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Pop Talk
With David Segal
Washington Post Music Critic
Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2002; Noon ET

For a few years, he played guitar and sang in a deeply terrible cover band, the Bremers. The highlight of the group's show was a stalker version of "Leavin' on a Jet Plane," which was retitled "You're NOT Leavin' on a Jet Plane." He's been at The Post for going on eight years, first as a Book World editor, then a Business section reporter and finally as pop music critic. He enjoys the work and would like to point out that he is writing his bio, even though it's written in the third person, like someone else wrote it. Segal is doing that so he appears more important than he is, which is hilarious when you think about it!

The transcript follows.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

David Segal: Greetings one and y'all.

Here's what I'd like to hear today. I'm doing a piece on ticket scalpers. Share your experiences! Tell me about the times you got deals and the times you got fleeced. Personally, I've had pretty good luck with scalpers. (Yes, I get comped now, but I didn't for many decades of concert-going.) It usually worked out fine.

You?

Bring it.

Winchester, Va.: David, I know you have covered them fairly recently so I understand why there was no review, but I must say that the Buddy and Julie Miller show at the Birchmere on Nov. 15 was just killer. He plays great guitar and sings in a natural and great voice. Her endearing goofiness (there are better words to describe her I am sure), her voice, her clothing, all made me fall in love. And then there are the songs. Great songs. And the relationship really seems to be a love story. He barely stopped smiling at her the entire evening. I recommend them to any and all. They'll be back in the area in late December. The Rams Head on the 29th.

David Segal: Good tip. We have written quite a bit about this duo and with good reason. They're one of those acts that has a really rabid fan base, which is usually a sign of something. (Unless its Insane Clown Posse.)

Washington, D.C.: On the Gabriel Concert: Thought your review was pretty fair, but do you think you sort of missed Gabriel's point? Opening with a somber song, omitting his popular ones (e.g., no "Biko"), closing with another slow song. To me -- and I found the concert to be contrarian, a little angry ("signal to noise"), distant, and utterly fascinating -- Gabriel was undermining the idea of what a rock concert is supposed to be, changing the rules of the game. and walking away from his identity as the feel-good patriarch of world music. totally brilliant. I'm still absorbing some of what happened Sunday night.

David Segal: That's actually a very fascinating take. I've got to say, it didn't occur to me. I mean, the show was bookended by very somber songs, and there was plenty in the middle that brooded too. But it was also filled with goofy fun. I mean, the dude was pinwheeling around in an inflatable tire! He walked upside down. He did pelvic thrusts. He seemed to be having a pretty fine time.

What's absolutely true is that he wasn't going for the same kind of emotional connection that he reached on other tours. Up is quite an aloof piece of music. It doesn't invite you in very much. (Aside from The Barry Williams Show, which is pretty easy to grasp.)

D.C: Dave,

Help, I'm in a musical rut. Looking for some catchy off-kilter pop a la GBV. Got all that though. Any suggestions?

David Segal: I'm digging Interpol, a band that'll be in town on Friday. Also, from Little Steven's radio show (the greatest thing to hit the dial in years, as I've said before) I discovered the Model Rockets, a British group that sound a whole lot like Squeeze playing GBV. (Maybe a little too much like that, actually.) If you can get your hands on Crystal Gazing, Luck Amazing by the Compulsive Gamblers, you'll get a fix, too.

Potomac, Md.: I am a thirtysomething who has been addicted to Weezer and Coldplay for months, which is becoming a bit worrisome for me (and my friends). Do you have any suggestions for different bands I could listen to?

David Segal: What's wrong with a 30 year old liking either of those bands? Are you too old for them or something? Nah. I think both of those bands are good enough to be consumed by just about anyone. Which brings Eminem to mind. I've never known an act to appeal to such a wide swath of fans, ever ever ever. It's amazing. My 11 year old niece has memorized every line of his latest single, and NYT fuddy-duddy Frank Rich digs him, too.

Point: great music doesn't speak exclusively to one generation. Crap music does. Try out that Justin Timberlake album, or get yourself an earful of Korn. THAT you're too old for.

If you're really worried, buy that Beck album and feel the bummer.

Georgetown: Scalpers? Likewise, good luck here, albeit you gotta be careful -- I once got tix for an event at RFK, noticed that the date was wrong, and confronted the scalper. Believe it or not, the guy was mortified. I wound up with better seats than what I originally had negotiated.

Meanwhile, a question -- what happened to the guys the police arrested at the Springsteen concert for passing fake tickets? I wasn't affected, but that was a troubling story.

David Segal: I'm not sure what became of those fraudsters. Pretty nasty, isn't it. Apparently, the graphic art software for this sort of thing is might good these days. Buyer beware.

By the way, my time peg for these scalping ruminations is a bill to be considered by the D.C. counsel early next year that would hike fines on scalpers and let fans buy and sell among themselves in a designated corner. That'd pretty much wipe out the professional biz, I'd think. But it'd allow the amateurs to thrive.

Personally, if these guys are never heard from again, I'll sort of miss them. I mean, they just add some atmospherics.

Southern Maryland: Any recommendations for rock/pop Christmas albums? (Hope I'm not too early in the season for this question...)

David Segal: Richard Harrington did a fine round up of X-mas music in Sunday's Arts section. Get ahold of it by typing his name into the search function on the Post's homepage.

All you need, right there.

Seattle, Wash.: Alright Dave. Let's have it: Your Top 10 albums of 2002? And if you put "Justified" on that list, you're banned from chatdom for life.

David Segal: I'm still putting that list together, actually. I've got a few albums that are certitudes: Eminem's album, the album by Clipse, a potty-mouthed, gangsta duo out of Va. Beach. Lyrics are nasty but the Neptunes, the hottest hip-hop producers on earth -- come to think of it they worked on that Justin album -- handle the music.

Also Citizen Cope's album. Why didn't that thing do better? It's excellent.

The rest, it'll be a surprise.

Washington, D.C.: I saw the Gabriel show, and while I am not the rabid fan my wife is, I thought it was incredibly strong.

True, the song selection was weak, comparatively, due to the relative weakness of his new album, but I view that as entirely the artist's prerogative. He's a showman, and he does what he does. I had a problem with your conclusion in your review that it wasn't good because we didn't know enough of the songs. I think there was plenty to experience anyway. Best for me was More Than This, which is brand new, and I don't even like the new album.

Still, he does look like Burl Ives now, which makes it a bit weird. But what a show.

David Segal: I think an artist is obliged to play his hits, and the truth is that Gabriel played plenty of them. My problem was more that the new stuff isn't very interesting and though his antics were a hoot, they couldn't overcome the somberness of Up's tone.

He does look like Burl Ives. Weird when a guy ages like 15 years seemingly overnight.

Bath (West): Re your review of the Peter Gabriel concert: The Washington Post, if you don't get it, you don't get it. It's obvious you don't get it.

David Segal: Hey, that's copyright infringement!

Arlington, Va.: Have you heard Gomez' latest, In Your Gun - fantastic stuff from a great band. Also, a fellow Gomez fan has recommended the Flaming Lips' two latest releases. I am not familiar with them... comments?

David Segal: I listened to In Your Gun and wasn't all that impressed. I strongly recommend the last two Lips albums. The Soft Bulletin is one of those albums whose reputation only grows with age. Some of it sounds like Neil Young backed by a choir and Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club band -- in space.

Their last one, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots has some sublime moments, too.

Holiday Albums: Dave, get the Blue Hawaiians' "Christmas on the Big Island!" It's a holiday essential for those of us stuck in the gray Midwest.

David Segal: Ok.

Silver Spring, Md.: Dave....your comment about never being too old for rock music is well taken. I'll be 51 in march and STILL my favorite rock star?.....Angus Young in the adolescent beanie cap, schoolboy outfit, short pants, duckwalk, striptease, and hard-driving rock chords. Come to think of it, he is almost 50 HIMSELF now.

David Segal: Well, that's why you don't get a lot of credit for reaching across generations, Silver Spring. He's the same dude you've been digging for years! Not all that unusual. Most people, their musical taste kind of gets imprinted between the ages of say 12 and 22, and it's hard to find stuff after that era that appeals.

Now, if you told me you were digging the new Papa Roach album...

Washington, D.C.: Hi Dave,

How would that change in the law obliterate the scalping industry? They still have the resources to buy up huge amounts of tickets and they could just send someone out there to sell them in the sanctioned scalpers' space.

I would love to see the scalping industry obliterated but I just don't see it happening.

David Segal: Yes, this law would actually not affect those annoying ticket brokers, as they like to be called, who operate with licenses and are way better organized. Those guys are your enemy. They send out hordes to scoop up tickets at out of the way Ticketmaster locations. It's legal, but brutal to fans who can't spare a few hundred for the mark up usually tacked on by these companies. Nobody is talking about curtailing them, which is too bad. They're not helping.

Scalping question: Hi David,

In your article will you be talking about why those companies that buy large quantities of tickets and sell them at exorbitant mark-up are legal and my selling an extra ticket at face value to someone wanting to get into a Roxy Music concert years ago gets me busted?

You said you like BDB: try Iron and Wine.

Thanks

David Segal: Good point on scalpers. It's inexplicable the way the law is written now. Perverse might be a better word.

Thanks for tip. I do like BDB but don't think he'll make my top ten of the year.

Washington, D.C.: I need your help! I want to try to buy a CD for my husband and he and I have such different tastes in music it's quite funny really. I'm in a sort of arrested development and still like Enrique Iglesias and Christina Aguilera and Eminem (I get along great with my 8-year-old nephew!), while he likes Elvis Costello, Iggy Pop, Puffy Imayumi (sp?) and such. What CD could I buy him given those guides? Anyone new he's not heard of that he might like?

David Segal: I'd check out Black Letter Days by Frank Black. He's the former Pixies lead singer and that's one of this more recent solo records. Came out in August. He's a great songwriter, and he's mellowed a lot from his Pixies days. (He's more Elvis than Iggy.) I mention him because Black actually loves Iggy.

Arlington, Va.: After lamenting the sorry state of local radio for so long, I finally started using the Real audio player here at the office and have discovered a fantastic college radio station from the Chicago area called WONC (www.wonc.org) that plays all kinds of great rock music. They describe themselves as AOR. They play a little too much from the 70's sometimes for my taste, but they also play lots of '80s and '90s "alternative rock" and plenty of new artists that I have never heard of. Anyone who misses good rock radio should check it out. Unlike many college stations they do have some structure to their playlist, but it's a very refreshing mix of stuff and not at all repetitive.

David Segal: Good idea. I'd also strongly recommend KCRW, which is a station in Santa Monica that has several remarkable shows. Morning Becomes Eclectic is one of those shows. Brings in really interesting artists -- Beck, Thievery Corp. Badly Drawn Boy -- and lets them play their own stuff and spin their favorites. Kind of like the My Top Tens that I write only much better, because there's audio involved.

Arlington, Va.: I think Springsteen's "The Rising" is a great album -- a very strong and assured work. Granted, I am a big and perhaps somewhat biased Boss fan, but this album for me has gotten better with each listen. With some time passed since your lukewarm review just after its release -- and noting your subsequent enthusiastic review of the show at MCI -- I was just curious if your opinion on the album has changed at all. Thanks.

David Segal: I'm afraid I'm just as down on that thing as I was before. I can't get around the mismatch of topic and production. He made a really commercial album about a tragedy. It should have sounded like Nebraska and in concert, he actually toned down a song or two into the solemn tone these tunes deserve.

One theory about this that I've heard: Springsteen's last album, The Ghost of Tom Joad hadn't sold well and his label pressured him to come through with something marketable this time around. Maybe if he'd just come off a Born in the U.S.A. triumph he would have felt freer to write something that wouldn't sell as well but that would resonate a lot longer.

Reston, Va.: "Neil Young backed by a choir and Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club band -- in space. "

Sounds like someone did way too much acid in his sinful youth.

David Segal: Never touched the stuff.

Hammerstein tix last week: I was at a show in NYC last weekend. A friend waiting outside the venue saw fans bartering for tickets with scalpers.

The bands road manager walked up to the fans and gave them free tickets. The scalpers weren't too happy, but tough.
yayayayooo

David Segal: Tough indeed. My best tale in this vein: A few years back a friend and I were trying to get into the Robert Plant Jimmy Page show at MCI. A woman who'd been stood up by friends sold us a pair for 35 cents. She just wanted change for a phone call. We dined out on that one for a very long time.

Columbia, Md.: Hey Dave, I have to say that I enjoyed Eli Atti's review of Paul and George's new albums. And I'm the biggest Paul fan, but I have to agree with Eli somewhat on Paul's new album - it's a little depressing seeing a song as revolutionary as Hey Jude turned into a singalong for baby boomers. I saw him at MCI and noticed that he only played two songs from the period 1975-2001. Two songs. Granted it wasn't his best era but he still had some obscure winners during those years. I read that he said that he just likes giving the fans what they want, but it might help his reputation if he surprised us on occasion.

David Segal: Yes, McCartney is a little too eager to please. The best counter example here is Dylan, who refuses to let his songs become relics, is constantly reworking them and constantly striving for new ways to write and record new music. Dylan is roamer. McCartney is a curator. He ought to feel free to reimagine Hey Jude. It's his, after all.

Fairfax, Va.: Neil Young NEVER touched the stuff? You got to be kidding. Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young were at the very center of the 60's drug counterculture. Saying that Young didn't do acid is like saying that Freddie Mercury was straight.

David Segal: I'm saying that I never touched acid. Can't really comment on CSNY though I'd bet you're right.

Washington, D.C.: Thoughts on the new Pearl Jam disc? Seems they are slowly emerging from their experimental phase/age/era, which is probably welcome news for some. I think Riot Act is a solid, solid effort.

David Segal: I like it. I'm not hearing the sort of songs that get stuck in your head or get played a lot on the radio. But I really enjoy the album's tone, it's vibrancy and energy. The thing really rocks. Parts of it remind me of Hendrix.

DC: It's illegal to sell a ticket at face value??

David Segal: Technically it's illegal to sell a ticket for less than face value. Yes, if you part with a $40 seat for a nickel, you're breaking the law. Tsk tsk.

Arlington, Va.: I'm 33 and I got into Rage Against the Machine and Korn about four years ago. Not a fanatic, but a fan nonetheless. What's wrong with me?

I also like Coldplay and Weezer very much, thank you.

David Segal: I get Rage, but Korn? Nope. All that anger seems fraudulent to me. I commend everyone to an essay in a collection called Best Writing On Music put out by De Capo, about Nu metal. The guy listens to Papa Roach and Bizkit and a bunch of other bands and ends up feeling embarrassed for these acts.

He likens their shtick to spotting a 9 year old smoking a cigarette; awful, but so stupid that you hope the kid learns something from it.

Damone:
I have a love/hate relationship with scalpers. I have seen U2 for $5 ( achtung baby tour )and bands like CSNY and recently Coldplay for face value or less. However, this whole tiered pricing scheme promoters are using is a direct result of scalping.

Also, I am always in to hearing new music. What's your take on Slobberbone and/or My Morning Jacket? I have heard good things about both.

David Segal: Slobberbone is great. They're playing Iota on the 10th. Strongly recommended. If you like them, check out Drive-By Truckers, an Alabama band they've toured with quite a bit, and with whom they share a raggedy, rough-hewn southern feel.

My Morning Jacket is way more morose. Dave Grohl swears by them as wake up music but I prefer espresso.

Alexandria, Va.: I bought some Dave Matthews tickets as a Christmas gift from a Web site; not only were the best prices really exorbitant, but when I received the tickets I saw that they are actually "fan club" tickets. Do any tickets get sold to actual concert-goers? It just seems like they're all snapped up by scalpers before anyone else can get to them.

David Segal: Yes, those "broker" boys are good. They don't get all of those seats, but on hot shows they scoop up thousands.

Silver Spring, Md.: I have to agree with an earlier poster about the Post's review of George Harrison's and Paul McCartney's discs. I thought it was brilliant. I think the Post would be wise to give that reviewer, Eli Attie, more work. Does he have another job?

David Segal: Why, yes he does. He writes for the West Wing. We'd love to give him more work, but he's too busy writing lines for President Sheen.

Fredneck, Md.: Just discovered the Donnas. Very good musicians, good hooks, and they objectify men in their songs the way the male groups have been doing for decades. Sort of refreshing...

David Segal: I didn't get the Donnas at all until I saw them at the Black Cat a few weeks ago. Now I get them a little. They don't have an original idea in their head but it's pretty cool to see chicks who rock like that.

Ok, people. I must run. Stay warm. Avoid snow. See you at Oakenfold tonight, or Interpol on Friday.

And two weeks from now, right here.

Rock on with your bad selves.

David