Genre Wars…I Cannot Think of a Clever Title, So Fuck You.

As I often do, I spent some time this morning before work reading John Darnielle’s blog Last Plane to Jakarta, a blog about a little bit of everything. One of those everything’s that John likes to write about is music, and John is an unapologetic metal fan, which is odd considering the fact that John is a folk music icon, not metal.

I always feel out of place reading these because, frankly, I am not a metal fan at all. Call me dumb, but I just do not get it, despite trying my best to get into just about every form of metal created. Countless times, on a whim, I’ve downloaded entire Cannibal Corpse, Frostmoon, or Nile albums and found myself trying to force myself to listen and understand why so many people I know are obsessed with these bands, and every time I end up either confused, annoyed, or forced to listen to an Apples in Stereo album to clense my palate.

Honestly though, I do respect metal for the most part. While I dislike, I realize that most of the bands are technical talents, even if they all sound like emotionless robots to me. And I do happen to enjoy stoner metal, mainly based on my love of psychadelic rock and blues music.

And I do understand the purpose of metal: who doesn’t need some really pissed off, angry music every now and then? Or when you’re a teenager, music to piss off your parents. All of these are legit, despite what some critics say. And it’s why I listen to hardcore punk, at least the pissed off music part. Plus, as a fan of neofolk, I realize that most of those neofolk bands I like are incredibly influenced by metal, and some of them even influence folk metal bands.

What the whole point of this is, is to say that while it’s okay to dislike certain genres of music, I do think that you should at least be able to respect stuff that you don’t like. Metal isn’t my cup of tea, but I do give it credit for what it does right. It’s one of the things that sticks in my craw about being a fan of both “indie” music and “punk” music, that fans of both are snobbish assholes that won’t listen to anything that doesn’t give them enough street cred. Any time I express my love of a mainstream rock band like Zwan or Ben Folds, some smug asshole wearing clothes bought exclusively at thrift stores, and headphones that are 4 sizes too big, will feel the need to chime in about how anything that gets radio play inherently sucks.

It’s not just the indie world that does it, though. Most fans of rock music will scream bloody murder if someone tells them that rap really is a legitimate genre of music, and while I don’t listen to it, I agree that it is. I mean, you’ll never see me listening to a Tupac album, but I realize the brilliance of the man. And fans of mainstream pop music would never be caught dead listening to even a Ted Leo and the Pharmacists album, all because they’ve never used a Ted Leo song on Rob and Big.

However, there is one genre that I will flatout attack and refuse it’s worthiness as music, and that is modern mainstream country. Do not misunderstand what I am saying here, I have no qualms with country, and not just in the “well, I like Johnny Cash” way. There’s a lot of great country out there today, but not the garbage being played on the radio. I love Julie Holland, The Watson Twins, William Elliott Whitmore, and others. But modern mainstream country like Toby Keith, Kenny Chesny, and whatever else is just pure crap. And I say this because I work on a farm and am forced to listen to this shit all day.

It’s basically just mainstream pop music with banjos, and without the self-awareness of how unbelievably shitty it is. At least most mainstream pop acts realize how trite and dull their music is, and that it’s only being made for shitty parties and bar sluts. But mainstream country has a horrible sense of self-importance, and a fake sense of macho, which makes no sense given the fact that it may be the whiniest genre I’ve ever heard, and I listen to sadcore. To put it thusly, any music that sounds like it should be in a Ford commercial? Not worth your time.

Now listening to: The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath a Cloud- A Night in Fear

Why I’m Not Voting in the Primaries.

The last two elections have been similar: one party is fighting against another despite the fact that there’s no clear frontrunner. The majority of the candidates are all running against another candidate rather than running for something, and thousands of people are telling you that if you don’t vote, then you’re a douchebag and you’re harming the country. Well, my friends, I have decided not to vote in the Ohio primary, which is today. And if you’ll all gather around the campfire, I’ll tell you why!

I’m a pretty firm believer in the idea that if you don’t stand for something, you shouldn’t pretend that you do just to fit in or do what everyone says is right. For example, if you don’t feel strongly either way about abortion, marching in an abortion rally probably isn’t the best thing for you to, right?

And voting really has pretty big implications to it. When you cast a vote for a candidate, you’re telling the world that you want that person to run the country. It’s not like you’re saying “hey, I’d totally have a beer with this guy,” or any other insignificant thing like that, you’re casting your opinion about who would do the best job leading the country. So voting is not something to take lightly. You shouldn’t vote against another candidate, and you shouldn’t vote unless you feel strongly about a candidate, right?

And as of right now, I’m not too confident in any of the candidates running. This election has been nothing more than a giant hodge-podge of candidates all running because on weak platforms that are either unoriginal or borrowed from other candidates. And as far as the guys who actually get/got a significant amount of coverage, they’re probably the worst of the bunch. Richardson, who was easily the best Democratic nominee when he was still running, was completely ignored by the media in favor of Obama, Clinton, and Edwards, only because they’re more well-known, not because of their actual ideas and platforms.

On the Republican side, it has been and was simply pathetic in terms of candidates this whole election. Giuliani, who promised to 9/11 your 9/11 with his 9/11, was using the Bush tactic of trying his best to scare the nation into voting for him, while Romney decided to be the Republican version of John Kerry. Let’s also not forget the amazing shrinking Mike Huckabee, whose stump speech about “vertical politics” has been given more times than shitty gift cards for Christmas. McCain, the current frontrunner, has essentially sold out his own belief system and started to embrace the policies of a president who routinely disrespected and insulted the senator in order to get elected, as well as keep using illegal torture. All the while, our wacky political grandpa Ron Paul spends his time shouting strange things about how the Department of Education is destroy America and wasting tax money by existing.

Right now, the candidates that I’ve been looking at the most are McCain, Paul, and Obama. McCain is still a pale imitation of his former glory but that former glory is so strong that I’m still tempted to vote for him, Paul is 50% amazing ideas and 50% crackpot on a level even more insane that Michael Savage, and Obama. Oh where to begin with Obama.

I first heard about Obama when the elections were just getting started. The news networks, people I knew, and everyone else were talking about how amazing Obama was. According to them, he was something completely different in a politician. He was fresh, new, and dammit he can change the whole system.

So naturally by the time I actually got to see Obama speak on TV, I was pretty excited. I wanted to see what all of this hype was about. I would learn pretty soon that this hype was pretty ill-informed. Everything he said I had heard before. He gave the same broken promises given by every other candidate I’ve ever seen run for office, aside from Crazy Ron Paul. The same bullshit about keeping lobbyists out of Washington, bringing the country together…it’s all been said before millions of times. What makes Obama different? Nothing.

Obama’s fanbase may possibly be the most annoying fanbase of any politician since Bush’s “LOVE IT OR GET THE FUCK OUT, FAGGOTS” base in 2004. Supporting Obama has become the new trend on college campuses, right up there with North Face Jackets, Dane Cook, and pizza. Most of these people actually don’t know why they support Obama, but they support him with an almost religious dedication. Question Obama’s integrity? Your ass will get jumped all over. Say “well, I kind of agree with Hillary on this issue,” you won’t hear the fucking end of it.

This kind of fanatical support is somewhat scary when you actually sit down to think about it. Blindly standing behind a person, following them without questioning them regardless of knowing why…all of this is exact same thing that let Bush, Reagan, and some of the other worst presidents in U.S. history get away with what they did. I’m not saying that Obama is going to be a horrible president and misuse all of this power, but at the same time, he could easily have the potential based on how fanatic his fanbase is. It all mirrors the Bush fanbase circa 2004, and well all know exactly how that worked out.

Right now, the most important issue that candidates need to address is the illegally increased presidental power that Bush, Cheney, David Addington, John Yoo, and Karl Rove gained in the past 8 years. With the way the powers of checks and balances have been eroded, our next president has the ability to take the presidency into dangerous areas of imperial power. Essentially, the president could become a king. No candidate running has addressed this issue. Oh sure, Obama and Clinton have named checked warrantless wiretapping, but there’s so much more than that that needs to be fixed. And voting a president in office without asking them hard questions about this issue is one of the worst things we can do, especially one like Obama who, according to his supporters, is above being questioned.

Do I think Obama would make a bad president, the kind that would seize power just because he can? Not really, but at the same time, he hasn’t done anything to really prove that he isn’t. And I refuse to vote for someone that won’t answer such an important issue.

Currently listening to: Tortoise- TNT

Death Cab for Juno.

This winter, Fox Searchlight pictures released yet another movie in their “quirky indie comedy” department. The movie was called Juno. It was about a girl who gets pregnant, and chances are you’ve seen it. Because if you haven’t, I’m surprised, seeing as I don’t know a single person who hasn’t at this point. These kinds of “quirky indie comedies” have become quite the new trend. Little Miss Sunshine, Garden State, and Juno have all become smash hits among the teenage crowd over the past years, and honestly, I’m getting slightly worried.

None of these three movies were actually that bad. As a Steve Carrell fan, I enjoyed Little Miss Sunshine, and I did like most of Juno despite some horrible dialouge…I swear if I ever hear the saying “honest to blog” in real life, someone will end up in some serious pain…but it wasn’t all that bad. Garden State, however, generally sucked and has to be one of the most overhyped comedy/dramas in recent years. But this isn’t even what bugs me.

What bugs me is the increasing trend of the “indie ____ (fill in the blank)”. Fill the blank with movie, music, TV show, or whatever else you’d like. For example, if you’d like to put “mittens” in there, that could work too. Anyway, “indie” as a genre is generally a false term. Looking at “indie” rock as a whole genre is wrong. Saying that, for example, Boredoms and Iron and Wine are in the same genre is just not true. “Indie” is a blanket term describing a musical or artistical aesthetic. An aesthetic that exists outside of the maintream terms of art such as movies and film. Independent films or music is generally more daring and creative when compared to it’s mainstream counterpoints. It’s the difference between Ben Folds and The Fray. Ben Folds is willing to try out new ideas, experiment, and challenge himself and his audience. The Fray want to give you pre-packaged crap that you’ve heard a million times before.

That’s exactly what you’re getting with movies like Juno. All the producers behind the movie did was dillute the colors a bit, throw a few references to Sonic Youth and the Melvins, all underscored with a soundtrack by Belle and Sebastian, Cat Power, and the Moldy Peaches. Aside from that, the movie is as conventional as everything else being pumped into your theater. Again, that’s not to say it’s a bad movie, but it’s also not what it advertises itself as. A real, genuine independant movie would not be screening at your local multiplex. You’d have to dig deep to find it. Juno, however, is playing at your local multiplex. And not due to word of mouth alone.

The reason this bugs me is that you know after the success of Juno that we’re going to start seeing more and more of these “quirky indie comedies”. And with every single one of those, a little bit about what makes the indie aesthetic so interesting will be muddled together with something that’s really just the usual mainstream dressed up in indie clothing. This is when the “indie” aesthetic become compromised into a trendy new style, being sold to the masses via generic teen flicks that use soundtracks that include Built to Spill, Iron and Wine, and Minus the Bear to build up some “indie cred”. Personally, none of these movies will ever get “indie cred” until they feature something like Xiu Xiu in the soundtrack. I would kill to hear “Fabulous Muscles” or “Boy Soprano” being played over a scene of a quirky teenager walking doing the street doing quirky things.

When you start selling indie as a trend, as a style, or as anything more than a general aesthetic, that cheapens it a little bit. This October, I went to see David Bazan play a show in Cleveland, and every fucking kid there was dressed the exact same: faded jeans, incredibly tight button up checkered shirts, those weird conductor hats worn slightly sideways, and every single one of them had that awkward looking beard thing doing on. Anyone who wasn’t dressed like that got glared at. Where the fuck is the community, the feeling of “we all like the same music, we all connect with it”? It’s slipping away to make room for fashion statements and indier than thou attitudes that essentially killed other underground aesthetics such as punk rock, metal, and no wave. This is what happens when an aesthetic starts to begin being sold to people as something else. It become diluded into something else, something much more unpleasent.

The idea that you have to dress or look a certain way to listen to independent music only arose after it became a mainstream commodity, with indie-lite bands being sold to teenage kids through TV shows like The O.C. and other generic teen dramas. Only once marketing companies started saying “hey, that fat douche from Death Cab For Cutie dressed like this! We could sell that to people!” did it start to stop being an aesthetic and start being a genre, a description of a style of mid-tempo pop music.

Mainly, the reason this bothers me is because of the fact that indie music, unlike so many other underground music scenes, has existed for years without really being compromised in any major way. While various movements of the indie scene such as punk rock, grunge, or industrial start to grow in size and become mainstream genres, the movement as a whole had never really been brought up into the spotlight. Attention was paid to specific generes, not the aesthetic as a whole. And this is why the scene was able to constantly evolve and re-charge itself every couple of years. When R.E.M. and Sonic Youth became popular, the Red House Painters and Pavement took over to create new styles of independant music. When they got popular, Elliott Smith and Pedro the Lion stepped up to do their part. It’s a constant process that worked because indie was never seen as an actual genre, just a general outline on how the bands approached their style. “Indie” was just anything under the radar rather than a sound.

This changed around 2004 when Death Cab For Cutie began growing in popularity after the success of the Postal Service as well as the use of Death Cab on various bland teen soap operas. Death Cab had long been the darlings of the underground, something which baffles the mind since they’ve never been much more than mediocre despite the massive amounts of buttlove that Something About Aeroplanes, We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes, and Transatlanticism got from the indie community.

Death Cab are the musical version of Juno: Death Cab were never much more than a low-fi version of most generic alternative rock bands. While most of their albums are at least listenable, some of them even have songs that I do readily admit to liking quite a bit, they’re still nothing really that special or unique. Yet people that don’t really listen to indie music proclaimed them to be one of, if not the, most amazing and creative indie bands to ever exist. This, of course, is not true. Because of Death Cab’s relative safeness, they became superstars when they jumped to a major label and released Plans, an album that stylistically does nothing different than their early work, but has better production value, and apparently this is the same as being either amazing or horrible, depending on who you’re talking to. Anyway, when Death Cab blew up and became one of the biggest bands in rock during 2005, they became synonomous with indie. This, of course, is what’s killing indie.

Death Cab’s sound has now become the standard sound of what people think indie should sound like. This, in turn, leads to other bands developing a sound similar to this in order to reach further mainstream popularity. And like all rapidly growing snowballs, this leads to more and more bands trying to sound like this, which makes people think that indie has a unifying sound, which in the classic sense, it does not. In turn, this makes indie much more marketable to the masses. No longer will people have to know the difference between post-rock and twee-pop, because those terms are irrelevant. Indie is no longer an aesthetic, but mid-tempo pop music being made by guys wearing checkered shirts.

Now that indie can be sold, there’s a chance that it may die out to some degree. People may grow tired or irritated with it, and stop trying to discover new bands because they get tired of the more watered down stuff. I know speaking about myself personally, I held out on modern indie music because I assumed that it all sounded like Death Cab. I was wrong in my assumption, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not the common assumption being made.  And that doesn’t mean that there can’t be anything done about it.

It’s not that I’m the snob who doesn’t want anyone new to listen to my music, or the person who doesn’t like when bands I listen to get popular. I really do generally enjoy that I know someone who went out and bought If You’re Feeling Sinister by Belle and Sebastian after seeing Juno, and I like knowing that friends of mine are listening to good music like Sonic Youth and The Apples in Stereo rather than crap like Nickleback and Hinder. But at the same time, I do dislike when something that I deeply care about gets misrepresented and sold as a package by people who don’t understand it to people that understand it even less. And it’s not even that I dislike the idea of people getting into good music through listening to stuff like Death Cab or seeing shitty movies like Garden State. Hell, I got into punk/indie/alternative/ect. by listening to Blink 182 and Green Day in Junior High. Like I said, I just dislike when something gets misrepresented and called something that it isn’t.

Currently listening to: The Sea and Cake- One Bedroom.