Delaware County Times takes strong editorial position against new Journey singer, requires 800 words to do so
posted by Joel Tannenbaum
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The Delco Times' music columnist/resident sociopath Michael Christopher has outdone himself once again with a feature-length diatribe against 80s hair farmers Journey. Christopher objects strongly to their latest attempt to replace their original lead singer Steve Perry (who went on to rock his former bandmates back to the stone age with "Oh Sherrie"). Their quest has led them to the singer in a Journey cover band from (where else?) Quezon City, The Philippines. Guitarist Neal Schon found the guy on Youtube.
Might Christopher's latest diktat, forcefully headlined Journey's Lead Choice is Wrong, generate the same volume of hate mail and death threats as his his previous attacks on Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bruce Springsteen and the Goo Goo Dolls, who posted his picture on their website and invited fans to deface it? All of us, including, CP suspects, Christopher himself, can only hope so.
If you, like many of Christopher's angry letter writers, aren't quite reading at a fifth grade level yet, you can check him out instead on WIP 1210, where he appears regularly as the "Music Guy" on Dom Giordano's The Big Talker.
In all fairness, if you grew up in Delaware County, this would all seem kind of normal.
March 27th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
All this yet no one wil ever bitch about that Pavement impersonator fronting the Jicks.
March 27th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
at least MC cut his hair, A.D. have you showered this decade?
thank god someone has the guts to stand up to the Journey faithful
LONG LIVE THE GUTTER TWINS!
March 27th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
AD rules!
The Gutter Twins Rule!
Michael Chris is a one man stand against all that is wrong in music.
F*** Journey and the Goo Goo Doll they rode in on.
March 27th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Come on, guys. Be fair to the new singer.
Do you know how hard it would be to replace me?
March 27th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Steve Perry, you suck. Shut up.
March 27th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
My god what have I done?
March 27th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
weirdest. thread. evar.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Michael Christopher is doing the young people of the world a favor by informing them about a period in American musical history when nearly every band sucked (1974-1980, and again in the spring of 1987, and more from 2003 until the present).
Too often are music critics so caught up in praising the latest all-girl Indie sensation for learning that fourth chord, that we sometimes forget to take a few minutes to warn the kids out there about the musical Ford Edsels such as Boston, Chicago, and Nirvana, whose rusting artistic wreckage dots the roadside on the Highway of Rock.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
The biggest issue I have with MC isn’t him pissing on the Friday-Night-Cover-Band-Glory-Tent or the Yo-You’re-my-brown-eyed-girl-Beef & Beer…
It’s where someone like A.D. also fails…
Where does MC stand on Guided By Voices.
A.D…you care to comment?
Howard, you haven’t your stripes yet. Go back to Brownie’s and Rage Against The Machine.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Don’t forget Resolv. and The Junk Monkies from the Khyber’s hay day.
Journey SUCKS.
March 27th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
I think the more obvious and important Q is where Mr. Amorosi stands when it comes to Greg Dulli. Must make his manhood quiver.
March 27th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
So when was it wrong for a reviewer to have a strong - honest opinion? Because he wants the bar to be raised in the arts? Isn’t that the heart of his argument?
So are we supposed to like what ever a big music label gives us?
But calling Michael Christopher a “sociopath” is completely without one shred of journalistic integrity and bombastic.
This is the same mistreatment you criticize him for.
Nothing more than the pot calling the kettle black.
March 27th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
I meant sociopath as a compliment. I’m sure Mr Christopher will vouch for me on that.
Next stop, Secane!
March 27th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
A slander case in the works? For that; Mr. Christopher would have to prove he is NOT a sociopath. My money is on CP.
March 27th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
what a b&nch of pu*ssies. is this what the Philadelphia Weekly has come to?
worrying about f*ucking Journey?
your music editors suck.
oh, it’s the City Paper. nevermind, we expected this.
Goo Goo Dolls SUCK!
March 27th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
i met A.D. once…i still have olive oil dripping from my a*hole.
i met howard once…looks like Superbad with a wedgie.
i met steve perry once…he got hot chicks in 80’s.
MC should run a piece in the city paper on DJ Rue Girl from Drexel’s KDU.
March 27th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Hey, Secane is nice. I have a GED. Let’s worry about those hard core punks from DARBY!!! YIKES!!!!!!!!
The Speakeasy!!!!! circa 1997!!!
March 27th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Shit, I know dudes in Delco who are still arguing over Rellik vs. Violemosh.
Face First vs. Slipping Grasp? Yeah, what’s up?
March 28th, 2008 at 1:09 am
Well, yes then. I must admit he is a sociopath.
March 28th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Hey, leave A.D. alone. He volunteers a lot on 9th Street with underpriveledged kids.
A.D., what is up with that band boXer, formerly Superhero?
March 28th, 2008 at 9:33 am
Michael Christopher sucks!! Goo Goo Dolls kick ass
March 28th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Who knew such a groundswell of support and/or blog comment terrorism would come from mixing in my name with the keywords “Steve Perry” and “Quezon City”? Imagine if I wrote something about how local favs Cinderella went from “horror show to honorable” – but that wouldn’t be me, that’s A.D. (http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2002-07-05/music2.shtml).
Just goes to show that we all have a penchant for the ‘80s cheese somewhere deep inside of us, even when we try to convince everyone else that Sebadoh is what’s stacked in our iPod.
Joel’s “sociopath” tag was, I believe, meant in the most positive manner possible. I’d be much more offended if he called me “luminous.”
Conclusion: Pavement is overrated, Gutter Twins are the most brilliantly self-indulgent pairing of the year, Neal Schon should resurrect Bad English and the Goo Goo Dolls still suck.
For more, check out me, MC, and how it took 500+ words to say that Dr. Pepper will give everyone in America (except Slash and Buckethead) a free can of soda if Chinese Democracy comes out this year: http://thechroniclesofmc.blogspot.com/2008/03/its-been-15-years-since-last-new-guns-n.html
March 28th, 2008 at 11:01 am
you still don’t address the Guided By Voices question.
March 28th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
GBV? This isn’t Magnet, people.
March 28th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
wow, Magnet. is that dude still around? i remember hitting on some hot chick that worked for the owner — and then almost spit my f*** drink out when i found out they got married!
wow, nice story.
ok, MC, what do you think about the Foo Fighter’s legacy?
how earnest is David Grohl?
March 28th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
My plugs are too damaged to tour. I loved Steve Perry - people always told me that I sounded just like him.
Especially on Summer Nights.
Slash, we should cover that.
March 28th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Clifton-Aldan, next! Next stop, Clifton-Aldan!
March 28th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
The Secane Station went from horrorshow to honorable when they let me start buying take out Bud quarts when I was like 12 years old. Though, it was a pretty long walk from there to the Bazaar, which sort of sucked.
March 28th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
“So when was it wrong for a reviewer to have a strong - honest opinion?” Never: not as long as those strong, honest opinions are about whether or not Joe Lieberman has blown both John McCain and John Hagee, beer, Rasputin, or the “Ginger, Maryanne, or Mrs. Howe Conundrum”; but any reviewer, particularly a music reviewer, who harbors a strong opinion about music is wasting the sort of psychic energy that could better be put towards thinking of new ways to slip the line “I saw her leaning there” into stories about Paul McCartney and Heather Mills.
That might be the “sort” of “reporting” your “readers” have come to “expect” from “you”, Mr. Christopher (if that is your real name), but this is City Paper Country, and the only thing that our readers expect from us is to drop the occasion F-bomb and to look good while doing it (thanks for the grooming tips, AD).
http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/