Two brief things:
First, supporting local businesses holds up assuming your town ever had a local business selling music other than a big-box chain. (Mine did, but only briefly.)
Second, having sat through an inordinate number of directionless conversations essentially boiling down to "obscure = always much better," some of those freaky beatniks out there have horrible taste.
(Not to mention that going after a mainstream act like Pearl Jam -- what with a fiercely active fanbase and a far-from-awful live experience -- is essentially smearing poop on a garbage heap to attract more swarms of Internet flies.)
Today, it's theoretically possible for anyone who feels like it to evaluate Choking Victim or the Slits or Kraftwerk or White Boyfriend or whomever, and this seems to bother Brooks immeasurably. Buh-bye, cultural elite. Or maybe it's just a chance for anyone older than nineteen and holding down a full-time job getting exposed to something better than what's lurking in a Starbucks endcap. A whole lot less time spent searching and then lugging around physical media means more time actually listening to songs that will make your heart want to explode into a million pieces.
So congratulations, Dan Brooks. You got the Internet talking about how "everything's amazing and nobody's happy" when it comes to even semi-cool consumers realizing they have options beyond the Fray's "How to Save a Life" to assuage teenage frustration. Well, I am happy, mostly. You also got me to stream some Choking Victim today. I hoped I would dislike it as much as I did your article, but I didn't.
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