(03/18/2010) /

Staff

Scott Reid
Editor-in-Chief, Founder, Chronic Rambler, High Plains Drifter

e-mail: sreid@cokemachineglow.com

CMG's Ed-in-Chief Goes Over the History of CMG While Also Defending Running A Music Criticism Site in the First Place, Thank You Very Much Everyone Who Has Given Me That "Really? Wouldn't You Rather Be a Writer?" Look

I'll get to all of that, but, first, since much of my life is greatly affected by this: I grew up in rural Newfoundland. More specifically, Port aux Basques, a small community on the southwest coast, briefly in the (Canadian) spotlight for being a finalist on CBC reality series Hockeyville, and lauded by early settlers as "destined to remain a collection of small fishing villages." High praise.

I love Port aux Basques, don't get me wrong. It's an impossibly beautiful place, in its own way, still, especially if you include communities on its fringe like Rose Blanche; and the people are fascinating, in ways it would take novels or a tasteful mockumentary to properly describe. And, uh, we've got beaches and zero traffic lights (for your driving pleasure) and good Chinese food (oddly). Astrolabes? We got that shit. Two of 'em.

Not to get too much into its history, but Port aux Basques is actually an amalgamation of small towns, each carrying with it an inherent status or stigma; like, for instance, Charlie's Head--where the running joke was having your hubcaps stolen; it also had a drive-thru for single cigarettes and not one but two people known as "Shit." This is important to know, especially if you like your hubcaps. Also, while other parts of the Rock charm you with their unintentional humour (welcome to Dildo!) or the abstract (much love to Joe Batt's Arm), we're slightly darker. From Wikipedia: "[whalers from the 16th century] almost certainly took on fresh water from Dead Man's Brook, which flows into Port aux Basques harbour." What a charming name! Also, part of our extended community on the south coast is Isle aux Morts--"Island of the Dead." It's somewhat more upbeat than the name lets on.

Anyway. You've most certainly never been to Port aux Basques unless a) we grew up together, in which case hey! how's Alberta? or b) you were passing through to somewhere else and had to suffer through one of those seven-hour ferry rides from Nova Scotia first, which, god, condolences. But, still, worth it for the people you'll meet. Great example: the big news when I visited in August was about two boys who were believed to have chased down and beaten a moose calf with sticks. At least that was the initial story--days later it's reported that a) the moose probably, instead, just tried to jump a fence or something, and b) they could not possibly be guilty because, said a father of one of the boys, "they were vandalizing a church when the moose incident happened." True story.

So it's a great place and all that, fiercely and defiantly unique, but here's what sucks about being obsessed with music in small-town Newfoundland, pre-internet taking over the universe: having to buy your music from Radio Shack or Shopper's Drug Mart, "back by the magazine rack to the left of the condoms." Family trips meant actual music stores, albeit awful ones that I guess got a kick out of seeing the expression on people's faces when they realize they just paid 30 bucks for a CD. Some rip offs worked out better (best case scenario: Pixies' Surfer Rosa; that was a great day) than others (honest-to-god worst, enraging me to the point of actually working out the hours spent delivering newspapers I had wasted on that piece of shit god damnit: Depeche Mode's Songs of Faith and Devotion Live).

Frustrated and warming up to this cool new "Internet" thing by the mid-'90s, I was finally able to actively search out penpals also interested in, y'know, which Melvins record is the best. (Correct answer is Houdini, Bullhead a close second.) And thank fuck. In late 1998, my eventual penpal, Michael from Arizona, sent me a cassette with Spoon's A Series of Sneaks on one side and Neutral Milk Hotel's In The Aeroplane Over the Sea on the flip. In return, I sent a tape of myself wailing away in all my awkward teenage glory, solo, on electric guitar into a boombox about with song titles like "Shame" and "Experimental Demon Trend." It hardly seems fair.

Michael's tape was unlike anything I'd ever heard; flowers bloomed, birds scattered into the sky, oil wells pumped up and down, a tremendous wave of multi-coloured fireworks went off. It was the love scene from Naked Gun, replete with the final dunk and frozen-in-time facial expression. It was glorious. It's what's truly started me off needing to hear new music, music that was nothing like what I'd usually see/hear, music that meant a lot more than "boy, that sure sounds good." Music obsessed over to the point of stupidly scribbling on binders and clothes and skin and, if you're one of those kids, your chucks or something, in big black block lettering so people will ask about it so you can scoff and say "Oh, that? That's a Replacements lyric, have you heard the Replacements..."

But the selection at Radio Shack never evolved with that, so the first chance I got, I headed west. Five years of college and actual record stores/concerts/people later, CMG is reluctantly born. It gets updated every two-three weeks for a few months until, in what was planned to be the site's last pitiful hurrah, I write a terrible and overarching review of Hail to the Thief. It stays up for about six weeks and somehow catches the attention of Amir Nezar, who offers to write for the site, convincing me that maybe I shouldn't just pull the plug, that I should play this thing out, see what happens. Despite it, at the time, looking like this. What a guy.

And from there the site just kind of grew, like most of these things do: slowly, writer by writer, design by design, pissed off PR contact by song threatening to kill one of our writers. It became easier to take seriously, especially when our staff started approaching six (!), and then suddenly we had editors and a weekly schedule and promos without having to beg for them (in most cases) and, imagine, readers. Seven years in we continue to push forward, despite what those very readers may think of us. Curious? We've got Hatebags full of it.

As for me, I'm 28, I hate the word "custard," I didn't freak out over Kid A, I'm a chronic procrastinator, my favorite band is the Beach Boys, I once teared up pretty badly while reading an A.S. Byatt novel on a flight, I've never broken a bone but I did once get hit just below my right eye with a golf club, I never had a memorable nickname ("Scoot" lacked effort), and, as I edit this bio for the nineteenth time, I'm listening to the Flying Burrito Brothers. Hi.

Record Reviews:

Most Recent /

Deer Tick :: Born on Flag Day
(Partisan; 2009)Husband and Knife :: Welcome Back to the Nothingness of Your Life / An End (NBH)
(Divorce; 2007 / 2008)Augie March :: Watch Me Disappear
(Sony/BMG; 2008)Women :: Women (NBH)
(Flemish Eye; 2008)Blind Melon :: For My Friends
(Adrenaline; 2008)

[↓see all] /

Aarktica: Pure Tone Audiometry (2003) Ryan Adams: Rock N Roll (2003) Akron/Family: Akron/Family (2005) Angels of Light: Sing 'Other People' (2005) Animal Collective: Feels (2005) Animal Collective: Sung Tongs (2004) Antony and the Johnsons: I Am a Bird Now (2005) Arcade Fire: Arcade Fire EP / Funeral (2003/2004) Augie March: Watch Me Disappear (2008) Devendra Banhart: Niño Rojo (2004) Devendra Banhart: Rejoicing in the Hands (2004) The Beach Boys: Smiley Smile (OF) (1966) Bonnie "Prince" Billy: Greatest Palace Music (2004) Blackout Beach: Light Flows the Putrid Dawn (2004) Blind Melon: Soup (OF) (1995) Blind Melon: For My Friends (2008) Brando: 943 Recluse (2003) The Burning Paris: And by December You Will Know Where Your Heart Truly Lies EP (2002) Camera Obscura: Underachievers Please Try Harder (2004) Neko Case: The Tigers Have Spoken (2004) Neko Case: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (2006) Clinic: Winchester Cathedral (2004) cLOUDDEAD: Ten (2004) Leonard Cohen: Dear Heather (2004) The Concretes: The Concretes (2004) The Dean Malenkos: The Album That Turns Girls Into Sluts (2004) The Dears: No Cities Left (2003) The Decemberists: Castaways & Cutouts (2002) The Decemberists: Her Majesty, The Decemberists (2003) The Decemberists: The Tain EP (2004) Deer Tick: Born on Flag Day (2009) Deftones: Deftones (2003) The Delays: Faded Seaside Glamour (2004) Destroyer: Your Blues (2004) Destroyer/Frog Eyes: Notorious Lightning and Other Works EP (2005) dEUS: In a Bar, Under the Sea (OF) (1996) Do Make Say Think: Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn (2003) Doves: Some Cities (2005) Gordon Downie: Coke Machine Glow (2001) Gordon Downie: Battle of the Nudes (2003) The Earlies: These Were the Earlies (2004) Peter Elkas: Party of One (2004) Eluvium: Lambent Material (2003) Eluvium: Accidental Memory in Case of Death EP (2004) Enon: Hocus Pocus (2003) Andre Ethier: With Christopher Sandes Featuring Pickles and Price (2004) The Exploding Hearts: Guitar Romantic (2002) Explosions in the Sky: The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place (2003) Fake Cops: Absolutely Your Credit is Excellent But In a Certain Way We Also Need Cash EP (2004) B. Fleischmann: Welcome Tourist (2003) Fog: Hummer EP (2004) Frog Eyes: Tears of the Valedictorian (2007) Frog Eyes: The Future is Inter-Disciplinary or Not at All EP (2006) Matthew Good: White Light Rock & Roll Review (2004) Matthew Good: Avalanche (2003) Ben Gunning: Beigy Blur (2005) Sarah Harmer: All of Our Names (2004) The Heavy Blinkers: The Night & I Are Still So Young (2004) The Heavy Blinkers/Orwell: Intercontinental Pop Exchange No. 3 EP (2004) The Heavy Blinkers: Better Weather (2002) Kristin Hersh: Hips & Makers (OF) (1994) The Hidden Cameras: AWOO (2006) The Hidden Cameras: Mississauga Goddam (2004) Husband and Knife: Welcome Back to the Nothingness of Your Life / An End (NBH) (2007 / 2008) Hymie's Basement: Hymie's Basement (2003) Iron and Wine: Our Endless Numbered Days (2004) Will Johnson: Vultures Await (2004) Kings of Convenience: Riot on an Empty Street (2004) Lambchop: Aw Cmon/No You Cmon (2004) Lighthouse Choir: Lighthouse Choir (NBH) (2004) Loscil: First Narrows (2004) Lotek Hi-Fi: Lotek Hi-Fi (2003) Magnolia Electric Co.: What Comes After the Blues (2005) Man'sbestfriend: The New Human is Illegal (2004) Mardeen: Friends Don't Love EP (NBH) (2005) Massive Attack: 100th Window (2003) Mclusky: The Difference Between Me and You is That I'm Not on Fire (2004) The Midways: Pay More And Get A Good Seat (NBH) (2004) Minus Story: The Captain is Dead Let the Drum Corpse Dance (2004) Minus Story: Heaven and Hell EP (2005) Jason Molina: Pyramid Electric Co. (2004) The Mountain Goats: We Shall All Be Healed (2004) Mouse on Mars: Radical Connector (2004) Muse: Absolution (2003) My Morning Jacket: Acoustic Citsuoca: Live at the Startime Pavilion Oct. 31st (2004) The New Pornographers: Electric Version (2003) A.C. Newman: Slow Wonder (2004) Nymphomatriarch: Nymphomatriarch (2003) The Organ: Grab That Gun (NBH) (2004) OutKast: Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003) Pajo: Pajo (2005) Pernice Brothers: Discover a Lovelier You (2005) Joel Plaskett Emergency: Truthfully, Truthfully (2004) Poison: Look What the Cat Dragged In (OF) (1986) Radar Bros.: The Fallen Leaf Pages (2005) Rogue Wave: Out of the Shadow (2004) Rogue Wave: Descended Like Vultures (Sub Pop) Royal City: Little Heart's Ease (2004) The Shins: Chutes Too Narrow (2003) Shotgun and Jaybird: Sackville Classics for Simple Ukulele (2004) Six Parts Seven: Lost Notes from Forgotten Songs (2003) Sloan: A Sides Win: Singles 1992-2005 (2005) Spiral Beach: Spiral Beach (NBH) (2006) The Strokes: Room on Fire (2003) Supersilent: 6 (2003) Tangiers: Never Bring You Pleasure (2004) Thee Moths: A Small Glass Ghost (2003) The Tiny: Close Enough (2005) The Tragically Hip: World Container (2006) The Tragically Hip: In Between Evolution (2004) Transistor Sound and Lighting Co.: Transistor Sound & Lighting Co. (NBH) (1998) John Vanderslice: Cellar Door (2004) Chad VanGaalen: Skelliconnection (2006) Chad VanGaalen: Infiniheart (NBH) (2004) The Walkmen: Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me is Gone (2002) Tamara Williamson: All Those Racing Horses (2003) Brian Wilson: SMiLE (2004) Brian Wilson: Gettin' In Over My Head (2004) Wolfmother: Dimensions EP (2006) Women: Women (NBH) (2008) Pete Yorn: Day I Forgot (2003) Young and Sexy: Life Through One Speaker (NBH) (2003) Neil Young: Greatest Hits Comp (2004) Neil Young: Prairie Wind (2005)

Co-authored:

Akron/Family and Angels of Light: Akron/Family & Angels of Light (2005) Magnolia Electric Co.: Josephine (2009) My Morning Jacket: Evil Urges (2008)

[↓top rated albums of 2009 by this author] /

Deer Tick :: Born on Flag Day
(Partisan; 2009) / Rating: 67 / Combined Rating: 68

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