Saturday, September 24, 2005
So you might have to register to read the whole thing ... this snarky I mean well-written report from the Georgetown Voice is worth it. (Otherwise, the Saturday reading room is fresh out of reads for you today).
Fear and Loathing at CMJ
By Tim Fernholtz
There's a certain point during a live show -- when the bassist drops his instrument on the stage in front of you, falls down in his beer and starts yelling -- when you know whether or not you were made for rock music. It is three hours later, when some dick from SPIN magazine with a terrible beard and a vintage blazer is joking over drinks with a label guy about some band "one part Interpol, two parts Neutral Milk Hotel, with the mass appeal of the Stones," that you wonder if rock music was made for you.
Hunter S. Thompson once called the music business "a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." Believing this to be not only true, but worthy of reporting, The Voice (and WGTB Georgetown Radio, where I am a music director) sent me to New York City with a pass for the College Music Journalism Music Marathon, a four-day event with 1000 bands, panels for the career-motivated and thousands of music scene hangers-on. It was time to get past the strange haircuts and find out what made indie music, well, independent. Or music, for that matter. ¶ 9/24/2005 02:09:00 PM
Fear and Loathing at CMJ
By Tim Fernholtz
There's a certain point during a live show -- when the bassist drops his instrument on the stage in front of you, falls down in his beer and starts yelling -- when you know whether or not you were made for rock music. It is three hours later, when some dick from SPIN magazine with a terrible beard and a vintage blazer is joking over drinks with a label guy about some band "one part Interpol, two parts Neutral Milk Hotel, with the mass appeal of the Stones," that you wonder if rock music was made for you.
Hunter S. Thompson once called the music business "a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." Believing this to be not only true, but worthy of reporting, The Voice (and WGTB Georgetown Radio, where I am a music director) sent me to New York City with a pass for the College Music Journalism Music Marathon, a four-day event with 1000 bands, panels for the career-motivated and thousands of music scene hangers-on. It was time to get past the strange haircuts and find out what made indie music, well, independent. Or music, for that matter. ¶ 9/24/2005 02:09:00 PM
