First off, amazing show on Saturday up in Sparta, NC at the Muddy Creek Cafe & Music Hall. Bill and Shana are so welcoming and wonderful, and it was great to be able to spend some time with them at the end. It’s such an amazing thing they’ve put together up there in basically the middle of nowhere. And the audience hung out and stayed with us on a cold, pretty-crappy-otherwise night. We had so much fun playing and cannot wait to get back up there. Many thanks to all who came out and listened, and special thanks to Bill and Shana for having us out. Sparta, we’ll be back… (hint: check the calendar in May…)
Random Thought #1: Why doesn’t SNL utilize Melissa Villasenor’s crazy awesome impression skills very often?
There almost seems to be an avoidance of her doing impressions, which is so fucking weird. She is probably their most impressive impressionist since… I don’t know, maybe Jimmy Fallon (who I hated as a cast member, and still hate as a late night host, but damn I could watch him do his Bob Dylan, Neil Young and French Stewart impressions all day…). Even that Pete Holmes (kind of funny) HBO show worked in more impression work for her than SNL typically does, and that was just in the one episode she was in. I know it’s not really what SNL seems to value these days but I don’t know why that came to be. It’s always been one of my favorite parts of the show and the reason I still watch old Celebrity Jeopardy clips on YouTube when I get drunk on a Friday night; which then usually turns into watching old Norm Macdonald bits, which then turns into having to watch the old Conan/moth joke bit for the 1000th time… Good times… Anyways, SNL, get your shit together and don’t give us yet another cameo-ridden, lukewarm political sketch and write some shit for Melissa that allows her to show why she’s the best non-Kate McKinnon (how is she still on SNL? She’s way too talented for this mediocre SNL cast…) cast member. Please? See, I even said please. Look what you made me do… (which lead me to thought #3)
Random Thought #2: Why do music sites (and music journalism pretty much as a whole) suck nowadays?
Believe it or not, there was once a time where I would spend hours scouring the internet to read thoughtful, well-researched and well-written articles about music. I had my trusted sources (even Pitchfork was once great, if you’re old enough to remember when it was the fresh-faced upstart pitchforkmedia.com. Sure their articles/reviews were distinctly over-written, like those music reviewers were ordained by God to be the one true light to guide you through the vast forest of indie music, but it was how I came to find artists like Bonnie “Prince” Billy/Will Oldham/Palace/Palace Brothers, Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, etc.) and I devoured their every word, bought records I’d never even heard of based on their recommendations and couldn’t wait for them to tell me what I should buy next. It was great. I got to know the guys at B-Side Records in Madison, WI pretty well as they special ordered me more than a few CD’s from obscure indie bands.
Then, something changed. I’m not sure quite when, but I remember being less and less interested in any of the major music publications/sites, whether it be Pitchfork, Paste, NME, Rolling Stone, etc. I found them to be more and more unhelpful in my search for new music. Part of that is natural, I think, as it’s harder and harder for a band/album to impress me as it’s being compared to the thousands of bands/albums I’ve already listened to and determined I like. It’s not easy to make something I’ve not heard some version of over the years. Or to create something that can tell a story still untold after roughly 70 or so years of popular music and over the 100’s of years of folk/blues. But, it still can be done. I just don’t have an easy way to find this music anymore. It seems the internet, which has made it “easier” to find, listen to, discuss, etc. music has lost it’s tastemakers, which in turn makes it so much harder to find new music. The internet has actually over-democratized the industry, and whereas before there were maybe too few gatekeepers, there’s now none. The gates have been thrown open and the music is pouring out at a pace never before seen. Before, music fans had only a handful of faucets to drink from and now we’re being doused with a fire hose. It’s swung too far, in my opinion. Now, I have no other choice than to sift through countless lists, poorly written/researched articles, Spotify playlists, YouTube recommendations, etc. to try an find new, exciting music. I probably listen to about 100 new bands/albums per month and maybe like 1 or 2, if that. It’s time-consuming, mostly boring and it sometimes feels like work. Most of my friends have mostly given up trying to find new artists. It isn’t worth their time. And I get that. I wish I could give it up. The other day I went to go shoot hoops for a bit (because it was 70 degrees and sunny, in February. God, I love North Carolina) and spent the first 15-20 minutes skipping tracks, jumping playlists, etc. trying to find something new to listen to. I eventually gave up and just put on the trusty old Bill Simmons podcast and went along with my shootaround. That makes me sad. I like finding new bands, new music, etc., it’s just become so difficult.
I know part of all this is the industry itself. Most of the music journalists have been laid off, moved on to more lucrative writing opportunities or their sites/magazines have died. That’s why we get stupid slideshow-type lists to generate clicks (like a recent Paste list brought to my attention by my Taylor Swift-loving wife which ranked “Shake it Off,” the biggest hit of her career and maybe the biggest pop song of the decade, as one of her top-ten worst songs… Cool. If even I know a Taylor Swift song, it must be at least a good pop song…), places that only review major releases, places that open post reviews written for free by “contributors,” some of which are good, but mostly you get what you paid for, etc. But, I don’t understand why music writing (and music as a whole) has been so devalued in our society. You’d think with music being easier to make/release than ever, we’d need more people to sift through the shit, rather than essentially none. But, what do I know…
Searching for new music is now harder than searching for the Krull. At least with the Krull, after hiking through the plains and forests and up the mountains, it was just sitting there in the water waiting for you. With my search for new music, I feel like I’ll definitely be killed by Liam Neeson and his pirates before I find anything. And if those sentences don’t make any sense to you, then you aren’t one of the (very few) people who’ve seen this masterpiece of a movie called “Krull.” It’s not quite “The Room” in terms of bad movies, but it is a great “bad movie,” at least I think so. My wife is still mad at me for making her watch it four years ago… so, I could be wrong…
Random Thought #3: Who is Taylor Swift?
I know, why am I writing about Taylor Swift? Well, I recently watched that Taylor Swift documentary on Netflix. As I said, my wife is a fan, and I was curious as to what would be in it and if I’d finally see her have any personality. I think she might be the most blank canvas of a person I’ve ever seen. Knowing how Taylor carefully controls every aspect of her life, I figured this would be more or less a long commercial for herself, which, it more or less was. So, I had low expectations for the doc, and was really just hoping against hope that she wouldn’t fucking bring up the Kanye MTV awards thing for the 10,000th time, which, of course she did. She said it was the turning point in her career, that everything was like living in a dream world until that happened. Which, to me, seems like possibly the most melodramatic way to describe a relatively innocuous thing that happened (go back and watch it. It’s way more tame than you probably remember) while she was being given a completely irrelevant award. But, then again, this is a girl who is either a billionaire or well on her way, who wanted to become a pop star and is, and who is one of the few musicians who can dictate everything about her career; who still wants us to constantly feel bad for her. She complains about being famous but then makes a documentary about herself. She talks about how her biggest asset as an artist is her storytelling, then shows us clips of her and her producers/songwriters hastily and haphazardly making up lyrics on the spot to fit whatever melody. She plays us a clip of her eating dinner with a friend and chatting to show us how relatable she is, then compares having kids to training puppies before we see her on her private jet shocked that she has to hold onto her salad because of some light turbulence. Hard knock life…
But, two things really stood out to me: her overbearing father and how open she was about her sexual assault. Was I mad that she dedicated like 10-15 minutes to rehashing Kanye? Of course. But, I was glad she took the same amount of time to talk about her sexual assault case. Unfortunately, it’s something that is still far too commonplace in our society, and there’s so much pressure on women to not make a big deal out of something that really is a big deal. Between the public and personal shaming that can occur, the court fees (if it even goes to court), having to face the accuser, having that accuser lie and call you a liar, having to relive the moment over and over as you tell the police then the courts, the inner voice which can sometimes try to convince you it didn’t happen so it doesn’t have to believe it itself, and on and on. It seems like the whole thing is designed to keep women down and feeling helpless about these events. It’s horrible. Which is why I’m glad she did what she did, taking him to court, bravely standing up and then talking about it in the doc, as Taylor is a huge role model for lots of young women. Hearing that the biggest pop star in the world dealt with something like that and stood up for herself can really impact others and make people feel less alone when dealing with issues like sexual assault, harassment, and the like. Taylor might not be able to stop the predators out there, but if she can provide some comfort, however small, to the victims, and be a role model in dealing with it, showing that she’s still the strong, amazing pop star she always was, I’d say the documentary was worth it just for that.
And then there’s her dad, the man who basically created the Taylor Swift popstar machine. The only scene in the documentary he is in (which is telling on how she feels about him), is the one where Taylor tells her inner circle she wants to get involved in a couple Tennessee elections by supporting the Democratic House and Senate candidates via a social media post. She sits on the couch with her mom as three old white men, one of them being her dad, sit across from her and try to talk her out of it. It’s weird and a little hard to watch. Here’s the biggest pop star on the planet almost begging to voice her opinion on something she cares about but is being told she can’t have an opinion on. She should be able to say whatever she wants, she’s fucking Taylor Swift. But, the three old white guys just sit there and basically tell her she’s dumb for wanting to voice an opinion on politics. Look, I get that it could and probably did alienate some red state fans, but moreso it made me wonder why she doesn’t just fire them and hire not-three-old-white-guys to give her better advice. I know it’s her dad, but it sure didn’t seem like he was supportive or helpful in any way. I got the feeling she would be much better off without him at this point. She surely doesn’t need his help anymore, and she surely doesn’t need him trying to make her feel small and not worthy of is approval.
But, apart from those two things, I watched 90 minutes of footage and I still can’t answer the question: who is Taylor Swift? She seems like she intentionally has kept herself void of personality for fear of alienating even a single person in her enormous fan base, which means her personality is that she has no personality. I’m sure some of her fans would say otherwise, but, hey, I guess it’s working for her. She sells a hell of a lot more albums than I do. Her last show was played to about 50,000 more people than were at my last show. She has like five houses or something, I have none. So, it’s clear she knows what she’s doing. Hell, I even play “Shake it Off” from time to time at my shows. I can guarantee Taylor isn’t busting out one of my tunes like “Lookin’ at Luckey” or “This Old House” onstage anytime soon…
But, there is one thing I have going for me that Taylor Swift doesn’t, AT LEAST I DIDN’T SLEEP WITH JOHN MAYER…
(dictated but not read)