Peace, Love, and Kissing Up

This sort of goes along with last week's chapter. Yesterday, I was all ready to go CVS to get the things I need for my dorm. But my friend called me to help out his radio show. So I went out of that for a little while. When I left, some girl I knew begged me to come watch a gentleman sing and play guitar who hired by the program committee. I felt really bad because there was no one there. He was pretty good and I enjoyed watching him, but I really had stuff to take care of. So when I got out, it was about 15 minutes short of 10 o 'clock. By the time I got to CVS, it was about 9:54, and when the clock struck 10:01, some worker yelled at me and told me I have to leave. I was so frustrated I didn't buy any of the things I had picked out, I just put them down and walked out the door.

I feel the same way sometimes when having conversations with people. For instance, on one hand, I feel there is no such thing as bad music, so I shouldn't say that I think Hillary Duff's So Yesterday is a terrible song if a friend likes it. On the other hand, I feel lame like I might lose my credibility if I am not honest about music. I think it works the opposite way too. When I'm with a group of guys and I admit that I didn't think the film Twilight had bad acting, that might not benefit me so well either.

Open Mic Night At BSC

I haven't played at open mic night here at BSC yet this semester. I went to see my friend sing a couple weeks ago, and sadly I missed her, however I got to see my other friend play, so that was cool. The moved it to the room next to the GLBTA room instead of having it at in the large ballroom. Now that I think about it, I think that was a good choice because last year everyone sort of had their back to the stage. It didn't really bother me when I performed, because well, you expect that when doing a little acoustic ditty at an open mic night. However, I thought it was sort of harsh for the comedians and spoken word poets because they weren't able to bounce off the audience. Therefore, I felt it was a better environment despite the fact it was a little harder to meet up with friends when in the audience.

I quite often tend to second guess myself when I do these types of things. I was original like, yeah, I'll do one of my songs and then cover "El Scorcho" by Weezer. But then I was like, I can't do that, it would be a sin to cut out of all the background vocal. So then I was like, "Well, I do a good version of Bob Dylan's 'Forever Young Continued'." But then I think, "I can't play that at an acoustic night, that's like playing 'Stairway To Heaven' at a guitar store!" Last I like, "Okay, I'll do 'Under the Milky Way' by Church." But then I think I might forget the words. The inner turmoil goes on...

Where Do You Get Your Music From?

Well, in short, I have this band called Ductape (we're considering changing our band name for the 5,000th time), and now that brother's football season has ended and winter break draws closer, we're working on getting back down to business. Back in the glory days of Ductape (Freshmen year of college) we used to get handfuls of people to come to our shows through myspace. There we would constantly have new music updated, a list of our concerts, and the opportunity to wish all of our fans happy birthday.

Now that we blinked our eyes, myspace doesn't seem very cool anymore. As a band, we've been rather lackadaisical with updating the myspace since these young hipsters (yes, I'm trying to sound square) seem to be more interested in facebook and twitter. Not to long ago, we made a facebook for ductape, but it didn't seem very assessable. There is no place upload your music and you can only add a few people at a time. Twitter, although I find it fun, is even less useful for music in nature. We have a link to our myspace page on facebook but I think people see myspace and think "losers". Other than making better music (I know you were thinking that Bruce Wayne, so I'll say that diss before you do), how to you think we can promote our band so we can play shows and have fun?

"This land is your land and this land is my land, sure, but the world is run by those who never listen to music anyway"-Bob Dylan

Is anybody else sick of politics by now? This is a question that I never thought I would ask, because well, I'm really interested in politics. However, recently, it just seems like I can't avoid politics at all. I can't walk to the RCC without seeing the "I get paid to give out pictures of Obama with a Hitler moustache" people. I can't go online without hearing some filmmaker complaining that the country needs full universal health care instead of a revised plan where 5% of people get free health care and the rest get affordable.

I can't turn on the television with out hearing how 65% of people feel Afghanistan war is no longer worth it, and 51% of people think Obama should listen to the generals (Which doesn't even make sense! The generals want to continue the war without an exit strategy, and then invade several other countries over the next 20 years. 65 + 51=116. That means 16% people are contradicting themselves! I'm failing statistics and I still figured that out! Okay, I had my moment). Not to mention the stupid polls seem to change 25 points a day. Who the heck are they polling? They haven't been calling me. I only got called up by the Catholic Church. It was a machine, and it said, "The new health-care bill is going to raise the abortion rate, are you pro-life?" That's a loaded question if I ever heard one. I wonder if the news programs do the same thing. What do they do interview one hundred people phone? I can think of one hundred people that wouldn't answer.

In the end, this is all sort of funny, because I remember in a conversation a few years back I blamed baby-boomers from becoming apathetic during the Clinton-era because times were good. I fear now if this apathy returns from people like me we may lose our voice as a people. But I myself haven't written a political song in months. It just seems as I get older I care more about people than politics. Maybe we need both.

"Your So Indie-Rock, It's Almost An Art"

Tonight, while enjoying a funky-blue gatorade while watching The Artic Monkeys on Last Call with Carson Daly, I would like to take a moment to type about the battle between Indie and mainstream. Of course, an infinite amount of books could written on this subject on only one form of media. I'm going to use music examples because I'm sucha rookie when it comes to filmmaking that I don't think I can generate very good film examples.

To be indie, or not to be indie, that is the question. For the record, I'm not talking about high budget versus low budget necessarily, I'm talking about accessibility. What I'm referring to is when an artist has to decide whether to go for something comfortably polished and popular, or for something more challenging that is more likely to target the smaller "hipper" audience. This audience is sometimes disdainfully called "The Hipper Than Thou Audience".

Personally, after years of listening to mainstream rock bands like 3 Doors Down and Creed when I was younger, I now tend to favor alternate or so called "indie" rock to the post-grunge bands that top the mainstream charts. However, just because I favor a band such as Manchester Orchestra over Saving Abel doesn't mean I refuse to listen to something popular, I just find the alternative artists to be more interesting than mainstream artists the majority of the time.

However, I sometimes find that bands on the quest for authenticity can be a negative thing. For instance, I saw an interview with the drummer 1970s punk band Crass and he went on and on about much it bothered him seeing Joe Strummer getting out of a jumbo jet. If I was the interviewer I'd ask him, "Who really cares?" Crass was always a brilliant band, but I think their avant garde style is sometimes a bit much for me.

Last question, Why was "Since You Been Gone" by Kelly Clarkson a hit? Kelly Clarkson is a great vocalist, but that song is not catchy at all to me.