It List: Tuesday

The Virgins (The Loft): I seriously have no idea how people can actually stomach being in the "music business." Honestly, hats off to them, even the total shitheads, because it has to be grueling to say the least. Running this blog over the past three and a half years has given me a taste, just a very small taste, of what the "biz" is like: putting on concerts, releasing records, interacting with publicists and agents and other record labels, dealing with the media, encountering the interworkings of the internet hype machine on a daily basis, etc. etc., the list goes on. And frankly, one of the main things I've taken away from this experience thus far is how numbing it can be, and how easily the business side of things can suck the life and joy out of music itself, turning even the most enthusiastic fans into a total cynics who start having a hard time getting enthusiastic about new music at all.

Unfortunately, the Virgins are a band that seem to have been created by and for the establishment that has fostered this climate, and what is particularly troubling about all this is that their music isn't even that terrible, pedestrian "mainstream" garbage that so many of us purport to loathe. According to those who call the shots, this is supposed to be the GOOD music, ya hear? This is "stylish," "thoughtful" "indie" rock for people with "good taste" and college degrees and urban lifestyles and impeccable fashion sense, and you're supposed to be eating it up because you're a trendy, discerning consumer who knows what's "cool." When I listen to the Virgins' god awful, oversexed derivative slop, the kind of stuff that Vice Magazine isn't even decadent enough to get behind, and when I see that this music is being made by four LES altrbro tools who appear to be little more than a boy band for college students who've heard a Serge Gainsbourg record, it just reminds me of the 1,000 plus times I've wanted to quit writing this blog just to escape the PR emails about what a QT the Virgins' lead singer is and how it was IMPOSSIBLE to get into Piano's when they played there and how their new album is this amazing new post-punk take on T.Rex or whatever the fuck this band is supposed to sound like this week. Luckily, however, I gave up on the Stereogums and Brooklyn Vegans of the world a long time ago, and I found that ignoring this crap is the only way I can still enjoy being involved in music on any level, especially writing about it. See? I just produced a couple decent sized paragraphs about a group of clowns that don't deserve any of our attention. IT REALLY WORKS!

90's Night With guest DJ Astronautalis (Hailey's)

Disqo Disco (Fallout Lounge)