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Rock as a cultural force is dead. There are plenty of bands out there living it and making great music.
Little Steven's point about it being hard to find is dead on. It has to be sought out, which means going to that club near the college or forcing yourself to the loathesome Bohemian Disneyland part of town where trendy restaurants and unaffordable furniture stores rule the day and faux dangerous nightclubs rule the night. It means taking a chance on a band or performer you've never heard of - and may never hear of again. Somemtimes, it's a drag. And sometimes, after getting blown away by a performance, it fills the spirit with joy.
No matter how much it changed over the years (and looking at my old LPs in the closet, I'm glad it did - and does), rock's insignificance as a cultural force mirrors the times. Rock tends to be at its best as a subversive element, whether it's Chuck Berry undermining the sexual strictures of the day, trying to get laid or Suicidal Tendencies pounding out You Can't Bring Me Down. Or Mars Volta on Henry Rollins' IFC show a few weeks ago, which totally blew me away.
Rock & roll is Defiance - and mass culture has no interest in Defiance or anything which challenges the status quo. If it did, you can be sure we would have an anti-war movement instead of a 24/7/365 preoccupation with where a socialite spends the night or what an actress puts up her nose.
Which brings me to the subject header. Van Zandt is the guy who pitched another Sirius channel, Outlaw Country, which is a fine, fine place to get a taste of many excellent singer-songwriters & assorted renegades of today - along with the legendary C&W artists of yesterday that are totally excluded from the monolithic corporate country stations. Taken together, Sirius Outlaw Country stands as a mighty FUCK YOU to everything Nashville represents. No small thing for the leftnecks among us.
