What's up, Freudian Slips!
As you know, I dislike--I mean, I have issues with--just about everything I write. But Matt says I should kinda promote everything I write regardless. That's his philosophy. Maybe he's right. Maybe it would improve the quality of my writing. So what the hell. Here's an article I just wrote during the whole Tsar concert/FCC protest period. The article isn't specifically about Tsar or the FCC but, in a deep way, that's exactly what it's about. You see, it's a sort of tribute to the great L.A. rock DJ Rodney Bingenheimer. (And with a name like that, it's got to be good!) As we all know, the FCC is the reason radio sucks so bad right now, and the reason people like Rodney are so embattled. And the first time I ever heard Tsar on the radio was during Rodney's show. It was a tearful moment for me and present band members. I wish I could see a documentary of all the times bands first heard themselves on Rodney's show. It would be a long movie, and it would change your life. You see, Rodney did what any normal DJ would do under normal circumstances: He got the Tsar record, and he played the hell out of it. He also spelled their name so you'd know where to look at the record store, and he gave info on their next gig. "It should be AMAZING!" he said. That's what DJs are sposed to do.
Jed the Fishy Fish called tonight to say he thought the article was "lovely," which was lovely, God bless the man. He said that everything I wrote was true. This is the best compliment you can give a journalist. Hate what they say, diss their style or their vocab or even their worldview, but tell them their facts are straight and they will smile the happy warm-inside smile. There's nothing but nothing worse than being inaccurate. And even though I take a lot of shots at KROQ in the article, he didn't seem to mind, or even notice. Since he is the only person at KROQ whose opinion I care about, I am breathing a sigh of relief right now. Because I'll tell you something: Rodney is Rodney and there's no taking that away from him, but Jed is every bit the hero Rodney is, in a different way. And I'll tell you something else: Jed played the hell out of Tsar too. He said they were in the tradition of "the best exuberant joy-pop." (Yeah, got that one burned on the old brain. Wish I'd come up with it.) He even went to their shows, and when I interviewed him ages ago he had a picture of them up in his kitchen. Jed's magic, because he still gets crushes on bands, after all these years and all the kornage.
Jed and Rodney are the only ones left from the old KROQ, and the only ones who get to choose their own stuff. They both loved Tsar, and I think that says a lot about them, and about Tsar. It also makes me feel that I'm not crazy for loving all of them so dang much.
I already wrote this entry once and Blogger lost it, so I tried to rewrite it from memory. Sometimes you can do that if you do it right away. If it ends up posting both of them, we'll see how good my memory is.
I also wrote a graf about how KROQ isn't all shit. I mean, I should give credit where it's due. I diss the heck out of that station but I love it like a child loves its mother--or, better, like a patriot loves her country. You know. You criticize the hell out of it cuz you believe in it. And secretly you still think it's pretty cool. I do think KROQ is cool, in ways that I probably can't explain to you. It's like this. Today I was driving and I heard Hot Hot Heat, and the Strokes, and Audioslave, which is the best classic schlock-rock. (Ditto Queens of the Stone Age.) A couple days ago Jed picked some fucked-up new Radiohead, which gave me that special "do I love this or hate this?" feeling, as he said. That day I also heard the new Jane's Addiction, which is actually good, and the White Stripes. So anyway, I was driving around, and I remembered the very real fact that this station could EASILY, easily have been shut down years ago when it was foundering, and turned into a Spanish station, or talk radio. Something would have taken its place, but there's no reason to expect it would have been any better than any of the new-breed corporate stations, and many reasons to expect it would be worse than KROQ is today. And a world where I couldn't hear the Strokes or the White Stripes on my local commercial rock station would be a cold, hard world, even colder than this one.
What I'm saying is this: It's nowhere near good enough, but, like the Czechs say, it could be even worse. And I'd rather have a crappy corporatized insultingly pale imitation of its former self than no KROQ at all. So I'm a sentimental foo. So sue me.
yar,
me
PS: Blogger has a new deal where I have even less control than before of the archives of this joint. Yo, that sucks, because now you tolly can't read anything old. So I am doing a new thing where the whole month is posted at once. Sorry if it takes too long to load or whatever.
PPS: today my friend Garth introduced me to the best new word ever: fuckery. I am going to start using it all the time, immediately.
As you know, I dislike--I mean, I have issues with--just about everything I write. But Matt says I should kinda promote everything I write regardless. That's his philosophy. Maybe he's right. Maybe it would improve the quality of my writing. So what the hell. Here's an article I just wrote during the whole Tsar concert/FCC protest period. The article isn't specifically about Tsar or the FCC but, in a deep way, that's exactly what it's about. You see, it's a sort of tribute to the great L.A. rock DJ Rodney Bingenheimer. (And with a name like that, it's got to be good!) As we all know, the FCC is the reason radio sucks so bad right now, and the reason people like Rodney are so embattled. And the first time I ever heard Tsar on the radio was during Rodney's show. It was a tearful moment for me and present band members. I wish I could see a documentary of all the times bands first heard themselves on Rodney's show. It would be a long movie, and it would change your life. You see, Rodney did what any normal DJ would do under normal circumstances: He got the Tsar record, and he played the hell out of it. He also spelled their name so you'd know where to look at the record store, and he gave info on their next gig. "It should be AMAZING!" he said. That's what DJs are sposed to do.
Jed the Fishy Fish called tonight to say he thought the article was "lovely," which was lovely, God bless the man. He said that everything I wrote was true. This is the best compliment you can give a journalist. Hate what they say, diss their style or their vocab or even their worldview, but tell them their facts are straight and they will smile the happy warm-inside smile. There's nothing but nothing worse than being inaccurate. And even though I take a lot of shots at KROQ in the article, he didn't seem to mind, or even notice. Since he is the only person at KROQ whose opinion I care about, I am breathing a sigh of relief right now. Because I'll tell you something: Rodney is Rodney and there's no taking that away from him, but Jed is every bit the hero Rodney is, in a different way. And I'll tell you something else: Jed played the hell out of Tsar too. He said they were in the tradition of "the best exuberant joy-pop." (Yeah, got that one burned on the old brain. Wish I'd come up with it.) He even went to their shows, and when I interviewed him ages ago he had a picture of them up in his kitchen. Jed's magic, because he still gets crushes on bands, after all these years and all the kornage.
Jed and Rodney are the only ones left from the old KROQ, and the only ones who get to choose their own stuff. They both loved Tsar, and I think that says a lot about them, and about Tsar. It also makes me feel that I'm not crazy for loving all of them so dang much.
I already wrote this entry once and Blogger lost it, so I tried to rewrite it from memory. Sometimes you can do that if you do it right away. If it ends up posting both of them, we'll see how good my memory is.
I also wrote a graf about how KROQ isn't all shit. I mean, I should give credit where it's due. I diss the heck out of that station but I love it like a child loves its mother--or, better, like a patriot loves her country. You know. You criticize the hell out of it cuz you believe in it. And secretly you still think it's pretty cool. I do think KROQ is cool, in ways that I probably can't explain to you. It's like this. Today I was driving and I heard Hot Hot Heat, and the Strokes, and Audioslave, which is the best classic schlock-rock. (Ditto Queens of the Stone Age.) A couple days ago Jed picked some fucked-up new Radiohead, which gave me that special "do I love this or hate this?" feeling, as he said. That day I also heard the new Jane's Addiction, which is actually good, and the White Stripes. So anyway, I was driving around, and I remembered the very real fact that this station could EASILY, easily have been shut down years ago when it was foundering, and turned into a Spanish station, or talk radio. Something would have taken its place, but there's no reason to expect it would have been any better than any of the new-breed corporate stations, and many reasons to expect it would be worse than KROQ is today. And a world where I couldn't hear the Strokes or the White Stripes on my local commercial rock station would be a cold, hard world, even colder than this one.
What I'm saying is this: It's nowhere near good enough, but, like the Czechs say, it could be even worse. And I'd rather have a crappy corporatized insultingly pale imitation of its former self than no KROQ at all. So I'm a sentimental foo. So sue me.
yar,
me
PS: Blogger has a new deal where I have even less control than before of the archives of this joint. Yo, that sucks, because now you tolly can't read anything old. So I am doing a new thing where the whole month is posted at once. Sorry if it takes too long to load or whatever.
PPS: today my friend Garth introduced me to the best new word ever: fuckery. I am going to start using it all the time, immediately.
Comments