{"id":404,"date":"2006-04-28T12:42:31","date_gmt":"2006-04-28T20:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2006\/04\/28\/todays-tracks\/"},"modified":"2006-04-28T12:42:31","modified_gmt":"2006-04-28T20:42:31","slug":"todays-tracks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2006\/04\/28\/todays-tracks\/","title":{"rendered":"Today’s Tracks"},"content":{"rendered":"

"How We Operate"<\/strong>
Gomez<\/p>\n

I hope there’s not a video for this.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what fucked up this business.\u00c2\u00a0 When you started selling bands via image instead of music.\u00c2\u00a0 When you heard them out of the speakers of your FM rig, in your bedroom, or at the gig, opening for one of your favorite acts, back when you went early to SEE the opening act, that’s the way you discovered music.<\/p>\n

Gomez has been around for a while.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll admit that I liked their sound when they were on Virgin.\u00c2\u00a0 But they never broke through here in the States.\u00c2\u00a0 There wasn’t that specific track, that hook.<\/p>\n

And now they’re on ATO.<\/p>\n

Give Dave and Coran credit.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody who was abused by the system, who couldn’t get a toehold in the major label world, has been picked up by their label.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody from Patty Griffin to the now-deceased Chris Whitley to finally, this band, Gomez.<\/p>\n

This is the kind of music that we USED to sell.\u00c2\u00a0 Not the easy tripe that people can lick up like supermarket vanilla and forget almost immediately thereafter.\u00c2\u00a0 It sounds like nothing on terrestrial radio.\u00c2\u00a0 You know the people who made it took time to create it.\u00c2\u00a0 That it’s about art more than fame.<\/p>\n

I have no idea why Gomez doesn’t at least stream "How We Operate" on its Website, never mind give it away.\u00c2\u00a0 If your main profit center is your recordings, you’re fucked.\u00c2\u00a0 In a world where it’s almost impossible to get noticed, you’ve got to give the public every chance to become a fan.\u00c2\u00a0 If someone actually is interested enough to FIND you on the Web, make them an instant fan, give them something to remember you by, give them something they can pass on to others.<\/p>\n

The future is bands like Radiohead.\u00c2\u00a0 Who find their own way.\u00c2\u00a0 Who don’t seem to operate in the same world as the rest of the acts.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, Radiohead was broken with a hit, "Creep", but that was a different era.\u00c2\u00a0 And, at the height of the band’s success, they released music so left field it challenged their fans to come along, stay with them.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what art is.\u00c2\u00a0 Not giving the people what they want, but going on your own journey and seeing if they come along.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s where truth lies, out on the fringe, not in the mainstream.\u00c2\u00a0 The artist is not supposed to be part of the group.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s not the mentality.\u00c2\u00a0 If the artist wants to go clubbing at night, chances are he’s not that much of an artist to begin with.\u00c2\u00a0 An artist tends to be an introspective loner who CAN’T play by the conventional rules and ends up nakedly exposing himself.\u00c2\u00a0 And we say EUREKA!\u00c2\u00a0 That’s IT!<\/p>\n

"How We Operate" is how it used to be.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not conventional.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like being on a roller coaster and not being able to see the track.\u00c2\u00a0 Your hair is blown back, you’re holding on for dear life.\u00c2\u00a0 And when the ride is over, you want to go AGAIN!<\/p>\n

(P.S. Upon further, deep investigation, it turns out there IS a video, regrettably.\u00c2\u00a0 Insanely, the music doesn’t begin until 50 seconds in!\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s located at the bottom of the band’s Webpage, not showing in the window unless you’ve got a monitor the size of Connecticut.\u00c2\u00a0 And, although it IS a performance video, it DOES rob the act and song of all charisma.\u00c2\u00a0 But, you can just listen to a stream.\u00c2\u00a0 Shoot all Web-designers on sight.\u00c2\u00a0 Fuck the money for a video director, spend it on a Web-designer who knows that simpler is better, that it’s all about UTILITY!)<\/p>\n

"It’s Love"
<\/strong>King’s X<\/p>\n

I remember Lea Pisacane telling me she loved this band.\u00c2\u00a0 But they were on her label.\u00c2\u00a0 I take that shit with a grain of salt.\u00c2\u00a0 Listen to your own crap long enough and you learn to love it.<\/p>\n

Maybe it was just too tough a sell.\u00c2\u00a0 A black man in a hard rock band.\u00c2\u00a0 Or maybe the sound was just not conventional enough.<\/p>\n

"It’s Love" is a weird concoction of changes and sounds.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like being in a funhouse.\u00c2\u00a0 Everywhere you turn there’s something that titillates you.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re constantly being confronted with stimuli.\u00c2\u00a0 You just FEEL good!<\/p>\n

Then, three quarters of the way through, there’s the majesty of a Queen record, or a latter-period Beatle album.\u00c2\u00a0 And just like with "Bohemian Rhapsody", it’s the completely unexpected that enraptures you.<\/p>\n

"It’s Love" is not a tour-de-force.\u00c2\u00a0 King’s X isn’t trying to blow you away.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s more like hearing music coming out of your next door neighbor’s garage and deciding to saunter over and check it out.\u00c2\u00a0 And, when you get there, you find guys in sneakers and jeans, in a circle, looking at each other, pounding it out, locked on to a groove.\u00c2\u00a0 And you’re standing there in the now nonexistent fourth wall, the garage door being open, and you can feel the sun behind you, and the darkness in front of you, and you suddenly feel like this is the best day of your life, that it’s so fucking great to be alive, you don’t want the music to end.<\/p>\n

Music used to be a solo affair.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead of group sex.\u00c2\u00a0 Something you felt alone.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather than something you experienced as a dancer in a disco, or even banging into other patrons in a mosh pit.\u00c2\u00a0 I lament the elimination of seats at all venues.\u00c2\u00a0 The seats gave RESPECT to the music.\u00c2\u00a0 You were alone, in your bubble, just you and the sound, not some sweating overweight bozo next to you, encroaching on your space.\u00c2\u00a0 Music was best when it existed in your mind, when it wasn’t a mass ritual experienced with thousands of others.\u00c2\u00a0 Festivals are about the audience, not the performer.\u00c2\u00a0 Which may be why my best listening is now done at home, in front of my computer, or wandering around my house with my iPod.<\/p>\n

Thank god for the digital era.\u00c2\u00a0 Where we can be exposed to SO MUCH!<\/p>\n

At one point I had every King’s X CD ever recorded.\u00c2\u00a0 But I never listened to them.\u00c2\u00a0 But now I’ve got this MP3 and I’m a fan.<\/p>\n

Let’s hope the future brings back some more overlooked acts from the past.<\/p>\n

There’s a joy in "It’s Love" that’s absent from too much of today’s music.\u00c2\u00a0 This was the elation that was in the tunes of the seventies.\u00c2\u00a0 When music ruled, and we couldn’t devour enough of it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

"How We Operate"Gomez I hope there’s not a video for this.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what fucked up this business.\u00c2\u00a0 When you started selling bands via image instead of music.\u00c2\u00a0 When you heard them out of the speakers of your FM rig, in your bedroom, or at the gig, opening for one of your favorite acts, back when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-6w","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}