Superspecialize Me : leveraging Web 2.0 to entertain the neighborhood

Atomic Punk

I have just bought a new guitar amp. Believe me, this is a killer. The crispy, dynamic sound and the raw power of tubes, the vintage look. And the serial number 115.

I've been using this new generation of amp modeler technology. This is very handy : you can just plug anything (Headphones, PC speakers) to enjoy the great sound. It emulates famous vintage tube amps, comes with multiple effects and allows you to create your custom sounds. My problem was for live gigs, though : I needed a power amp.

Superspecialists gallore

Wandering around on the internet I've been amazed by the amount of information I've found. I'm not talking about "it's cool + it sounds great, lol" type of comments. I'm talking about real and thorough super expert reviews by the community.

Every single day I am amazed with how fast information and ideas spread all around the globe with the internet. And this cool side effects : internet creates super-specialist in about any domain. I'm not saying that this type of people didn't exist before the google years but hey ! sure they were not SUCH expert.

Sliding arm and sharing sense

I've met guys half my age on forums who know far more that I ever will on musical equipment. When I was that young, I would only know the sliding arm technique to tune my amp (sliding the arm on all the knobs at once to tune each one on level 10). Back then, they were no such teenager experts around : now they all are.

I guess this is what Wisdom of Crowd is all about. Or Seth Godin when he says that Web2.0 is about sharing sense while 1.0 was just about to get some hints.

Anyway : thanks to all these electronic conversations, I've eventually ordered my Atomic Reactor 212-50 to a small shop in Germany whose business is to exclusively distribute in Europe musical hardware coming from the US : Small is the new big indeed.

Having Serial number 115 of this amp designed in California, built in China, bought in Germany and delivered in France, I guess I've juste became a super-specialist enjoying the global long tail here ...

Rock Débraillé 90s Vs Rock Dandy 00s

Retour du Dinosaur Jr original pour un nouvel album qui reprend les choses là ou le groupe les avait laissées en avec Bug en 1988.

Dans un article de Chronicart (version papier uniquement) symptomatique de la presse rock parisienne, Wilfried Paris alimente la finesse de son analyse (solo = metal = prolo = ca pue) d'anecdoctes personnelles dont tout le monde se fiche ou de copier-coller du dossier de presse un peu n'importe comment. Approche détestable à comparer avec la chronique du guardian pour mesurer la distance déontologique entre les deux journalistes.

Dinosaur Jr c'est un extrait pur jus de culture des suburbia americaines. C'est surtout Jay Mascis et ses solos de Fender Jazzmaster au delà du bon (ou du mauvais) goût, sa voix amorphe de Neil Young en crise d'apoplexie dans son sommeil, ses pochettes imbibées de coolitude débile et faisandée.

A une epoque où les groupes consacrent d'avantage d'energie à bosser leur silhouette ou leur coiffure que leur morceau, ou le moindre ado rocker dégouline d'un bon goût immaculé, c'est rafraîchissant de retrouver le trio de pop hardcore exactement là où on les avait laissés. Même s'ils ont un peu de mal à tenir la route, "Almost Ready", "Been There all the time" ou le merveilleux "Crumble" pourraient en effet être extraits de Bug.

Il ne s'agit pas de nostalgie à la con. Rock débraillé 90s plutôt que rock dandy 80s ou 00s : une vraie confrontation esthétique et sociale. Faites votre choix, le mien est fait.