I got shit to say tonight, but first some shameless self-promotion of my great critical analysis.

Sunfold: Toy Tugboats – This CD pissed me the fuck off. I had a hard enough time explaining why in a quick blurb review, so I’m not going to do it again here. You want to find out why I hated it so much? Read the review.

Chapters: Wife – Ian Curtis is alive and living in St. Louis?

Lykke Li: Youth Novels – My new obsessive crush of the week.

Moving on now, despite my previous rant against how much I hate it, I went to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this weekend. It was mostly because my mom wanted to, and I’m such an awesome son that I’ll put my rock snobbery aside for her. Besides, I went there once before and had a good enough time. However, that was a while ago, sometime in the late 90s, and I expected a lot of changes at the museum end of the hall some 10 years later. I as actually looking forward to the trip. Once again high expectations let me down.

The main part of the museum barely changed at all since my last visit over a decade ago. I understand that this is all history we’re talking about, but they have to update themselves, find a new way to talk about it. They have the same movies and videos playing now that they had in 1995. The one about punk rock really got me. So much has changed in the punk world since the mid ’90s, but not there. Nothing about straight edge, emo (for good or bad), anarcho, or even riot grrl! In fact, the museum pretty much stops at 1995. Now while there hasn’t really been a paradigm-shifting movement since grunge, a lot has happened. How about some love for The White Stripes, The Strokes or the entire indie-rock movement?

You might argue that it’s too soon for those bands to be featured, but there is a section dedicated to “what’s happening now.”What’s in that section you may ask? Linkin Park’s turntable, the mask from The Offpring’s “You Wanna Hit That” video and some Paramore shit. And I almost forgot, they just added outfits worn by The Jonas Brothers! Yay! This entire section really shows just how out of touch the Hall is when it comes to new music.

The major change to the Hall from the last time that I was there was the Hall of Fame itself. Before it was a boring little room with nothing but backlit signatures of the inductees. Now, it’s a massive multimedia presentation, with three giant screens projecting interviews and footage of every single inductee. It’s a cool idea, but the execution blows. It’s a 66 minute presentation with a short six-minute intermission between showings. My mom and I came it late and planned on sticking around to catch what we missed. Well, shits to that plan, because the second the thing ended we were rudely told that everyone had to get out for the next crowd of people waiting to get in. What the fuck? You can’t enforce something like that halfway. If you don’t want people to come in late then DON’T LET THEM COME IN LATE. Actually, I was shocked that an employee came in to the theater when the show was over. Employees of any kind seem to be a commodity at the Rock Hall. Have a question? Good luck finding someone to help you.

That’s not entirely true, there are plenty of employees in the store, because that’s where they can suck the most money out of you. I don’t expect fair prices at a gift shop, but give me a fucking break. New CDs cost 18 bucks, older ones can cost even more, especially “imports.” Why the superfluous quotations? Because most of the imports were just domestically available items slapped with an import sticker and an inflated price.

And their vinyl section was ass.

But wait, there’s more. My mom has some leg issues right now, so she’s using a wheelchair to get around. Let me tell you, if you are handicapped and want to visit the Rock Hall then good luck, because apparently the Americans with Disabilities Act isn’t very rock and roll. The wheelchair curbs outside the place are a wreck and the ramp going in isn’t much better. If you can make it past those obstacles you still aren’t in the clear though, since the doors going in don’t have an automatic button (required by law). I to hold the door open while pushing my mom in. The employee watching us from a distance was a nice tough too.

Once we were in there navigating the place was a nightmare. There are two sets of elevators in hall, and neither of them go to go to all the floors. Outside each of them is a sign saying which floors the other elevator goes to, with a tiny little arrow indicating that you’re at the wrong one. That’s some good design, it’s like they’re daring you to enjoy yourself with shit like that.

Remember how I was so upset about great bands that weren’t in the hall of fame? Forget it. Those artists are too good for that place.

Bloc Party – Luno (Polysics Harajuku Mix)
Kaiser Chiefs – Na Na Na Na Naa (Polysics Remix)
Both of these remixes are by a Japanese group called Polysics. I’m reviewing their new album and I think I can say that they are my new favorite band in the world. They are like Devo on acid (and Japanese). Expect a gleaming review in a few weeks. The Kaiser Chiefs remix is from a Japanese exclusive EP, I don’t know where the Bloc Party one is from though.

Peter Gabriel
Big Time (Dance Mix)
Not in the hall of fame…just saying. This is a 12” mix.

Pop Will Eat Itself
Games Without Frontiers
And now a Peter Gabriel cover. I plan all this shit. I have no idea where this is from.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 5:52 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.