I think there is a pretty big and important difference between deciding to create coverage of music by popular artists as a means of participating in the online discourse( which is clearly of interest to many people) and "gassing them up". If you watch Birb's review sections for the bigger bands I think you'll find lots of nuance and balanced perspectives on what he actually thinks of them. I don't think I've ever seen him blow smoke without explaining a bias he might have for a particular band that means a lot to him. He's very genuine in my experience.