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Three signs of age, and a question

Only opening the mail yesterday did I realize the conjunctions of my musical past were beginning to collide.

There, in a plain brown envelop, I found an expanded edition of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. As Peter is wont to point out, the first review of the Ryman show the performers used to wrap that project, filmed for what became Down From the Mountain, was reviewed in our pages. I can remember hearing somebody at Lost Highway tell me, when I went by to pick up a live photo to adorn the review, that the soundtrack had already sold 70,000 copies in France, and they hoped to do somewhat better in the U.S. But they clearly weren't confident. This re-release marks the tenth anniversary of that phenomenon.

Not in my mail, because I long ago fell from those lists, is the revised and expanded twentieth anniversary celebration of Nirvana's Nevermind. I still have my original copy, which you can tell is an original because the first 60,000 pressed by Geffen didn't have the bonus track of noise at the end.

And, in the coming edition of Bust is a terrific photo spread featuring Frances Bean Cobain, who is somehow now old enough to be tattooed and featured in a magazine photo spread.

My question, this morning, is this: In our increasingly diffuse culture, is there any release this year which will resonate so deeply as to warrant this kind of attention in a decade?

Tags: age, alden, brother, cobain, o

Comment by Kim Ruehl on August 19, 2011 at 9:05am: No. There are some damn good albums out this year, but I don't think there's one release which will have that kind of culture-shifting impact. The internet has facilitated all of us fragmenting into niche communities (like this one - which I think is good for a lot of things, but not everything, obviously). We don't experience the same thing all at once anymore, unless it's a major news event. I don't believe it's impossible for some artist to come along and transcend all of that - in fact, I hope someone figures out how sooner than later, but I don't think it'll be any artist who's already known. Much like what happened with Kurt Cobain, it'll have to be some random kid who's so had enough of this shit, and is so in-tune with their artistic prowess, they can wallop us all at once. Had Lady Gaga not gone first for the mainstream, I think it could've been her but now it's too late - her stuff is basically thoughtful, artful pop candy.

Comment by Jim Moulton on August 19, 2011 at 1:32pm: I have to agree with this one. I remember that topping the country charts forever, without airplay,another thing, I miss the physical stuff you would get as a reviewer in that era that has disappeared,like 8x10 artist pics, followup on the album success like Grant is talking about.

Comment by Jack on August 19, 2011 at 1:54pm: Sure, there eventually will be. I think one of Paul Simon's lyrics in Graceland was "every generation throws a hero up the pop charts". Not that Paul's an authority, but that seems historically accurate to me. And when it does happen, who knows, maybe we'll be too old to realize it, but the kids will. Am 51. Best I can tell, grunge was an uninteresting minor footnote in musical history and Nirvana was the most successful of a lackluster bunch of bands, yet their legend seems to negate my impression. Anyway, a 20th anniversary edition isn't that big a deal, is it? Who hasn't had one? The labels need money.

Comment by Mr Edyoulis on August 19, 2011 at 2:37pm: I think the timing will never be duplicated. O Brother came at just the right moment. Ironically because there is music now (Decemberists' The King is Dead) that I feel is more visceral and pertinent than the collection of tunes on OBWAT. But it took TBone to shove our noses back into the dish of our own culture and realize the richness of it.

My prior screed on this topic can be found at

www.nodepression.com/profiles/blogs/ten-years-after-o-brother

Comment by Hal Bogerd on August 19, 2011 at 3:03pm: Culture shifting or not, I wish, in this instance we could stop recycling the same old shit.

The record industry is imploding and their solution is selling me an expanded edition of an album I already bought as double disc with maybe a "bonus" dvd about the making of the deluxe edition.

Do I ever need the tracks that weren't good enough for the intial release? Nope. I can't think of any rerelease that includes anything essential.

Comment by Hearth Music on August 19, 2011 at 5:46pm: Dang, what Kim said. She nailed it.

Comment by David Houldcroft on August 20, 2011 at 6:02am: It's possible but we'll need a decade of perspective! Never mind might have been less defining had Kurt stayed with the world and who knows might have made better albums as Dave Grohl exerted influence.

Comment by Easy Ed on August 20, 2011 at 6:26am: It's an interesting question to play with and ponder, and at this moment in 2011 it doesn't appear that there's anything out there that will pack that cultural tidal wave. But to use a worn out phrase, shit happens. Iconic music is often percolated along with other world happenings or events, such as the Beatles releasing a single shortly after the assassination of JFK, or simply great marketing plans. This diffused culture and the niche communities they have incubated might make it a little harder for us to see or find something life-changing at the moment, but history has shown that cream often rises to the top. Perhaps we are just living in a world of skim milk at the moment.

Comment by denton fabrics on August 20, 2011 at 6:31am: I don't necessarily disagree with Jack but I think that in Nevermind's case, its "greatness" lies mostly in its social impact more so than in its music. The sum of its parts (the songs) were less than its whole (the album, the band).

Comment by Grant Alden on August 20, 2011 at 12:48pm: Hmmm...if I follow Kim's logic accurately, that means we have simply found a different (electronic) mechanism to sort ourselves into tribal units. This always makes me uncomfortable, because tribes/nation states/corporations/high schools always wish to believe god loves them best. Because group conflict is much less exacting than the exchange of ideas. Because the only way this particular North American experiment in democracy makes sense is if we function as an active melting pot. If the internet is allowing us to retreat to tribal units of like-minded individuals, then, it seems to me, we're not melting much.

Having built my career [sic] as a music critic on the flames of grunge, it is interesting to see how Nirvana (in particular) has aged in the minds of the listeners here. My memories of Nevermind are deep and personal and I do not revisit them, have not played the album (at least I don't think) since Cobain's body was found. That's not some fanboy weeping; rather, I simply cannot listen to and enjoy the music having been so plainly confronted with what it cost to make. (I am beginning to have the same problem with football.)

But having been on guest lists for several decades, I will say only this: Nirvana, on every occasion I saw them (save for their second show in Seattle, at which they were awful), were transcendent. Even their last Seattle show, when the madness was well afoot. Cobain's voice, heard in seats across the arena, made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Nirvana, Mudhoney, and Soundgarden (and I saw those two far more often) were astonishing live bands. I think, though I rarely have occasion to listen, that I would find their albums and singles held up tolerably well to that memory.

Just for fun, and before I go shower the grass clippings off, let me try this: The best shows I can remember having seen today. Not in order, tho more or less in chronological order...

John Cale, CBGBs, NYC, December 1979

Pearl Harbour & The Explosions/The Jitters, the Showbox, Seattle, 1980

Tina Turner, the HUB Ballroom (University of Washington Campus), 1981, I think

John Prine, Parker's Ballroom, Seattle, mid-1980s

The Ganelin Trio, the Fabulous Rainbow Tavern, Seattle, mid-1980s

Lyle Lovett, Parker's Ballroom, Seattle, ca. 1987

Jimmy Dale Gilmore, every chance I got, beginning in the late 1980s

Robyn Hitchcock, every chance I got, beginning in the late 1980s

Soundgarden, NYU, 1989 or so

Mudhoney, opening for Gwar in New York on Halloween after CMJ, must have been 1989

Nirvana, Seattle Center Arena? 1993?

Whiskeytown (really, just Ryan and Caitlin) at the Exit/Inn, Nashville, 1998? That's a funny gap there.

Steve Earle & The Del McCoury Band, the Station Inn, Nashville, three of their five nights there in whatever year that was

Down from the Mountain, the Ryman Auditorium, 2001? Whenever that was. Funny how the dates get less precise the closer they get to the present.

Buddy Miller, every single chance I've gotten since 1997 or so...

I'll stop there. Meaningless exercise in memory failure. I should go make jalapeño thingies and get on with the day.