Like the estimated 95% (my estimate) of Americans and 89% (my estimate) of international citizens who have a blog, I haven't been vigilant in posting regularly. Why? I could give roundabout excuses involving my continuing ambivalence toward the medium, more important things to do, pets that need petting, meals that need preparing (and eating), and so on and so forth, but let's just call it laziness. Anywho, I will try to be better about it, and not just post reviews and articles published elsewhere. I mean, I'm so lazy I haven't even posted links to all of those. (Though I admit it's because I kind of phoned in those Tyvek and Swans reviews. ((Though to be fair, I phone in all of my reviews — I have DSL.))) In the spirit of my renewed commitment, I offer this rumination, independent of other print or digital sources which may or may not have paid for my opinion/critical faculties:
I'm so far out of "the loop" (you know which one I mean) I have no idea who most of the bands that play at Pilot Light these days are. I no longer go down there 3 to 4 nights a week like I used to in the days or yore, and absent professional responsibilities conferred by an editorialship, I don't feel the need to keep up with what's going on. Nor, quite frankly, the desire. There are several reasons for that, but we can lump most of them under the umbrella of "getting older." (And in saying this, the fact that most of the staff there are my age or older (holla, Bill) does not escape my notice, but whatevs.) And often when I do go there, something like this happens:
I went last Saturday to see Jason Ajemian, who I always go to hear when he's in town, which is usually once or twice a year. He's great and always up to something different, so you should see him some time if you haven't. Former Knoxvillian-for-a-minute Keith Wood was there, too, and he kindly played "Rue Hollow" after I requested it. I love that song so much I had the decency not to ask if he'd appropriated the melody from some ancient folk song. That's what it sounds like to me, anyway. PL proprietor Jason Boardman had added a band called Bear Hands to the bill, who have nothing at all whatsoever in any imaginable bent of your brain stylistically, professionally and probably privately to do with our two openers, except maybe they use stringed instruments and sing. Bear Hands are a Brooklyn group practicing a form of traditional indie rock, though I expect you already gathered that given their name. There were @ 25 youngish folks there to see the Hands, @ 6 olderish folks to see Ajemian/Wood. That's how it goes in general these days. Most shows I'm drawn to draw a dozen or less paying customers, unless it's a local near and dear to my heart, like the awesome Fecal Japan show two weeks ago, or a time-tested PL fave like, oh, I don't know, Oneida (who incidentally haven't been through in a while). Many shows I miss (as I would have Bear Hands in other circumstances) bring 2 to 3 times as many people. I bet the next time Bear Hands plays here they'll bring out 50 to 75 people. They're comers and I should add diplomatically that "They're good at what they do it's just not my thing." ("TGAWTDIJNMT")
All of which serves as a rambling prologue to say I'm actually excited about Yuck playing this coming Saturday. A group of kids some of whom I think weren't even alive when Loveless and Painful were released, they ape MBV, YLT and PVMNT and even CHVZ so very well listening to their songs on Vimeo made me feel like a wee young man again. In a good way. (And yes, I like this video. It has both dogs and female nudity.) Oh, I know a lot, too many you say, bands these days are "borrowing" from the sound and that era, and I agree with you. Normally I wouldn't care to hear such a band live. But Yuck's sound is both an uncanny facsimile of bands I like and somehow still unique. Maybe that'ss from sounding like 3 or 4 different bands instead of just 1. Maybe I'll find out this Saturday. I'm tired of typing and doing what passes for thinking while composing these posts, but I hope to have a report on Yuck The Band's live performance in a few days. If the laziness doesn't infect my bones again.
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