NEW

ROCK

NINETY

NINE

X !

New... let's remember that word. It's about to come back and bite some people in the ass.

Atlanta's WNNX, which follows in the footsteps of Los Angeles's KROQ and has become one of the most influential radio stations in the country, has been a tick on my butt for ages. The station started life in the mid-80s as "Power 99," playing all the latest top 40 pop and giving a loud hand to the careers of Debbie Gibson and Rick Astley.

But by 1992, teen pop was very much on the wane and the station changed formats to "new" or "alternative rock," which, for at least a month, meant nothing but Morrissey, the Cure, REM, U2 and the B-52s... all of which could certainly have been described as "alternatives" five years previously, but that's beside the point. Anyway, the station chose the "X" brand to appeal to the new crop of disgruntled teens taking things to the extreme, got new call letters to reflect their commitment to just how damn X they were, and, within weeks, purchased a wider assortment of CDs and expanded their playlist.

The problem, seven years on, is that much of that playlist is still on the air.

In 1971, Led Zeppelin released the monstrosity that was "Stairway to Heaven." A mere seven years later, the Clash released "Tommy Gun." Both of these songs are now over two decades old. Chronologically, "Tommy Gun" is far closer to "Stairway" than the new Neko Case album. Somehow though, the recordings of the Clash -- well, three of their songs anyway -- still qualify as being "new rock." And throughout the day, not isolated in the noontime 80s show, you will frequently hear "Train in Vain" (1980) and "Rock the Casbah" (1982), as well as "Roxanne" (1978), "Alison" (1977), "How Soon is Now?" (1985), as well as other 15+ year old stuff I don't feel like looking up, like "I Melt With You," "Rock Lobster," "Radio Free Europe," "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and so on.

Now I'm not disputing -- with the exception of the loathsome "Roxanne," a song more people make fun of than ever enjoyed, but mercifully all the later Synchronicity crap is never played -- I'm not disputing that 99X is playing good old stuff. "How Soon is Now?" is one of the greatest songs ever written by anybody. That's my high school life right there. It means more to me than you can count. But Morrissey has moved beyond that. He's released, like ten records since those heady mid-80s days of the Smiths.

And to be honest, a lot of this older stuff is infinitely better than the loud rap/grunge/rock hybrid stuff that also gets played now... things like Limp Bizkit, Korn, Kid Rock and so forth. 99X is certainly working to break new artists, but with very little work at all, they could be breaking twice as many.

They could also, I don't hesitate at all to add, be following up with artists they've already broken. There is no excuse for passing up the singles from REM's Up in order to play "Stand" again. Oasis have a new album out. That means they should play "Go Let it Out," not "Don't Look Back in Anger."

New rock, to me, means new music. It doesn't matter how old the artist is. 99x got behind David Bowie's Earthling, which was great. I think "Heroes" still got snuck in the playlists (or maybe I'm confusing things with the Wallflowers' woeful cover of it?), but Bowie was there, as he should be. In 1994, they played the hell out of Bryan Ferry's "Mamouna."

But for heaven's sake, where is the "brand loyalty"? I maybe heard the Cure's "Maybe Someday" (from their Feb. 2000 CD Bloodflowers) twice this year, but I've heard "Just Like Heaven" more than that. Where is Oasis? Where was Morrissey's last album?

More to the point, where are all the other artists, massively talented and wonderful, and pretty damn big in England, with recent product on these shores? "Rock the Casbah" shouldn't have been played once with new product from Pulp, the Manic Street Preachers, Travis, Paul Weller, Catatonia and Ocean Colour Scene waiting to be played. (You can revise this list to name other artists *you* like... the point is, they're not on Atlanta radio.) And what about artists like David Sylvian or Echo & the Bunnymen, who certainly fit the 99x profile (even if their heyday was long over before 99x started) but whose 1999 albums weren't touched? And what about American artists like the Magnetic Fields or Neko Case? There are 69 incredible songs on the Fields' 1999 album 69 Love Songs. I didn't hear a one on 99x.

And another thing: every time 99x spends four minutes playing fucking "Send Me an Angel," they're depriving someone local of four minutes of much needed airtime. You want new rock, Atlanta? I humbly submit Jucifer, the loudest frigging band on the planet, who play about five shows a month in Atlanta or back home in Athens. I submit Japancakes and Elf Power and the Olivia Tremor Control. They're new. They need to sell records. Real Life -- I think they're the guys who recorded "Send Me an Angel" -- they don't need to sell records. I imagine they have 9 to 5 jobs now. Their time is over, and gone, and there are people in this community, more imaginative and talented than either you or I, who would very much like the chance to expose people to their work. Their efforts as artists -- on teeny labels who cannot promise them airtime or much remuneration -- are going unrecognized while 99x is playing old frigging Clash songs.

Dammit, if I'm turning on a "new rock" station -- and mind, this station doesn't shut up about how new rock they are, that's what the station I.D.s say: "New Rock 99x" -- I should hear new rock. If it's more than a year old, it has no damn business on the air.

So enough of this shit, 99x. I've had 20 years to decide I needed a copy of "Train in Vain." It's over. The Clash's day is done. So is the Smiths'. (And don't you dare think I'm disparaging the Smiths, one of the three greatest and most important bands of the 80s... I'm rapidly learning that people with no emotional connection to that band have a lot less to offer me than those who do.) Modern English are gone. Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me is a wonderful thirteen-year old album. The Joshua Tree is also 13 years old, and I see it also went to #1, so you can't even call that alternative -- you don't get that successful without being mainstream. What you are playing is not new rock, it's classic rock.

Don't believe me? The bulk of your audience are high school kids.

How many of them were even born when the Clash were still together?

Probably the same number who were alive when Led Zep were together.

Oh, but thanks for making an effort to break Stereophonics. I nearly shit my pants when I heard "Pick a Part That's New" last year.

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