Am downloading a few tracks from the new Spoon album as reviewed on Pitchfork, but still nonplussed. It’s good, but an 8.0? I dunno. The only other Spoon i have is the album “Telefono” as I read that Britt Daniels likes Julian Cope. Um. Maybe i should not admit that… I missed the piece on All Things Considered though.
I feel guilty in another way, in that the game i want to play is Am I Cool or Not on Freaky Trigger, and while i was rooting around on there, i saw a couple of articles that made me think. It’s just too much linking to one site, but I disagree with part of this article about LeTigre, politics, and the internet. Nope, I have not heard the song yet. Damn. I guess that I’d better download it before I embarrass myself more by writing another word. Okay, i don’t disagree with the article as much as the song itself. Yes, the Internet is not as fun as it used to be. However, I’ve made some friendships on the internet that have been just as rewarding as anything in person. Better really, if you know Louise is my girlfriend, and everything we’re doing right now is to be in the same place together. (She’s almost certainly moving to the States, and even more is hoped.) One of my dearest friends is Valentina, who i’ve never met in person, and her friends and family’s welfare mean quite a lot to me. Those feelings are real. I doubt whether anyone would dispute that, or ho i feel about a lot of the friends on Raindogs either. However, I’m more connected to current events than i ever was. Politics? I know more about what’s going on behind the scenes than ever, and can do more about it in alerting others and writing officials, and being organizing. “Get off the Internet/ I’ll meet you in the streets”? I doubt it. Not only do i live in a rural area, to the point that i live at the end of a long gravel road, but in my experience of going to town, let alone to the city, no one speaks to me, as I don’t fit into their small cliques. Indie cred and incestuous weblogs are annoying online, but off the internet, I’m more of an outsider than Le Tigre could possibly comprehend. Yes, what does everyone propose we do next? Other than getting me off in the internet. Don’t be a Luddite. If it was not for the relationships I have right now, I could probably turn off my computer, walk into the woods, and never miss it. Lou and i would have a rough time organizing things in snail mail and phone but we could do it. However, who wants to take away the phone, because it destroyed the meaning of letters? The phone is not going away. Neither is the internet. Let’s use the damned thing.
I think Le Tigre is probably pissed off more than the average person about how much time people devote to the internet, because so few people go to shows anymore (at least around New Orleans.) They stay home and chat about albums. I’d be bitter too if I knew that i had avid fans that would rather sit home and download a bootlegged broadcast of the show than show up in person. “Destroy the Right Wing”? I’d love to. I pay attention to enough political action sites to attempt that online though. It almost sounds like someone bitching about how CDs are not as cool as vinyl LPs because they don’t have that warm crackle and need to be flipped. Or zines are only cool when they are done on a typewriter and a xerox machine. The song is not a proactive political statement. It’s the rant of a fetishist.
By the way, doesn’t the beat and keyboard riff remind anyone of Big Audio Dynamite? No, really! And it’s a little too long. Given the choice, I’d rather listen to Barcelona.
The funny thing is that I agree with this other Freaky Trigger article on politics in pop. It even applies to that Le Tigre track, as it seems more explicit than relying on unease.
It sounds like the new Spiritualized album is going to be more easy listening. So is that good or bad? that’s always what “luch” and “orchestral” seems to turn out to mean anyway. It bugs me that I still don’t recall hearing Lupine Howl yet.
Fellow Raindog Luke Martin’s piece on Tintin has me all nostalgic, not for Tintin, but just for that rush of mindblowing comics. I’m eager to read some Tintin too now, but i was thinking more of the Sandman comics that I’ve been reading on my breaks. Back in 1989, I was at the peak of comic collecting obsession, and the local shop closed down, not for lack of business, but other sinister reasons that I may never fathom. I even suspect they were making too mcuh money, putting the used bookstore it was housed in into a higher tax bracket. Anyway… I really liked Sandman, even though i was only able to acquire the first eight issues, but i don’t feel like writing about it today.
Sometimes I worry whether I’m too hard on rude, stupid, or insane customers. Our employees are frequently not much better. For example, just last night… A woman was asking an employee (let’s call him “George”… like Liberace’s brother) when the soundtrack “O Brother Where Art Thou?” came in, as she had been looking for it and we had been out of it recently. Instead of just saying, “I don’t know, ma’am” or better yet, a fib like, “This morning,” he stands there with his hands in his pockets, mumbles something, and shrugs. The woman was getting quite irritated, as she couldn’t get any answer out of him as he stood there with a dopey look, and his hands in his pockets. How one can fit that much arrogance and dopiness in so few gestures is beyond me! When she asked where some banjo music could be, he still just stood there, and whined, “I guess we might have some. I don’t know where it could be,” but then he just stood there, without moving a muscle other than what is required to shrug…. with his hands still in his fucking pockets!
I walked in briskly, and told the lady that we had some banjo comps in the bluegrass selection, led her to the section, and pulled a few out, and pointed to a few more. “George” slouched along after us, and then asked, “There’s probably some in folk too, huh?” I wanted to grab him and knock the teeth out of his head with the back of my hand right then. If he knew that to begin with, then he could have led her to the folk section. I left right then, as i could not contain myself if i stayed a moment longer.
This “George” seems to think he’s smarter than the average person, and that if he doesn’t like something outside of his narrow area, then it’s not worth bothering with. For a guy who reads Premiere to see what movies are coming out, so no one beats him to his screenplay ideas, he seemed clueless about “O Brother…” and indifferent that the lady wanted some help. He definitely turned his nose up at my rave-up gospel record later. It seems that he’s confident enough in his broad tastes of NOFX, Pennywise, Blink 182, Offspring, and Green Day that he does not have to be familiar with any other music. After all, he only works in the music department.