Trouble Enough
Apologies for not getting back to you. My life's pretty crazy right now, from the magical realm of the 100 Bands You Need To Know in 2009 to the planning of all sorts of stuff down the road. AP turns 24 this year and we've got some big ol' plans afoot that are capital-S SECRET. I could tell you what they are, but then Mike Shea would inevitably dump my body in an oil drum, weld it shut, slap some Blood Brothers stickers on it and ship it to Idaho in the hopes that Jann Wenner would split it into pieces on a downhill slalom while avoiding going into his office. I'm not ready to die yet: I still have to plan our 15-page special, The Evolution Of Mudvayne. Actually, I'm kidding you. We're going to slap Hyper Crush on the cover next month. Oh, wait; we're back to that over-my-dead-body thing again.
That's as good a segue as you're getting from me today. (If you don't like it, put some money in my PayPal account and see what comes out of me then.) We've gotten a good amount of mail regarding All Time Low's appearance on our Band Of The Year cover. There's been a lot of "hell yeah's" from a lot of people fond of those Wiseguy, Maryland, homeboys. But we've also gotten a bunch of letters from turbo-charged haters lambasting AP editors for the issue as if we were running puppy mills. We've already picked ATL for a cover (100 Bands 2008, AP Tour, remember?); we just counted votes for this one. Simple as that.
This makes me wonder about something else. If Scott Heisel is just short of getting a backpiece tat of Hold Steady singer Craig Finn (see that glowing review on our website?), does that mean that I, the sworn enemy of classic rock, is on the table next to him getting prepped for one, as well? Do people really think we've heard every single piece of music written about in one issue of AP? Do you haters think we all live together in harmony in a big treehouse with a fifty-foot neon AP logo nailed to the front? I bring this up because my cultural comrade Tim Karan was overheard at a bar saying how much he hated Needle Dik and the Bugfawkers, and now their manager is threatening to drive by my house and power-wash it with chicken excrement from an undisclosed factory farm. (Hey, I liked Need's first single, "That's Tight!" I have it on both digital download and thorax-green vinyl.)
On the other hand, screw everyone. ATL have never copped a 'tude with us the way those nu-metal skeeziks used to in their deluded sense of entitlement. If Scott wants to invent new categories to articulate his love for one of his fave acts (even if the term "inclusion rock" makes me want to lick my cats' litterboxes hospital-clean), I'm not stopping him. And Tim, go ahead and loathe ND&BF. If you've got the first round, I've got your back.
Oh, and don't go googling "Needle Dik and the Bugfawkers." Tim is so mellow, he doesn't hate anybody and I needed to get something in there, even if it was fictional and lifted from the very funny Peter Bagge. Be advised the first time an editor comes into work wearing Hyper Crush swag, I'm gonna paint a telephone on their face and dial 'em with an ice pick. As if I ain't got trouble enough...
That's as good a segue as you're getting from me today. (If you don't like it, put some money in my PayPal account and see what comes out of me then.) We've gotten a good amount of mail regarding All Time Low's appearance on our Band Of The Year cover. There's been a lot of "hell yeah's" from a lot of people fond of those Wiseguy, Maryland, homeboys. But we've also gotten a bunch of letters from turbo-charged haters lambasting AP editors for the issue as if we were running puppy mills. We've already picked ATL for a cover (100 Bands 2008, AP Tour, remember?); we just counted votes for this one. Simple as that.
This makes me wonder about something else. If Scott Heisel is just short of getting a backpiece tat of Hold Steady singer Craig Finn (see that glowing review on our website?), does that mean that I, the sworn enemy of classic rock, is on the table next to him getting prepped for one, as well? Do people really think we've heard every single piece of music written about in one issue of AP? Do you haters think we all live together in harmony in a big treehouse with a fifty-foot neon AP logo nailed to the front? I bring this up because my cultural comrade Tim Karan was overheard at a bar saying how much he hated Needle Dik and the Bugfawkers, and now their manager is threatening to drive by my house and power-wash it with chicken excrement from an undisclosed factory farm. (Hey, I liked Need's first single, "That's Tight!" I have it on both digital download and thorax-green vinyl.)
On the other hand, screw everyone. ATL have never copped a 'tude with us the way those nu-metal skeeziks used to in their deluded sense of entitlement. If Scott wants to invent new categories to articulate his love for one of his fave acts (even if the term "inclusion rock" makes me want to lick my cats' litterboxes hospital-clean), I'm not stopping him. And Tim, go ahead and loathe ND&BF. If you've got the first round, I've got your back.
Oh, and don't go googling "Needle Dik and the Bugfawkers." Tim is so mellow, he doesn't hate anybody and I needed to get something in there, even if it was fictional and lifted from the very funny Peter Bagge. Be advised the first time an editor comes into work wearing Hyper Crush swag, I'm gonna paint a telephone on their face and dial 'em with an ice pick. As if I ain't got trouble enough...
4 Comments:
You're awesome(: When is the next AP Show being taped and posted?
I'm not a big ATL fan. But the readers of AP voted and that's who won. Maybe this next year one of my favorite bands will win, like Say Anything or AFI, but if they don't then whatever. As long as AP doesn't advertise what clothes an artist is wearing in a picture I'm pretty content with any shitty band on the cover as long as it pays the bills to put in an interview with the Street Dogs.
It does kinda seem sometimes like AP is the "official All Time Low magazine" cause they're in there so much, but hey, the people want what they want, yeah? Like kapy53 said, as long as AP keeps on primarily covering good music, you guys can slap whoever you want on the cover, and it won't bother me a bit.
as the writer of the ATL story, i have to say that the band and its crew were nothing but generous, accommodating and genuinely nice people. i've interviewed a lot of folks in the last decade or so, and i can tell fake from a mile away. but i did a lot of observing when i was hanging out with them, and ATL were the real deal. hate their music if you will, but i dare you to dismiss a band who went out in 30 degree weather to greet 75+ fans who were dying to meet them. no artifice, no attitude, no b.s. they earned my respect -- and you should feel the same way. trust me, not every band takes the time to care about their fans or be so accommodating and open.
Post a Comment
<< Home