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February 14, 2003
Here it is! Fourth letter down. Cool.
Happy Valentine's Day, y'all! XOXO
February 13, 2003 Well, I won't lie -- I'm tickled. It seems that the Chronicle published my letter in defense of MMC/RK after Jim Caligiuri's review. I had a sneaking suspicion they would; Lee Nichols, the associate Politics editor, emailed me on Monday and said that my letter was too long at over 500 words, but that if I would edit it and re-submit, they would consider it.
Y'all, I am a verbose girl. Anybody that knows me knows that brevity is not my strong suit. Gregg and I looked over the letter, and I wailed, "I can't cut anything! I need all those points!" Still, it seemed that the Chron was interested, so I got out my red marking pen (I mean, my delete button) and took out the less salient stuff. In fact, after the first paragraph I had to shorten the band name to just "the Motorcars" (sorry, Micky) -- those were 3 extra words each time.
Finally we looked at it one more time. It was at 310 words if you didn't count my greeting and signature. I refused to cut any more. Gregg said, "They gave you a word limit -- you should try to meet it if you want your letter published" -- but I put my foot down. I mean, I literally put my foot down -- I think I stamped it in a not-very-attractive, second-grader sort of way and said, "No. Taking away anything else will ruin the whole theme. They can take 310 or nothing."
I re-emailed it, and said "This is all I can do; cutting more will make the letter useless. Thanks for considering it."
And Lee wrote me back and said that would be good enough. Whew!
When the online edition comes out tomorrow, I'll link it so y'all can see the whole thing. Pretty cool. I hope they included my Desolation Angel email address.
February 7, 2003
There's been quite a fracas over at the RK message board recently. In a nutshell, the Austin Chronicle finally reviewed Which Way From Here, the debut album of Micky and the Motorcars (two of the members of which are Micky and Gary Braun, younger brothers of RK's Cody and Willy. As you can imagine, RK fans have taken quite a shine to the junior set; everyone I know is enjoying their first CD heartily).
And, the review was less than flattering. I'd not even read it when I made a flame-like post under the influence over at the RK board last night (I've always said that computers, cell phones and ATMs should have breathalyzers attached).
After reading the review in full (in the blinding, piercing light of day), I spent the morning researching the Chronicle archives for past reviews by the same writer, as well as other Chron writers' reviews of bands/albums in a "similar vein." My research led me to draft this letter, which I emailed today to Louis Black, the Chronicle editor.
I've written a couple letters to the Chronicle before, and only had one published in my 12 years of reading that paper. I've seen how they make a fool of an impassioned reader by printing a letter full of accusations and smears against the Chron's staff. I've no doubt that music reviews piss the most people off (especially in this town). So, I tried to write something very factual and to-the-point, and keep my own emotion out of it.
Do I think it's cheap that the reviewer didn't like MMC and so had to drag RK into the picture also? I do. Do I think that it is asking too much for anyone to expect two bands fronted by members of the same family to have completely different sounds? Not only do I think it is asking too much, I think it's downright ignorant (there's this little scientific thing, you might have heard of it, Jim -- it's called genetics.).
But as het up as the whole thing got me, I let Gregg calm me down, and I tried to remember that I don't have to explain to anyone why I do or don't like my bands, or why another person should or shouldn't. It's America -- it's a free country, and there's no accounting for taste.
And I don't want to say or do something in the heat of the moment that will reflect badly on the band. (and we all know how that can happen! The actions of the fans really can hurt the artist. Witness Pat Green and Robert Earl Keen and the "rowdy crowds" that have given their shows a bad reputation.) 'Specially when RK has a big-deal studio album coming out in a few weeks. I know the old saying is that any press is good press, but I've worked in marketing for a long time, and the old saying isn't always true (and I'll tell you that for free).
I am not a professional writer or paid music critic, by any means. I write about music because I can't help it. I have to do it. I can't make songs and sounds and shows like RK and MMC can; my only instrument (and an amateur one at that) is fingers on the keyboard. I tried to use that instrument to share my feelings about the Chronicle review -- y'all keep your fingers crossed that they pick my letter to print.
And in the meantime, go to the shows. We'll all have the last laugh when RK wins at the Austin Music Awards again. And, go check out MMC at the Red Eyed Fly on Monday -- I'll be there, and I'll let you buy me a beer (I'm not cheap, I'm unemployed, remember?) and I'll whip out some "old coot" stories about the "good ol' days" (you know, 1997) and how MMC seems to be following the same career-building strategy of RK. We'll have forgotten all about that Jim Whats-His-Face by then. He's just another music critic, after all.
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