Ryan Adams Strikes Back
Last week the always coherent Courtney Love posted a blog on her official My Space profile accusing rocker Ryan Adams of “stealing” from her daughter Frances Bean’s trust fund (for a refresher on her erratic rant, click HERE) and this week it appears that Ryan has responded to C. Love’s claims by way of a strange message which he posted on his official website … tho, it’s not entirely clear that A.) he is actually responding to her or, B.) is referring to Courtney at all. It’s all pretty much conjecture at this point but, eh, it’s totes feasible that he’s sending her a message. Here is the full text of Ryan’s cryptic message, pay attention to the post script which may or may not be directed at C. Love:
to whom it may concern,
it was brought to my attention yesterday that the 1st two vinnie vincent invasion records have been remastered and made available on CD.
not ever having been a member of the hard rock/HEAVY METAL strawberry milkshake explosion-like awesomeness that was vinnie vincent invasion, i would like the world to know that I still support their contribution of “love kills” featuring mark Slaughter (of heavy metal gods slaughter) on the nightmare on elm street 3: dream warriors soundtrack.
in my continuing everlong journey in exploring the fantasy hot tub dream of HEAVY METAL. i implore each and every one of you to seek out the album “into abaddon” by my new favorite HEAVY METAL band Saviours, although my heart will always belong to Voivod
respectfully not yours or anyones,
ryan adams
p.s. as a former catholic and a lifelong mystic, i have and still hold true to the idea that stealing is wrong. and if the saying “karma is a bitch” is true then for godsakes let it be a b.c.rich “bitch” AND DONT PUT ANY STICKERS ON IT ITS NOT A STATION WAGON ITS A VEHICLE OF ROCK
UHHH … yeah. Take that Courtney! The ball is now in your court … we’ll be expecting your response post shortly.
[Source]
Tags: Courtney Love, Ryan Adams
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August 1st, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Would someone please explain why anybody likes this guy? Who cares about this Courtney Love crap. Everybody knows she’s got batshit for brains.
Look at him! His hair is disheveled and not in a cool way. And his outfits are just stupid. Does he think he’s so cool that no matter what he does people will eat up? He’s mad. He’s not that good looking, seriously. He only makes it worse with his totally contrived “I intentionally look bad” look.
August 1st, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Christa,
I agree with Courtney being batshit crazy. But, have you ever listened to Ryan Adams’ music or seen him play live? He’s a bit batshit crazy at times, but it’s great.
August 1st, 2008 at 4:39 pm
His look is so high school disaffected youth, that I can’t bring myself to listen to it. Mature people realize that what’s on the outside is not what makes you different and interesting. And it’s not a tribute to anything stylish, either. I dig art/style for art’s sake, but that’s not what his appearance communicates, either. Therefore, I feel he probably has nothing to offer in his music. Yea, I’m totally judging a book by its cover. His look just doesn’t convey anything I’d be willing to buy.
August 1st, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Gosh, right about now I wish I would’ve invested in one of those crack addict to English translation guides. It would’ve helped me figure out what these two were trying to express in their befuddling posts.
August 1st, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Trent,
I absolutely love that you post this stuff. It completely cracks me up. I LOVES IT.
August 1st, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Christa, stop being such a SNOB. He’s a musical genius, who cares what he looks like.
I suppose your taste is geared more towards Jonas Bros. and baby bands like that, seeing as they dress more “preppy”.
Judging music by how the artist dresses … I’ve never heard of such a thing. Your poor ears :)
August 1st, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Jennifer,
I like a good discussion. Yes I am a snob -of the reverse variety (no label whoring for me, I prefer academic/artistic/nerdy types) :) I’m also sensible and I don’t go around looking goofy just to make a spectacle of myself. I don’t need that much attention. And I still manage to have laughs and not be serious all the time. It’s not really that difficult, either.
Good God, no, I would never in a million years listen to the Jonas Bros, either. I listen to electonic (deep house/modern soul/disco/newer vocal synth pop) music. The real stuff, not the crap that passes for music currently. That’s probably why I’ve never even heard his music… It’s nowhere near the genres I’m more interested in. For crossing genres, he’d be far more palatable if he didn’t go around looking like a dork. I consider myself someone who is a discriminating listener with has decent taste. Something about him just unappealing. I guess he doesn’t care that much about making money, but to me that’s kind of immature. Everybody has to take care of themselves in life. He could at least comb his hair now and again…. It would go a long way.
Seriously, if you went to a restaurant for dinner, wouldn’t you want your food to look nice? Who wants to eat what looks like a pile of rubbish? So, why would I want to listen to what looks like rubbish? -They’re both sensory experiences. How he chooses to present himself is a reflection on his work. He discredits himself by doing that. -I don’t know. Maybe he has self destructive tendencies….
August 1st, 2008 at 8:09 pm
I dunno…every time I look or read about Courtney Love, I just think…WHORE!
August 1st, 2008 at 8:10 pm
oh and WTF is up with those BOOTS???
WTFBLOG
August 1st, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Jeebus, Christa, are you still IN high school? You must miss out on most art. How sad. People like this guy because of his *music*. Anyone can probably do their hair to suit you; none of them has an approach to music exactly like his, but, your loss.
Everyone on the internet has their opinion; mine is you have no idea of what valuing “art for art’s sake” actually MEANS. A real musician is not his clothes or hair products; your music library must be hilarious to listen to if it only contains musicians you think LOOK good.
By your approach to “art” and your logic (?) in general, you don’t consider, let alone value, anything if the artist who creates it doesn’t meet your shallow, narrow surface “style” criteria…Lighten up and don’t take clothes and hair so seriously; open up and you might discover a lot of art you’ll actually “dig.”
“Gee, those Ramones…their hair was stupid, so I couldn’t possibly listen to and appreciate their music or their influence on pop music. So what if they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Ratty jeans are just so stupid and overdone. Why would a band all wear black t-shirts and tennis shoes??!”
“OMFG that David Bowie, did you SEE the cover of his Aladdin Sane album? Does he think he’s an alien? And that eye shadow - eeew - it bugs me, it’s so contrived; to me his appearance ‘communicates’ that he’s confused and into sci-fi, so his music must suck and I’m certainly not going to even listen to it!”
“Why would anyone like James Brown? Godfather of Soul my ass; the Hardest Working Man in Show Business wore silly gold capes with fur on them, that’s just WRONG so I’m not going to listen to it and I have no idea why anyone else would like, think he’s great or something; when an artist’s external appearance annoys me, I can’t break through my facile assumptions to consider they might have creative genius and produce things that make my heart bump, my spirit soar and my mind expand to new ideas and directions. Seriously, his hair is just icky, not in a cool way and that’s what I judge artists on first. I watch music videos and read magazines and subsist mostly on imagery, so I should know. He’s just not (my kind of) stylish or photogenic and he should care what other people think!”
“How can Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings bring millions and millions of dollars at auction? Have you SEEN him? He wore shabby clothes, had spooky eyes, and that whole cutting-off-his-ear-thing was so just over-dramatic and contrived. He looked like a unwashed dork trying to get attention, so I’m sure he has nothing to offer in his paintings.”
Actually, your huffiness curved back on itself in such a clueless display of irony that I had to giggle:
“Mature people realize that what’s on the outside is not what makes you different and interesting.”
Bingo! It’s what on their inside - what they create, experiment with, dream up and put into the world that makes people different and interesting. That’s what mature people *actually* care about and appreciate. If an artist also *looks* appealing, hey, that’s sweet icing on a considerable cake. The man in the photo didn’t start out as a “Style Icon” he started out with, and continues to make, good music. (Please repeat this paragraph out loud to yourself until you understand it.)
Mature people don’t get so worked up when an artist’s personal, random external self-expression doesn’t make a “tribute” to what’s considered “stylish” by vapid pop culture lightweights, and that’s because they consider the whole package and start with the art THEN the artist—something you’re apparently hard-wired to do backwards.
Ryan Adams’ day-to-day clothes and hair is…whatever HE feels like, and anyone who appreciates his art (music) for the art’s (music’s) sake couldn’t care less. The man can stand quite comfortably on his musical talent and accomplishments; I doubt he’s desperately concerned if fans are “eating up” his sartorial choices. If he shaved his head, wore filthy overalls and ballet slippers to come play and sing in my living room, I’d be thrilled. Maybe his clothing idea that day was a tongue-in-cheek homage to glitter rock with the boots, mashed up with Rushmore-esque school blazer and tie, topped with 90’s complaint-rock bed hair. Or, he felt like having a bit of a laugh with it all, because really it. doesn’t. matter. I feel sure however, those concepts might make your head explode.
Many artists are batshit crazy by default.That often soaks into how they look as well as what they produce, and it’s sad how much art you’re losing out on by judging a book by it’s cover. That’s what communicates “so high school.”
August 1st, 2008 at 8:47 pm
I think the part of the appeal of Ryan Adams (at least to me) is that he is self-aware of how he portrays himself… what makes his music poignant is the emotion that surfaces in spite of his bafoon-ish persona. RA is perfectly aware of how he comes off, he’s building a persona that is a contradiction. The easy-going clown that in reality masks his pain. Listen to ‘Harder now that it’s over’ and tell me that that song doesn’t perfectly capture the essence of lost potential. To this day, that song perfectly captures the essence of a lost relationship. But that’s just me.
August 1st, 2008 at 8:49 pm
3D, Are pacing around your house/apt crazy mad? Sounds like it :)
Smoke some more weed and chill out. Ok fine, I might be missing good music. But he must not be all that interested in accumulating more listeners if he has no desire to even attend his basic grooming. That’s a clinical sign of mental illness. He can keep crazy all to himself.
Oh and I love Rushmore. He looks nothing like Rushmore. From a non-rocker hipster perspective, he looks like he doesn’t groom himself.
I think you missed my previous post. The world doesn’t revolve around rockers. That’s not my taste.
August 1st, 2008 at 8:51 pm
He is aware of exactly what he is and yet he’s chosen to pursue what he is not supposed to be… IMO.
To me Easy Tiger was exactly that… it was Fuck You to everyone who felt that.
That’s what i like about him… is that i think he knows this stuff… he is very aware of his place.
He’s supposed to be this annointed second-coming of Dylan or something… and he knows he didn’t fulfill that promise.
August 1st, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Jennifer,
Thanks, I might give him a listen, despite his attempts to drive me away :)
That song you describe… It sounds like the whole album from a few years ago by Matthew Herbert “Bodily Functions”. The whole album is about a break-up and the process of going through it. At the beginning there is are a couple songs about missing the person. Then not letting them come back. In the middle a song about how important friends are. And then at the end being able to date and then a final song where there’s actually hope for meeting someone. It’s a fantastic album. And it’s totally palatable to other genre listeners. Most of it anyway. A little bit of it might be too glitchy for some.
August 2nd, 2008 at 2:26 am
[...] Last week the always coherent Courtney Love posted a blog on her official My Space profile accusing rocker Ryan Adams of “stealing” from her daughter Frances Bean’s trust fund (for a refresher on her erratic rant, click HERE) and this week it appears that Ryan has responded to C. Love’s claims by wa … Source: Ryan Adams Strikes Back [...]
August 2nd, 2008 at 7:26 am
Ryan Adams usually looks terrible and dirty, but his music is still better than pretty much anything else being made these days. Christa, I’m glad you might actually consider listening to him. Honestly, I can’t understand how people listen to house/trance/techno whatever all the time - it seems mind-numbing to me. RA will be a breath of fresh air, I promise. Start with Cold Roses or Gold.
August 2nd, 2008 at 10:21 am
His music is boring and derivative. I tried to get into Whiskeytown way back when, even saw them play once, but I just couldn’t do it. I found it lacking in creativity. And his solo stuff is better, but he just tries too hard. It sounds like he’s trying to be taken seriously, trying to show off how much smarter, better he is. I’m not a fan of most pop music, but just because he’s better than Avril Lavigne doesn’t mean that we should accept him as the pinnacle in the search for good music.
I’m willing to accept that others may like that style, but please, let’s stop throwing around that ridiculous “musical genius” title. It’s used so much that it is a completely meaningless phrase.
September 17th, 2008 at 7:31 am
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