Is it just me, or is David Samuels the worst rock critic writing today? (One of life’s mysteries: how Slate can be so smart on political and business analysis and so bad on cultural coverage. I mean, abysmal.) He’s just so consistently disappointing — you can almost see the boys in Redmond thinking, “That David, he must be plugged in to what the kids like these days.”
This “indie-rock year in review” was an embarassment. (“The most important story of the year in indie rock is that Elliott Smith didn’t release a record…Only the redoubtable Cat Power (whose new record will be coming out in February on Matador), the queen of sadcore, continues to make the case for indie rock as a world apart.” Puh-leeze. Elliott Smith spending the year with a heroin needle in his arm instead of recording is the biggest story of the year? Only Cat Power is “keeping it real” [chest thump] by staying on an indie? The Guided By Voices record was the “best rock record of the year”? Somebody, pull this man out of 1996!)
And let’s not even discuss his claim that the Vines are better than the Strokes, the White Stripes, and the Hives. (“As a result, Highly Evolved now stands a mere 12,000 units away from the magic 500,000 threshold required for earning a gold record. So go buy it. That’s my advice. The Vines deserve a gold record as much as any band in the business
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Beg to differ on the Vines…Saw them in concert a couple of weeks ago. There weren’t enough screaming songs. Everything else sounded like Oasis. How about the lack of coverage on Joe Strummer’s passing and how much today’s music owes him and “The Only Band That Ever Mattered”?
Guess I should have read that statement again (like I just did) I obviously agree with you. The Vines are nothing special, per my earlier concert review.
actually josh, i’d vote local boy malcolm whatshisname from the star-telly as worst rock critic ever. this is a guy who drools over bands like the vines and then says that the beck/lips show sucked. in your words, puh-leese.
The Vines are perhaps the most over-rated band to come out of the 2002 hype machine. The Hives are (imho) the only one of the “rock’s new saviors” triptych to deserve the accolades (who else would declare in mid-performance on Conan O’Brien, without irony, that America loves their group?)