Amateurs!
I shouldn't even waste my time responding to this shite, where an anonymous author spends over 700 words telling everyone why the Top 40 list sucks, but apparently doesn't even take the time to read the thing.
First—the actual voting panel is composed of 20 people including Mr. Information Leafblower. So he’s off by 20...Unless Mr. Information Leafblower can’t add. This would be bad news since he has assumed the role of pollster...There is the caveat: “I emailed over 40.” If that caveat is true than he got a shit response. That’s good enough reason to skip the poll. If more than half your participants failed to bother, doesn’t that tell you something?
Right, becuase all us pajama clad bloggers don't have lives or anything. God forbid people are too busy to send in their lists. I was quite happy with the number of people that did. I obviously invited more people than I thought would participate. And this douchebag obviously can't count. There were 21 panelists from 20 different websites. Next...
These bloggers have a vested interest in who they pick. At worst it’s a victory lap of we-told-you-so’s. At best, it’s just a lazy and boring—in the way lists are lazy and boring—way to promote themselves. We buzzed therefore these artists must be good and we must be good for telling you so.
How do I have a vested interest in what bands I like? Over 700 words telling everyone why my "lazy and boring" endeavor is a failure isn't self-masturbatory and self-promoting? We're bad, so you must be good, right?
In the end, though, Sufjan Stevens was still the No. 1 choice with 19 votes or points or whatever.
What part of this do you not understand?
So here is this year's list. Numbers in parenthesis indicate a band's ranking on last year's list.
To quote Christopher Walken, "You are a, how you say, Douchebag."
But wait it gets better!
The bloggers should not have conducted this poll. It only exposes their own provincial, white bread tastes. It exposes their main weakness and that is that they are navel gazing, jerk off vessels for wanna be rock critics...This just displays their limitations as open-minded, critical thinkers.
The main page of their site features content pertaining to Rocket From the Crypt, Deerhoof, The Fiery Furnaces, Harvey Danger, The Spinto Band, Gogol Bordello, Giant Drag, Broken Social Scene, The Pixies, Dischord Records, Ted Leo and John Vanderslice. They also have a NEW FEATURE, a blog roundup (how original! There are some forward thinkers manning the boards on this site!) featuring friends like Coolfer and Fluxblog.
Hello kettle? This is the pot. You're black.
**UPDATE**
Looks like some of the guys behind Pitchfork-lite work here at the Washington City Paper. Since they are gutless bastards, posting their work anonymously, let's take a look at the musical tastes of the Econoculture staff, shall we?
Jason Cherkis is a senior writer for the Washington City Paper. If this piece is any indication, he's definitely the bitchy sort. According to his 2004 Pazz and Jop ballot, he likes the Fiery Furnaces, Madvillian and Brian Wilson. Not exactly unconventional as far as his picks go, in fact pretty safe. Let's see if we notice a trend here.
Mike Kanin is an editorial assistant at the Washington City Paper. According to this, he digs Fugazi, Ted Leo, Bjork and Aphex Twin. So he likes dance music you can't dance to.
Matt Kirkpatrick has his own website, trolls Craigslist and is starting a "melodic hardcore" band. The world absolutely needs another one of those. According to this he likes Sunno))) (hey, it's metal for the Other Music set), Bjork, Snoop Dogg(he is so keepin' it real!) and Q and Not U.
Constantine Caloudas also had a Pazz and Jop ballot. He likes The Fiery Furnaces, Madvillian, Brian Wilson (Groupthink! Sheep!) and The Mountain Goats. Groundbreaking stuff here. These guy are really thinking outside the box with their picks. He likes to name drop Bob Pollard when reviewing R Kelly and is also the guy that wrote the I-pee-on-you-for-an-iPod article that made Daniel Lubrano so happy.
Brian Montopoli, another contributor, wrote something for the NY Times explaining how little known bands gain buzz when blogs write about them. So, say we include a little known band in the Top 40 list, people might go check them out and listen to them? Sorry, that just sounds self-mastubatory to me.
Another contributor, David Dunlap Jr., likes the Fiery Furnaces and Madvillian too! I tell you, the worst thing about all these lists "is their predictability. It’s like a white boy polled his dorm. OK. A smarty pants dorm."
I could go on, but I think everyone gets the point by now. I guess it's OK for these guys to contribute their own "provincial, white bread taste" top 10 lists to something like Pazz and Jop or (god forbid) the Washington City Paper, but if some bloggers get together and do the same thing amongst ourselves, then we are self serving, self-mastubatory douches, exposing our "main weakness and that is that we are navel gazing, jerk off vessels for wanna be rock critics." As opposed to being real life navel gazing, jerk off rock critics.
This "EconoWire" author must be staggering around the countryside looking for brains to eat.
The whole "vested interest" thing is Sad Sacks Beyond Stupid-dome. What "vested interest" do I have in naming a band number one? I am assuming that the author means that once a year, we get together and say, "Hey, guys. Let's maximize our credibility by reinforcing each other's opinions." Umm, no. The list itself demonstrates that there actually is very little consensus among bloggers, that the sum of wildly divergent opinion reveals points of intersection that surprise even the participants.
The real vested interest is that Information Leafblower is a publication that delivers PURE READING SATISFACTION, while EconoWire is something I'm going to forget the name of within 24 hours. Poor babies and their inferiority complexes.
I've gotta agree. That post was blog attitude at its worst. People should just accept the poll for what it is and cut out the insults and accusations.
The results weren't all that predictable, if I may disagree with many who have commented on the poll. Before the poll would anybody have guessed The National would be #2? Not me.
The most popular are always going to rise to the top when points are assigned by rank in the vote. The top ten shows only overlap. The diversity in the responses can be seen in your post the following day in which you listed all the bands nominated. (And, hey, did anybody ever notice there are a lot more blogs devoted to indie rock than there are devoted to country, hip hop, jazz and classical...combined?)
And there *is* a lot of diversity there, much more than I would have expected from 21 voters who, admittedly, tend to listen to a lot of the same music.
Econo folks, I hope you'll stop throwing stones from behind the comforting veil of the Internet. That post was juvenile and rude, not to mention poorly argued.
I like how they're getting in the respondees' grill for being sheep, predictable, closed minded, etc, but just a couple days ago, I got an email from some dude who writes for Econoculture advertising an interview with Zak Sally, obvious hoping for linkage. Which I did, but now rather regret.
Wow, what a load of crap. I was responding to it in my head as I read, too bad M(s). Econonymous wasn't around to have some sense slapped into him(her). I don't know who/what wrote this or how to comment to that fool, so I will do so briefly here.
I like this:
"At best, it’s just a lazy and boring—in the way lists are lazy and boring"
Right, but what is your pointless and boring rant but a LIST in the form of paragraphs?! I'll help you here...you clearly NUMBER each point, you know - they way one does when they make a list. If your goal was to show how lazy and boring lists are by making one of your own, well done.
"It exposes their main weakness and that is that they are navel gazing, jerk off vessels for wanna be rock critics"
Dude - Econonymous if I can call you that - stop talking to yourself. Nothing I've read on the blogs of the people polled smells so much like a wanna be critic who hasn't gotten their way as your rant does.
Alright, enough of that. Did I agree with which artist placed where and who was/wasn't included? No, but that's the fun of such things.
For the record, I don't want to be a rock critic, I'm not a rock critic and I will never be a rock critic.
Kyle, if you ever see me starting to look (baggy pants, blazer with elbow patches) or act (snobby, self-righteous) like a rock critic, you have my permission to knock me over the head with a Billy Joel box set as hard as you'd like.
Just because I tend to stand in the back of the club with all the rock critics doesn't mean I am one. That's where all the jaded industry people hang out.
Y'know, that place just set a new record: shortest lifespan of a site in my bookmarks. Added it this morning, nuked it this afternoon. Well played, mystery econo-person. Well played, indeed.
And as much as I'm enjoying the fun-making of him/her, it's too bad they'll get the additional traffic... likely that's what they're looking for. Still, can't fault the other writers (and their generally pretty ace subject matter) for this one goofball's rant.
New list! Top 5 most wrong-headed responses to the ILB Top 40 US bands list. Go!
Actually, I'm too lazy and boring to start that, right?
pop culture lists are always fun due to the fact that they are normally subjective, and are good fodder for discussion/argument. while the bands that compromised your final list may not have been surprising in any sense, the reaction of econoculture seemed over the top, in a weird way.
What a waste of time, critisising such a list.
It's clear there must be some power in your (collective) words. he must have spent quite a while going to such an effort. Well I say effort. It's more of a stream of consiousness that dried up long ago.
You should follow your own advice some more and not waste anymore time responding to critics. This list and your good intentions for wanting one are almost entirely wasted with this tit-for-tat cyber mudslinging. For fuck’s sake, we’re just going to have to go through this all over again when the best album lists come out in a month.
Served, sliced, diced and owned. Well done Kage.
Jason Cherkis' name appears on Econoculture's masthead, which all but brands their enterprise as a factory of simpering twats.
I just found you and I will go kick their shite for you.
Hi, just found your thoughtful response to our criticism of your poll. Just a few corrections - the piece isn't anonymous, although I guess it appears that way. The author can be found on the index page for that section of the site. I'll correct. Either way, you've found us all from our masthead.
As for my own site, which is read by maybe ten friends, I also name-check indie-cool Metal Church, Social Distortion, and Paint it Black on the front page. I'll admit my musical taste is pretty run-of-the-mill. You really had to dig to find Bjork? As for Sunn - I think that was a reference to a guitar cabinet which I use in my melodic hardcore band which is, as you've noted, pretty derivative.
Oh, I see the problem - you've got me linked to Mike's CP list.
the article absolutely appears to be anonymous, which is the worst part. if you're going to pen a poorly-written, incoherent and unthoughtful criticism of something, you should at least put your name by it. what kind of site do you have to put effort into looking for who wrote an article instead of just having the byline in the regular place?
Author added - sorry for the confusion. We don't normally give those a byline. If you look at the index for that section, you can see that it's not our intent for those to be anonymous. Thanks for reading!
Matt Kirkpatrick--while you're shifting bylines around, you ought to delete the author's name from that Howard Dean piece to spare her the embarrassment of having written it. She needs to learn what "pronouns" do and develop metaphors different from "balls" and "smelling."
Jason Cherkis is a corporate ninja, a character assassin the likes of which this world has rarely known. His taste for blood is only equaled by the scorn he carries toward all mankind. Careful what you say about him -- he's got powerful friends.
Don't say you haven't been warned.
Why should we trust this fool's poll. This is the same sucker that sells "bluestate" trucker hats! Dude, trucker hats are so 2003.
Give Leafblower some cred. Last year's poll only listed one hip-hop artist in its top 25--Eminem. Let's hope, dust settled, he googles "hip hop" and "blog" and finds a few worthies to participate next year.
Peace.
T-Dogg, maybe you can't fuckin' read, but Information Leafblower asked a number of hip-hop bloggers to join in the poll. He went over this and over this about a million billion times. They snoozed, they lost. Would you have rather us forced them to participate? Dumb ass. Take your third-rate accusations of racism back to the bottom of the barrel, and, what's the phrase I'm looking for...oh yeah: suck it.
The "Amateurs" followed by an "obviously-meant-to-be-blazing-white-hot" exclamation point kills me every time I've loaded this page. I return often for the semblance of solace it provides in this cruel, cruel world. The gift of laughter is perhaps the greatest gift of all, so many thanks Leafblower. You've made my day.
Bottom line is if one dosen't like the final list, then get some people together and generate your own. Be sure to post it so everybody gets a chance at standing on soapboxes to deride it.
Lists are for amateurs. I make them as often as I can.
Matt - Sunn cabinet? Nice. What are you running for a head? I favor Soldano myself, especially the HR-50. And the world always needs another melodic hardcore band. So few do it right in this day & age.
Kosmo - that's the wrong way to go about it. if you don't like a list, ignore it. dismiss it as tomfoolery and move on. the last thing we need now is for everyone to post their own lists here & there & everywhere. isn't pitchfork enough for everyone? ;)
DCeiver--it's funny. You stickin' up for Leafblower and all. Whites got to stick together.
The white list mania goes on Leafblower. Look at his author list--all white males. Way to stick to your kind.
And just so we all know who DCeiver is--glance his site and you see whitey screamin' atcha.
Peace
T-Dogg, I'm sure you have the backs of the gutless and the shallow.
DCeiver:
stick to writing about sports and "Lost." It suits you.