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…]
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…]
It was indeed “A Decade Under The Influence.†But while Taking Back Sunday could string together a few solid hits drenched in a post-hardcore milieu and cut with pop sensibilities, chances are no one in the band could have predicted how influential emo would become in the aughts. The presence of the word in the … [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…]
What is happening to the youth of today/tomorrow? [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYaBoW1gyGU] They say drugs have a negative impact on children; that video games and TV brainwash them; that violent movies desensitize them; that sexually explicit music cause them to do bad things. But does anyone blame the parents?!?!
Uncle! Can I give up? I’ve kept a pretty upbeat attitude when it comes to Weezer as of lately. I always hope for the best, and if I’m disappointed I’ll just say “maybe next year” and move on. But, “Can’t Stop Partying” is, well not quite the Weezer folks have eulogized over the years, nor … [Read more…]
It seems that the Seattle Times‘ Andrew Matson has stumbled upon the formula that came to fruition in popular culture a bit over half a decade ago: “random genre/culture/thing/idea/word” + “emo” = combination of the former two concepts! Back when emo first really hit it big, it seems everyone was trying hard to configure the … [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…]