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>>>>>[Right, Been a bit. Sorry bout that. Not too much to say of incredible relevance. Lots going on these days. Winter Olympics starting son, check out coverage here if you want. I suspect that this rube will have much to say in his column. Always liked that sonovabitch. Ever since Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, I�ve been inspired by his maniacal relentlessness in showing the unbridled truth of what has happened in America.]<<<<<

>>>>>[From his commentary on the 60s and 70s back in Rolling stone we see a different take on the American machine, a rather paranoid and robustly vicious telling of a new American mythos riddled with sex, drugs, rock �n- roll, and socio-political horror-fanaticism. I�d be curious to see him do a book on the religious right, from Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, Jerry Falwell, to this, to the right to lifers. The influence in the governmental process of the late 90s and these coming early years of this new century, this brave new world� That would be a riot I think. ]<<<<<

>>>>>[I�m fascinated by culture. How do we as a race perpetuate things like fads, systems of belief, religion, and society itself? Case in point � Beck. Listening to Beck right now. Beck makes music of nonsense often. Yet it�s catchy as fuck all. Mind you you could make the same argument for most of the pop stars of the last 25 years. Hello, Bon Jovi? I put together a mix of music to play at work. After I had finished it up, I realized that it was all songs that are beautifully constructed and tell stories. RE: She�s a rainbow � The Rolling Stones, Tiny Dancer - Elton John, Thousands are sailing � The Pogues, Saturday in the Park � Chicago, Young Americans � David Bowie, Brandi � Looking Glass, A Thousand forms of Mind � Mudhoney, Keep on Rockin in the free world � Neil Young�. You get the point. All these songs tell stories. They hold legend within them and have the capacity to present such beautiful and startlingly vivid pictures� What happened to that sort of songwriting? ]<<<<<

>>>>>[I remember the first time I ever heard Nine Inch Nails. I was amazed. It was the fall of 1990; I was a freshman here and was wondering how this had happened. Here�s someone who took what ministry was doing, toned it down a hair, and made it incredibly consumer friendly. All of a sudden, you could go to K-mart or Wal-Mart and purchase for $12.99 your very own, self-contained packet of instant Dance-rage. Genius! And this was begat form a kid who used to get beaten up in middle and high school because he was different? Listened to the Cure and the Dead Kennedys? That�s kinda scary.]<<<<<

>>>>>[But where�d it all come from? Thousand answers to a thousand questions, but I think you can safely boil it all down to one man, The King. Sure, people will say Elvis got his shit from the blues, from the slaves who sang songs of desperation, who made the blues. But Elvis did something that the blues were never able to do. Elvis made you want to dance, and fuck. Elvis gave you sin, and sex, and made you realize that those things were a-ok. Sure, maybe not to the local chapter of X-tians, or Religious righters, but Elvis made you MOVE. He took Post War, McCarthy-saturated, Conservative, Red-fearing Americans and he showed them that you could put all that aside for a bit, and in an era paranoid of being called different or odd by your neighbors, he celebrated that drive to push the envelope of society and further the great socio-economic culture of the world by defying the norms, by threatening the tribal elders, by inciting a hormonal riot in the blood of the youth. Progress baby, progress.]<<<<<

>>>>>>[So Elvis begat pop, and pop begat the Beatles, who refused to stay classified as pop sensations, who true to their craft made music and pushed the potential of that medium. The Beatles begat a phenomenon and helped spurn the summer of love and the counterculture movements of the hippies. The Hippies mere existence bred anti-conformity, and the disco era, which was the negative inducer of the punk movement. The seventies were a rather spineless time for music. Disco baby, sure it�s fun, but it doesn�t move you save to fuck and abuse. Mind you that wan an important impetus, a necessary start, and it�s not something that should be forgotten. But the disco movement took it to an almost ridiculous level. Problem was it was so heavy handed we got desensitized to it. Sex was sex, fucking, and nothing more. Hence the birth of the porn industry.]<<<<<

>>>>>[So Punk rock you say, eh? Yeah, Thanks Elvis, for a gift that keeps enduring. How�s it elate to NIN? Punk Begat new wave, a harkening back to some of the cultural aspects of the disco era, but not the ethos � Let�s do a lot of blow and twitch on the dance floor! Art rock as well, that plays a part throughout, thanks Warhol and your Velvet prodigies. Then you look at the ramones. Straight up, long island rock and rollers who couldn�t really play instruments wore the leather uniform, long black hair, fucking impressive. Fast and furious. Taking nods from Iggy Pop, and around the same time Robert Smith got the Cure together across the pond. Here�s an interesting thin. Take art rock to a darker level � fucking yeah. Siouxie and the Banshees let them help out. Give a few nods to Kraftwek and keep the drive to sustain the integrity of the music.]<<<<<

>>>>>[Iggy pop and the Ramones, along with the old soul singers and bluesmen were heavy teachers to a young Henry Rollins in Philadelphia (I believe), who took over the Cali-punk flagship Black Flag in the early 80s. Punk was having it�s heyday. From England in the 70s it made it to hollywoodland by the tail of that decade, and exploded like a money shot from Peter North. Black Flag, The Circle Jerks, The Adolescents, FEAR, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and so many more. Whit the punk movement we see the rawest form of that unbridled rage combined with social commentary, that let bands like Rage Against the Machine become the corporate moneymakers they were in the mid 90s. This all made its way slowly into the interior of the nation, the rolling Midwest around the mid 80s, early 90s.]<<<<<

>>>>>[I remember going down to Columbus to see the Circle Jerks with 7 seconds in 88, first show ever. Was 16, and had a blast. And I remember very distinctly seeing a guy there, probably in his 30s, balding, full beard, a bit wrinkled around the eyes, with a grin a mile wide on his face. Staring in awe at these guys rocking their hearts out, moshing in the pit, and having a blast. I thought to myself then, that�s kinda odd I didn�t think that old farts liked this music too. Then I thought to myself, That�s pretty fucking cool that the older generation likes this same music I do. Fucking cool.]<<<<<

>>>>>[So I think now, when I hear linkin park or slipknot, or some other agro band on the radio about how when I was in high school 12 or so odd years ago, I Wished for that sort of thing to happen. All I wanted was for people to listen to what Bob Mould was writing about, what Black Flag was saying about drinking and driving, what the sure did to their instruments to make such hauntingly beautiful music. I think about how music has come, and how The King put the ball in motion. I think about how different sounds have their audiences, how some like it and some don�t like it, and in the end I thank them all.]<<<<<

>>>>>[Cause, you see, now *I* get to be that old fucker in the audience rocking my heart out at the show]<<<<<