I don’t know much about Rick Ele, save that he sends very long, informed emails about obscure noise bands to the pdxdiyshows mailing list, and hosts a radio show on KDVS in Davis, CA. When I was growing up in smalltown Auburn, KDVS was like a beacon in the darkness, beaming weird music into a land of seeming normalcy (exploding meth labs and violent, drug-crazed youth notwithstanding). It’s nice to see the freak flag still flying there, and Rick has a hand on the pole.

His radio show “Art for Spastics” broadcasts every Tuesday from midnight to 2AM (that’s dedication!). Styles include “garage/scuzz-punk ineptitude, knuckledragging thug-rock of the lesser primates, high-falutin jackoffnoise, glitched-out electro booyar jamz, art-damaged skronkrawk, mis- appropriation of ‘Neo-No-Wave’ & hella contrived subgenre names”, which I’d say describes most of what’s interesting in underground rawk right now – and, er, booyar jamz. I listened to Rick’s show today, and it’s great, and you can hear it here.

fig 8: this is way too appropriate

Speaking of good descriptions of nebulous movements in modern music, I found this one over at PostEverything.com‘s Sackbut Blues webzine:

“We usher towards the door the received wisdom of the Beatles/Stones/Hendrix/- Who/Bowie/Clash timeline of music and turn instead to one that runs from Edgard Varese, through Stockhausen, The Dream Syndicate artists, Reich and Riley, the Velvet Underground, garage rock (the first time round), Kraftwerk, the Krautrockers and – yes, some of them, really – the English prog rockers… Roxy, Bowie (ok, he can join in – but only until 1977), Miles Davis’s and Herbie Hancock’s jazz/rock/electronic fusions, Wire, The Fall, industrial, synth-pop, No-wave, Sonic Youth and the Blast First bands, hardcore, acid house, techno and the Warp Brit-bleep and ‘Artificial Intelligence’ series, and onward… to the future!”

That’s a geneology I’ve been vaguely aware fo for a while now, and it certianly connects the dots between a lot of the music I’ve sought out over the years. Seeing it spelled out explicitly like this, it makes sense. It also gets me thinking. The connection is real, if debatable, but where does it come from? The word “mindset” comes to mind, but feels a little vague.

Personally (he says to his e-diary), I’m reminded of when I first discovered the twin beacons of IDM and rave culture, around the same time I found KDVS, and the feeling of raw newness that music gave me. I’d never heard anything like it, and neither had anyone else. These people were creating culture anew, turning away from the past and present, looking towards a future of their own making. I’ve been parsing the above sentence ever since.

I suppose this ideal resonates best with those who feel a little uncomfortable in the present, who wouldn’t mind a little fantasy, a little float up up and away from reality. Ambiguously straight and dorky, I was definitely one of them then, and still am (awesome girlfriend notwithstanding!!). Without getting too emo here, maybe “alienation from mainstream society” is the tie that binds. I don’t know, but I do know most of my musical heroes have been relative weirdos. See figure 9. It’s not easy being green – so why not be “artsy”?

NOTE: There’s a whole ‘nother discussion to be had here about the intertwining of identity and aesthetics (I define myself as “weirdo” hence “weirdo music” is the ideal), but that’s another day, or lifetime. In the meantime, I’m reading this and this.

fig 9: what's on the other side

PS: Also just found out that one of my favorite weirdos, Colin Newman, of Wire fame, has just released an EP with his new band Githead, and it sounds pretty rad. The album is released on swim~ records, Colin’s label. In keeping with the interconnectedness theme of this post, I remember checking up on that label’s website when I was first getting into electronic music, before I had any idea what Wire was/is. Trippy!