I just send this to the guy who does "Your Band Sucks":
Dear Mr. Thorpe --
As a fan of Rock and Roll musician Ronnie James Dio, I have a fairly low opinion of The Darkness. This is compounded by the fact that "I believe in a thing called love" was the last song to play on my car stereo this weekend before the battery died, causing the rather expensive head unit to go into a "safe mode" and ask for a code I do not have. So you could say that, for me, The Darkness killed music.
Ordinarily, that statement would seem overly dramatic, as it does refrains from blaming the lazy shit who left the car stereo going rather than turn on the garage system. But seeing as I have a system wired into my garage in the first place, you can tell I take my music a bit more seriously than most. I call this the "elitist asshole" factor, and it's quite central to my enjoyment of music.
Right now I am just disgusted at the rock world. The Darkness are the fools exposing the nakedness of the Industry. Everybody wants to play punk, play whiteboy rapper, or scream about bad relationships with no real insight. This weekend I went to a show with a pair of indies that were just great showmen...they rocked out without irony or contempt and performed good fan service, marching the crowds and pulling cats on stage and pimping their next release just enough to titillate (it's a double CD, 26 tracks, and the front man told me they're not even playing half of them live until after the release so they don't spoil it for the fans).
Anyhow. Unless you're in N'England, you've probably never heard of these guys, the Paranoid Social Club (formerly the Rustic Overtones, a much funkier band on Tommy Boy). They manage to rock out hard with earnest lyrics and an original style. You can check them out for free on etree, but to be honest, their new stuff blows this out of the water. The five songs they've been playing off the new album are...whew! So much energy -- like Rage in their prime without the bullshit.
///M3
Visit those links. These guys own the phone, whatever that means. And a note to Dave Gutter, should he come across this: You need to release "Two Girls" as an MP3 single. That song is positively brilliant. Anybody who hears it will want to hear more. And I want to blast it in my car (soon as I get the fucking thing fixed).
I work with this cat who's a drummer. He's a pretty good drummer too.
I have a lot of respect for drummers. They got it rough. They have one of the more important roles in the band, but they sit way in the back and from the floor you can barely see them over the cymbals. They get hassled by neighbors when they practice -- you can't easily plug a headset into a kickdrum. And because there are so few competent drummers around, every asshole with a guitar is begging them to sit shift playing some bland rhythm while they wail away on whatever their next number one is.
It's close to my heart, because I'm an asshole with a guitar. Every band I've ever played with has fallen apart due to drummer issues. Such as not having a drummer. Or having a drummer who couldn't keep a steady beat. Or having a drummer who was so competent, he got snatched up by a bigger asshole with a better guitar.
Anyway, the moral is, be kind to drummers. Like this cat I work with. Listen to this terribly elite, unmixed, exclusive track off his demo and let it rock you. Comments welcome below. But beware: he is a Motley Crue fan, and will not take your shit. Also, it's a 128, so the cymbals sound like digitized asshair. Listen anyway. I wouldn't be pimping it if it wasn't hot, and you KNOW THIS.