Ramblings From Justin Penney

I can't think of two words that are more lame to put in a song.

Maybe it's just the ethos of the styles of music that I like, but this egotistical look at one's self in relation to rocking and starness are idiotic. The egotistic self reference brings to mind the lame competitive aspects of rap ... the same qualities that instantly turn me off.

This phrase is the final nail in Weezer's coffin. They had been languishing on the wrong side of banal for a while and this is the clencher for me. It's pretty sad to hear a 38 year old Harvard graduate complaining about school because they want to "teach me how to read." The "we are all on drugs" chorus should have killed them for me. There's nothing cool or shocking about grown men talking about drugs. Most people I know have done, or do, drugs.

Pink is a "rock star" and has "rock moves." I always have hope for Pink but she always lets me down. I should disclose that The 359s MySpace lists me as providing rock moves a completely tongue in cheek joke about my stage antics.

The of course this whole mess was started by Nickelback. I just threw up a little after typing that name. Awful, awful crap. I thought their rock star song was joke done by a radio station. It's so formulaic and juvenile that I can't believe grown-ass men sing that. What worse ... there are people that think that song is cool. Oof.

Rock stars don't have to tell you that they are rock stars. You know. They make rock music, they sell a lot of records, and they get famous. Past rock stars may have been egotistical (we're more popular than Jesus) but they didn't outright say, in their rock music, that they were rock stars. They were secure enough in their rockedness to transcend that.

I just remembered a funny story related to this topic. My daughter once said that she wanted to be a rock star when she grew up. I thought that she might attribute that to some of the musicians she likes or even me. When I inquired further she said she wanted to be a rock star like her mother ... not like me. I asked what she thought a rock star was. Her answer was, "hanging around and looking cool." Barf.

# posted by Justin @ 11:27 PM