crimsonladybug
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I have discovered a new favorite half hour of television. The Dive, weekends on Fuse. A half hour of indie videos of indie music featuring indie boys....hubba. Videos sans fx and disco lighting and scantily clad barely-legals. Videos that harken back to an era when video could have, in fact, killed the radio star. I only wish it were on longer and every night.
The problem with The Dive, however, is the same problem with MySpace. It is making indie and underground culture accessible to the masses. Yanno what! I don't want Polly Pigtails, the 16-year-old hip hopster cheerleader princess gaining access to my beloved Decemberists. The whole situation makes me feel dirty. I need to bathe because of it. Besides, I dig when people ask about my music and I totally stump them.
For me, it's not about being an elitest bastard, although it does come to that occasionally. It's about finding music that I enjoy that isn't played 600 times a day, every day. I have listened to a lot of Top 40 radio over the last seven months, probably more than in the seven YEARS before that. And even on the relatively agreeable station I found which plays a lot of 80's and 90's rock (like 60-75% of their playlist), I find myself hearing the same songs over and over and over again. It's terribly frustrating.
I turned my radio off a long time ago because of it. Because I was sick to death of being sick to death of songs I really dug, sick of "approved playlists," sick of playlist loops. I am soooooooooo not even kidding when I say I could walk to class and hear a song on the college station over the PA then hear the exact same song on my way back from class, fifty minutes later. And this wasn't some freak occurance. It was an every day, every class sort of thing, and others I spoke to noticed it as well. Miraculously, no one I knew who worked for the station ever noticed it.
But it doesn't really even matter anymore. There are indie bands on MTV and VH1, on the sales racks at Target, on the whoop-de-doo, pay attention to ME, sales racks at Target, and, to a lesser extent, WalMart, headling major concert tours (Fall Out Boy and Cobra Starship on the Honda Civic Tour...), Portions for Foxes was on the last stupid Lindsey Lohan movie and the new Meg Ryan vehicle, In the Land of Women, and the trailer song, nonetheless... Now, granted, once upon a time, when the M in MTV still implied MUSIC rather than "Much crap," there were lots of "indie" bands on. Kennedy loved obscure bands. And I'm not strictly indie.....that would mean giving up my Death Cab, my Kill Hannah, my AFI * shudder * But I am a little, I guess you would say, possessive of my music. I share it with the people I know will appreciate it and beyond that I keep it under my hat.
- sigh * I guess that's it for my musical rant for today. Peace.
Well, it is official. I have joined the ranks of those who have struck out alone to bring their art to the public on their own terms, not the terms of a big, in my case, publisher. Nothing too fancy, just a small collection of small stories, and a few poems. Above is the link to where it can be purchased ($9.75USD + S&H), below is the dust jacket summary:
There are many people living in the night...Meet them here. Meet men who come face to face with their worst fears and who find themselves lost in the world they have always known. Meet women who will do anything to get what they want. Meet people whose nightmares are murder...Literally. "Living Through the Night" is a collection of short stories and poetry that has been created over several imaginative years. The subject matter is horrific, surreal, beautiful, serene. It spans genres and defies genres.
Find out more here: BooksByDJensen.net
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horray for being an independent artist! my mates and i started a record label in the same fashion, so that our bands and other bands we know would be able to stay true to the musical inspiration and not cater to corporate interests. you might be interested in 2 posts that i made on my mog last week. it is a reprint of the graphic design industry's indie manifesto. first published in 1964, and redone for the new millenium. maybe you are familiar with it. if not, go to my mog and check it out. i will definitely look at your book. thanks for the links!
GAH!!! This concert is beginning to stress me out. I live in a desolate hole on the very edge of the cultural universe (although we did get the Reverend Horton Heat and Big Head Todd and the Monsters within two weeks of each other, which was a bonus). Everything I want to see only hits Denver. At least mostly. So that's four hours. Or five for those of us damned to the dog-mobile (i.e. Greyhound). I am a big fat loser with an irrational fear of driving so I bus it.
Anywhoooo, the bus ticket, round trip is $85, the show ticket is $15, tack on taxes and fees and we've reached a nearly $120 concert ticket, plus a minimum $20 trip to the merch table, at least four meals..... That's a lot for a concert, no matter how badly I want to see the show. Of course they are stopping off at my very favorite venue in my very favorite city in the whole world (Emo's - Austin) but alas, I am here in the buttcrack of Colorado.
Of course there is also the issue of going alone. I have one friend who wants to go which is great but she's not exactly the companionship I am seeking...If you get my drift. Cobra Starship is undoubtedly a date band. There will be dancing, there will be schmoozing and there will be me, sans suitable suitor (in regards to a suitable suitor, I have sent all of MySpace on a search and might as well employ moggers as well...SWF, 26, audiophile, seeking 1 Jess Marino). Alone, throw me head first into the pit and I'm a happy camper. But no pit? I don't know what to do with that.
PS This is not a plea for sympathy, or for a date. I am A) merely ranting and B) terribly finicky.
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I know how you feel. Every band stops in NYC (well, 90% of them) but about 5% come up north to my area of NY. So if I really want to see a band, it's a four hour drive (roundtrip), $20 to take the train to Grand Central and back, $4 subway fare, the cost of merch and tickets, and then even more if I decide to take a walk to record stores, eat something or get a coffee to stay awake.
Maybe all of us who live in cultural black holes just need to start to rebel until more bands start touring the more obscure locations. :)
Yeah, that's it, RUB IT IN.....
This is me, once again, not making it to SXSW. I decided I was better off this year not even knowing who was going. Don't want to know sticks fingers in ears and sings loudly
MOG Meter
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And before it comes up, I have nothing against anyone making a living from their craft or being famous because of it. I just don't want these teeny-boppers who only like what their friends like to like what I like. It's an appreciation thing. They simply aren't going to.