Notes from LA-la Land

“The Mong” – Music Group Commentary, May 2007

MUSIC COMMENTARY

NINE INCH NAILS – YEAR ZERO = 1 STAR

To suggest that I maintained an interest in NIN after “The Downward Spiral” would be untrue so I admit that I’m not sure if he/they have changed what he/they have been doing after their big smash hit. But if “Year Zero” is any indication, my guess would be that NIN did not evolve much. Or maybe this is an intentional shift back to their old sound? I don’t really know. Not that knowing the proper context would not change that this sounds pretty much (exactly) the same as NIN did back then or that back then it felt new and now it doesn’t. Still, it is very well done (clearly great care was put into writing and recording it) yet, even beyond it sounding like old NIN, it somehow crosses that fine line (that he/they always walked so skillfully) from dangerously aggressive to annoyingly abrasive. And that’s not good.

THE REPLACEMENTS – TIM = 4 STARS

I’ve always liked The Replacements, and this is my favorite of what I’ve heard of Paul Westerberg’s works, but I just cannot agree with the general consensus that he’s a genius. He’s a good and consistently solid songwriter but, I don’t know, I guess it’s just that even at its ballsiest, his stuff still sounds kind of wussy in an R.E.M. sort of way to me. Maybe it’s just this period-specific type of “college rock” that I don’t like very much or maybe I’m just an idiot. All that being “said,” this is still a darn good record that easily rivals most crap being passed off as great today.

RUSH – SNAKES & ARROWS = 1.5 STARS

Insert my Nine Inch Nails’ commentary here but replace “The Downward Spiral” with “Power Windows” and replace “dangerously aggressive to annoyingly abrasive” with 'inspiringly innovative to shockingly tired.' The slightly elevated rating is because the first ten odd years of Rush is among my favorite music of all time (so respect given where due) and, yes, I know that not only calls my collective musical taste into question but also outs me as a big, giant nerd.

G’HITS

THE GET UP KIDS

I’ve always thought of TGUK as the wimpy little brother of Walt Mink. They’re a bit too adamantly emo but still a great band and this is a great collection of songs by a sadly overlooked band. Not overlooked by us music snobs but almost everyone else I know has never heard of them … Too bad...so sad … Emo sad.

TOPIC

If there was one, no one ever told me and it wasn’t posted at the blog.