I’m Going Where There’s No Depression…

In the early 1990s I, like so many grunge refugees, rediscovered our country roots through what was then called alt.country.  This was an odd, misfit genre full of what some now call “Americana” or “roots music”…but also included grunge, cowpunk,  (or even metal) influenced bands that had a certain earthiness or twang.  Many eschewed the increasingly high production values and pop outlook of the Nashville-dominated industry for a more lo-fi sound, frequently infused with a strong punk and rock & roll aesthetic. Lyrics could be bleak, gothic, or socially aware, but also more heartfelt and less-often followed the clichés sometimes used by mainstream country musicians.  In other respects, the musical styles of artists that fell within this genre often have little in common, ranging from traditional American folk music and bluegrass, through rockabilly and honky-tonk, to music that is indistinguishable from mainstream rock or country. The flagship magazine of the movement, No Depression, pointed out the problematic nature of the category when the said (on their bi-line) “covering alternative country (whatever that is).”

My alt.country journey began with Uncle Tupelo, the Jayhawks and Michelle Shocked…which lead to a steady diet of Gram Parsons, Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, The Old 97s, The Drive-By-Truckers…this was further re-enforced when I moved to Austin, Texas–ground zero for many alt.country acts.

But as I’m going through a major change in my life, I also feel that musically, my alt.country era is coming to and end.  I don’t mean that I’ll stop listening to the genre (Gram Parsons will always be near to my heart)…but that I think alt.country is drifting out of my major musical focus…I’m not quite fully sure where I’m drifting yet…but I am clearly drifting.

Uncle Tupelo’s 1990 LP No Depression is widely credited as being the first “alt.country” album…but the band broke up in 1994, with Jay Farrar forming Son Volt and others following Jeff Tweedy to form Wilco…Son Volt still sounds a lot like Uncle Tupelo (but sometimes with different production aesthetics)…But Wilco has moved to cover all new territory…By 2002 Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot established the band as both experimental and “1970s-influenced power-pop”…and the pop trend has been reinforced through  A Ghost is Born, Sky Blue Sky and Wilco (The Album). and side projects like Minus 5′s Down With Wilco.  Not only are bands like Wilco heading out of the alt.country fold…but now even the magazine-version of No Depression is no more (although an on-line community is still thriving).

I have found myself drifting along with Wilco into power-pop/songwriter territory. Unfortunately,  some reviewers have dubbed this genre “Dad Rock.” A title that is not meant to be flattering, but might bear some truth…especially as other, older bands now showing up on my recent playlists include Nike Lowe, Todd Rungren, Big Star, Bad Finger, the Cars, and ELO.  But other, newer, pop/rock (and poppy singer songwriter) bands have also crept into heavy rotation on my ipod: The White Stripes, Bishop Allen, Fiest, The Raconteurs, Regina Spektor, Sufjan Stephens, Vic Chestnutt, Clem Snide and Neko Case…even when I do buy new alt.country, it has a pop feel also …like Back Yard Tire Fire.

I’m even sympathetic with Shooter Jennings’ much maligned, new progressive rock-influenced album Black Ribbons (He’s also turning a bit away from his alt.country roots).

I’m still not sure what eventual form this shift will take…nor do I fully understand why my taste are shifting…but, one thing is clear…a new era is dawning in my life in more than one sense…and my music is changing along with it.

Last Man On Earth

Since the holidays I’ve been been getting used to some major life changes…and, like it always has during important segments of my life, music is playing an important role…You might recall that I had been channeling my angst about living alone through Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky album back in October 2007.  Now I cast about my iPod for some music to capture my many, changing, contradictory emotions…To my surprise there is an album that nicely helps me vent many of my feelings….

The Last Man on Earth (2001) is the sixteenth studio album by singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III, released on September 24, 2001 on Red House Records. According to his own liner notes, Wainwright entered a period of deep depression following a romantic break up and the death of his mother in 1997 …he believed he could never write again. Retreating to his mother’s cabin in the woods, he underwent therapy and gradually recovered, eventually recording the soul-baring Last Man on Earth album.

What I like about Last Man on Earth is its complexity…it is not just an angry album…or a sad album…or a hopeful album…but Wainwright captures the crazy cocktail of thoughts, ideas and emotions that someone wrestles with during a grieving process…for me, it’s grieving about losing a relationship and a way of life…as one reviewer puts it:

Granted, most albums about loss tend towards being grave, dark, and solitary affairs. However, Wainwright surrounds his lyrics with music that is subtly buoyant and uplifting, not to mention that at his best, he has a unique way of making his songs simultaneously heartbreaking and amusing.– http://www.musicbox-online.com/low-last.html#ixzz0m9RZWvDK

The albums working title was “Missing you”…the name of the first track…I’m feeling its lyrics at the moment, so I’ll post some of them here:

He don’t stay out anymore
No more coming in past four
Most nights he turns in ’round ten
He’s way too tired to pretend

Sure, you might find him up at three
But if he is it’s just to pee
Sometimes he’s awake ’till two
But that’s just ’cause he’s missing you
He’s lying there and missing you

Guess he’s just set in his ways
He does the same damn thing most days
And there’s seven twenty-fours a week
With lots of down time so to speak
But he hardly glances at a clock
Since his routine is carved in rock
Man’s a machine, what can he do
Keep going on just missing you
Keep right on going missing you

And his teeth falls out, so does his hair
But in his dreams you’re always there
A jewel in his unconscious mind
A miracle, a precious find
But in the end he’s all alone
He wakes up and his jewel is gone
There’s a heaven and he knows it’s true
But he’s back on earth just missing you
And it’s hell on earth
Missing you
Back where he started
Missing you

Weirdness in Netflix suggestions…

I’ve become a big fan of Netflix (more about my particular netflix uses later)

But…I’m trying to figure out how liking Henry & June (the NC-17 film based on the unexpurgated diary of Anaïs Nin), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (the musical about the East German rock idol and victim of a botched sex change operation) or the Wilco documentary I am Trying to Break Your Heart (where the band implodes following a conflict with their record label) leads to Netflix suggesting the film based on the cool children’s book Where The Wild Things Are…any ideas?

I Hate It Here (When You’re Gone) 4:10

I love my job…I have a busy, challenging mix of teaching and research. I have 11 counties of cool archaeological sites wide open for my investigation. I have had (so far) good support from the main office of my organization when it comes to getting equipment, project support, and such…The only fly in the ointment is that my wife lives 5 hours away.

Now I am not in the worse situation…I have colleagues who live much further apart from their spouses–Arkansas to Florida, Baton Rouge to Berkeley, and (for awhile) I had a friend who taught in Virginia while her spouse worked in the UK. Hey, the new SAU Africanist historian’s wife is still in Senegal. However, those who know me well, know that I am not built to live alone…enter my new favorite song.

Sky Blue Sky is the sixth studio album by Chicago rock band Wilco, released on May 15, 2007 by Nonesuch Records. I bought it in May while I was in Florida working on the Kingsley Plantation project…but over the summer the album began to sink in. Many of you are familiar with Sky Blue Sky whether you know it or not–Wilco licensed six songs from the Sky Blue Sky sessions to a Volkswagen advertisement campaign, a move that generated criticism from fans and the media. But, to my knowledge, “I Hate it Here” was not one of the six (or maybe I have not caught that one yet). It has become my new “theme song” of sorts…

Let me set the record straight, however…I like Magnolia…the song is not about hating where you live…the song is about hating being without someone…Below are the lyricsto “I Hate it Here”…anyone who knows me will recognize me in “I try to stay busy…I do the dishes, I mow the lawn.”

I try to stay busy

I do the dishes, I mow the lawn

I try to keep myself occupied

Even though I know you’re not coming home

I try to keep the house nice and neat

I make my bed I change the sheets

I even learned how to use the washing machine

But keeping things clean doesn’t change anything

What am I gonna do when I run out of shirts to fold?

What am I gonna do when I run out of lawn to mow?

What am I gonna do if you never come home?

Tell me, what am I gonna do?

I hate it

I hate it here

When you’re gone

I caught myself thinking

I caught myself thinking once again

Have to try to keep my mind out of this

Try not to pretend

I’ll check the phone

I’ll check the mail

I’ll check the phone again and I call your mom

She says you’re not there and I should take care

I hate it here

When you’re gone

I try to stay busy

I take out the trash, I sweep the floor

Try to keep myself occupied

Cause I know you don’t live here anymore

PS: We are working on getting my wife a bit closer to southwest Arkansas and she has been able to telecommute for a week every month…so we’re working on it.