Lester Bangs: The Doors? Jim Morrison? He's a drunken buffoon posing as a poet.
Alice Wisdom: I like The Doors.
Lester Bangs: Give me The Guess Who. They got the courage to be drunken buffoons, which makes them poetic.
The above is one of my favorite sentiments in all of history. Own who you are, and good things will come to you - hypothetically, at least. We've seen this countless times in movies, tv, music, and pro wrestling. Heck, how many times have wrestlers said the best gimmicks are just themselves 'turned up to 11'?
So:
Name a movie, TV show, wrestler, artist, or writer you enjoy that lives happily in their own niche, and is better for it.
I'm reminded of this because I recently got my hands on Bowling For Soup's newest album, Lunch.Drunk.Love, and it is of the quality I've come to expect from them since 2004 when I heard them on the 'Backyard Wrestling' (featuring ICP) soundtrack and enjoyed their not-very-serious send up of the TRL generation in 'Punk Rock 101'. And somehow they've managed to put out more quality records than every other band I've ever called my 'favorite'
They're sophomoric, drunks, unabashedly nerdy, not lyrically complex, like to party, evoke a positive attitude, and most importantly, mean well. While there's always going to be a place for bands who lean more toward the tortured artist side of things, I find that personally I tend to most enjoy bands that come at this thing with a sense of genuine energy an unabashed enthusiasm, which then makes them artists.
For the four of you that care, and the six of you that are going to make fun of me, my favorite bands of all time are Barenaked Ladies, Jimmy Eat World, Counting Crows, Kid Rock, Eminem, Bowling for Soup, Fountains of Wayne, and then a smattering of popular and deep tracks from Noah and The Whale, Counting Crows, Toby Keith, Big and Rich, Ben Folds, and Jason Mraz. But despite most of those musicians probably having more talent than Bowling for Soup, I *like* Bowling for Soup the most. I've bought every single one of their albums because I know exactly what I'm getting every time, and I can't say that about any of those other bands.
As far as drunken buffoons go, they're the best.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blog Otter Award: Mike Mears for suggesting the next 5 QOTDs as I'll be too busy playing GTA V to think of anything worthwhile. Get your dictionaries ready, kids.
1. Poker Night of Champions is, alas, a no-go as we had only 4 signups. I'd suggest an E-fed but I think I'd have to give my virginity back, first.
2. I can't help but feel Santino Marella is the answer to this question, wrestling wise.
3. I really don't understand all the Kid Rock hate, by-the-by. I guess my question would be *how much* Kid Rock have you listened to before saying he sucks / is a shitty artist, etc?
Homework Assignment: Get your 'Cowboy' on and listen to the lyrics, sounds, and musical complexity of this song, and tell me it's not at least creative, if not 100 percent your cup of tea.
I don't mean to go on a Rant here, but literally every time I bring up Mr. Rock, I get very similar responses from folks and it completely baffles me. I'm reminded of Jay-Z from "Renegade" - Do you fools listen to music, or ya'll just skim through it? Because I can tell you regardless of whether or not you ENJOY his music, you have to appreciate his style, compassion, and ability to kind of re-invent himself over and over again, going from Rap, to Rock, to Country, to a combo of all three.
Also I'm probably in the minority here, but I actually sort of dig the way he samples other songs for his beats. We give rappers a pass when they do it, so why does Kid Rock get the flack?
So a secondary, personal vendetta-y question here: Why do you hate Kid Rock? What makes him objectively bad, versus being an artist who doesn't fit in with your tastes?
Alice Wisdom: I like The Doors.
Lester Bangs: Give me The Guess Who. They got the courage to be drunken buffoons, which makes them poetic.
The above is one of my favorite sentiments in all of history. Own who you are, and good things will come to you - hypothetically, at least. We've seen this countless times in movies, tv, music, and pro wrestling. Heck, how many times have wrestlers said the best gimmicks are just themselves 'turned up to 11'?
So:
Name a movie, TV show, wrestler, artist, or writer you enjoy that lives happily in their own niche, and is better for it.
I'm reminded of this because I recently got my hands on Bowling For Soup's newest album, Lunch.Drunk.Love, and it is of the quality I've come to expect from them since 2004 when I heard them on the 'Backyard Wrestling' (featuring ICP) soundtrack and enjoyed their not-very-serious send up of the TRL generation in 'Punk Rock 101'. And somehow they've managed to put out more quality records than every other band I've ever called my 'favorite'
They're sophomoric, drunks, unabashedly nerdy, not lyrically complex, like to party, evoke a positive attitude, and most importantly, mean well. While there's always going to be a place for bands who lean more toward the tortured artist side of things, I find that personally I tend to most enjoy bands that come at this thing with a sense of genuine energy an unabashed enthusiasm, which then makes them artists.
For the four of you that care, and the six of you that are going to make fun of me, my favorite bands of all time are Barenaked Ladies, Jimmy Eat World, Counting Crows, Kid Rock, Eminem, Bowling for Soup, Fountains of Wayne, and then a smattering of popular and deep tracks from Noah and The Whale, Counting Crows, Toby Keith, Big and Rich, Ben Folds, and Jason Mraz. But despite most of those musicians probably having more talent than Bowling for Soup, I *like* Bowling for Soup the most. I've bought every single one of their albums because I know exactly what I'm getting every time, and I can't say that about any of those other bands.
As far as drunken buffoons go, they're the best.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blog Otter Award: Mike Mears for suggesting the next 5 QOTDs as I'll be too busy playing GTA V to think of anything worthwhile. Get your dictionaries ready, kids.
1. Poker Night of Champions is, alas, a no-go as we had only 4 signups. I'd suggest an E-fed but I think I'd have to give my virginity back, first.
2. I can't help but feel Santino Marella is the answer to this question, wrestling wise.
3. I really don't understand all the Kid Rock hate, by-the-by. I guess my question would be *how much* Kid Rock have you listened to before saying he sucks / is a shitty artist, etc?
Homework Assignment: Get your 'Cowboy' on and listen to the lyrics, sounds, and musical complexity of this song, and tell me it's not at least creative, if not 100 percent your cup of tea.
I don't mean to go on a Rant here, but literally every time I bring up Mr. Rock, I get very similar responses from folks and it completely baffles me. I'm reminded of Jay-Z from "Renegade" - Do you fools listen to music, or ya'll just skim through it? Because I can tell you regardless of whether or not you ENJOY his music, you have to appreciate his style, compassion, and ability to kind of re-invent himself over and over again, going from Rap, to Rock, to Country, to a combo of all three.
Also I'm probably in the minority here, but I actually sort of dig the way he samples other songs for his beats. We give rappers a pass when they do it, so why does Kid Rock get the flack?
So a secondary, personal vendetta-y question here: Why do you hate Kid Rock? What makes him objectively bad, versus being an artist who doesn't fit in with your tastes?
Yes! That's what I love. It's vague enough that you don't feel like you're being beaten over the head with something like in American idiot, but specific enough where there are definite parallels to real world ideas and stuff.
ReplyDelete2112 is great. It always makes me think of Dune.
Rush, Venture Bros., Punch Drunk Love.
ReplyDeleteChris Cucchiara. He lives in a niche of writing crappy "reviews" but the subsequent threads give me the utmost enjoyment. Stay strong and keep posting brother!
ReplyDeleteMaking any $ off large men wearing helmets yet?
ReplyDeleteI'm gonna hit on Atlanta. +4.5 was a gimme.
ReplyDeleteOne of my 3-team parlays has me nervous. WTF with Baltimore?
The 4-team parlay looks much better. I'm hitting on Mia, Dal and Min. If that goes through, I think I have a lock since N.O. is only -4.5 at home.
We'll see. I'm either walking away with BIG winnings or losing it all, lol.
Scared money makes you no money.
The New Orleans game is at Tampa
ReplyDeleteYea
ReplyDeleteYou're right. Either way, I still feel good about it if that's all that's left for me to hit a 4-team parlay.
ReplyDeleteGood luck man. Not much in life is more nerve racking then watching the last game in a parlay after all the others have hit. Last year I did a 5 teamer with the 5th team being GB in Seattle for the Monday nigjt fraud game. Never been as furious with anything in life
ReplyDeleteYea. LOVE NO.
ReplyDeleteI like Chris's reviews. There's all these books I didn't know existed, and he finds them, gives me a summary, and lets me know if they're worth my time or not. It's one of my favorite 'features' on the blog!
ReplyDelete...did you read the last one
ReplyDeletePunch Drunk Love is one of those movies that makes me feel really uncomfortable at some points, but is still incredibly watchable.
ReplyDeleteMagnolia is great, too. I'm tackling There Will be Blood (Finally!) tonight when I get home!
Did you read most them?
ReplyDeleteDo you Read?
ReplyDeleteThe Trees is the most open ended song, I've seen realistic arguments for it supporting all 4 quadrants of the political compass
ReplyDeleteRembrandt, Beethoven, Masterpiece Theater, Hillbilly Jim, Charles Dickens.
ReplyDeleteBeethoven and Charles Dickens are not niche. They were "pop culture" of their time.
ReplyDeleteAdam Carolla. He has his own pirate ship and so he can say whatever he wants. He has a loyal audience who just gave him over $1.4 million so he can make the movie he wants. He has no problem attacking the morons in hollywood (like in his blah blah blog segment) and he has no problem saying screw you to the major networks.
ReplyDeleteHe knows he will never be as big as Jimmy Kimmel but he never has to do the sucking up Jimmy has to do.
Corolla is cool. His podcasts are gold. This is gonna sound corny but i started following him after I saw him on celebrity apprentice.
ReplyDeleteI dunno. I mean I don't know how many of us have writing degrees (not that makes you a better writer or anything), but I do, and like to consider myself something of a ponder-er of the written arts, and what makes people tick and come to the proverbial blank page.
ReplyDeleteSome people do it because they're compelled, some people do it because they have a story to tell, and some people, like myself, do it because we want people to like us and have something resembling an inferiority complex.
We all have our reasons, and as pretentious as it sounds, opening yourself up to the masses in this way is really scary and really terrifying, and you put a lot of your self worth into what people think about it even if you tell yourself you won't.
If you read a lot and write a lot and listen a lot, you can tell when
there's genuine passion going into written work. Read a 3-hour Raw rant from Scott, then read a great PPV rant. You can tell the difference instantly.
It's really hard to write when you're not
motivated, or find the content you're tackling to be boring, lazy, or
uninteresting. Some people find their motivation through being paid for their writing, but here, on this blog, it's exclusively pro-bono. So the fact this guy continues to write reviews despite being shat all over, over and over again, is a testament to his thick skin and passion for wrestling, literature, and writing.
If we're going to be fundamental about Chris's writing, yeah it has flaws, he repeats phrases pretty frequently - he'd use promo in one sentence then use it in the next one when another word would probably be more aesthetically pleasing. There's grammar stuff, of course, but I think the important thing is that the guy means well. There's also little moments I appreciate, like the vitriol joke in the DX book review. There are flashes of personality here.
Look, in the grand scheme of things writing for this blog is the equivalent of playing Double A ball. It's great to be in the game, but It's not 'The Show'. We're not getting a salary or commission. Our payment, MY payment for this is creative freedom and feedback.
Especially freedom. I mean I quit a job at TouchArcade.com because they wouldn't let me give a game I liked a 5 star review. But with that freedom comes a lack of checks and balances. I don't know if Chris has an editor, probably not, but these reviews are going straight from his fingers to the masses, with no one in between to clean it up, offer a fresh take, or friendly suggestions. And when he reviews a book he doesn't like, or isn't motivated by, of course the review won't be of the same quality as the books he feels passionate about.
I guess my point is this: you can hate his reviews, hate his writing, hate him, but at least he shows up. At least he's writing consistently about something that a lot of folks don't take seriously. It's baffling to me how wrestling fans can be so vitriolic to one of their own, especially when assuredly all of us have been the brunt of jokes for our wrestling passion, or reading 'Have a Nice Day' in 8th grade, or having our parents shake their head at us with each wrestling t-shirt or PPV purchased with money we should probably be saving.
So get off his back, yo?
The Man Show was pretty awesome back in the day.
ReplyDeleteYea. Perfect show for teen guys.
ReplyDeleteThere was a great movie he was in where he plays a Boxer. Really sweet flick, charming, funny, understated, a perfect character piece of the guy.
ReplyDeleteI consider their time to be a niche though.
ReplyDeleteIm not a writer so defer to and respect your opinion. I get the baseball euphemism, but look at it from another perspective. If hes an aspiring writer, then having a forum like this is a great opportunity. Getting feedback from knowledgeable fans in the area of your writing, along with feedback from Scott is an invaluable thing. If there was a free place I I could have gone to learn about medicine besides med school I would have been ecstatic.
ReplyDeleteHe should be evolving and improving as a writer and putting his pride aside and maybe listen to the criticism. Instead its like hes trying to just to just troll this blog with some bad writing. Part of being smart and successful is realizing that you may need improvement and listening objectively to criticism is the first place to start.
Alan Moore
ReplyDelete/thread
In response to the Kid Rock question. I dont know. Im not one of those pretentious music guys, if a song is catchy and I can get into it...im a fan. Hes put out two of those for me so I got no complaints. I feel theres more to it though, since all hardcore music critics pretty much agree that hes a pile of shit
ReplyDeleteI liked Kid Rock. I don't like Kid Country.
ReplyDeleteSuda 51.
ReplyDeleteWait, why can't we have Poker Night of Champions with just five people? It's not a large game but you can still have a solid game with five people. If you think it's too much trouble for you with that few people we could always use your Scott idea and each of us give six dollars in which you keep one for organizing it. Just an idea.
ReplyDeletePicture and All Summer long. 1 and 1A
ReplyDeleteWe had a drop out, and no one responded to the e-mail but you!
ReplyDeleteHe definitely has his own niche.
ReplyDeleteI had to stop listening because after so many years, I feel like I've heard every single story and rant. If a guest does anything funny on his show he brings them back to do the same thing again and again.
While Jimmy is busy pranking the whole internet with genius fake viral videos, Adam is still whining about his lousy childhood and raging against Hall and Oates songs from the 80s.
I just researched There Will Be Blood for the first time in a while. I would like to stop making original statements and start speaking entirely in Daniel Plainview quotes. I would probably alienate everyone in my life, but my dialogue would be so much more interesting.
ReplyDeleteDaniel Day-Lewis sports a magnificient mustasche in There Will Be Blood.
ReplyDeleteI HATE All Summer Long with a passion. It may be a good song, but after my friend played that song on repeat the entire week we were on vacation, it went in the toilet for me.
ReplyDeleteI like Kid Rock too. Mostly his later stuff where he stopped the rap/rock stuff. RnR Jesus, Born Free, and Rebel Soul are all fun. Cocky and Devil without a cause are also pretty good.
ReplyDeleteHa. I wouldnt even say its "good" but it us catchy. I used to do the same shit with Picture, come home drunk in college and put it on repeat. Our apartment neighbor, we were buddies, came over and snapped the cd in half after 3 nights.
ReplyDeleteAh OK, well that sucks. Should I be proud or embarresed I was the only one to respond? Eh, I guess I won't be taking all your guys money then!
ReplyDeleteYeah. I may e-mail you later to see if we can't figure out a way to get SOME poker in somehow, but I gotta see what the best plan of action is.
ReplyDeleteGWAR. If you can't enjoy them, you need to stop taking yourself so seriously.
ReplyDeleteMighty Mighty Bosstones, Less Than Jake, Reel Big Fish and any other ska punk band out there. The genre had its brief heyday in 1997, yet I still enjoy many of these band's current offerings.
ReplyDeleteHe also worships a sock puppet he claims to be a Roman snake god.
ReplyDeleteIndeed he does. One that could proudly stand alongside Rick Rude and Big Bully Busick. In fact, I slightly suspect Day Lewis's
ReplyDeletePlainview was based on Triple B.
I actually really love me a couple of Reel Big Fish songs, too - "Beer" "She has a girlfriend now" "Sell Out" and their cover of "Take on Me" are great jams.
ReplyDeleteAnd I swear to god I just picked up on the "Reel Big Fish" pun this very second.
Alan Moore is unquestionably my favorite writer ever. I'm loving the recent period of his where he's doing anything he likes and doesn't care who's upset.
ReplyDeleteI actually don't like death metal / core metal / noise metal / whatever it is, but I LOVE the concept of GWAR, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't every one of their albums tie into an overarching story about how they rocked SO FUCKING HARD they sunk Atlantis?
ReplyDeleteI've met Voltaire a bunch of times through common friends in the toy world. He's a super nice guy. I'm always pleasantly surprised when I run across fans of his because he deserves whatever success he finds. He's completely down to Earth and also completely uncompromising in his work. Just a good guy all around.
ReplyDeleteWell, it actually all ties into the tale of how they arrived on our shitty little mudball millions of years ago, crashed in Antarctica, fucked some monkeys and made man. I highly suggest "Welcome to Hell",the album where the band beats up Satan and grows bored with dominating hell. EVERY album is a self contained story that ties together. Along with the movies they made, which are like the albums in Rock Opera form.
ReplyDeleteI get fanboyish talking about them, don't mind me.
That's nothing, I just realized earlier this year that "kinigit" was just the French pronouncing all the letters in the word "knight".
ReplyDeleteAll my favorite music seems to be people in their own niche: Public Enemy; Ghostface Killah; J-Zone; Dan Bejar/Destroyer; M83; etc.
ReplyDeleteThe authors I like are all in their own worlds. Thomas Pynchon is my best example of that.
Same with comics. I LOVE the work of Alan Moore, Chris Ware, Jaime Hernandez, Michael Kupperman, I can just keep going.
While we're at it, I wasn't too big on the song Cocky until I saw the Royal Rumble hype video using it. Then the song became hilarious.
ReplyDeleteLTJ, Bosstones...Five Iron Frenzy put out a new single last year that was great. right with you. Love me some ska punk.
ReplyDeleteNice. I remember liking "Trendy" back in the day too.
ReplyDeleteIt's not so bad being trendy.
ReplyDeleteI like the book reviews too. Concerning the last one, I'm with you. I agree that Chris sounded pretty uninspired, but the book sounded uninspiring, which is why I never looked into it. Maybe, like me, he's tired of internet writing doing little more than finding tired, extremist ways of saying something sucks. (Not a criticism of you, btw. This is strictly about reviewers.)
ReplyDeleteSo, if one doesn't want to be like 2,000 other wrestling reviewers out there and actually maintain some degree of subtlety in their writing, yet still wants to comment on an unobserved piece of the sub-culture that, by all accounts, is better left unobserved, what do you do?
Well, you experiment until you find a way to write about something you have nothing to say about. You can only get better at stuff by failing, then getting back up and continuing down the road.
Read his stuff, don't, whatever. How you feel about it is completely up to you, and either way, is completely fine. Nothing is for everybody (except pro wrestling, which is obviously for everybody). And hey, doing something is always better than doing nothing. http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-you-better-person_p2/
...Hindsight is 20/20
ReplyDeleteHe's the only Artist I know who can rage against religion, and sing about Gay Stromtrooper sex all on the same album.
ReplyDeleteI do what I can to spread his albums around to people I know/meet
And he is Caliber's biggest hero!
ReplyDeleteWasn't Cocky his 3rd album?
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, I refuse to call any of those bands ska bands. Sure, they have a horn section, but that's more like pop music. Bad Brains, Against All Authority, Voodoo Glow Skulls, that's proper ska.
ReplyDeleteHistory of Rock was a compliation from all of his older material. Technically it's his...sixth?
ReplyDeleteI refer to those bands as ska punk bands because we had a local radio show where I live (Phoenix, AZ) called The Ska Punk Show that played all the bands that both you and I mentioned. Amazingly, that show started when that music was popular in '97-'98 and lasted until 2012. I'm not big on labeling bands in overly defined genres, but after listening to that show for so many years it's hard for me not to call them ska punk bands.
ReplyDeleteI responded. And was online after the PPV!
ReplyDeletebingo! me too.
ReplyDeleteMoore's swamp thing run is the thing of legend, I can read it over and over and not get bored.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing about Moore that got me reading his stuff again recently;
I recently picked up something that Grant Morrison said about Moore's The Killing Joke on Kevin Smith's Batman podcast, and he went on about how Batman kills the Joker in the end, and then strangely enough Kevin (and a lot of fans afterwards) gave an outpouring of the opinion that he didn't (or that they didn't know he did). It was my first and continuing thought in the 15 years since I first read it that he did kill Joker in the end, I'm baffled to find out that most people didn't see this or thought differently.
Streetlight Manifesto, Catch 22, Planet Smashers, and even Aquabats are amngst my favorites. Spending my teenage years at punk shows in Orlando, ska holds a special place in my heart because a decade ago ska was the dominant thing on their local scene. Supervillains, Spitvalves, Skif Dank, Playground Heroes, Suckerpunch, The Know How, Whole Wheat Bread. Good times.
ReplyDeleteOpening a BoD thread with Lester Bangs (even the fictionalized version from Almost Famous)? You trying to get me hard? Lester is my favorite writer of any genre, one of my few personal obsessions that I don't really share with many other people that I know. A huge influence on my unfortunately-too-rare music writing.
ReplyDeleteI didn't actually intend this to answer the question but it works.
Boot camp click
ReplyDeleteThe Hammer. That was his movie and he's doing a new one now called Road Hard.
ReplyDeleteGreen Jelly. I was more than happy to see them live a few years ago... and join them on stage as the big bad wolf.
ReplyDeleteLove me some Norm MACdonald.
ReplyDelete