Snobbin: Beautiful Trash in the Pop Culture Gutter

Gilman Street bootlegs are a funny thing. Many times the sound quality is bad because they were recorded by audience members by any means necessary. For example, Lint Rides Again , which chronicled the last Operation Ivy (interestingly enough they played with an embryonic Green Day) show has fairly poor sound quality, but is listenable. Most sound better than earlier hardcore bootlegs, especially if they were taken from the soundboard. Regardless of sound quality, the energy level and enthusiasm at these shows makes them worth a listen. Songs are debuted, loose sloppy versions of early songs are auditioned for an enthusiastic audience, an errant cover song will slip out as if by chance or happenstance. Green Day shows are no exception. The between song banter is as interesting as historical chronicle and the list of later fan favorites that the band plays is exemplary. The crowd knows many of these songs, even as Billie Joe Armstrong continually plugs Kerplunk . The album had be...

I'm sitting here listening to Charlie Rich's 1974 LP, The Silver Fox on this snowy evening, drinking hot cocoa, and once in awhile glancing at the snow as it drifts slowly to the ground. The record came out shortly after his countrypolitan breakthrough, Behind Closed Doors , but surpasses that overproduced, yet very satisfying album. Rich feels at ease on this one, telling stories about his development as an artist. The Billy Sherill production does not seem as overblown, and Rich's natural delivery anticipates the MTV Unplugged performances of a decade  and a half later. He does an interesting medley that includes classical pieces he learned as a child, a satisfying bluesy version of "Don't Put No Headstone on My Grave," and a rocking and rolling version of the song "Break-Up," which he had recorded earlier for Sun Records. Rich was a musical chameleon who excelled at many styles and it is never more evident than on the Medley's choice mix of s...

I wasn't originally entirely taken with Scott H. Biram. He wrote quite exceptional country and blues songs that were filtered through a lo-fi vibe that recalled later era Hank the third and Joe Buck. I didn't see the passion and originality at first. Biram is revivalist, but brings real soul and dedication to his bluesy rave-ups. I first heard the song, "Go Down Ol" Hannah" from his 2009 record, Something's Wrong/Lost Forever on shuffle mode. It sounded like a vintage 1930's blues song. I actually asked myself whether it was John Lee Hooker or Lightnin' Hopkins. When I looked and saw that it was Biram I was amazed. Like he was channeling an old blues singer, he gives his all and makes the song sound like an original even though it has really good production for a Biram album as most of them are fairly lo-fi. By the next song, he is as dirty as ever. As a one man band, he not only can bring different styles at a drop of a hat, but is clearly ca...

Right after school Cecil grabbed his shotgun from his father's rifle cabinet and headed out the door. He took his old BMX out of the garage and slung the gun over his back. He pedaled the bike as fast as he could. Small for his class, he was still waiting for a growth spurt. His grandmother had told him that sometimes it happens later in life. But he wasn't waiting until eighteen or twenty-one. He had outgrown his shit hole town already. He spent most of his time out on state land shooting squirrels or just walking. There was nothing at home that equaled the thrill of just being out in the woods, nothing that equaled the thrill of being among the pines and oaks. He was master of all he surveyed out here. No one came to bother him.             He pedaled his bike down Wilson Road past house after house all of them empty because no one was home from work or school yet. Out here the paint was chipped and the yards were filled wi...