I Wanna Rant!
Sep. 8th, 2002 11:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miko2I feel like ranting about morons that I really shouldn't bother paying attention to. So that's what I'm gonna do.
I read a bunch of reviews at Amazon about some of these new punk groups -- specifically, The Vines, The White Stripes, The Hives, and The Strokes which technically in my book is not a punk band and is only getting lumped in with these other bands because they're new and they're some sort of rock throwback band.
Now, I know very well that a place like Amazon attracks certain kinds of reviews. If the band is popular, then you will get negative reviews from people who are personally offended that anything they don't like could ever be popular. On the flip side, if the band is obscure, only their most devoted fans will bother to leave reviews, which typically range from very positive (on their worst releases) to "THIS IS ONE OF THE TOP TEN BEST CDS EVER!" (on their better releases). I swear, at least 75% of all the rock cds ever made are ranked in the top ten of all time.
So there's a lot of hype swirling around the four bands mentioned above, and therefore they have a lot of extremely negative reviews that go to great lengths to explain how godawful a particular cd is. Usually the criticisms boil down to a few salient points, as follows:
Point the First: They're not original. Why do people think that Original=Good and Not Original=Bad? I'm all for originality in music, but just because something's been done a million times does not mean that the next artist to come along cannot do it again and do it well. "Fell In Love With A Girl" by the White Stripes is a fine little punk song, as good as I've heard in a while, and no it's not original but who gives a rat's ass? Good music is good music. Bad music is bad music. Original music can pack a bigger punch because it surprises you in some way, but don't try to tell me that a band is bad simply because they haven't blazed their own trail through the musical wilderness. As if Nirvana was original? As if the Sex Pistols were doing something completely different from the garage bands of the sixties? Please.
And if it comes to that, The Strokes may remind you a little of this band or that band -- they're often compared to the Velvet Underground -- but they really don't sound exactly like anyone who's come before them. The White Stripes have a much simpler sound that compares to a LOT of other punk bands, but off the top of my head I can't think of another band that is only one guitar and drums -- two people. That must count for a little originality, I think. ^_^
Anyway, being truly original is almost impossible. If you want original, go listen to Yaht-Kha. They're a Tuvan folk-rock band -- the only one in the world, although Ondar comes close on the Ghengis Blues soundtrack and on his "Back Tuva Future" remixed cd. But in general, every artist is influenced by what has come before, and few ever do anything truly new and original with it. And some that really DO come up with a new and original take on things still suck, while many others that aren't very original do what they do very very well.
Point the Second: Their music is simplistic If you think this proves that they're a bad rock band, then I suggest you listen to "Louie, Louie" a few thousand more times, until you get it through your thick head that rock music (at least, a very large chunk of it) is ALL ABOUT three or four chords and a lot of energy.
And we're not even talking about rock in general here, but punk rock. PUNK ROCK. People, if you're going to write a review about a punk rock band, it helps to know a little about the genre.
Point the Third: I didn't like them. They suck. Bully for you. I like what I've heard (of The Strokes, The Vines, and The White Stripes). Wonder of wonders, taste is all a matter of opinion.
Point the Fourth: Music was much better in my day. When you find yourself saying this, you've entered "Old Fartdom". You have become your parents, and your opinion on current music is no longer valid.
Point the Fifth: There are better modern punk bands out there, like Idlewild. This point is entirely true. Idlewilde is a better band than The White Stripes, The Vines, The Hives, and possibly even The Strokes. Why aren't they popular? I don't know, but it always seems to be the case some really really good bands get completely ignored, even when their genre is the current big thing.
End of my mini-rant.
For my next rant, I stopped at Safeway and picked up some hot pockets. The national brand was on sale 3 for $6. That's $2 each. The Safeway brand was $2.29 each, and had the little admonition "Compare to National Brand and Save!"
I compared, and I didn't save. I wonder who I should complain to?
In any case, hot pockets aren't nearly as tasty as they look on the box. I only have them so that I can grab them from the freezer on the way to work, as a nice cheap meal. But really they serve a purpose similar to dwarf bread in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels -- ie, they exist to force me to come up with an alternative to actually eating them.
As to why I need cheap lunches -- I spent some money at Tower tonight. I went over to Gene and Mike's place. Sky was there with some anime to watch (Hyper Police, a fun little anime with a furry theme, and His And Her Circumstances, a fun romantic comedy from Gainax, the Neon Genesis Evangelion people). Jeff and Jeri-Lynn dropped by. We watched the anime, ate dinner, and after Jeff and Jeri-Lynn left, Gene showed Sky and I the movie Hedwig & The Angry Inch.
Then Sky and I left, and I drove down to Tower Records, because they're evil and are open to Midnight every single night. I still have it in my head to make a punk compilation cd to listen to at work this week, and because I always have a completist mentality, I wanted to throw on at least one song from The Hives and one from The Vines, and maybe one from a local band that I'd been meaning to pick up for a long time, Sleater-Kinny. The Hives made this easy by allowing me to download three MP3's for free. Yay! I may NEVER need to buy their cd! (Mind you, I bought The White Stripes just because I heard them online, so we are seeing both the good and bad of online music availabiliy at work here). The Vines also made this easy on me, for their new cd retails for only $9.99. Personally speaking, if more cds were available for around $10, I'd buy more music... which is a scary thought, because I already buy a ton.
While I was theire I checked out their anime section. I've been waiting for a long long time for "Devil Hunter Yohko" to come out on dvd, so I checked for that, and wonder of wonders, it was available, all of it on 2 seperate dvds. Woo! That was on the top of my wish list of things I wanted on dvd! So I picked both of those up. They also had Ghost Sweeper Mikami out on dvd... that's an old show that's never been out in English before, so I want to pick that up too, but I figured I was already spending close to $100, and even if I just got paid, I also just paid rent.
I see a lot of hot pocket lunches in my immediate future.
It's funny too because both Ghost Sweeper Mikami and Devil Hunter Yohko had little bylines under the title that they were "the original vampire slayers". This made me laugh, because (here we go with the "what's truly original" argument again) anime shows like Ghost Sweeper Mikami, Devil Hunter Yohko, Phantom Quest Corps., etc etc owe a lot to the two Ghostbuster movies. And of course, those movies were preceeded by things like... well, Scooby-Doo, for one example. Unlike Gene I'm too lazy to do any research and try to decide who was the first to write about ghost hunters and demon slayers, but I do know that Robert E. Howard, who wrote the original Conan the Barbarian stories in the twenties and thirties, also wrote about Solomon Kane, a Puritan who was also a master duelist, and who sought out demons and devils with his rapier. But I somehow doubt that even he was the "first" vampire slayer.
At least Yohko and Mikami have some of the other Buffy elemeents in place: cute girl as demon hunter. If they're being released on dvd now because of the success of Buffy, then I'm all for it! Whatever it takes to get my favorite anime on dvd. Alas, another series I would like to see on dvd is Ushio and Tora, but unfortunately Ushio is not a girl and does not run about in short dresses, so I suppose it's much harder to draw a parallel to Buffy, and therefore it's less likely that it'll be available any time soon.
I was wearing my new Betty the Vampire Slayer shirt today. Maybe that helped me find the Yohko dvds? Whatever, I think I'll go watch some good old girl-kicking-demon-butt anime.
I read a bunch of reviews at Amazon about some of these new punk groups -- specifically, The Vines, The White Stripes, The Hives, and The Strokes which technically in my book is not a punk band and is only getting lumped in with these other bands because they're new and they're some sort of rock throwback band.
Now, I know very well that a place like Amazon attracks certain kinds of reviews. If the band is popular, then you will get negative reviews from people who are personally offended that anything they don't like could ever be popular. On the flip side, if the band is obscure, only their most devoted fans will bother to leave reviews, which typically range from very positive (on their worst releases) to "THIS IS ONE OF THE TOP TEN BEST CDS EVER!" (on their better releases). I swear, at least 75% of all the rock cds ever made are ranked in the top ten of all time.
So there's a lot of hype swirling around the four bands mentioned above, and therefore they have a lot of extremely negative reviews that go to great lengths to explain how godawful a particular cd is. Usually the criticisms boil down to a few salient points, as follows:
Point the First: They're not original. Why do people think that Original=Good and Not Original=Bad? I'm all for originality in music, but just because something's been done a million times does not mean that the next artist to come along cannot do it again and do it well. "Fell In Love With A Girl" by the White Stripes is a fine little punk song, as good as I've heard in a while, and no it's not original but who gives a rat's ass? Good music is good music. Bad music is bad music. Original music can pack a bigger punch because it surprises you in some way, but don't try to tell me that a band is bad simply because they haven't blazed their own trail through the musical wilderness. As if Nirvana was original? As if the Sex Pistols were doing something completely different from the garage bands of the sixties? Please.
And if it comes to that, The Strokes may remind you a little of this band or that band -- they're often compared to the Velvet Underground -- but they really don't sound exactly like anyone who's come before them. The White Stripes have a much simpler sound that compares to a LOT of other punk bands, but off the top of my head I can't think of another band that is only one guitar and drums -- two people. That must count for a little originality, I think. ^_^
Anyway, being truly original is almost impossible. If you want original, go listen to Yaht-Kha. They're a Tuvan folk-rock band -- the only one in the world, although Ondar comes close on the Ghengis Blues soundtrack and on his "Back Tuva Future" remixed cd. But in general, every artist is influenced by what has come before, and few ever do anything truly new and original with it. And some that really DO come up with a new and original take on things still suck, while many others that aren't very original do what they do very very well.
Point the Second: Their music is simplistic If you think this proves that they're a bad rock band, then I suggest you listen to "Louie, Louie" a few thousand more times, until you get it through your thick head that rock music (at least, a very large chunk of it) is ALL ABOUT three or four chords and a lot of energy.
And we're not even talking about rock in general here, but punk rock. PUNK ROCK. People, if you're going to write a review about a punk rock band, it helps to know a little about the genre.
Point the Third: I didn't like them. They suck. Bully for you. I like what I've heard (of The Strokes, The Vines, and The White Stripes). Wonder of wonders, taste is all a matter of opinion.
Point the Fourth: Music was much better in my day. When you find yourself saying this, you've entered "Old Fartdom". You have become your parents, and your opinion on current music is no longer valid.
Point the Fifth: There are better modern punk bands out there, like Idlewild. This point is entirely true. Idlewilde is a better band than The White Stripes, The Vines, The Hives, and possibly even The Strokes. Why aren't they popular? I don't know, but it always seems to be the case some really really good bands get completely ignored, even when their genre is the current big thing.
End of my mini-rant.
For my next rant, I stopped at Safeway and picked up some hot pockets. The national brand was on sale 3 for $6. That's $2 each. The Safeway brand was $2.29 each, and had the little admonition "Compare to National Brand and Save!"
I compared, and I didn't save. I wonder who I should complain to?
In any case, hot pockets aren't nearly as tasty as they look on the box. I only have them so that I can grab them from the freezer on the way to work, as a nice cheap meal. But really they serve a purpose similar to dwarf bread in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels -- ie, they exist to force me to come up with an alternative to actually eating them.
As to why I need cheap lunches -- I spent some money at Tower tonight. I went over to Gene and Mike's place. Sky was there with some anime to watch (Hyper Police, a fun little anime with a furry theme, and His And Her Circumstances, a fun romantic comedy from Gainax, the Neon Genesis Evangelion people). Jeff and Jeri-Lynn dropped by. We watched the anime, ate dinner, and after Jeff and Jeri-Lynn left, Gene showed Sky and I the movie Hedwig & The Angry Inch.
Then Sky and I left, and I drove down to Tower Records, because they're evil and are open to Midnight every single night. I still have it in my head to make a punk compilation cd to listen to at work this week, and because I always have a completist mentality, I wanted to throw on at least one song from The Hives and one from The Vines, and maybe one from a local band that I'd been meaning to pick up for a long time, Sleater-Kinny. The Hives made this easy by allowing me to download three MP3's for free. Yay! I may NEVER need to buy their cd! (Mind you, I bought The White Stripes just because I heard them online, so we are seeing both the good and bad of online music availabiliy at work here). The Vines also made this easy on me, for their new cd retails for only $9.99. Personally speaking, if more cds were available for around $10, I'd buy more music... which is a scary thought, because I already buy a ton.
While I was theire I checked out their anime section. I've been waiting for a long long time for "Devil Hunter Yohko" to come out on dvd, so I checked for that, and wonder of wonders, it was available, all of it on 2 seperate dvds. Woo! That was on the top of my wish list of things I wanted on dvd! So I picked both of those up. They also had Ghost Sweeper Mikami out on dvd... that's an old show that's never been out in English before, so I want to pick that up too, but I figured I was already spending close to $100, and even if I just got paid, I also just paid rent.
I see a lot of hot pocket lunches in my immediate future.
It's funny too because both Ghost Sweeper Mikami and Devil Hunter Yohko had little bylines under the title that they were "the original vampire slayers". This made me laugh, because (here we go with the "what's truly original" argument again) anime shows like Ghost Sweeper Mikami, Devil Hunter Yohko, Phantom Quest Corps., etc etc owe a lot to the two Ghostbuster movies. And of course, those movies were preceeded by things like... well, Scooby-Doo, for one example. Unlike Gene I'm too lazy to do any research and try to decide who was the first to write about ghost hunters and demon slayers, but I do know that Robert E. Howard, who wrote the original Conan the Barbarian stories in the twenties and thirties, also wrote about Solomon Kane, a Puritan who was also a master duelist, and who sought out demons and devils with his rapier. But I somehow doubt that even he was the "first" vampire slayer.
At least Yohko and Mikami have some of the other Buffy elemeents in place: cute girl as demon hunter. If they're being released on dvd now because of the success of Buffy, then I'm all for it! Whatever it takes to get my favorite anime on dvd. Alas, another series I would like to see on dvd is Ushio and Tora, but unfortunately Ushio is not a girl and does not run about in short dresses, so I suppose it's much harder to draw a parallel to Buffy, and therefore it's less likely that it'll be available any time soon.
I was wearing my new Betty the Vampire Slayer shirt today. Maybe that helped me find the Yohko dvds? Whatever, I think I'll go watch some good old girl-kicking-demon-butt anime.
