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We are the last rock hope. Shouldn't that be enough?

I'll tell you what's really wrong with the Democrats..

A lot of our own like to backbite the Dems for their losing ways. but the general punditry class always goes to the same sort of hoohah that borrows much from mischaracterizations manufactured and generated constantly from the right. It comes down to this: Our team just ain't willing to fight enough. Here is what they're up against. Ya got an irreverent, base level stupid, big mouthed man, whose number one tool of engagement is blame . He pretty much gets everything wrong, but takes no responsibility ever for fucking up which is basically all he does. Then when he runs into questions and adversity, he blames others. He has legendarily blamed Obama, Hillary, Biden, usually just randomly outa the blue. Now that he's screwing up the economy he blames Jerome Powell for not lowering the interest rates, and he blames the lady who publishes the job reports when he has a series of really bad ones. He has certain idols he doesn't blame - Putin, Bibi for starters. Th...
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Is the internet killing art?

PREFACE: I ask you to attempt to read this with an open mind. Excuse the writer's imperfection as a human being. Much of what I speak of deals with the grooming and gaslighting of society which is the very same issue that may prevent you from reading this with an open mind. As someone who is co-founder and CEO of one of the longest running indie music sites ever, with around 50,000 artists and sanctioned by the great Pete Townshend, I feel qualified to speak about art. The fact I am singer/songwriter for the semi-phenomenon online band known as Negative Tendencies is only a sidenote to what you might call the festivities of reading this diatribe. heh Something I've been noticing for a long time, wrote a blog about it around 8 years ago, has now progressed to the next level. To get to the gist of what this particular treatise is about, first let me share you this excerpt from that blog from 9/29/2017. The above is not even Facebook's worst offense. That would be...

The making of Blame.

So we just released a song and the comments were never more flattering.  Blame is a masterpiece - Larree  Give these guys a Grammy - MojoLounge  Your best work ever!!! Totally mind blowing! Overflowing with gravitas and authenticity. Musically and lyrically brilliant! Great vocals! - Richard Scotti  that's incredible! I like the drum intro, and the lyrics are brilliant and cover so much ground there's a lot to think about and Truth in there. The video is very cool too. The guitar and instrumental outro was also a great way to lead the listener out of the story, and ponder just what the hell is happening. Brilliant!!! - Mark Hewer  Awesome!! - Michael Putt  wow I love that one!!! - Debbie Hoskin  It gets more brilliant every time I watch and listen. Those lyrics are genius! and lots of them with meat and substance...all killer, no filler! The video is awesome too! This songwriting is right up there with Neil Young, Bob Dylan and so many other greats. ?...

Why the mediasphere is what it is today..

I call it the rightwing mediasphere because the right wing does dominate American news culture. How they accomplished this is a tricky question. Surely a fair amount of the impact was made because of rightwing talk radio starting with Rush Limbaugh and moving on to all the Rush clones and that particularly toxic asshole Mark Levin, playing at farm states workplaces 8 hours a day. and Fox News being so popular. and Murdoch's other ventures like the Wall St. Journal and NY Post. and the Sinclair Group's invasion of America's beloved local news. and other even more extreme wingnut streaming like Newsmax and the like. but there are other technological factors these days that may be just as important of pieces of the puzzle. There's a whole culture I will henceforth call the Tik Tok mediasphere which is ridiculously dominating this election cycle as all political ingenues who only entered the land of politics because of the charismatic orange cartoon character end up taking...

Intelligent/Articulate Rock - A New Paradigm?

     I feel that rock has taken a huge step backwards in 21st century culture. Some of that I attribute to what I call "flunkee rock" pretty much usurping the whole brand of rock. Now I know a lot of you are of the opinion that all discussion of music is supposed to be positive but this thread isn't for you. Let me also add here that I know most of you will completely scoff at this whole thing and pick it apart thinking there he goes again trying to be the know-it-all musicologist but actually I'm airing this idea as a bit of a demo cause I want your imput so perhaps I can come up with a better draft of it in the future.      When people think of rock these days, based on at least the pretty large sample size of X/Twitter, they think far more of the Iron Maidens and Judas Priests than they do of Elvis Costellos and Neil Youngs. Rock seems to mostly for the millenial masses conjure up these black album covers with fantasy cover art and I personally feel much...

Rock Culture, What Rock Culture?

     So, I happen to be a part of this outstanding band with great melodies, lyrics, production, and an amazing rhythm section.  Our large and growing catalogue of songs has gone over really well online, to the tune of over 53,000 followers on Twitter/X.      But for awhile now it seems like this is where the buck stops, like Negative Tendencies is almost in a holding pattern, while our music has gotten better and better.  I am perplexed by why this is?   and I think I have the semblance of an answer and that is the subject of this essay.      I started to hone in on the solution to this riddle when I was watching the popular streaming show Only Murders In The Building.  This is a show about podcasters, is very up-to-date in references to the online world, very contemporary in other words.  Yet... I wonder why all the music on a show that has a quite elaborate soundtrack includes absolutely no rock whatsoever?...