gotjenkins.com

Last night, Laura and I watched the Grammys, the only award show that I have any interested in. Honestly, I’m only even interested in the Grammys because of the performances and collaborations, which can range from fantastic (Foo Fighters with Chick Corea, Times Like These) to boring (Dave Matthews Band, The Space Between) to the bizarre (Katy Perry’s plastic fruit motif).

So in no particular order, here’s what I think about last night’s performances (or, at least the ones that stand out in my mind):

U2 – I’m trying hard to reserve judgment on the new album until I get a chance to give it an in depth listen, but… I just don’t like the new single. I don’t know what it is about it, but I just don’t care for it yet. Even if it grows on me, I don’t know that last night’s performance ever will. Bono wearing eye shadow? A giant screen with the lyrics as Bono sings them? It just didn’t feel like the usual awesomeness I expect from U2.

Stevie Wonder & the Jonas Brothers – This sounded OK. What I mean by that is this: If I closed my eyes and only listened to the performance, it would have been OK. I don’t know who had the idea to pair them up with Stevie Wonder, but for some reason it really irked me that every time Stevie played or sang something, one of the Jonas Brothers would shout into the mic “Take it away, Stevie!” or “Yeah, Stevie!” or some shit like that. Boys – let’s make sure we’re clear on something here: It’s Mr. Wonder to you. Also, I thought I saw something odd last night during their performance, and other folks on the internet seem to have noticed it too: The Jonas Brother playing the white guitar and occasionally singing doesn’t really play his guitar. He carries it on stage like he’s going to play it, he moves his hands up and down the frets, and he moves his right hand up and down like he’s strumming, but… not only does his guitar not make any discernible sound or noise, but his strumming hand doesn’t strum in time with the music that you do hear, and his left hand slides up and down the fretboard without making any actual chords. Maybe I’m nuts, and maybe the other people who noticed it are nuts too, but… something is not quite right there. And how come every time Stevie Wonder was on screen, these three kids had to run over there and get in the shot with him like they belonged there?

Speaking of people who didn’t really play the guitar: Kenny Chesney. Sat on a bar stool and sang while playing a 6 string guitar and his backup band performed. My first problem here is similar to what I mentioned above: His strumming/picking hand movements didn’t at all match the sounds coming from his guitar. My second problem is that Kenny played a 6 string, which was nowhere to be found in the mix. The only acoustic that could be heard in the mix was a 12 string, presumably being played by someone in his band. Musically, this was OK, I guess. Not really my genre.

Al Green, Justin Timberlake, Keith Urban, Boys II Men: Awesome, awesome, awesome. They all sounded great. I thought Al and Justin sounded great together, and Keith had a nice solo somewhere. Didn’t really notice the presence of Boys II Men, though. Were they just backup?

Coldplay & Jay-Z: Again, this was pretty neat. I’m not a huge coldplay fan, but Viva la Vida is a pretty great all around album, and this was neat performance. I didn’t know until later that there is actually a studio cut of Lost with Jay-Z on the iTunes extended version of the album.

Kid Rock: What the fuck is he still doing on TV, at the grammys, or in the spotlight in general? Rock and Roll Jesus? And that stupid song based on Werewolves of London? That’s all it takes to get on TV now?

Taylor Swift & Miley Cyrus: I had no idea that Taylor Swift could sing that well. I don’t know anything about her, but I thought her voice sounded great.

Katy Perry: Seriously? What the hell was with the fruit? I don’t really care for her single, and that performance didn’t really do anything to change my mind.

Paul McCartney/Dave Grohl: Paul is a Beatle, and sounded like a Beatle playing a Beatles song. He sounded good. Dave Grohl was a monster. He wasn’t flashy and didn’t show off, he just sat behind the kit and rocked the fuck out.

Radiohead: This kicked so much more ass than I thought it would. I was genuinely impressed at the end of their performance. The USC marching band was a pretty fantastic addition.

Neil Diamond: I like Sweet Caroline, but Neil has an old white guy singing habit that I hate: talking through the song, instead of singing. It’s not a spoken word piece, it’s a song. Quit doing the Shatner thing and sing the damn song.

Mayer/BB King/Buddy Guy/Keith Urban: Quite the consortium of guitars on stage. A cool collaboration, although if you told me what the lineup was going to be before the performance, I never would have guessed that BB King would be the one that shone the least out of that group (although I am glad to see that he still plays). I didn’t even recognize Buddy Guy, I had to look it up to see who he was. I’m a little embarrassed by that.

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss: There may be a lot of merit in their work together, and they may be doing really great stuff, but for some reason I just can’t get into it. Admittedly, I haven’t heard the whole Raising Sand album. While the handful of tracks I have heard are pretty good, I just can’t get into it. It’s almost kind of… boring? Maybe I’m biased because I want him to give this other shit a rest and do the Zeppelin reunion tour. That must be it. Good to see that Robert Plant still comes off like an egotistical prick, though.

So that’s my long winded summary of the performances last night. If I have to sum up this year in one line, then I guess this is my glowing review: For me, there were more really neat and interesting moments than there were WTF bizarro moments. Great sales pitch, right?

I listened to Dave Matthews’ ‘Some Devil’ this week for the first time in ages – entirely by accident, mind you. I was blindly reaching for a CD in my car and that was what I grabbed.

What a fantastic CD this is. I had almost forgotten just how great it is. It’s easily the best thing that has come from Dave since Before These Crowded Streets (the last truly great CD DMB has released to date.)

The thing that is really interesting about it is that you can listen to the songs on it and hear direct influences or sounds from other artists, yet at the same time those influences have the recognizable Dave Matthews sound.

‘Baby’ is the James Taylor signature lullabye song
‘Save Me’ would fit right in on Bridges to Babylon
‘Gravedigger’ has a little of the Led Zeppelin sound
‘Trouble’ has some U2 in it
‘Grey Blue Eyes’ has a little Clapton in the riff
‘Too High’ has the Radiohead psychosis

At the same time, ‘Oh,’ ‘Some Devil,’ ‘Stay or Leave,’ and ‘So Damn Lucky’ are 100% Dave Matthews. I think ‘Some Devil’ (the song) is especially wonderful. It’s one of my favorite sad bastard songs, as is ‘Stay or Leave.’ It’s safe to say I’d be much more excited for a Dave Matthews followup album than a new DMB album (although, things are shaping up to be pretty good for the DMB album too.)

Speaking of all things Dave Matthews – Tour dates were published last week and there’s no Saint Louis date. There’s a Kansas City date, but no Saint Louis date? What is that about? I want them to start doing two night runs at riverport again, and they cut the only date we get.

Indy it is, then. That works out OK too, that’s the weekend of Laura’s birthday, and it’s probably the last year for concerts at Deer Creek, so I’d like to make it there one last time anyway. My boss’s sister works for LiveNation and has a ticket connection, so she’s going to take care of us this year and I won’t be taking my chances in the Warehouse lottery for the first time in seven years.

That’s kind of scary, at least for me. Hopefully we can find someone who will sell us the artsy Warehouse ticket stubs after the fact.

I don’t think that I’ve ever adequately professed the awesomeness of Matt Nathanson in the history of this website. So, without any further ado:

Matt Nathanson is fantastic. Sure, he’s not for everyone, and I know that there’s lots of people who are turned off on him for a handful of reasons (he’s too vulgar on stage, he covers 80’s hair band songs, whatever,) but he’s been writing some great songs the past few years and he has absolutely one of the best live shows that I’ve ever seen. He’s fun, energetic, he always interacts with the crowd, and he works his ass off to make sure that crowd leaves talking about how great the show was.

So in April of 05 he did a short little record store tour promoting the live album he just released. One of the stops on the tour was Streetside Records (at the Loop.) The recording and setlist can be found at the archive, here: http://www.archive.org/details/mn2006-04-29.instore.

Pluses and minuses to this, obviously. The plus here is that it’s free, and it would be a relatively intimate setting compared to the normal stage-concert.

The cons: A very much abridged setlist, likely not to clock in at over half an hour, the possibility of having way too many people crammed into a record store, and (as we would find out later) Matt’s manager/crew/whoever being a total pain in the ass about taping the show.

Laura, Christine, and myself all went to this. It was at about 10:30 in the morning (and Christine’s first live matt experience) and he stars absolutely came into alignment for this. The weather was bad – it was the coldest day we’d had in a few weeks, and it was raining and gloomy all day. So needless to say, everyone who was there wanted to be there.

Not only was it a very small crowd, but everyone was perfectly behaved. They laughed when he was funny, they were quiet when he sang, and they didn’t talk on cell phones during songs. Matt was funnier than usual, played some stuff that was neat to hear in that setting, and the recording sounds fantastic – really worth checking out if you’re even just a little bit of a fan. The whole show is worth having, but Car Crash, Detroit Waves, and Suspended are especially fantastic if you only want to check out a few.

The Matt Nathanson trifecta is now complete – I’ve professed the greatness of Matt, reviewed the Matt show that we went to, and made a shameless plug for one of my own Matt recordings.

2006 seems like it came and went pretty quick. You probably aren’t asking and don’t care what I did all year; since that’s the case, I’ll ask for you and pretend that you do indeed care.

“So, what DID you do all year, if you didn’t spend it sitting in front of a computer, posting messages on the internet?”

Well that’s a good question, I’m glad you asked.

I started 2006 in a really horribly way – with a wicked hangover. New years eve was spent at Betsy’s bachelorette pad, and involved wayyy to much alcohol. I don’t even really remember what, other than 151 and some corn whiskey bottled as ‘moonshine.’

Here’s a little bit of a laundry list, I might elaborate on some of these later on:

-In late December 2005 I did finally get my promotion; that coupled with a nice year-end raise has made things a bit more financially comfortable

-I worked my ass off in January though April. It’s audit season in our office, and we were a person down, so I worked some late late nights and weekends. Seriously, I think that might be the only significant thing I did the first quarter of the year. I worked, and I slept.

-In April, I decided to start saving money to move out. Since I was still paying off credit cards from college, I set a very modest goal of having $3,000 saved up by year end. (Actual year end savings: $3,400)

-Switched banks for my savings money. Twice.

-Made my first ‘real’ live concert audio recording (Matt Nathanson at Streetside Records, 4/29/06 – get it here: http://www.archive.org/details/mn2006-04-29.instore

-Saw DMB twice in May: Saint Louis (which was both the tour opener, fantastic, and the return of JTR that I’d been waiting 5 years for), and Kansas City.

-Was in Charlie’s & Katie’s wedding in June. DVD of the wedding = not done.

-Was in Christine’s & Matt’s wedding in July. DVD of the wedding = not done.

-Saw DMB twice in August: Both in Ohio. Night one was meh, night two was really great (other than the walk to and from the parking lot) Government mule = great.

-Found out in August that things with Laura’s mom were much more serious than we had thought

-Bought Laura a camera she wanted/needed (the Canon EOS-30D) for her birthday / our anniversary.

-Saw Tim Reynolds in September (and recorded tape #2)

-Went to Maria’s wedding in September, where Laura did some wedding photography

-Saw Matt Nathanson and Carbon Leaf in October (and recorded audience tapes #3 and 4)

November and December seemed really busy, but in retrospect, all it seems like I did was work, goof around, and help take care of Laura while she was taking non-stop care of her family.

So, all in all, a shitty start and a shitty end to an otherwise alright year. In all fairness, February is just about here already, and 2007 hasn’t exactly started off ideally either, but at least there’s still time to make the eleven and a half months to come better.

we had to revise the DMB schedule for the summer. we’re now doing ohio in august and st louis/kansas city in may. september’s out. it’s too far away and it will be too hard to get the time off. looks like charges have come through for all of my tickets. originally there were only pending charges for the ohio shows and I was worried that I would be taking my chances with ticketbastard… I haven’t had to use ticketmaster for DMB tickets since 2000, and i’d like to keep that winning streak alive.

the new matt nathanson live album comes out next week, but itunes started selling it yesterday. probably in error, i’d imagine. so even though i preordered it, i went ahead and downloaded it from someone last night so that I had something to listen to at work today. i’ve heard some initial complaints about the mix and stuff, but i honestly think it’s pretty good. quite enjoyable, if you ask me. there’s also a track where matt talks about how he ripped his pants last time he was in saint louis (http://www.gotjenkins.com/rippedpants.mpg). thankfully we were able to catch that moment on video, as it’s hysterical. watch it if you haven’t seen it. lots of people are down on matt; usually because he swears like a drunken sailor or because he plays covers of 80’s hair band hits, but i’ve grown to enjoy his music and his concerts quite a bit.

I’m also excited for his new album that should be out later in the year. he road tested some of the new stuff last summer/fall, and it’s all been pretty good so far. i’m interested to see where he goes with it in a studio and with the band.

i never thought i’d say this, but i’m also excited about john mayer’s continuum, which should be out this year. it’s two discs, from what i’ve read: a john mayer trio style disc (which better have ‘another kind of green’ and ‘gravity’) and an ‘inside wants out’ style disc, which should also be good.

what else am i interested in? video games. now that our audit is finished, i’ve had some time to catch up on all the games that i bought or got for christmas. i’ve played KOTOR II twice now – once good and once evil – and that was great. hopefully there will be a KOTOR III that will bring together the paths of Revan and the Exile in the unknown regions. great games.

now i’m working on Black and White II, which is a little bit like Sim City, except you’re a god instead of a mayor. it’s a pretty cool concept, and unlike Sim City, there’s actually missions and objectives and a plot (which was always one of my big bitches about the sim-games.) you can be an evil god or a compassionate god, and you have a creature – an avatar – that basically serves as your pet and does your bidding. it can crush the enemy, or eat people, or take a crap on a villager (or if the good god is more your thing, it can build buildings, gather food, and entertain people.) it’s pretty fantastic, although in all fairness, i’m not very far into the game.

after that i’m going to start kingdom hearts two, which is finally out. i’ve played it for about an hour now pretty much just screwing around, and i think it’s got the potential to be really enjoyable. plus from what i’ve read, it ties up all the loose ends and actually answers all the plot questions.

after that? who knows. too far away. i know that at some point i need to tackle fable: the lost chapters and dragon quest eight (i even bought one of the slime controllers to play it with), and i have a bunch of other stuff too.

better hurry, though: the ps3, a new zelda, and final fantasy XII are all quickly approaching. not to mention plenty of other quality titles that aren’t as ‘big name.’

speaking of games, laura’s playing through FFIX right now. i had almost forgotten how great of a game that was. everything about it – from the game play to the plot to the character development – was really good. the ending is one of the best out there, which is saying something considering that the FF games are often hit-or-miss on the endings…

[/dork]

alright, so i like video games and music. leave me alone, damnit. some people do drugs, some people get tatoos, some collect weird things, and yet others like the naked time in large groups. we all have our vices – mine’s just kind of geeky.

well it’s that wonderful time of year again – the dmb published their summer tour dates this week.

what’s on tap this year:

5/30 saint louis
5/31 kansas city
8/1 ohio
8/2 ohio
9/22 charlottesville
9/23 charlottesville

that’s a highly theoretical list. financial restraints, work/time off restraints, and ticket availability all influence this list. saint louis is probably a definate, considering it’s the only one that i can go to without missing any work. kansas city is the most likely to cause a problem, just because of the time of year that it is for me and for laura. ohio is anyone’s guess, and charlottesville is perfect for me schedule wise, but i am concerned that the tickets are going to be a hot commodity.

i’m also looking forward to some matt nathanson shows in the area, but all of the summer dates aren’t out yet. bela fleck and the flecktones are also in town on april first, and I think we’re hitting that (but i dont know if we’re taping it or not… seems like it might be a pain in the ass to get our stuff in.)

i would really like to see some mike doughty tour dates come up, along with maybe some robert randolph shows. maybe i’ll hit up pollstar and see what is coming up that i didn’t know about… i’m having a little bit of concert withdrawl right now. concert cabin-fever, if you will. the cure? more cowbell.

lunch is about up, but when i get a chance i have a story about my family to tell that just might explain why i’m crazy.

just in case you like matt nathanson and missed my various posts on the matt boards, here’s a couple of videos worth checking out. neat shit always seems to happen at the matt shows i’m at.

from last year’s matt show (9.28.04):
lost myself – ripped pants (right click and save as)

and from this year’s matt show (10.30.05):
suspended – yelling douchebag (right click and save as)

make sure you watch that suspended video all the way to the end.

the matt shows were great. we’ve taped them for DVD authoring and hopefully will be able to get them out soon – the 9.28.04 is almost ready to go, and the 10.30.05 and 11.01.05 shouldn’t take much work. the hardest part of it will be figuring out what the openers played (we taped those too.)

that being said, if anyone happens to be a big fan of matt wertz, graham colton, kate earl, or kyle riabko, drop me a line.

let’s see, what else is going on…

oh yeah, it’s december, i guess it’s time for the christmas list!

i’ll put in as much as i can remember and edit in anything that i forget (keep in mind that this is a wish list and i won’t be able to get or afford all of this crap.)

U2 – Live in Chicago DVD
DMB – Weekend on the Rocks box set
Santana – All that I am (or whatever the new cd is called)
Pink Floyd – Pulse DVD
Traffic – Gold (2 disc collection)
Knights of the Old Republic II – PC
Fable the Lost Chapters – PC
Doom III – PC
new DVD burner
new/upgraded mics for audio recording (my mic is crap right now)
external firewire hard drive controller
1GB SD memory card (for an MP3 player)
Dragon Quest VIII – PS2
Soul Caliber 3 – PS2
Nintendo Gamecube (used or otherwise)
Super Smash Bros. and Zelda – Windwaker for said gamecube

that’s all i can think of. i don’t expect to get all (or even most) of this, it’s a wish list.

i’m also interested in a few other things, but i don’t know if they will be out in time for christmas.

Final Fantasy 4 – GBA (if it’s out in time)
Kingdom Hearts 2 (oh yeah that’s right it got the square soft BIG GAME DELAY!)
Final Fantasy – Advent Children (I preordered this – when the hell does it come out?!? seems like it’s been delayed a couple times now…)
Final Fantasy XII (another big game delay from square)
Matt Nathanson – Live at the Point
Matt Nathanson – the New album
Legend of Zelda – Twilight Princess
Xenosaga III (still REALLY far away, but it’s a great story and i’m anxious to see how they tie it up)

[geek]
seriously, the gamecube is just for the zelda games. nintendo has done a really good job of keeping classic old game franchises going and i haven’t had a chance to check any of them out. it’s a good time to like video games, but it’s also an expensive time, given the xbox 360 is now out and the PS3 will hit shelves in the spring. If the nintendo revolution can do all the shit they claim it will, it will be a must as well.

expensivo.

oh yeah – i’m thinking about buying a used or refurbished xbox. not because i want to play games on it or anything, but because i want to try turning it into a fully functional PC. it has everything you need – network connections, sound and video, a hard drive, USB for inputs, a CD/DVD drive… they say all you need is a certain game (i dont remember what) and some kind of hardware piece and you can install an operating system and all kinds of shit. i want to try it just to see if it works. seems like it would be a pretty convenient thing – an xbox sized pc you could hook up to a TV.

[/geek]

[major geek]

oh, and whats up with star wars? are they putting a complete sage 6 movie boxed set together or what? pack that thing with all kinds of extras and unreleased footages, slap a $100 price tag on it, and let’s get the ball rolling here. i want to buy the third movie, but i’m not just because i know a boxed saga set HAS to be right around the corner… doesn’t it? maybe i’ll rent revenge of the sith to check out the extras just to hold me over.

maybe they could charge $150 and include some kind of crazy replica light saber or something.

[/major geek]

so, any of you audiophiles know anything about microphones and field recording? or perhaps mastering/remastering crappy audio with something like soundforge?

This is the third and final part of a three part series of blogs about bands, fans, and attitudes.

Part III: My thoughts on ’selling out.’

First, Some notes on selling out, from wikipedia:

“Selling out is a common slang phrase. Broadly speaking, it refers to the compromising of one’s integrity in exchange for money or other personal gain. It is commonly associated with attempts to increase mass appeal or acceptability to mainstream society. A person who does this is labelled a sellout.”

My problem with using the term ’selling out’ to describe a band is overusage. Selling out requires going against previously held beliefs, and fans tend to throw the term around whenever the band has not met their expectations. Is that really accurate? Can a fan really know what ideals, beliefs, or creative desires an artist has? The answer is usually a resounding no.

What winds up happening is that bands make a shift in artistic direction, and if the fans don’t like it, they immediately judge it as selling out. The problem with this is that it doesn’t really take any artistic development into account – just because it’s artistic development in a direction the old fans don’t like doesn’t change the fact that it’s artistic development, a natural process.

No band worth it’s salt releases the same album with the same sound and the same type of songs over and over again; it gets boring.

Let’s connect the dots now – the old fans want the band to keep producing material on the same level as their older classic stuff. Why? Because it’s what the fans like.

Seems reasonable, right? If the fans don’t like the change in direction, the fans want the band to produce the material that the fans like. But a change in direction means that’s not what the band wants…

That sounds familiar… where have I heard something like that before?

“…Broadly speaking, it [selling out] refers to the compromising of one’s integrity in exchange for other personal gain…”

Well I’ll be damned, I was right – I HAVE heard that before.

What’s the point? What am I getting at here? Why have I spent so much time and inconvenienced so many electrons to post these three soapbox rants?

It’s easy. The bottom line is this:

Hardcore fans, don’t piss in in the cheerios. Just because you aren’t happy with a band’s performance doesn’t mean that you should shit in everyone else’s shoes, and not everyone who IS happy with the current state of things is a ball washing ass kisser blinded to the truth.

Ball washing ass kissers blinded to the truth, just because others aren’t happy with a band’s status quo or think they could do better doesn’t mean that they are rotten grumps who aren’t true fans – not everything your favorite band does is solid gold.

And to those who classify themselves as the voice of reason? Keep on truckin’.

It’s just music. Either you dig it, or you don’t. It’s that easy. If you dig it, great. If you don’t, more power to you.

This is the second part of a three part series of blogs about bands, fans, and attitudes.

So there’s three groups of fans, and between them, they generally share two different attitudes about what direction a band’s music should be going in. While I understand the logic and ideas behind each philosophy, I think that one philosophy is great and the other tends to be a load of crap.

Philosophy 1: The band has been able to get where it’s at and succeed because of the longterm/serious fans, and their preferences should at least be considered. In the case of DMB, this means playing songs like Dreaming Tree and Typical Situation at concerts and putting out albums on par with 1994-1998’s material.

Philosophy 2: The band makes music for the band, they write and play what they want and go in directions that they want to go in. If the fans decide to listen, that’s great, and if not, there’s plenty of other bands to check out. In the case of DMB, that means working with producer Mark Batson (despite the giant moan of dissatisfaction from fan group #1), and that means playing ‘When the World Ends’ and ‘Old Dirt Hill’ just because they want to. If the fans decide they want to join along for the ride, that’s great; if they decide that they don’t like the direction the band is heading in, well, thanks for the support for all these years, but the band is going to do what it wants.

Neither of these philosophies apply perfectly to any band or their fanbase. These two examples are more along the lines of extremes on a spectrum; most tend fall somewhere in the middle and try to give at least a little bit in each direction. Most bands realize the importance of their ‘classic’ material and their hard core fans, and try to mix that in with whatever new direction they wish to go.

This only gets truly messy when the ‘hardcore’ fans decide that the band owes them something. It could be setlists with more classic songs, albums of the same style or direction as older material, or any number of other things. This is usually the time when the word ’sellout’ comes into play – more on that later. At this point, things in the fan community pretty much go to shit: the old school fans are bitching about, well, everything; alternatively, the loyalists defend everything the band does – the term ‘true fan’ gets thrown around alot here like it means something.

Finally, things get a little ‘for us or against us.’ If you genuinely like something new the band has done, then your lips are securely fastened to the ass of the band. Alternatively, if you’re critical of the band, all you do is piss and moan and you’re not really a fan.

This leave the ‘voice of reason’ group in a really neat position: they’re ballwashers who do nothing but bitch and moan and aren’t really fans.

It’s like these people (who are all fans of the same band, mind you) are political adversaries. Music is subjective and everyone is entitled to their opinions, but unless you agree with MY opinion YOUR opinion is wrong. …And you’re probably an idiot.

Pretty cool, eh?

Coming soon: The Last Stop – Some thoughts and notes on random topics.

This is the first part of a three part series of blogs about bands, fans, and attitudes.

If I were writing a paper on this, I suppose it could be called ‘a working model of band, fans, and attitudes.’ That is, if i wasn’t trying to use song lyrics for titles.

If you’ve at all been reading the DMB fan boards, you’ve probably seen a little bit of discussion about Dave and his attitude towards the ‘hardcore’ fans, who are often very ‘bitch-moan-gimme-gimme-mine-mine’ about the band. Dave even made a comment at red rocks to the fans chanting ‘Last Stop’ that the band would pretty much play whatever the hell they want, and some of the hardcore fans have expressed a dislike for that attitude.

So it goes something like this: The hardcore fans bitch and moan that the band does’t play what THEY want. They complain about the band and how misaligned their priorities are, and that the band should cater to the people who put them where they are today. When the band doesn’t do this, they’ve ‘become too commercial,’ ’sold out,’ or ‘have really gone downhill.’

The opposite of this, of course, are the ‘loyalists.’ These are the people who will blindly follow and listen to anything the band produces regardless of quality or content, and continually slam the ‘hardcore’ fans who piss and moan about everything the band does – ‘you’re not a TRUE fan,’ ‘the band isn’t indie enough for you,’ ‘this album is better than 99% of the stuff on the shelves right now.’

Left in the middle are a group of people I like to call ‘the voice of reason.’ The voice of reason tends to enjoy the band, but without ballwashing. They are capable of finding good things to like and enjoy even on albums that are sub-par for the band, but when the time is right, they are also capable of realizing that the band has laid a turd in the punch bowl.

This is true of any band with a respectably sized fanbase, not DMB specifically, although the model certainly applies to them. There’s certainly no right or wrong in terms of what group you should belong to, but as with most things in life, a little moderation is often best. Being the superfan doesn’t leave much room for reality, but bitching and moaning doesn’t seem to leave much room for fun or enjoyment.

Coming up next, Part two: Philosophies of making (and enjoying) music