In the icy, dessicated heart of
Alternative Press--somewhere between
their cash-lusting concessions to the Limp Bizkit/Kid Rock machismo mob and
their trotting out of hardy old rock-crit warhorses (in transparent attempts
at reclaiming their onetime semi-respectability)--there still, occasionally,
sparks the spirit of underground discovery.
True, the once-indie Cleveland-based rag has idly watched its street cred evaporate
as it jumped on every mainstream-alt trend Madison Avenue could invent. But
from time to time, if you look closely--past the full-page ads for the latest
wannabe Korn ass-biters, beneath the advertorial suckups to MegaCorp electronic
gizmo manufacturers, inside the chunks of text vomited up in uncritical submission
to the suburban rap-metal demographic--you'll see that some people there are
still searching outside the corporate radar scope to find New Sounds.
And one of their favorite places to seek the fresh face of hip is right here
in Puddletown.
Of course, entire sectors of the Rose City rock scene already act like they're
the coolest sumbitches in the States. But apparently the many other segments
of the national population also feel that we are, indeed, as cool as we think.
Namedropping Portland seems to be a widely recognized indicator of indie hipness,
on par with bragging about how you're gonna down brews and jam with the Trans
Am lads over the weekend. So, for better or worse, when AP writes about
Portland, it's essentially their way of saying, "Yo, check our bad selves out--we
down on Portland town. Tha's where the cool-ass shit happens."
Clearly, for their February 2001 issue they felt a desperate need for extra
cred. Following a 12-month span in which valuable cover real estate was handed
to such "extreme" artists as Creed, Slipknot, Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach and the
Insane Clown Posse (all, like, totally alternative rockers, brah!), AP
had to stop the bleeding. And so: Portland. Land of enchantment, city of hipness.
Dig.
Take a gander at the array of local acts getting the soft-soap treatment from
AP's February ish:
* Those paragons of self-conscious cool, The Dandy Warhols, get
not one--not two--but three direct mentions: (1) Thirteen Tales from
Urban Bohemia was appointed the No. 10 album of 2000 and described as the
"grooviest musical patchwork quilt of the year"; (2) a sidebar interview with
Courtney Taylor somehow magically convinces the ever-humble frontman to admit
that Bohemia is his favorite record in the world and to credit his lyrical
abilities to his own "fucking genius"; and (3) even Nine Inch nabob Trent Reznor
lets drop in the lead interview that he'd just seen the Dandys play New Orleans
and they were "excellent" (although he didn't note whether his next album would
also be full of lifted Stones riffs).
* The mag's Lowdown section of Bands to Watch gives props to both King Black
Acid (proclaiming KBA's uncharacteristically concise new disc, Loves
a Long Song, to be a "balance of clever and commercial") and Man of the
Year (whose oblique connection to the Dandys--having Tony Lash produce their
record The Future--is also duly noted).
* Beaverton's locally beloved Helio Sequence get a hedging 3-out-of-a-possible-5
rating for their Cavity Search alb, Com Plex, which apparently is both
an example of "space rock [taken] to its most light-weight conclusion" and "drug
rock for lovers and sweethearts." Yes, but: Did you like it?
* Finally, Hochenkeit's worthy and weird new Road Cone record, 400
Boys, receives a quick but complimentary (4-out-of-5) review that claims
its "woozy, splendiferous kosmiche rock...will take you down gently into
meditative bliss." Maybe it's all that rain we're famous for.
Of course, despite the obvious cynicism one must feel for AP's crass
flirtations with P-Town's homegrown own, it's undeniably exciting to see locals
get widespread exposure. Right now, maybe some dude in Dubuque is swapping that
copy of The Marshall Mathers LP in his CRX's tape deck for the latest
burst of barbed emopunk from the Pinehurst Kids. Who knows? A slim chance is
better than none. And no doubt Hochenkeit's not complaining about the attention--even
if they do still have to compete for AP space with the latest Juggalo
outrage.
