Confessions of a Fanboy

I ranted and raved last night about Satan Best Buy not having a copy of the new Black Crowes record, Warpaint. It’s not that I didn’t think of going elsewhere to get it, it’s that I didn’t have time and it never occurred to me they wouldn’t have it in stock. So, today at lunch I went over to the not-quite-as-Satanic Circuit City and bought a copy of it. It’s quite good and I hope to make time to talk about in more detail soon.

I’ve actually wanted to buy this record for a long time not because I’m the world’s biggest Black Crowes fan (I’m not) but because of what Maxim did to the band, this record, and their readers.

A quick recap on the Maxim situation: They published a lukewarm/unfavorable review of the album in their magazine without actually hearing it. They wrote the review on the basis of having heard one song. No advances of the disc were sent to the press in advance (a practice that annoys me), and the review was published before the album’s release. The band and their manager were shocked.

Almost as outrageous as this blatant fraud is Maxim’s response when they got caught lying. They said the review was an “educated guess.” My mind is awash in preposterous analogies that demonstrate how absurd and offensive that claim is. I wanted to buy the record almost in protest because that type of behavior is so egregious.

I’m offended by it as a consumer of news and information, but I’m also offended by it as someone who aspires to get paid for doing what this guy “did;” that being writing about music. No one is perfect and we all make mistakes but I’m stunned someone could lose their way so much that they would do something like this. I hope it’s a wake up call for people.

I’m an independent operation around here and already I deal with being perceived as a small-time operation. There are artists and albums I don’t get access to because I’m not a major publication. Stunts like this make publicists, labels, and artists less willing to put themselves out there.

So, what do you say, Black Crowes? You want to sit down for an interview with me on the BSCA? Not only did I wait to write about the record until I listened to all 11 songs, I paid for the record out of pocket.

Filed under: Musical Musings and Random Ramblings