Psychobilly, Glitter Rock, the Floating World, and Morrissey
The other day, when I started this MOG I mentioned marginalized genre's that I am enamored with. I like Glitter rock because of the very disparate elements that it attempts to unite. To clarify, what I am most interested in as Glitter would be the TRex, Dolls and Bowie stuff.... you know 50 's retro done in the 70's that somehow utilizes Film Noir, Sci Fi Spacemen, hippy psycho-babble, and Androgyny. Somehow its genesis from the Warhol transvestite theatre and trash fashion, makes it appealing too. That a style like this ever bubbled up out of the crock pot of pop, delights me. The fact that the movement feels a little bubblegum throwaway, is excellent too. Paradoxically, could it be the fact of its artificiality that gives it "authenticity" to me? More abstractly, Glitter gives me a feeling of bittersweet, floating world, transitory moment, delicacy. You really can never step into the same river twice. The 70's connection with the hard boiled 40's, I dig. There is something about John Cassavetes, for example, that gets to something interesting for me here. Reaching forward and backwards in cultural history for meme's and jamming it all into a gumball for teenagers makes me feel like white feathers are snowing all around me and I can see ghostly images of dead relatives projected on a blowing sheer curtain far above me. I predict that Psychobilly will evoke the same sensation for me someday. I have been thinking similar thoughts to Psychobilly- except with the 30's and late 20's substituted- for long before Psychobilly existed. The aspects I like about it are similar to how I feel about Glitter. The cartoony ephemeralness, the cheap ass gothiness, the Blue Velvet everywhere USA mentality. I guess my instinct runs counter to what I like, when writing in a "psychobilly" style. I recently wrote a song on the new Daddies record, (which will be coming out soon) called the Mongoose and the Snake, and because I was trying to fit it into the overall theme of the record, I toned down the trash and injected the style with a different DNA. I liked the results. Of course this begs the question "Is it still Psychobilly then?" I would say no to this. I mean Morrissey does this with "rockabilly" too, he futzes around with the American 50's (among other many other things) to perfume his vision, which is personal and real, and thereby dolls up with irony and semiotic frills; what he has created. That brings up a whole ball of wax that I won't get into that right now. Anyhow, Psychobilly and Glitter act as perfume that I use sometimes for humor and ironic distance. BTW the new record will be coming out hopefully within the month and will be called: Susquehanna. Bye for now MOGsters
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