Back in May, “Best Worst Movie” director Michael Paul Stephenson wrote an editorial about loving bad movies. It was titled: Bad Books Are Bad, and Bad Food Is Bad. But Bad Movies Are Not Always Bad What’s missing from the title? Music. Specifically bad music. Perhaps Stephenson left bad music out of the conversation for … [Read more…]
Dear jolly, rotund Record Store Day Man, Gosh, is it almost Record Store Day again? I’ve waited so long for this day to come! And I’ve been a really good music writer this year, Record Store Day Man. Honest I have. (Well, unless you ask brokeNCYDE.) I wrote my heart out about all the bands … [Read more…]
There are a few warning signs of what can make or break a band and tend to set off alarms. Any combination of the following three signs found in any band should be considered worrisome: Third-rate, watered down electronic pop-punk/scrunk with little thought put into the music and lyrics. More band tees and general merch … [Read more…]
It’s hard to sum up an entire year of pop music in one concise “best of” list. Instead, here’s a tidy little look at some of the highs and lows in pop music over the past year: Hip-Huh?: The New Yorker‘s Sasha Frere-Jones declared that hip-hop was dead and upset a lot of hip-hop heads. … [Read more…]
Eye Weekly has a pretty great interview with Christopher R. Weingarten, formerly of good ole’ Parts & Labor, now known most prominently for his Twitter account, 1000TimesYes. Anyway, Weingarten has some pretty stellar things to say about the omnipresence of emo and indie in the early part of the decade, the impact of crowdsourcing on … [Read more…]
I’m not one to usually recycle news without some sort of comment/insight (errr… at least, not on a consistent basis and based on reporting from other sites), but the following news (as reported by Aversion) certainly speaks for itself: Much to the delight of uptight moms and punk kids alike, Brokencyde’s pulled out of the … [Read more…]
I stumbled upon this on the net: my article on scrunk. Though it wasn’t the one the Boston Phoenix published, but Oakland’s East Bay Express. Which is all a bit odd. I don’t necessarily mind that the paper is using my article – in fact, I’m flattered that they would choose to use it. I … [Read more…]
I’m referring to a Get Up Kids interview featured on The Drowned In Sound website. Though it’s only been online for a matter of hours, it’s attracted a wave of attention for a rather misinterpreted quote that goes to the tune of GET UP KIDS APOLOGIZE FOR EMO on several other news sites reporting on the interview. It’s … [Read more…]
Saw the above t-shirt at Warped on Tuesday. It may just be a shirt, but nowadays fashion is oft as important – if not the important – as the music that a band chooses to define itself. In My So Called Punk, Matt Diehl notes the clashes between “emo” kids and traditional “punk” kids at Warped … [Read more…]
Well, I haven’t gotten out to Warped just yet, but even so, it seems that I got the jump on the New York Times with my piece on the whole scrunk thing for The Phoenix. Ok, perhaps that’s a huuuuuge overstatement, but Jon Caramanica did notice the combination of electronics and screamo as sure as I … [Read more…]