Let's Get Technical!

Originally Posted 6/28

Still reading "Nothing Feels Good" and I'm starting to get a little disappointed. The lack of technical insight is blaring. The author keeps referring to Jeremy Enigk (of SDRE) as singing in falcetto, but Enigk doesn't go into a true falcetto but once on the whole album being referred to- Diary. Are we listening to the same CD, Andy Greenwald?

Also, in reading all of these music journalist books, music bios, I really just need more technical info. For instance, Andy should have established some basic norms of what that music sounds like and why it sounds the way it does, like: The calling card of the genre is a drum pattern consisting of 4 consecutive 8th notes from the kick drum followed by two quarter note beats from the snare while keeping four quarter notes on a ride or crash. This is accentuated when preceeded by a verse in 2/4 time, causing the listener to feel like the tempo has slowed, suggesting introspection or mental pause, when in reality it has only changeld to 4/4 time and the tempo has not changed at all. And Andy, it was nice to say that Sunny Day was one of four key bands that spawned the genre (I too am of that opinion), but how about siting specific technical examples to back that up, like: The aforementioned drum pattern was popularized by William Goldsmith of Sunny Day Real Estate and mimicked by the next generation. This can be heard quite clearly in Mineral's "Gloria", Appleseed Cast's "Marigold and Patchwork", and Weezer's "Tired of Sex".

You can use that in your next book!

And this goes to all you music journalists/authors! Stop dumbing it down. What kind of gear did they use? What time signature was the song in? What does it sound like? Tell us! I read Johnny Cash's autobiography that spent hundreds of pages desribing his Jamaican Mansion, fancy tour bus, Tenneseean ranch in vivid detail, but never mentioned what kind of guitar he prefered or what pieces were in his drummer's trap kit. And there are 15 other biographies of Cash and they're all like that.

The truth is that I think Greenwald wrote his book for 17-year-old patrons of Hot Topic, rather than folks like me. And I think Johnny wrote his autobiography for folks who can play his songs on a CD player and not necessarily on the guitar. And maybe I should just get over it.