On The Subject Of-Cranky Critics, OGERNET, etc.

I gotta kick out of this recent blog by my west coast bud TAD on his creation of the Old Guys Exchange Review NET or OGERNET. Had to admit I got a real good chuckle out of it when I was at work today. http://tadsbackupplan.blogspot.com/2010/02/proud-member-of-ogrenet.html

BTW TAD, I got a cease and destest order from The Nice about changing over to The Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack ;-) TO which is a better album then what Mr. Derogatis said about them in the book Kaleidoscope Eyes to which I bought in the clarence bins at Barnes & Noble in Madison around 2002 I think and forgot that I even had it till TAD brought that book up in a blog and I'm spot reading through some of it. I tend to avoid the rap section since rap doesn't qualify as Psychedelic Music whatsoever. But nevertheless please do consider me to be a part of this up and coming next big thing.

After 2009 I threw my hands up in the air and simply retired from reviewing new albums from new bands, simply of the fact that most of these new bands that SPIN or Rolling Stone touted sucked big time. Just can't get into them anymore. Upon reading of the readers who voted in Mark Prindle's top 73 albums of all time, I come to find that even I didn't know who most of the bands that people wrote in. I did try to get into the bands of Jack White (The Racontuers and The Dead Weather) but after a couple plays I simply traded the CDs in for something else or sold them and got part of my investment back. Mark Prindle remains one of the two critics that do keep in touch with me and basically he might be rude and crude sometimes but he has taught me to throw more reason into why I didn't like such and such band. He called me out last year when I was saying that there was much more great new music in 2009 and asked me why that most bands I pointed out have been around longer than 2000. To which maybe I didn't know so much about new music anymore and that I pretty much still listening to the dinosaurs of yesterday. We did agree that the Editors were pretty good but we disagreed on Miranda Lambert (I liked her music, he didn't) and most of the time his Bands the Kids Dig was dead on 89 percent of the time. At least Mark Prindle continues to review the new bands, me I could care less about Animal Collective or The Yeah Yeah Yeahs or Owl City or whatever the major labels puke out to the world and call it the next big thing.

While some people complained that music died around 1985 or after Husker Du broke up, I still think that 1998 was the final decent year for music till Limp Bizkit caught fire, Marilyn Manson was the second coming of Alice Cooper's shock rock and the infamous Polygram buyout to which Edgar Broftman bought that as a birthday present for his son sotospeak, then the bottom fell out. But I still held on for another 12 years, trying to find something worthwhile and once in a while I did but whoever I picked for the next big thing (Idlewild, Secret Machines, Long-View, The Coral) the public ignored and then 2005 the copy protected and OVERLOUD Cd killed the buying public and CD sales have been freefalling ever since.

When I started music blogging in 2003, I was trying to share my love of forgotten bands by coming up with a top ten of songs of that week and ever since that cold January morning of the 1st, every week I threw up a batch of songs worth noting, some known, some overplayed but most came from memory and cds at the pawnshop that sold for three bucks. Cheap pawnshop CDs did introduce me to bands that I wouldn't buy for 15 to 20 bucks new. That's how I came to known The Coral or Blue Rodeo or Peter Himmelman or King's X to name a few. Or breeze into Wherehouse Music (RIP) to find their clarence bins to which I discovered Caravan's For Girls Who Grew Plump In The Night or The Dream Synicate stuff, which commands big bucks on EBAY but back then, it wasn't hard to find Medicine Show for 3 bucks. But even then, the pawnshops were cutting back on buying Cds since most of the cds found were crap one album rappers or flavor of the month pop or country stars. But along the way, in the seven years leading up to the new decade we lost most music stores along the way, Wherehouse Music got bought out by FYE, Tower Records went belly up, so did Sam Goody and all the local stores as well here (Relics, Rock n Bach, Cd's Plus, CD Warehouse, Hastings in Ames). Even FYE started closing down the stores around here (Waterloo 2 years ago, Coral Ridge this year) to which the compulsive cd buyer now had to drive out of town or order from the net. Which leaves us only Best Buy and the incredible shrinking CD collection at Wal mart or take our chances at the local Half Priced Books or Goodwill. I hope and pray that what remains for music here (Record Collector, Real! in Iowa City, Moondog Music and CD's 4 Change in Dubuque, Co Op in Quad Cities, Mohair Pear in Cedar Falls) but as I push fifty years, they may have to go on without me. I decided that after I turn 50, that I wasn't going to push myself driving God's half acre to try to find cds and albums only to be stuck with crappy Matchbox 20 and Mantovani albums at the local Salvation Army.

When I first started blogging I would try for the shock and awe, bashing everything in sight and have email fights with fans of bands that I didn't like or care. Don't try to convince me about how significant Kid A is, because it's not going to work; I didn't like that then, I don't like it now. There's gotta be more reason then just screw Radiohead they stink, when I heard Kid A, I thought it had to be the biggest piece of crap that I heard and Bruce Stanley called it the end of rock and roll. I gave in and listened to In Rainbows and I did like most of that but I'm not a Radiohead fan, so therefore I let somebody else review that. Perhaps that Radiohead influence may have something to do with my lack of interest of any new bands. The Radiohead comparison. So any band with a Radiohead sound was passed over. I did enjoy Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's First album and the much criticized Howl but Take them on and Baby 81, made me fall asleep or revisit the Jesus And Mary Chain's albums. And I did follow The Secret Machines up to their S/T album of a couple years ago, they may have been my favorite band of the 00's. But the reason why I liked their Now Here Is Nowhere since they have a bit of Neu! and Hawkwind in their influences. Then they started adding more U2 and Radiohead and got less interesting but if they do have a new album out this year, I'll go seek it out, that is IF Best Buy even has it stocked.

It's agreed that new music today sucks, of the majority of it. Whatever is on top forty is bad rap, bad r and b and this crazed shit called the autotuner to which one would love to shove up Lil' Wayne's ass sideways, or Kanye West. Or Mariah Carey. Music today is too much Pro tools, too much autotune, too much cliche and too much bullshit for the music lover to listen to. When OK GO did a song featuring a auto tuner, I turned it off and donated it to the Salvation Army. Back in the 50s and 60s and so on, music was played for a feeling, mistakes were involved and in fact gave the songs that distinct personality. Which made the Mott The Hoople Island albums fun to listen to. Or Louie Louie, ya think The Kingsmen's would have gotten that away if they had pro tools back in 1983?

Look, it's simple: I was born into perhaps the best era of music, grew up when AM radio gave us Dean Martin, The Beatles, Motown and Buck Owens on the same station. And FM gave us the underground and the prog rock and longer song selection past the three minite edited 45. Alas, the majority of folks want the overplayed while the music lover has go to the net or satellite radio or pawnshop records and cds to hear that forgotten classic that THE FOX won't play. I still believe in word of mouth or what a music blogger from the other side of the country grew up listening to or remember hearing it at the local head shop back in the late 70s. The music simply doesn't hold up because it music that's for the bottom line. Will anybody remember Kei$hia's autotuned crap song of this year? Hell no. What does it mean when my best friend's son would rather listen to Pink Floyd or The Beatles over Radiohead or Fall Out Boy? A Beatles song from 1963 still sound vital today than anything Mariah Carey or Lil Wayne will slop out. And I can guarantee you, that The Beatles sure in the hell would never need a freaking Autotuner.

I don't know if I really have mellowed all that much since my first blog way back in the dark ages, there are some things will make me blow a nerve and throw a few F Bombs along the way and I have done that a few times over at My Space or the old MSN Groups (RIP) and sometimes here but I try to keep a open mind on things. But sometimes I do point out what's wrong with music or life and we go with that. And I try to be a bit more objective over here, comments are fine and encouraged. But there's more to just Fuck you, or What Do You Mean by so and so. Things are expressed in my point of view but there's some (espeically those who are Christian Conserative Native Texans) that simply lack the know how to do constructive argumental viewpoints. After a while, I simply say "you don't get it go back to watching Hannrity on FOX news and piss off". Kinda like music. I want three chords and the truth or good boogie or good mindless fun like The Godz (of The Gods Are Rock And Roll Machines Fame) or Foghat.

I like good country and good jazz too. That's why my top ten of the week is varied. There's way too much forgotten songs that need to be addressed so that you the reader can seek it out via music store or the internet.

So, in short sign me up for OGERNET then. I'm ready for the good life ;)