The Scene
March 9th, 2005It may be inherent skepticism or denial, but whenever people talk about trends and hotness, I immediately feel a need to distance myself from whatever scene I may be lumped into. Very archetypal hipster dilettante.
A brief history of my anti-scenesterism:
Two Tone/Ska — Came late to the game with the mod parka. English Beat, The Jam and a borrowed Vespa. Missed it by a half dozen years, never went to a mod-themed club. Embarrassed by: played keyboard for a ska outfit in the early 90s. Set off a firestorm of ska activity in region. Still apologizing to the kids.
Hip Hop/Rap — Hated the Beastie Boys first record, loved Run DMC. Loved Public Enemy. Never bought a single album. Had a roommate play NWA and EPMD as well as 3rd Bass enough to last a lifetime. Not so embarrassed by: backed up and featured rappers on Acid/Punk jazz album. Not apologizing to the kids, but wish I would have kept the kick drum on the drum machine (808) track up when the real drums came in.
Alt/Indie — Wasn’t that into the Replacements. Did like the early REM. Felt they sold out somewhere in the later 80s, early 90s. Not that moved by later work. Don’t own any Sebadoh. Guilty of owning Built to Spill. Like Wilco. Don’t own any Sunny Day Real Estate. Despise the layout of pitchforkmedia.com as cluttered and unreadable while being guilty myself of perpetuating intentionally unreadable design in print medium. Still, I love most of the stuff on 3hive…
In terms of design scenes, I’m guilty of everything: type mangling, grungy, edgy, using orange and gray, David Carson ripping off, electronic/rave and drop shadowing. I’ve been very into clean. Just like everybody else. Total scenester. I still think that design should reflect it’s subject matter. Particularly editorial design. This means that music magazines shouldn’t look like Rolling Stone.
Finally, the online scene. I do not blog because it is hip. I write online to keep myself writing. I do not regard myself as hip for publishing this site. I’m very wary of the big media saying that blogging is hip for the simple fact that I don’t regard it as such.
In other news: there is another round of America’s Next Top Model starting up and it appears cattier than ever. Fantastic.
UPDATE: Heather has informed me that in fact we do own Sebadoh and Sunny Day Real Estate. I married into them. o
REM sold out shortly after the release of Life’s Rich. How could you NOT like The Replacements? What about any of the Bob Mould projects (ranging from Husker to Sugar)? Not a fan of Sebadoh, SDRE or (especially Wilco) but to each his/her own. Of course Public Enemy and RUN were brilliant and the godfathers of modern hip-hop. Notice “modern.” I don’t want to get into a discussion about jazz influences. Peace and Love
What the hell are you all talking about? Do people really wonder if they are hip or not? I don’t even have the cultural vocabulary to discuss this shite with you people. There…”cultural vocabulary” . That sounds like something you would all say.
Oh, and if you were all not so out of your damned minds worried about whether you are hip, non-hip, neocon hip, or whatever else, you would all realize that the Jayhawks, in fact, suck. So do the Flatlanders. However, Son Volt is good. Tupelo, not as good as they should be. Wilco, good. Jayhawks, still suck. BR549, decent. Robbie Fulks, good. And on and on. Look at how unhip, yet fresh, my five may be.
Wilco? Built To Spill? Sunny Day? You little emo/indie/hep cat, you! Don’t deny your inner hipster.
What the hell are you people listening to? What happened to Lil John? Yeaaaaaayyyyuuuuuuhhhhhhh
i write to write too.
it’s like breathing for me. i have to get the stinky air out. (ha)
As the line in “Singles” goes: “Not having an act is part of your act.” What hipster in their right mind would actually own up to being part of a scene? As the line in “Fight Club” goes: “Rule number one is: don’t talk about Fight Club.”
Also, how could anyone enjoy the music that comes out today and NOT have been that into the Replacements? That’s wild. The Replacements’ sound is responsible for so much of what has followed it since, and any band worth their money these days cites them as an influence. Paul Westerberg is a genius, no two ways about it. Play some of their songs today to someone who has never heard them before, and they’ll swear it’s recent. They were SO far ahead of their time.
I don’t think it’s so much hip to admit to loving them as it is just knowing the history of rock music and the giant imprint the Replacements left upon it.
If for no other reason, they should be loved for their refusal to play the Record Label Marketing Game ™. You’ve gotta respect any band that gives those labels the middle finger, and any band that does that today is simply following a template the Replacements created.
Also, word on Wilco. They’re awesome. REM definitely started sucking in the late 80s, and now they are wholly unlistenable. It’s really sad.
Sorry, went on way too long there. I just had to speak up for the Greatest Band Ever.
You should check out nerdcore – start with MC Frontalot at frontalot.com
As for Buck Owens, he is (or will be) very hip again real soon.
May I suggest Iron and Wine. Hip or unhip, if you are married and dont feel something stir within you when you listen to Naked As We Came, then being hip/unhip/neonhip/hippohip/plautomohip just doesnt matter anymore.
I normally don’t argue with someone regarding personal taste, but REM has released some amazing music since the 1980s. New Adventures in Hi-Fi? The song Leave brings chills to my spine every time I hear it. And some of the work off their last two cds was pretty noteworthy, too. I dunno. For some reason, when it comes to REM, I feel the need to stick up for these fairly consistent musicians.
That is all.
Hmmn.
There is one thing I have always said about DJ Blurb.
He is his own best work of art.
While I admit that he is always fluctuating and rolling and bouncing off of trend, causng him to appear to have no real core set of aesthetics. Blurb is bigger than that.
He is like a magnetic pinball that simultaneously bounces of bumpers while sucking the attention of the entire machine.
It’s as if all the obstacles and bumpers and black holes are screaming to be noticed by his frantic, seemingly non-directional journey.
That’s the best thing about a good piece of art. Like it or not, it keeps your attention.
No need to apologize for handing thousands of kids a good time. Don’t be so smug.
By the way, since Blurb seems a it shy to admit the band he was in, it was called Swim Herschel Swim and it provided a hell of a lot of fun for a ton of sweaty kids.
I was in the band with him.
It’s ok dude. There is no shame in music.
Ah. “Swim Herschel Swim”…that is a name I do remember. I don’t know if you guys ever knew “Stretsch Armstrong,” also from Utah…I met and played with those guys on our tour back in ‘94. I think it was Provo…ugh, my memory falters. But I do remember them being a swell buncha guys. Utah was an interesting experience indeed.
Ska has hardly been recognized as a legitimate music form by many, especially with the advent of the so-called “3rd Wave” or “Ska-core” of the early 90s. That’s okay though, I’d never be embarrassed to say I play Ska.
And if you provided a hell of a lot of fun for a ton of sweaty kids, consider yourself lucky. You moved them. There are many bands that can’t accomplish that. As Merkley put it – there is no shame in music.
Knew them. HA! We discovered them. Scottie V, the singer was my room mate.
Where the hell is that dude.
Wish all you kids could have been at the Paul Westerburg show in Memphis this weekend. It kicked ass. Made me wish I was old enough to “remember” the Replacememts.
Merkley ???, I wasn’t apologizing for Herschel, merely apologizing for the spew of horrific bands that followed. Stretsch was not part of the spew, they had their own thing working and were probably more legit ska than Herschel ever was.
Awww come on — don’t be mean to all those people you/we inspired.
Don’t you know, I’m the only person allowed to hate. Everybody else needs to be a hippie and be positive.
Anyway –ignore me. I am so full of hypocrisy and double standards anything I say should be divided in half, lit on fire and tossed in a pool of gas.
Conversations about coolness drive me nuts because my opinion is the only one that matters. Trouble is, the same goes for you. The subject is maddening yet so tempting.
I’m getting old.
Stretch Armstrong!? Damn, but does that name seem familiar. Can’t figure out if I saw them or a former, ska obsessed, roomate used to spin thier stuff…
Either way, it brings back memories of black and white checked suspenders, skinny ties, Docs and skankin’.
Must be getting old, the past seems such a warm, comfy place to dwell.
BTW
Congrats to your lady for sweeping at the bloggies.
I should have won for best blog not yet a month old.
It could be worse. You could have been in the band, The Obvious.
Wait – isn’t this post about your pro-scenesterism? All I see is latter-day backtracking. Just askin’.
Just thought I would point out that pitchfork.com is, in fact, the web site for Livestock World, “The Pitchfork Capital of the Internet since 1995!” (Seriously, I could not make this up.) I think you meant pitchforkMEDIA.com.
What about Bel Biv Devoe and Another Bad Creation! CLASSICS!
Dude, you were uncool before uncool was even cool!
I agree w/ your view of blogging. I write to keep writing. Sounds so cliche…
Almost pissed that the millions of preteens out there have made blogging news-worthy. Guess I should join the other million of us out there who feel the same way.