For Your Listening Pleasure
Various Artists – We’re A Happy Family – A Tribute To The Ramones
Not the greatest tribute album ever, but a decent effort, and it’s MY COLUMN, so live with it. I’ll actually be at the Joey Ramone Birthday Bash this Friday (May 16) at The Ritz in NYC, enjoying four hours of ROCK from The Misfits, Rocket From the Crypt, Collider and lots more. (If you’re reading this before the show, you can get tickets at Ticketmaster.com.)
News to You
I haven’t been around for a couple of weeks, so there’s a lot to cover…
I was stunned to find out that, according to TheTripwire.com, the Oxford English Dictionary has added some slang to its online version: “bling bling”. That’s right, for all of you fledgling hip hoppers out there, “bling bling” — as well as “dope”, “phat”, and “jiggy” are now officially part of the English language. Break out your Scrabble boards!
Also in the news, add Dave Matthews Band to your list of environmentally friendly rock stars. The band has recently announced that it will partner with the Nature Conservancy to Austin Kutcher has told Rolling Stone about partying with the Bush Twins? The quotes have been reprinted everywhere, so I won’t bother inserting them here, but this issue of the magazine is actually worth checking out. In fact, what’s with Rolling Stone becoming so readable lately? Not that it’s a magazine that you just can’t bear to miss (like it once was), but I’ve really been digging the interviews lately, the “American Icons” issue was solid, and I seem to enjoy pretty much everything written by David Fricke or Jenny Eliscu.
Also in the latest issue of Rolling Stone: an interview with Eddie Vedder (excerpts can be found online) where he responds to criticism about “Bu$hleaguer”, among other things. Hey, fair is fair, and you all heard exactly how I felt about his live performance of that song in my last column.
All Growns Up?
While my brother Chris thinks HE has great segues, check this out…
Speaking of Pearl Jam — I had quite a bit of email over the last week or so about Pearl Jam and nineties rock in general. In fact, one recent conversation included some friends of mine accusing me that “all you ever talk about is grunge and other music you liked in college” and to “change things up a bit!”
Now, I refuse to concede my friends’ above points, but I’ll take the hint and move into some other topics in the future. But this week I have some emails to address.
The first one comes from 411mania’s Eric Szulczewski:
So what do I think of Pearl Jam?
They’re on my list of “artists I don’t like but have one song that I do” (“Evenflow” in their case). They’re on a large list and in good company like Nirvana and Soundgarden. The whole Seattle crowd seems a little watered-down to me. I think that’s what really points out the difference in our ages.
Now, you’re 27, I’m 38. When the Seattle scene went into hyperdrive in 1991, you were fifteen, so let’s say that the major grunge influence with you happened between the ages of 15 and 17. Now, my 15-to-17 period was 1979 to 1981. That’s when I was first exposed to the Pistols, the Ramones, Talking Heads, Blondie, the Clash, X, Black Flag, and all their inherent mutations. This would have encompassed the exact same experience that you had with PJ, Nirvana, Soundgarden, etc. Those groups were our “angry young men”, the people who were saying what we were thinking as we wended our way through late adolescence. Both sets even had their own heroin martyrs (viz. Sid Vicious and Andrew Wood). All acceptable.
However, now our age differences become apparent. What appealed to me at 17 didn’t appeal to me at 27. “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, just to give one example, is a great song, and if I was 17, it sure as hell would have spoken to me. However, to my 27-year-old ears, it sounded like petulant whining. Oh, poor Kurt, experiencing all that alienation and disconnection…grow up (of course, we didn’t know at the time that he wouldn’t have the chance to). The whole Seattle scene was a repeat for me, and didn’t have the same impact as the “original”. Since I never got into the scene and the attitude, I didn’t get into the music.
God knows I tried, though. Just after I got out of the Army in 1992 and back to Chicago, I went down to a club in Wicker Park to see a group that was creating a bit of a buzz around town. I was very disappointed. Their music was blah, and the lead singer, with the way he carried himself and connected with the audience, came across as a complete egotistical twat. The group’s name was Smashing Pumpkins.
Eric
Eric’s got a few great points here. Let’s see if I can address some of them:
1. OUR angry young men. Eric makes the point that “15-17 year old period” where we were introduced to angst-rock for the first time. For him it was early punk, for me it was Seattle grunge, and I’m sure if you go back another generation you’ll have our parents talking about how the Who, Zeppelin, Sabbath, Beatles, Kinks or what have you affected them the same way. We were young, coming of age, looking for something rebellious to latch on to, and found it and called it our own. No one can take away how I felt when I heard that Kurt’s body was found in a room above his garage, or the way chills went up my spine as the crowd sang along with my high school band to “Come As You Are”, or how my mood changes every time I hear the opening guitar to “Today” or “Jeremy”. I’m sure Eric finds a sense of comfort combined with nostalgia every time he hears “1-2-3-4!”. But here’s something to chew on: what about how I feel every time I hear “1-2-3-4!”, listen to “London Calling” or “God Save the Queen”… or even “My Generation”? Sure it wasn’t MY generation, but they’re MY angry young men, too. (Uh, not that there’s anything wrong with that?)
2. Grow up… you egotistical twat. Well, this is a great point. One of the things that always gets said about “Generation Xers” (born from 1966-1976) is that we’re detached, apathetic, aloof. And who am I to argue that Kurt Cobain, Eddie Vedder, Billy Corgan or the rest of them were anything but?
3. What appealed to me at 17 didn’t appeal to me at 27. This is a tough one. Yes, in high school and college, I connected with new music from Nirvana to Live, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, Jane’s Addiction, the Pixies, and most of the “Native Tongues” family of hip hop (as well as some gangsta rap). This is what was new, what I heard on college radio and listened to on my CMJ compilations — and I was in the right place at the right time: eager for the same type of music that was made available to me. But, while I can’t get into a lot of music that the “kids” are listening to nowadays (“emo” rock, anyone?), I’m trying. I swear I am, and I have hope that when the “next big thing” drops, I’ll get it. I see a lot of my friends “growing up”, and I don’t like it. Kids that introduced ME to Nine Inch Nails are now sitting at home praising Norah Jones. I understand that as you mature, different sounds/sights/subjects capture your attention than when you were 15-17, but I think there’s room for both.
Now all I need is some current 15-17 year olds to tell me what they listen to to get their angst on, and I’m all set.
JFB thinks we’re about to enter a 1990s nostalgia phase, and has some opinions on other topics I’ve addressed in the past, so I’ll let him have the floor here:
The early-mid 90’s were the last time pop culture was worth a damn and Cobain’s death opened up the floodgates for all the crap you see on MTV and in the music industry in general today.
I’m 30 and I haven’t given a damn about pop culture since about 1998, when I was 25. That’s too young to start thinking about the good old days and how everything new is crap but what can I say, in the last 5 years everything new HAS been crap. It’s not just me getting old.
The grand irony is of course that you write for a site that’s devoted to pop culture at a time when it’s quite possibly at its worst state ever. I guess since WWE is also at its worst state ever the wrestling part of the site fits right in.
Oh, and f*ck Eminem. The guy’s a year older than I am and all he ever does is make songs that put other people down. And this is supposed to make him some sort of artistic genius? A junior high kid could do the shit he does. You know American society’s in a sad state when all it takes to be worshipped as a god is the ability to insult people.
Hell, as far as I can tell the whole rap–oops, I mean hip hop–genre is useless. Bunch of idiots bragging about how much stuff they have. WOW, I’m impressed. The sad part is, it might actually be a step UP from always talking about how many people they’ve killed or how many “bitches and ho’s” they’ve screwed. And the women aren’t much better.
Now I’m admittedly not a rap fan but Public Enemy is the last rap act I know of to actually use the genre to make social statements other than “I’m such a badass and you’re not” and as a vehicle for REAL social change.
I guess that’s why I liked the 90’s (to complete the circle), because there was a real movement away from the extreme shallowness and vapidity to actual substance. Even if most of it was “Damn, the world sucks”. Funny thing is, the world seems to suck more now than it did then. All I know is, back in ’91 you didn’t have kids gunning each other down in schools and terrorists blowing up tall buildings on American soil.
The only thing that keeps me going in fact is knowing that after the 80’s Nostalgia Craze is over, the 90’s are next. Of course it would be just my luck that everyone from that era would be just cynical enough not to want to do it. LOL
I’ll leave it to my readers to form opinions on some of what JFB said — most of which I disagree with and have already talked about in the past. Let me know what you think, and email me at moodspins at aol dot com, and I’ll post your thoughts in a future column.
Oh, that’s right, I said I wouldn’t talk about grunge anymore… We’ll see.
Festival Update
It’s been a couple of weeks, so let’s take a look at the festival scene, with updates courtesy of Billboard.com:
The Irish are coming! Next month, a series of Fleadh dates will be coming to the US. Artists performing will include the Saw Doctors, Black 47, Eileen Ivers, Hothouse Flowers, Flogging Molly, and the Prodigals. Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee will all be on the tour, with possible additional dates in New York, Philadelphia, and Buffalo, N.Y.
Jay-Z and 50 Cent are teaming up from June 25 through August 5 for the Roc the Mic tour. Supporting acts include Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliott, Sean Paul, Lil’ Mo, Bone Crusher, and Fabolous. What, no Old Dirty Bastard/Big Baby Jesus/Dirt McGirt?!
Fun With Spellchecker!
So, I had typed “bling bling” above, but Spellchecker will have none of that. Apparently no one told it that “bling bling” is now an OFFICIAL ENGLISH WORD!
Spellchecker’s suggested replacements? You choose: blink, bluing ,blind, baling, billg, being or bring.
Until next week…
peace. love. moe.
– Matt
Till My Head Falls Off can be found weekly on 411 Music (old columns are archived in the pull-down menu below). Already hit everything on 411? You can find more from Matthew Michaels at moodspins and 1-42.
