Radiohead Rush

The anti-Arcade Fire:

I love how in this video, Thom Yorke is a marionette
whose strings are being pulled by the music.

These guys are otherworldly. They do what every dopey indie-rock band wishes they can do but can only pretend to do.

Hey Look everybody! A band that actually possesses vision, artistry, unparalleled musicianship and amazing sounding recordings! Novel, ain't it?! If you go obnoxiously around saying how much you prefer "Lo-Fi" recordings, you're just belying your misguided affinity for rudimentary recording equipment and terrible engineering.

I can't believe I live in a world where Radiohead has never won a Grammy for Album of the Year, and the much lesser band, Arcade Fire has.

Way to go Grammys!!! -- Getting it right since Jethro Tull won over Metallica for best metal performance! I mean at least they've been nominated, right? For instance, Radiohead's Kid A was nominated for Album of the Year in 2001, but they unfortunately lost ... to Steely Dan.

STEELY DAN!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I'm far from finished with this topic…

Arcade Fire Extinguisher

Arcade Fire is a bunch of mediocre musicians staring straight ahead with conviction while they play. Am I supposed to think they're great just because THEY think they are? They've surely hypnotized their audience by pretending to be good.

Their mysticism apparently worked on the Grammy Academy having just won the Album of the Year award. I see right through AF's pretense. It's much like the emperor's new clothes, except everyone could clearly see the emperor's balls. Arcade Fire has no balls... they have tantrums on stage that people mistake for defiance.

One day their luster will wear and people will see that what they were really listening to was just a shiny turd... featuring the accordion! While I'm on this topic, I might as well bash all of the "indy rock" hipsters. I'm all for independent music, but this concept is lost on the hipster crowd. It's a conundrum -- people get so upset whenever their favorite indy band gets popular or "sells out." How else does anyone expect to keep hearing music from these "unknown" bands unless they make some sort of living and continue to make music. You can't have it both ways.

Their attitude exceeds their talent. I get annoyed when I see the indie rock equivalent to a pop star who is also undeserving of elevated status. It's hyperbolically and inversely ironical. Arcade Fire approaches the Indie rock event horizon, whereby the smaller the audience, the cooler they are -- at one point, not only will the band be the SIZE of its audience, it will actually BE it's own audience.

The hipsters love them because they secretly fantasize about sneaking up on stage with them and blending in with the over 400 band members, in the hopes that while they beat their ladle on a pot (out of time), they can get caught between some of the snarky looks that the guys in AF constantly shoot each other while performing. Won't that just feel so cool!

Moreover, they can go suck an egg.

Casey Abrams threw it down.

I've been watching the 10th season of American Idol and the judges (Randy Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, and Steven Tyler) are completely confounding me with who they send to Hollywood. There's a lot of schlocky stock talent that they've been sending through just because they shed a few tears and said "pretty please!?" The only person that showed any sort of actual musicianship and ability thus far has been Casey Abrams. He effortlessly trumps the other contestants with his jazzy, horn-like vocals, and feel. Sure there have been some people that can "sing nice," but no one has shown that they can actually throw down, command attention and suck you into their performance. Although they edited his introduction to make him appear somewhat awkward, he seems to be the kind of guy who's bigger than the show itself.