Friday, February 27, 2004
latest updates
I just want to mention a couple of things...
I was on Cassettefest again this past Wednesday. It was better than last week. No shitty corporate-sounding rock. A couple of noise tapes (including Dexalone Cowboy, mentioned in one of the comments to the last post), a new Brother Mike's Comedy (good, but not his best work), a metal band (ho-hum), and two very amazing tapes. One of them was called "Requiem For Thursday". From the title, it sounds like it might be some sort of emo or something else that sucks, right? Wrong! The meaning of the title became apparent when I recognized the monologue in the first movement. Someone was quoting from one of the fuck-off speeches from the final episode of that certain Thursday morning delight show we all know and have ambivalent attitudes toward (at least I do). After that, it was just some instrumental avant-garde and rock, but still... Amazing that someone would do something like that.
And the other awesome entry? Someone actually sent in an entry that could be categorized as INDIEPOP! I wasn't expecting that at all. It's this band (one-man band, I think) from Columbus called Electric Grandmother. It basically sounded like a cross between a less-intellectual version of They Might Be Giants and some sort of drum machine-driven synthpop. And there was a song about Full House on there. One where Danny Tanner kills everyone at the end. Very cool.
It's disappointing when you go to the site, though. The guy who makes the music is into PUNK. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! I guess I'm disappointed because without the "proper" influences, his music could go in some direction in which it shouldn't go. And he seems to consider the end-all and be-all of pop music to be the Ramones. I like the Ramones, but there's been a lot of good [indie]pop music made since they came into being. I'm thinking about trying to send him a mix CD of great indiepop, but I'm not sure if I really should.
When I was in high school, I used to think it was cool to try and be "punk" and call myself a punk. I don't know what's happened since then. I think I'd now feel insulted if someone called me a punk. I just wouldn't want to be lumped in with that subculture. When I think of "punk", I think of people trying almost too hard to be different and rebel against society, and in more than a few cases, getting really drunk and very pierced. Well, I don't drink, and I actually don't like piercings and find them unattractive. Even just ear piercings. On anyone. I don't know why. It's just the way I am. I did think it was really cool in high school to try to be different and rebel against society (very easy to do when you grow up in a conservative small town next to no big cities like I did), but now that I've managed to do so, I don't really care about making a big deal of it. Especially the trying to be different part. Actually, I care more about being cute now. Literally cute. Like Pikachu or Hello Kitty. But it's hard to do because I'm inherently ugly. But that's another rant altogether.
And rebelling against society? Okay, that I can agree with. But I don't want to rebel by being a drunken asshole, or aligning myself with anarchy. I think I'd get my ass kicked in a very bad way if anarchy ever erupts, so I'm not rooting for it. Plus, I think we need some semblance of order to maintain the quality of life we have now. Yes, you hate the traffic lights, but imagine trying to drive through Cleveland during rush hour without them. Actually, that really happened. Remember the big power outage of August 2003? It wasn't fun without those traffic lights, eh? We need some rules and order to function with some degree of productivity and keep ourselves from getting hurt.
But of course, not all punk music is that extreme, not every punk band is about drunkenness or anarchy, and some are more prosocial (like Minor Threat, which I actually like a lot). Okay, but that doesn't compensate for the main reason that I don't like punk, which is that most punk music seems to sound the same to me now. Just hard and fast rocking and difficult to make out the lyrics. And mostly male. Female-fronted punk still sounds quite novel to me. But I have to wonder, too, if people not predisposed to indiepop think that all indiepop sounds the same to them. I'd feel so depressed if someone told me that.
Actually, now that I think about it, there is some generic indiepop out there, but that's not really the kind I love. I think indiepop is at its best when it's at its cutest. Every cute indiepop band seems unique and wonderful to me. And I hope that it's because they are inherently unique and wonderful and superior to all other bands throughout the history of music. Generic indiepop? I can't think of any to name. Because they're generic. :P The only one I can think of now is the Lucksmiths. There are some people who might strongly disagree, but they sound too bland for me, and there are other bands like them, too.
Oh, I'm sorry, this just turned into a whole rant. I was just supposed to talk about Cassettefest there. Let me get back on track...
So... Dora, the DJ who comes on right after the Cassettefest time slot said she was surprised because we were being nice to everything this week. No, we didn't go soft, there were just better entries and no corporate rock. We were mean to one of the noise tapes because it was packaged in a confusing way (long story) and quite boring. But that's it.
The other thing that I wanted to mention was that my mentor, Count Lupone (my mentor because I apprenticed under him when I was starting out on WCSB), asked me to fill in for his show on the 10th and the 17th. Those are Wednesdays/early Thursday mornings from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. I replied in the affirmative because being on during safe harbor (the time when we can broadcast "indecent" material) is exciting. I might have to actually talk on the air when I do it, though. I don't know how I'm going to handle it. But whatever happens, you'll be able to hear some good expletive-laden indiepop those nights.
I'll remind you when it gets closer to the 10th.
Don't forget to listen to Cassettefest every Wednesday from 3 to 5 in the afternoon... Jeff!
I just want to mention a couple of things...
I was on Cassettefest again this past Wednesday. It was better than last week. No shitty corporate-sounding rock. A couple of noise tapes (including Dexalone Cowboy, mentioned in one of the comments to the last post), a new Brother Mike's Comedy (good, but not his best work), a metal band (ho-hum), and two very amazing tapes. One of them was called "Requiem For Thursday". From the title, it sounds like it might be some sort of emo or something else that sucks, right? Wrong! The meaning of the title became apparent when I recognized the monologue in the first movement. Someone was quoting from one of the fuck-off speeches from the final episode of that certain Thursday morning delight show we all know and have ambivalent attitudes toward (at least I do). After that, it was just some instrumental avant-garde and rock, but still... Amazing that someone would do something like that.
And the other awesome entry? Someone actually sent in an entry that could be categorized as INDIEPOP! I wasn't expecting that at all. It's this band (one-man band, I think) from Columbus called Electric Grandmother. It basically sounded like a cross between a less-intellectual version of They Might Be Giants and some sort of drum machine-driven synthpop. And there was a song about Full House on there. One where Danny Tanner kills everyone at the end. Very cool.
It's disappointing when you go to the site, though. The guy who makes the music is into PUNK. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! I guess I'm disappointed because without the "proper" influences, his music could go in some direction in which it shouldn't go. And he seems to consider the end-all and be-all of pop music to be the Ramones. I like the Ramones, but there's been a lot of good [indie]pop music made since they came into being. I'm thinking about trying to send him a mix CD of great indiepop, but I'm not sure if I really should.
When I was in high school, I used to think it was cool to try and be "punk" and call myself a punk. I don't know what's happened since then. I think I'd now feel insulted if someone called me a punk. I just wouldn't want to be lumped in with that subculture. When I think of "punk", I think of people trying almost too hard to be different and rebel against society, and in more than a few cases, getting really drunk and very pierced. Well, I don't drink, and I actually don't like piercings and find them unattractive. Even just ear piercings. On anyone. I don't know why. It's just the way I am. I did think it was really cool in high school to try to be different and rebel against society (very easy to do when you grow up in a conservative small town next to no big cities like I did), but now that I've managed to do so, I don't really care about making a big deal of it. Especially the trying to be different part. Actually, I care more about being cute now. Literally cute. Like Pikachu or Hello Kitty. But it's hard to do because I'm inherently ugly. But that's another rant altogether.
And rebelling against society? Okay, that I can agree with. But I don't want to rebel by being a drunken asshole, or aligning myself with anarchy. I think I'd get my ass kicked in a very bad way if anarchy ever erupts, so I'm not rooting for it. Plus, I think we need some semblance of order to maintain the quality of life we have now. Yes, you hate the traffic lights, but imagine trying to drive through Cleveland during rush hour without them. Actually, that really happened. Remember the big power outage of August 2003? It wasn't fun without those traffic lights, eh? We need some rules and order to function with some degree of productivity and keep ourselves from getting hurt.
But of course, not all punk music is that extreme, not every punk band is about drunkenness or anarchy, and some are more prosocial (like Minor Threat, which I actually like a lot). Okay, but that doesn't compensate for the main reason that I don't like punk, which is that most punk music seems to sound the same to me now. Just hard and fast rocking and difficult to make out the lyrics. And mostly male. Female-fronted punk still sounds quite novel to me. But I have to wonder, too, if people not predisposed to indiepop think that all indiepop sounds the same to them. I'd feel so depressed if someone told me that.
Actually, now that I think about it, there is some generic indiepop out there, but that's not really the kind I love. I think indiepop is at its best when it's at its cutest. Every cute indiepop band seems unique and wonderful to me. And I hope that it's because they are inherently unique and wonderful and superior to all other bands throughout the history of music. Generic indiepop? I can't think of any to name. Because they're generic. :P The only one I can think of now is the Lucksmiths. There are some people who might strongly disagree, but they sound too bland for me, and there are other bands like them, too.
Oh, I'm sorry, this just turned into a whole rant. I was just supposed to talk about Cassettefest there. Let me get back on track...
So... Dora, the DJ who comes on right after the Cassettefest time slot said she was surprised because we were being nice to everything this week. No, we didn't go soft, there were just better entries and no corporate rock. We were mean to one of the noise tapes because it was packaged in a confusing way (long story) and quite boring. But that's it.
The other thing that I wanted to mention was that my mentor, Count Lupone (my mentor because I apprenticed under him when I was starting out on WCSB), asked me to fill in for his show on the 10th and the 17th. Those are Wednesdays/early Thursday mornings from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. I replied in the affirmative because being on during safe harbor (the time when we can broadcast "indecent" material) is exciting. I might have to actually talk on the air when I do it, though. I don't know how I'm going to handle it. But whatever happens, you'll be able to hear some good expletive-laden indiepop those nights.
I'll remind you when it gets closer to the 10th.
Don't forget to listen to Cassettefest every Wednesday from 3 to 5 in the afternoon... Jeff!
