Collected Thoughts 10-01-09

• I just got back from the Buzzbands anniversary show at The Echo.
  
  Web In Front would have booked the best scene darlings. LA-Underground would have booked bands you haven't heard of yet. I would have booked a bunch of noisy bands that none of my friends like. But Bronson booked bands that know how to sing, tune their guitars, and write songs with hooks. His show was more impressive than any other blogger night would have been. These weren't my favorite bands, but they were worth my time.
  
  K-Bronz packed the place pretty well. You know who wasn't there? A few hundred members of dozens of local bands who Kevin called significant attention to over the last three years. How much door money has Bronson made local bands over the years? I was really, really disappointed with the musician turnout. Show some gratitude, ya'll.
  

• Samuel Stewart: Totally Dave Stewart's son in a talented-by-virtue-of-DNA sense. Absolutely significant beyond being his father's son. Pitchforkies should love it, too.
  

• I really like The Eastern Conference Champions. I could only stay for three songs, but it broke my heart to leave. Give these guys a residency already.

• November 2nd: Shonen Knife and Mike Watt at The Echo. Fuck yes.

• To date, Mike Watt and the Missingmen's opening set at the Henry Clay People residency is my Best Show of 2009.
  

• Pitchfork's Albums of the Decade are unconscionable. I stopped taking the list seriously when they had Beck's Sea Change at #82. (Try top 10, kids.) More than any other Important List that The Fork has vomited into the poisoned minds of misguided music vampires, this list mistakes a willful lack of perspective and selected mainstream picks for critical balls.
  
  The list has no narrative. It doesn't take a stand on what music this decade should have been and why their selected albums meet that requirement. Save for a few P4K mainstays (Ted Leo, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs) their list seems to bashfully ignore their indie rock roots for the more recent slew of terrible bands.
  
  In its prime Rolling Stone was absolutely wrong on a number of bands and records now considered classics, but the magazine had a true editorial voice. Pitchfork's bloody collapse into absolute terrible music journalism hasn't much to do with the writers (who are, for the most part, pretty terrible) or the era music of music they're in (which, for the most part, is not great).
  
  Pitchfork sucks because the editors are awful.
  
  (Coming full circle: Kevin Bronson would turn that shit around. Pipe dream, I know.)

• The Mole People of Las Vegas. (!!!!)
  

• I've been thinking about the Roman Polanski thing a lot.
  
  Before I'm misunderstood, I personally think he ought to be prosecuted.
  
  In this particular case, I think it is pretty clear that a grown man deliberately loosened the will of a child so he could have sex with her. I don't believe in a statute of limitations for these kinds of things and though I think the justice system would be better served by more flexible, circumstance-based sentencing, I don't think 30+ years in "exile" under the protection of the European elite counts as "punishment enough". I don't think it matters whether or not the victim wants to prosecute; I'm a "big government" kind of guy and the needs of the state to prosecute justice are paramount here.
  
  But...
  
  There's a large segment of people ("tough on crime" men and nearly every mother) who have bothered me in their lack of thoughtfulness about the issue. I'm of course talking about the outrage -- OUTRAGE! -- at the "Hollywood liberals" for "defending a rapist and a child molester".
  
  I think there is a central truth to what people like Whoopi Goldberg are trying to articulate, something that most artists and liberals understand, something that often escapes the minds of "The Middle". That truth is that sexual encounters of any kind are wrought with gray areas. A sexual misunderstanding, a date rapist, a mentally-ill rapist, and a violent predator rapist are not all the same thing. Their motives and the events caused by them matter, especially if we want to reduce these occurrences. Furthermore, our society's fear of sex impedes our ability to implement a structurally sound justice system that intelligently makes these important distinctions.
  
  Roman Polanski, an 18 year-old guy having sex with a willing 16 year-old partner, and Christopher Webb are the same thing in the eyes of the law. That's also tragic. Saying so doesn't mean you're on the side of rapists. Righteous indignation is fucking worthless.

• There's also something grotesquely decadent about the crime. The location, the setting, the drugs, the alcohol, the parties involved... it was all so... like those fucks thought they were invincible because of who they were. I have a lot less sympathy for criminals who think they're invincible than criminals who are desperate.