"Subpoenaed in Texas, Sequestered in Memphis ..."
Ok ... so I'm going to be a bit of a music snob for a second now ...
I subscribe to a number of podcasts including, All Songs Considered and NPR Live Concerts. Every once in a while one of the podcasts introduce me to something interesting and new (Orchestra Baobab, Fleet Foxes, and Kassin +2 to name a few recent favorite finds). However, the host - Bob Boilen - may put an end to this.
To put it very simply, I want to throttle Bob Boilen.
Bob Boilen really represents everything that I find repulsive about NPR. The "soothing" Prairie Home Companion-ish voice, the fact that I can almost smell the appalling mix of patchouli and Starbucks non-fat double-grande expresso half-and-half seeping through my headphones. Most of all - the insulting level of totally unearned superiority.
This was best summed up a few weeks ago when All Songs Considered did a show about The Sound of a Generation. Bob could barely be dragged away from the 60's (because lord knows we all need to bow at the decrepitated shrine of 'Casey Jones' and 'Surrealistic Pillow' again). And - once he and his band of merry yuppies moved onto the 70's/80's/90's - they fell into the same predictable acts that you could see coming a mile away.
You had your Nirvana. You had your Pixies. You had your Public Enemy. You had your Buzzcocks. Good bands - all of them. Also very predictable bands - all of them. And - with the exception of Nirvana - none massively popular in their generation.
Then they read the top ten for some year in the 90's and were all, "Oh ha ha ha, people were buying Michael Bolton! New Kids on the Block had the number 1 album this year. Silly simpletons. How could they not buy what would become the sound of their generation?!?"
I just started screaming at my car stereo, "You smug dumbasses, the fact that people in that generation bought this crap means that was the sound of that generation." The definition of representing a generation is that the majority of a generation - for whatever reason - decided that this-or-that did represent them at that time.
Just because something sucks doesn't make it any less popular or - in hindsight - any less interesting. In fact, I would argue that it would be more interesting to try and figure out why people lined up for things like NKTOB and Vanilla Ice instead of the Pixies and Public Enemy. But Bob Boilen - and the large majority of his NPR cohorts - has no time for this. All Songs Considered, and NPR in general, isn't here to challenge the thoughts of their audience or (god forbid) accuse them possibly paying $10.99 for a crappy album 10 years ago.
This is because - when you really get down to it - NPR is nothing other than an Old Navy-bought, hemp blanket that pampered white folk ... well ... white folk and Elvis Mitchell ... use to wrap themselves inside of a world where they are always right and better than anyone else.
Basically, NPR is to insufferable liberals what FOX News is to insufferable conservatives.
Not that I'm bitter or anything ...
CruelNails Radio
I subscribe to a number of podcasts including, All Songs Considered and NPR Live Concerts. Every once in a while one of the podcasts introduce me to something interesting and new (Orchestra Baobab, Fleet Foxes, and Kassin +2 to name a few recent favorite finds). However, the host - Bob Boilen - may put an end to this.
To put it very simply, I want to throttle Bob Boilen.
Bob Boilen really represents everything that I find repulsive about NPR. The "soothing" Prairie Home Companion-ish voice, the fact that I can almost smell the appalling mix of patchouli and Starbucks non-fat double-grande expresso half-and-half seeping through my headphones. Most of all - the insulting level of totally unearned superiority.
This was best summed up a few weeks ago when All Songs Considered did a show about The Sound of a Generation. Bob could barely be dragged away from the 60's (because lord knows we all need to bow at the decrepitated shrine of 'Casey Jones' and 'Surrealistic Pillow' again). And - once he and his band of merry yuppies moved onto the 70's/80's/90's - they fell into the same predictable acts that you could see coming a mile away.
You had your Nirvana. You had your Pixies. You had your Public Enemy. You had your Buzzcocks. Good bands - all of them. Also very predictable bands - all of them. And - with the exception of Nirvana - none massively popular in their generation.
Then they read the top ten for some year in the 90's and were all, "Oh ha ha ha, people were buying Michael Bolton! New Kids on the Block had the number 1 album this year. Silly simpletons. How could they not buy what would become the sound of their generation?!?"
I just started screaming at my car stereo, "You smug dumbasses, the fact that people in that generation bought this crap means that was the sound of that generation." The definition of representing a generation is that the majority of a generation - for whatever reason - decided that this-or-that did represent them at that time.
Just because something sucks doesn't make it any less popular or - in hindsight - any less interesting. In fact, I would argue that it would be more interesting to try and figure out why people lined up for things like NKTOB and Vanilla Ice instead of the Pixies and Public Enemy. But Bob Boilen - and the large majority of his NPR cohorts - has no time for this. All Songs Considered, and NPR in general, isn't here to challenge the thoughts of their audience or (god forbid) accuse them possibly paying $10.99 for a crappy album 10 years ago.
This is because - when you really get down to it - NPR is nothing other than an Old Navy-bought, hemp blanket that pampered white folk ... well ... white folk and Elvis Mitchell ... use to wrap themselves inside of a world where they are always right and better than anyone else.
Basically, NPR is to insufferable liberals what FOX News is to insufferable conservatives.
Not that I'm bitter or anything ...
CruelNails Radio