Stardate 0506.00 [May 06,2000]
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Nothin' "Butt" Rockin'
Ok, I think it's time for another Rant.
I haven't had a good one since the Sammie's, and that's been about a month or two, right?
(Careful - dear reader - I lay out exactly how I feel on the line in this one, so if your afraid of the Hard Truth - skip to the next entry now!!)
Now for me this is an old rant, and for many people who've known me a while or read my writings in various newsgroups and message boards around the net, I've covered this subject pretty well. I've even discussed it on our own message boards in the thread "The 90's are Over".
But I haven't talked about it in context with Planet X, and to a large extent in context to what is going on in the "Sacramento Music Scene".
Let me give you some examples of what I'm talking about.
First there's this friend of mine, who I know through the local peotry scene in the downtown area. A few weeks back I played a solo acoustic gig at Luna's cafe which is also a popular place for the "arty" people in town to hang out. My friend ran the door (those of you in town - will know exactly who I'm talking about... but I have little expectation that any of that crowd reads this page for reasons which will become clear).
After I played we we're talking, I was unhappy with my performance - which had been gliched due to some technical difficulties I had with the P.A. She tried to cheer me up.
"I love your voice".
"Thanks", I said and ment it.
She then apologized for never having seen Planet X perform, which she hasn't. (And we've played in the Sacramento Area about 40 times so far...) The conversation continued on...and at some point, I forget what brought it up, she jokingly called Planet X a "Butt Rock" band. I didn't react to this right away - I just thought about it awhile, then responded later the next time I saw her.
The second incident occured just a little while ago as we tried to determine whether we had been booked at the upcoming Heritage Festival. 200 Hundred Bands are supposed to play this show - so there should be room for one little-ole Planet X, right?
Well, we started seeing the list of bands in some local newspapers, but we weren't on it. However since the list said - "and many more", we figured that might not be a big deal. So we called and they said that the Rock stage was being booked by a local promoter Brian McKenna, via his company Abstract Entertainment and that they're are still some slots open. We gave a copy of our CD and Promo pack to Brian months and months ago and he said "Ok, I'll book you guys as soon as I find somebody you can play with". Well, in the meantime we've played with H.U.R.T., Luxt and Smarty - all of whom are listed as playing the Heritage Festival, but we aren't. We called Brian up about it and he stammered " Uh...we're all booked up".
Yeah, right.
"But, I'll put you on the standby list - if someone else drops out", he continued.
Hmmm, could this be the "Butt Rock" spectre rearing it's ugly head again? I wonder.
"I'd come and see your band ---butt..."
"I would book your band into a good show ---butt...".
Unfortunetly this isn't the definition of "Butt Rock" I think they're using - although I think it's probably the more acurate one. The phrase "Butt Rock" is all too familar to me - and I consider a grossly insulting epithet. For the one or two of you who don't know, I'm fairly certain the phrase was coined by Mike Judge creator of Beavis and Butthead, two highly opinionated - yet massively stupid - cartoon Metal- , no RIVEThead kids from MTV. B&B are the archetypes of a certain type of person, but they expressed opinions that many people basically agreed with even if they normally wouldn't be so crass as to actually voice what they were really thinking.
Another phrase which is synonymous with "Butt Rock" - is "Hair Band" - which I also consider an insult and an epithet. I even hear DJ's using this term which is really annoying.
Basically this entire attitude I think, is the outgrowth of the 90's musical shift away from both the self-indulgent excess and technical excellence of the 60-80's, and toward the 90's minimalism the has left little but the rotting decay of self-absorbtion and instrumental incompetence that now passes for popular musical entertainment.
People today, without irony or a decent clue laugh at bands like Warrant, Poison and Winger - who were all savagely and relentlessly attacked by MTV's pair of bumbling, idiotic, yet exhaulted, gurus of "good taste" and what's "Kuel". However as musicians, their instrumental skill - especially Wingers, was FAR FAR above average for Pop Hard Rock (which is ultimately what they were), both then and especially now.
You think Sugar Ray could even *Play* "Seventeen"? - HEe--eeell, no. And if you have a problem with "Seventeen" because you think that song was insipid go back and listen to the latest singles from Smashmouth again. Is that progress? Sugar Ray and Smashmouth's songs are just as cheesy, and they are both just as "image obsessed" as Winger ever was. The big difference is that they can't play worth a damn and Winger could. Rod Morgenstien from Winger is now an instructor at Berkelee College of Music - you think any of these guys are ever gonna do something like that?
Repeatly these days I see people who are more interested in what's "Cool" and "Hip" rather than what's actually good music. People absolutely addicted to this "cooler than thou" schtick - even though most of the people doing it are admittedly of the "geeks and dweebs" set. It's litterally revenge of the techno-nerd.
To clarify, by "good music" I mean predominantly from an instrumental and vocal standpoint. There was a higher standard for players and singers prior to the 90's. I don't care if you use the example of the 80's, the 70's the 60's or even the 50's...they were all better players.
That's a fact.
I'm not saying everyone should be Yngwie, they shouldn't, one of him is already almost too many - but you can damn sure bet the 90's aren't going to produce anyone with that much raw instrumental talent. Not a chance. I mean, frankly a lot of bands these days can't tune their instrument or sing in key. It's tragic.
Or if they are that good, the last thing they could afford to do is let anybody know it - that would be "unhip". I think the entire music industry is slowling slipping down the ladder to mediocrity rung by rung...but I know I'm not the first person to say this. Jazz players used to say it about Rock n' Roll in the 50's as it effectively put them out of work.
At some point you have to reach bottom where things begin to turn around. I don't know when, but at some point... Maybe when people get fed up enough eating the crap their fed and finally notice an interesting "alternative" - hmmm, sound familiar?
One might be able to argue that 90's music has touched people in ways that the music of those era's simply doesn't - and that may be true, however that is an outgrowth of the subject matter and lyrics - not the playing. Problem is, people have learned to associate shallow lyrics with sophisticated music - and shallow music with sophisticated lyrics rather than learning that you can indeed have both at the same time. My personal best example of this is the band, King's X, who have it all. Chops to spare and the presence of mind to know what to do with them.
Certainly, 90's music did indeed speak to emotional subjects that people weren't expressing previously - but to some extent some of the lesser talents of the 90's have just simply tended to whine about everything. Trying to be "profound" all the time has it's drawbacks, as few of them have had any positive solutions, suggestions or even displayed the concept of "Hope" which was far more prevelent in previous eras.
Ok, so the question remains, is Planet X - "Butt Rock"?
I have to say, unequivocally, "No".
We strive to be instrumentally excellent and interesting without turning into a progressive band - but we sure as hell don't sing about people only being "Seventeen" or wanting their "Cherry Pie". Certainly we draw and build upon work that inspires us and that we consider to be excellent, some of that comes from the 80's Hard Rock Bands, I think that's obvious. But we also draw musically from the 60's, the 70's and lyrically from the 90's. I've often seen and heard people saying we should get more "updated" - but frankly, I think most "update-to-date" bands (and not just Hard Rock but many "Alternative" and Pseudo-Punk groups) are bluntly, in my opinion - Shit!.
They just plain fucking suck, that's all.
Trying to sound like them just to become "Hip" would be a full-on sellout. We're not doing it, and to everybody who thinks we should - or even suggests it, I'll tell you what I think about that idea right now...
