|
|
Sometimes, I tell people, life imitates satire-especially
in the postmodern world. When I first heard
about "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?",
for example, I thought it was a joke-not even American
television, not even Fox, could be that astoundingly
cynical. Even they would not so explicitly debase
the institution of marriage, which, if not sacred,
deserves, one supposes, at least some modicum of
respect. But not at Fox, apparently-the show was
real, although ten years ago it would have been
a Saturday Night Live sketch. It would've been laughable,
a wild exaggeration, social satire. Now what should
be satire is real life.
I
was down in L.A. on business, on the 405, driving
through a canyon from the Valley to West LA, when
I saw a tree that wasn't a tree; a tree that was
a transmitter. This tree-which must've made many
a paranoid-schizophrenic shrink in horror or laugh
sneeringly-is as big as any full grown palm tree,
and you have to look close to see that it's made
of metal and plastic, and that it's got green transmitter
dishes on it. It's apparently a cellphone transmitter,
disguised as a tree for, er, esthetic reasons. Despite
the fact that it is ugly and it insults our intelligence-it's
esthetic, right? It's like those patches by the
roadside that are sprayed with green paint-a hideous,
unnatural bright green-to make them look like grass.
Like the "oak tree" that now stands near the 24,
on the way from Concord to Berkeley, in the bay
area. Another cellphone-transmitter-tree. The fake
trees are spreading. Boys, give me a good old fashioned
ugly transmtter tower any day. Give me authenticity.
Don't bullshit me. If you're turning the environment
into a medium for the media, let's not pretend otherwise.
George
W Bush has one of the worst environmental records
of any governor, and he runs expensive ads claiming
he's saved the environment in choking, gagging Texas.
And a marriage for money arranged by the pimps at
a tv network is not an insult to marriage, it's
supposedly a heart warming entertainment.
We've ceased to value authenticity. Or some have.
If you do value it-where do you find it? Maybe in
the arts? In music? Amongst the fake angst, the
superficial pseudo-poetry of most modern rock? There
are only a few modern rock artists who feel authentic
to me-PJ Harvey, Monster Magnet, L7, Radiohead-and
yes, I take Trent Reznor pretty seriously. But if
you want a serious hit of authenticity, you might
have to go back a ways...
The internet, as I've pointed out before, is over-touted,
many of its benefits probably highly inauthentic-especially
it's supposed value for education-but it does have
its uses. Besides providing a venue for this column,
for Spark, for alternative media of all kinds (eg,
www.riffage.com)-it also rescues the lost. And sometimes
the lonely. There are bed-ridden people, the old
and the invalided, who make most of their contact
with the world through the internet. And it is a
lifeline for performing artists who've lost touch
with their fans-especially in the pop music field.
I'm finally coming to the point. The internet has
given many artists a place to get back in touch
with the audience they know is out there somewhere.
I'm going to name a few I happen to be interested
in, or have a connection to, as examples-but there
are scores of them out there, and I'd like to hear
from people about other sites that offer a connection
to overlooked, authentic pop music artists of the
past…And then I'll name some of those sites here...
My own choices begin with a band I first saw years
ago, when I was a very, very young man visiting
New York City for the first time. I actually saw
two bands there-one was the very first ever public
show, in a small venue for new 'glitter rock' bands,
a band which used wild, comic-bookesque theatrical
makeup, fire breathing, superheroesque costumes
and blood capsules to break through audience resistance.
I later did the very first print interview with
this band-you guessed it, that band was KISS. No,
KISS does not exactly resonate with authenticity,
not for me. . .But I saw another band in NYC I liked
more-one of the earliest performances of the BLUE
OYSTER CULT. Kiss was fun, but the BOC was an adventure
in music-hard rocking but multilayered, with mysterious,
poetic lyrics (Richard Meltzer and Patti Smith and
Jim Carroll were among their lyricists, back when),
classical and folk music influences, a sense of
novelistic complexity in their mythos...They just
weren't like anyone else. They had a great, charismatically
sinister front man in Eric Bloom and they had Buck
Dharma, aka Donald Roeser, who wrote their most
famous hit "Don't Fear the Reaper," and who sang
on their classic "Burning For You"-and who is one
of hard rock's best, most under-rated guitar players.
Oh, the guys at Metallica acknowledge his greatness,
and so does Guitar Player magazine: his intricate,
intelligent, brilliantly liquid solos stand out
like metal sculpture. Not for nothing were they
called "the thinking man's hard rock band". After
a string of hits, they were unseated by disco and
punk, and though their fans are fanatics they were
no longer a hot item with radio programmers. But
they never quite broke up-their t shirts read "On
Tour Forever" and they seem to be... The band lost
its Columbia records contract-but it now has a new
deal, and a new album, a finely honed cd called
"Heaven Forbid" ( from CMC International), with
another on the way. The Blue Oyster Cult is on the
comeback road-and part of the reason is the internet.
There's a big BOC presence there, with elaborate
bulletin boards about them, chat rooms, a number
of websites. The one to start with is http://www.bocfanclub.com.
Get "Heaven Forbid" through Amazon.com, or CMC International's
website http://www.rockuniverse.com - and speaking
of CMC they support lots of other too-tough-to-die
bands, and in particular one of the best rock/folk
bands in America, universally loved by the critics
and usually ignored by the radio programmers, LITTLE
FEAT. Even in the absence of the late, maximally
talented Lowell George, LITTLE FEAT is a gloriously
gritty, beautifully textured, truly authentic band
whose music evokes truckstops and back roads and
hungover mornings sipping chicory coffee in the
French Quarter...Like the Blue Oyster Cult they
give of themselves shamelessly as a live band...And
they stay in touch with fans partly through the
excellent Little Feat website at www.littlefeat.net
-
For
a good time, check out www.theturtles.com - one
of the most authentically distinctive sounds in
American pop music, The Turtles are essentially
Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, (Also known to Zappaphiles
as Flo and Eddie), and they're still touring-and
they're still a great act and somehow they haven't
killed each other yet. Funny, strangely high energy,
their harmonies as beautiful as ever, they still
do Happy Together, Eleanor, numerous other hits-including
their gorgeous covers of some of Bob Dylan's tunes-
and you can find them on their Rhino Records release
"20 Greatest Hits". Anyway for authentic American
music, from blues to avant garde bands to classic
acts like the Turtles, Rhino is the place and they're
at www.rhino.net. Volman and Kaylan are also famous
as Frank Zappa's lead singers during Phase II of
the Mothers of Invention, and they had to be actors
and comedians as well as great singers on such classic
Mothers albums as "Mothers Live at the Filmore East"
and "200 Motels". But they also helped define American
pop on many levels with their unique background
singing, appearing on albums by such artists as
T-Rex, John Lennon, Roger McGuinn, Hoyt Axton, Ray
Manzarek, Stephen Stills, Keith Moon, David Cassidy,
Alice Cooper, Blondie, Bruce Springsteen, Duran
Duran, The Ramones and others. These guys are a
part of the sonic landscape. And the internet is
a point of contact for the immortal Turtles...
Speaking of Zappa, let's speak of Zappa. He's passed
on, but he'll never be forgotten. Satirist, serious
composer who never took himself seriously, virtuoso
guitarist, authentic American folk hero and artist.
There are lots of Zappa sites-I kind of like the
one at http://members.tripod.com/~RATNUT/index.html
- and do not neglect Zappa's high school buddy,
later collaborator, and an enormous influence on
rock avant garde worldwide, CAPTAIN BEEFHEART-without
whom such bands as Primus would not exist. Talk
about inimitable sounds-his really is. Check out
www.beefheart.com - they won't let his legend die.
The equally legendary and fringe-glamorous THE PRETTY
THINGS just pugnaciously refuse to die, though they
never really thrived-yet they were among the most
authentic of the British Invasion bands, in the
60s. To quote one of the Pretty Things websites,
they may not have been big but: " ...they sure were
the scruffiest. They had the longest hair, and the
worst manners.... and they're still banned for life
from Australia and New Zealand due to certain pyromaniacal
antics perpetrated there 30 years ago. Most importantly,
of all the London R&B bands with whom they mixed
back in the '60s-including The Stones, the Kinks
etc... the Pretty Things played the meanest, most
low-down brand of rock 'n' roll." They also produced
the first rock opera, before The Who, "S.F. Sorrow".
They've gotten back together, they're making records
and touring and you can find them at the aforementioned
website, http://www.launch.com/Promotional/pretty_things_ft.html
- and these guys are authentic to a fault.
Then
there's the Flamin' Groovies. Cyril Jordon is still
recording and you can find all kinda stuff about
this classic, sharply defined, fascinating pop-rock
band from way back at http://www.webcom.com/~smholt/groovies
-
And
then there's www.steelydan.com and there are any
number of sites about my heroes Lou Reed and Iggy
Pop. But hey--
Which three hundred thousand and seven bands did
I neglect? Just do a search for your favorite personification
of rock/blues/folk authenticity. Most of the time,
the forgotten bands, the authentic voices of American
and British pop, are not forgotten after all-and
the internet redeems itself once more...
Copyright
© 2000 John Shirley. All Rights Reserved
|
