I had
mentioned how some people get negative about crowdsourcing. Some of them make
good points, and leave me with mixed feelings, thought the doubts are usually
more about specific projects than the concept in general. However, there was
one article that filled me with unalloyed hate. It was on Vice.com.
This was
interesting to me, because the last article that filled me with hatred was also
on Vice. Disliking music writing has been fairly consistent for me, but it is
usually just vague irritation or maybe disgust. This was rage, and once again,
I only knew about the article because the musician criticized mentioned it.
I will put
links to related blog posts at the bottom, but the ones I am thinking of are
long, and cover a lot of ground, so I will sum up. The first time, Brian Fallon
tweeted a link to a Vice piece on the Gaslight Anthem that was vicious, but
also where the facts did not track, and I was bothered by the lack of
responsibility that came with the bile. The second article was so similar, that
I initially thought it was the same writer. Allow to explain how it came about.
I had a
Skype call with James Dewees because of the Kickstarter. Actually it was a
Skype concert. I haven't done a concert review for that, but it was pretty
cool. He asked me to choose three songs in advance. I knew two for sure
("Take Me Home Please" and "Mood 4 Luv"), but I was torn
between "Get Well Soon" and "Congratulations Smack + Katy"
for the third. I said he might know if one would be better for this type of
performance.
He only
replied with the time for the Skype call, so I did not know what to expect, but
he had done a completely new arrangement of "Get Well Soon", and I
thought, "Wow, he really did think about this."
So that was
cool, and I mentioned a little last week about how good he was about the
frequent Kickstarter updates, and all of the things that were good about following
that, but then also we got to talk. I had questions about music, because of my
emo research and the way "Summertime" has haunted me, and I was
curious about the Kickstarter. As we were talking about that, he asked if I had
seen the Vice article. I hadn't, and we didn't really focus on it, but I was
curious and looked it up later. Behold rage number two:
There is
just a lot wrong with it. Certainly the initial feeling is that you are
criticizing something I like, and I take umbrage. And you know, maybe nastiness
begets nastiness, because the author mentions being in a band himself at one
point, and I remember thinking that the stench of his own failure was getting
into his writing. This is perhaps unfair; he may have never really tried to go
pro.
Again, it
is written from a fairly uninformed point of view, but it leaves things vague
enough that pointing at specific issues becomes difficult. The author doesn't
know the music, but he throws in a crack about pensive girls with lip rings. It
gives a negative impression, but with hardly any factual basis. He thinks he
remembers girls like that wearing the shirts. How much does that even mean?
It is that
general viewpoint of contempt, throwing
in words like sad-ass, when it is not particularly sad. There does seem to be
some research specifically for the purpose of confirming the impression, but
not for actually understanding it. I don't think restarting Reggie and the Full
Effect is equivalent to restarting the career of James Dewees, because Dewees
always seems to have multiple projects going on. He started writing the songs
in Los
Angeles, but for the Kickstarter he was in New York. I think that means he was still
working for My Chemical Romance when he started on the concept. That's not
exactly down-on-his-luck.
Initially I
also thought he had the wrong numbers on Velvet Underground sales. The figure
he gives is almost certainly wrong, but that's a hard number to nail down, so
fine, but I think there are other points that are more important.
One is the
complaint about the price, because it could be done so much more cheaply. Well,
the MSI Kickstarter (which I also backed), was three times that much. (I remembered
the amount, but I looked it up anyway, because I could.)
Yes, Dewees
has made records for much less; I'm sure MSI could have made theirs for less. That's
one thing about having been in the business for a long time and working on
different scales though. They know better than anyone what they need to do to
produce the record they have in mind, and how to get that done.
If someone
has been part of the DIY movement at one point, why should they have to stay
there? If someone has a label, but has creative differences with the label, and
they don't have a contract forcing them to stay, should they stay just for
tradition? Those are really stupid ideas, that don't show a lot of
understanding about the artistic process, which seems like it could be valuable
for someone who covers the arts, only they are not limited to that. Policastro
has articles about sports, transportation, and the Boston bombing, and Pappalardo has a
similar mix. Somehow that seems worse.
The best
thing I have read on Vice was written very carefully. It was a piece on Corey
Feldman's attempt to be Hugh Hefner, basically. It was very sad - tragic,
really - and deserved mockery, but Feldman had final approval on the wording.
It worked perfectly. The situation spoke for itself. Embellishment would
probably have weakened it, possibly causing misplaced sympathy or distracting
with inaccuracy. There might be a lesson there.
I know
James Dewees is not losing any sleep over the article. I'm pretty sure Brian
Fallon is doing okay too. I am bugged, and while I am bugged as a fan, I think
I am bugged more as a writer. So, I'll be spending more time on that tomorrow.
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