Find a Real One on eBay for Less

"Some things just get cooler with age," reads the website. "They develop an unmistakable mojo over time that makes them look cooler and feel even more comfortable than when they were new," they go on to philosophize.

This is forgivable when it happens with jeans. Nothing screams "brand new pants" like some 501s that have never seen a washing machine. But I can't forgive this in a line of new guitars. From Fender no less.

These are not "road worn" instruments. They are new and designed to look road worn. Or as Fender puts it, they have "a killer aged design aesthetic." Smells like bullshit. But surely there is a market for these. No self-respecting wannabe rocker worth his rocks in rock would be caught rockin' a non-rock axe, right? A rocker's gotta look like a rocker, and when it comes to rockin', Fender knows how to make you look your rockin' best. Just ask Springsteen, toting around that stage prop he calls a guitar.

So now, young poseurs, you can look the part right down to your brand new "distressed" guitar from Fender. Make sure you aren't wearing brand new jeans.

Here's the Joe Strummer model.

So wrong.

An Anthem for Our Times

Atlanta's Fred Leo, formerly known as Freelance Fred, whose main blog was put to rest a few months back, is now blogging at Hands Across the Porch.

Fred recently got burned on a car purchase via eBay, and then a lousy mechanic poured salt on the burns in the form of extremely lousy service. Fred’s not sitting still. He’s composed a song called “Circle of Ass,” in which he attempts to fight the good fight by urging all of you who find yourselves burned by one of the many asses who seem to dominate our world, to resist becoming asses yourselves as you deal with asses all day long.

Here's the tune.


Sample lyric:

The dumbass
The jackass
The sleaze and the slack ass
Don’t let them make you what you hate
In the Circle of Ass