Amazed by the intensity of the response to the RetroRock idea and it's given chronology. Indeed I'd say to the characters who wrote in demanding Punk Rock to be admitted to the RetroRock TM category: "mmmmmm" (strokes chin). You fellows may be missing the point. Punk was a doomed futurism not in the least interested in the Retro impulse. You write Punk up as a chapter in the Who/Seeds/Stooges/Hell story and you strip it of it's intention and relevance. I think it's a (deliberately) artificial revisionist history which has been assembled more recently by the likes of Griel Marcus. Or in the case of Lester Bangs one written a good deal beforehand which had little bearing on the explosion which took place. I don't think the Sex Pistols cover versions ("Schools Out", "My Generation", "No Fun", "Stepping Stone", "My Way") mark them as retro, more lacking in ideas for tunes. But hey, I've been wrong before.
What I ought to be clear about is that the idea to cannibalise Rock Music was clearly a good idea at the time. There is an air of freshness and lightness, even irresponsibilty, to Rock and Indie from 1983. We heard some great music from Husker Du, The Replacements, REM, Sonic Youth in the US and The Smiths, JAMC, and Primal Scream over here (please excuse the US/UK thing) but with the benefit of hindsight I think that they suffer from the weakness of even the greatest Post-Modern art - a lack of heart. When one listens to The Smiths, even though it's affecting emotional music, one hears a surface. Bringing to mind recent stories of Moz driving around Beverly Hills in a Cadillac with a Husky in the front seat.
Music must be the least forgiving art-form with regards to the Pomo motive. You don't ask a building to make you weep. My really big problem with RetroRock (and it seems almost insanely churlish to take the aforementioned bands to task) is where it has left Rock music now. In a way I couldn't care less, there is so much else on offer. Sure some people might think Rock's pulsing with blood at the moment (your Yeah Yeah Yeahs, White Stripes, Strokes etc) but I don't. I hear some good tunes but no new feelings. Indeed I am almost dreading the inevitable moment when someone tries to devour the rotting corpse that is RetroRock. The JAMC cover band.
The only time I've felt even vaguely positive about Rock recently was the result of an interview with Mercury Rev who said what they thought was Rock's strongest card was it's ability to syncretise. I rushed out to buy their "Deserter's Songs" record and an old copy of Royal Trux's "Twin Infinitives" (which I had earmarked as "one to pick up" for 5 years and not bad in an ESP records kind of way), but was left feeling pretty despondent.
I'm not the first person to have said it, but why do other (even more cannabilistic) musics like Dancehall and Hip-Hop sound so fresh?
Posted by Woebot at January 26, 2003 12:42 PM