May's Correct Responses

Enon - Interesting mish mash of songs, with the Pavement oriented stuff working better than the synthy stuff. A mostly good vibe overall, but the good stuff, while superb, is in short supply and the weaker stuff, while not awful is....well there is more of it. Possibly interesting enough for me to take a look beyond this to other releases, but only if I can get assurances that he’ll be more involved than she. 2.5 stars

REM – I’ve always been pretty hard on REM and I’m not sure I’ve been fair about it. I loved Murmur for a number of reasons not related to the quality of the record, which is very high to begin with of course. Primarily, I was stuck in a weird place in my life with no money and pretty much this record and this record only to listen to. I listened to it a lot. So for me, nothing else by REM ever held a candle to Murmur although I know many people whose opinions I respect and plenty of critics who love various other REM records and insist they eclipse Murmur. Well this one does not eclipse Murmur either – keeping the streak intact – but it is the best REM release I’ve heard since Murmur. It has a great live off the cuff feel that they really needed after an extremely sleepy last 10 years. 4 stars

The Kills – Taking a page out of the Ken Boucher book, I picked this one without first listening to it. Read something good somewhere and decided to pick it up. My primary complaint is a common one for me. This sounds great when these two act like a garage band, less great when they meander through songs with a base and some weird effects. Although even in those songs they manage to maintain a sort of quiet intensity and tension. And I like the fact that they have the sense to end songs when they should so even the overly repetitious songs don’t drag on. In the end though, there is just not enough guitar and their “we’re singing about honest things and that’s really dangerous isn’t it” pose wears as thin as the music. What starts off as a vital interesting record simply runs out of gas. 3 stars

Jimmy Eat World – Glad I now have this as I own nothing by them and they play that guitars with hooks thing I dig pretty much. Two problems and maybe I’m being too picky, but that’s what this is all about, right? One - they write great 2 minute guitar pop songs, but unfortunately they think they can write great 3-4 minute songs. There wasn’t a single song that shouldn’t have been shorter. What happened to the nobility of the 2 minute and 30 second song?!? The other "problem" is that there are a couple of songs that have too many hooks and they can’t seem to decide what to do. Not a lack of talent, but a lack of songwriting maturity. Also, none of this (except Middle - a deserved hit) really jumps up and hits me, but I think that’s a generational thing. These same types of songs, as played by the Real Kids, The (Paul Collins) Beat and later early Goo Goo Dolls (when they were just a bar band in Buffalo, NY) had me jumping around the room playing air guitar, but those were “my” bands. These guys aren’t my band, so they do less for me but overall they are pretty solid


Question 1


I actually think that facebook and other social networking are ruining social networking, but that’s a discussion for another time. In terms of a bands ability to get signed based on facebook “friends,” it’s really no different than a band's mailing list ( in the old days) being an important part of getting booked into a good club. Wrongheaded possibly, but a reality. A band can become an overnight sensation on the internet (see Kate Nash), so it is inevitable that record people, who are in utter fear at this point, would stoop to any measuring device. Let’s face it, the record business has never been more than 5% smart people and 95% numbnuts. That’s why they are in the position of extinction that they are in at this point. Which leads me to....



Question 2



I never saw the mini-rebirth of vinyl, so I'm not so sure I'm a great prognosticator, but, hey, I'm kind of involved with the record business, so I'll take a shot at it. First off, CDs might as well be cassettes or 8-tracks. They're over unless the record companies decide to sell them for less than $10 and even then, they probably will disappear as the delivery system within 10 years (this is a shame as all of us agree that the "shrine" that is our physical collection - something that defines who we are to some extent - will become a relic). So if the record companies aren't selling CDs, what will they be selling? They hope they will be selling their bands' digital content to content re-sellers like Apple or Yahoo, who will have replaced the brick and mortar and (probably) online record stores. Some of the bigger labels will probably merge with the content re-sellers. Although, since the two things that the record companies traditionally did for bands - produce/distribute the physical product and promote the product - can be done by the bands themsleves, I would bet that the record company as we know it will become extinct. Bands will partner with content re-sellers or simply do it themselves. You'll buy the product from Apple or Yahoo or the bands directly and simply download it.