I just watched some new video by The Hold Steady over at Stereogum, a site I sometimes check in on and sometimes enjoy (the content, that is). However, almost any time I feel moved to leave a comment in response to a video or story I’ve read, I’m confronted with the least-articulate set of college-educated, indie crybabies known to man. At times like these, I’m left leaving a message such as the following:
Shoot, we’ve spent 25-30 years trying to preserve what cool is left in rock so The Kids can go ga-ga over Born to Run? And then all you can do is cry over syntax and ignorance of case rules? Wah-wah.
I’m sorry to have to put a hit on the well-intentioned Stereogum and The Hold Steady in response to the folks who leave comments, but Jeez Louise! Check out for yourself what passes for discussion.
The Stereogum comments section has already devolved into comments about comments and commentary about that. How much more meta could we get over here? Our comments section can kick Stereogum’s comments section’s ass.
You’ve got it, Steve. I know our Townspeople can take on any blog in side-by-side Live Blogging Action.
Sadly, I can’t seem to play the above video.
I do have lots to say about the issue of today’s college student and whining and how it has been encouraged by changes in the American education system. But I wish I could play the video so that I could comment more specifically.
What’s giving you problems, Mark? Why don’t you hit the link to Stereogum’s website and see the “studio” version of the video. This live version from Letterman is actually pretty good. The MTV version is much more annoying, which I knkow you’d appreciate.
You can check out Stereogum’s rapid decline here.
Traffic is down 29% in the last three months.
Stereogum used to be a really good blog, till some internet company bought it and it became a horribly-written-and-edited bastion of every cliche of indie-rock writing. The comments have always been hit-and-miss, at best.
I used to truck it over to stereogum once in a while, but lately I can’t be arsed. I think at it’s most entertaining were comments on Lindsay Lo and Spears deterioration… and sometimes the live photos are decent. But, the commenting can get ridiculous and other than that it’s not really content that I can’t get elsewhere.
It’s not working for me either.
You’re joking, right?
Oats wrote:
Do you know if the founders were well compensated? Are they smoking Skywalker or Guava these days?
In the worst way, yes.