Don’t You Roll So Slow: Transmission 277, 2016 May 11

a propos of nothing, I have a thought I'd like to share, since I can't remember anything about this particular program except that the tunes were good and that Lady Catharsis chose one. My thought is about elitism as it pertains to music. Maybe it is about wilful obscurity, and maybe it is about both things, and maybe it is halfway coherent. We try.

This past week the Senior Catharses were in town, and one of them asked us about the local music scene, about which I suggested that it is kind of nice that we have a thriving underground without anyone being "too big" [though we could maybe do with someone who was Thin White Rope-sized, but that's just a personal preference.] Then Lady Catharsis brought up that somewhat local band, X Ambassadors--they of the "Renegades" song that has aired so many times in a Jeep commercial that I never want to hear it again--not that I would have found it enjoyable in the first place, but you get "the picture." (I suggested that they don't count but LC insists that they do).

Anyway, THIS IS HOW WE GOT HERE: it really is about my never wanting to hear your song again. I don't care that you've made money from a commercial. Congratulations. Whether you are successful enough at art to quit your day job is not my business; I wish you the best. I would not recommend poverty to anyone or wish it upon anyone so harmless as an artist. (Except Billy Joel, but then he is not harmless, so my point stands.) So: knock yourself out with underscoring deals, that's part of your freedom. I may have to move on from fandom, but that's part of my freedom too. Universal balance restored.

But that other part of success--growing an audience--gave me some thinks too. I don't think, pace occasional friend of the program Alex, that social snobbery informs one's decision to move on when a favorite band "breaks." To me it is more like a response to gentrification--the cool kids are moving in, and I need to find a more reasonable neighborhood until the next cultural shift happens. Some of us like things cheap, low-key, and not crowded. No personal judgement involved.

If you would like to exercise personal judgement here, like perhaps thinking--even commenting--that it's a dire rhetorical move to liken, say, hurt feelings over a band's major-label contract to losing one's house, that's part of YOUR freedom. Yay, freedom.

More grandparent updates next time!

BOMBAST playlist, 2016 May 11, 2100-2300:

1. "Mad Dog" | Spider King | Shot to Pieces | Finders Keepers
   
2. "You Can't Sit Down" | Booker T. & The M.G.'s | Green Onions | Rumble
3. "Temp" | Trux | Trux | Office Recordings
   
4. "Stripping at the Nail" | Secret Boyfriend | Memory Care Unit | Blackest Ever Black
   
5. "Mob Hand" | The Fire Dept. | L'Oeuf D'Or | M'Lady's
6. "Circle IX (Treachery)" | Pact Infernal | The Descent Chapter II | Samurai Hero
   
7. "Alpine Evening" | The Orb | Alpine | Kompakt
8. "Nine Regal" | The Dandelion Set | The Delaware Road | Buried Treasure
   
9. "Leger Leger" | Julien Gasc, Forever Pavot & Chassol | Moonshine, Vol. 1 | Born Bad
10. "Building a bridge to you from the roof of a disused supermarket in Budapest" | Jumble Hole Clough | A Warmer Welcome | digitalDIZZY
11. "Generique debut" | Pierre Vassiliu | Ils (Bande originale du film de Jean-Daniel Simon) | Born Bad
12. "Slow" | Olof Melander | The Path | Project Mooncircle
13. "4'32"" | Inventing Masks | Inventing Masks | Error Broadcast
14. "Souvenir" | Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark | Dazzle Ships (Live at the Museum of Liverpool) | White Noise
15. "Standing Stone" | Flying Saucer Attack | Distance | Domino
16. "All Leave Cancelled (X)" | The Fall | Wise Ol' Man EP | Cherry Red
17. "Solo 3" | Nicklas Sorensen | Solo | El Paraiso
18. "Young Mountain" | Gain Stage | Elevated Noise | Portals Editions
19. "Camino" | H.O.S.H. | Cilanthropy | DIYnamic
20. "Hate Week (vox dub Dark Outside)" | Security | A Warmer Welcome | digitalDIZZY
21. "Hi Fu" | Tiefschwarz | Left | Watergate
22. "EYES (Feat EazyLee RIP)" | Trinity Lo Fi | A Warmer Welcome | digitalDIZZY
23. "Nom" | Benny Boeldt | 8 of Cups | Carpark
24. "Poor Magic" | Brandt Brauer Frick | Holy Night & Pure Magic | K7 / Because Music
25. "The Other Me" | Laila | Laila | DEEWEE
26. "Nine Pound Hammer" | Merle Travis | Hillbilly Music... Thank God! Vol. 1 | Bug / Capitol | "Listening Parlour"
27. "Poor Connection" | Blackfoot | Can't You Hear Me? | Now-Again
28. "Exoplanet" | ASC | The Farthest Reaches | Auxiliary

I Wore Lilacs In My Hair

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