The New York Rockmarket

By starting this blog I am setting myself up for certain failure.

The thing about music criticism is this: it can never actually be right. No matter how perfectly someone attempts to describe an album or a song, no matter how they personally feel about an album, no matter how they choose to culturally position an artist, it can never be correct. If, at the most basic level, a critic’s job is to say whether something is good or bad, then the critic will always fail. Of course nothing can be either all good or all bad, and a critic disseminates important information that helps a reader, as well as greatly increases the success or failure of an artist. These are all asepcts of a good critics’ job. Still, the critic will always and forver fail at their most basic task – is something is good or bad?

This question comes down to an intangible, and one that is different for each person. The really classic songs, the bands that have gone down in history, The Beatles, The Stones, The Band, The Who, Dylan, Bruce, Bowie, plus a million others and smaller artists like Sonic Youth, Velvet Underground, Pavement, Guided By Voices, My Bloody Valentine – there’s something about their music- something no one can describe, that makes them unforgettable.

You could create a band of the very best musicians you could possibly find – the very best guitarist, the most talented bassist, an incredible drummer, but the result still might be nothing more than a decent bar band. Sometimes you can put together people who have no idea what they’re doing and get the very best band – look at Iggy & The Stooges. It’s not musicality that makes a band or a song great.

Rock and roll is why I believe in magic. There’s that element to it that can’t be explained by anyone or anything. It can only be felt and believed. Those truly rare moments in rock n roll (or music of any kind, really) are the same things as pulling a rabbit out of a hat. Except there aren’t smoke and mirrors (except maybe in the case of 80s hair metal), the rabbit really comes out of nowhere.

Pavement gets mentioned a lot these days. You can cross-reference their sound to almost any current band and explain why they were so important at the moment of time in which they existed. You could even say why their chord progressions are interesting in a music theory-based explanation. But there is not one word anyone can say to explain to me why my stomach flops into my throat every time he screams “Don’t Go!” in “Summer Babe.” I don’t know why it’s good. It just is. Magic.

And that’s the approach I want to take with this blog. I can tell you what makes my stomach flop and what doesn’t. I can tell you what’s buzzy and what isn’t buzzy. I can tell you what is technically good and technically bad in varying degrees. But only you can decide which music you feel in your own gut. I want to make suggestions and tell you how I feel, but don’t take my opinion too seriously. I really think that’s about the best I can do.

I started this blog because my friends often ask me for suggestions. I will always write for an audience that is not an “insider audience.” I will not put up obscure things because they are obscure. I will not be afraid to report on someone more mainstream. My only criteria for posting something will be whether or not I think my friends would like it. Bus as I said, I can only tell you what I like or don’t like. I really just want to help you discover music that will make your stomach flop. Take that for what it’s worth.