tonight, i had a great discussion with forrest and andy maxwell about indie rock and being young versus being old. i wish i could articulate succinctly what our conclusions were. suffice it to say that there are differences, and it’s my opinion that for the most part, young music is more energetic and sells more, while indie rock is less exciting but more creatively fulfilling. i’m not gonna say which i prefer, because i frankly don’t know, at this point.
i think when we get older, our priorities change. we no longer have all the time and all the money in the world. we have bills, families, jobs, and our hobbies change. (it’s wild how unimportant professional sports were to me and my friends, when i was growing up, and now it’s like you’re not cool unless you follow that stuff. i’m not knocking it! i’m just sayin. haha.)
so, yeah. once upon a time, you could have heard a song on the radio, and it was so angsty and energetic that it moved you to leave your suburban house, go to a mall, walk into hot topic and buy the cd. then, when that band rolled into town, you bought pre-sale tickets on ticketmaster and didn’t bat an eye at the “convenience fees”. then, you got to the venue 5 hours before doors, so that you could get right up to the barricade and sing along that night.
how many grown adults do you see doing that? not many.
on the one hand, i think back to those days and feel embarassed about what was going on with music (ska!). on the other hand, music has always been about the kids! they are the ones with the money and the energy and the stars in their eyes.
young kids from the suburbs form bands that sound like pop/polished versions of last generation’s indie rock. those kids grow up and move to the city and form indie rock bands which end up influencing the next generation of suburban warped tour bands. and the cycle continues.
so, what’s the point?
i’m not quite sure. i love indie rock, truly. but, the happiest times in my life were when i was listening to, playing, and living the pop-punk/warped/suburban/alternative press scene. and i don’t know if that has to do with age or changing taste or my job or whatever other circumstances.
if you’ve been living under a rock, then you may not have heard that the insane clown possee has released a new song and video. actually, even if you’ve been living in a major metropolitan area and been keeping your finger on the pulse of everything popular and current, there’s still a chance you didn’t hear. i only found out through my friend, brian diaz, surveyor of all things horrible and hilarious.
at any rate, here is your chance to witness this spectacle:
now, i realize this might be an eye-opening and thought-provoking experience for some. but, i think most of my friends that are reading this will enjoy it purely for yuks. specifically, the insane clown possee’s inability to understand very basic concepts of the physical world.
here, then, is a breakdown of almost every line in the song, along with their perfectly non-miraculously explanations:
if magic is all we’ve ever known, then it’s easy to miss what really goes on
for ages, all we knew was magic. that’s very true. fortunately, the renaissance happened, and we learned about a little thing called the scientific method, which explained many things. among them: that the world is not supported by a giant turtle. the earth is, in fact, spherical. which leads me to:
oceans spanning beyond my sight
given the shape of the earth, the oceans only appear infinite. what you’re actually seeing is just the horizon.
a million stars way above em at night, we don’t have to be high to look in the sky and know that’s a miracle opened wide
we don’t have to be under the influence to look at the sky and see stars. however, there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for the sky being littered with blinking lights. stars are just suns (like ours) that are shining from trillions of miles away. if you could view our sun from a star, it would also be lost in a sea of astronomical objects. it’s all about perspective, violent j.
lava is molten rock. snow, rain and fog are different forms of precipitation that reach the surface of the earth.
long neck giraffes
while there is some debate about the actual advantage of a giraffe having a long neck, there is no question that they got them through the same process of evolution that gave ducks webbed feet and zebras their stripes.
and pet cats and dogs
both of which were wild animals, domesticated by humans.
pure magic is the birth of my kids
that “magic trick” of reproducing has only been one of the basic functions of every living creature since the beginning of life. had they been born in full clown makeup, then you might have a leg to stand on.
the milky way and fucking shooting stars
a shooting star is a meteoroid that enters earth’s atmosphere.
the pyramids, like the washington monument and the taj mahal, are just man-made buildings. rad, but not supernatural.
fucking rainbows after it rains
rainbows are the result of light being refracted by water. it’s like the cover of that pink floyd album!
i fed a fish to a pelican at frisco bay. it tried to eat my cell phone. he ran away.
what?!
fucking magnets: how do they work?
magnetism is one part of electromagnetism, which is one of the four forces of the physical world. to the layperson, forces are a hard concept to grasp in theory, because they happen at the particle level, but fairly easy to understand in practice. for example, we all know that when you throw a ball in the air, gravity pulls it down. gravity happens to be one of the aformentioned four forces. so, in the same way that the force of gravity pulls a ball down, the force of electromagnetism makes magnetic materials pull metals and other materials towards it.
and i don’t wanna talk to a scientist. y’all motherfuckers lying, and getting me pissed
science has given us everything that we know about the physical world. the word derives from the latin word for “knowledge“. it is inherently necessary to understanding the things we don’t know. it is also non-partial and unbiased. whereas someone could lie about their work experience to get a higher-paying job, scientists gain nothing from lying about their findings. the pursuit of knowledge is purely for the betterment of everyone. there’s no reason to be pissed!
solar eclipse
a solar eclipse looks rad, but it’s no more magical or miraculous than a fat guy standing over you, blocking the sun from your eyes.
i seen a caterpillar turn into a butterfly
that process is called metamorphosis and it also makes a tadpole turn into a frog, but that’s not as symbolic or poetic or magical or whatever.
shaggy’s little boys look just like shaggy and my little boy looks just like daddy
genetics (while being a field of study that looks to explain the physical process of gene inheritence) is something that most humans understand, with no explanation necessary. we look like our parents, and our kids will look like us.
the dark carnival is your invitation to witness that without explanation
i would love it if the dark carnival could explain truly unexplainable things, instead of elementary physics.
take a look at this fine creation
do i really need to go there? ugh.
crows, ghosts, the midnight coast
wait. you’re putting crows in the same boat as supernatural apperitions? that’s like saying you believe in santa claus and fedex, and can’t understand how either can deliver packages so efficiently. hint: one doesn’t exist, and the other has perfectly reasonable logistics.
just open your mind, and it ain’t no way to ignore the miracles of every day
yes, open your mind to the “miracles” of science, observation, and rationale.
well, i can die a happy man, because i watched weezer play live, for the first time in my life. it was in toronto, the night before rivers got into that bus accident. i was teching keys for motion city, and it’s a little scary to think that something like that could’ve easily happened to us. we weren’t that far behind his bus.
anyway, the show was amazing. the sound was incredible, the lights were great. it was the first time in a long time that i’ve watched a show as a fan. usually, i spend most of the time checking out the rigging, thinking about how early the crew must’ve loaded in, and things of that nature. for weezer, though, i was just singing along, at the top of my lungs.
the following morning, we had a day off. and, hearing the news about rivers, had a show cancel. another day off. and the tour cancelled. more days off. it was by far the most days off in a row i’ve ever had. i guess i can’t complain, right? heh.
so, just three shows with weezer, and that was that. fortunately for motion city, they have more shows with them, in january. but, for me, that’s it.
i’m hoping that things with jimmy robbins pick up, because if there’s no work for me there, there’s pretty much no work for me anywhere. well, none that i’d like to do, anyway. there’s plenty of cover bands and hobby bands, but i feel like i can’t waste my time with that, while my window of opportunity for doing rock bands is still open. heh.
