Great letter. I cannot stand Rolling Stone. One of their writers, David Wild, has something to do with bands that get into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. He was quoted once as saying that as long as he had something to say, there was no way that Rush (my all time favorite band) would ever be in the RNR Hall of Fame.
Being the same, fan wise, I'll fervently hope with you that David Wild suffers unspeakably in a tormented afterlife that involves a lot of Tiny Tim type music...
May I suggest Gov't Mule.I've kinda gotten hooked on them and started buying up all the cd's and downloading all the "Mule"I can find.They do excellant covers of War Pigs,30 Days in the Hole,Dazed and confused,Almost cut my hair and more.Their bass player just died and instead of replacing him,they invite several differant bass players,Flea,Jack Bruce,Jason Newstead,Bootsy Collins,Les Claypool,etc and also have them add some of their own influenance on each song.They put out two fantastic albums,The Deep End,Vol 1 and 2.Check them out.Music for your ass.Also check out the young Derek Trucks Band.Very talented young man.