errr...start over.
rant below.
last night i went to see the amazing tUne-YaRdS at the hi-dive. the show sold out and i didn't know anyone there. which was strange to me. to me, tUne-YaRdS is an act that is wholly original, uncompromising, just a complete expression of one's creativity. which, more often than not, does not lend itself to sold out shows.
so who are these people packing this (admittedly small) venue? people new to this whole music scene? i know that indie rock is getting more mainstream, more popular and accepted, but really?
it's the kids. these people are like a younger me. somewhat. what i'm getting at is that i'm getting older and people are catching up to me.
or we all just have the same sources. thanks to blogs, pitchfork's "best new music" tag, sirius xmu, this artist is getting her share of love and publicity. i may have seen her last year but that was just because they were talking about her on stereogum and she was opening for xiu xiu. i haven't really been ahead of the curve since the curve disappeared.
(not that any of that matters. listen to music you like and don't worry about how popular it is. obviously.)
my main problem is that i feel as though i have stopped progressing. in college i remember someone a couple years older than me being into anti-flag, and i laughed to myself about it because i am a jerk and because i felt like i was too mature for them in high school. i've always listened to more "mature" music than most people my age. at least up until around the time i got out of college. but since then i've liked the very loosely defined "indie rock" for longer than anything else. part of this is the fact that it IS loosely defined. and i've always leaned to the more experimental side of this. the side on which tUne-YaRdS resides. but i thought i had put in the work to get to this point. and people way younger than me are listening to the same thing? appreciating it on the same level?
but i was there!!
i know this is just an intersection. this is an example of what i've seen many times in my years, of popular opinion intersecting with mine. it passes. this is just the most avant garde point at which it has intersected. but are "they" going to pass me? by now shouldn't i be listening to nothing but ornette coleman, sonny sharrock, ken vandermark, etc? free jazz/noise? it's a pretty safe bet that these kids won't be listening to that. if this were a competition. but it's not. here is what is important:
-helping japan
-helping the south
-ending the wars
-civil rights
-etc
-AND: an artist i love and respect got to play a sold out show without compromising her artistic vision. the show was a lot of fun for the crowd and for her (the smile on her face was huge).
