Artsy Fartsy: Rain Machine & The Pixies This Friday

Art rock is nothing new. The pioneering sounds of John Cale and The Velvet Underground challenged the conventions of rock as early as 1965. In the early 70s Punk bands like Television, Suicide, The Stooges and MC5 used elements of free-form jazz, direct confrontation and performance art to challenge the listener and question staid musical conventions. The New York Dolls took British glam to a whole new level by dressing in drag and, as a result, their sexual androgyny was seen as a threat by many. (though a decade later this convention was embraced by the mainstream in the form of 80s hair metal).

In the last few years indie ”art rock” has either been (a) a steady constant in the alternative music scene or (b) has become all the rage. Personally, I think it’s more of (b) and frankly, I don’t think it’s either a good or bad thing. As the late Jim Ellison once said, “There are only so many chords on a guitar neck, sir.” 

What I mean is that it’s an understandable part of musical cycle: A sound or style gets popular, people get sick of it and then new bands come along with a sometimes radically new approach. Though this is true (and necessary) don’t expect me to pretend to like Rain Machine when they open for The Pixies this friday just because all the critics are jizzing in their pants about Kyp Malone as a musical “force.” Give me a break.

I’m still feeling burnt after buying TV on The Radio’s 2006 release Return to Cookie Mountain . It had like one good song, “Wolf Like Me,” and then the rest was a bunch of studio noodling done by a bunch of visual artists from Brooklyn. Don’t let your snobby artsy friends fool you or tell you that you just “don’t get it.” If it sounds like self-indulgent rubish, then it’s probably self-indulgent rubish.  Either that or your artsy friends are right: I just don’t get it. See you at the show on Friday.

Here’s “Give Blood” from Rain Machine:

AFG Must Rock!
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