Sunday, January 31, 2010

state of the union

haven't really heard any 'blog-worthy' music that i liked in the last few days, so i don't have any new bands to write about. the false jewsteece release happened the other day. in short, the 'blog world' went completely crazy in the twenty minutes proceding the 'leak' of a new false justice banger. similar to one drop of synthetic blood in a group of hungry sharks.

still no word from justice or ed banger records as to the authenticity of the mp3. maybe it's fake and some kid with ableton live got his anonymous minutes of fame. maybe it's real and we've all fallen for their joke/ploy regardless of which side we're on (real or fake). justice in on the tip of the collective tounge either way, which is the only important thing i guess. justice's reputation was clearly not a concern (via unplugged mpd in the past).


sort of losing faith in these blogs/my future as a blogger. as fun/fulfilling as it sometimes is to stay on the cutting edge of what is/is not hip or alt or cool, i don't want to get too sucked into it. it's easy to do. maybe i should try to keep appreciating music for what it is and what it's worth rather than as a way of grouping college kids. however, it seems that a very small percentage of the people who are cool/go to relavent parties with other cool people even try to keep up with all of this 'smut.' maybe because they're not interested in the music that they unconciously represent, maybe because they've seen that it's sort of horseshits. seems futile, like no one can win by reading the most blogs or downloading the most relavent mp3's.

(via)

feel similarly disillusioned now as when i first read the hipster runoffs. i remember realizing that this cool and somewhat unique subculture can be pidgeonholed and generalized (and packaged and sold) in the same way that every sub/counterculture has, which is a drag. carles didn't invent this system, he simply called it out on what it is (a classist and elitist system just like any other). carles/hro gets 15,000 hits per day. wondering if every alt eventually has the realization that he is no longer unique. although i've never played alt bingo, i certainly could go downtown and check off most of these (minus steve aoki (he probably lives in l.a./new york/tokyo/paris/bangerville) and sparks (it's been outlawed or something)).

feeling like music is being streamlined in the same way that american apparel was streamlined. feeling like winning over the silicon hearts of the blogs is the only way for a band to get alt-famous. feeling like blogs are trying really hard to find authentic mp3's that convey their authentic aesthetic as a website/lifestyle. feeling like bands are beginning to make music for the sole purpose of winning over the silicon hearts of the blogs and becoming alt-famous. seems senseless. maybe i'll start buying more cassettes because i can't plug them into my macbook. i don't want to sound like i'm saying that "music is self expression and you should make it out of the artistic vision in your soul." maybe, in modern society, nothing truly unique can happen for any longer than it takes to walk to a computer. maybe i shouldn't be so critical of the inorganic existence that my generation's counterculture has taken on.

if i were to judge the state of the union of this culture, i would do so as such:
the competitive nature of the blog culture dillutes new music so much that it is literally impossible to differentiate between the ten percent of new "blogworthy" music with staying power and the ninety percent of new "blogworthy" music that is entirely forgettable. maybe this is a good thing; shitloads of bands are getting what seems to be 15 minutes of fame, but they seem to be overshadowing what we should really be focusing on. every once in a while something genuinely cool happens, i hope that i/we can find it.

although i'm sort of bummed out at the thought of ingenuine/inauthentic blog goals (cutting edge music regardless of whether or not it's good), it's not as though we can really stop liking them. these are the things that we're interested in. this is the music that we like to listen to. i guess this is just the way it is.


in other news:

how cool are e-cigs? you can 'smoke' them thangs anywhere!

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