Mental hip-hop: music news that matters (Jan. 2008)

Bodies of Water vs. Elvis Costello, Wilco and...Rush?

One of our favorite local bands, the happy-time players Bodies of Water, surprised (and pissed off) music heads across the country with a quizzical Christmas post on their website slamming a curious cross section of musical artists. “I can't understand why anyone likes these musical groups and singers,” it began, followed by this list of acts: Wilco, Jeff Buckley, Elvis Costello, the Police, Slint, Rush, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan and Afghan Whigs. And then, this:

“Perhaps you are offended by this. If so, I feel glad. You need to be shaken up. You need to have whatever skewed values you've cultivated over the years CHALLENGED. Listen again to this stuff—you will see that it is junk. (I say all this with the utmost sincerity, but I'm sure that in a year or two 'Synchronicity' will be on heavy rotation in my house. This goes for all of these except for Steely Dan. I will never, ever like Steely Dan as long as I live.)”

While a lot of digital ink has been spilled over this random band bitch-slap (Rush?), we here at MHH got a hearty chuckle out of the whole debacle. Viva hate!