|
Saturday, November 11, 2006
"There is no good music coming out today. It all sucks."
Thus spake an acquaintance of mine a short while ago. I got ready to tell him that he sounded like his father, but I realized that I didn't know his father. So I said something worse. That he sounded like my father.
But he had a point. Once upon a time radio was adventurous and experimental and unafraid to take risks. These days seem to be gone. Sure, some good stuff seeps through the cracks, but most of what gets played is of little or no interest to me.
The sad things is, so many people in my age group (mid 40's) appear to have lost interest in music. They either cling to the stuff they loved when they were young, or just listen to the local radio stations and swallow whatever they happen to play.
My argument is always that there is a world of music out there to be discovered. So many disparate acts are writing and performing excellent music, but you won't hear them on most radio stations and you damned sure won't hear about them on MTV.
Of course, it's asking a lot to expect people to plunk down cash in these uncertain financial times to check out an unknown recording artist. That's a good way to have a big costly collection of CDs that you never play.
There is another place to check out the music that can't be found anywhere else. It's called No Pigeonholes. No Pigeonholes is a long running radio show that plays what used to be known as home tapers. Musicians recording their own music, free of any corporate interference or influence and sent in to the show. And as the title suggests, No Pigeonholes is unfettered by any shoehorn of style of music.
The host/DJ of No Pigeonholes is a man named Don Campau, and he's been doing it for a long, long time. The heyday of home taping died out sometime around the late 90's, as digital technology became cheaper and easier for just about anyone to use. Home recording is a more accurate term for what is being broadcast at the present.
But the spirit of home taping continues on, and it is thriving at No Pigeonholes. You won't love everything that is played there. I don't. But I do like a hell of a lot of it. Don does a nice job of mixing pop with some rockers and experimental music in most of the shows. He even did me an enormous favor by playing some of my late brother's music on the show, which brought me great happiness. His spirit still lives on in music lovers' speakers.
Some people I've talked to have seemed concerned about the quality of the recordings on No Pigeonholes. The answer is that the songs generally sound pretty good. It varies, of course, but for the most part they resemble conventional recordings. Most people here are big fans of independent publishing and filmmaking. Why not truly independent music?
I've heard all styles on No Pigeonholes: Rock, reggae, punk, world, soul, rap, country, experimental and just plain weird. As well as bizarre hybrids of all of the above. I also found an act that has become one of my all-time favorites: The Rudy Schwartz Project. I discovered Rudy Schwartz on No Pigeonholes this past Summer and I and my family have become completely addicted to this truly unique music.
I always get up on my soapbox and ask you to lay down your hard won dollars to support or to check something out. No Pigeonholes is podcast on a regular basis and the cost is exactly nothing. Free. As radio should be. I download every show and burn them to disc and listen to them as I drive around. Tuning in to a new show is always exciting and I can never anticipate what will be coming up. And listening to Don's voice is as welcome and comforting as that of an old friend.
So if you're not afraid of expanding your musical horizons and opening your mind to new and different types of music from all around the world, take a chance on No Pigeonholes. Go to Don's site, download the latest show and sign up for the newsletter to get notice of all new podcasts. Don does a twice-monthly show for KKUP in Cuppertino, California. He also does some for Europe's Radio Maribu, as well as original podcasts.
http://www.doncampau.com/
|
|
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Are these the Good Old Days for you?
I can't help but be very happy. It's an incredible time to be a horror fan. Movie watcher and reader. Yes, I know that there is a lot to be desired from current horror motion pictures. But stop to think about it a minute. How many truly great horror films have there been? 20? 30? 50? Maybe more, but I don't think there really has been all that many. There have been thousands produced and the vast majority are inferior productions. I'm not saying that I don't like them...not at all. I tend to like most horror movies from the past. I like a lot of them for nostalgia or other feelings of affection.
And I really like a lot of the new films. Sure, they've ratcheted the violence up several notches, but so did the beloved films of my generation. Friday the 13th and the other slasher films of the early 80's. Horror fans as well as other movie aficionados decried the overuse of explicit violence and lack of literacy in the screenplays. I see the same thing in the movies of Alexandre Aja and Eli Roth. I feel the same kind of excitement now as was going on then. And in both cases the films did big business, despite the critics.
And the horror fiction genre has gone off the charts. Never and I mean never has there been as much product out there for readers to choose from. Even in the fabled 'boom', it was nothing like it is now. Of course we owe most of our gratitude to the Small Press. When the New York houses stopped publishing our beloved genre, independent publishers took control of the situation and brought the goods to roost. It's another boom, with slightly different rules.
As with any boom, the abundance of product out there varies wildly. There is some incredible stuff being published, and there is a lot of decent material too. And like in the old days, there are cases where the buyer must indeed beware.
In the late 80's, when things were so good, I would sometimes have up to six or seven books piled up in my Read Me stack. Now I've lost count of the number of books I want to read. I'll never get to them all and I continue to acquire more.
And the mass market is putting out horror in decent numbers again. The racks are filling up, if you go to a place like Borders that is smart enough to have a horror section. And there's more than the very biggest names on them.
Of course, our world is filled with more real-life horror than ever before. It's difficult, if not impossible, to read the news and not become overwhelmed by it all. Terrorists. Nuclear crises. Hunger. Violence. Disease. Environmental disasters. Economic Ruin. Killers and other assorted madmen and freaks that look just like we do.
The world, however, has always been a dangerous place. Having children has always been a risky venture. Stories in history books always look rosy from the victor's point of view, but rulers have always lied and stolen from their population, I believe. Created war for greed or vainglorious reasons. Life expectancies were lower and a lot of children never reached adulthood in times past.
Your cup can be half filled or half empty, as that old chestnut goes. I think most of us have it pretty good these days. Not all, certainly, but most. People are gradually becoming more tolerant and respectful of others. Advancements in medicine and technology are surpassing the dreams of the old SF writers.
And we as horror fans have it especially good. Despite alarms of stripped freedoms, all manner of horror abound today. Books, movies, music and art; more great things than just about any of us can afford. More supply than demand, it would seem.
I've had a hard year. I lost my brother to cancer and we've had some extremely trying family situations that threatened to tear us apart. Yet we survived and persevered. Emerged stronger and happier than ever. It took patience, hard work and a lot of love.
I'm happy.
|
| |
|
