Greg Puciato, vocalist for The Dillinger Escape Plan, recently did an interview with Paul Tao of HateSomethingBeautiful.com. He seems to cover pretty much everything: how he joined the band, guitarist Ben Weinman’s shoulder surgery, why they refuse to play Ozzfest, how they hate being pigeonholed into genres, how much he can’t stand Avenged Sevenfold and Atreyu, plans for their next album and plenty more.

It’s exciting and insightful to hear interviews from the more talkative artists on the circuit. Puciato speaks what’s on his mind, and quite loudly at times (which I say as something of a warning to the more sensitive of what few readers I may have).

“Bottom line, Dillinger Escape Plan will always be like Calculating Infinity, crazy-ish kind of material, that’s what we do best, but I don’t feel like we need to only do that. If we want to write a country song or an electronic song, we could. It’d be nice so that when I’m forty, I don’t have to scream all the time, you know, break bottles on people’s faces.”

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Anyone who has been a fan of Radiohead for the duration of at least two albums knows that surprise is standard. And considering that a great number of Radiohead fans are the cynical, always-a-step-ahead-of-the-rest, music snob type, they (er… we) know to be prepared for something new out of Radiohead every time. Or in other words, we’re prepared to not act surprised when Radiohead surprises us.

But I have to admit that Radiohead surprised even me when I recently found out that they are blogging about the recording process of their forthcoming album. For a band that holds so many secrets and markets on their own mystery, writing a publicly-accessible blog seemed very out of place for them.

Whatever the case may be, though, their blog, Dead Air Space, is amazing. Thom Yorke remains curious and mysterious as always, writing cryptic entries about Lord knows what exactly (and yet often being straightforward, also a surprise), Jonny proving his obsession with all things music (his most recent entry discusses how his latest listening project has been nothing but dub and reggae for the last six months), Colin and Phil posting pretty much nothing but random pictures of each other, and Ed… well, Ed hasn’t posted a thing, which doesn’t really surprise me considering he always seems to be the least prominent member of the band.

I personally always find band blogs interesting. The dynamic of a band is a curious and often entertaining thing, and Radiohead is, of course, no exception. In fact, I would even go so far as to say it is the the best of all band blogs I’ve read, maybe even among the best of all blogs, generally speaking. Although on the latter I may be a bit biased.

Music elitism has become something of a growing trend in recent years, as many (if not all) of you have probably noticed. I myself am somewhat guilty on charges of music elitism, as witnessed in my argumentative nature when people say such things as “Coldplay sounds just like Radiohead” or “I heard this one band on <insert Clear Channel radio station here>, have you heard of them?” As I have said before, I am making a somewhat desperate attempt to keep elitism to a minimum when I write in this blog. It is no easy task, but it is with that mentality that I ask the following question:

Why do the most-elite of the music elitists tend towards musical preferences of dry indie rock, synth-induced dance music and the occasional underground hip-hop music that all seems to run together, and ignore most music from such genres as hardcore, metal, metalcore, alternative rock, punk and countless other genres?

I know I’m making some generalizations when I say this, but it’s a trend that I can’t help but notice and point out. I know a few people that I would put in this category, and when we talk they ask things like, “Have you heard the new Mountain Goats album?” or “Starflyer 59 is the only band Tooth & Nail deserve respect for.” Then they go on to say things such as, “I don’t know how anyone can appreciate Norma Jean or As I Lay Dying… it all sounds the same, and that sound is horrible.”

Why is this? Do “real” music snobs have refuse to fraternize with others with “inferior taste” so much so that they refuse to appreciate any form of music that those people enjoy? Or is there really more to cardboard-flavored indie bands and Moog enthusiasts than I can put my finger on?

I don’t mean this question to be demeaning towards elitists. I’m friends with plenty of them, and I can enjoy the music I’m shooting down at times. But usually those are times when I want some music on, but more “something I can ignore” as my faux-hero Rob Gordon would say, which is when I pick the drab indie. The only reason I ask is because I honestly do not know why the world of music elitism has come to such a trend.

That said, the real sad part about all this is that these people seem to overlook a huge amount of amazing music, completely by choice. I listen to hardcore and metalcore (Norma Jean, As I Lay Dying, Killswitch Engage) when I’m looking for energy, bluegrass or Americana (Alison Krauss, Iron & Wine) when I’m feeling relaxed, alt. rock (Incubus, A Perfect Circle) when I’m looking for something to sing to, mainstream hip-hop (Terror Squad, Jay-Z, Kanye West) when I want to bob my head and punk (Bad Religion, [old] AFI, Misfits) when I want to pretend I’m political or anti-establishment. How is it that such self-proclaimed music fanatics can refuse to listen to so many great artists, all for the sake of maintaining their elite image?

I seem to be rambling, not really going anywhere with this. I guess I’m just looking for some change for the musically elite, because I wish they could appreciate all the good music they’re missing because somewhere along the line it was decided that only a few genres are acceptable fodder for music snobs.

Goodbye, CBGB. You will be missed.

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