NEW FEATURE: Five Questions -- Bands, please participate!

I'm sure you've noticed the lack of activity on Classical Geek Theatre as of late. There's a multitude of reasons, but the big one is that I've had to reduce my energy spent on music blogging and focus instead on my career goal, which is screenwriting.

The thing is that I've still got about 80% of my traffic and I'd hate to lose the audience. I've worked hard to build a relationship with publicists and labels, and I'd hate to waste that. I'd also hate to lose my attachment to the local music scene because I plan on resurfacing. So here's the deal:

In the interim I am offering a new feature called Five Questions. ANY one member of ANY band can play. Established acts and brand new bands, from LA or anywhere else. Just fill-out the questionaire, include the required info, and I'll post it. Email me here.

Keep your answers brief. (One or two paragraphs) I may edit overly long answers in good faith. I may crop the photos. Make sure you take time to redraft and edit yourself before sending. And please, answer the actual questions.

I don't have time to "deal with" this too much, so if you don't follow instructions (say, you don't send the photo) then I probably will just trash your email. But if you want to play along, it's a free bit of publicity for your band and hopefully we can have an ongoing dialog about music while I write EASTER SUNDAY, my captive horror script.


PLEASE INCLUDE:

• Put "FIVE QUESTIONS" in the email subject
• Your professional name
  
• Your Band Name
• ONE link that has streamable music from your band (myspace, LaLa, etc)
• If you have a label, manager, etc, you may include that info (with links)
• A good photo of YOU (not a band photo), at least 200 pixels wide.
  

FIVE QUESTIONS:

1. Background: What band do you play in, what is your role in that band, and how did you come to join / form the band? Also, self-describe what the band's music is like.
   
   (OR, similar background story for music writers, label owners, publicists, promoters, etc)
   
   
2. Name one album you feel is critically under-rated and one album that is critically over-rated. Defend your case.
   
   
3. What about today's music climate dissatisfies you? What do you long for in the music past or hope for in the future of music? Think about the big picture.
   
   
4. Is it important for culture-at-large to always have new bands and new songs? Why or why not?
   
   
5. Who wins in a fight between a gorilla and a walrus? Assume they are both healthy, adult specimens. The fight takes place on the beach with no trees (advantage: walrus) but there is one natural bludgeoning weapon, a piece of driftwood (advantage: gorilla). Defend your case.

EXAMPLE:


Background: What band do you play in, what is your role in that band, and how did you come to join / form the band? Also, self-describe what the band's music is like.

My name is Mouse and I play keytar in the post-noisepunk band Horror of Horrors. I joined-up when our lead singer, Puke Leto II, saw me busking on Echo Park Blvd for Snicker Bars.

Based in Los Angeles, Horror of Horrors is somewhere triangulated between Pylon, Guided by Voices, and The Mae Shi. Lots of post-humanist themes and angular guitars.


Name one album you feel is critically under-rated and one album that is critically over-rated. Defend your case.

I think Green Day's Warning got written-off way too soon. Lyrically, it is the most mature thing they've written. It's poppy, but doesn't have the expensive over-production of their lamentable "rock opera" phase. Warning isn't remarkable, but it is extremely listenable, no matter how uncool it is to say that.

And I know it's blasphemy, but I just don't care for Sgt. Peppers. Whereas on Pet Sounds I can imagine a tortured, mad-genius Brian Wilson doing everything he possibly can to justify his miserable existence, I just feel like the Beatles got lucky fucking around when they made Sgt. Peppers. I really appreciate it as an artifact, but I never want to listen to it.

Don't get me wrong, Sgt. Peppers > Warning.


What about today's music climate dissatisfies you? What do you long for in the music past or hope for in the future of music? Think about the big picture.

Look, it's awesome that music has been considerably democratized. (Well, it's more like a republic) I don't mourn the loss of super-acts that define an era, like Madonna or U2 or Prince. But the problem I see is that music journalism isn't performing its function as a filter.

That hack that writes Classical Geek Theatre is a perfect example. Yes, gonzo journalism is great. Yes, in the year 2010, the writer puts himself into the story. But when the writer does that, no matter how hard she tries to be objective, she has a stake in the justification of the music she covers, because it's also the life she leads.

I don't know the answer... but Pitchfork picks music to justify its own prophesied narratives and the junior blogs aren't picking up the slack. Hopefully tablet PCs will launch a new era of music criticism to match their medium, somehow.


Is it important for culture-at-large to always have new bands and new songs? Why or why not?

I think so, yeah. I believe in Platonic ideals, that songs are "discovered" and not "created". Have all the good sounds been discovered? Most of them. Have all the best songs been written? Most of them. But there's only ten or twelve story arcs and there a few hundred great films. The role of a musician should be to present the same old archetypes in new, fresh, and relevant ways.

I loathe nostalgia. It's stagnation. I don't want someone to make a song that says "Gee, weren't teenage songs of the 60's great?" I want someone to make a song that says "In the year 2010, we need teenage songs that speak to our modern existence. The teenage song is universal."


Who wins in a fight between a gorilla and a walrus? Assume they are both healthy, adult specimens. The fight takes place on the beach with no trees (advantage: walrus) but there is one natural bludgeoning weapon, a piece of driftwood (advantage: gorilla). Defend your case.

Well, the thing is, if the walrus lands one blow with his tusk then it is all over. And I don't think the gorilla can pound through the walrus fat. But I'm banking on the gorilla being able to dodge the walrus and eventually using his weapon to go for the walrus' eyes. Match: Gorilla.