The Failure of the Dream of 1990s Alt Rock.

One of those things that I spend way too much time thinking about is how the Alternative Music "Revolution" of the 1990s failed. In the short term, it made music more interesting. In the long term, it changed the course of Hard Rock and MOR , and not for the better. One thing that came to mind when I was thinking about it this morning was the scene from "Easy Rider" where Wyatt (Peter Fonda) says to Billy (Dennis Hopper), "We blew it." In the context of my thought, it would really be more like "They" blew it, "They" being The Music Industry, since there really wasn't a whole lot I could do to keep the momentum going. I was too naive to see it in 1994 and 1995, but the signs were there that things weren't going in the direction I'd hope they'd go.

1. Candlebox.  The first few times I heard "Change", I thought, "This kinda sounds like a hair band." "You" didn't sound quite as much like a hair band, but "Far Behind" was definitely a power ballad. They might get some brownie points for getting their name from a Midnight Oil song, but no, just no. Candlebox were indicative of a problem with The Industry when it tries to push a certain genre, in this case Alternative in general and Grunge in particular. There were many bands that had been around for years, touring in vans, and were just bubbling under the mainstream. A few of those bands managed to make it (Soundgarden finally having done it in 1994), but for the most part The Industry were more interested in signing, and at times possibly even creating, bands that hadn't been around long, and were like some watered down version of the genuine article. But most kids in places like Shepherdsville, Kentucky, didn't know any better. I remember cringing one time during my senior year of high school when I heard a classmate say, "I like Alternative, Candlebox rocks!" A year after that, my brother was substitute teaching at our old school, and I think some kids asked him what kind of music he listened to, and when he said Alternative, they asked him if he was going to see Collective Soul.
2. Ignoring newer stuff from "older" bands. Faith No More put out one of the best albums of 1992, and Living Colour put out a fairly strong album in 1993, but they were virtually ignored. Sometime in early 1994, the local Modern Rock station played Living Colour's "Cult Of Personality", and the DJ said something about them being in the "Where Are They Now?" file. I wanted to call up the station and tell the guy, "Where are Living Colour? They put out an album a year ago called 'Stain', you oughtta check it out."
3. Hootie & the Blowfish. "Hold My Hand" was a song that got started on Modern Rock stations before it made its way to Contemporary Hits Radio. But the first time I heard it, I thought, "This is not Alternative." I think the only people who could try to make a case as to why it would be Alternative would be the kids who didn't know better. They're Mainstream Rock through and through.
4. Sheryl Crow/Jewel. I'm not really sure how these women got lumped in with Alternative either. I find it funny that both of them and Darius Rucker are now singing Country, or the music that is referred to as Country these days.
5. Either ignorance or no respect from the "kids" towards the people that paved the way. As mentioned elsewhere in this blog, I first got into Alternative well before "Nevermind" made it cool, so I tend to lean more towards '80s Alt. I'm also a history nut, especially when it comes to Rock music. At the end of 1994, I was still a few years away from buying a Psychedelic Furs CD, but I really dug the few Furs songs I had heard, including three that got regularly played on the local Modern Rock station. I also really liked the first single from Richard Butler's new band Love Spit Love, called "Am I Wrong". In March 1995, my brother and I went to see Live, with Love Spit Love and Sponge opening. Sponge seemed to be fairly well liked, but Love Spit Love didn't make quite as good an impression on some people, most likely due to Richard Butler's flamboyance, and others because, honestly, they weren't great, especially compared to the Furs, but most of the people who were coming to see Live probably didn't give a shit about or had never heard of the Furs anyway. Apparently, on one side of my brother was me geeking out over Richard Butler, even going so far as yelling "RICHARD!!!", and on his other side were some dudes calling Richard a fag. It seems like I yelled something back about how this guy was in The Psychedelic Furs, or being a legend, or something. I do seem to remember that being an overall disappointing night, and should've been the moment I said, "We blew it." One of my hopes was that Alternative Rock would somehow make people more open minded, but, eh, not so much. Hell, I know people who do listen to legit Alt Rock who are pretty staunchly Conservative. And then there's Representative Paul Ryan, who claims to have been a Rage Against The Machine fan. Dude, did you even bother listening to their lyrics?
6. To be honest, I don't know how many people in the Louisville area during the mid-'90s listened to the local Modern Rock station (105.9Q-Too/WXNU) compared to the mainstream Rock station (100.5 The Fox, now at 93.1), but it seemed like Fox listeners had 105.9 listeners way outnumbered. I could understand the older people who were into hair bands or arena rock listening to The Fox, but not the kids I went to school with. It's like, did they know there was an alternative and didn't like it, or did they even know it existed? I guess some people just don't like exploring the dial in hopes of hearing something good on the radio, but people around here seem to be content with mediocrity.

Taking most of February off.

I took a leave of absence for most of February, mostly so I could clean my room, work on some other things, and because I was afraid that I would lose all of my personal time if I didn't, due to having to stay home because of the Winter weather. I probably wouldn't have taken the leave if I hadn't had enough money saved up to pay the bills through mid-March. We got hit with some Winter weather during my first week off, so I did a fair amount of shoveling. I also got the room cleaning done during that first week. That room is the cleanest it's been in at least two or three years, but there is still a lot of stuff in it. But a lot of that stuff will be going with me when I move out.

We actually had decent weather during my second full week off. I did quite a bit of getting out, especially for stuff I normally wouldn't get to do because of my work schedule. I wish I had had more time for writing. I still had a tendency to want to spend ten to twelve hours in bed, which I still believe to be a side effect of Cymbalta.

For the most part, I was pretty chill during my time off. I already knew that my job's hours and living too far from civilization are significant sources of stress for me, it was just made even clearer while I was off. Some of us just aren't meant for the rural life or for spending half our waking hours at work. The latter is pretty much a necessary evil, especially if I want to eventually become independent, but at least I can do something about the former.

2013 in review, and 2014 so far.

2013 was basically a blur. It consisted mostly of working and sleeping, with occasional instances of movie watching and hanging out with my girlfriend/ex.

I managed to work a day shift most of the year, and it proved to be a failure. I went over how day shifts are hypothetically supposed to be in my previous entry. Since shows factor into that, I'll mention that I think I went to see three non-local bands all year, The Who, Soundgarden, and D.O.A.. The Soundgarden show was great, even better than I expected, but was it really worth $74 ($59.50 + $14.50 Ticketbastard charge)? I don't know. $60 is a lot to charge just to see one band. Now, if it had been Soundgarden AND Alice In Chains, then it would've definitely been worth it.

One thing about day shift that I realized I hate is how I typically tend to get up at 4:30 in the morning on my work days, but on some days off, especially Saturdays, I don't even go to bed until around 4 in the morning! Then I get up anytime between 9:00am and 1:00 or even 2:00pm. How late I stay up on Sunday nights depends on if a new episode of The Walking Dead is on or not. If it's on, I'll stay up until 10 or 11:00. If not, then I'll go to bed around 9:00. A Sunday was virtually wasted. Then I'll have to get up at 4:30 or so the next morning. Hell, I figure that if I must have no life during the work week, then I might as well go back to working nights.

I don't really like New Year's Resolutions, but the main thing I hope to do in 2014 is spend less and save more, so I can get the hell out of my mom and dad's house. After my post-birthday shopping binge, I really had no desire to do any spending after that, even for Christmas, but then I heard that the FYE in Mall St. Matthews was closing due to being outbid for the space. Going out of business means discounts, and I have a hard time turning down going-out-of-business sales. I think I'm pretty much done with binge-spending, especially since I have nowhere left to put this shit.

Back in March, I mentioned that 93.1 The Fox went from Modern Rock to Active Rock. That definitely made the year less fun than it could have been. Of the bands they play now that they didn't play during their Modern Rock years, the only band that I even halfway like is Volbeat. Thank gods that Louisville still has 91.9 WFPK, pretty much the only station that keeps me in the Louisville area.

One of the few good things to come out of 2013 was my new cat, who I've named Rascal. I might upload some pictures of him in the future. He just showed up in my dad's garage one day. At first, we kind of hoped he would just move on to somewhere else. Then we decided to keep him as a garage cat. Eventually, he would make his way into the house. When it started getting colder, and my mom and dad made fewer trips to the garage, I convinced them to let him stay in the house. He's so freakin' cute and silly that I can't help but giggle whenever I see him. By the way, most of this paragraph was typed with one hand since he was sitting on my shoulder.

2014 has so far been a disaster. The actual celebrating of the New Year was okay, but the rest of the first day of the year sucked because I didn't have a drop of alcohol, and still managed to feel like shit in the morning! Probably had to do with having to get up at 3:30 in the morning on New Year's Eve, and not getting to bed until 3-ish in the morning on New Year's Day, then getting up around 10:00 that morning. (Note: Most of the first few paragraphs of this entry were written on New Year's Day, and the third paragraph was inspired by my "hangover.") New Year's Day fell on a Wednesday, which is a normal day off for my shift. They let the other two shifts, who normally do work Wednesdays, have New Year's Day off. I was hoping they would give my shift New Year's Eve off since we're normally off on Wednesdays, and so my seven-day vacation could turn into a nine-day one, but they made us come in. They let us all leave early, but my shift got the shaft since the other two shifts got to have four days off in a row.

I put in for a transfer to night shift. I didn't get it because they said they had enough people. They don't have near as many people on night shift as on day shift, how the hell could adding one more person hurt? What the fuck? Guess I'll have to put up with day shift for at least a few more months.

I was over Winter well before it even began, namely, when we had a cold snap in mid-November around the time of my birthday. This has been the most miserable Winter for me since 2004, my first Winter in Kentucky after moving back here from Austin.