“As a longtime MAGNET reader, I have patiently glanced through Andrew Earles’ Where’s The Street Team? column, hoping that one day I would either get the point or find some humor contained within. However, after reading issue #69’s ‘Made In Canada,’ I slowly felt a wave of nausea creep in, and it certainly wasn’t from side-splitting laughter. What’s the point of attempting to tear a strip off of both new and old MAGNET legends such as the Band, Arcade Fire, Neil Young and Leonard Cohen? You only have to flip a few pages later to the salivating preview of the Band’s new boxed set or to the gushing cover story on Vancouver’s New Pornographers to scratch your head over the disconnect between Earles and the rest of MAGNET. And as for naming a hummable song by the Band, has Earles ever heard ‘The Weight’?”

Marc Morrissette

Vancouver, BC, Canada

My Response:

Why don’t you patiently flip the page? “The Weight” is one of the more indefensible classic rock radio staples. Total shit, like the Band’s entire output. I’m going to come up there and beat you with the closest item, which will probably be a set of tire chains. THE SNOW WILL BE RED THE NIGHT THAT WE MEET, MARC, THE SNOW WILL BE RED!!!

“Thank you very much for stooping and becoming a lowbrow, lame music rag. I had to endure not one but two sad-sack articles that evoked the ghosts (and tiring, repetitious gags) of 1983 film Strange Brew. Wow, how novel. Instead of coming across as clever, Andrew Earles comes across as a complete moron. While he crowns Arcade Fire, Our Lady Peace and Sloan as the Kings Of Lame, their shit has tastier licks than any radio-friendly drivel that’s being pumped out ad nauseum south of the 49th Parallel. Has Earles forgotten about Linkin Park and Green Day?”

Richard Sigesmund

Toronto, ON, Canada

My response:

Jokes on you, Richard Needs-Another-Surname, as you’re the one that paid for the issue. There was nothing in the column that evoked Strange Brew. I wouldn’t be caught dead writing the phrase “Kings of Lame,” but it seems Richard has no problem writing “their shit has tastier licks…” Fucking moron. No, I didn’t forget about shitty American radio. The column was about Canada.