Ive been extremely conflicted watching the Sonic Highways series on HBO...its had me thinking about music a lot, which I guess is a good thing? Theres no doubt that there are fascinating people interviewed in it so far (from Steve Albini to Naked Raygun to Ian Mackaye to Buddy Guy to members of Trouble Funk) and has enough great live footage/scene histories to have me as hooked and inspired (while also feeling inadequate) as most any music doc Ive watched. Also, Im a sucker for seeing studios and seeing what geeks geek out on. Basically, at a certain point in the first two episodes, Ive totally bought in. But then, each episode ends with a Foo Fighters song whose lyrics seem to be some kind of wrapped-with-a-bow version of the complicated cities, scenes, musical styles and people weve just spent time with...it feels creatively bankrupt, kind of remedial scene anthropology, maybe a little exploitative (?) and more about a personal brand than the music that means so much to the person behind that brand. I cant tell if Im mad at Dave Grohl for inserting himself in there, in that important rock & roll history, or sad because I can see myself in him - nothing more than a geek wishing to be 1/2 as profound as the throwaway lines from his heroes/interview subjects. I cant tell if its a worthy project that they are failing at artistically (which I can empathize with) or something that just shouldnt have happened in the first place. Ill probably keep watching for the times they try to record patch cords getting unplugged and such. But, more than anything, thinking so much about music this morning...I realize how much I miss the Western Coffee Shop and how important it is to my making music, good or bad. Black bean beef and peppers on steamed rice. Thatd probably lead to a cool chord progression right now.
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 19:22:57 +0000
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