MISCmedia for 10/21/99
Grumpy Sounds

BELIEVE IT OR NOT, I do try to maintain a positive, solution-focused attitude here at MISCmedia.

But sometimes negativity just can't be helped.

This is one of those times. It's something that's built up within me, like corals on a sea-dump of old tires.

It's music. The sort of music that's everywhere, whether you want it or not. In restaurants, bars, shops, hair salons, dentist's offices, telephone hold systems, workplaces, streets, vanpools, and just about everywhere else one happens to be in urban/suburban/exurban North America.

At one time, companies like Muzak created tuneage just for these uses, and it was good. But nowadays, that approach is considered out of mode. You get "real" songs by "real" hit artists from today's canned-music services.

And, as often as not, it's one of the several artists or genres I can't stand but just about everybody else seems to love.

Herewith, a modest hit-list of these:

• Led Zeppelin. Pioneers of the incessant, aggressive style with no backbeat, no yin, no balance. "To be a rock and not to roll," indeed.

• George Thorogood. The Led Zeppelin of white-baby-boomer blues (i.e., everything blue taken out).

• Steely Dan. Probably the blandest outfit to ever take its name from William Burroughs.

• Linda Ronstadt. She never stopped being "a rock singer" because she never started.

• Celine Dion and Mariah Carey. Today's Linda Ronstadts.

• Jane's Addiction. Hard to say what's worse, the whiny mall-rat-pretending-to-be-tough attitude or the unvaryingly monotonic attack.

• Red Hot Chili Peppers. See above.

• Dave Matthews Band. The current Lawrence Welk of prog-rock.

• The Eagles. Yesterday's Dave Matthews.

But to close on a positive note, some acts that could be played in public places a lot more than they currently are (I also love a lot of more "difficult listening" music than I'm listing here, but appreciate that's an acquired taste):

• Belle & Sebastian and Toothpaste 2000. Two acts among the current masters of indiepop's "twee" side; smart enough for teens, yet gentle enough for grownups.

• Kitty Wells. When will the latter-day Patsy Cline fans rediscover this even more robust country legend? Remember, it wasn't God who made honky-tonk angels.

• Miracle Legion. Mark Mulcahey's beautiful/haunting upbeat ballads never got the right record-label push; he remains known for the theme song of Nickelodeon's old Adventures of Pete and Pete.

• Devo. Beyond the weird lyrics was some weirder music. "Jocko Homo" remains undoubedly the most popular song ever composed in 7/4 time.

• Yellow Magic Orchestra. Before he became a "serious" film composer, Riuichi Sakamoto co-wrote some seriously bent throwaway pop masterpieces.

• Artie Shaw. Maybe next year, the swing-revival crowd will find its way toward some of the era's more adventuresome improvisors. One can only hope.

• Ronnie Spector. The Wall of Sound queen's due for an overdue revival, with a new CD on, of all labels, Kill Rock Stars.

• Gigolo Aunts. Some of the happiest heartbreak songs ever.

• Jack Jones. If Tony Bennett can become cool again, so can he.

TOMORROW: Do cyber-capitalists really think they can do anything they want?

ELSEWHERE:

• "She was the type of person who laughed in perfect metre, but cried arhythmically...."
• Cars that don't really go overly fast, they just sorta look like they could, maybe....

RECENT HIGHLIGHTS:

• That great contemporary-art benefactor, Procter & Gamble; and a possible way to restore alterna-art's role in urban society.
• TV's role in the decline and possible rebirth of regional culture and humor.
• Remembering the good old days of foreign film.
• Rumored changes to a once-great college radio station.
• There are many successful female public artists; does it mean something? Must it?
• Brief looks at a few more real-estate relics.
• Susan Faludi's Stiffed fails, so far, to attract the reverse-reverse-reverse-sexist backlash; while Douglas Davis seeks a future where het men can be just as sex-positive as women and gays.
• Faster, James Gleick! Write, write!
• Fun visual-art links from all over.
• Stick a fork in the thrift-store lifestyle; it's done.
• Diner food's back; but was it ever really gone?
• Celebrating one year exclusively online.
• Online "word of mouth" may have helped The Blair Witch Project, but could it rescue The Iron Giant?
• Parts one, two, and three of our exploration into new generation gaps.
• Who's afraid of digital movie theaters?
• The truth behind Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner."

ARCHIVES:

• 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, and 1986-94 columns
• Reviews of literature & art, monfiction & culture criticism, movies & videos, and music & noise
• Longer articles and essays
• The origin and future of MISCmedia