I’m having good days. There’s a bit of promise on the horizon, and right now I’m working so hard that sometimes I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw steam coming out of my ears. I’m humming along on an idea for a novel and my comic book ideas are floating out of me as we speak. Also, my main venture, Fuzztone Zine, is a lot of fun. I feel like I’m starting to get my name out and letting bands know that I’m doing my thing and I’d like to help them do yours. Not only that, but a few labels that I love are starting to send me promos of their music to review, and as I wrote earlier on this very blog, it’s been great getting to know new bands. It’d been a long winter for me, both literally and figuratively and I’m coming out of this funk.

But, just like everything, there’s stress. I’m trying to put this as delicately as I can (which is weird for me, I know), but one of the labels who have put me on their list keeps sending me strange albums.  Usually I’m cool with out of the ordinary music. But this is something else. This is the oddest thing that’s happened to me as a writer. This is a genuine conundrum.

This is the part where I tell you about Whitesnake.

But before I expose you to David Coverdale’s world of creepy misogyny and penis references, let me go back.  As a music fan, I’ve decided recently that every band is capable of good music. It may be brief, it may be fleeting, but any combination of inspired people can probably come up with at least ten seconds of music that is compelling and catches the ear- the truly talented ones can do it over and over for minutes at a time and they call them songs.

I think I wrote about it a while back- Jessica and I sat in a restaurant a few months ago and a Hootie and the Blowfish song came on the Muzak. I remember rolling my eyes but something in me said to just listen to it with fresh ears. I found a song that while it isn’t within the boundaries of my own personal tastes had a good melody, a lousy singer and a great lead guitar solo. I felt like I’d just discovered something amazing. For years I’d listened to music with my eyes, my reading about them in magazine and on the internet skill and then my ears, but  at that moment I was listening to music with my ears only. I can’t even describe it to you. God I probably sound so self-righteous, but it’s the truth, for me personally, it was a pretty monumental moment.

Back to the record labels. A large one, perhaps the largest one in the universe put me on their review list. At first it was neat. A two disc reissue of R.E.M.’s Reckoning which was unbelievably awesome.  This has to be a sign of things to come, I thought.  Within a day or two, I received my next package- a 20^th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of Whitesnake’s Slip of the Tongue. I didn’t know what to think.  I haven’t reviewed it yet and I’m nervous about it. This is going to test my “open mind, open ears” credo.  Later on in the week I received two other albums: a Wallflowers Greatest Hits package and A Casual Affair: The Best of Tonic by Tonic. For some reason, both of these albums were a personal affront to me. But then today, the coup de gras arrived: a 25^th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of Whitesnakes’s Slide it In.

True confession moment: I liked Whitesnake when I was ten. Tawny Kitaen sliding on the hood of a car did things to my tiny little boy penis (which has gotten much bigger, thank you very much) that I didn’t quite understand, and I’ll go out on a limb and say that “Here I Go Again” is still an awesome song.  I can see getting their 1987 self-titled album with all the hits on it in a Deluxe Edition, but is there really a need for reissues of the albums immediately before and after the hit album?

With a bit of trepidation I put Slide it In on while writing this blog. The songs are blustery and rocking, and part of me likes them- not enough to ever consider myself a fan, but they are fun for what they are: a relic of Zeppelin’s immediate influence over metal bands waning and Van Halen’s template for success taking over. But should they go on the site?

I want Fuzztone Zine to be an awesome site full of cool news, reviews and articles with just a hint of my personality in the “meat” of the site. I also want the site not to be viewed as a joke. But what happens if the first time someone comes to the site and the giant Whitesnake review is at the top of the page? Am I worrying too much? Is the 19 year-old still wringing his hands over credibility coming out in me?

Here’s where I need your help, internet. Should I include these reviews on my site? Should I write a disclaimer, or should I strictly adhere to my “open mind, open ears” motto?

I’m not sure where to go from here, but I’d really like your advice.

Thanks.

Be good.