frequency.

i find it really weird and funny that i spent all of my formative years (which i’m counting as 13-18) wishing that i knew people who liked the same music as i did, and now that i’m 21 and finally have friends that do, i’m sick of most of the stuff i longed to share.

i am a music fan first.
musician second.
friend third.
son and brother somewhere off in the distance beyond those first three.

rock and roll began life as something to be feared. somewhere in the 1970s it started to lose its thunder, and by the 1980s, it was a parody of itself. it was guys with hair like poodles wearing spandex and more make up than a hooker in vegas shrieking lyrics that were written solely to create an image of the rock and roll rebel (which, by then, was a concept beaten straight into the ground, though the bands were too narcissitic to realize it). it was the bon jovies, the guns and roses, the whitesnakes, the van halens, and they were all killing rock and what it stood for with every note the played and every word they sang. they were the decadent, and rock was supposed to be anything but.

the real rock and roll revolution has been, is now, and always shall be, found in the underground. in people without images to worry about who just write songs because they love to do it.

"alternative" rock had about 30 milliseconds of purity in between "smells like teen spirit" hitting the american college airwaves and eddie-fucking-veddar being on the cover of time magazine. then the problem became that there was no alternative. because the alternative had become the focus. what was there left to rebel against? nothing.

but now there is.
the major record labels that decide what the average kid gets to listen to aren’t interested in signing acts with longevity. once again, they’re on the hunt. looking for the hits, and trying to maintain their hold.

so go and smash your radio.
smash it into a million pieces and throw it to the birds.

forfeit integration
from the corporation
i don’t need this corporation attitude

tell them to fuck off, and that you’re not going to stand for another second of their bullshit.
that you want music with integrity.
you don’t want some whiny asshole pretending to be kurt cobain and singing with an almost comical amount of producer-ordered gravel in his voice while a quasi-metal band plods around behind him.
you don’t want hip hop written by clowns perpetuating the "gangster" (i refuse to say "gangsta"…oh shit) image and painting the genre into a corner.
and you don’t want a band waving the punque rocque banner whilst hitting celebrity parties and strolling down red carpets.

music is the only really prevalent form of cultural expression left in north america. it is so important.
we should probably reclaim it.

i’m not trying to sound self-righteous, here.
i just want the dinosaurs thrown out into the ditches where they belong.
to be pissed on, and puked on.

"it’s just music, jav"

no it’s not. it really really is not.

j alexander vance