Re: Tweedy and the ghettoizing of alt-country
I love how Purcell makes the sly NCAA hoops reference below. That's dangerous, you know, in the presence of a bunch of music nuts ;-) D. At 09:01 AM 3/18/99 -0500, you wrote: Evan wrote: Maybe it's just the djs at my radio station, but I think the roots-rock of the 80s was more acceptable to the alt-rock (wasn't it called college-rock back then) hipsters of the mid 80s than it is today. That was definitely the case in these parts. I discovered a lot of the 80s roots rock thru WOXY/97X, a great (well it used to be, dunno if it still is) independent station out of Miami, OH (home of Wally Szerbiak) that Jennifer Heffron and I bonded over. They'd think nothing of playing Steve Earle, Green on Red or Dwight next to the Cure U2. I vaguely remember Dwight's version of Little Sister being one of their most played and requested songs one year. I haven't listened since I moved back to town, but by the early 90s, I know they'd switched almost exclusively to "modern rock" (or was it postmodern?). Also, on the local university/hipster music scene, some of the most popular bands were rootsy ones (Libertines, Bucking Strap, Warsaw Falcons, and so on). Now, the closest thing in that scene to a popular rootsy band is the Ass Ponys. I heart Green on Red. So does Paul Kirsch, I hear... Dave *** Dave Purcell, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Northern Ky Roots Music: http://w3.one.net/~newport Twangfest: http://www.twangfest.com
Re: Tweedy and the ghettoizing of alt-country
On Thu, 18 Mar 1999, Dave Purcell wrote: That was definitely the case in these parts. I discovered a lot of the 80s roots rock thru WOXY/97X, a great (well it used to be, dunno if it still is) independent station out of Miami, OH (home of Wally Szerbiak) that Jennifer Heffron and I bonded over. They'd think Jeezus H...That's why I love, did I say LOVEyeah, I said love, Purcell. The "X" out of Oxford played an incredibly influential role in my life. I was dating, later married and divorced, a woman from Cincinnati and attended/graduated from Purdue, in Central Indiana. So, as you can imagineI made a ton of trips between Ind. and Ohio. I'd get about 25 miles from the IN-OR and then rooting around the left side of the dial, there was this magnificent radio station. First place I ever heard K.D. Lang w/ the Reclines, back then. That station was so good I'd sometimes pull over to the side of the road ar I'd find an excuse to get on over to the West side of the city, just to listen to that station. The "X" reminded me of just how good...and how influential, a radio station can be. Thanks for the memories Dave. Jerry
Re: Tweedy and the ghettoizing of alt-country
Evan's point is well-taken. Mind you, these days I don't spend much time listening to the local college stations, largely because too often I tune in to find people rambling incoherently about politics or -- much worse -- a dj "interviewing" a local musician which sounds like a 2 am bar discussion of "what were your teachers like in high school?" "oh man, i remember mrs. stipocolloki would come in drunk to english class" "yeah, yeah, man, that was like - it made me question authority. what high school did you go to?..." (this is an almost literal quote from a 15-minute conversation i heard on air today.) And this was on CKLN, one of the largest, best-transmitted college stations in Canada, with full-time paid staff... Is the program director on vacation? Didn't they know the mic was on? That rant aside - there's definitely a stigmatization of rootsy stuff as uncool among the alterna-indie cognoscenti, which is a big change since the 80s. Good friends of mine run the (*very* professional - much more so than commercial radio) all-night CBC Radio 2 new-music program Brave New Waves, and while they have very eclectic tastes, not much country-flavoured music is permitted into the mix. While the host and I have had long conversations about the shortage of great songwriting among new bands, when I mentioned a couple of examples from the twangy side of town she said, "Yeah, sure, but I don't want to have to go that route." As though it were something you'd only do in desperation in your old age. Besides the indie-experimental rock (her staple, but which is not in great supply) she'd rather play the most mediocre electronica than the best of independent twangy stuff - some of which I think much more innovative in its way, for instance the Bad Livers. Unfortunately I think the fences have been raised higher because the consensus "cool" independent bands now (in the year 5 A.G. (After Grunge)) are ones that are very far from rock - not a bad thing in itself, perhaps even necessary. But with the side-effect that f your standard-bearer is, say, Stereolab, then twangy music is going to be a lot less close to your golden mean than it was when the standard-bearer was the Replacements or the Meat Puppets. If they're going to listen to acoustic music it's either free improv or lo-fi, or it's international folk music of some kind. Mind you, in circles just slightly less hipper-than-thou you will find young Johnny Cash or Emmylou or Steve Earle fans who also listen to Massive Attack and Gastr del Sol. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to extend up to the gatekeepers and tastemakers, but perhaps in time (again, just get us through the year 2000 and who knows). Carl W.
Re: Tweedy and the ghettoizing of alt-country
I simply have to apologize for writing a post that contains two separate paragraphs beginning "Mind you..." Not enough coffee today, perhaps. I'm not even shure what "mind you" means, come to think of it... Mind me, Carl W.
Tweedy and the ghettoizing of alt-country
All this talk about Tweedy and bands moving away from alt-country is linked, methinks, to the larger trend of the ghettoizing of alt-country. My own case in point: At the college radio station I work at, the alt-country stuff in rotation gets precious little attention - rockabilly like Rev. Horton Heat, with an occasional exception like the Old 97s, is the only thing that gets more than a couple of spins. However, when I go get a Green on Red, Rank and File, Blasters, or even Dwight album out of the record library, it's clear that they used to get a lot of airplay back in the day (and no - they're not just a little tattered - they have lots of initials documenting that people actually played them). A large part of this trend is a big swing towards techno music and the like amongst the other djs. Maybe it's just the djs at my radio station, but I think the roots-rock of the 80s was more acceptable to the alt-rock (wasn't it called college-rock back then) hipsters of the mid 80s than it is today. And since, as we talked about some time ago, mainstream success, when it comes for alt-country/country bands, is much more likely to come from a country audience than a rock audience - it's not that surprising that the alt-country tag might start to get a little frightening for some bands that have probably seen themselves as always closer to the rock side of things. There was another point I wanted to make, but I'm getting kind of sleepy. Evan Cooper
