Can We Talk About John Henry Feitelberg's Taste In Music?
Like 2 years ago, Trysta hit Feitelberg and I up about getting on a zoom call and discussing a music topic.
We set a time, without knowing what the subject matter would be exactly, just that it would be somebody's old take revisited and debated.
Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine we would be debating the musical merits of young Kurt Kobain, Dave Grohl, and Krist Novoselic.
Listen, I get that 1990's grunge era Alternative Rock isn't everybody's cup of tea. You can't expect everybody to enjoy all types of music. Despite the record labels trying their damndest, through payola, and brainwashing us through radio airplay, people like different things. It's part of what makes life beautiful.
One thing however, that is NOT up for debate is talent.
You can't sit in the cheap seats and throw around grenades like John Henry loves to do without repercussions.
"Nirvana Sucks a 14 on a scale of 1-10"? Really?
These guys?
I've heard and had to play a lot of shitty music in my life, and this sir is not it.
I get that people think Feitelberg makes outlandish and outrageous statements on a regular basis because he knows how to put asses in the seats. He's being doing it since the days he couldn't grow hair on his face. It's second nature now.
This was not one of those times.
I genuinely believe he heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit" one time 15 years ago, thought "this sucks" and based all of Nirvana's music off that. Never gave them a second chance and never looked back.
Some might call this judging a book by its cover. Or blanketing.
Whatever you call it, it's being closed-minded.
Which is why I did the honorable thing, things I have had friends do for me, and stepped up and gifted John with the Nirvana: MTV Unplugged record and asked him to objectively listen to it. (Towards the end of this video)
Surprise surprise, John had absolutely no recollection of this ever occurring because he can barely remember his own name.
And low and behold, he listened to it and loved it.
So the moral of the story is, just because you don't like a certain song, or sound, at a certain point in time, doesn't mean you should write off that artist, group, or genre altogether. Sounds change, and your own tastes even change sometimes without even realizing it.
As for his Beatles take, I don't even know where to begin…
We're talking about arguably the biggest influence on popular music in our lifetimes, a group that shaped the sound, culture, and future of pop-rock music for a century to come.
For crying out loud, when Chiddy Bang no-showed on us for Stoolapalooza the one group of all time Dave used to put their insane lack of self awareness to was THE BEATLES.
For good reason. They had to have ambulances around when the Beatles showed up. People just fainted like crazy.
They were a legit phenomenon. They were a sonic fucking juggernaut.
Paul McCartney is still selling out fucking stadiums and headlining festivals and he's fucking 80.
If you can honestly listen to these songs and tell me they suck then I don't know what to tell you man. I think you need to change your diaper.