Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, January 20, 2005 at 10:46 PM (EST)
My Score:

Yeah, but this band isn't Good Charlotte. They're real musicians, and should be entitled to a real review. Pitchfork gave this album a 7.3, which is a pretty good score considering their disdain for Saddle Creek.

-Chinatown

Posted by ThriveToFailure on 2005-01-20 07:18:49
My Score:

Hang on, so people are complaining when Jesse reviews a band that he hates, he doesn't "talk about the music"?

Sorry, have you guys not read any music reviews in magazines or anything? It's pretty much common practice -
I once read a Good Charlotte review that was one paragraph (actually, one sentence even) and consisted entirely of the phrase "please please please please please [...] please fuck off and die."

I read another review where the reviewer spent most of the review describing a time when he was kicked in the genitals by a small child and the agony he experienced, and ended by saying that it had still been "more fun than listening to this record."

Did it mention the music? Hell no! Did it raise a smile? Hell yes! Did I go away from that review knowing that the record in question was an abomination of all that is good and true? Yes, because I knew that the reviewer had found the music on that disc so unbearably bad that he didn't even feel the need to mention it.

You wanna know what the guy thought of the record? That's what the review is for - not some public service announcement along the lines of "like these bands? [namedrop, namedrop, namedrop] Well, you might like this, only it's nowhere near as good".

You wanna be able to "judge for yourself"? Download some tracks and form your own opinion! And hey, maybe if you like it,you could go buy the album and write your own review talking entirely about the music and how wrong Jesse was not to mention it.

(Score is for Jesse saying what he actually thought of the music rather than who or what it sounds like).

Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, January 20, 2005 at 12:56 AM (EST)
My Score:

How bout this?

Posted by Jesse on 2005-01-20 00:54:13
My Score:

How 'bout this:

You all suck!

Posted by Anchors on 2005-01-20 00:23:22
My Score:

More pathetic than calling somebody out on the internet?

Get real.

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, January 19, 2005 at 10:07 PM (EST)
My Score:

Wow, so I misread his comment. Is that your only defense? Attacking people when they misread/misspell something? You're fucking pathetic.

-Chinatown

Posted by Anchors on 2005-01-19 14:56:38
My Score:

"I want you to place your hands around your neck and choke yourself nice and hard for 2-3 minutes."

What part of 'you' is incomprehensible? Do I need to dumb it down for you? He wants you, Chinatown, to commit suicide. So how you'd 'like to see him try' is beyond me.

And in any case, that statement makes you sound like a 13 year old in a Blink 182 chatroom.

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, January 19, 2005 at 2:50 AM (EST)
My Score:

bob dylan is scene man.

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 18, 2005 at 10:22 PM (EST)
My Score:

I'd like to see you try you fucking pussy.

-Chinatown

Posted by Icapped2pac on 2005-01-18 16:59:27
My Score:

Not only do I want you to shut up, Chinatown, I want you to place your hands around your neck and choke yourself nice and hard for 2-3 minutes.

Posted by Anchors on 2005-01-18 10:50:12
My Score:

If by quite a while, you mean like two days. Get real, man.

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 18, 2005 at 9:14 AM (EST)
My Score:

No one's told me to shut up in quite a while. Burn in hell you goddamn fascist.

-Chinatown

Posted by Anchors on 2005-01-18 03:16:34
My Score:

Chinatown, how many people here tell you to shut up every time you leave a comment? When you've got an answer, get back to me.

Posted by Jesse on 2005-01-18 02:56:18
My Score:

What fucking indie cred? Did you not see Usher and Alicia Keys on my 2004 Mixtape? How about the fact that my favorite album of all time is Paul Simon's Graceland? Or that I'm obsessed with The Boss' Born to Run? How about Bob Dylan and Marvin Gaye? Do I get cred for listening to them? Because that's all I listen to. Shit, I listen to music. Fuck genre. Fuck indie cred. This is just a boring, bad release. Deal with it.

Posted by FortyMinutesWest on 2005-01-18 01:37:54
My Score:

If you don't like a review, nothing is stopping you from writing your own.

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 18, 2005 at 1:14 AM (EST)
My Score:

get over yourself jesse. being an ass constantly does not give you the "indie cred" you are so pathetically starving for.

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 18, 2005 at 1:02 AM (EST)
My Score:

score is for people who comment without having a name

-nfgrawker

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 18, 2005 at 12:31 AM (EST)
My Score:

score is for chinatown and his un-descended testicles

Posted by Anonymous on Monday, January 17, 2005 at 10:04 PM (EST)
My Score:

Score's for Anchors and his retarded comments.

-Chinatown

Posted by slippy on 2005-01-17 20:57:22
My Score:

The score is for 311.

Posted by Anonymous on Monday, January 17, 2005 at 8:33 PM (EST)
My Score:

Shit. "DON'T" Read it. ( see below.)

Absinth is rad.

Posted by Anonymous on Monday, January 17, 2005 at 8:31 PM (EST)
My Score:

Christ.

Let's all whine about people's reviews.

If you don't like it, go read it, and fuck yourself while your at it. It'll waste some time so we don't need to read your bitchy little complaints.

Posted by Anonymous on Monday, January 17, 2005 at 3:58 PM (EST)
My Score:

Safe? there is nothing safe about it. i think they did a great job of being quite freekin original. i dont think these people give a crap whether you like them or not. nothing to safe about that. sorry but these people rock.

Posted by Anonymous on Monday, January 17, 2005 at 1:27 PM (EST)
My Score:

Can Jesse's reviews be specially marked in the "New Reviews" column so that I don't accidentally give them hits in the future?

Seriously, man, not only are you a bad writer, but you're also a jerk who can't handle constructive criticism.

Posted by Anonymous on Monday, January 17, 2005 at 12:42 PM (EST)
My Score:

"C) It's how I review bad records. Deal with it. I've been doing it since the start."

If that's how your going to deal with constructive criticism, I'm just not going to read your reviews anymore. I'll just check out who wrote the review and skip it if you wrote it. You really are showing your age and lack of maturity with this review and your response to criticism.

Posted by Jesse on 2005-01-17 02:55:04
My Score:

Yeah, Stephen King is a bastard.

Posted by Anonymous on Monday, January 17, 2005 at 2:31 AM (EST)
My Score:

"It's how I review bad records. Deal with it. I've been doing it since the start."

Good argument... I actually think that's how King convinced the African Americans to just "deal with" sitting at the back of the bus.

Posted by Jesse on 2005-01-16 20:06:11
My Score:

A) re·tard1     P   Pronunciation Key  (r-tärd)
v. re·tard·ed, re·tard·ing, re·tards
v. tr.
To cause to move or proceed slowly; delay or impede.

v. intr.
To be delayed.

n.
A slowing down or hindering of progress; a delay.

Hmmm...yes. I definitely intended to use it in a derogatory fashion.

B) I like Slowdance. I like pugs. Is it wrong for me to use derogatory terms ironically as terms of endearment?

C) It's how I review bad records. Deal with it. I've been doing it since the start.

Posted by FortyMinutesWest on 2005-01-16 16:09:38
My Score:

Delusions of Adequacy is a great site, probably my second most read site, next to this one. I do have to say though, sometimes their "RIYL" is pretty far off. The reviews themselves are solid though.

Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, January 16, 2005 at 3:29 PM (EST)
My Score:

whoah. i have not heard this but
a. really not kosher, and pretty offensive to use "retarded" as an adjective.
b. if ezra is a "pug loving bastard" then they must be the greatest things ever, beacuse quite frankly, ezra is amazing, and deserves much more respect than your choice words.
c. don't feel you have to make some sort of colorful attack on whomever through your writing just becaue you don't like the music. why not tell us what you didnt like about it, rather than explaining how much you hated their other/previous bands.

come on, jesse.

Posted by vocalyouth on 2005-01-16 12:32:06
My Score:

I really like Cursive but i think they are pretty bland at times, too.

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, January 15, 2005 at 11:51 PM (EST)
My Score:

"it's infancy"

its infancy

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, January 15, 2005 at 7:31 PM (EST)
My Score:

is "adequacy" a website?

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, January 15, 2005 at 5:43 PM (EST)
My Score:

If you combined adequacy's consistency and ability to find new stuff, with pn.org's news and community, you'd have one kick ass website.

Posted by Imposs1ble on 2005-01-15 16:42:12
My Score:

The person below me hit it right on the nuts. What if these guys played my favorite style of music and I've just never heard of them? Well, I would probably never know because all I know is that "it sucks."

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, January 15, 2005 at 3:27 PM (EST)
My Score:

If you're going to hate a record you review, even knowing beforehand that there are reasons to believe that you probably won't like it, you should probably at least provide enough of a description of what the record is like so that people who might be into that sound can get some use from it.

Just saying "This sucks" really doesn't do much to inform anyone and this is a band that I think many people who read this site would like.

Posted by Anchors on 2005-01-15 14:35:22
My Score:

I'm a fan of Adequacy myself, the kids over there do some excellent work, and I've been reccomended some great stuff through their reviews, but in my personal opinion, PN is a great source for music reviews.

I mean, if you look at some of the other zines out there, it seems a lot more focus is put on the reviews here. Some examples. I love punkrocks, and have for years, but what was the last time a new review was posted there? True, when they are, they're for the most part good reviews, but new ones are so few and far between. APnet has two good reviewers, and the others are all absolutely terrible. I'm suprised some of those kids have left grade school. Ryan Mills writes amazing reviews, and Scott Weber has some pretty solid ones as well, but some of those kids write shorter reviews than the ones posted here when this zine was in it's infancy.. it's 4 years later now. Pitchfork reviewers often spend far too much time with background and comparisons, and trying to show off their vocabularies, that the music gets completely lost in it.

Punkhardcore and Pastepunk also have solid reviews, but again, the same issue with them being so few and far between. That said, I really think this site is ahead of the curve in the review department. Reviews aren't easy things to do, I'm sure everyone that writes them, hell, even Jesse, puts a decent amount of time into what they're doing. True, Jesse goes about reviews a much different way, and while that's personally not my style at all, I can't fault anybody who takes the time to write them.

And don't get any ideas about me seeing your point of view, Jesse, I still hate you.

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, January 15, 2005 at 2:06 PM (EST)
My Score:

I agree.. in the early days it was pretty basic, but only one of those reviews were staff, and it was a review that was originally in another zine. I'm not saying that the current reviews are terrible, but when I can go to someplace like adequacy.net and get reviews that are at least relevant, I kind of wish that pn.org could match the quality (I'm no pitchfork fan though, their reviews are often just as irrelevant, only in 3x as many words).

This review, if you cut out all the self-righteous crap about Jesse's boring life, the only real content is the final paragraph. It is the only part that is relevant!. Honestl Anchors, I think you write some excellent reviews.. as well as adam and forty and some others. It's just that i think the quality of some of the staff reviews are a bit low, and I think they could be better. As a very community-centered website, I'm just calling for some more time to be put into reviews. Maybe I'll start writing a couple reviews, there is some stuff that I noticed has gone overlooked (minus the bear?)

Posted by Imposs1ble on 2005-01-15 13:56:43
My Score:

To Anchors (and anyone who cares),

True, those reviews are exceptionally short, but only one of them was posted by a staff reviewer (and he didn't even write it). The Lagwagon review, no matter how short it was, at least addressed what the music was like and made a very basic comparison. And this comparison had nothing to do with dribbling over naked babies, or whatever Jesse was talking about. I'm not trying to rip on anyone here, but I am becoming increasingly disappointed by the quality of the reviews on this site. I would rather read a fanboy article than an article by someone who doesn't even give the album a chance, but maybe that's just me. If there has to be a cull, so be it, but something needs to change here. I'm done.

Posted by Anchors on 2005-01-15 12:48:02
My Score:

"It's not even Jesse-hating... it's his writing... just a bad reviewer. While i understand this site is very much a product of its readers... a public forum of sorts, it has become more and more amateur with time. When someone regarded as "staff" writes a review this shallow.. something's wrong."

Not to defend Jesse, but I'd have to say the writings gotten a lot better. If you go back and look at reviews from like 2000, 2001, most of them are a just a paragraph or two.

http://www.punknews.org/reviews.php?op=albumreview&id=161
http://www.punknews.org/reviews.php?op=albumreview&id=93
http: //www.punknews.org/reviews.php?op=albumreview&id=56

I'd have to say things have improved a ton since then, not just staff, but kids who submit their own, everybody learned by continually writing, how to improve. So I disagree that it's become more ameteur, but I can understand not where you're coming from.

Posted by Anchors on 2005-01-15 12:38:29
My Score:

Still not counting, but by my not-counting tally, it seems the number in support of you is actually more along the lines of:

5.

One was iffy, so it could be 6, but I honestly don't know where you're getting 10 from.

Posted by Jesse on 2005-01-15 12:35:57
My Score:

Because those are the albums they send me to review. I don't just pick and choose.

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, January 15, 2005 at 4:02 AM (EST)
My Score:

Why do you review albums you know you will hate?

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, January 15, 2005 at 3:45 AM (EST)
My Score:

haha, Jesse always gets these melodramatic Saddle Creek-like bands to review, and he clearly hates most of it. good times

Posted by Jesse on 2005-01-15 02:44:34
My Score:

And not that I'm counting, the Jesse supporting comments total:

10.

Half and half. Like it's always been. Suck it.

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, January 15, 2005 at 2:42 AM (EST)
My Score:

"Jesse-hating comment tally is:"

It's not even Jesse-hating... it's his writing... just a bad reviewer. While i understand this site is very much a product of its readers... a public forum of sorts, it has become more and more amateur with time. When someone regarded as "staff" writes a review this shallow.. something's wrong.

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, January 15, 2005 at 2:26 AM (EST)
My Score:

"And 311 is the best band from Omaha, by and large."

Dude 311 couldn't even be the best band at an autistic-only middle school talent show.

Posted by Anchors on 2005-01-15 02:08:25
My Score:

Not that I'm counting, but so far the Jesse-hating comment tally is:

11.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, January 14, 2005 at 10:13 PM (EST)
My Score:

Jesse:
No matter how right you are about any albums you review...
nobody respects your opinion because you're an obnoxious asshole.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, January 14, 2005 at 7:09 PM (EST)
My Score:

Ahh..Jesse

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, January 14, 2005 at 6:06 PM (EST)
My Score:

quit* before you rail me

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, January 14, 2005 at 6:05 PM (EST)
My Score:

jesse, your reviews are horrible. quite trying to be buddyhead.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, January 14, 2005 at 5:37 PM (EST)
My Score:

I'v never heard this band so I'm not biased towards them...but this review was absolutely terrible.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, January 14, 2005 at 4:55 PM (EST)
My Score:

Thiss reads more like a maddox post then a review, but meh, i had fun.

-duped

P.S. bright eyes sucks. i can't remember if that's relevant to this, but it's goddamn true at all times.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, January 14, 2005 at 4:10 PM (EST)
My Score:

i like saltines. :|

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, January 14, 2005 at 3:06 PM (EST)
My Score:

cursive can be bland?
....what the FUCK is wrong with you?

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, January 14, 2005 at 2:41 PM (EST)
My Score:

if your going to do a review that tells us nothing about the record and is just to be funny....make sure its funny.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, January 14, 2005 at 2:24 PM (EST)
My Score:

I guess I'm not COOL cause I feel in love with this album.

Posted by Toby_at_Fat on 2005-01-14 13:54:39
My Score:

Ryno!

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, January 14, 2005 at 1:47 PM (EST)
My Score:

Cursive has been many things, but bland is not one of them.

OC

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, January 14, 2005 at 1:45 PM (EST)
My Score:

You used to be funny, Jesse. What happened?

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, January 14, 2005 at 1:32 PM (EST)
My Score:

score is for the review

Posted by inagreendase on 2005-01-14 13:11:08
My Score:

if anything it sounds like some of the 90's grunge stuff.

Okay, good, maybe I'm not nuts after all, as I could've sworn I heard a Nirvana influence creeping up here and there...it just didn't seem likely coming from a band with that type of pedigree.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, January 14, 2005 at 12:55 PM (EST)
My Score:

Jesse wishes he was Buddyhead

Posted by theundergroundscene on 2005-01-14 11:14:41
My Score:

This bored the crap out of me.

And 311 is the best band from Omaha, by and large.

Posted by TheMarc on 2005-01-14 10:43:51
My Score:

Fuck the hatas! Great review, Jesse!

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, January 14, 2005 at 10:41 AM (EST)
My Score:

god damn terrible review. You give no clue as to what it sounds like. It doesn't sound like Cursive at all, if anything it sounds like some of the 90's grunge stuff. Very thick, and awesome live. The two vocalists have voices that compliment each other well. Good shout along lyrics. My quibble with the album is that sometimes the vocals are too low. Otherwise I thought it was a solid rock album. Nothing spectacular, but at least worth listening to MORE THAN ONCE on a goddamn boombox. Seriously, the reviews here just keep gettin shittier.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, January 14, 2005 at 10:37 AM (EST)
My Score:

this review is just plain bad. at least have the decency to go into the listening session with a clear head.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, January 14, 2005 at 10:03 AM (EST)
My Score:

The cubs suck!

Posted by lou on 2005-01-14 09:57:37
My Score:

i like saltines, then again, i really like cursive. so maybe that explains my affinity to each. ...i have to agree with jesse though. this album didn't necessarily 'do it' for me either.

Posted by xmidipunkbastardx on 2005-01-14 09:28:27
My Score:

damn great review.
score is for the review.

(just a nine because you didn't talk about the music)

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, January 14, 2005 at 4:41 AM (EST)
My Score:

The Giants beat the Cubs in '89 in the playoffs, but I was so rooting for Chicago. They could've beat Oakland in the series, that would've been sweet.

No, wait, they would've got dope smacked too. Stupid Bash Brothers.

Posted by ElVaquero on 2005-01-14 04:06:31
My Score:

good review.

Posted by irish_joo on 2005-01-14 03:19:01
My Score:

This review bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew. It didn't even give a vague description of the music on the album. Give more information before you rip into a band next time.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, January 14, 2005 at 2:44 AM (EST)
My Score:

score is for Ryne Sandberg.

Posted by joeg on 2005-01-14 02:29:37
My Score:

review made me want to not like this band much.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, January 14, 2005 at 2:00 AM (EST)
My Score:

sweet. i'm not even gonna listen to it. i'll just assume it sucks like every other band from omaha. except cursive.

Posted by mykindofmurder on 2005-01-14 01:59:05
My Score:

super name, horrid artwork. nice, blunt review.

blunts...

Posted by crossfiyaaa on 2005-01-14 01:58:38
My Score:

hooray for throwing around the word retard!

hooray for pc punks!