Monday, January 31, 2005

techno vs. rock n' roll wrap up Well now its fourteen hours later and the techno vs. rock n' roll controversy isn't flowing though my veins so much anymore, but maybe I can sum it up in a couple of points: *Good house/dance music is there to be enjoyed in a straight-forward pleasure kind of way, while "cutting edge" rock n' roll has this "chip on your shoulder"  pissed off at life aspect to it.  If you're familiar with any of today's hard rock, the lead singers sound like freaked out zombie people that are being burned at the stake (a la Godsmack) or sniveling, whining teenagers (a la Linkin Park).  Rock is now the music of pain and suffering and complaints.  That emotional affect is kind of normal for teenagers, but if you're thirty five and still screaming at your mom........... Anyway, why be miserable and angry when you can be happy? *The other thing is that there's a lot more women at a nice club (than an alt rock event), and they look a lot better.  Usually a garage rock affair is also a sausage fest with four guys to every girl.  Then the women that are there are either fat or homely looking and ressed in crusty, baggy jeans and stupid Von Dutch type hats and t-shirts.  There might be one or two girls that are actually hot, but they're totally in love with the bass player of some band that's never going to make it and your chances with them are nil.  Meanwhile, at a nice south Tampa Club you can see dozens of beautiful women in tight sexy dresses, any one of whom could be a Maxim cover model, well close enough.  *Are DJs musicians? No, but they are artists.  A great DJ can really move you just like a great musician, but first you have to open your ears. .........boy this is stupid.  Who th fuck cares? Listen to whatever you want. Anyway, we walked around for a while and at least tried to score Rachel some weed, but there was no luck with even that.  So we came back to my place and killed the rest of the evening (morning) with kinky sex.   11:05:48 PM    comment [] techno vs. rock n' roll This saturday night I realized what a radical social transformation I have made over the years.  This happened when Rachel and I checked out this afterhours warehouse party downtown, based on the rumor that a couple of good djs would be there. The visit started with a stroke of brilliance when I rolled a giant dumpster out of its spot to create up front, VIP parking for my dodge.  But then Rachel and I quickly became disappointed when we discovered that the music and the crowd was pure, underground garage band.  Our senses were assaulted with head banging beats, anguished, garbled vocals, and  highly distressed guitar abuse.  The only libation was from a keg, and you had to fight a mad mob to get a single plustic cup full. This experience was a revelation because this used to be just the kind of scene I was into.  I mean I used to think it was obviously the coolest scene in the world.  And back during that era, I used to think that "techno" or any form of electronic music was a totally fake art form, sort of like professional wrestling is to sports.  I would get into arguments with people about it--whether a dj was a real musician--and my triumphant metaphor was always: do they give an oscar to the kid at blockbuster that rents you the video?  No, and a dj is just playing a record that someone else recorded. (ah, I knew I wouldn't have time to finish this before work). 8:27:04 AM    comment []

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