Tonight I finally got around to watching the Kim Kardashian video from 2007, and I was stunned. I am convinced it is a masterpiece. We are truly living the in a golden age of pornography, though the video is obviously much more than a piece of pornography. I'm contemplating screening Salo, my DVD X-mas present to myself, but I may need to work up to that.
Oh, I also got my drum machine. Other than testing it to make sure it works, I have not attempted to play it yet. If successful, this will be my third serious practice of a musical instrument. Both the cello (age 6-14) and the guitar (age 15-21) have been sold. I have not seriously attempted to make music of any kind for as far back as anyone can remember. My voice is there, but my diaphragm is out of shape, perhaps atrophied. My ear is finally being listened to. I'm playing records I haven't listened to since high school. How was any of this possible?
I don't know, but it has taken expression through a rediscovery of the 17-year old Chris' favorite book: Alt-Rock-a-Rama. Published by Rolling Stone in the mid 90s, it's an anthology of bits of music writing by musicians, writers, all sorts of people. All formed around an American indie music aesthetic that did more than anything else to shape my musical appetites.
The book is framed by three epic charticles. Three lists of the 100 Most Influential Alternative Releases of All Time, The 50 Most Significant Indie Records, and The Lester Bangs Discography: The Records in His Life, the last composing 121 records. I decided to listen to the first list of records in order, assuming that I could find them all to be downloaded on Soulseek. To no surprise, they have all been easy to find. I've listened to the first 50, from The Mothers' Freak Out to Public Image Limited's Metal Box. I'll be sharing what I have discovered so far on this blog. Right now I'm blasting London Calling, #51. Some great songs, but none that you wouldn't expect to hear in a commercial. Not on the same level as the aforementioned #50.
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