Key Note Speaker/Tennis Pro/M. Bison/Daniel G. Harmann & The Trouble Starts, Tractor !
Patton Oswalt, Moore Theatre*
Santana, White River Amphitheatre*
TV On The Radio, Showbox SoDo* !
A Tribe Called Quest/Nas/Mos Def/The Pharcyde/De La Soul/MF Doom/Blue Scholars/Sage Francis/Murs/Wale/Jay Electronica/Spank Rock/The Cool Kids/Kidz In The Hall/Amanda Blank, Gorge Amphitheatre* !
I had a good friend who was a rock critic in the 80s, who championed bands like The Smiths before the rest of us heard them, that would occasionally go to a record store and buy something like Asia's new record to "check out why this stuff is popular." He got amazing music for free all the time, but felt that he had to spend money every now and then to study the highly criticized releases to see why they would be so popular (or were created specifically to be huge-selling). It never ended well for him or the band that was reviewed, that probably never saw the review anyways.
Yes, I think we all have done SOMETHING like this -- for example, I made sure to spend my own money on "Back To Black" as an experience in the Shared Pop Moment. But that shows I'm not much of a gambler, if that's what's considered "conformist-consumption" for me.
Every now and then I masochistically fantasize about spending a year with nothing but music by Dave Matthews, John Mayer, and whatever else Hootie-style shenanigans have been released in the past decade or so. Sort of like Noel Murray's "Popless" at The AV Club but on stuff I don't have and never really want to. You know, really get INSIDE the overly emotional, slick, LCD-oriented faux-'quality' pop rock I rarely hear due to not listening to commercial radio or having cable. Who knows? Maybe a wealthy enemy of mine might actually pay to drive me insane that way some day ...
Reviews
Chris Estey said on May 6, 2008:
I had a good friend who was a rock critic in the 80s, who championed bands like The Smiths before the rest of us heard them, that would occasionally go to a record store and buy something like Asia's new record to "check out why this stuff is popular." He got amazing music for free all the time, but felt that he had to spend money every now and then to study the highly criticized releases to see why they would be so popular (or were created specifically to be huge-selling). It never ended well for him or the band that was reviewed, that probably never saw the review anyways.
Yes, I think we all have done SOMETHING like this -- for example, I made sure to spend my own money on "Back To Black" as an experience in the Shared Pop Moment. But that shows I'm not much of a gambler, if that's what's considered "conformist-consumption" for me.
Every now and then I masochistically fantasize about spending a year with nothing but music by Dave Matthews, John Mayer, and whatever else Hootie-style shenanigans have been released in the past decade or so. Sort of like Noel Murray's "Popless" at The AV Club but on stuff I don't have and never really want to. You know, really get INSIDE the overly emotional, slick, LCD-oriented faux-'quality' pop rock I rarely hear due to not listening to commercial radio or having cable. Who knows? Maybe a wealthy enemy of mine might actually pay to drive me insane that way some day ...