there's a dime's worth of difference b/w tweedy and adams anyway).

do not invoke dark and terrible forces you cannot control.

I'm hosting this mp3 on my blog for a while, to mirror Milo's site and to spread it around to my audience who might not come here. It's just too good to not get around...

For the record, it's here.

http://startribune.com/stories/457/4269174.html

Paul Westerberg: keeping 'er real.

But then again, he did spend about twenty minutes a few months ago during his regular show giving one of his "Unfair Record Reviews" to the entire Ryan Adams catalog.

Is that really how you pronounce "DeRogatis"?

It sounds like "The Bottle" by Gil Scott Herren, but I'm not sure.

"go to Battle of the Titans: Ryan Adams V. Jim DeRo to hear the entire broadside in all it's glory."

I wonder why they did not just link to the original site.