QUIET RIOT

TO THE EDITOR: The Stranger's music staff still can't seem to wrap their heads around the fact that "quiet" isn't a genre [Sasquatch! guide, May 15]. It doesn't define something stylistically; it's a level of volume. Furthermore, descriptions that fit some types of "quiet" music, amazingly enough, do not apply to all music that is "quiet." Which is to say that if you describe something as "soft rock" it had better really sound like the fucking Doobie Brothers and not have to be subjected to that description purely because (a) everything that isn't "normal rock" sounds the same to you and (b) you have no taste. Lastly, describing something as so devoid of substance that it couldn't possibly divert any attention away from "eating something delicious" due to its "low intensity" is hardly a recommendation in my mind, and the fact that you would endorse someone who sounds so staggeringly boring makes me question whether you people like music at all. Please don't write about me.

J. Tillman

WHO DOESN'T LIKE CAKE?

EDITOR: Okay, so I get it Stranger, you don't like Cake [Fucking in the Streets, Eric Grandy, May 15]. Your Mr. [Trent] Moorman and Mr. Grandy are not fans. I've been listening to Cake for the better part of 10 years, eagerly anticipating each album. I severely dig the weird lyrics, harmonies, and horn sections. I like the fact that they put out a waltz on an album that by its age should be all angsty rock.

I put money on what crossed-arms/eye-rolling hipster-blog-cred response Grandy will espouse to his choir every week. This week's article was an absolutely beautiful shining example of the exact mindset. He puts it out in the open that he was only there to see Throw Me the Statue (a good band, by the way) and that he totally was not there to hear Cake in any way, shape, or form. Good, we're dodging the mainstream so much that we've stooped to the level of seventh- grade boys not sitting next to each other on the school bus for fear of being called "gay."

I do not at all think that Mr. Grandy closed down Atlas, and I kinda thought his take on the Flaming Lips was a little bit honest (in the lips-pursed and fellating issue no less), no matter how predictable I found it. However, he represents the part of Seattle that has always been here, scoffing the moment a band gets played for more than a handful of states, bitching about Ghostland Observatory the exact moment after people started liking them in any wide spectrum, pissing about Modest Mouse I'm sure the second after they moved from recording on answering machines, or probably calling Kurt passé by his first foray into junk.

The next time a big old popular band rolls into town, why not go the Last Days route and put in that "nothing interesting is happening today"? Oh wait, this is a musically diverse town with amazing things happening on almost every block; that would be a waste. You could list something that deserves our time more, but no, you still feel the need to flaunt your indie-till-I-die attitude in 10-point font on a 2.5" x 2.5" square in an otherwise interesting paper.

Fuck, I'm rambling now, but the main points are there.

A Kid

(LAME)

EDITOR: Mr. Sanders is quite the typist. Has he ever considered a career in journalism? One thing he may want to drop, though, is the (lame) parenthetical references. When one is typing up a political hit piece, not-so-subtle asides tend to blunt the point ["Among the (White) People," Eli Sanders, May 15].

Mr. Sanders asserts that because he didn't see almost any black people in line for a Clinton event in a county without almost any black people, Senator Clinton must only have the support of racist whites. He then confesses that he had to actually talk to people who wear flannel and denim shirts. After speaking with these people, he discovers that patriotism is important to them. Working from this penetrating analysis, he then comes to the logical conclusion that clearly Clinton must drop out of the race. Evidently, older Democrats who made the unfortunate decision to live in mostly white rural counties and who happen to think patriotism is important are seen as irrelevant to Obama supporters. Clearly they fear change.

In reading this piece, I also noticed no mention of Florida or Michigan. Perhaps Mr. Sanders and other Obama supporters are hoping they will secede before the general election? Clinton may have a challenging vote tally in the coming weeks, but without Florida and Michigan, not to mention Ohio and Pennsylvania, in the win column come November, the Democratic Party's electoral arithmetic starts to look pretty improbable.

Brian Hosey