You're not in Kindergarden, just admit you don't have a better answer!
Okay, first off site stuff. I'm running on a really bad connection here so until I get a better one (a month or two tops) this is most likely going to be more of a weekly-ish dealie. Consequently, the posts will probably end up becoming much larger.
Okay go!
So I have this term I say to myself called "kindergarden answers." Let me explain. They are answers to questions that any kindergardener could give. Further more it is usually the only answer a kindergardener could give because they don't know enough about the subject. Let's use Shakespeare (oh no...) as an example:
"Hey, what's the best/your favorite of Shakespeare's works?"
"Romeo & Juliet."
See? Okay. "Hey, jerk, this is a blog that's supposed to be about music!!!" Oh yeah. Okay, let me bring it back to relevancy. When I think about this term it is usually in the context of music. Here's basic ones for you:
Best guitarist ever? Kindergarden answer = Jimi Hendrix
King of rock and roll? Kindergarden answer = Elvis Presely (it's actually Chuck Berry...that's science!)
This happens faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar too often when talking about music. Rather than just spout out a shit, trite, kindergarden answer just admit you don't know much about the subject.
So Rhino is beginning to rerelease all of the Depeche Mode albums, remastering them and packaging them with a DVD about each album's recording. Among the first three is "Violator" which is easily their best album. I'll be getting this soon so I'll have an extra copy of the album if anyone is interested in it (trades are fun...)
Speaking of Depeche Mode I was thinking the other day what would you say is the best single of theirs? And DO NOT give me the kindergarden answer of "Personal Jesus." Fuck! I'd say it's a toss up of the other two singles on "Violator," "Policy Of Truth" and "Enjoy The Silence." In the end, I'm going with "Policy Of Truth." It has a sort of "How Soon Is Now?" vibe and if you don't know The Music Jerk loves The Smiths as trite as it might be.
Le Shok? Fuck yes! Check this total awesomeness out! http://youtube.com/watch?v=PZma6zsupLQ&search=le%20shok You'll notice Justin Pearson in the crowd, not to mention everything else that's rad in the clip, including arguing/fighting with the fans.
So I went to go see !!! about two weeks ago. Out of, let's say six or seven songs, they played only one song that is not new. Yeah, one song anyone in the audience knew. I mean that isn't really a problem or anything, just a little disappointing. Plus the singers voice sounded very much different than it does recorded. Oh yeah, and one of the opening bands sounded like a very poor man's Bloc Party fronted by two guys that HAD to be Milli Vanilli impersonators. Very funny.
I've dedcided that A.F.I. is some kind of multi-corporation multimedia scheme to get skinny high school "goth" (please notice the quotes) kids laid by cheerleaders.
Some picks for great summer jams:
"Eskamoes" - Mephiskapheles
"Big 8" - Judge Dread
"I, Fitznik" - The Blue Meanies (great lyric: "Deliver me from indie cred, deliver me 'cause punk rock's dead.")
So I'm afraid to say this but I'd imagine the new Christina Agulariafilthygadjfielia (If you can spell her last name in under ten seconds without any help you deserve an award. All I know is that the letters f-i-l-t-h-y are in there somewhere) is pretty good IF it all sounds like her newest single.
Okay seriously, it's gone too far. Someone take out Mike Shinoda. Now. Please.
I really want the old Fine Young Cannibals album "The Raw And The Cooked." Come on! "She Drives Me Crazy." Ex members of The English Beat, yes sir!
I've said this before but most, if not all, pop-punks/Hot Topic kids/ect. need to listen to the song "The Greatest Working Class Rip-Off" by Crass. All unintelligent crust/anarcho/blah blah blah I'm sooooooooo counter-culture punks need to listen to the song "Chaos Ain't Me" by Orchid.
So the term "emo" has been thrown around quite a bit lately, hasn't it? Well I've decided that something needs to happen. It's too much of an umbrella term, so I think a few groups of bands just need to come up with different genre titles in order to straighten things out. There's too many bands that can be or are unintelligently lumped into that title, past and present:
-post-"Salad Days"/"Revolution Summer" Dischord Bands (Hoover, Nation Of Ulysses, Rites Of Spring, ect)
-mid 1980s/early 90s hardcore-y indie sounding punk bands (Moss Icon, Native Nod, Ordination Of Aaron, ect)
-1993-1995 bands, you know the ones that played the basement of the Cupertino, CA library (Indian Summer, Mohinder, ect.)
-early Gravity Records bands, lot of overlap with the Cupertino bands (Angel Hair, Antioch Arrow, Clikatat Ikatowi, Heroin, ect)
-"emo-violence" stuff (Jeromes Dream, Orchid, Usurp Synapse, ect)
-Level Plane Records stuff (A Day's Refrain, Neil Perry, Saetia, ect)
-solid older bands that don't really fit into any of the above (Policy Of 3, Still Life, Swing Kids, ect)
-new whiny stuff on the radio (Angles And Airwaves, Bright Eyes, Dashboard Confessional, ect)
-"I'm trying to be sooooo fucking brooding and scary" shit (A.F.I., My Chemical Romance, ect)
-stuff people with the worst musical tastes on the planet listen to (Atreyu, Coheed And Cambria, Taking Back Sunday, ect)
I don't really have an answer to untangle these groups/bands from this label of "emo" so things would be more easily understood. Although I would be quite happy and content if the last three groups of bands would just be called "crap-rock."
Speaking of "emo," does anyone else see the parallel between pop-punk today being taken over by this sort of "mainstreamo" and hardcore (pre/during Minor Threat) being somewhat taken over by "emo" and "post-hardcore?" Is that just me?
Did ANYONE realize that Nelly Furtado was THAT hot before her newest video ("Promiscuous")?
I've decided that The VSS is what heavy metal for vampires in the very far off future will sound like.
Let me preface this by saying that I have nothing against this band, they're pretty good, but The Hives are The Backstreet Boys of rock and roll. If you didn't know that, there's a problem. There's one guy behind them, he writes all the songs and got the guys together. I'd love to meet this guy! He's gotta be one the most fightingest, drinkingest, rocknrollingest guy around!
While flipping around channels I landed on MTV. I saw a video by a band that I would call, as I defined above, "crap-rock." Then I was pretty sure the singer was one of the kids from Hanson, you know, "Mmmbop." But it wasn't. It was just some half-assed band called The Red Jumpsuit Appartas. Yeah, great name fellas. Anyway, stay away from this band but do see the video and think Hanson when looking at the singer, it's great entertainment!
Until next time.
Okay go!
So I have this term I say to myself called "kindergarden answers." Let me explain. They are answers to questions that any kindergardener could give. Further more it is usually the only answer a kindergardener could give because they don't know enough about the subject. Let's use Shakespeare (oh no...) as an example:
"Hey, what's the best/your favorite of Shakespeare's works?"
"Romeo & Juliet."
See? Okay. "Hey, jerk, this is a blog that's supposed to be about music!!!" Oh yeah. Okay, let me bring it back to relevancy. When I think about this term it is usually in the context of music. Here's basic ones for you:
Best guitarist ever? Kindergarden answer = Jimi Hendrix
King of rock and roll? Kindergarden answer = Elvis Presely (it's actually Chuck Berry...that's science!)
This happens faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar too often when talking about music. Rather than just spout out a shit, trite, kindergarden answer just admit you don't know much about the subject.
So Rhino is beginning to rerelease all of the Depeche Mode albums, remastering them and packaging them with a DVD about each album's recording. Among the first three is "Violator" which is easily their best album. I'll be getting this soon so I'll have an extra copy of the album if anyone is interested in it (trades are fun...)
Speaking of Depeche Mode I was thinking the other day what would you say is the best single of theirs? And DO NOT give me the kindergarden answer of "Personal Jesus." Fuck! I'd say it's a toss up of the other two singles on "Violator," "Policy Of Truth" and "Enjoy The Silence." In the end, I'm going with "Policy Of Truth." It has a sort of "How Soon Is Now?" vibe and if you don't know The Music Jerk loves The Smiths as trite as it might be.
Le Shok? Fuck yes! Check this total awesomeness out! http://youtube.com/watch?v=PZma6zsupLQ&search=le%20shok You'll notice Justin Pearson in the crowd, not to mention everything else that's rad in the clip, including arguing/fighting with the fans.
So I went to go see !!! about two weeks ago. Out of, let's say six or seven songs, they played only one song that is not new. Yeah, one song anyone in the audience knew. I mean that isn't really a problem or anything, just a little disappointing. Plus the singers voice sounded very much different than it does recorded. Oh yeah, and one of the opening bands sounded like a very poor man's Bloc Party fronted by two guys that HAD to be Milli Vanilli impersonators. Very funny.
I've dedcided that A.F.I. is some kind of multi-corporation multimedia scheme to get skinny high school "goth" (please notice the quotes) kids laid by cheerleaders.
Some picks for great summer jams:
"Eskamoes" - Mephiskapheles
"Big 8" - Judge Dread
"I, Fitznik" - The Blue Meanies (great lyric: "Deliver me from indie cred, deliver me 'cause punk rock's dead.")
So I'm afraid to say this but I'd imagine the new Christina Agulariafilthygadjfielia (If you can spell her last name in under ten seconds without any help you deserve an award. All I know is that the letters f-i-l-t-h-y are in there somewhere) is pretty good IF it all sounds like her newest single.
Okay seriously, it's gone too far. Someone take out Mike Shinoda. Now. Please.
I really want the old Fine Young Cannibals album "The Raw And The Cooked." Come on! "She Drives Me Crazy." Ex members of The English Beat, yes sir!
I've said this before but most, if not all, pop-punks/Hot Topic kids/ect. need to listen to the song "The Greatest Working Class Rip-Off" by Crass. All unintelligent crust/anarcho/blah blah blah I'm sooooooooo counter-culture punks need to listen to the song "Chaos Ain't Me" by Orchid.
So the term "emo" has been thrown around quite a bit lately, hasn't it? Well I've decided that something needs to happen. It's too much of an umbrella term, so I think a few groups of bands just need to come up with different genre titles in order to straighten things out. There's too many bands that can be or are unintelligently lumped into that title, past and present:
-post-"Salad Days"/"Revolution Summer" Dischord Bands (Hoover, Nation Of Ulysses, Rites Of Spring, ect)
-mid 1980s/early 90s hardcore-y indie sounding punk bands (Moss Icon, Native Nod, Ordination Of Aaron, ect)
-1993-1995 bands, you know the ones that played the basement of the Cupertino, CA library (Indian Summer, Mohinder, ect.)
-early Gravity Records bands, lot of overlap with the Cupertino bands (Angel Hair, Antioch Arrow, Clikatat Ikatowi, Heroin, ect)
-"emo-violence" stuff (Jeromes Dream, Orchid, Usurp Synapse, ect)
-Level Plane Records stuff (A Day's Refrain, Neil Perry, Saetia, ect)
-solid older bands that don't really fit into any of the above (Policy Of 3, Still Life, Swing Kids, ect)
-new whiny stuff on the radio (Angles And Airwaves, Bright Eyes, Dashboard Confessional, ect)
-"I'm trying to be sooooo fucking brooding and scary" shit (A.F.I., My Chemical Romance, ect)
-stuff people with the worst musical tastes on the planet listen to (Atreyu, Coheed And Cambria, Taking Back Sunday, ect)
I don't really have an answer to untangle these groups/bands from this label of "emo" so things would be more easily understood. Although I would be quite happy and content if the last three groups of bands would just be called "crap-rock."
Speaking of "emo," does anyone else see the parallel between pop-punk today being taken over by this sort of "mainstreamo" and hardcore (pre/during Minor Threat) being somewhat taken over by "emo" and "post-hardcore?" Is that just me?
Did ANYONE realize that Nelly Furtado was THAT hot before her newest video ("Promiscuous")?
I've decided that The VSS is what heavy metal for vampires in the very far off future will sound like.
Let me preface this by saying that I have nothing against this band, they're pretty good, but The Hives are The Backstreet Boys of rock and roll. If you didn't know that, there's a problem. There's one guy behind them, he writes all the songs and got the guys together. I'd love to meet this guy! He's gotta be one the most fightingest, drinkingest, rocknrollingest guy around!
While flipping around channels I landed on MTV. I saw a video by a band that I would call, as I defined above, "crap-rock." Then I was pretty sure the singer was one of the kids from Hanson, you know, "Mmmbop." But it wasn't. It was just some half-assed band called The Red Jumpsuit Appartas. Yeah, great name fellas. Anyway, stay away from this band but do see the video and think Hanson when looking at the singer, it's great entertainment!
Until next time.
posted by Mike at
5:19 PM
2 Comments:
Okay...
While Romeo and Juliet is not the greatest of the bard’s plays it is one of the better examples of a play that everyone reads and then gets dumped on my those that call themselves “educated.” One must look past the love story; which truth be told is not even his best and see the two elements of the play that make it great. First there is Romeo’s friendship with Mercutio. One of Shakespeare’s better drawn side characters. The “Queen Mab” soliloquy would in my mind be enough to make him great but he is a loyal and witty friend to the tragic and dare I say “emo” Romeo. Then there is the question of destiny versus chance. Was the messenger meant to miss Romeo by an hour or was the entire thing predestined. Could the choices of the two star crossed lovers have done anything to change the fate that awaited them in the tombs of the Capulets. Both of these devices and the style with which he throws us into the path of these two not terribly interesting people make it a damn good play. So its not kindergarten at all to say that Romeo and Juliet is a good play. However I did defend it better maybe then what you were talking about…sorry about the dig at the beginning. See you tomorrow!
By
Greg, at 9:22 PM
First off, I am sorry about the mispelling of Elvis' name; an obvious oversight.
The whole kindergarden thing to me, is more about being very tired of hearing the same trite answers to music questions. It's fun to try and say something other than the usual, it encourages debate which is always good. Speaking of which, thanks for posting a comment that takes another view.
Another way to look at it is that a kindergarden answer is just that because it's an answer that is burned into our memory at birth. You know like the guy in the movie Sliding Doors said about Beatles lyrics (man, I hope I have the right movie on that one.)
And if you don't buy any of that, the blog is titled music jerk... ;)
I'm not really a fan but you can come at me with something better than Kottke right? Ah, I'm just messing with you. It's nice to have intelligent comments to respond to.
Thanks for reading.
New post soon.
By
Mike, at 8:08 PM
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