'The Century' Begins

Welcome to Following the Century. After some time wandering in the wilderness of snarky cultural commentary on the Internet, I've come to the conclusion that there's a place for serious, earnest writing - even in blogs. I'm also determined to offer an alternative to the wave of unmitigated relativism sweeping cultural criticism - not an anti-universalist, racially or culturally coded alternative, but one that acknowledges the occasional failings of conflating sales numbers with quality. Thanks for bearing with me through the manifesto...now on to a couple of thoughts.



All too often, instrumental rock artists have to suffer through seasonal comparisons and adjectives - their music gets the "fall" or "winter" tag, and it sticks. I have to say, the members of Georgia's Maserati have nailed the feel of fall perfectly on their "new" album (it's been out since the beginning of this year). Granted, the name - Inventions for the New Season - begs that interpretation, but I challenge you to put this one on in the car or room over the next couple months. You'll see what I mean. The combination of faster, delayed guitar leads with slow chord changes (or no changes at all) has something to do with it - the effect is one of change and continuity at the same time. Anyway, I've had the album since it came out, but I'll be playing it quite a bit for the duration of the season.

Speaking of problems in contemporary criticism, I have trouble thinking of anything by way of critical reception that's bothered me more than some of the objections to the latest Go! Team album, Proof of Youth. I'm not entirely sure that Proof doesn't deserve some of the panning it's been subjected to so far - it does feel like a retread of Thunder Lightning Strike in a lot of ways. At the same time, it's troubling to see critics and bloggers from indie backgrounds turn so harshly on a band they were initially so eager to promote.

The clear lesson is that the hype-then-trash cycle of indie criticism isn't doing anyone any favors - it hurts bands, it confuses listeners, and it makes all of us look like fickle, indecisive morons. American indie pop seems to be feeding this cycle, with countless bands churning out catchy, bloggable tracks (just enough per album to have some variety in the mp3 links), never pausing to think about sustainability over the course of a career or even an individual album. Bloggers and critics are even more culpable here, obviously, since we let the Tapes 'n Tapes or Clap Your Hands of the world sound like the second coming of Television or Pavement in our writeups. If you catch me contributing to the problem on this blog, call me on it.