I thought more people here would on board with Dave Grohl’s stance on all of this, in that he doesn’t give a fuck about Taylor Swift is doing.

I just don’t know when Foo Fighters were chosen as rock’s last emissary’s. They’re a pretty average rock band that’s sounded pretty much the same for the better part of 15 years. They don’t “suck” like a ton of other bands, but maybe it’s just longevity?

Listen bro-bros, no one cares that you’re some hardened connoisseur of torture porn – you want to expose yourself to that shite, that’s your business. But this video is disturbing because it’s a celebrity who is known for her #tragicallybeautiful aesthetic making rape into just one more #tragicallybeautiful accessory in her darkly glamorous world. I’ll spare you my opinions about Roth.

I love how you knew everyone’s going to hate you for this.

“Not an art-rock guy, really” ~Tom Breihan, 2014

I’ve said enough about Ariel Pink, so I’ll just add that Andy Stott’s new record is excellent as well.

“Ariel Pink’s dizzy, trollish, absurdist idea-splooge”

I don’t know about you guys, but I wanna hear Tom diss “pom pom” more!

Stereogum loves the beef.

Should add the word Don’t to this headline and then unpost it.

I think he has a point.

Every time he says anything now, it’s in the tone of a Savior-of-Rock grand statement. “Just closed the argument. Rock ‘n roll. I’m Dave Grohl. Rock ‘n Roll. Let’s just fucking rock, guys! Technology. The old days. Fuckin’ computers. Rock ‘n Roll. Rock ‘n Roll never dies!”
I get it man. Rock ‘n Roll. Ok?

“Oh look, it hasn’t stopped snowing”

STOP USING MILEY CYRUS…then ATTACHING HATE…THAT IS UNFAIR TO MILEY CYRUS.. YOU benefited yourself by using MILEY’s name then put a NEGATIVE WORD IN IT????

she can’t sing

“Bono, Sam Smith, Chris Martin, One Direction, Ellie Goulding, Ed Sheeran, Rita Ora, Underworld, Sinead O’Connor, Bastille, and Elbow.”

Excepting Elbow, I wouldn’t mind if every one of these people got ebola. And I’d actually be willing to lose Guy Garvey if it meant losing the rest of the lot.

Steve’s decidedly geeky here and very much wrong. He also hasn’t recorded any interesting music since the ’90s (those cat videos sucked Steve), when Touch and Go and Quarterstick put out great records recorded with care on analog tape. The amount of cockblocking going on with tech companies and music is hyper-corporate and a worse situation than with many of the most egregious record labels. Music culture has become decidedly dumber in all respects and decidedly more centralized. Who’s paying Steve Albini today? Where does his paycheck come from? His studio rate should be reduced to nil. That’s what musician’s get today from the process of recording and in most cases touring today, unless they play those lame Festival Package Tours. The result of the live stream of an endless sea of digi-crap is that music has been devalued through the process of recording it, distributing it and consuming it. The process is less social, less physical and less human. Audio expression has been reduced to a steady stream of McRibz. Defending this devaluation process isn’t democratizing or liberating. It just means we all get to participate in the erection of a virtual Dollar Store for all digital media, where everyone who engages the process knows it sucks, but the set of vampire novelty teeth sure were cheap.

Mark Kozelek responds with a song called “Mac DeMarco Suck My…”

This article has been a true walk down memory lane for me and I can assure you that almost all of these bands played at Luna Lounge. I believe that I was the first person to ever book The Strokes in a club and it was Julian who first got in touch with me and asked for a gig.

In many ways, Longwave was the band with whom I most connected as they were often compared to The Church, more of an ethereal band than shoe gaze as was Longwave. I love that stuff. Still do. Steve Schiltz, from Longwave, are still close friends and he has an amazing new project that may be among his best work. The band is called Harvard Of The South.

As is always the case with these kind of lists, I would have a bit of a different analysis on each group but much of the author’s sentiment, for me, is quite accurate. Also, I would probably have found a spot on the list for Lotion but their brilliant third, and last, album was released just as The Strokes first album was taking off. So they sort of predate the scene about which the author writes.

However, I certainly would have found a place for Nada Surf who were one of the most successful NYC bands to play at Luna in the late 90s. I also would have listed Asobi Seksu. And, I would have included some out of town bands that performed so often at Luna that they might as well have been NYC bands. I’m thinking of The Mayflies USA, Fooled By April, and Helicopter Helicopter. And, what about the awesome one hit wonders like Marcy’s Playground ISex And Candy) and Wheatus (Teenage Dirtbag). They were both great NYC bands but again they sort of predate the author’s dimensions.

I would have mentioned Elliott Smith who wrote the album, XO, while sitting at the Luna Lounge bar but he also was somewhat outside the parameter of this article.

And then there were the cool NYC bands that never got signed but always brought a worthy effort to their shows around town. They all had followings and they all could have been a contender, bands like Probe, Kitty In The Tree, Orange Park, Youngster, Skywriter, The Cogs, Toss, and The Astrojet.

I still listen to all the music from the bands on the author’s list as well as the current stuff coming out of Brooklyn. And, I do wish that there was a way to make economic sense of a venue like the original Luna Lounge in Williamsburg or Bushwick. I could be persuaded to do it again. At least, i like to think that I could be persuaded.

Anyway, thank you to the author and to my friends Stephan and Alan for getting in touch with me making sure that I read it.

There’s so much more that I can say but I would have to write a book. Wait, oh yeah, I did write a book and there are stories in it written by members of some of the bands listed in this article.

Rob Sacher
http://wakeme.net