saw a japanese band called melt banana last night, at the brighton bar in long branch, nj. i mention this because they are the future of music. they're unbelievably hard, fast, noisy, and yet, very, very poppy, in that poly styrene/x-ray spex kinda way. basically, they're accomplishing handily what bands like atari teenage riot are still trying to nail, and they do it without heavy electronics. just guitar, bass, drums, and vocals, for this fine bunch of youths. they're right now (opening for the melvins, and then doing some solo dates), and i highly recommend seeing them if you get the chance, as there wasn't a person in the bar last night who didn't leave with a smile.
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a quick record review:
obligatory, tacky, comparing this to other bands dept.: if you like front 242, earlier front line assembly, a split second, and older wax trax label industrial stuff, this is definitely for you.
final score: *** 1/2 out of *****
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other notes for this lovely edition of collector times: hey. i guess you don't have to wear a trenchcoat, play quake, or listen to kmfdm to open fire on people in a public place, eh? from what i've read about the fella who did it, he seemed more like a "members only jacket, slingo, and kenny g" kinda guy. >:D
on a serious note, maybe, just maybe, as this happens more and more, people will get it through their heads that it's this whole country that's screwed up beyond recognition right now, and doing away with "the violence in entertainment that's corrupting our children, and must be eliminated" isn't going to solve any of the problems.
art and entertainment have, throughout history, mirrored the social, moral, and political climates of the day, and everything currently happening in movies, on television, in popular music, in video games, and in books (hey, does anyone still read those?
just checking...) is a reflection of what's going on around us.
the one notable current exception to the "reflection of society" rule seems to be bigotry and racism, unless the situation portrays the racist or racists in question, either learning their lesson, or meeting a violent end at the hands of the "righteous".
thankfully, for the sake of free, independent thought, the "if we make believe this doesn't exist in pop culture, it'll go away in real life" mentality of anti-racists has finally had some notable, well-spoken assailants, such as chris rock, quentin tarrantino, and stone and parker of "south park" fame (along with george carlin, who's been doing it for years, but his opinion doesn't count, because he HATES whitey. ;D).
there was a similar bout of rampant storyline revisionism during the "say no to drugs" reagan-era 1980's, when it seemed like almost overnight, the drug-crazy antics of cheech and chong, and half the T&A "teenagers getting laid" movie characters disappeared. cheech and chong broke up, true, but why would gratuitous, unrepentant drug use disappear from what seemed to be all teen and adult comedies? even bret easton ellis' "less than zero" was re-written for theatrical release with a sappy, melodramatic "tragic drug death" ending. a smaller side effect of another 1980's event, the outbreak of AIDS, also seemed to affect the afore-mentioned "tits and ass movie" genre, but not as significantly, because, let's face it, you take sex out of the hands of the people, people will revolt. how else would "magic: the gathering" have been created?
ultimately, any time american society attempts or has attempted to "clean itself up", it's backfired in a major way. let's face it, all the rise in drug use throughout the 1990's needed as an excuse was a president that didn't inhale, and kurt kobain writing a few pop songs. the recent political trend of satanizing anything remotely resembling prejudice will eventually backfire in a pretty bad way (and we can safely wager that jerry springer will get mad ratings when it does). and, finally, even the recent crackdown on the crime of pedophilia seems to be creating a trend in pop culture of objectifying and sexualizing underaged and young-looking girls (britney spears in music, dominique swain since her "lolita" role and natalie portman in films, and a bunch of others in various sectors of pop culture, but that's another subject for another day). do this to violence, and shit's gonna "get medieval", to borrow from mr. tarrantino.
there's always the question of motive. why would people want to subject themselves to all this violent imagery? well, i do so hate to answer a question with another question, but here goes: can anyone really blame someone for venting vicariously through watching, listening to, playing, or reading something with violent content, in a world where politicians, authority figures, and the rich openly flaunt their illegal, immoral, corrupt, inept actions, and spend billions of taxpayer dollars legitimizing them? a world where 13 year old girls whore themselves out for bumps of special k, and don't mind so much, because it's not as bad as what their relatives did to them? a world where the dating pool is looking more and more like a bunch of people exchanging resumes, bank statements, and lists of drug connections? a world where people sell off stock in record numbers because the $4.5 billion dollars the company's earned this quarter just isn't up to "expectations"? in short, a world where people are feeling more and more like they have nothing to lose? the defense rests on your face, your honor.
one of the things most vital to the human spirit is escapism, be it through a video game, a book, music, a movie, daydreaming, sexual activity, or, yes, even through chemical stimuli. without the ability to blow off steam, and leave behind our earthly troubles, we become a planet filled with miserable sons of bitches. to quote bill bixby, "you wouldn't like me when i'm angry."other countries seem to have gotten past a lot of our problems with aesthetics of violence, sex, drug use, and other facets of human life that have been around this world longer than organized religion or politics have, and yet, we wage the same stupid arguments against whatever the current "great satan of the world" is this month. have the powers that be ever opened a history book and checked out how things like prohibition, laws against abortion, asian-american internment camps, and so on ended up hurting, and even killing innocent people? i guess not. granted, some of them were too busy not inhaling, and not having sexual relations with interns, but what's a well-read guy like connecticut senator joseph lieberman's excuse?
dunno if any of the above actually went anywhere, but look on the bright side: because i was busy writing down my somewhat rambling opinions, instead of bottling them up inside, i didn't shoot anybody. then again, if i really felt like shooting someone, i could always just put on a emperor CD and play quake. ;)
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damn, i'm long-winded. lemme see, is there any other ground i can cover this month? oh yeah. heh. this is funny. all of you need to go to and check out all the cool games, especially . pico is especially relevant to this month's column. >:D
ok. i'm out. werd.
-s
Scott Crawford can STILL be reached at sdcrawford@earthlink.net, or, if you're feeling especially daring and your mommy and daddy say it's ok, go to and visit his home on the web.
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