The Prophet Nitsuh? (AKA: Clarke is depressed...)

Tom, it's never hit me this hard before, but I think now I understand the importance and value of the individual appreciation approach you so strongly advocate. I can't express how WRONG this Spin sum-up strikes me, how much it clashes with my perception and experience of music in the past few years. I don't want Spin defining an era for me, and it depresses me to no end to read shit like this--probably just dashed off two hours before the deadline, but still disheartening to say the least.

I will say, though, that I am incredibly thankful for ILM, especially at this very moment. Even when it's not up to its usual degree of passion and insight, ILM is still my absolute favorite music reading resource out there, and, I think, an extremely important thing.

What annoys me about this article is how faulty its memory is. "The band is back"? When did it go away? What about Bush, Matchbox 20, Korn, Third Eye Blind, The Verve Pipe, Blink 182, Cool For August, Papa Roach etc. etc? It's like when people say Nirvana was a triumphant return for rock after a decade of nothing but synth-pop - I'm not sure what planet they're talking about but it's probably not ours.

It's like that stupid 'men are back' ad campaign for Jovan a decade ago. I mean, many times I'd *wish* they'd go away...

Errr ... yeah, I can't say I meant it that way at all.

First off, my "people in a room" theory was specific to the mainstream of indie in the broad American sense -- it's sort of maniacal to try and use an organizing theory on anything as large and heterogenous as the charts in general. And I think I meant "bands" differently. I was just noting that while the tendency of the indie mainstream through the latter half of the nineties was toward what I called "knob-twiddling" -- that is, electronically-informed, instrumentalist-type, somewhat textural stuff (insert the name of any post-rock-ish outfit here) -- people's sudden surprise and excitement at hearing not-actually-so-great bands like B.R.M.C. or the White Stripes (or actually-so-great bands like les Strokes) led me to suspect that indie listeners were starting to hanker again for, well, pop bands. I was also quite taken with Life Without Buildings when I wrote that, and it was my belief -- and still is my belief -- that when someone does something old but it still seems sort of new and exciting, that means there's a significant void that can profitably be filled. The way Spin is talking about this is in many ways completely opposed to what I meant (or thought I meant).

Umm ... I dunno. Tom has an article from me that sort of revisits that theory in terms of the Strokes, so maybe we'll talk about it then. I should point out that none of my long-term theories are actually meant to be requests or predictions, only thought- experiments about why we get excited about hearing some things and not so excited about others. And clearly, when I say these things, I'm projecting my own desires onto others who surely don't share them; possibly I should make disclaimers that say "back to the bands for people like me."

Oh, and somewill will inevitably ask, "Well why should that void be filled?" It shouldn't, necessarily. But I think the process of band filling into an actually-neglected area -- particularly one as vague and broad as the one I'm positing here -- tends to result in a lot of really diverse, interesting music: it's like finding an old abandoned house and suddenly having all the freedom in the world to redecorate it however you want to (and without being distracted by having to really build the thing yourself). This is sort of what the article is meant to be about, even though it doesn't say so very well.

You should be laughing at Spin Magazine and anyone stoopid enough to believe the bullshit it promotes.

All you need to remember about this whole 'people in a room' thing:

Two people in a room
Facial movements betray
A private display
Of nervous disorder
And mutual torture

Two people in a room
Bloody image is conjured
But no one is injured
The weapons are chosen
But the action is frozen

Two people in a room
Positions are shifted
The ceasefire uplifted
The lighting is fierce
It's intended to pierce
Any cloak of deceit
And encourage retreat
And God they're so gifted
My God they're so gifted

I was thinking moe along the lines of 2 In A Room, meisterbrains behind the magnificent fake acid house hit "Wiggle It."

Nitsuh, I sure as heck wasn't accusing you of anything, and I don't think your tboughts and Spin's are the same at all. The thread was named in all cheekiness, based on a tenuous but nonetheless noticeable similarity between things you had said before and this intro piece.

You are one individual, trying to make sense of one corner of the musical landscape, and perhaps projecting something you would personally like to see happen. This is healthy, interesting, and not at all offensive to me. Spin, on the other hand, is a huge magazine saying "okay THIS is how it's happening, and THIS is how it's going to be remembered--to hell with your individual experiences, we're forging a Zeitgeist here and no one's going to stand in our way!"

And also, the spirit of Zeitgeist-forging can be thrilling and wonderful when musicians are passionately involved in it--"Wow, we're really making something here!" It can be stifling and intimidating, too, but also great. It's completely different when mags (esp. ones like Spin) are doing it.

I was thinking moe along the lines of 2 In A Room

Hurrah for multiple interpretations!