Musical Notes

I can always count on my good friend Dave to keep me up to speed with important music happenings.

He sent me a piece a while back on Steve Earle that gave me the opportunity to rant (rare, I know).

And just a few days ago, he sent me this piece from Rolling Stone on Mr. Earle. This is a better article, though I still have some problems with some of the author's assumptions (but hey, that's my problem -- should I necessarily expect music reviewers to be familiar with the major philosophical issues of the West? Probably not). This paragraph is indicative:

Even if his critics almost willfully misunderstood his song, Earle's refusal to view John Walker Lindh outside the context of the society that produced him provoked exactly the response he wanted.

Ah yes, "the society that produced him." Because we are all just products of our context, which we can never transcend. And THAT philosophical predilection is just an intellectual turnoff for me -- historicism, if you will, though the author probably doesn't realize it.

But I intimated I wasn't going to rant, and so I won't, because the BIG news Dave sends me today is that the Gin Blossoms have re-released their New Miserable Experience CD with 20 (!) bonus tracks, as well as a cd release of their previous indie recording Dusted.

I may have to go track those down at Cactus later (something the labels would have you believe no p2p user ever does).

(Update) Or perhaps I won't track down Dusted locally, since the "indie" record stores within walking distance of my place don't have it. Stores like Cactus bitch and moan about chain stores and Amazon, yet don't carry the lesser-known stuff that one might expect a niche store to carry. At least they have a good selection of Texas/Americana/Red Dirt stuff.

[Posted at 13:33 CST on 09/27/02] [Link]