"Out there"? Don't worry, your taste in music is uniformly awful.

So, McGerk, who's on your music list, Britney Spears?

Hey, he's talking about me! Mr. Music Critic: What I meant, and still mean, is that having read your words over the past couple of years you tend to be a bit stagnant! Yes, we know you like Styx, Lamb of God and Liz Story. Broad, OK, diverse, um, I guess. Good? It's subjective, grow some thick skin and stop whining about being picked on. You're a critic, remember?

Still, do you like anything local? I was in the music scene in Salt Lake as of two years ago and now live in the heartland of America, Kansas City--Missouri, not Kansas, folks.

What a great subculture of indie, punk, bar-room and rock bands you have in SLC. It rivals KC. But you wouldn't know from your paper's critic. You seem to be more interested in telling us about big dumb bands (Linkin Park! and Coldplay, ugh), than touching the pulse of the scene right there, that is !infinitely! more interesting.

Hey, at least I made you think about it, and write a column defending yourself. Which no critic needs to do, by the way. Still... ..at least you haven't mentioned David Archuletta. Yet. ....

I think it's refreshing that a critic in an LDS newspaper talks about all kinds of different music. I don't think he was trying to defend himself either. I understood his article as not limiting ones interests to only one or two genres of music.
So what if he was talking about LanceA! You sparked a thought in someone, it's really o.k.

Lighten up already. I'm no fan of Iwasaki's tastes, but they are his own, and he has the right to express those tastes as the music critic for the paper. Go get your own publication and enlighten everyone with your wisdom. But first, chill out.