watching the label spinning on my turntable

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September 29, 2007

watching the label spinning on my turntable

i miss rock and roll. fist pumping - camaro driving - mullet inducing rock. i miss ham fisted drumbeats and big riffs played by skinny men dressed in skinnier clothing posessing unironic moustaches bad tatoos and real beards. as much as the elitist in me has enjoyed the boon of the indie scene...the music - it may be beautiful and complex and tormented...and i may love it for all of those things but it doesn't rock. even the bands that think they rock don't really rock. (i'm talking to you jack white). probably because they are too self-conscious to lay aside their latent irony (and their effete pubey beards) that hangs over their collective heads like the sword of democles.

last nite i went down to rhythm & brews to see drivin' n cryin' live and in concert. and wow. i had fun! kevin kinney and the boys rocked my face off. seriously. i now have no face. and maybe you've never heard of drivin' n cryin' if so - shame on you. they had a handful of hits back in the 90-somethings that still get some radio play and you can often hear one of their sweet sweet tunes when they pop up on juke boxes at bars where it's still lawful to smoke inside and people play pool and have a rabid allegiance to dale earhardt jr. and the southeastern football conference.

sadly a fight broke out during straight to hell and the cops showed up causing me to duck out the back door before the encore. partly because i didn't want to get tased by a police officer in bicycle shorts and also...ever since the christopher carl weathers birthday extravaganza i know they're just looking for an excuse to lock me away. forever. here come the fuzz indeed. of course that didn't stop me from screaming out the words to all 75 verses and choruses of straight to hell and it didn't wipe the stupid beatiffic grin off of my face as i stumbled back to the impala...still marveling at the seamless way they morphed fly me courageous into kashmire on into smoke on the water and back again. southern rock will rise again my friends.

p.s. christmas is just around the corner - and people always tell me that i'm one of those difficult individuals that is impossible to shop for. i happen to think that none of the people that say such things love me enough to actually take the time to figure it out. but let's not quibble. the 80gig ipod has just dropped to $250 and i'm far too selfless to ever purchase such a thing for myself so...there's that.

| By young_christopher | 9:42 AM

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Comments

I recently underwent a similar revelation about current rock while attempting to compile a Work Out playlist. Some Arcade Fire aside (particularly Neighborhood #3), there's not a lot to work with from the elitist crowd when it comes to making running in place less onerous. Incidentally, the White Stripes are on there numerous times. I won't apologize...I think they rock.

Posted by: heidi at October 1, 2007 12:24 PM

Yeah, just 'cause Jack White's weird and self-conscious doesn't mean he doesn't rock. Meg White, however, almost negates any rocking that Jack is responsible for. Chris, you're defining music that "rocks" as "southern rock." I guess that means it's okay for me to like Skynard? But for my money, nobody rocks like Foreigner. Honestly though, I'll repeat my previous assertion that Kiss is especially rockin'. There's a reason Rivers Cuomo namedrops Peter Criss on Weezer's self titled debut. Heidi, how is it even possible to work out to Arcade Fire?

Posted by: Nick at October 1, 2007 5:36 PM

i'll admit a certain affinity for southern rock...but i've lived long enough to know that foreigner rocks about as hard as reo speedwagon. skynard is okay in my book. but you're better off going with grand funk railroad or thin lizzy or creedence. i wouldn't hold out much hope for the tape deck though. or the creedence.

Posted by: young_christopher at October 1, 2007 8:11 PM

What, Nick, you've never danced around in your living room to Arcade Fire? Same principles apply to working out. Speaking of southern rock (well, "southern"), how do we feel about Oakley Hall? I just picked up Gypsum Strings and really like it.

Posted by: heidi at October 2, 2007 10:34 AM

I misspelled "Skynard." Should be "Skynyrd." Chris, Thin Lizzy is an underrated "classic rock" band. Good call. Heidi, if I had heard Oakley Hall or even knew who that was, I might have an opinion. But I don't so I don't. As for Arcade Fire, maybe I could conceivably rock out to them (okay, so I did at ACL, at least for 3 songs) but dance? I saw some supernerds dancing to them and it's everything I could have ever imagined.

Posted by: Nick at October 2, 2007 2:29 PM

I never know if a band I'm getting into is one of those that everyone has already beaten me to and I'm just late to the bandwagon. Oakley Hall is a band from...Brooklyn? and they're really blue grass/southern rocky. I read about them on Pitchfork.

Posted by: heidi at October 3, 2007 8:49 AM

are you sure you aren't thinking of hall & oates heidi? i've not heard of this oakley hall. but speaking of bands you can't dance to - the new sunset rubdown disc drops next tuesday. and i will be front and center at the drunken unicorn on the 13th to see them live and finally realize my crush on spencer krug.

Posted by: young_christopher at October 3, 2007 8:54 AM

Atlas Hugged

September 29, 2007