The guy next to me is having popcorn for lunch. It crunches.
I have the funny rush you get when some anonymous person has a go at you for something you know other people quite like. That light-headed, tense feeling. Like writing. I think my writing has been improving. I'm certainly not going to take writing tips from someone who can't spell "you're" (it's YOU ARE). Of course I can't say that because then they'll turn out to be dyslexic and then I'll look bad. Of course they might read this, just hand me the shovel.
And this is the problem. Like that person who called me a C U Next Tuesday because I didn't like Ivory Springer, who I later grew to like, a bit. Or the guy who called me arrogant and said that if I like Kristen Hersh then Nina Nastasia is beyond me.
It's why writing about things often gets dumbed down, why people who want to say that they think something is awful end up watering the sentiment down and just say "well, I like the drummer" or "it's not my cup of tea". It may well NOT be your cup of tea, as with Fsck Buttons but at least have the cohones to say that, and if you do, try to say why.
It's a bit annoying that such a shabby piece of writing gets such a strong reponse. I imagine if I'd said good things, or thought up an imaginitive exciting sounding description like "all the musical worth of some rocks in a cement mixer" and "like a bunch of 5 year olds who got a drum for christmas - except you know their mother isn't going to come upstairs and take the sticks off them" (thanks Adz), they would perhaps think it was hilarious, but no.
Reading too much into it? Probably. It was an entertaining couple of hours certainly, one thing came out of it all that made me think:
Basically you can do and say what you like, but it will be apparent to people who understand the music that you don't [understand the music]. Which isn't to say that you need to like the music - you can, and probably will, still think it's rubbish. You might even disagree with their aesthetic criteria, but that's a very different thing from not having a clue what their aesthetic criteria are/not understanding their aesthetic criteria.
So don't worry, I'll just try to be a bit more articulate next time.
