I've been saving this article up for a long time...waiting for just the right momemnt...and I think I've found it.

I don't have anything else to write about.

I was reading through a nameless underground paper and noticed a music column. And boy was it a doozie.

It told me that Echolyn is a lame early seventies revival band, and that the music of "Our Generation" is much better - or something like that.

I'm going to use a word now that I reserve only for special emergencies - HOGWASH.

I'm not going to sit here and defend Echolyn. Theu don't need me to. All they've accomplished speaks for itself. However, they do make a good example, so don't forget them.

Now I come back to Echolyn and bands of that ilk (unfortunately, there are precious few of them).

I hope that what they are thinking is that there is a lot more to music than what is popular now - such as textural change, lyrics with something valuable to say, complexity (as far as meter, instrumentation, dynamics, and so on) and finally, making a statement.

But not just any statement. A statement that not everybody can play - something that makes the Musician think, and the Poser tear at his frosty hair. We're alking about publishing an art form.

I don't know if I'd say that bands like Echolyn are on the cutting edge of progressive rock.

To be honest, I don't know what people want "progressive rock" to be. I've heard Nirvana called "progressive," and if that's trust, I might ask what exactly we're progression toward - but I don't think I want to know. In any case, Echolyn doesn't fit here.

Maybe someday, we'll have to come up with a new name for the style, but for now, it's just a growing number of bands trying to breath new life - even if it is considered to be past life - into an otherwise crapped-out art form.

It's trying to get enough people to say "Hey, the music that's hip now really sucks." Go ahead. Try it.