didn't watch the grammy's last night, which bums me out a bit, but read neil strauss's not so interesting round-up of the gig - fucking 'o brother' won a ton - signifying to me that Time Out NY's "why music sucks," while mistaking the cause, may have put a name to the disease. it's not that music sucks, really, it's that it isn't growing as it has - the lull is mindnumbing, but the lull is natural. so many people i know don't even listen to new music anymore, just back cataloging their neil young records and waiting 15 years for this shit to sort itself out - Weird to think of people 'discovering' Wilco in 20 years, like, where was I when this was happening? to which they would say of course, Yes, where were you indeed?

Blah blah, the music industry has filed an anti- RAC group called California Music Coalition, backed by the sinister owner of international labels at Ark21 + various luxury industries and manufacturers. Criticism is duly noted, but it's fucked to think that this whole thing is going to boil down to legislation when it should be equally focused on artist coalition, petitioning their own labels for things, becoming truly human in their reflection on the industry as a whole. People like Courtney Love, whose dispicable treatment of the Cobain legacy gives me chills, only discredit the RAC in the eyes of true music fans, musicians, etc. Heinous and bloated self-interest prevails regardless. Am interested in finding out about Just Plain Folks.

Other things - have been listening to Philly band aspera, whose Walkmen-esque textures on the cheap are sort of seductive, though their e.p. sadly deteriorates as each song goes by. have to give back my ex-friend's copy of common's 'like water for chocolate' which has the best, deceptively simple drum pattern across the first three tracks. since the horrible 'scratch' documentary i saw a couple weeks ago, i've been paying more attention to breaks and the lack of them in most modern, non-hip-hip music. in an article in this weeks' village voice, sf jones cynically talks about the early 80s music scene 'imagine a time when different races joined one another on stage and in the audience, where people in that audience danced,' etc. the article is stodgy old-people talk, but the complaint rises. why is only retro-fitted dance music (but not soul, never that) the only acceptable form in the indie scene.

so desperate to listen to music at work i plugged in to insound's online stream of crap - actually liked the cave-in track, which isn't surprising to me as i've liked some of their stuff bfr. also, the neil halstead track is quite lovely though i didn't really like mohave 3 (blasphemy!) and was distrusting this output - there is a wierd, scquelching moment of complete randomness at the end of the track - very unprofessional and wrong sounding - i wonder what would possess him to leave it in.
not much else on my mind. was thinking of signing up to pressplay.com for the two week trial just to fuck around with it and see if it even works - i can't believe they want $30 dollars a month to be able to burn 20 tracks, download something stupid like 300 - who even has that much space on their computer? it's so stupid, and of course artists are complaining that after all their initial fuss about napster not paying them that now all these label-led content-on-demand sites are FUCKING THEM OVER EVEN MORE! and new artists are not even able to negotiate the rights to any of that money, whatever pathetic amount it is. the whole thing just reeks of old people misunderstanding/fearing technology, people hungry for money without understanding, people so afraid of an open market that they'll try to destroy any open content format that would give The Shins equal treatment with Britney. good article about it by neil strauss in the nytimes 2/18/02.
also, on a semi-music/corporate evilness related note - bust is back up! just bought a sub and hope to pitch them some stories.

been gone...and back, as it were. mardi gras day in new orleans have 'mardi gras mambo' in my head more than anything else. god damn it! host suggests i write 'tourist songs' for new york city - as if anything beyond 'ny, ny' could summarize the shattered ideals of that place better. hmm. i guess i could write tourist songs for brooklyn, since it seems only hip hop celebrates the boro.
met this crazy guy who knows tons about music - the type of person who targets his own ideas to the conversation bc he can talk on any subject, totally without pretension. realizing how valuable nerding out abt music is in other cities, why people use the internet more outside of nyc to figure out what's going on in the world of sound. the catch 22. anyway, he was a great guy and lent me david toop's book on ambient sound, which i will read dutifully as a former wire mag nerd.
the guy i'm staying with is a big jpop fan, almost listens to it exclusively when not in the back-catalog of goth/ambient stuff...very strange to think of latter genre as something all-encompassing..it seems rather flat to me, so disgustingly optimistic and naive...which is why i can't stand most indie-pop either, because it emulates this with that moment of bittersweet added as if to make it real. realizing how adult my reactions are to music now. did like mia doi todd however - a strange blend of cat power and nico filtered through non-western sensibilities. might have to pick some up if it isn't impossible. apparently on the other music kids' top tens for 01. fantastic.o.
just rereading and realize 'adult' in context sounds like a snub - which it isn't - only that i feel that i'm coming into my own adult reactions to music, added with the fact that i just finished 'mystery train' by marcus, my first read by him...and it continues to freak me out how much i 'don't listen' to music. how much more is always there, how much more thought can be done about it. marcus is a cock-sure dinosaur but it's interesting for me to see the ideas of such mainstream idols -elvis, robert johnson- exploded and laid bare, contextualized in a way that i might be able to do with a semester of cultural studies class devoted to each artist, a lot of money for back-catalog, some good wine and free time - things i simply do not have...
blah blah blah - who will be the people exemplifying our times? who the critics write about 30 years from now, the canon, as it were? hard to say, with media pluralism...some are obvious -radiohead, pavement (man, my brain's fried as this is all i can think right now), but who knows what history will pick up on? if in 20 years people will look back on matador or morr music or interscope the way people look at factory....nah..won't happen.
what else? parade bands - again, the maybe racist but entirely truthful statement that white marching bands just don't get it - that nola's black inner city bands always steal the show, that the all-girl marching bands blew me away (with all those talented high school girls, why aren't there all-girl rock/jazz bands in the south? why?) and the precarious and strange situation of a dance-troupe parading to that blur song -Who hoo! from their "we love America" album...among the dozens of others who just copy the 'bring it on' sentiments with c+c music factory et al. why are dancers so fucking cheesy? it's a tragedy. not that many tits or even costumes this year as lame patriotism invaded the country's only true debaucerous family-fun festival.
blah blah - i'm still trying to figure out what zydeco music is, that is my goal while i'm here.

ohmygodiwassowrong - former jonathan fire*eater hipster cuties the walkmen are ruling my world - 'we're been had' is the most charming, post-radiohead/neptunes music box self-deprication i've ever heard. 'sometimes i'm just happy i'm older - somehow it got easier to laugh out loud.'

'see me at age 19, with some dumb haircut from 1960, moving to new york city/ live with my friends - they're taking the same steps, we're foolish'

ya sure, he's the perfect blend of the strokes' guy and bono (is that perfect? is that my hell?) but somehow it elicits empathy in spite of the fact that i'm sure the lead singer of this band gets laid on command.

also, the abcs, the worst thing troubleman has put out since i've known the kids - pointless, reich-esque illustrations of how minimalist composition, much like punk, can go awry in the hands of the uninspired. plus...horns? gag. i'm only getting comfortable with the fact that rock music orginated with the sax, let alone the fact that it's still relevant.