Snobbin: Beautiful Trash in the Pop Culture Gutter

Every year I go camping when the leaves are changing colors. There is a certain mystique involved in packing up the car, making sure I have my tent and all necessary gear. I double check my list for all the "important" necessities: good craft beer, bottles of whiskey, a radio for tunes (if the campsite has electricity), swimming trunks for that balmy fall day, a fully stocked mp3 player (you never know when you might want to hear some powerviolence or garage rock -- not to mention obscure Texas psychedelia), fireworks, books of various kinds (including a handy volume on building shelters out of gathered twigs), just to name a few. I always meet a small tight-knit group of old friends at the campsite. We will stay up most of the night around the campfire bullshitting, but we will at least entertain the idea of doing more than staring at the fire.Our goal is to find a campground somewhere within comparative driving distance of each of our respective homes, so no one has to ...

 Stardeath And White Dwarfs: The Birth The Birth is a veritable lost psych masterpiece that is possibly on the same level as Easter Everywhere by the Thirteenth Floor Elevators or Forever Changes by Love. If it came out in the seventies, it would rank right up there as a lost classic, though probably never gaining the cache that those two records have achieved in hipster circles. Once Lenny Kaye released the first Nuggets comp, the garage rock genre was redefined, and lesser-known psych and garage bands, mostly famous in their local scenes, gained national recognition. Some of these even became radio staples in the newer “oldies” radio format, even when they didn't break into the charts nationally. If “The Sea is on Fire” found its way on to that classic compilation, it would have found its place in this pantheon. Startled genre fans would have played the tracks over and over again raving about it like it was “I Had Too Much Too Dream Last Night.” Then it would have b...