I’m not really sure that we should listen to Harvey Danger’s Sean Nelson tell us which rock bands he wants to break up, but it does amuse me that he’s chosen to exit the music business (Harvey Danger announced their break up this spring) in a blaze of glory. Plus, “Flagpole Sitta” is quite a nostalgic jam for me, so here goes nothing:
“I was never really a fan of [Smashing Pumpkins] and watching them turn into what they did turn into—and you might have a different perspective of this—but that validated my not liking them in the first place,” Nelson told A.V. New York. Nelson concedes that Harvey Danger’s Jeff Lin and Aaron Huffman are big Gish fans, but he accuses of Billy Corgan of too much “Dude, just stop doing that.” I have no idea what that means.
As for the Coldplay dis, Nelson calls their songs “generic” and “inspired by the boring parts of Radiohead,” asking “what is the point of Coldplay?” When asked to answer that question, Nelson says, “There isn’t one. They serve no need. Anyone could sort of do what they do. And I just don’t think it’s worth doing either.”
The bands Nelson wants to reunite are extremely safe (as in not likely to offend the masses) bets (The Clash, Blur) and, come to think of it, the ones he trashes are already popularly maligned in the music critic blogosphere, so what’s the point? Dude, just stop doing that.