sunday afternoon in bayfield, wisconsin

- georges seurat

popping and clicking

What do I do, you ask? Well, I work for the government: I keep the wraps on secret projects going on in New Mexico, and they pay me handsomely. You know?

hybrid blues will never perish

"Look at Def Leppard! The drummer's got one fucking arm!" - John S. Hall of King Missile

Such a subjective topic, rock music. A friend attempted writing a communications major paper on why anything could be played on the radio, so long as it's played enough, it catches on no matter the orginality nor quality. Amen. But hey, wait a minute. Does this call into question the validity of my admittedly elitist tastes? Fashionable is no requisite for phenomenal, though occasionally rock promoters take a gamble and win.

Recently, Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" hit number one again. This time on VH1's top hit parade countdown extravaganza to end all extravaganzas. Named "Best Song of Last 25 Years," "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was mentioned in passing by Kurt Cobain during his living years in an interview aired on MTV to be "Kind of a Pixies rip-off." My immediate reaction was, what about the Beatles? Oh yeah... What year is it again? The best song of the last 250 years probably has strings in it. I was noticing today that Cobain's voice has qualities of a stringed instrument in clip through a dirt pedal. My late uncle, a viola player described the sound of strings as sounding like angels' voices. Won't pinpoint the irony.

Moving past the Pacific Northwest Revolution, let's pogo on over to pop punk. The genre can be shredded into many sub-genres, which I won't go into, only discuss my disgust with a few. "Sex punk," to put it bluntly, as do the artists of this division, can !@#$ my $#@!. To add some more editorial, I've found much of the pop-punk produced by female musicians to be better attempted. Shonen Knife, the Japanese girl band that toured with Nirvana, comes to mind. Not in this case particularly, but the Japanese inflection on English lyrics rings more of rebellion certainly than does the snotty delivery of triteness in the majority of today's chart-toppers. And those sneers.

Not the energy to tackle Korn, Staind, or almost any band that ends in a number.

To elaborate on attraction to female artists, another friend told that she didn't think women had what men had in the arena of talent. Admittedly, my record collection consists mostly of male frontmen. To drop some names, Suzanne Vega, a Japanese band called Feed, Liz Phair, have given chills like those at the end of Forrest Gump. I refuse to call them weaknesses. This reminds me of a story. My Technical Communications instructor, Ms. R, had the most beautifully airheaded, scratchy, teenage-girl voice I'd ever heard... Until I realized where I'd heard it before. Exactly like Kim Deal of Breeders. Another chill giver on Title TK. Never missed a class.

In conclusion, a catchy chorus, a breakdown, and a hypnotic fade out.