Idolator

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"Teenagers have the worst taste in music" - probably not the best thing to write when you are trying to sell your bands to said teens.

This just in:

Community leaders in both New Jersey and Long Island have declared a fatwa on Ultragrrrl.

Sarah was that kid in college who totally (!!!) just discovered this awesome (!!!) band called Led Zepplin (!!!).

Ironically, the band isn't actually called "The Pixies."

I, for one, have never heard of "The Pixies".

I've heard of Pixies, but this "The Pixies" must be some new band...

Then again I have no idea who Ultragrrrl is and why I should give a shit about her angry complaints.

Although the band is titled "Pixies" on their albums, band members refer to themselves as part of "the Pixies," and so do the majority of written sources, so I have no problem with that.

Now I don't mind stating the obvious, but breathless caps-lock stating of the obvious comes off as clueless. I'm not a fan of the grrl (I hate emo and blame her for it), but I don't think she's clueless.

Another angry rant about "the kids" from someone who gets all their records, and shows, for free.

This is a tremendous example of stupidity that helps to explain why women are paid seventy cents to every man's dollar. This is some of the most juvenile commentary on modern music I have ever come in contact with. What am I reading, a twelve year old girls' livejournal page? Incredible.

I think Ultra's finally ready to read "Emo: Where The girls Aren't."

Young kids "buying shitty music" or "going to shows because it's the cool thing to do?" Because teenagers never used to do that until 2002, right?

Sorry, but I can't get too worked up one way or another about the latest wave of mediocre music for 13-year-olds. It serves the exact same function as every similar trend from the Monkees to Dashboard Confessional: 90 percent of the audience will outgrow it within two years, and the rest will use it as a gateway to more substantial and challenging tastes. If you don't like it, the independent option is more available than ever. It's like getting mad at Crest or Colgate when the supermarket stocks Tom's toothpaste over in the far corner. Just find the right aisle.

@theminx and @masterdave:

let's not be total pricks, huh? Very few publications refer to the Pixies as just "Pixies" within the context of their respective articles; hell, 4AD refers to them as "the Pixies" in their website profile. Their first comp was called Death to THE Pixies. Most people I know call them the Pixies, if only because it feels rather awkward to withhold the definitive article.

Really: don't be so jejune about such a trivial matter. Kind of makes you look like more of a twat than Ultragrrl herself. There are better things in her article to poke fun at.

"ALL TEHESE BANDS ARE TEH SUCKXORSZ!!!! STOP LISTENIN TO THESE MUSICS!! EXCEPT FOR FALL OUT BOYS. PETE WENTZ IS TEH R00LZORW5S."

I hate to say this, but she's completely fucking right on pretty much all of that.

Is it too easy or obvious to mock the line "maybe this post has something to do with me being drunk at the moment" showing up in a blog titled "sarah's so boring ever since she stopped drinking.
here is a blog of my sobriety. it will be boring."

mike a: well put.

Am I the only one who's missed the fact that she's the DJ for Pete "Emo King of the Douchebags" Wentz's bar? How's it taste, sweetheart, that big bite of the hand that feeds you?

@glumble: Yeah because Ultragrrrl is the representative of all women music journalists.

In my own defense I did a damn good amount of work making sure my sister, at 19, was exposed to about everything awesome out there. And if that means that yes, her new boyfriend will have to suffer through Add N to X, Saul Williams, Merzbow, AFX, Meat Beat Manifesto, The Faint, and Bomb 20 along with the other weird shit I like (Pine*AM!) then so be it.

I realize that my definition of awesome is synonomous with shit in most peoples books and will result in all girls / guys on here hating me, but girls don't even exist on the internet anyways and the rest of you are clearly, definately, and perpetuately 13. LOL.

No I don't mean that. But seriously, I got some shackles in the back.

I just bought Rocket From The Crypt's Scream, Dracula, Scream!, cheap. I'm in rock n' roll bliss.

What were we talking about again?

If this is one of the best blog posts you've read all week, that must be because it's Monday and the week only just started.

I'm sure she's not targeting teens with the bands on her label. Nope, not at all. I'm sure if someone wrote to her and said, "should I buy this record on your label, or this record by the beatles," she'd tell them to buy the Beatles, right? I mean, 'cause that's what she's really worried about -- the kids listening to good music, not making money or promoting an image or anything like that. that would just be far too hypocritical, and she's certainly not ever been that. nope. and I'm sure her precious My Chemical Romance have absolutely nothing to do with the boom of the genre. they're absolutely totally guilt free in the situation. yep. no dirty hands there.

@kaate: THANK YOU. This girl is NOT a music journalist. She's a record pusher. Big difference, mr. glumble.

I've thought about it for a bit and I feel bad for her. I imagine going to the Bamboozle festival and seeing what you've wrought has got to be similar to what Grima Wormtongue felt looking over the balcony in The Two Towers. (Yes, I am a girl!)

@kaate: Usually "journalists" use the shift key on their blogs. FWIW, Indie rock died flat in 1994 and everybody knows that, viscerally.

Or certain of us upon going to a blogger party...

I could've gone to this for free, and asked my girlfriend if she wanted to go. Her response: "You cannot make me go to Emo-fest in Jersey. I will call the police and report myself kidnapped."

If she wants to kill herself, I would supply her with anything she needed.

@kaate: She might not be representative of all women music journalists- but I couldn't name another one that is covered as often, or at all, really. Get your shit together and redeem your gender. The U(teru)S wants you!

Wow, it's amazing that she's the same one who edited Spin (not that it had any value in the past decade, mind you). I sympathize with her frustration that few American teens these days listen to rock music that's not mediocre and anemic, but she is a Lady MacBeth here and she can't wash Emo off of her hands.

@glumble: Hi sexist! News break: the world doesn't stop at what Idolator covers. Get your shit together and stop making ignorant comments about what a woman deserves or doesn't deserve to get paid.

@JustThisGuy: Guy, the time to be impeccable is when you're ranting.

All the teenagers I know know that it's not "The Pixies" but hey, maybe it's just because they're pedantic Radiohead fans.

As far as the kids only liking emo crap, while I have no explanation for the popularity of all the emo crap out there, I do know that there were plenty of kids at Coachella watching/listening to non-emo non-crap, as well. So there's hope.

So wait, you mean kids aren't still fawning over The Perks of Being a Wallflower and listening to "Alseep" on repeat for days?

I'm starting to feel old.

What's not clear to me is how these kids get hooked on Ultragrrl as a voice of authority. I mean, sure, when I was a kid I owned a Technotronic album, went through a Coil phase and a Pavement phase, but at no point would I have taken the opinions of somebody with a intentionally-misspelt psuedonym seriously.

@glumble:

Maybe it's time for you to put down the Rolling Stone and dive into actual music journalism for once. It's people like Jann Wenner who ensure women critic's voices aren't heard. The best piece of rock-crit I read recently was a Le Tigre tour diary in a lesbian art mag. (LTTR: look it up.) It fit in well there, but it should also fit in RS, the VV, etc.

Long rant! Time for a cookie.

@Cam/ron: She never edited Spin. She was on staff there but not as an editor.

Matos, she was an assistant editor so she did help edit Spin. I should've wrote that she co-edited the zine.

Strange, my last post didn't make it. Here it is:

Matos, she was an assistant editor at Spin so she did help edit the zine. I should've wrote that she "co-edited" Spin.

@MJ: Nothing is ignorant about my comments, except for the fact that women get paid slightly more than I had originally thought (77 cents per every man's dollar according to womensmedia.com).

@nonce: I don't read Rolling Stone, and it's incredible to me that you sincerely believe "actual music journalism" is most prevalent in Lesbian art magazines. I'm not saying it's necessarily right that women aren't well represented within the music journalism community- I'm just saying that's how it is. When Ultragrrl's half retarded social and music commentary is bolstered as any point of interest, it's giving a bad name to women. My condolences.

@Cam/ron: I don't mind Ultragrrrl in the slightest, but "She is a Lady MacBeth here and she can't wash Emo off of her hands" is an awesome line.

Out, well-documented track record! Out!

But Ultragrrl, didn't you blog that My Chemical Romance is this generation's Nirvana?

Sounds to me like someone's trying to save her ever-decreasing hipness quotient. Ever see the band list on her Stolen Transmission label? I've heard better at open-mic night at my local 4-H club.

I listen to my shit, baby.

Hey I was at Bamboozle too. I didn't know Weird Al was emo!!