Culture Greyhound

My buddy Austin pointed me to this video that’s gone viral from Jimmy Kimmel. It’s a Lie Witness News report his show did during Coachella where they ask some attendees if they’re excited to see bands like the Obesity Epidemic and the Chelsea Clintons and they all express that yeah, they love those bands so much and can’t wait to see them. But here’s the catch: those bands don’t exist.

Now there’s probably 3 reasons for this, all of which I think are valid.

1) People who go to Coachella aren’t really going to see music or bands, so they probably wouldn’t be able to tell you who’s playing anyway (this one’s more accurate than you think).
2) They’re just being polite to the people asking them questions and don’t want to look like an idiot with a camera in their face.
3) They’re hipsters.

I would like, for the purposes of this little spiel, to focus on #3, though the other two are probably correct in some fashion as well. While the video was funny, I kept thinking to myself throughout the course of it, “Wow. I used to do that ALL THE TIME.” I remember being a young, impressionable 20-year-old, hanging out with new friends from bigger cities who I met in undergrad, trying to fit in, be cool, lying about how I know every lyric to every Mountain Goats song ever and how the Decemberists’ first album is way better than their last two, etc. These are conversations young hipsters have all the time. Yes, I too was a young hipster. I struggled to fit in with my musical friends, who I’ve now come to realize may have not even liked music at all anyway, or at least the trite shit they claimed to like.

At 26, I now understand my true self. I hate the Mountain Goats. John Darnielle’s voice is atrocious and his speaky-singy delivery irks me to no end. This is merely my opinion, but the difference between my age-26 Mountain Goats opinion and my age-21 Mountain Goats opinion, other than the opinions themselves, is that one is sincere and one is not. One is from a kid who thinks too much about what other people think about him. The other is from an older guy who is tired of listening to shit he will never like and tired of trying and doesn’t really care anymore. But it took me a while to get there. I spent a lot of time on music I respect greatly in retrospect, but ultimately I have determined just isn’t for me.

Meanwhile, I back-burnered a lot of music I LOVED simply because it didn’t fit with the current catalog of “Things Okay To Like.” These are purely subjective, arbitrary things that make no sense to me whatsoever at age 26, but at age 21, I lived by The Code. I had to be cool, I had to gauge someone else’s reputable opinion of a band before I claimed my opinion. This was highly pretentious, it was sad, it was necessary. It was a period of self-discovery and it made me who I am today, a more self-aware, musically intelligent, but overall less snobby human being. But it was pretty bad, and I know if it was bad for me in Lubbock, Texas, I can only imagine what kids at Coachella 2013 are going through. THE PRESSURE.

I say this all a bit tongue-in-cheek, of course, because we all know that being insincere and insecure about your music taste is a dumb thing to dwell on to the point of flat-out lying about it. But these kids are dealing with it, and I can understand that. And it will take some time. It’s all part of a big painful process called growing up and your twenties and self-discovery and blah blah blah. All of which is easier said than done. And one thing that never happened to me during this time was I never ended up looking like a jackass on national television during this developing period of my life. So I kind of feel for these kids, even if you can look in their eyes and see nothing but complete cluelessness and low self-esteem and the general physical effects of recreational drugs. Because all they did was show up to have a good time, and then some millionaire has his interns put a microphone in their face and they opened their dumb mouths and pretended to know what they were talking about, like young hipsters do, and got called out for it on YouTube, and now they’re sitting in their chemistry class totally embarrassed and sunburnt and hungover. And this is part of the process. And it’s funny, funny, funny, hilarious stuff. But also, a little sad. But mostly funny.

Because we have to laugh at ourselves. That’s the first step to getting out of your young hipster phase. And most of them will get there. Some never do, unfortunately. And that’s not funny at all. That’s annoying. Because if there’s anything worse than a young hipster, it’s an old hipster.

Once every three months I list the best of what I heard in albums/songs/remixes for the quarter. I do this to personally keep up with all the awesome music I hear, as it ultimately helps me at the end of the year when I do my overall listing for the previous twelve months. I also do it to introduce you cool cats to tunes you may have missed independently.

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Hey everybody! Long time, no blog. How’s your 2013 so far? Mine is getting mixed reviews, but we’ll get to that. Or maybe not, I’m not really sure yet. This is a stream-of-consciousness post. Should be a fun read! Or not…I haven’t decided that either.

So when I started this blog back in 2010, it was designed to be a forum for me to maintain what at the time I considered to be my greatest asset as a recent Texas Tech graduate and an unemployed barfly in my college town – my craft of writing. I still consider that to be a strength, especially now that I’m about a month away from earning an MBA. I’ve done more writing in the past two years than I ever wanted to, and due to time constraints (and the strange need I invented for myself to post something every day) this cool little blog turned into a place where I would just repost pop culture stuff, mostly embedded videos, because that was the quickest remedy.

I always wanted to focus this blog on pop culture (mostly music, of course, but also film, television, sports, news, politics, etc.), but I also wanted it to be a place where I could vent and celebrate, where I could relate these cultural aspects to my menial life, my personal experience, and my present-day comprehension. A place where I aped Chuck Klosterman, more or less. That happened for a while, but of course I got busy and lazy. I started hating blogging, I put it off until it was overwhelming, and then I would phone it in. And guys, I’m not going to do that anymore. But I’m also not going to blog all the damn time either. I’m going to use this for what it was designed. So that means sporadic posts that are higher in quality and ultimately more meaningful to me. Because really this blog is for me, and about me, and I could really care less if anyone reads it, to be totally honest. But thanks for being here anyway. You’re a good friend.

I’m running into the realization that I’m approaching a period of my life I’m all too familiar with – with an emerging graduation, no certain career lined up currently, a dwindling social life, and a continued nonexistent romantic life, I’m going to have a TON of free time, where I’m alone with my thoughts, my anxieties, my uncertainties, and an obscenely fast Internet connection. And my cat, of course. 2013, I can safely say, might be the scariest year of my life. My future is a giant question mark in almost every category.

At the same time, I am more optimistic this time around for whatever reason. Maybe it’s because I’ve surrounded myself with people who have given me confidence and self-worth. Maybe it’s because I’ve taken to heart my lessons from grad school. Maybe it’s because I have finally stopped comparing myself to others and matured to the point where I’m finally just comparing myself to the past version of myself. Maybe it’s because I know that I have a family that supports and loves me, that will always tell me they’re proud of me, that will always make sure I always have a roof over my head and food on my plate. It’s probably all of the above. Ultimately, I know if I turn negative, I’ll just give up on everything, and I feel I’ve made a lot of significant steps in my life, and to do so would be foolish, because it’s all uphill from here. The 2010 guy who started this blog has come a long way, and I feel pretty great about that, and I firmly believe in that old adage everyone’s mother always told them – that if you just give it 100%, everything’s going to work out in your favor in the end. I don’t sweat the small stuff like I used to, I don’t worry about what others think as much as I used to, I don’t get angry like I used to, and I don’t fret over things I can’t control like I used to. All in all, I’m on a very uncertain path, but I feel pretty good that I have the intellect to make things work out in my favor – if not immediately, then eventually.

So what else, since we’re playing catch-up? 2013 music has been blowing 2012 out of the park. I’ve finally started going to the movies again (shout out to the Saturday Morning Matinee Club!), I’ve been dating (!), and baseball is back in season, so that’s been taking up most of my time recently. Yu Darvish is my hero. Spring time is my favorite time of the year, hands down. I still live in the best city in Texas. SXSW was amazing this year, maybe the best of my seven years of going. I’m going to have some serious platinum badge withdrawals in 2014. I saw Green Day, Justin Timberlake, caught some amazing panels, some hilarious movies, saw some old friends, and did it all in a fairly responsible fashion. Like, with minimal hangovers and all that jazz. I know, right?! Well, I guess this is growing up. Sorta.

That’s another thing, guys. I don’t think I’m ever really going to grow up. I know 26 is still very young, but at the rate I’m going right now, which is moderate, I don’t perceive slowing down or settling down or being a miserable old man anytime soon. No matter where I end up, be it Austin or Portland or Dallas (ugh) or London or wherever, I’m going to find the right balance between work and play, and probably ruin the balance occasionally. But only occasionally. Because, really, that’s the way I’ve always done it. Minus my 18-month Lost Weekend in 2008-2009, I’ve been able to keep my head above water, because I was raised by sensible people who taught me good morals and let me do my own thing.

So here’s to 2013, what could possibly be the greatest year of our lives, because we were all supposed to die in December, remember? And here’s to the return of this wasteland blog. Since I’m a personal goal-setter of sorts (with the exception of physical activity), I’ll probably make a concerted effort to post on this thing at least once a week, if not more. But if I’m not inspired, I’m not writing. Them’s the rules. So cheers!

As a final housekeeping note, yes I know what day it is: the next post here will be the Quarterly Review, and hopefully I can hash that out this weekend. Fingers crossed!

30. Toadies – PLAY.ROCK.MUSIC

Sure, No Deliverance was a fun reunion album, but it lacked the punch of the early material.  No more; PLAY.ROCK.MUSIC seamlessly blends the old with a new, raw sound that carries Toadies’ now-legendary Texas rock swagger into the new millennium the way we true fans have always imagined.
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I invite you to partake in my painstakingly ranked (not really) 200 favorite tracks from the past twelve months. Some you will totally agree with. Others you will listen to, and then proceed to question why you even clicked on the link/why you’re my friend/etc. Such is the beauty of the subjective beast that is music.

Keep note that this is probably the least diverse track list I have ever made, and I’ve been doing this for a while. This year, due to an increasing indifference in “indie rock,” a busier schedule, a large bias towards general hedonism, and an overall “I don’t care anymore” attitude, this list is probably as close to a personal “favorites” of the year as I’ve ever come. In other words, no one likes this list as much as I do, at least at this point in time. You will find a lot of dance and hip hop here, as well as a large sampling of tracks from artists I’ve publicly proclaimed to be my all-time favorites. Having said all this, there’s plenty here to chew on, and I have always prided myself on my diversity, so I believe there is still something here for everyone.

Rock the Spotify playlist below. I’ve provided the text list below with YouTube/Soundcloud/Pitchfork links to tracks that aren’t available on Spotify. Enjoy!

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10. Rihanna – We Found Love (Star Slinger Refix)
9. Physical Therapy – Drone On (feat. Jamie Krasner) (Supreme Cuts Mix)
8. Chromatics – Birds of Paradise (Amtrac Remix)
7. Cassie – King of Hearts (Kanye West Remix)
6. Frank Ocean – Whip Appeal (SBTRKT Edit)
5. Darq E. Freaker and Danny Brown – Blueberry (Star Slinger Remix)
4. Jessie Ware – Running (Disclosure Remix)
3. Buraka Som Sistema – We Stay Up All Night (Star Slinger Remix)
2. Rye Rye – Boom Boom (Kat Krazy Remix)
1. Evil Nine feat. Danny Brown – The Black Brad Pitt (Gesaffelstein Remix)

Now’s the time of the year when people talk about everything that happened and what it means. Obama got re-elected, MCA and Whitney Houston died, some guy jumped from space and Red Bull paid him. We’re almost certainly going off the fiscal cliff. Taylor Swift is apparently a full-blown pop star now. Chik-Fil-A sold chicken sandwiches all while handling the daunting task of publicly hating gay people.  Breaking Bad is still the best show on television. Community is stil the second best show on television. Your mom likes Mumford and Sons now. SPIN Magazine the magazine is dead. George Lucas sold his light saber collection to Mickey Mouse. It’s been a fun year. A lot of things have happened. But music kind of sucks now.

I mean, let’s be honest. Do you guys remember the heydays of the burgeoning Internet? The blogs? The relevance of Pitchfork? All these awesome groups with buzz that seemed to be somewhat justified? Is it just me? Am I getting old and jaded? Probably. But it seems like good music is happening less.

And this is coming from a guy who really tries to keep up with this junk. I scour notable web zines every day for the hottest new band and track and tour date, etc. I don’t know, I guess I started feeling it around SXSW when I realized there really weren’t a lot of up-and-comers I was dying to see. Granted, there were a few, and there’s been a lot of newcomers that have been great. And a lot of my all-time favorites released new music this year. It’s been pretty good. Just not great. It could be better. I feel like 2012 isn’t memorable in the grand scheme of things. It’s just a stepping stone to the next big movement. Not just for music, either.

Granted, 2012 has probably been the busiest year of my life, as I (FINALLY) make the shift into this thing called “adulthood” and get a job and try to date people and take a more proactive approach to actually figuring out who I am and what I want. This year has been a big one for me. So naturally, I listened to less and less albums and went to less and less shows and bought less and less vinyl. I’ve been a bad music fan this year, guys. I mean, look at this damn blog. This is the most I’ve written here in months. I’ve officially kicked the addiction of regurgitating another website’s content just so I can get impressions here, simply because I’ve got so much more pressing things to do nowadays and I really would like to make this site more of a place where I go when I actually have something of substance to say. And of course, to run down the year and make lists. Which I still love to do. Like a lot.

So yeah, it’s probably an amalgam of things. First being I’m busy. But also because, when I run through new tracks and albums, which are now easily accessible and totally legal via Spotify, which has completely changed my life and many other people I know, …I find myself skipping through more than taking in and putting on repeat. And that’s because the output isn’t as great overall….right? People seem kind of lost. Musicians. Critics. Tastemakers. There’s some great stuff, sure. But overall, it’s underwhelming. But with years like this, there usually comes a moment of clarity, a renewed purpose, and a slew of awesome bands. It will happen. It happened in 2003. 2007. 2009. We’re due for another. It will happen again. Like I said, check the title….baby steps. We’re all taking them. Together.

So anywho, tomorrow you’ll get remixes, then tracks on Friday, then albums on Saturday. There’s less this year.  My albums are cut down to 30.  My remixes are cut down to 10.  My tracks….yeah, those are still 200.  Tracks are easy, and my favorite part.  I could’ve have done a 300, no sweat, but that’s a bit much, I figured.

I promise it will be unlike any other best-of list series you’ve seen. Because due to my schedule and the other reasons listed above and the feeling of “I like what I like and I don’t care” that comes with your late 20’s, that less cynical, less pretentious, more self-aware and honest, but increasingly jaded and crabby, vibe….my list is focused on favorites. Some made other lists. Some didn’t. And really the only person in the world who will like my lists the most will be me. But isn’t that the reason we make lists anyway? They’re more for ourselves. Sure, it’s fun to share. But at the end of the day, the process of seeking validation and gratification is tiresome. As a young rapper once said, and then everyone in the world proceeded to repeat all year long ad nauseam: YOLO.

I like what I like and I don’t care.

Happy New Year, kids!

Once every three months I list the best of what I heard in albums/songs/remixes for the quarter. I do this to personally keep up with all the awesome music I hear, as it ultimately helps me at the end of the year when I do my overall listing for the previous twelve months. I also do it to introduce you cool cats to tunes you may have missed independently.

Continue reading