The Rich will succeed in all they do.

Since I last blogged, lots of ridiculous stuff has gone down. I'm tired of my life and its direction. This blog is an evident attempt to pull myself up by my boot straps and really get down to some serious writing. Mostly it will be about life, adventures, and, most important of all, records.
Yes, I am creating just another music blog. Hopefully, I can add something to this old and tired genre. My goals are many, but the primary one is to write about one "lost scattershot, genre-crossing classic" a week, more or less. Not all of them will be genre-crossing. Hell, not all of them will be classics, at least in a traditional sense. But they will be records, that if not genre-bending or mind-blowing, have added something to the musical landscape that was not there before. (Don't they all). I hope to pick my favorites that skirt the borders of all those indie genres (psych, punk, hardcore, post-punk, post-hardcore, etc.) Sometimes I might even dedicate a blog to an album that has been glorified, but is either too good or needs to be evaluated under different, non-indie rock snob standards.
I know that I'm somewhat of a snob and I'm going to lay that right out on the table, because I think that there is room for snobbery in music taste. Just not the kind that turns off listeners and readers to the potentially great records they have discovered or have yet to discover. If you want that, you should be reading "The Rock-Snob's Dictionary." As hilarious as that book is, my mission is a little less "ironic." I want to explore great albums and discover new ones. The compulsion of a compassionate music fan is one of obsession. I've been obsessed with records for most of my life. This obsession is my reason for this blog. I hope to discover new obsessions and create another forum for conversation over good music. (We might even be able to discuss film, comix, what have you.)
Now that the self-aggrandizing bullshit is out of the way, as well as the Bangsian hyperbole, this mission statement is over. (Thank god, the peanut gallery shouts.) Let's get to what is really important, the records.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

USA Up All Night, or Why I Watch B-Movies

Image
Even before I knew I was a film buff, I watched USA Up All Night, which ran from 1989 to 1998 for over 900 episodes on USA Network, learning more about B Movies than I probably ever needed to know as a teenager. I would enthusiastically tune in most Friday and Saturday nights to watch Rhonda Shear or Gilbert Gottfried screen a particular doozy of a b-movie. Before commercial breaks and between the films, they provided humorous commentary on the films and performed in skits. A notable one with Gilbert Gottfried involved him contending for the position of the fifth Ramone. The films on the show varied in quality and classic status, but many of them were movies that would not have had so prominent a platform on other networks during the time period. Many became cult classics. These films included much of the Troma catalog, including The Toxic Avenger (1984) and Class of Nuke 'Em High (1989). Both of these movies blew my mind as I was unprepared for the low budget film making, lev
Read more

Realities: Jean Shepherd and Randy's Only Defense

Image
“The reality of what we really are is often times found in the small snips, way down at the bottom of things.” - Jean Shepherd I watched Bob Clark's  Christmas Story (1983)   for the first time on TBS, years before TNT started broadcasting the film twenty-four hours a day in 1997. I soon became an obsessive fan of the film, watching it over and over again every Christmas. Now I probably watch it once a year, but its lessons and humor have affected my life significantly, and I quote the film more than I should. I started reading Jean Shepherd's short stories and listening to his old WOR radio show. Many of these have been archived on the internet spanning a period from the early 50s to the late 70s.  According to lore, Shep usually told his stories without a script, ad-libbing about certain characters and scenarios, and commentating on culture and society.  I particularly identify with his stories of the Midwest because I grew up there fifty years later, but not that
Read more

Contractions: Henry Standing Bear's Ethical Code

Image
I recently finished watching the last season of Longmire , a show that I believe only got better when it moved to Netflix. A & E cancelled it, despite good ratings, because it did not directly appeal to the 18-35 age demographic. The writing and plot development improved as the show started focusing more on major themes and story lines and not story-of-the-week subplots. While the show's general premise is typical cop show fare, the strong characterization and settings give the show a primacy over similar procedurals. While I enjoyed the show, I never got around to reading the books even though I watched dutifully for six seasons. Once I started reading The Cold Dish , I realized how hard it will be not to binge the book series. The books are a treat. Craig Johnson's prose is punchy, and the characters are even better realized. Walt Longmire's love for Rainier beer and obscure literary metaphors, as well as other character's predilections and habits, become crys
Read more