Band Crush.
Band crushes come and go...
NPR's All Songs Considered recently did a show on bands you used to be in love with.
I haven't listened to the show yet, but it's also something I've been thinking about - and worrying about - a lot recently....
The other day I read something about a pair of brothers in a band called Jeff The Brotherhood. I downloaded a bunch of their music and immediately in love with them... for a few days....
I remember driving around San Francisco a month ago or so, happily singing along to The Vaccines and Dum Dum Girls... fast forward one month later: no longer (as) in love with them...
I loved the new Richard Ashcroft and Cage The Elephant albums.... but have I listened to them much lately?
Our love burned bright, then it burnt out...
Were my band crushes now lasting days or weeks, instead of months and years? Was I becoming part of the Disposable Culture I had so often railed about? Was my attention span reduced to a video game level of like 8 seconds? (wait, can we make that 7 Seconds in tribute to that great band?).
50% of marriages end in divorce, mainly out of boredom...
There were bands in the past that I loved for a while, then unloved, mostly due to their inactivity.
I loved Bob Mould in the 90s and early 2000s... but got tired of his retiring and un-retiring and then his defection to the devil's music (AKA electronica). (It was still a thrill to see him, the last year or so, walking around San Francisco and there will always be a place in my heart for Husker Du and Sugar.)
I loved Jon Spencer Blues Explosion when I lived in New York.... but what have they done for me lately?
I had a year-long fling with Weezer, which was em-bare-assing to admit (all I could say was they were fun live), but my love was true.... until I got fed up with their incessant marketing - Hurley clothes, State Farm Insurance, Best Buy... Sheez!
But lately the process from seduction to declarations of eternal love to bitter divorce seems to take place with lightening speed.
It's not you, it's me? Maybe we need to start seeing other people?
I've always admired artists who stuck it out for the long term, and the fans who followed them, through the ups and downs, the marriages and divorces, rehab, jail, Nobel Peace Prizes, car crashes, cures for cancer, bouquets of flowers, spoiled dinners, scenes in restaurants, etc.
I liked being able to see a body of work of an artist like Bob Dylan - 50 years of work at this point.
I didn't like how pop culture seemed to discover a new "it" boy or girl every 5 minutes, only to chuck them under the bus the minute the next PYT showed up. (I'm a Leo, you see, into loyalty, hardcore...)
And now... could I have caught this same disease? Unable to focus or pay attention for more than a moment (even if it was particularly shiny), unable to commit for more than a one-night stand?
Let's hope not...
Ok, I hereby pledge to not throw any of my band crushes under the bus.... at least for the rest of the month...
Some of my current band crushes: OFF!, Jeff The Brotherhood, Iron & Wine, Odd Future, PJ Harvey...
What are yours?
Band crushes come and go...
NPR's All Songs Considered recently did a show on bands you used to be in love with.
I haven't listened to the show yet, but it's also something I've been thinking about - and worrying about - a lot recently....
The other day I read something about a pair of brothers in a band called Jeff The Brotherhood. I downloaded a bunch of their music and immediately in love with them... for a few days....
I remember driving around San Francisco a month ago or so, happily singing along to The Vaccines and Dum Dum Girls... fast forward one month later: no longer (as) in love with them...
I loved the new Richard Ashcroft and Cage The Elephant albums.... but have I listened to them much lately?
Our love burned bright, then it burnt out...
Were my band crushes now lasting days or weeks, instead of months and years? Was I becoming part of the Disposable Culture I had so often railed about? Was my attention span reduced to a video game level of like 8 seconds? (wait, can we make that 7 Seconds in tribute to that great band?).
50% of marriages end in divorce, mainly out of boredom...
There were bands in the past that I loved for a while, then unloved, mostly due to their inactivity.
I loved Bob Mould in the 90s and early 2000s... but got tired of his retiring and un-retiring and then his defection to the devil's music (AKA electronica). (It was still a thrill to see him, the last year or so, walking around San Francisco and there will always be a place in my heart for Husker Du and Sugar.)
I loved Jon Spencer Blues Explosion when I lived in New York.... but what have they done for me lately?
I had a year-long fling with Weezer, which was em-bare-assing to admit (all I could say was they were fun live), but my love was true.... until I got fed up with their incessant marketing - Hurley clothes, State Farm Insurance, Best Buy... Sheez!
But lately the process from seduction to declarations of eternal love to bitter divorce seems to take place with lightening speed.
It's not you, it's me? Maybe we need to start seeing other people?
I've always admired artists who stuck it out for the long term, and the fans who followed them, through the ups and downs, the marriages and divorces, rehab, jail, Nobel Peace Prizes, car crashes, cures for cancer, bouquets of flowers, spoiled dinners, scenes in restaurants, etc.
I liked being able to see a body of work of an artist like Bob Dylan - 50 years of work at this point.
I didn't like how pop culture seemed to discover a new "it" boy or girl every 5 minutes, only to chuck them under the bus the minute the next PYT showed up. (I'm a Leo, you see, into loyalty, hardcore...)
And now... could I have caught this same disease? Unable to focus or pay attention for more than a moment (even if it was particularly shiny), unable to commit for more than a one-night stand?
Let's hope not...
Ok, I hereby pledge to not throw any of my band crushes under the bus.... at least for the rest of the month...
Some of my current band crushes: OFF!, Jeff The Brotherhood, Iron & Wine, Odd Future, PJ Harvey...
What are yours?
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