chicago sun-times rock critic jim derogatis doesn't like rock band vampire weekend. he thought that their first album was one of the worst things released in 2008 and he gave the follow-up 'contra' a negative review as well. what constituency is a rock critic speaking to when he says that a band he already hates has made another poor album? do you purchase new releases from bands that you hate? "aah, that detestable band of vomit-inducing posers has a new album out, i must purchase it immediately!" how does that make sense? hell, once i decide a band has no chance of producing anything i want to hear, i go out of my way to avoid them. don't you?
derogatis is the worst kind of numbskull. the kind who takes his initial dislike of a band's music and makes it into a critique of everything about them. vampire weekend have some bizarre contrived preppie image that derogatis finds abhorrent, so he yammers about it constantly. this week on the local NPR program 'soundcheck', derogatis made a strained effort at conveying the repulsiveness of VW's image by first comparing them to KISS and then to racist skinhead bands. jeez. i'm not a particularly big fan of vampire weekend (though i'll admit to really liking the song 'cousins') but how does an adult get so wound up in hating a band that he retreats from common sense when criticizing them? 'soundcheck' has a regular segment called "smackdown" where critics with differing opinions on bands and trends debate the merits of those things. derogatis was on the show debating VW's worth with a woman named marisa meltzer. at one point derogatis suggested that since meltzer liked bret easton ellis, her affection for vampire weekend could likely be explained away by her obvious poor taste. really! anybody who disagrees with jim derogatis has poor taste. this guy must be in his middle-40s. how the fuck does a person reach adulthood while remaining so defiantly childish? what an asshole.
you can listen to the show here. the magic "you have low standards" moment is 11 minutes and 23 seconds in. thankfully, derogatis obnoxious rudeness seems to have annoyed ms. meltzer enough to make her call him out on how silly his ranting about vampire weeekend really is. at one point he even goes so far as to suggest that he'd like to see them walk through some tough neighborhood, presumably in the hope that they'd receive a beat-down or something. yup, a grown man said that. unfuckingreal.
