Bob Geldof: Newest once-cool old bastard

Bob Geldof evidently gave the keynote address at SXSW this year. I didn’t know this despite being there because I was there to find the vitality in music he evidently thinks is a thing of the past. The only time I stepped foot inside the convention center was to use a clean toilet. I didn’t own even a wristband (much less a badge) and got into every event I wanted to see. This is how legend-has-it he used to operate. Apparently now, however, he is busy checking out Kanye and wondering why everything is so lame.

There’s plenty of what he’s saying is missing out there. I was happy he included the “maybe I can’t hear it” part, because to me, this sounds like yet another ivory-tower-old-dude-crusade-for-the-good-ol-days. What he’s talking about is true if your only source of musical input is ‘the charts.’ But the underground is big and vibrant and as lyrically and socially meaningful as ever.

And for him to call bloggers (disclosure: I am one) a “pain in the ass” is laughable, especially given his own purported sensibilities. Maybe if his idea of a blogger is Perez Hilton, TMZ, and the HuffPo, but there are A LOT of people out there doing very righteous and socially turned on work. I’m sure his world of people is telling him to go see “continental navel gazing.” Sounds like he needs a new world of people.

All this screed confirmed is that Bob Geldof has about as much touch with reality as Prince Charles. We just watched a once proud musical figure jump the shark. Hurrah!