popular thinking

Journalists are supposed to be genuinely curious folk by nature, and yet they prove time and again how lazy they are by falling into dumb, simplistic writing habits. Case in point: Boston/NYC band, The Bon Savants. My friend, Bon Savants frontman Thom Moran (seen below standing taller than his bandmates through no genetic fault of his own), and I joked two weeks ago about this as his band celebrated its wonderful new CD release with back-to-back concert parties at Great Scott in Allston, Mass.


For info on the Bon Savants and the debut CD, Post Rock Defends the Nation, check out the band's MySpace page. Then go out and buy it. Good stuff.

I congratulated Moran for running the Boston media table in the week leading up to the CD release parties, with a story appearing each weekday in a different paper (Monday in the Metro, Tuesday in the Herald, Wednesday in the Dig, Thursday in the Phoenix and Friday in the Globe). He said having a publicist (who they found in NYC) certainly helped. So does an easy, hand-delivered pitch, like the fact that until earlier this year, Moran worked in rocket science in MIT. Care to guess how all the stories began? No need to. I'll give you a recap of lazy journalism at work, or not at work, as the case may be...

Nov. 9, Los Angeles Times: "Never tell a rocket scientist "it's not rocket science" — particularly a guy who issues a short treatise on how music defies the Second Law of Thermodynamics along with a copy of his album."

Nov. 20, IGN.com: "For those who say rock is not rocket science, meet Bon Savants. Lead by an honest-to-God rocket scientist (at MIT, no less), Bon Savants could not perform straightforward bland rock if they tried."

Nov. 28, Boston Herald: "Lord knows you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to play rock ’n’ roll. But you can be. “Science is more creative than most people give it credit for being,” said Thom Moran, vocalist for Bon Savants and an MIT-employed rocket scientist."

Nov. 29, The Dig: "Thom Moran is a genius. But he’s also a moron. I know, it’s confusing, but let me explain. When Moran isn’t rocking Boston and the rest of the nation with his noisy, tuneful Bon Savants, he is an, ahem, MIT rocket scientist. Seriously."

Dec. 1, Boston Globe: "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand or appreciate the Bon Savants. Good taste, and a predilection for Pulp and the Magnetic Fields, will do. Besides, the Boston band's already got one in singer-guitarist Thom Moran, who splits his time between writing songs and conducting engineering research at MIT."

C'mon, guys and gals. You can do better than that. Even playing off the band's name is less cliche than the rocket-science angle. But I suppose you'll talk about how Moran and Co. are good scholars when they make the rock 'n roll Honor Roll, right?

And for the record, if you journos were paying attention, you would've known that Moran took leave of his MIT gig earlier this year to concentrate on the band, a nationwide tour, and other projects. So many of you are not only lazy, but also incorrect. Then again, you have jobs. Argh.