Now that local music blog We Shot JR will fold in October, everyone’s back to being nice

by Sarah Blaskovich

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“We're kind of tired of the fighting,” they say. So let's all hold hands and sing Kumbaya, shall we?

The somewhat-sudden news that local music blog We Shot JR is closing up their laptops brought a flurry of interest – most notably, with amicable goodbyes from some of the website's biggest frenemies.

“Some of our biggest detractors are being nice to us,” writer Defensive Listening told PegNews by phone Monday afternoon. The site often was loved and hated for its stark opinions about local bands and local writers. Defensive Listening said many of their most biting blog posts were intended to be funny, and sometimes their tone was misunderstood. “The stuff we were hardest on were probably people we even admired,” he said.

The site's anonymous contributors told readers in a farewell letter on Monday that too many of them have moved from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and it just doesn't make sense to report on “local” music when many of them aren't local anymore.

The website will post its last blog in mid-to-late October, and knowing the end is near has perhaps made the writers more jovial. “I wished people had been more lighthearted, ourselves included. I think we took things too personally from time to time. Once it's all said and done, that stuff will all fade away. And bands from the middle of nowhere [that WSJR helped shine the spotlight on], hopefully those are the things people will remember,” he said.

Defensive Listening answered a few more of our questions:

PegNews: Will there be a WSJR spinoff in other cities?

Defensive Listening: We've moved to LA, San Fran, Chicago, and eventually Austin. … We had tried to integrate some out-of-town stories, but it just never really caught on. Those cities kind of have a more established blog network.

What do you think We Shot JR accomplished?

It definitely pushed some bands to the forefront that probably would have been ignored or hated otherwise. It actually did … turn the controversy into positive publicity in the long run.

Are you going to reveal your names to us?

I don't know. We haven't really thought about that too much. For some [of us], professionally, maybe it's not the best idea. At this point, we really don't mind. Most people know who we are who really want to know, and the rest of everyone else doesn't care.

Did being anonymous lose its novelty?

If anything, you know, it's kind of a relief to not have to think about being anonymous. When dealing with people at shows or whatever, once people know who you are … there used to be more tension that's not there anymore.

Seems you've had some spats with other local blogs. How did you handle those?

I think a lot of it was unnecessarily personal and I feel like people were trying to skirt around issues they might have had that were personal: I know what bands you guys have been in, or I know who you've dated – pointlessly personal. I think all writers will interact with the community probably more than they feel comfortable sometimes. So I feel like it's kind of unavoidable. Just today, in just a few hours, the response has been more positive.

Looking forward, who are the best and worst bands in DFW right now?

I'd call them consistently surprising or interesting: Pocket Change [& The Jumping Jack Fox, a band from Lewisville], Cuckoo Byrds, and [Denton band] Orange Coax.

We're releasing [Orange Coax's] 10” record. That was kind of a thing that we were partly basing the end of the site on is when we could get our third and final record out. (The first was a 7” by Fight Bite; the second was for Daniel Francis Doyle, a musician out of Austin.)

Maybe it would have ended sooner, actually, but I wanted to make sure the label was still operating and the record could come out. It should be out within the next month. … Locally, we'll probably have some release date where we can have a show.

The actual last show also have something to do with Orange Coax. That's in October. We're going to try to ask bands that we both have gotten along with and even not gotten along with, to be good sports.

As for consistently overrated, I feel like we've said so much about what we think is overrated that it almost seems pointlessly mean to pile it on. I don't know if we really have it in us anymore to be pointing the finger anymore. We're kind of tired of the fighting. As much as I love the site -- and I don't regret any of it -- but maybe we should focus on more positive things and leave other people to the fighting.

Can you pick a favorite local venue?

I've seen shows overseas and all over the place, and Denton will be the most comfortable place to see shows. Lately, I really enjoyed Tradewinds and the Pastime Tavern in Dallas. I think that Dallas actually has good places to see shows again. That took a few years.

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