Soundscape #36: "What Are You Rebelling Against?"... "Whatever You've Got"

The other night I watched American Hardcore with a bunch of friends. It's a documentary about the american hardcore punk scene in the late 70s. What really struck me is not the riots and the violence that ensued during some of the gigs or the strong community that surrounded these badass pioneers of the punk scene. Instead, it was their conviction—some of them as young as 14-15—that the mainstream music at that time was not for them and they felt this need to rebel against the status quo of their times. And they gave it their all too. They embody the very first indie spirit if you think about it: making their own records, flyers, organising gigs and as Ian Mackaye (Minor Threat, Fugazi) said, sitting there and literally cutting, folding and gluing thousands of cd sleeves.

But if you think about it, youth is like that regardless of place or time; there is a single-mindedness that you have to admire. It made me think about what I was doing when I was 14-15... probably nothing much. My parents put me in a good school and I was expected to do well, go to university, find a good job, get married, have kids, grow old and die. These are the very same things that the hardcore punks of the 70s were rebelling against. Some things just never change.

For a while, I thought that was what I wanted too. I mean, it's so easy! I wanted a good cushy job that doesn't demand much, you know? Go to work, gossip a little with your colleagues, do a bit of work, email, have lunch and about 4pm, your boy/girlfriend calls and asks if you want to have dinner, you have dinner with said bf/gf, go home to watch some crap korean drama that you just can't miss, sleep, wake up, repeat.

But I can't. And I don't know why. Maybe I'm not wired that way. I did try that for a while (not the korean dramas though, please) and I can feel my mind slowly rotting away; I literally felt stupid. People ask me why? what the hell is your problem? And I don't know what to say. Thing is, I don't know what I want; I only know what I don't want. But that's another topic for a soundscapes episode altogether.



Playlist:
1. (0:00) Ted Leo And The Pharmacists - The Sons Of Cain (Living With The Living)
2. (3:59) Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit (Smells Like Teen Spirit)
3. (8:58) Nada Surf - Popular (High/Low)
4. (12:48) Jimmy Eat World - If You Don't, Don't (Bleed American)
5. (17:21) The Hold Steady - Your Little Hoodrat Friend (Separation Sunday)
6. (21:14) The Go! Team - The Power Is On (Thunder, Lightning, Strike)
7. (24:31) Green Day - F.O.D. (Dookie)
8. (27:22) The Thermals - How We Know (Fuckin A)
9. (30:42) Longwave - We're Not Gonna Crack (There's A Fire)
10. (33:12) And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead - Mistakes And Regrets (Madonna)
11. (37:05) Finch - What It Is To Burn (What It Is To Burn)

Soundscape #35: "Hello Moto"

Richard Stine. Get That Will You, (Year Unknown).

We are all so used to the mobile lifestyle that not having a mobile seems almost inconceivable. Text messaging too opens a whole new dimension of communication. From a simple "Oy, I'm here. Where are you?" to breakups to cries for help*, text messages eliminate face-to-face interaction; you don't even need to hear the person's voice!

Gone also are the days when people fix a place and time to meet—and keep to it. Nowadays I'm hardly on time for anything. If I don't think I'll make it on time, I'll text ahead to say I'll be late. If I'm early, I'll just roam around until I get a "Oy, I'm here. Where are you" message. It's weird to meet someone without a mobile. A friend forgot hers the other day and I actually had to stay at the agreed spot for a good 15 minutes. It felt really weird.

Being able to reach someone at any time you want also means that one cannot simply switch the mobile off. Hell, my mobile is also my alarm clock so I can't even switch it off at night. We are all so plugged in and it can only get worse from here. How are we to live our lives when life keeps barging in!?



Playlist:
1. (0:00) Saturday Looks Good To Me - Call Me
2. (3:27) Weezer - The World Has Turned And Left Me Here (Weezer Blue)
3. (7:49) The Strokes - The Modern Age (Is This It?)
4. (11:18) Ash - Angel Interceptor (1977)
5. (15:23) Mobius Band - The Loving Sounds Of Static (The Loving Sounds Of Static)
6. (19:29) Crooked Fingers - Call To Love (Dignity And Shame)
7. (22:52) Badly Drawn Boy - The Way Things Used To Be (Born In The U.K.)
8. (27:40) Dean & Britta - Say Goodnight (Back Numbers)
9. (31:32) Earlimart - Nevermind The Phonecalls
10. (35:11) Keane - We Might As Well Be Strangers (Hopes And Fears)
11. (38:22) Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism (Transatlanticism)

*if any of you should ever receive a "please save my sorry ass" text from me, drop everything, call me immediately and get me out of whatever situation I'm in!!

Soundscape #34: "Darkness, And Nothing More"

Lucian Freud. Reflection (Self-Portrait), 1985.

We all love a horror story once in a while to scare us out of our wits; stories about ghosts, aliens and ominous signs of evil to come. But have we asked ourselves what exactly is evil? It's not just the opposite of all that's good; that would be too passive a definition. It's something more and yet if you think about it, you can't really quantify it either: like a void or a black hole. On the flip side: what is good? Goodness is not just not doing bad things. The notion of good, like that of evil, cannot be defined by its opposition.

People say that reading horror stories or watching horror movies has a cathartic effect. We scream our frustrations out in the process and this shakes us out from the inside. But the downside to this is that people get desensitised by all the portrayal of evil we read or see on screen (be it the big or the small one). We all think evil is so far away but you only have to look into a mirror to see pure unadulterated evil waiting to surface. What is truly evil is the fact that noone seems to acknowledge the fact that evil has to be in this world for good to exist. The line between good and evil is a tenuous one; one cannot exist without the other.



Playlist:
1. (0:00) The Libertines - Can't Stand Me Now (S/T)
2. (3:25) The Thermals - A Stare Like Yours (Fuckin A)
3. (6:11) Smashing Pumpkins - Bodies (Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness)
4. (10:23) Interpol - Evil (Antics)
5. (13:59) Arcade Fire - Black Mirror (Neon Bible)
6. (18:14) Bloc Party - Song For Clay (Disappear Here) (A Weekend In The City)
7. (23:05) Manic Street Preachers - Faster (Holy Bible)
8. (26:59) Nine Inch Nails - You Know What You Are? (With Teeth)
9. (30:43) Okkervil River - For Real (Black Sheep Boy)
10. (35:25) Bonnie "Prince" Billy - I See A Darkness (I See A Darkness)

Soundscape #33: The Devil Is In The Details

Georges-Pierre Seurat. Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte, 1884—1886.

In this increasingly complicated world, everyone's got his/her eyes on the prize, all looking out for No. 1. Everyone gets swept along by the pace of city life. We all want that big promotion, that new car and that cottage by the loch. In the race to be top rat, we had assimilated all the differences that made us individual and unique. Creativity, the sense of adventure and risk, the pioneering spirit to go into the unknown for its own sake—all the qualities that would stick out in a sea of John Malkoviches—have all been sandpapered down.

It's almost like we are robots programmed to do a certain set of tasks in a certain amount of time. We all think that the hard work we put in will be justified by the big reward, the big destination at the end of it all. But what about the journey itself? We all want the fastest and easiest way to get to where we want to go but often forget that the journey itself has a lot of things to teach us, and they are all just the little things in life. Like that cup of coffee you need to get through the day. Or the smell of the grass and the colour of the sky just before it's about to rain. The cup of tea right beside the book you're reading and the music that's playing in the background.

You know what? Fuck the big picture. Live for the moment, live for the now.



Playlist:
1. (0:00) Belle & Sebastian - Is It Wicked Not To Care? (The Boy With The Arab Strap)
2. (3:22) Teenage Fanclub - It's All In My Mind (Man-Made)
3. (7:02) The Broken West - Down In The Valley (I Can't Go On, I'll Go On)
4. (10:54) Flaming Lips - Do You Realize?? (Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots)
5. (14:27) Death Cab For Cutie - The Sound Of Settling (Transatlanticism)
6. (16:41) Toad The Wet Sprocket - All I Want (Fear)
7. (20:00) Wilco - It's Just That Simple (A.M.)
8. (23:44) The New Year - Simple Life (Newness Ends)
9. (27:13) 18th Dye - Easy (& How We Got There First) (Tribute To A Bus)
10. (32:06) Earlimart - Nevermind The Phonecalls
11. (35:43) Evan Dando - All My Life (Baby I'm Bored)