Another ring to climb in, if you choose…‏ By Andrew Hamlin and Tom Kipp

Here’s another ring to climb in, if you choose…‏ the Rock Critic Roundtable. – Andrew Hamlin

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Thanks Andy. I think you’re better suited to said realm than I, so DO IT!

 

By the by, from the overall gist of this Tumblr.com roundtable, it seems as though my long-held/oft-defended (post-2001, if not post-1995, and however regretful) position that "Rock Now Lacks Greatness", at least in its recorded manifestations, has accrued a certain prescience, if not been transformed into The Rockcrit Zeitgeist.

 

Fervently wishing it were instead "lazy, alarmist hogwash", if only due to a spate of Great 2011 Albums that never arrived….

 

Tympanically yours,

 

Tom

 

P.S. If Bon Iver and Drake really ARE as good as it gets these days, then Rock is even more over and done than I’d feared! Hip-Hop too, for that matter. Oh well, at least we’ll always have the past Rock, Pop, et al. glories of 1955 to 2001, AND what came before! The oft-stunning half-shelf of Rhino/Bright Midnight-curated live Doors cds I’ve been acquiring/playing lately is compelling proof that there was once something powerful and ineluctable in our midst, as if there were any doubt! Best to all in the New Year….

And yes indeed, y’all should take time TODAY to read my friend Peter Stampfel’s unique, sublime, eloquent, surprising pieces as they appear on EPB!

East Portland Blog has brokered a GREAT COUP by convincing Peter to share his insights and stories with us, so please don’t miss out!

Sincerely, enthusiastically, happily, all that stuff….

TK

“Go” Songs/”Power” Songs, By Peter Stampfel

Freak Folk Origins Part I, by Peter Stampfel

Freak Folk Origins Part II, by Peter Stampfel