I'm off to a company-awards dinner with an open bar, so I can't linger
at the moment. But I'd like to urge everybody who might have balked at
the length to read Jake's piece right now (tho he shouldn't have sent
it as an attachment - you should repost it as mail for those who can't
handle attachments, Jake).
It's the most engaging and cogent piece of personal rock crit/history
I've read in a long while - a lot like some of the considered essays
people used to post to P2 more often in the distant past. (When there
weren't seven-fucking-hundred of us.)
I have some points to make about the demographic analysis he offers,
how that's shifted since the essay was written, and how that relates
to my argument that post-irony (not to be confused with boomer
non-irony) is happily finally here (in my previous post).
I also have some thread-sparking questions (what was the first known
instance of the half-ironic cover - is he right in naming the 'Mats's
Kiss cover as Patient Zero - and also how to relate this web of
analysis to the various levels of irony in alt-country covers of both
rock and country so-called cheeze).
Briefly, the grunge-lounge period dynamic changed the landscape -
which I think relates very much to why the post-Tupelo alt-country
explosion (much to do with groping toward authenticity-sincerity) has
happened.
As I say, I've got some serious drinking to do, so that'll have to
wait til morning. But y'all could start without me, I won't mind.
Thanks a lot Jake. Don't wait 3 years next time!
Carl W.
