Rock, Rot or Rule?

As a bit of a music crit groupie, it was a special pleasure this month to see eMusic grab the infamous Ronald Thomas Clontle to write a column in which he runs the site’s Top 10 February releases through his complicated and highly scientific rubric for determining a band’s worth (rock = good, rot = bad, rule = great).

Yo La Tengo

This Mexican trio* has been making great music since the early ’90s and shows no signs of stopping. However, yours truly’s patience was severely tested by “Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind,” the twelve-minute opening cut on YLT’s new LP, I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Kick Your Ass. Also, be warned: the song “The Story of Jazz” on President Yo La Tengo is NOT a jazz song at all. Do NOT download this if you are expecting jazz. The song could not sound less like jazz.

*Extra points for having a band name that’s a sentence. I believe Yo La Tengo is Spanish for “Yo, let’s tango!”

VERDICT: ROCKS

Those of us who have been following Clontle’s work throughout his career know that he first made his name as the author of Rock, Rot & Rule. Dubbed as “the ultimate argument settler,” the book was genius in its simplicity. Divided into three columns, the book simply listed almost any band you could think of in one of its three categories.

I spent hours in my college days poring over the lists, wondering what the rationale might be behind some of the choices, then quickly chastising myself for bothering to question Clontle’s famously stringent surveying and the endless discussions that he conducted to come to his conclusions. Many people didn’t get it, of course, as you can hear on this recording of an interview in which Clontle talks to DJ Tom Scharpling about the book.