she wanders on purpose

one of the interesting things about being a music critic is how often i find myself liking an album i wouldn't normally like, yet i enjoy it as i listen to it because it's different. i think the biggest thing i tear my hair out over while reviewing is how soundalike pretty much 97% of bands are these days; then again, this might have something to do with the fact that i often end up with the nu-metal and post-postgrunge, which are the biggest copycat genres out there. seriously, every band in that area aims to sound exactly like whichever similar band is huge on radio right now, and it drives me up the fucking wall to hear yet another band aping that whole nickelback/hinder hideousness. sure, it sells records. is it unique? fuck no.

according to my massive "reviews" document, i've written 38 pages worth of cd and dvd reviews over the last four years. pretty much every thursday or friday since 2003, i've stopped in at the chart magazine office, picked up whatever assigned cds my editors have put in my mailbox, scanned the to-be-reviewed shelf of submitted random cds, and gone home to spend any spare weekend time reviewing albums. even if i only manage one or two (i try for three per weekend), i still need to do it. it's a compulsion of mine; it keeps me feeling accomplished as a music journalist.

this is why i generally find myself giving good reviews to weird shit like the howling hex and dax riggs and tranzmitors and iliketrains and scout niblett -- i would never listen to that stuff if i didn't have to, but just the fact that they're doing something different from the herds - and doing it well - scores the highest of marks with me. i don't care if i wouldn't normally like it; so long as you're doing your own thing and doing it decently well, as a critic, i'm impressed. and the fact that i've managed to get to this point after four years without really being conscious of it is a good sign to me.

see, i recall what ex-roomie jenn - a journalism grad student - told me a couple years ago: "it shouldn't matter whether you like it or not. what should matter is if it succeeds at its intended purpose." and the fact that i can review without personal genre bias (well, mostly) makes me feel somewhat successful as a critic. (you have to understand that i never got into this industry to be a critic -- i wanted to be a straight-up journalist, because i wasn't fond of the idea of tearing down musicians and their albums. but to be a music journalist is also to be a music critic, and i've since gotten used to wearing both hats, not to mention taking great pride in the responsibilities that come with both.)

what do i listen to in my free time (aka when i have a choice)? my last.fm weekly spins chart to your right is generally pretty accurate. my biggest hitters right now are bands like kill hannah, interpol, placebo, shiny toy guns, the black halos, stellastarr*, depeche mode -- i will rarely skip tracks if one of their songs comes up, no matter how many times i've already listened to it. the music of bands like moist, the cure and the conscience pilate are so far ingrained in me that i don't listen to them as much anymore, but they still hold a special place; they are the bands i usually name. there are bands i have to be in the mood for - she wants revenge, razorlight, editors, towers of london, lostprophets, the tea party - but if i want `em, nothing else will do.

you can see how it's kind of hard for me to answer the question "what kind of music do you listen to?" (seriously, never ask a music critic that. worst question ever.)

okay, this is boring. onto the more brainless amusements:

idolator wraps up the press coverage of britney's vmas performance last night. torontoist said something about schedenfreude and that's my only excuse for being somewhat interested. (miss modernage has an ouchworthy take, plus the video)

something to keep me more (and unashamedly) interested: tommy lee fought kid rock last night! battling over pamela anderson, how rad. i love me some tommy, no matter how dirty or how many stds, but my money would still be on kid in that fight.

stereogum fills us in on sara evans, new supergroupie. 3 doors down?? seriously? now that's not a notch to be putting on your groupie belt. (and that's coming from me, who has a few dubious ones herself)

jam! music visited the islands this weekend and liveblogged the virgin festival. i'm sure there'll be more reviews rolling in throughout today, but it sounds like it was a damn good affair. still wish i could have been there, but i spent saturday at the ontario science centre with my dad before having a nice dinner down in the beaches, so i think i got just as good a deal (if not better, because my dad is awesome).

chart talks to editors yet again...and this time, it wasn't me doing the interview! oh well, i don't mind passing the mantle. (and i'm continuously amazed at how my love for editors has held up over the years, even through a new interpol album!)

via blogto: google map mash-up of toronto to montreal! yeah, i know that's kind of dull, but i know that stretch of the 401 far too well -- i must've taken it dozens of times in the last five years to go home and back. (if you spot the dot that says "Kingston", that's where i'm from) also, a commemoration because i'm doing that route one final time in less than three weeks. holy shit.

oh yeah, and the other big news is that i'm going to be in los angeles from october 19th to the 23rd. figure i might as well get my west-coast travel kicks in before i have to go back to work. still, the knowledge that i'm getting to spend a weekend in los angeles - which, in my mind, is a sleazier, more rockstar-like new york city - is enough to make me spontaneously break out into excited giggling no matter where i am or what i'm doing. i'm disturbing.

p.s. finally getting a haircut on friday. fuck yes.

[ music | modest mouse, "missed the boat" ]