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Subject: RTP-area local music and culture

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  • From: grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>
  • To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: Eh, Whatever
  • Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2007 07:55:05 -0400

musicscribe AT gmail.com, whom we believe to be Chris Parker, wrote:

My perception is that playing in front of people -- however many -- is
a charge, and if it weren't fun, there are plenty of opportunities to
do something else, like snapping up that lone retail job where the
music isn't set to '80s Mix or, worse, John Mayer and other Algia-
produced crap. Or getting a real job.

Heh. "Get a *real* job!" That's what I'm gonna say anytime one of my musician friends, like Hepler, starts bitching about how his backstage martinis aren't cold enough.

I inevitably am trapped into conversations with frustrated musicians
wondering why we have to criticize any music at all. "If you don't
make it how can you appreciate how hard it is to do? If you can't do
it how can you criticize someone who does."

In case it hasn't been made clear by the other 35 posts in this thread, we're not having that conversation. We're having the conversation about short snarky pot-shots, on the one hand, and sections that appear to write off entire shows, including damnfine local bands, in the service of airing out one writer's dislike of one out-of-town band that happens to be on the bill, on the other.

Which, to further your <snipped> analogy, would be akin, on the one hand, to the drunk sitting behind home plate yelling "you suck!" at whomever happened to be at bat, and on the other, to a sportswriter who wrote off the entire team because he didn't like one of the players.

Which they both have every right to do, of course, but that doesn't mean the other fans have to sit back & just enjoy it.

Similarly anyone who has made it their choice to entertain others for
a living needs to get used to being booed off the stage. I really am
not too worried about the thin skin and bruised egos of visiting
musicians; let them work at the bakery if their confidence is shaken
by 50-100 negative words. I heard a lot worse than I dish out in my
creative writing class decades ago. (perhaps for good reason....)

OK, clearly you're putting us on here. Good one!

On the off chance that that exercise in hyperbole was meant sincerely, let's unpack it:

1) I'm pretty sure you writers make a living entertaining others. Get used to it.
2) A fairly sizeable majority of the musicians who make stops at all the clubs in the Triangle smaller than the Cradle *do* work at the bakery. This thing we call "tour" is what normal people call "unpaid vacation."
3) Not even gonna touch the writers' workshop thing.

Interestingly no one has raised the issue of entertainment value,
other than obliquely. I suppose no one else finds their eyes glazing
over reading reviews. While part of our job is informative, I
sincerely believe part of it is entertainment as well. Now Grady, you
may not be impressed with my 50 words on 3 crappy '80s bands, or my
100 on the sad case of Mike Love, and I'll make no excuse about a
target's relative ease; what I'm looking for is (hopefully) an amusing
zing that maybe has some context rather than, say, "how old are these
guys again?" or "If I knew what love was, I'd tell you so you could
shut up."

Yet, interestingly enough, it would appear that none of the other folks posting in this thread found any of these blurbs entertaining or amusing. Maybe you're not trying hard enough. Do you know Mark Prindle? Maybe he'll give lessons.

Frankly, I think there's a lot of hot air pumping up a lot of these
bands, and while, admittedly there's an inside baseball aspect to
savaging, say, a KRS band, or even better, one of these meandering
freak-f**kers that Grayson likes so much, sometimes I think it's
worthwhile to suggest the Emperor's New wardrobe blows.

Sure, and I wouldn't have a problem with that, but thus far I haven't seen you taking on the Emperor. I'm not even sure who the Emperor would be (Joanna Newsom? Whomever won American Idol this year? R. Kelly?) but be sure to send up a flare when he/she is coming through town; I'd love to see 'em nekkid.

I would agree that not all these are entertaining or even always very
well argued. I gave Grayson grief about Mackey's Ted Leo review, and
felt it was poorly argued. But I like the fact that we're even talking
about it, and what constitutes good music rather than simply bowing to
whoever has a positive opinion... (instead of writing about Bush from
a critical perspective, let's just take feedback from people who like
him...)

Hee, you got us again! Let us know when your 30,000-word treatise, on how our nation is being destroyed by indie-rock, is due to come out in Harper's.

In the meantime, also let us know when y'all modify that section into a discussion on "what constitutes good music." I'd be happy to read something like that. You might want to change the name of the section, though.

Like anyone else I worry that this discourages people from going to
shows, but my thought is that hopefully it steers them to better
shows.

Here's a suggestion: rejigger the section such that you actually *do* steer people to better shows. There is enough of a range of shows around here every week that you could literally end every one of your savagely funny blurbs with a sentence like "don't waste your time on the Ladybug Transistor; go check out Schooner at the Cradle instead." OK, well, I dunno whom you'd direct the 80s-music fans to as an alternative, but I'm sure you could figure that out.

And if not, then dammit, get a *real* job!




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