If the goal of a music review is to review music, then that is what I will do. Since I made it obvious last time that I cannot save myself from my own self-importance, I might as well revel in it for one more issue.So here goes. Rock and Roll is dead. The Radio killed it. The Radio is dead. MTV killed it. MTV is dead at the hands of Rolling Stone magazine. And Rolling Stone is dead because of the Radio. Everything is so watered down now, it drowned.
Searching for a new album or a new band that I like is like some kind of Indiana Jones type odyssey that requires a whole day of driving and listening. I have to get directions and make phone calls, and it really just takes too much time.
But I endure it because, when I find that one album I’ve been searching for, all the trouble is worth it. It’s like being put on the list for a Jurassic 5 show with an open bar. What won’t you go through to get to that show?
Used to be, you could trust the label. If you liked one or two of their releases, you would probably like them all. That is, unfortunately, not the case anymore. Now, Dixie Chicks, Michael Jackson, and Bob Dylan are all on the same label. There is no cohesiveness to the labels now other than money.
But there is hope. There are some labels out there who are “artist driven.” If you like one release on Bloodshot Records, you will probably like them all. The same is true for Lost Highway and American Records as well. They do exist. You just have to find them.
It is a long and sometimes arduous journey, but for those of us who wish Creed and the rest of their fraudulent rock ‘n roll crowd would just fade into Hootie and the Blowfish style obscurity, it is a journey of supreme importance. Vaya con dios.