Tuesday, March 22, 2005
np: the jam - all mod cons
am i the only person that sees the connection between skip prosser and jiggs of bringing up father?
i've recently been re-reading chapters of our band could be your life: notes from the american indie underground 1981-1991. choosing just 13 bands to sum up such a triumphant period in american popular music is really tough, especially when you have the audacity to use two bands that share a key member (minor threat and fugazi). but michael azerrad does a good job of picking the bands that really mattered for one reason or another. black flag, for founding member greg ginn's SST record label alone, is a key figure. the minutemen, with their blue-collar work ethic. hüsker dü, who brought melody to hardcore. and my personal heroes, the replacements, who made it okay to cop to liking pop music and classic rock while still wearing your heart on your sleeve to boot.
the other bands in the book that i didn't mention (beat happening, sonic youth, dinosaur jr., the butthole surfers, mudhoney, mission of burma and big black) are just as important for various reasons, but aside from the replacements, my opinion on the other bands vary. i adore sonic youth, but mostly their post-daydream nation work, which is not the era that the book concerns itself with. big black is really raucous and fun, but only on occasion. i don't dislike any of the bands, but some earn a decidedly large "meh" from me as far as my opinion is concerned.
so the question is: who were the also-rans of the 80s american underground? who else really mattered? leave your nominations, and reasons, in the comments.
