well the conversation still moves forward on the pros and cons of selling out and then the elder brother chimes in with a poignant point:
not to hit on a favorite band subject especially since it was beaten to death a few blogs ago, but some feel that metallica sold out when they got a major label, some after the video, some after the black album, some after they cut their hair, etc.
you know, it's funny that you bring up metallica. the bastard was watching this documentary about the seattle scene last night and there was this kid outside of a pearl jam/soundgarden show (also there was a sound check version of "searching with my good eye closed" going on). and he's standing there in all of his teenage glory with braids and earplugs shoved up his nose saying, "i'm pissed. i'm pissed because i heard 'em first". the bastard gets the feeling that love for a band is not about the band's skills so much as it is about how the band makes you feel about yourself at the time and selling out is not about the band making a buck, it's about how you no longer feel that way or the band no longer makes you feel that way. i'm kind of like that about audioslave. i love the way cornell sings. but now that the bastard is no longer a child, i have put childish things away and i can't be in love with his sound anymore. it doesn't make me feel like something new is washing over me for the first time. i felt it last night listening to him singing "searching..." in that haunting monotone he does and for a minute, i was new again. i had my hair in the wind again. i was more innocent.
then the scene changed, the music stopped and there the bastard was on the floor..doing situps...less innocent than he was than when he was a kid. a little bit older and with more important things on his mind than he had when he was younger. damn, i wish i had that feeling back again. stupid old man, is it to the sky?
—the bastard
7 comments:
Yes homey,
First time I heard Nirvana was when my surrogate brother Zo played them for me in his walkman, slice played "teen spirit" (now an American Injun Tobacco product) and it knocked me on my dupya. I was like Chuck D. when he saw Vanilla Ice dance (even synchronistical noting "Yo." I might add.)
Weeks later the band discovered MTV, and that was it: Nirvana traditional Hutu wedding fez's, The Dave Noveselic action figure with magnetic Fender P Bass to Head Bean-Grip, even their own Breakfast Cereal (Chicken Frosted Percoset)
There was no one left to tell about this band except Grandma (Who turned me on to the Melvins until she discovered Prong) and my dog (Who confided in me he no longer thought Metallica was the poop after the whole Cliff Burton replacement before the guy was even poured into his coffin.)
So my honkey-pimp standing had totally Piked
And next thing I know the guy is deader than Hello Larry, MTV sends T2, Baron Karaza, Hamid Karzi, The Red Skull and (denture wearer) Martha Graham out to infiltrate and destroy the last of the Seattle Resistance with the treacherous help of Sir Mix A lot and Color Me Badd
Now all of the sudden it's Nickleback and Godsmack (They're no Layne and Jerry, come to think of it "We're not a bank Jerry!") and they suck gerbil wee's, they really do: I so don't even want to be the bearer of these bands props, as they deserve no such given prop-ing!
There is nothing more cooler (coolerer?) than discovering a band. I feel this way about Guided by Voices, even though Tom (badpuppet.blogspot.com) and I heard them together on 120Minutes doing "Motor Away", he was less stoned than I was and remembered their name, but once again (by proxy) I began to drop them on the masses, and the thee of little faith in the lore of Rock did ask (and I quote) "Guided by Voices? Who's that? Sounds suspiciously like some kind of serial murdering entourage. Wasn't than the name of David Koresh's band?" and I school 'em and suddenly I'm cool again, I have esoteric knowledge of the clandestine but far coolerer sub-world of Rock and Roll greatness, then I show up at a GBV show and 10,000 other fucknuts are bursting at the walls who know more esoteric volumes of Pollards work than I do, but now I get to throw "Well you missed them, they broke up! Suckaz!" to Joe and Jane Godsmack on tha street.
man, i forgot how great "motor away" was. that disk you gave me is at home, in a box full of other mp3 cds and i can't copy it to another source. i feel like i am forever damned to only be able to copy "teenage fbi" and "strumpet eye" onto another disc and have it mingle with bits of "free peace sweet" and the dandy warhols. yeah, that's the last band i discovered on my own. the dandys. however the new pornographers do have a rush meets the velvet underground while banging the stooges in a toronto airport bathroom vibe.
the worst part about it was that my friend chicago jerkface is having another 2nd city bud come in for halloween and he's beside himself. he's like 7 or so years younger than me and he feels uncool now because all of his music knowledge comes from blender or pitchfork. he feels uncool because of this. i got prompted to download dashboard confessional by an issue of GQ. what the hell does that make me? i tell you who? a fucking old ass bastard. oh well.
There is good reason I guess
Having it once gone too far
When you clean out the hive
Does it make you want to cry?
Are you still being followed By the Teenage FBI
—b
GBV is great, and tyhe greatest thing about them is they never sold, they just played hooks until you couldn't take it anymore. I worked at a record store in December of 1991, Nirvana was gaining momentum on college radio at this point and Pearl Jam had just relesed Ten, within six months they both bands were ballistic missles headed for oblivion. I tired of irvana quickly, everyone was on their jock, (no wonder Kurt killed himself) but I still dug PJ. And I still do, they have never sold out, they haave been the same band they have been since "Ten", maybe they haven't made anything the like of that record since but they have never tried. I saw them live for the firrst time since their appearance in Lollapolooza (speaking of selling out) in 1992, three years ago. They are the best live band I hhave ever seen. They play without a set list and go on for three hours, who does that?! No one but maybe Willie Nelson. Selling out has everything to do with the money, you change your sound to be more palatable to a larger audience. "Superunknown" was nothing compared to the onslaught of "Badmoterfinger" let alone "louder than Love." "Black Hole Sun" is a sell out song.
That being said, once again, GBV rocks your face off.
You can't blame the Garden for Black Hole Sun, I blame (not in order) Whitey (AKA the MAN,MTV,BAAL and Quiznos Samiches) and the record industry, the same muthafukahaz who created Audio Suck out of sheer greed. Even Cornel says when asked "Basically our record company brought us together!"
how whacked is that? Bands are being created in business lunches, the end product of lunch is always shit.
Rock was born in Dad's garage and in mom's basement, where we rocked (up until about 11:00 PM, maybe 10 after if we had gotten a late start on "Stairway")
We need change and we need it fast; and you grown-ass rockers know that magilla.
I come here to clarify
1) I did not hear the Melvins until "Stoner Witch" which legend has it was recorded directly to lead by exposing it to a supernova (as was the bludgeoning Sabbath intro "Hole in the Sky")
2) While I agree the P Jam did not sell out they never did anything as balls as 10, had PJ OS X been sans "Jeremy" it might have been the most perfect slab-o-tunes since "Who's Fucking Next", no small feat.
3) I may have heard the Bone before I heard The Nirvana's so I don't recall what year that was, but those were days of Wine and Wheelchair. Also it may have been the year I heard "Scarries on the Wall" by Alice in Chains, a song so dumbkoff it took until I heard "Junk Head" for me to say "Say George, whats that you be puttin on yo bread?"
4) I grew up on The Almighty Hendrix and his High Priest Neil Young (When I wasn't wishing Ronnie Van Zandt would beat the living shit out of him), Jimi is Seattle like H.P. Lovecraft is Provence. Gossard, Cantrell, Buzzo, all those mahfo's are bitching players, cuz' JMH was put in the dippa' and poured back on tha world!
1) i think that there was a family tree of grunge printed in an issue of rolling stone once upon a time that is both informative and pathetic and should be best left to the family tree of jethro tull and iron maiden that is in their repective box sets. history is important and all but in the case of the lineage of famous seattle acts, to me, it reads like basball stats, only important to people that are into it. the question is did they make great music. some did, some didn't and no whiny deep voiced kid who moved north from san diego is going to change that. you were very fortunate that you roomed with alt rock buddy hacket and the dude (not from lebowski, from jackson heights) and maybe a little dash of alex the catepillar for good measure. i agree with your take on the existensial feeling. i was channeling some shit. gotta make the blog interesting. two words...BOOGIE VAN.
2)i'm with 3k's boat on the garden. record companies have been marketing to youth culture for too long and it shows. it's a shame for cornell, he is talented. as for the rest of the slave, i find it funny those frikkin commies make such good capitalists. would they be what the chinese consider useful idiots or would that be the fans?
3)alice in chains was unfortunately one of the great squanderred things in that town and staley robbed us all, the jack ass. i don't feel that way about MLB, while wood was a good song writer, it was clear to me he was more about hanoi rocks than that fat sound. good thing stone gossard brought it. chloe is still a dope ass song mistah faded glory.
4) you just love bringing out the original seattle sounder perhaps it is due to your potential to grow a head of powerful hendrixfro on your own. wine and wheelchairolicious. good work.
king buzzo, indeed
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