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6/7/2004
EAR PLUGS
We had a swell time at the drive in Sunday with a full afternoon of bands,
burlesque, big monsters and b-movies. We took a few pictures so we'll probably
assemble a little review sometime this week, along with a mess of other stuff
we've been neglecting. Meanwhile, here's some recent email:
Despite how much you bewail and apologize for your frequent slackness, you
have reached a new level. For someone of your taste in alt/twang/rock not to
list in prophesy Webb Wilder, with Dodd Ferrelle and Blake Rainey opening, at
the Dork House(10 High) Sat 6/12 costs you great face.
degen SK
Editor’s note: I responded to SK directly about this, but then I realized I
should probably mention it in publication so others who question our choices can
get a glimpse behind the scenes at Degenerate Press. I don’t mean this in any
mean spirited way, it’s just a little sample of our twisted logic.
First off, I hate 10 High, formerly The Dark Horse Tavern Dungeon. I go once
every three years or so, after I’ve forgotten the last experience I had there,
and remind myself why I never see shows there. The place smells like a sewer.
There’s nowhere to sit. I can’t stand on my flat feet for two hours on concrete
any more. The drinks are overpriced and difficult to get in the swarm of yuppie
swine that cram into the joint. It’s a bummer because they do get some good
shows from time to time.
Secondly, we saw Webb Wilder in Jackson, MS, and weren’t impressed. In fact, we
walked out halfway through the show and stumbled into a much better show in a
bar across the street. Webb just couldn’t hold our interest with his mediocre
rootsy rockabilly/country stuff, but that was back in the day when you could
catch a fantastic local act doing the same type of stuff just about any night of
the week here in Atlanta, so our standards in that pigeonhole were high.
Dodd Ferrelle and Blake Rainey have sent us CD’s that were really interesting,
if I recall correctly, but they’re local, again if I recall correctly, so we
won’t recommend any show at 10 High that you’re likely to be able to catch
anywhere else anytime soon.
We say it in the Infrastructure section every episode, but here it is again: we
only post shows we recommend, shows worth the drive across town, worth the cover
charge, worth paying too much for drinks, worth the goddamn second hand smoke,
worth staying out too late, worth the occasional hearing loss, and in most clubs
in this town – worth standing on fucking concrete for two hours ‘cause nobody
seems to want to put seats in a club, even in the back where there’s nobody
standing anyhow.
And if you go to a show we recommend and you didn’t think it was worth it, we’ll
return the cost of this publication, heck, we’ll return ten times the price you
paid for our opinion.
SK sent us this response:
I could discuss WW (WAY loud by his own hand!) later, but Dork House actually
sounded pretty good a few times this year . Alas, Curtis recently moved over
to 9 Lives, which I always hated. The bright side is that DH didn't get worse
as much as 9Lives got better.
Dork House has 4 Bel Air Studios (Jason NeSmith) recorded bands Sat 6/5. The
evil Casper Fandango himself precedes Charm School, Ceiling Fan, & Homeroom.
Show starts "promptly" at 9:30. Rock and Roll time ain't what it used to be
since the city stepped in to protect everybody.
Degen SK
BLASPHEMY
So Reagan is dead. While the networks wax sentimentally about him, I have to
provide some minor dissent. Hey, it’s what we do!
The man had charisma, no denying that. And it’s become apparent that only after
a disaster like Nixon could a good, honest man like Carter get elected, and look
where that got him. And I’d say he was the only good, honest man we’ve had in
that office in close to 50 years. Carter lost reelection in part due to the
theft of his notes for the debate by the Reagan team. In part due to the deal
the Reagan team made to keep the hostages in Iran. Then when elected, the Reagan
team pardoned their own agent in the illegal activities just as Ford pardoned
Nixon. Reagan built up the cold war to the point where we had enough nuclear
weapons on the planet to turn the place into a ball of glass something like 12
times over. He was clearly suffering from Alzheimer’s during his second term,
was following the advice of astrologists, was apparently asleep at the wheel
while his administration waged secret wars all over the globe, and yet because
he could do it with a confident smile America loved him.
This is why Bush II is in office, and why Kerry still struggles despite things
like Bush being AWOL from the guard, election fraud, Enron and the manufactured
California energy “crisis,” ignoring warnings about 9/11, flying home his Saudi
friends when nobody else could fly, the Patriot Act, lying to the UN and the
American people about Iraqi WMD’s, Haliburton and war profiteering, lying about
the estimated costs of the war, exposing CIA agents for political revenge,
invading Iraq without a viable plan for the aftermath, having assholes like
Rumsfeld who covered up the torture of POW’s for three months, and this is just
the stuff we KNOW about.
Yet flash a confident smile and the American people will eat shit like it’s
caviar.
So I’d like to thank Reagan for recent and timely historical precedence for the
shit pie we’re swimming in now.
Eat one for the Gipper!
FILM FLAM
We got this from degenerate SS in response to last episode:
Yeah, I suppose you're right about the ridiculousness of The Day After
Tomorrow, but it was a small price to pay for the leftist overtones being
brought to the unsuspecting masses. I went to see The Day After Tomorrow
the day after it opened at North Dekalb Mall. It doesn't get much more
painfully mundane than North Dekalb Mall. We were late and could only find
three seats in the front row. The brat next to me kept making very loud
sucking noises on his sour fucking candy. Kids, you know I love 'em. It
was a mess. Cram packed full of the masses and their offspring. But the
people actually laughed loudest and cheered best at moments when one would
least expect them to. I was pleasantly surprised. A massive, collective
cheer went up during the "Mexican Border" scene as the news report claimed
that Americans were being turned away at border stops and denied entry into
the country. Ha ha! And the crowd laughed uproariously when Americans
were depicted attempting to cross the Rio Grande "backwards" INTO Mexico.
People were actually laughing. Loudly. It was awesome. I SAID ha ha!
Could it be? Finally a public collective response towards some sort of
glimmer of conciousness?! Bravo, middle America, bravo.
Now recycle or die.
Editor’s note: I have to wonder if this film did as much harm as good by making
global warming seem like such an unbelievable joke. But I don’t think any
propaganda will affect human behavior on a scale large enough to matter. Only
when we are inconvenienced by environmental damage will we consider changing our
patterns of destruction.
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