Cameron Archer Speaks Truth To Power

Cameron Archer haunted the web for years with sites analyzing and defending the indefensible - heavy metal bands with long hair, shirtless muscle dudes and stage acts straight from Spinal Tap. Cameron may think otherwise but that's his beat because I say it is! He now has a blogish thing on any topic revealed to him by Jolt Cola and Twinkies. He also has this page, which looks empty but I'm sure is filled with promise.

He wrote to say:

I received a promo of Jello Biafra and the Melvins' Sieg Howdy! today. Great fun. Jello's still pissed off about the guy from Dr. Know touring as the lead singer of Dead Kennedys enough to write a song about it. His attempts at being funny meet with diminished returns, and at this point he seems more and more neurotic with each day. "Kali-Fornia Uber Alles 21st Century"? I'm not amazed the man could make his own song unfunny, as the whole "hippie=nazi" comparison of the original song has been replaced with...well, the song's about Schwarzenegger, the dots connect themselves. Honestly, I worry about Biafra at this point. It's never a good thing when he's aping Elvis Costello by slagging off former bandmembers through song. I hope I never act this way by the time I get to my mid-forties. Not that I'm anything more than dumb now.

Cam, I'm 44 and have never been dumber! If you look up "functional insanity" in the dictionary you won't find Jello's picture there - only because it's not listed. But if it was... ooo baby Jello would be the picture of the boy who came with the wallet.

I asked about the Elvis Costello thing and he clued me in that "'How To Be Dumb' is about former Attractions bassist Bruce Thomas. It's from Mighty Like a Rose, which is 1990's-era Elvis Costello in what seems to be an "angrier middle-aged man" phase he was going through." I met Elvis once around 1982. He was tall and wide, twice the size I was expecting. He seemed nice enough.