“You’re on the team?” “I’m an alternate.” Gadfly Plays Idolator For A Day

idolguest3 | May 1, 2007 9:45 am
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After months of shooting my mouth off and basically treating Idolator as my de facto blog, I, Chris “dennisobell” Molanphy, am proud to be pinch-hitting as guest editor for a day. I’m filling in for esteemed Editor Brian Raftery, who is off in an undisclosed location–let’s just say the skills he’s picked up from certain nameless American Idol contenders might come in handy. I’ll be sharing the virtual editor’s desk today with the mighty Maura, who’ll hopefully keep me from wandering off somewhere.

Like Max Fischer, I’m a bit of a dilettante. A sometime blogger and part-time rock critic, I’ve been writing about music–sometimes even for pay!–for about 15 years now: some years ago as a regular critic for CMJ New Music Monthly, and more recently as a contributing writer for Billboard. Four years ago, I stumbled, happily, into an opportunity to write a short biography/coffee-table book about Kurt Cobain–now out of print, but available used for a song (a self-loathing, Raincoats-inspired song) on the interwebs. I love my indie rock as well as my pop and hip-hop; but as y’all have learned the hard way, what really gets me yammering is anything chart-related. As a reader of Billboard for more than two decades, and a shameless listener of Casey Kasem years before that, I expend way, way too much energy debating with Maura the seminal chart influences of the Righteous Brothers vs. Benny Mardones.

“Dennis O’Bell” has been my pseudonym–and my homage to the Fabs–since college. But for the day, you can call me Chris.