Loading ...
“Instead, over their two-hour set Wednesday night at a sold-out Cruzan Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, Pearl Jam chose to offer a semi-obscure selection of songs that excluded many massive hits. Fans cheered predictably throughout the night, but many ended up grumbling afterward, frustrated that favorites such as Jeremy, Black, Daughter, Elderly Woman Behind the Counter In a Small Town, I Got Id and Release were passed over for songs some struggled to identify.” You’d think this was an offering from Yelp, wouldn’t you? No, it’s by a “professional” music critic employed by the Miami Herald, Michael Hamersly, and there’s so much more where that came from. Like the way he calls Eddie Vedder’s outfit “appropriately grungy” and the way that “Yellow Ledbetter” has a guiding riff that’s “Red Hot Chili Peppers-like.” I mean, I know that every writer has a day when they have to hack out a piece on deadline–and the headline “Pearl Jam picks puzzling song selection” doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the editorial team over there–but at least be creative, y’know? [Miami Herald]
The Future Of Music Reviewing
 |
WOW: Guess What Adele Has To Say About Being Called Fat – Huffington Post |
 Madonna Makes A HUGE Announcement – Fox News | |
| Lady Gaga Makes Her Most Shocking Confession Yet – PopCrush | |
| Lana Del Rey's Bizarre Living Situation Is Exposed – Huffington Post | |
| SHOCKING: Learn About Chris Brown & Rihanna's Secret Rendezvous – Global Grind | |
| You Won't Believe Who Justin Bieber Is Hitting The Studio With – PopCrush |
Between the “Springsteen-like Americana”, the “Red Hot Chili Peppers-like riff”, the “Pixies-like screeching” (with a “Sting bassline”!!!), you kinda get a sense of what his favourite word is.
It’s also nice of him to point out that Pearl Jam are still touring, now 17 years past their peak (he refers to their debut as their “clear crowning achievement”).
@Thierry: Between the “Springsteen-like Americana”, the “Red Hot Chili Peppers-like riff”, the “Pixies-like screeching” (with a “Sting bassline”!!!), you kinda get a sense of what his favourite word is.
‘fusion’
How dare a band that’s released eight studio albums play songs from anything but the first one! Long live grunge-rock! Grrr!
Wow, what shit-like writing.
“They also failed to play ‘Freebird’, despite frequent requests from the audience.”
Then again, he’s a genius compared to the commenter who says he stopped listening to PJ after album 2 because “they started to sound like world music.”
…so I checked the setlist on the Pearl Jam site (I am nerd), and they actually played 4 songs from “Ten”. That’s almost half the album. Michael Hamersly = retard.
What a fucking hack. Check out his other stuff, clearly honed his writing chops doing sidebars on the Dade County Petting Zoo and the annual Gator Golf Fundraiser. I also love that he cites USA Today, which is like taking baking advice from Rolling Stone… I bet he felt SO credible when he name dropped The Pixies. This is the kind of jackoff that The White Stripes exist to please.
Well, to quote Dave Marsh (and this might be the ONLY time I ever endorse doing that) in Mitch Myers’ The Boy Who Cried Freebird, “People think being a rock critic is easy, well, maybe for two years. After that, you’re on your mettle.”
this shitty review brought to you courtesy of newspaper downsizing.
Is it just me or is this sort of like pointing at a drop of ocean water and saying, “Damn, check out how salty this one drop of ocean water is”? Yeah, the review is poorly researched, whiny and half-assed, but the guy’s a writer at a McClatchy paper. You could peruse any other random McClatchy/Knight-Ridder/Gannett daily in the country and find “music writing” equal to (or far worse) than this.
What’s your point here? That Michael Hamersly should have his music critic card revoked and never be allowed to review a concert again, or should he be fired outright? That any number of music bloggers — including the ones here at Idolator — could’ve written a better review and should be the ones taking on low salaries, micromanaging penny-pincher superiors and a ridiculous amount of multimedia work for a crappy daily A&E writer gig? That Hamersly and fellow underachieving daily writers are the reason the newspaper is dying? That the lesser dailies should just give up already on live music coverage? This post just seems lazy and super-snarky, even for a slow news day, and especially in light of your closing sentence.
Oooooops. In the heat of that twisted-knickers rant, I totally forgot that McClatchy bought KR, like, two years ago.
Is playing the Star Spangled Banner, “Hendrix-like,” on guitar as lame and uninteresting for Americans as it for everybody else?