Dave Matthews is a Choad

I'm sitting on a mountain of months-old links, waiting to unclench my fists long enough to write the penultimate tirade against the crimes of Bushco. But for now, I offer you this delightful rant. Truly, Dave Matthews is to music what IKEA is to furniture: a thin plastic veneer of quality and taste artlessly glued over a flimsy pressboard center. Strictly for people who buy their music at Starbucks. Feh.

Indie 103.1 FM: Too Good to Last?

I admit it. I still listen to the radio in my car. The CD player is broken, I'm too lazy to fix it, and MP3 players are a lot of bother (unless you're a gadget geek). On top of that, LA rock radio is supremely boring--a super-majority of bleating corporate troubadors punctuated by inane DJ patter.

So I was pleasantly surprised to find that 103.1 FM had recently changed its sound from a tedious dance format to an honest-to-Satan alternative/underground/indepdendent rock format. Scratch that; I was not surprised. I was elated.

The format brings back fond memories of college radio in the eighties. And don't make the mistake of thinking Eighties = big-hair synth-pop extravaganza (although there's nothing wrong with that--in moderation). I'm talking about the heyday of real alternative rock radio. I'm talking about punk, power pop, reggae and, yeah, even new wavey synth-pop, all blended in to a delicious sonic stew. In short, I'm talking about the music I cut my teeth on.

The obvious comparison is KROQ. I moved to LA much too late to have heard KROQ in its (apocryphal?) early days of fun and experimentation. (I got here in the Summer of '89, just in time to be aurally tortured by hourly airing of the excreable "Bring Me Edelweiss".) But today KROQ is a pure corporate play, driven by ratings numbers and focus groups. 103.1 is the station KROQ wants to be, or wants you to think it is, if only by reputation.

Case in point: driving home on New Year's Eve, I heard Temple of the Dog's "Hunger Strike" followed by T. Rex's "20th Century Boy". Sheer brilliance. Also, 103.1 regularly plays album cuts as well as bands that KROQ has either tossed into the cut-out bin of history or has yet to discover, exploit and abandon.

Moreover, because they are so new, 103.1 is currently commercial-free and mercifully free of on-air "personalities."

The only down-side I can see is that 103.1 will eventually have to make some compromises in order to win listeners away from KROQ. In other words, I'm afraid the playlist is too good, too unpredictable to appeal to a broad audience. (Yes, I'm calling you a musical philistine.)

There's also the curious history of the 103.1 Mhz frequency in LA. In the past 10 years, the frequency has seen about as many format changes. It's been home to a number of adventurous formats, all of them failures. Way back in 1991, it was home to beloved and lamented MARS-FM, which both shaped and reflected the emergent dance/DJ culture in LA. That lasted about a year and a half. More recently, it was home to the latest attempt to directly challenge KROQ's hegemony--something called "New Alternative Radio" (I think) for which I can't even find a mention on the web.

Nevertheless, I hold some hope that 103.1 will maintain their cool sound. And if they're reading this, how about some Nebula or Ben Wa? And keep the Old School surprises coming from the likes of Aztec Camera, Big Black, Blancmange, the Cramps, Comsat Angels, Chameleons UK, the dB's, Hüsker Dü, the Jam, Let's Active, Magazine, PiL, the Selecter, Sex Pistols, Ultravox, etc., etc., etc.

[Update 1/10/2004: There's an insightful discussion on this topic at waxy.org.]

Journey into Old Fartitude

Last night I found myself grooving along with some strangely familiar "classic rock" song on the local Boomer behemoth radio station. It was familiar enough to tickle some vague memory of the halcyon summer days of 1978, those great moments of anticipation after the childish chickenfighting time of Sixth Grade and just before the hormonal awkwardness of Junior High.

Imagine my shock and chagrin when the DJ announced it was "Anytime" by Journey. I fucking hate Journey! This song almost never gets played on radio these days and it was a dud when it was released back in '78, so I should get some slack for failing to recognize the taste of this particular flavor of corporate turd pie.

But I gotta admit, "Anytime" has certain non-suck qualities. The production is on par for the times: clean and straightforward with minimal studio flourishes. (For comparison, see John Mellencamp's "I Need a Lover.") Also, nice harmonies with a noticeable absence of Steve Perry's grating falsetto. If this song were a color, it would be brown. But a warm earth brown and not a tacky 1978 finished basement faux wood paneling brown.

So now that makes two Journey songs that I can tolerate, and maybe even enjoy in very small doses (the other being "Anyway You Want It"). Verdict: I am getting old.

And did I just accidently review a 27 year old Journey song? What the hell is wrong with me? By way of apology, I give you Louis XIV, who easily confirm the theory that bands named after dead world leaders can bring the rock.

America (A Poem)

United We Stand.
New and Improved.
Look Both Ways Before Crossing.
Keep Away From Children.
Free Gift with Purchase.
Duck and Cover.
It is a Violation of Federal Law to Use this Product
in a Manner Inconsistent with Its Labeling.
Tastes Great, Less Filling.
Parental Advisory: Explicit Content.
Employees Must Wash Hands.
Open Other End.
Operators Are Standing By.
You May Already Be a Winner.
But Wait, There's More.
Not a Toy.
Obey.
Dead End.
Severe Tire Damage.
Contents Under Pressure.
Take One Every Four to Six Hours.
Sanitized for Your Protection.
Made in China.
Cover Before Striking.
Warrantee Void if Seal is Broken.
Push Down, Then Twist.
See Our Ad in People Magazine.
Contains Violence, Language, and Partial Nudity.
Danger: Biohazard.
If Swallowed, Induce Vomiting.
100% Recyclable.
Don't Try This at Home.
You Are Here.
Await Further Instructions.
Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

Music Makes it Stop Hurting

It's always difficult and not a little embarassing to come back here after such a long absence. But I'm in just the right mood to not care so much if I get the words just right. So here goes...

Music has become my drug of choice. TV just makes me feel bad and I already feel bad enough living in this place, letting King Fraud kill in my name, watching in mute horror as the mob chants "Two and two are five! Two and two are five!"

Anyway...

On a chance, bought My Morning Jacket Z. Warm blankets of sound, healing rhythms, the soothing comfort of a human voice. Masterpiece. Look into it.

The Go! Team Thunder, Lightning, Strike is my kind of messy groove music with overlapping samples and electronics, but better suited to warmer weather. Hear it at the Crawfest next year.

Picked up a two-fer—Big Star #1 Record/Radio City on one CD for $10. Can you believe I'd never heard these classics? Wonder why the theme song on That 70's Show sounds so familiar? Pick up the slack, Jack.

Also filled out some missing pieces in my collection with the absolutely essential Bandwagonesque by Teenage Fanclub. Not essential but solid throughout: Matthew Sweet Girlfriend. Why am I buying the old stuff? $5 apiece used. Can't afford not to. Plus the sweet embrace of nostalgia's familiar arms.

In Bushco's 'Murka, the only thing I can do is hole up in a cluttered den with an old boom box. Music makes it stop hurting.

Bandwagon: Four Things

Everybody's doing it, but no one has asked me yet....

Four Jobs I've Performed
1. Fast-food slave (yes, I dropped your filet-o-fish on the floor and served it to you anyway)
2. Landscaper (glorified mower of rich people's lawns)
3. Substitute algebra teacher
4. Code poet

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over
1. Fight Club
2. The Lord of the Rings (entire trilogy)
3. This is Spinal Tap
4. The Big Lebowski

Four Places I've Lived
1. West Springfield, Massachusetts (raised)
2. Troy, New York (college)
3. Alexandria, Virginia (internship)
4. Pasadena, California (adulthood)

Four TV Shows I LoveEnjoy
1. Lost (whatever happened to the monster?)
2. Family Guy (way funnier than The Simpsons nowadays)
3. My Name is Earl
4. The Office
(No cable TV in this house.)

Ten Highly Regarded and Recommended TV Shows of which I've Seen Nary a Minute
1. The Sopranos
2. The Wire
3. The West Wing
4. Six Feet Under
5. Deadwood
6. Sean Hannity's cult of personality thing
7. Falafel O'Reilly's cult of personality thing
8. Chris Matthew's cult of personality thing
9. Adult Swim
10. Survivor
(Why ten?)

Four Places I've Vacationed
1. Surfer's Paradise, Australia
2. Suva, Fiji
3. Paris, France
4. San Salvador, El salvador

Four of My Favorite Dishes
1. Boiled Cajun crawfish
2. Faud (family recipe)
3. Angel hair pasta with tomato & basil sauce and turkey meatballs
4. Garrobo

Four Sites that I Visit Daily
1. Metafilter
2. bOINGbOING
3. Hit and Run
4. Atari Age

I don't even know four other bloggers (*gack*) that haven't already done this, so I'll just tag you, Joe.

Finally, and apropos of nothing, if I were a character on TV's South Park, I'd look like this:

Yes, I'm holding a shotgun and a beer. I have a self-consciously retro beard and I'm frowning.

Shout-out to Martin for leading me to South Park Studio.