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by toomanyhelicopters_Archive
whuh? i guess it's a question of what kinda music scene you're involved in. to refer to jehu as obscure is very odd to me. it seems like they're rather well known, i mean, not *candlebox* well known, but almost. there's definitely such a thing as "mainstream indie", which is where you have a band like the pixies who everybody and their brother has heard of, though they've never been "mainsteam" that i know of. and blonde redhead doesn't seem like such a good example either, i mean, they just played two weekend nights in a row on the mainstage at the black cat, which means there's at least several thousand people in DC alone who know about them. as far as unwound goes, i guess they're probably more obscure, but i don't think i've ever talked about them to make myself feel or look cool. i've talked about them because i'm so glad someone introduced me to them (by telling me "you should listen to this band" when they, to me, were a complete unknown), because i think a lot of their music is awesome. i think she's one of the most interesting drummers i've ever heard. i love the guitar work. etc.
my take on it would be that, yeah, there are people who always try to out-obscure-band others to appear hipper. but also, and i truly believe this, for every one of those people, there's a hater out there who doesn't recognize that it's entirely possible to rave about an obscure band in the interest of letting people know about the band, because they love the band, not because they wanna seem cool. i guess the key distinction is the phrase "You listen to THAT crap?"
when i came to DC and was raving to all kinda people about how much i loved 90 day men, or haymarket riot, it wasn't because i wanted to seem hip to them. it's because i think these are great bands and people should know about them. i tend to look at it like this: if nobody talks about obscure bands, those bands will acquire a fanbase very, very slowly, because they'll mostly only get the attention of people who see them play. when i told people i've met here about haymarket riot for example, some of them actually checked the band's music out, and LOVED IT. now they'll go see them when they come through town. they'll buy the new album. i didn't do it to look hip. i did it because i love haymarket riot and i want people to hear their music, and i want them to succeed in reaching an audience, which i assume is most bands' goal.
i know this isn't what you were describing in your post, swat, but just as you are bothered by people who try and out-obscure folks to belittle them, i'm bothered by people who automatically dismiss anybody who recommends obscure bands to them as someone who's trying to be all hip. i'm not implying that you're like this, because your message doesn't even seem to suggest that you are, but it's a phenomonon that came to mind when i read your post. i agree with you totally, that being open-minded to new music is crucial. i also happen to believe that much if not most of the best music out there is being made by bands that are "obscure" to most folks. and i love it when people tell me about a band i've never heard of, especially when i listen to it and really dig the music. word of mouth rules.
ps - what's up with Gentle Giant? what do they sound like?