Journalists are starting to get it....

[Big Train]

http://www.startribune.com/stories/457/5066776.html

Is it me or are more journalists starting to "get it"?

ONES (BANDS) I USED TO LOVE BUT HATE NOW



R.E.M.: "Hate" is definitely too strong a word here, especially since it's a better live band now than it was in its heyday. But man, those past few albums have been way too downbeat and artsy-fartsy, and the latest is the worst.



Courtney Love: It has nothing to do with her tragic celebrity life. It has to do with the fact that that's all she sings and talks about now, and she doesn't do either with much conviction or coherency.



Liz Phair: I've seen one too many blown-hair, mini-skirted, lip-glossed magazine spreads to respect a woman who got her start dissing male rock fans who wanted just that. Which is to say nothing of her equally prefab album of last year. Sex sells, but your music bites.



Lenny Kravitz: I defended this guy for years, maybe because I was young enough to buy the "Let Love Rule" bit, but I finally gave up when he started letting marketability rule. Luckily, it was well before those new Gap ads in which his hair is prettier than SJP's.



Van Halen: Its July show at Xcel Energy Center was OK, but David Lee Roth's concert tonight at Mystic Lake Casino probably will be more entertaining. Diamond Dave admits the schlock value, whereas Eddie, Alex and Sammy still take it too seriously.

[Rikk]

Great stuff.

I guess my only disagreement is R.E.M. Their UP album from '98 was a minor masterpiece. And they've had good songs off every album since.

But yes, they certainly don't have the brilliance that they did during a period like AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE. Still, they certainly deserve more respect than Van Halen does. They've never truly pissed on their own legacy.

[rustoffa]

IMHO, REM doesn't deserve more respect than Van Halen.

[Panamark]

"Dave admits the schlock value, whereas Eddie, Alex and Sammy still take it too seriously."

Whats even scarier is that the Sisters have always been such schticklers against nostalgia tours etc.... Yet they really do think
they are serious musicians still. Those three new songs prove they
dont have *IT* anymore. They need to embrace Dave, accept him
for who he is, and let him inject some fucking real direction into
the music again....

Putting Cream in my coffee and syrup on my bananas and
jelly on my pancakes (whatever) is embarassing.
Singing "Its about Time" incessentantly and repeatedly is also
cheesy and embarrassing...

And these guys actually believe they are serious musicians.
Embrace your past, or stick to your values. Release an album
and tour, then call yourselves musicians. Isnt that what you
claimed all along was the only way you would tour ??

If not, get Dave back and finally put these bullshit indifferences
aside, and go out blazing with the original magic....

Sammy's time is over. His radio interview was unforgiveable,
he broke the code. He snitched, he is a big bitch..
Send him back to his Mumu nights at Cabo Wabo.
He is washed up, can only sing in one register, and only signs
all that fans shit, so he can catch his breathe. (In the bands own
words)

This journo was right. Van Hagar are not serious musicians anymore.
(Not that we ever thought they were )