Seattle Subsonic

What’s With All The Super-Random Comments Lately?

December 13th, 2009

We do OK here on Subsonic with the comments: an isolated friendly one here, a gracious one there, some annoying (but somewhat interesting) Russian prostitute spam. Mostly, though, they just come from our little community here, made up of friends, family, and the few faithful regulars. Lately, however, either a season changed or there’s something in the air, because we’ve been attracting some of the more colorful comments we’ve ever seen. Let’s take a look.

1. From Fran Wilson: “Is this Ahndrea Nicole Wilson, daughter of Howard? If so, please contact me. Thank you, Fran” Astonishingly, we get quite a few of these types (just check out this post on Molly Shannon, Molly Shannon), wanting to communicate with someone who’s apparently estranged or ignoring them. Fran, I have no idea if this who you’re looking for; our Ahndrea hasn’t contributed to this website since that post 1 1/2 years ago, and her email last name was not Wilson.
2. From anthony on a Mickey Avalon concert review by Big Rob, who triumphantly proclaimed himself A NEW WRITER and then bailed after just 6 posts: “its ridiculous how many people insult mickey Avalon and never have actually heard a verse he has said . he doesn’t rap about what people want to hear , he raps about his life not worrying about lyrically being the best . Yeah he may be disguising but when u become a hooker u can say whatever u want about your body” Honestly, I know little about Mickey Avalon other than he seems to be some douchebag “rapper” from Hollywood living off the same shallow and vapid MTV fans that think that channel’s programming has only improved over the years. But thanks for your 2 cents, dude.
3. From Matt Wallace (and this one’s a doozy, so I’m only posting portions of it. Go read the entire thing.): “Hey- I was at the Whale show- actually, I think it was my wife chanting, “NOAH AND THE WHALEEEEE!!!!!!! NOAH AND THE WHALEEEEE!!!!!!!”. That night was such a trip for my wife- she was asked to “tone it down!” by the bouncer, and later was kicked out for stumbling. She is very embarrassed and humiliated by the whole thing. I think she wanted to feel the music, dance, and connect with other lovers of NATW, and instead it seems like she irritated and annoyed the other fans. … I hope I am getting your message wrong when you refer to my wife as “what would appear to be NATW’s biggest fan.. and I do mean biggest.” I believe you mean “biggest” in reference to her weight. That is hurtful- I hope she never reads your review as it will likely cause a depressive episode and reinforce an irrational, innate sense of worthlessness that she harbors. I love her very much. Perhaps my wife’s behavior detracted from your experience to such a degree that you felt compelled to make a petty jab. You would be doing me a favor to respond to this. I am hoping for a brief dialog. I am hoping to learn something from our misadventure at Noah and the Whale @ the Crocodile. Sincerely, Matt” Ok, this is kinda sweet, but really? That tiny vague implication will send her into a depressive episode and reinforce an irrational, innate sense of worthlessness? From our worthless blog that barely anybody reads? I think you’re giving us too much credit, Mr. Wallace. Dylan, you better get down here and respond to this guy! He WANTS A DIALOG!
4. From jimmy jazz on a Hardly Art interview almost a year old. C’mon, people, in terms of internet time, that’s like me commenting on the “new” King James version of the Bible: “Too bad thermals couldn’t take the ‘independent’ nature of pseudo-indie Sub Pop when it came time to renegotiate and left for an actual independent label in Portland. Sub Pop and Hardly Art are both half owned by Warner music group. To mythologize them as anything other than this lacks journalistic integrity, detracts from the music communities education/empowerment, and puts truly independent local labels at a disadvantage.” Ok, I see your point, I do; but this type of armchair idealism is unrealistic and impractical. First off, I don’t get why them switching to Kill Rock Stars is “too bad”, seeing as how you apparently loathe any label with financial support. Second, there was no “mythologizing” going on; it was simply a little Q&A with the man in charge of a local record label whose artist lineup is actually quite good. In today’s 21st century music landscape, having a respected label like Sub Pop distribute your record is far more important than whether or not Warner Music has a stake in them. Third, we are not a journalistic operation: we don’t act like one, and we don’t get paid like one. Bother yourself with the rest of the site and you’ll see the majority of posts (mine) are unabashed fan-boyism. I bubble with irrational euphoria. And finally, jimmy jazz, you’ll recall that every album by THE CLASH FOR CHRISSAKES was released by Sony/Columbia/Epic. Last I checked, they were pretty major.