(Day in Rock) The mail and comments are streaming in faster than we can read it! So we picked a few highlights from this week's stack. Enjoy! Get Your Facts Straight!
A nameless idiot comments Friday on the "Breaking Up? Benjamin" story from earlier this week (posted on Wed for Thur's Day in Rock). idiot writes: you guys should get your facts straight before writing a story that is COMPLETLEY false. check their REAL website shallowbay.com. there, it tells why they had to cancel the tour, not because they are breaking up.
Response. If you had bothered to read the story and check the date you will see that the quote came directly from that website. In fact, we posted the ENTIRE statement as it was given at that time. The band gave a vague explanation, which led to the rumors of a break up that we mentioned in the story. And it was COMPLETELY TRUE as we stated in the story that there were rumors swirling around about them breaking up. We are not mindreaders and therefore can not look into the future for statements that have not been made yet. Can you genius? Now if you had looked further for the follow up story posted Thursday where we posted the entire NEW statement from Ben (which was posted on the bands message board after our original story) you might not look like a COMPLETE ass. Try reading exactly what is written in the future and get your facts straight before bitching.
Jive Hoax?
Zane has an interesting conspiracy theory about the Kelly Clarkson / Jive Davis feud. Zane writes: Wouldn't it be hilarious if Davis and Clarkson cooked this whole feud up to generate sales? Maybe Davis really is the crafty spawn of Satan.
Response: That would be interesting but a bit far fetched when you are dealing with an ego that assumed that CDs were named after him. We aren't making that up.
Support The Troops
Kelli writes in about our story about Drowning Pool's new charity action This is For The Soldiers. Which we do commend. But she was puzzled about some comments added to the announcement. She writes: What was with the crack about Marines, Sailors etc. being out of luck? I didn't see anywhere in the story where this effort was only going to help the Army.
response: The title of their effort, "This Is For The Soldiers," gives the impression that this is only going to aid wounded Army vets. The website doesn't really provide much more information to dispel that impression. While it is common in the media and the idiots that write for TV and movies to erroneously substitute the word "troops" for "soldiers", a Soldier is a member of the Army, as Sailors are in the Navy, Airmen are in the Air Force and Marines are Marines. All four branches of the US armed services are out risking their lives for our country, so we kind of owe it to them to acknowledge them correctly don't you think? We don't call the lead singer of a band the drummer do we?
Not Funny
Neal is a little miffed at the recent upswing in humor in our articles. He writes: Did you get a new newswriter or something? If so you should fire him. Why can't you just report the news instead of making everything into a joke? Aren't you afraid of burning bridges?
Response: That's a lot of questions. The simple answer is that the writing is the natural response to what the major label machine has made of the modern music business. In other words, right now it's a joke and a bad one. We could report it all straight up, but to be honest, the music biz is in such a dismal state right now that to do it that way would be incredibly boring. Let's face it, not much of what is passing for music right now is very entertaining, so we can at least give a feeble try to make news about the monotony of today's music scene entertaining. And who doesn't like making fun of generic emo groups and self important rock stars that had a semi-hit almost twenty years ago but still think they are gods. We never set out to burn bridges, if we take a shot at someone it's usually them that burning the bridge to us. Besides, we want to go out in a blaze of glory and insulting a few generic artists and crap labels behind them helps us do that.
A Riot
Softserve649 likes the humor and writes: Thanks for bringing more humor back to the Day In Rock. You had me rolling with a couple of stories this week. Down with bellends and geriatric label guys! hahahaha
Response: Good to see that not everyone gets British humor, but those that do really get it. Now bugger off. Tis only a flesh wound.
Pot n Pans, Pots n Pans
Ricky writes in about some recent Metallica stories. Ricky asks: St Anger came out years ago, why can't you get over it? Yeah Lars drums sucked but enough with the pots 'n pans jokes.
response: 
When a Fan Becomes a Nutbag
Anytime we run something on a certain loser on American Idol, all the nuts come out of the woodwork. We do get a few sane people that write in with reasonable emails commenting on the story or the coverage, but the majority sound like the rantings of a stalker or an obsessed 13-year-old hormone ridden girls that are usually the equivalent to "you're just jealous". And typically with "you're" and "jealous" misspelled. Now in the interest of fairness, we posted a follow up story a couple days ago where the karaoke singer gave his side of the "air rage" incident that carried direct quotes from the "man" himself. Thus the headline stated it was his side of the story. One of his fanatics, that got enraged at even this, tried dozens of times to post a response on the article. Not having an account they couldn't post and not being able to figure out the box labeled "password" they tried several different names. Since this fan was so insistent we thought we would be nice enough to post the thought provoking message for you all to enjoy along with our rebuttal.
A few different silly names wrote: Aiken's Side of the Story? How about "THE REAL STORY--it's sickening how the media leaves out the facts and changes a story completely. Clay was attacked and the crazy woman should have been arrested!
Response: The Real Story? How about "CLAY'S SIDE OF THE STORY"-- it's sickening how Claymates leave out the facts and change a story completely. Clay rudely stuck his foot on the woman and he should have been arrested!
Ok, both messages are ridiculous, as is this story and the fact that people get so worked up over a TV game show contestant that didn't even win the show. But yes, it appears from what has been reported that this woman went way overboard and hit the popstar for a minor infraction (although we don't know if he feet smelled or not. Of course, we have to assume that St. Clay's feet could never smell as they get washed as he walks on water.). We haven't heard from that attacker but there might be a chance that she has had past run-ins with some of his insane fanatics and she took it out on him. Which was very unfair. Then again, it could be just one more part of the evil underground conspiracy by the leaders of the world, every member of the media, Dan Brown, the Illuminati, Mickey Mouse, Michael Moore, Bill O'Reilly, Barney The Dinosaur, The Gay Teletubbie, Dr Phil, Howard Stern, Mel Gibson, and Ruben Studdard to smear his good name because they have nothing better to do or are just jealous and wish they could sing karaoke on TV and lose a game show too. Or it could have been a silly incident that he himself laughed off, something his fanatics should learn to do. Probably the last one. But if you want to keep sending in insipid hate mail, go for it! We do get a kick out of them and these emails are far more entertaining then that cheeseball holiday special. On another note we do feel sorry for Clay. Not over the negative press he gets, that goes with being a celebrity, but we feel it is unfortunate that his reputation is further soiled by a few very vocal and obsessed fanatics. Perhaps the latter is part of the reason for the former? Something to think about. You think you are helping him, but you're really hurting him. Just look at how the kooky reaction has drawn this silly story out.
