Skip to main content

(The Gym is) Neutral Territory

So Eric and Amy saw Lifetime over the weekend (review and photos here). As I ponder how envious I am of their experience, I think about how much this band has been name-checked in the last few years. Without running a laundry list, I think about what usually happens when popular bands name-check relatively obscure bands. Some may cry foul about such, but why is that a bad thing, especially in the case of a band that has been broken up for a long time?

One of the most cross-referenced bands of my generation is the Pixies. I think the main reason why is because Kurt Cobain once claimed that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" sounded like a Pixies song. For us listening to White Lion and Vanilla Ice when Doolittle and Bossanova came out, we probably wouldn't have understood the hoopla about the Pixies. Yet for us who went through the filter that Nirvana showed us, we would understand in due time.

With Lifetime, bands like Saves the Day, Fall Out Boy and Taking Back Sunday have sung praises of the band. Hell, Saves the Day's first album was an intentional nod to Lifetime's rip-roaring melancholy punk rock. With these bands paying homage to the band in print and on record, the possibilities of introducing younger people to Lifetime are pretty large. Of course there are the people that are just into the bands of the moment and don't really care more than just the music. However, for those that are curious about who the younger bands are inspired by, they are more than likely going to hear about a band like Lifetime.

At South By Southwest this year, Lifetime played a free show with My Chemical Romance. There were plenty of teenagers there, but there were plenty of people my age too. Sure, there is percentage of people my age that just don't get My Chemical Romance and I'm sure there's a percentage of young people that just don't get Lifetime. Regardless, hearing about the show made me really happy. People my age and younger music fans were having a great time as Lifetime kicked out several gems from Hello Bastards and Jersey's Best Dancers. As weird as it would sound to have both a skinny teenager dressed up like a glammy vampire and a 28-year-old with a Hot Water Music tattoo on his arm wanting to see Lifetime, I think that's awesome.

I won't lie: seeing sold-out shows with a large number of young people acting like they are there to hang out and be seen can be a bummer. That's what happens when a large crowd is attracted to a band at a point in time, but I gotta remember that not everyone is there for the scenery.

I remember when I first saw face to face in '97. I wore my Foo Fighters shirt and I received a rather nasty little look from a guy. While that guy's expression stands out to me more than anyone else's, I must remember that so many others at that same show could really give a rat's ass about what I was wearing and what music I listened to at the time. There is a sense of territoriality with fans of music that has somewhat of a limited mainstream appeal, especially in punk and hardcore. You may see some jazz geeks roll their eyes at Kenny G fans at a Charlie Hunter show, but they aren't about to flip them off as they talk about how music was so much better in '84.

The point is, I understand people not wanting mainstream influences to come into areas they find personal and sacred. However, when the ticket says, "All ages," that doesn't mean "Only for fans of this music that understand the history of the band, their music and what to do and what not to do at a show." The door is open for anyone that wants to come in (save for shows that are 17+ or 21+). With the beauty of hearing music on record or MP3, anyone can hear this music. Not to sound like a tree-hugging hippie, but having a crossover with a band where a wide variety of people "get" who the band is well, awesome.

Comments

fuzzbuzz said…
Nice point, after all playing music is a lot like tossing a ball out there. Whoever catches it will catch it. Its always a nice suprise when the person who catches it isn't the person you thought might.

Popular posts from this blog

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Catherine Wheel

Originally posted: Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 Despite managing to release five proper albums, Catherine Wheel was one of those bands that always seemed to slip past the mainstream rock crowd. Yes, they got some nice airplay in their day, but people seem to have forgotten about them. You may hear “Black Metallic” or “Waydown” on a “classic alternative” show on Sirius or XM or maybe even on terrestrial radio, but that’s about it. For me, they were one of most consistent rock bands of the ’90s, meandering through shoegazer, hard rock, space rock and pop rock, all while eluding mainstream pigeonholing. Led by the smooth, warm pipes of vocalist/guitarist Rob Dickinson (cousin of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson), Catherine Wheel featured Brian Futter on lead guitar, Dave Hawes on bass and Neil Sims on drums. They weren’t a pretty-boy guitar band, but they weren’t a scuzzy bunch of ragamuffins either. Though the band hailed from England, Catherine Wheel found itself more welcome on American air

Best of 2021

  Last year, my attention span was not wide enough to listen to a lot of LPs from start to finish. Too much went on in 2020 to focus on 10-15 albums, so I went with only a couple to spotlight. Well, 2021 was a little better, as I have a list of top four records, and a lot of individual tracks.  (I made a lengthy Spotify playlist ) So, without further ado, here’s my list of favorites of the year: Albums Deafheaven, Infinite Granite (listen) Hands down, my favorite album of the year. I was not sure where Deafheaven would go after another record that brought My Bloody Valentine and death metal fans together, but they beautifully rebooted their sound on Infinite Granite. The divisive goblin vocals are vastly pared-down here, as are the blast beats. Sounding more inspired by Slowdive, the band has discovered a new sonic palette that I hope they explore more of in the future. It’s a welcome revelation. I still love their older material, but this has renewed my love of what these guys do.  J

Hello, Control

I'm still a big fan of iTunes . I haven't tried Napster , Urge or eMusic as I've been perfectly happy with Apple's program ever since I downloaded it two years ago. However, an annoying new feature has come up with its latest version, 7.0. Whenever you pull up your music library, a sidebar taking up 3/4ths of the screen appears plugging the iTunes Music Store. Why is this an annoyance? Well, first and foremost, since you can't close the sidebar, you can't escape it. I believe a music library is a private collection, a spot away from the music store. So what's the need for constant advertisements and plugs? To provide a better visual, let me describe what I see whenever I pull up a song in my iTunes library. When I listen to "This is a Fire Door Never Leave Open" by the Weakerthans, I see a graphic for Left and Leaving , the album that it comes from (and available in the iTunes Music Store), along with a list of the Weakerthans' other albums,