It's about time to officially close this thing down. I gave myself a six-month break to see if I would miss writing about music and going to shows. I don't.
Since Maxwell's closed this time last year and the shitshow that was Govenor's Ball, I lost the desire to seek out new music. The posts after that and me attending gigs were few and far between. I've gone to a few shows in past six months, including Franz Ferdinand in Portland, Damon Albarn and Krafterwek 3D, and had nothing in my mind that I wanted to write down. Looking at the concert calendar, there's no new band I would want to check out and ones that I would I have seen, I've seen plenty of times before.
Thus, I've got to close up shop. I probably should have done it a few years ago, but figured I still wanted to get into shows for free. Even free is too much of an effort for me. I'd rather go home, get a beer and watch Netflix.
I think it was Tom Scharpling who said when he shut down the Best Show on WFMU that it was better to close one year early rather then one year later. I should have done that.
Funny enough, my passion for beer is replacing my passion for indie rock. I spend my free time going to breweries, festivals and beer bars in the tri-state areas. The breweries/bars are the venues, the beers are the songs and companies are the bands. The beer fans, mostly white dudes just like in indie rock, are nicer and more outgoing. So I supplanted one hobby for another. Craft beer is the new indie rock!
Here are the top five reasons I'm not doing MusicSnobbery.com anymore
5. People don't go to shows anymore to hear music, they rather instagram or be on their phones then rock out. Plus, I'm pretty close in age to being the old guy at the show who's by himself. Going to a show now is just annoying in general.
4. Shows in New York are still starting way too late. Damon Albarn didn't go until like 10:30 and ended past midnight on a Sunday. COME ON! The people who can afford to go to these shows probably have jobs to go to.
3. Nobody is reading this. At my most popular timespan, around 2008-2010, I was getting around a 1,000 clicks a day. This time last year, it was down to 200-300 and it was mostly google search results to past posts. Blogs aren't much of a thing now these days. It's all Twitter and Instagram with people's short attention spans.
2. I ran out of things to say. 3,339 posts. That's how many I've written in a nine-year span. My best estimate is that I've gone to 500-600 gigs and seen 800+ bands. Many of them multiple times. New Pornographers I've seen 13 times and they are coming back to New York this summer. What more can I say? I was in Portland in April and saw Franz, it was my 9th time. At the end, all I can think of was, "Well, that was fun." Then with discovering new music, I hear a song I like and can't think of why it's different from any other band. Which leads me to my final reason....
1. Music sucks right now. I don't know why anybody would start a band. The odds are stacked against you in making a profit or even gaining any kind of notoriety without selling out. God bless those who are trying. Even when I turn to my beloved London for new music, it just doesn't excite me like it use to. Yup, I'm loosing my edge. More like lost my edge, but I was there.
CMJ is just a big ball of crappy bands playing 10 times over a 5-day peroid. When I came back for vacation last year for the Friday, I was like, "I left Rome to be here at Pianos on a Friday afternoon. WTF was I thinking?" I can imagine SXSW is even worse. I'll be in Ireland during CMJ this year so fuck all that shit.
Then the bands that I do like, their new material doesn't inspire anything in me.
Obviously, it was a good time while it lasted. I started this thing nine years ago out of boredom and desire to meet new people (girls mostly). It far exceeded my original intentions.
My highlights:
-- Moby fucking played my anniversary show in 2008!
-- I kissed Damon Albarn on the lips at the Gorillaz afterparty!
-- First Aid Kit and Sharon Van Etten played my gigs, and they are like big deals now.
-- I had a radio show for six months on HD Radio where I got to play anything I wanted ... and no one listened because HD Radio didn't take off.
-- I traveled around the globe and got into shows to shoot. REM/We Are Scientists in Spain, Pulp in San Francisco, Massive Attack in London, Girls in Tokyo, MGMT/Dum Dum Girls in Brussels. There's more fulfillment in traveling then going to concerts.
-- Seeing bands in small venues and then years later they are megastars. Phoenix, Kaiser Chiefs, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Arctic Monkeys, Vampire Weekend (unfortunately) to name a few.
-- Meeting like minded people and becoming lifelong friends, you know who you are.
A deep, heartfelt thanks to the PR/Press people who hooked me up to these gigs. Many have become personal friends ... and many have left the industry because they agree with me that it sucks.
Thanks to the many bands and artists, some of whom also became friends, for the entertainment and good times. Some of them also have left the industry. You see a pattern here?
My lifelong friends for supporting and encouraging me in this endeavour, especially Dyn-O-Wright for doing the graphics for the website and posters for my gigs.
Finally to you anonymous folks who came by and read my poorly written posts.
I have this domain name for 7 more years I think, so it will expire after the zombie apocolypse. Bidding starts at $1,000 if you want to buy it.
Take care. Be well. Rock on.
