¡Nevermind the Bollocks!

Firstly, I think I'm addicted to the upside down punctuation. ¡Thanks Apple for making it so easy to use Unicode!

Second, my roommate Nick is a pretty big fan of older punk music. So I've spent quite a bit of time watching documentaries on his two favorite bands, The Clash and The Sex Pistols. Last night I watched a pretty good one on the Sex Pistols. I was not only surprised to find out just how much of the whole "punk" thing really came from John Lydon, but also just how influential reggae was to the band. I suppose when you record one album in your career, and it's when you're still learning to play an instrument, the chances of expressing your influences are pretty thin. It's also surprising to discover how close the band were in their early careers.

I have to admit that the malaise I feel about music right now is, at least in part, inspired by being exposed to the history and music these people made. The honesty and passion with which they performed is at once inspiring and terrifying. It's hard to see that and then listen to music today (or yesterday) and stomach the lack of dedication to an ideal. Whether it be a social, political or spiritual idea. That belief that things can be better and the hope that through artful criticism the world can be made better seems so vital to truly good art. While it would be narcissistic to imagine that this is the first time in human history that art has been so closely aligned with commerce, it certainly feels that way at times.

I really wish that something would come along and turn my head around the way that Coltrane, Pollock, or Nabokov did. Perhaps this is just a wish for some external catalyst to force a change in either my art or my life in general. On the other hand, perhaps it's the realization that the study of music is truly and endless pursuit. Imagine how many songs have been written with the same three chords (most of rock 'n' roll, the blues, folk and a surprising amount of Western classical :). And people are still writing new songs with the same three chords! Composers have been exploring the possibilities of the violin for over four hundred years, and the guitar has yet to gain prominence as an instrument worthy of attention.