what christmas taught me this year

so i get the impression that my parents often think that i'm lazy and that i'm hardly taking steps in a good direction towards doing something in my life. to an extent, you could say they are right. but what they don't often see is all the things i do that have to do with music. so in an attempt to maybe "impress" them, i decided to google my name to bring some of my internet accomplishments to light. the name travis johansen as it applies to me has dropped severely in it's rank in google and has been replaced by a photographer in minnesota. no problem, i'll just have to step up my game; oh, and, don't act like you've never googled your name. needles to say, my local contributions to music and art have stopped popping up: a/v space, croquet, my music myspace account, ect..

however, one of the higher up entries that came up under my name was a link off of dick taught and the ripcords website, reviewing a review i did of their record back in april. my dad and i had a great laugh over it. you can read my review of their record here. and you can read their review of my review here.

i feel i ought to say at least one little thing before i write my rebuttal. I've been in bands, and i've recorded records, and i've sent them out for review. not everyone is going to rave over your records. different strokes for different folks i guess. and also it's the reviewers job to be critical, and if what you are bringing to the table is sub-par, then so be it. man up and take some negative critique. it's all part of working as a musician.

i offered dick taught and the ripcords my interpretation of their record, and they seemed pretty displeased; you know if you read their review of mine. though i assume it's mostly in jest they offer no real substance with their arguments. perhaps this is because they're so "bonged out." i would like to asses the fact that the record did have a lot going against it in many regards. my first inkling of this was when i read the song titles. sheer idiocy if you ask me. and that's an opinion; they're like assholes - everyone's got them. the second stab they take at me is about the design side of things. now, i'm all for diy and hand made things, even printed art work if you can pull it off. but you're shitting yourself if you don't think presentation is at least somewhat of an important thing. bottom line, a lot of people judge a book by it's cover. sometimes anyhow. either way, it makes no difference to me what the band puts on their cover; it was plain and simply a bad record. oh and again, that's an opinion and it's my duty as a reviewer/critic to have one. i give every record a chance musically no matter what the cover has on it.

the pot references: elijah puts forth his brief opinion that their references are mature, but does not back this up. sorry guy, until you can provide me with some substance on this matter, i take my stance. the ripcords sound like high schoolers that just found out about pot and can't stop getting high. the mf doom samples are (potentially) boring because they are the foundation of hip hop songs. hip hop is a lyrical musical genre, in so far as lyrics are highly important. i still say that the loops have been bastardized because i found the ripcords additions to them to be trite and simply unlistenable. being a writer, along with a reviewer/critic, it is also my duty to make the writing interesting. drawing parallels is something writers often do and the ripcords drew striking (no pun intended) similarities to striking out. like i've been saying, this record didn't hold up in my book and it's my job to not candy coat reviews and to be honest.

i feel like honesty and putting it out there like it is, are not qualities of a fourth rate reviewer, so i challenge elijah's claim. i also would like to know what amateurly is, as it's not in the dictionary (were you guys going for "amateurishly?"); and well, in order to make a point in writing you ought to have some grammatical/linguistic strength to back things up. and again, i must challenge elijah's claim that i am making a lame attempt at a point for, as this little block of writing has been suggesting, it's the duty of the critic to do so - make points to justify their review. we'll leave modest mouse out of this one because their additions to music are great and lasting, unlike that of the contributions that dick taught and co present. the final issue i have with their review is the second to last line. "travis johnson?" maybe this misspelling was intended, but if you're going to try and insult me, the least you could do would be to put some effort into spelling my name right.

so sorry guys, if you had a rough time taking some criticism. your review makes some pretty weak arguments that probably were sprouted out of your first reaction to my writings and your lack of being able to take some criticism. but it's okay, i'm not too bothered by it. i did have a good laugh though, and i enjoyed writing about it.

though the rest of christmas was pretty alright. i got some gas cards so i can take my trip to philadelphia for new years. there was lots of wine and cheese and good food. my dad is also letting me borrow his righteous '51 reissue p bass (without sting inlay). after that i went to the bug jar and listened to some sweet 60's psych/garage rock and drank beers.