R.I.P., Gerard Vs. Bear

Gerard Vs. Bear, the Upton Sinclair of the music blogosphere, has disappeared. The muckraking site targeted a number of MP3 bloggers over the last several years, launching attacks on the now-defunct Good Hodgkins, My Old Kentucky Blog and yours truly, among others. It was written in the voice of Gerard, a cranky Frenchman with a poor grasp of the English language and a passion for the word “fuuuuuuuuck,” as well as Bear, a lesser-used poster with a more elevated tone. The site’s title is an obvious play on Gorilla Vs. Bear, a prominent music blog. Gerard’s identity was the question of much debate until former Pitchfork and Village Voice writer Chris Ott seemingly admitted to running the site in a year-end post on Nick Sylvester’s blog in 2006, though it nevertheless continued intermittently (and long enough to bash The Rawking Refuses To Stop! a solid three times) until now. Gerard’s true identity remains debated. He or she is survived by Craig Bonnell, Maura Johnston and the members of the Elbo.ws/vanilla forum.

Photo by mape_s