It was bound to happen. Whether they would admit it or not, music journalists must realize their role as gatekeepers has been eroded by music blogs. And since bloggers have for years taken shots at journalists, we were due for a reaction.

Minneapolis band Tapes 'N Tapes played NYC's Bowery Ballroom earlier this week, and it was the perfect setting for a fight. Here's a band that quickly rose to underground prominance through music bloggers and an endorsement by Pitchfork. It signed to XL Recordings and is playing larger venues.

There's enough going on for music critics to check it the band on its curren tour, but rather than talk about Tapes 'N Tapes, the real topic was the blogosphere that has been the band's primary support network. That would be fine if it was for putting the concert in context, but this was more than just context. The writers have a bone to pick.

Sia Michel's review for the NY Times exemplifies the attitude carried by some writers. "When the record labels came calling, bloggers got to feel good about themselves," she wrote, "as if they had saved nice guys from a sad life of dive bars and bowling alleys." At the end of the article, she noted that the band "still lacks the confidence to develop a complex live identity of its own" but that such a shortcoming "will make some bloggers like it even more."

The New York Sun's Martin Edlund was more concerned with talking blogs than bands in his review of the Bowery show. "If the Internet has democratized music criticism, it seems it's also spread its penchant for uncritical hype." Edlund ridiculed the "blog-suckled fans" he spoke with at the show, showing great disdain for the young music fans' enthusiasm for the bands on the bill (which also included two other bands covered by music blogs, Cold War Kids and Figurines).

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