Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Dirt City Chronicles podcast episode 18

Here come old flattop, he come grooving up slowly. This joo-joo eyeball, is firmly focused forward. You got to keep up with the times, rummaging through crates online beats the hell out of pounding the pavement between terrestrial music stores.
My Space was a godsend. Give me what I like and what I like is having a catalog of local music at my fingertips.

Recording software that allows users to capture online streams as they ooze from the speakers, combined with broadband servers, totally turned the world around. Music downloads, once queued up round the clock on Audio Galaxy or KaZaa became a thing of the past. I could argue over the semantics, but I won't. Just don't give me that look.... we all did it.

The main drawback to Napster 1.0, Audio Galaxy and such, besides the shady legality of “Free downloads” was the absence of local musicians and bands (unless you happen to call NYC, Los Angeles, Minneapolis or Seattle home) My Space not only fixed that, it also allowed you to tag and search for music by locale.

If MySpace music was the 800 pound gorilla in the room, then YouTube quickly became the 12,000 pound elephant. Once YouTube to mp3 software was added to the arsenal of sound capturing apps, all hell broke loose. Quasi-legal downloads using quasi-legal software.... who saw that coming? Not the record labels, for sure.

YouTube, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, Reverberation, Last FM, iTunes, Amazon, Spotify... it's never been easier. Ala Verga! Icky & The Yuks are on Spotify... think about that. Archive the fuck out of this era, because the internet as we knew it back in 2000 is long gone and the web as we know it now, will soon be gone. To be replaced by some over regulated, homogeneous version of the networks that made television no fuckin' fun what so ever. Here we are now, entertain us.

You don't truly realize the musical depth and scope of Albuquerque until you go on YouTube and start searching. There's lots of it and it's almost all THERE. 60S garage punk from Lance Records, THERE. Every band that Randy Castillo ever joined, THERE. A truly obscure, cassette only album from 'Burque metal band Triax/Tryax (sadly, minus Troy Romero) THERE. The Crawling Walls full “Inner Limits” album from 1985.... also THERE. Linclon St. Exit's 1968 lp “Drive it”, released on Mainstream Records (Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes' label) THERE. Every band ever started by Scott Allen Parson, THERE. And you may ask yourself, where is this beautiful music? Not HERE, not today.                                          

Action Figure- The Dirty Hearts
Gettin' a Raise- Scenester
Libertines in my Scene- The Dirty Novels
Call to Rise- Stoic Frame
Idiot's Guide 2 Saying Goodbye- The Hollis Wake
Audience Reaction- The Dirty Novels
Anne Taylor Must Die- Hit By A Bus
Let's Start Over- Oh! Ranger
briansong- The Bellmont
Spinning the Roulette God- Stoic Frame
Cali Girl- Left Unsaid
Chewbacca- Oh! Ranger
Gasoline Barbie- Scenester
Situations- The Gracchi
The Suicide Kings- Left Unsaid
Pale World- Stoic Frame
Yum- Scenester
Contradiction- The Hollis Wake
Voice of Reason- The Eyeliners
Less Clouded- Hit By A Bus