{"id":1205,"date":"2010-12-10T10:01:10","date_gmt":"2010-12-10T14:01:10","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-12-10T15:29:55","modified_gmt":"2010-12-10T19:29:55","slug":"one-and-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/one-and-done\/","title":{"rendered":"One and Done"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"image_block\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><object classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"425\" height=\"150\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"data\" value=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/flashback425x150.swf\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/flashback425x150.swf\" \/><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"425\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/flashback425x150.swf\" data=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/flashback425x150.swf\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>\n<p><em>Here&#8217;s an old thread that came to mind as I read Townspeople&#8217;s thoughts on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/please-explain-what\u2019s-so-\u201cdifficult\u201d-about-weezer\u2019s-pinkerton\/\" target=\"_blank\">Weezer<\/a><\/em><em>. We got into a few bands in some depth. I&#8217;m sure there are others that will come to mind thanks to an influx of some strong, new Townspeople over the last year.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><code>This post initially appeared 2\/6\/08.<\/code><\/p>\n<p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XI2JxSSuahg?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nI&#8217;d like to take this time to celebrate bands who made amazing, <strong>near-perfect debuts<\/strong> of a quality that they were never again matched.<\/p>\n<p>The prime contenders are <strong>Elastica<\/strong>&#8216;s self-titled debut and <strong>The Dream Syndicate<\/strong>&#8216;s <em>The Days of Wine and Roses<\/em>. Additionally, I like to think that some day, when the rubble of her subsequent mainstream bid clears, people will recognize <strong>Liz Phair<\/strong>&#8216;s <em>Exile in Guyville<\/em> in a similarly fond light. Also, I predict here that <strong>Art Brut<\/strong> will never match <em>Bang Bang Rock &amp; Roll<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>I laud these bands and their seemingly dubious achievements in this regard for a number of reasons. I think that rock-nerd notions of success, importance, significance, etc. are often out-of-whack. More importantly, though, albums like these <strong>speak to me<\/strong> very specifically. Sometimes I think there is no more noble artistic goal than to get down your special view of the world <em>just once<\/em>. Personally, I&#8217;d love to write just one book that gave at least an inkling of everything I think is wrong and right about the <strong>Way We Live Now<\/strong>. I&#8217;m not asking for a new career, just one medium-sized soapbox.<\/p>\n<p>All four albums I mentioned above positioned themselves against the (or a) <strong>status quo<\/strong>. Some of them did so in no uncertain terms, basically saying &#8220;All of you are full of shit &#8212; <strong>and I&#8217;m going to tell you exactly why!<\/strong>&#8221; And they did so effectively, that the need for a second, third, fourth act is rendered pretty much moot.<\/p>\n<p>So I hope you&#8217;ll join me in celebrating these artists&#8217; <strong>lack of staying power<\/strong>, their triumph of quality over quantity. Any other examples of this trajectory?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s an old thread that came to mind as I read Townspeople&#8217;s thoughts on Weezer. We got into a few bands in some depth. I&#8217;m sure there are others that will come to mind thanks to an influx of some strong, new Townspeople over the last year. This post initially appeared 2\/6\/08. I&#8217;d like to <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/one-and-done\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}