Snobbin: Beautiful Trash in the Pop Culture Gutter

Starting with Steve Shelley's basic drum fills before the brightly ringing guitars begin,  matching the drum beats, "Schizophrenia" from Sonic Youth's 1987 album Sister . builds in an orderly fashion that feels loose over Thurston Moore's vocals, slightly recalling the track "Bull in the Heather" from 1994's Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star.  Chiming guitars answer the drums and bass throughout the song's nearly five-minute running time. Sonic Youth became the masters of this droning guitar dialectic with their different guitar tunings (in this case, F#F#GGAA for Thurston and DDDAA for Lee Renaldo) that they used to build a style and sound that was nearly unique in the early 1980s but meshed well with similar guitar interplay by contemporary indie bands like Dinosaur Jr. and Built to Spill.  After the first vocal part, the song becomes more schizophrenic with squealing, harmonic guitar interplay and minimal cymbals. This continues through ...

Some of my fondest memories from high school include tuning into 120 Minutes every Sunday night on MTV. I discovered many bands, and in the process, developed my musical identity. I still have about fifty tapes of videos and interviews from the show, mostly from the 1990s. Watching them now is like a time capsule of how my musical taste changed. I wore those tapes out by watching my favorite episodes and videos over and over. One of my favorite episodes featured Matt Pinfield interviewing Rancid, mostly because the videos they picked and bands they recommended were so varied, including oi tastemakers like the Business, shoutouts to the Swingin' Utters, and discussions of Operation Ivy and reggae as rebel music. My taped copy of this show is unwatchable because it goes back and forth between speeds, so I am glad Eyesore Video Channel posted it on YouTube. Another favorite episode was when Henry Rollins and Jerry Lee Lewis co-hosted the show. This odd juxtaposition was even st...

1. Sebadoh - Secret Sebadoh never rests on their laurels. The kings of indie rock have created another album of astonishing depth in just the span of five songs. "Keep the Boy Alive" is a Lou Barlow paen to growing old and retaining one's love. "My Drugs" is a Loewenstein rocker about needing drugs: the line "can't hang with sober people they scare the shit right out of me" says it all. "Arbitrary High" recalls "Skull," sounding like a Bakesale outtake. "I Don't Mind" is a country weeper that might have found a nice place on the new Dinosaur Jr. record, yet easily trumps anything on that underwhelming platter. Loewenstein remains the hidden secret in Sebadoh, writing understated songs that often overshadow Barlow's more obvious offerings. Barlow's "All Kinds" is a short, sweet coda to a great, but all to short EP. I'm looking forward to a new full-length.  http://sebadoh.bandcamp.com/album/s...

Let's Wrestle - Nursing Home  Pure fun is the perfect way to describe Let's Wrestle's new album, "Nursing Home." At first glance, the faults are apparent. Perhaps, it is a little too silly, a little too sloppy, and a little too schlocky brimming over with silliness and inside jokes, the kind that all the nerds in the room can relate to. Yet it is these qualities that endearingly make it a great album. Like their fellow travelers on the jokey, but smart indie highway, Boat, Let's Wrestle knows how to have fun with a clever turn of phrase. An earlier song, "Music is My Girlfriend" took a tired cliche and made it seem new again. In a nutshell, this technique is the genius of the band. While "Nursing Home" never reaches the same heights, it is a fine attempt. The band is a little tighter, the jokes are more coherent, and the production values a hair better. While not attempting anything as virtuosic as the new Boat album, Let's Wrestl...