Music Matters 2008-0704

1. Your New Influences

Fluxblog condemns the "seemingly infinite wave of faceless, deeply unimaginative indie bands and their tired, worn-out influences," and challenges the bands who fit that description to stop recycling the work of the same old artists, to come up with something fresh, to find new influences. His first suggestion? Janet Jackson circa Rhythm Nation 1814. Don't laugh, he's serious. And he makes sense.

2. Rolling Stone Feels The Rush

The music magazine critic guy over at Idolator says that historically, "Rolling Stone's past and present staffers regard [Rush] the same way as every American woman and non-nerd male: as an abomination." Apparently it no longer holds true: they finally featured the Canadian trio in a recently-released issue. Welcome news, I suppose, for the people in my life who adore the band. You know who you are. ;) "Let's have some more like this, RS! And to you what don't like Rush: reading Norris' article will begin the process by which you will acknowledge how very very wrong you are."

3. Taken By Bores

In the often too-cautious world of local music journalism (for lack of a better term), Erwin Romulo is like Daredevil, The Man Without Fear, except that maybe he shouldn't wear red spandex. When I clicked on the title of his latest column ("Being Boring,") I was looking forward to a discussion of the melancholy pop genius of the Pet Shop Boys' Behaviour. Instead I found an evisceration of Taken By Cars' debut album, Endings of a New Kind.

After describing one of the tracks as lacking "any imagination in approach or innovation," and saying that "it would’ve certainly been affecting if it didn’t sound so phony," he goes on to quote New Order’s Bernard Sumner -- "[Sumner] said he’d rather have exciting sounds made by machines and synthesizers than boring music made by people with guitars. However, Taken By Cars’ Endings of a New Kind sounds as if it’s been made by people with guitars and synthesizers who are as boring as machines." Holy crap! Tell us what you really feel, Erwin!

Any idiot can write an album review, as the interwebs proves every day. Sadly for Taken By Cars, Erwin is not some anonymous ignoramus -- his musical knowledge is vast and deep and I have no doubt that his distaste for the band stems from his unshakeable ideals of what popular music could, and should be. For the record, though, I like TBC's debut, even if they forgot to thank me in their liner notes.