The Music Elitist

I’ve lived in Florida my whole life and something I hear from people constantly is “I hate the radio” or “The radio sucks.” If you’ve ever listened to radio in Florida, you know those statements aren’t an exaggeration. But while all radio does in one way or another suck (no matter what state you’re in) I want to focus mainly on rock station formats in Florida.

I never listen to the radio in Orlando because the only rock station I get here is 101.1 Real Rock. This station is absolutely deplorable. Just take a look at the songs they have played in the last hour:

• Sixx A.M. – Life is Beautiful
• Silverchair – Tomorrow
• Sublime – What I Got
• Papa Roach – Lifeline
• Foo Fighters – My Hero
• Marilyn Manson – The Beautiful People
• Saving Abel – Drowning (Face Down)
• Third Eye Blind – Graduate
• Saliva – Family Reunion
• Nirvana – Lake of Fire
• AC/DC – Rock ‘n Roll Train
• Godsmack – Awake
• Slipknot – Dead Memories
• Drowning Pool – Bodies

Now, with the exception of Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Sublime and Third Eye Blind, that’s a pretty awful hour of music. Like I said, I have lived in Florida my entire life and radio has pretty much been this way the whole time. Even when I was living in South Florida the rock stations just constantly played bad music like this (with the exception of 103.1 The Buzz, but they’re not owned by Clear Channel so that’s probably why). I assumed it was just the fact that big radio stations owned by Clear Channel all play horrible music. But when I visited California last summer, my eyes were opened. Here’s KROQ’s current Top 25 most played songs:

1. Green Day – Know Your Enemy
2. Silversun Pickups – Panic Switch
3. Kings of Leon – Sex on Fire
4. Apocalyptica feat. Adam Gontier – I Don’t Care
5. Kings of Leon – Use Somebody
6. Big B feat. Scott Russo – Sinner
7. Rancid – Last One to Die
8. The Offspring – You’re Gonna Go Far Kid
9. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Zero
10. Incubus – Black Heart Inertia
11. Incubus – Love Hurts
12. Cage the Elephant – Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked
13. The Airborne Toxic Event – Sometime Around Midnight
14. Rise Against – Audience of One
15. The Killers – This is Your Life
16. Far – Pony
17. Anberlin – Feel Good Drag
18. Hollywood Undead – Undead
19. Asher Roth – I Love College
20. 311 – Hey You
21. White Lies – To Lose My Life
22. Depeche Mode – Wrong
23. Coldplay – Life in Technicolor II
24. The Offspring – Half-Truism
25. U2 – Magnificent

When we were driving around L.A. we listened to KROQ for 15 min and in a row I heard Foo Fighters, Sum 41, Atmosphere and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I was flabbergasted. Not one Nickelback or Godsmack song. Now, obviously Clear Channel wouldn’t keep Real Rock here in Orlando for so long if there wasn’t a market for it. If the amount of white trash I am surrounded by on a daily basis is any indication, there clearly is. And THAT’s why radio in Florida sucks. Because apparently the majority of people in Florida have horrible taste in music.

If you want your ears to bleed, I highly recommend listening to the above audio. This is an unedited board feed from Beyonce’s performace on the Today show in November. Howard Stern somehow got ahold of it and decided to unleash it on the world.

UPDATE: Turns out this is a hoax. Oh well.

Just wanted to send out a big congrats to Anberlin whose single “Feel Good Drag” finally hit #1 this week on national Modern Rock charts (the single’s been out since September). I’ve been a fan of these guys for quite some time and I’m happy they’re finally getting the recognition they deserve.

New Found Glory was recently name-dropped in an issue of Spider-Man. If I were in NFG, I would find it hard continuing my music career knowing that no matter what I do now, nothing will ever top having my band’s name mentioned in a Marvel comic book.

Thursday played the Give It a Name Festival on Tuesday and Geoff Rickly decided to take the opportunity to “call bullshit” on screamo/crunk/electronic bands like brokeNCYDE and The Millionaires. Glad to see more bands with actual musical talent are saying something about this awful new trend.

Ohio indie rock band Lovedrug had an interesting post on their Myspace blog on Tuesday. Seems they don’t care too much for “hipster music”:

I can barely take it anymore. The amount of horseshit music out there on the internet and how the hipsters eat it up like it’s honey flavored oatmeal.
Hey guess what dude, my dead grandmother just started this crazy new folk/indie/electronic project that she totally recorded on garage band(you know, that computer program that plays the intruments for you so you don’t have to actually learn anything). Yeah man, she’s totally gonna be the next MGMT. So hip. So sweet. Totally boss… soooo bosss.

While I don’t really mind MGMT (in fact I like quite a few of their songs), I kind of agree with this guy (which ever member of Lovedrug this may be). When I first heard MGMT I was expecting to hear some amazing revolutionary music simply because of how some of my friends talked about them. When I heard their music I wasn’t necessarily disappointed, but I didn’t get the hype. Then again, most electronic music never really “moves” me that much anyways.

And yeah, whatever happened to people playing instruments? I must be getting old because it kind of scares me that playing instruments isn’t something a lot of these new “hipster” bands like to do. It’s usually just two DJ’s that might occasionally play a synth or if you’re lucky, a guitar.

I think my favorite thing about these hipsters is that they for some reason think that the music they listen to is so much more superior than anything else out there, when in reality a 12 year old could do the exact same thing if he had a Mac and Garage Band.

Sorry, I have been MIA as of late. Been busy. But I promise the semi regular postings will continue soon. For now, bask in the hilarity of my friend Drew:

For those of you who saw South Park last night, I’m sure you were waiting for this as much as I was. But, shockingly Kanye did what I hoped he would do. It seems like he actually took the criticism pretty well, and even found it funny. Unfortunately he insists on typing in all caps and I don’t feel like editing, so I apologize for you having to read it like this:

SOUTH PARK MURDERED ME LAST NIGHT AND IT’S PRETTY FUNNY. IT HURTS MY FEELINGS BUT WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM SOUTH PARK! I ACTUALLY HAVE BEEN WORKING ON MY EGO THOUGH. HAVING THE CRAZY EGO IS PLAYED OUT AT THIS POINT IN MY LIFE AND CAREER. I USE TO USE IT TO BUILD UP MY ESTEEM WHEN NOBODY BELIEVED IN ME. NOW THAT PEOPLE DO BELIEVE AND SUPPORT MY MUSIC AND PRODUCTS THE BEST RESPONSE IS THANK YOU INSTEAD OF “I TOLD YOU SO!!!” IT’S COOL TO TALK SHIT WHEN YOU’RE RAPPING BUT NOT IN REAL LIFE. WHEN YOU MEET LITTLE WAYNE IN PERSON HE’S THE NICEST GUY FOR EXAMPLE. I JUST WANNA BE A DOPER PERSON WHICH STARTS WITH ME NOT ALWAYS TELLING PEOPLE HOW DOPE I THINK I AM. I NEED TO JUST GET PAST MYSELF. DROP THE BRAVADO AND JUST MAKE DOPE PRODUCT. EVERYTHING IS NOT THAT SERIOUS. AS LONG AS PEOPLE THINK I ACT LIKE A BITCH THIS TYPE OF SHIT WILL HAPPEN TO ME. I GOT A LONG ROAD AHEAD OF ME TO MAKE PEOPLE BELIEVE I’M NOT ACTUALLY A HUGE DOUCHE BUT I’M UP FOR THE CHALLENGE. I’M SURE THE WRITERS AT SOUTH PARK ARE REALLY NICE PEOPLE IN REAL LIFE. THANKS FOR TAKING THE TIME TO DRAW MY CREW. THAT WAS PRETTY FUNNY ALSO!! I’M SURE THERE’S GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN THIS… THAT’S HOW YOU KNOW IT’S ME!

He even acknowledges his shitty typing. I really have nothing bad to say about this. Glad the guy has a good sense of humor and he’s actually making an effort to stop being such a drama queen (or so he claims). We’ll see how this plays out.

About halfway through Britney Spears‘ performance in Vancouver last night, she and her dancers left the stage because Britney smelled marijuana. That’s right folks, Britney Spears smelled MARIJUANA at a CONCERT in CANADA, thought “Something’s not right here” and immediately vacated the stage with her dancers for 20 minutes. Here’s how it went down according to Rolling Stone:

After about 20 minutes, a voice came over the loudspeaker to tell concertgoers that smoking marijuana and cigarettes is illegal at GM Place. “It’s become uncomfortable and unsafe for the performers, including Ms. Spears. The show will resume as soon as the air around the stage is clear,” the announcement said. After performing the final encore, Spears walked offstage with the words, “Thanks Vancouver. You were wonderful. Drive safe. Don’t smoke weed! Rock out with your cocks out!” Yes, this really happened

Now, a Britney Spears concert is not the first place I would expect to smell a lot of marijuana smoke. But, far be it for me to nitpick. The fact is that marijuana laws are a tad more lax in Canada than they are here in the states, so it doesn’t surprise me that some people were lighting up at the show. Hell, I’m pretty sure the only way I’d be able to make it through an entire Britney Spears concert was if I was stoned. And Britney should be encouraging people to do so. That way when she does random-ass weird things like shouting “Merry Christmas!” at a concert in March or informing the audience that her genitalia is “hanging out”, people won’t remember because they were so high.

Apparently Sony Nashville isn’t too cool with their artists’ concerts being full of  “fumbled songs, do overs and booing crowds.” Yesterday,  Jessica Simpson was dropped by Sony Nashville, the label that released her country album last year. Unfortunately she still remains an Epic Records artist, so I’m sure she’ll go right back to making terrible pop music again.

Have all those forgotten lyrics and hostile crowds finally caught up with Jessica Simpson?

A country music gossip site says that rumors are swirling that the pop-star-turned-country-singer has been dropped like a rock by her label, Columbia Nashville.

Nashville Gab also notes that her information is no longer the label’s Web site — and it even conjectures that her sudden decision to go to Cabo rather than the ACMs could mean that she is now sans label.

Jess’s first country single, Come On Over, made it to No 18 in Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. But her latest single, Pray Out Loud, has so far failed to chart.

Her winter tour supporting Rascal Flatts has been something of a rocky one, with several shows having been marked by fumbled songs, do overs and booing crowds.

If country music fans are booing you, you must really suck. Most country music fans wouldn’t know good music if it walked up to them and broke a Budweiser bottle over their heads.

I’m sure Jessica was also thrilled to find out yesterday that she is portrayed as the “cheeseburger-devouring, Daisy Duke-wearing, General Lee-washing girlfriend of Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo” in the new Eminem video. Boy, things just keep going her way dont they?