I'm in my thirties now. Not 'youthful' certainly, but young enough to honestly floored and mystified when reminded that there are StillAmericans who see hip-hop not as intrinsic to the general American culture but as other peoples music. Seriously, what the fuck is this shit?
* In other news, the seasons in Nebraska have consistently been about six weeks behind schedule this year. Winter was more or less normal, routinely chilly and only truly frigid on occasion. The thing of it is that it started two weeks into January and lasted through several false dawns into April. "Summer" has mainly been mainly mild until this week, when we are just now receiving the blast-furnace 95F+ heat normally felt in mid-July. I don't know what if anything climate change has to do with it or what the end of this year will be like but it is damned odd.
** Still, school is back in session, and football has returned to make daylight drunkenness socially acceptable. It is unquestionably late enough in the year to start listening to Venom. Temperature be damned, if you will.
I was of course a huge "Beavis and Butthead" fan as a teenager and always felt a deep sense of imcompleteness over having missed the original 'Liquid Television' pilot. I finally did see it at about 19 and found it hilarious. I watched again today and found it goddamned horrifying! I don't know if this can charitably be chalked up to 'maturity' or what but, Jesus Chirst those fucking sociopath ghouls just up and bludgeoning living things like that! It's fucking sick and anyone who finds it funny is fucking sick! Ayy.
I'm torn as to whether the US should be involved in bombing Syria or anything along those lines or what. On the one hand it burns me to see a murdering dictator win but.... I don't know. Let the French do it, or Israel maybe, if they can get over seeing Iran as the only true puppet-master behind everything bad that is, aren't we paying for their military for any actual benefit to ourselves or our policies at all? Shit.
Actually a very sad reminder that history is not a series of tales about the good guys facing hazard and winning for our moral edification. History is actual breathing shitting people doing things and shit just happening. The good guys lose quite a lot actually. But I guess in this case "we" did end up winning in the end. And certainly it was worth the effort. Don't tread on my ninth cousins Uncle Joe.
Especially when it comes to classic indie rock. (The fuck did I just say that?)
The state fair moved outstate from Lincoln several years ago now. This actually makes me quite happy. That shit sucked. I did see 'Styx' when I had just transferred to UNL an eternity ago. It was fun sure. I am not going to post a Styx video here however. Have some 'Achilles Last Stand' instead.
If you use the ATM at 20th an O on the edge of downtown you will be fucking eaten. God forsaken demon bastards.....
And the "eastern" plains of Colorado are like Nebraska gone beyond Thunderdome. It is seriously as if the people who built the highways are the only humans who have ever been there, unless aliens did it.
There's some talk of succeeding from the hippie-infested front range out in those parts. One quote in the article speaks of 'rural concerns being ignored' which is of course pure bunkum. the backcountry is dependent, that's right, on money coming in from more productive urban areas in order to make a modern standard of living in the country at all possible. The real beef here is that rural concerns are not being obeyed. My own hometown was small enough to embrace the moral superiority of rural areas as a sacred patriotic truth and over the years I've seen this notion gradually merged into the talk-radio belief that political conservatism is morally entitled to always prevail, that it's correctness is so obvious as to be so to all ; that those who disagree are being deliberately wicked and must be shunned from being "of us".
Good people of rural Colorado I am sorry to tell you that you are the minority. You are the weirdoes. You are the strangers. You are the deviants. Accept it or don't. You have the right to see the majority as wrong and rage against that, I've plenty of practice there as a Nebraska liberal myself, and it can actually be fun in its own way, but you do not have the right to have your way even at the price of a world-burning snit fit. It's been tried, and as it turns out those city boys ain't actually so weak.
I was there for the Flaming Lips, naturally. Some impressions I gleaned from them and others:
Sons of Fathers:
After a night of some carrying on I made my way from 8060 Chicago to the Aksarben section of Omaha by way of the Keystone Trail, practically a freeway by foot it was so direct, at about 2:30 PM. 'Sons of Fathers' were who was playing when I got there and my feelings on them are somewhat torn. I'm very weary of any "authentic Americana" White minstrel act shtick but then again the pure musicality of these guys was quite good: particularly the harmonies of Dave Beck and Paul Cauthen and especially the guitar work of Tony Brown.
In the end they won me over. They music was crackling good and even though they're Texan and "we are so fucking Texan" in that Texan way they have they hung a flag of Wyoming up on stage while they played, which was a boss thing to do as Wyoming has the most stylish and appropriate flag in the whole Union.
B+ to these talented bastards.
Thao & The Get Down Stay Down
Not much to say here. Thao is quite good at guitar as well and a good rock songwriter to boot. She's also beautiful and most all of her songs are about sex. :-}() I could of watched them play for the full ten hours I was there and been very happy. A-
The late afternoon and early evening brought a stream of bullrush ahead hard power pop sort of stuff; Bob Mould, the Thermals and local fixtures Criteria. They're all quite good at what they do, especially genre godfather Mould, and I do confess to personal prejudice in being sort of cool towards them. But I am simply not a three cords and the truth man at heart. I long for the grand and baroque in music; give me solos, give me thematic and sonic ambition with a heavy hit of eye candy.
During the Thermals set I did see a blue suede jacket walk across the rear stage with a bunch of workers holding silver balls and knew immediately that it was Wayne Coyne even before I looked up to see his face. It made me happy.
Thermals: C+
Criteria: C+
Bob Mould: B-
Matt & Kim:
Holy fucking shit these guys were great! I don't think I'd appreciate their music much while sitting alone and blogging. I adore funky beats for so long as they're good and heavy and part of me will always see dance pop as innately inferior. But never mind. The show man. The. Fucking Show; A+
THE FLAMING LIPS:
The way they tore down Matt & Kims set and replaced it with that of a "Big Show" from a "Big Band" was impressive in itself. Stephen Drozd is generally regarded as the true heart of the band's sound while (Wayne is the showman) and it was great to see Steve out there leading the tuneup like a real proletarian. I wormed my way to near center front. Joints were passing around and I finangled my hands on a couple hits. The night and the feel were beautiful beyond perfect. And as for the show itself: my god it was wonderful. I love the more heady and less crowd-participation gimicky (which was wonderful itself by the way; RIP crowd ball) direction of this particular tour. I love how one of the great living jewels of American culture has hit a new creative peak with "The Terror" and how their current show keeps it new instead of flirting with a county fair/self cover band act as they've been recently, covering "Dark Side of The Moon" and such for entire tours. I love how they got the flash of a light show perfectly in sync with their new sound: Enthralling, enveloping, intoxicating and in the true classical sense of the term fucking Awesome. I love how they have gone new-school but of course saved "Do You Realize" for a sing-along encore anyhow. (They've never been Radiohead-style dicks; holding their own meal tickets in scorn for being so gauche as to like some of their songs more than others.) Of course they did. Though they only played one other song from "Yoshimi" and went no further back then "Soft Bulletin." RIP "She Don't Use Jelly" My beautiful, beautiful, brothers in shadily wondering their deserted Great Plains home towns at 3 in the morning. Beautiful. Lose the baby though Wayne. A+++
Treat yourself to a Sunday Bloody Mary at the Omaha Jake's too. You will not be disappointed.
