Brilliant Corners

I'm only around halfway through Michael Azerrad's book Our Band Could Be Your Life and two things are becoming more and more apparent as I complete the book.

One, there are a lot of bands I never gave a true listening to. Of the many bands covered in the book, I have only listened to a few: The Minutemen, Sonic Youth, and Fugazi. I have heard _of_ all or most of the other bands mentioned in the book, but for some reason I never picked up an album of theirs. I now want to own the full catalog of Hüsker Dü, The Replacements, Black Flag, Minor Threat, Mission of Burma, and The Butthole Surfers. And I haven't even finished the book yet.

Second, I'm inspired. Damn inspired. Spending months in a cramped van or car traveling the country, city to city, sometimes playing for an audience of five for one thing only: doing what they love, making and playing music. Yes, bands have been doing this for ages, but the case with many of the bands in this book is that they were playing music that wasn't popular at all. Punk and hardcore bands faced harassment from the police, the clubs, and by the population at large.

In order to get their music heard, they created their own music labels, booked their own shows, and played the PR game with radio stations and zines. The networked amongst themselves, promoted each other, and worked menial jobs so they could eat, since they often made no money from the music they played. It was all for the music; that was what was most important. They didn't wait for anything to fall into their laps. They had to work hard for everything.

Oh yeah, and that photo at the top; that's me from years and years ago playing in a band called Tarlo. I'm rockin' the Telecaster in the basement of a music store in Wichita Falls, TX. We opened for a band that played Metallica covers. The photo was taken by my good friend Chip Somodevilla, who has since moved on to taking pictures of more famous folks.