Lots to get to, but first I’d like to apologize for my/HearSay’s grossly insensitive column last week (“Panic Volcanic: Freak Fuzz”). I’m sorry for implying that female vocalists in hard rock and/or metal bands somehow don’t belong. Of course they do. It’s been proven by millions of women all over the globe (Pussy Galore, Boris, Jucifer) and even by some in our backyard (Deaf Angel). Though I don’t know for sure, I’m pretty positive that women put up with a bunch of shit every minute of every day from a culture that simultaneously demonizes them as b-words and “hoes” while holding them up as bikini- or lingerie-clad pieces of brainless, soulless meat –– my female readers and women everywhere especially don’t need to be treated as lesser than by an assholic mama’s boy like me in the only real source of alternative news in this county. It won’t happen again.
“What Do You Get When You Cross Punk with Country? Cowpunk.” That’s the headline of a story in Friday’s Wall Street Journal, right above a deckline –– part of which reads, “The rise of music streaming services and internet radio have helped hundreds of musical subgenres gain exposure without much play on mainstream airwaves” –– and also above a publicity photo of Fort Worth’s Holy Moly.
“It came out of left field,” said Holy Moly co-songwriter and guitarist Danny Weaver. “They e-mailed us earlier in this week about doing an article on newer genres of bands.”
Holy Moly represents “cowpunk” (duh!), a term that Weaver said existed before he adopted it for his raucous outfit.
Other genres described by WSJ include folk metal (“a subgenre of heavy metal developed in Europe that incorporates traditional folk tunes”), epic doom (“metal with a heavy classical influence”), Zeuhl music (“a dark and gloomy jazz-rock fusion genre heavily influenced by the French band Magma”), and vaporwave (“samples sounds from computer games, infomercials, and hotel lobbies”).
Holy Moly is currently laying down tracks for a follow-up to last year’s Grasshopper Cowpunk with producer Will Hunt at his Spaceway Studios downtown. Weaver expects a late-November/early-December release.
Lastly, we received thousands upon thousands of votes in our 2013 Music Awards, and we’ve counted them all.
We have our winners.
We will announce them tomorrow (Sunday) at The Panthys, an awards presentation a la The Grammys but with a Panther City twist. Saxman Jeff Dazey and drummer extraordinaire Matt Mabe (Quaker City Night Hawks) are organizing a celebratory, jam-tastic after-party starting at 7:30-ish at Queen City Music Hall (425 Commerce St., downtown). Come join us. It’s free, and it’ll be fun.
Hey Einstein, I’m on your side!
Do a barrel roll!
Aha! Thought you could hide from me, eh?
Hey I am an alcoholic Mama’s Boy too!
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SUCH AN IMPROVEMENT! Thank you. After so many sexist remarks, finally an apology! You did a great job of explaining exactly how bad it is for women in the scene to have to hear that kind of shit in such an important alternative outlet, bravo. Of course you knew all that BEFORE you published it. So i don’t see any reason to believe the last line, “it won’t happen again.” I think it will, because the problem wasn’t that you WROTE something messed up, it’s that you BELIEVE that f^cked up BS. (And of course you didn’t IMPLY anything, you said flat out “Chick singers and hard rock don’t mix.”) Still, great first step, now take the next two that are what will actually fix this serious problem. First, make sure, if it’s not already the case, that women in bands have someone other than you to send their music to at the Weekly. Absolutely UNACCEPTABLE to ask women on the scene who want coverage to have to go thru someone who’s admitted he doesn’t think women fit in some genres. Second, let someone else write Hearsay. It is the editorial voice of the music section and it can NOT speak with such a sexist voice. Do the right thing Anthony, you wear lots of hats at the Weekly, show respect for women on this scene and let someone else wear those hats. Way past time for a change.
“So many sexist remarks.”
Exaggerate much? You’ve found two over the course of 12 years and millions of words, many about women. That’s not “so many.” Get your shit straight and stop trying to make me look bad just because you’ve got a hate-on for me and the Weekly.
And HearSay will continue being written by me. Sorry. We’ll miss your readership.
And I am entitled to MY OPINION. I should NOT have said women singers and metal don’t mix. I should have said, “I don’t normally care for the sound of certain high, airy, semi-bluesy voices in heavy metal or hard rock.” The singers could be male or female. I just do not like the way that sounds. I don’t like the sound of rappers slurring their words together. Doesn’t mean I hate rap or rappers. I don’t like the sound of country singers affecting a hard twang. Doesn’t mean I hate country music or musicians. And I don’t normally care for the sound of metal singers trying to reach the rafters through their noses. That’s a matter of sonics, not gender, and I should have been much less lazy in my description last week.
Don’t care for much Foreigner, Damn Yankees, Survivor, Pat Benatar, Night Ranger, Heart, the list goes on. Gives me the willies.
For the record, those “two” were unintentional and were just lame attempts at snarky humor and/or philosophy. There’s much worse out there. Doesn’t negate my stupidity, but where’s the outrage against DFW.com for posting yet another exploitative 150-pic slide how of yet another bikini contest merely to create web impressions to sell advertisers on? There’s no news value in a freaking bikini contest! And what about Mike Rhyner from The Hardline referring to women as “bitches”?! And what about the Cowboys for exploiting cheerleaders? There are effectively stripper poles at Cowboys Stadium.
For someone who said he stopped reading the Weekly a loooong time ago, you sure do care a lot about its content.
“You’ve found 2 over 12 years.” Flatly untrue. I’ve sent letters to the Weekly on at least 5 or 6 of them. and you absolutely know that because you responded to them. You printed my criticisms of several of them before the two I mentioned here. And IT AIN’T JUST ME. You are deluded if you think it is. Nobody thinks this is a first or second offense. People are embarrassed and pissed off.
Your excuse that you were just being a lazy/shitty writer does not help much. The Fort Worth Weekly OWES it’s readers and the great female musicians that help make this scene so special a music editor is NEITHER so biased against women he writes sexist crap, NOR an editor that is such a lazy writer that he writes sexist crap. Either one results in sexism being spread from the editorial voice of an alternative music section. Hell yes you are welcome to your opinion, and to remain ignorant and uniformed on parts of music you think aren’t any good, like chicks & hard rock. But that ignorant uniformed and to many sexist opinion CAN NOT be the editorial voice of the weekly music section. That is totally inappropriate.
I understand you are VERY good at parts of your job, assembling great writers, producing important articles. Stick to those. As the editorial voice of an alternative music section you have utterly failed to keep the old boys club mentality out, which is unacceptable in a scene w/ so many great women.
yes Anthony, i agree with you here: you look a lot better compared to the biggest sexist assholes on the planet. But when you’re compared to the average music editor for an alternative weekly in 2013, pretty embarrassing.
The dude said he’s sorry. Why you gotta act like a shithead?
Saying you’re sorry does not erase the original remark. The problem isn’t that he SAID it, the problem is he BELIEVES it. Why you gotta cover for shithead remarks?