I had originally picked out the title for this blog (a quote from the endlessly quotable Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes) because I was going to talk about this unfortunate scenario: when an artist hits a creative peak and all subsequent work seems disappointing in the shadow of that peak. I was going to talk about this scenario in the case of a few bands (The Hold Steady, The Gaslight Anthem, and Minus The Bear) who have released good albums this year that ultimately fail to shine because of the albums that have preceded them. I'll talk about it a little bit at the end of this post, but since I'm writing this blog today, June 9th, I decided I'd shift gears to something a little more broad and encompassing.
Today is my parents' anniversary. They've been married 38 years. My dad is 59 and my mom is 58. That means that my parents were married when they were 21 and 20, and that they've been married for over half their lives. Forgive me for spelling out the obvious, but this really astounds me, and I've known then for my entire life.
We live in a time where marriage has become sort of a farce. In the past, marriage was a vital, necessary part of adult life. It was integral to social advancement for both men and women. An unmarried man past his 20s had to have a damn good excuse as to why, and an unmarried woman past her 20s had to have a damn good source of funds to find a decent place in society. Now I'm not trying to ignore the whole love aspect of marriage. I'm a romantic at heart, and would never try to disregard what should be the most important factor in such a serious institution. But to ignore the so-called business side of marriage would be naive. Marriage was as an important life step as getting a first job, a first house, a first promotion/raise, and was probably often the impetus for such events.
These days, marriage in America is about as valuable as a junk bond. It can be very rewarding, worthwhile, and fulfilling, but mostly it's too unstable to put much confidence in. It's a well-known fact that the survival rate of marriages has hovered around 50% for the last decade, give or take, so let's move on to some more subtle and pervasive ways marriage has become a farce. I think reality TV is the worst offender: we have the Bachelor-type shows, the Wife Swap-type shows, the Say Yes To The Dress-type shows, and the Bridezilla-type shows. Each one of these shows slowly erodes the legitimacy of the institution by making it a commodity. They turn love into a crash course in romance Darwinism; they turn for-better-or-worse idiosyncrasies into cheap it's-funny-because-they're-different plot lines; they turn the intimate journey of planning "the big day" into a dog show spectacle; they turn stress and frustration (whether justified or unjustified) into the televised equivalent of "Crazy Bitch in Wedding Dress Throws Cheeseburger at Stranger" Youtube videos.
The problem is that these shows are either entertaining or informative, and occasionally both. I can't deny that it's hilarious to watch the truly borderline psychotic brides on Bridezilla lose their shit over the fact that the catering staff only put 3 folds in the napkins when there were supposed to be 4. It's equally hilarious to watch Southern Conservative Christian wife deal with Northern Liberal Atheist dad + kids (Disclaimer: I don't actively watch these shows, but I can't deny that I've seen them on more than one occasion). The informative part comes with being able to see what you like and what you will avoid, be it table settings, bouquet arrangements, or life partner choices. In this sense, the shows do what they're supposed to do. But by no means do these shows add any value to marriage as an institution. Everyone on that show is being compensated for putting their lives on camera, essentially pimping out their marriage for the sake of a bit of screen time and the money to get that kitchen remodel the misses wants. Rather than having the business end of marriage be about socio-economic security and advancement, it's about those shining 15 minutes and a quick payday. Now, I'm not invested enough in these shows to be fundamentally against them, it just makes me a little sad that the most visible record of marriage in America circa-2000 is such a tawdry TV legacy.
Which brings me to why I've used the title I did. My parents have given me a bit of an unrealistic portrait to look at. I know I shouldn't compare their life to mine, and for the most part I don't. I've taken my lumps in the past and know that such comparison's only create unrealistic expectations (or as my dad told me, "My life's old, and you're young; stop trying to be so damned old"). But admittedly it's a bit unavoidable (they're high school sweethearts, for christ's sake; how do you not compare when your most immediate models for love/partnership/marriage/happinesswithanotherperson has a track record of over 40 years?). Fortunately, the state of marriage in the public eye is so low that the expectations for happiness seem rather easy to meet. So I guess I'm stuck in the middle of ground level social expectation and sky deck level personal model, and as long as I can make it to a vertigo-inducing story I'll be happy.
I don't know. I sort of lost track of where I was going with that analogy. Whatever. Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad. I love you both. Thanks for putting up with each other for so long.
-
Anyway, bands. That was the original topic, and I don't want to cheat myself out of it. In a nutshell, The Gaslight Anthem, Minus The Bear, and The Hold Steady have all released albums this year that are by no means bad but disappoint me because of the albums that came before. The cliff notes to the longer post I had intended:
-The Gaslight Anthem's The '59 Sound was a great example of that iconic rock 'n roll storytelling made famous by guys Springsteen and Petty. It was effortlessly engaging, intimate, catchy, and energetic. At times it almost felt as if Springsteen circa the Born To Run had been reincarnated in the wake of the Jersey punk scene. Because The '59 Soound was so good, I all but expected American Slang to fall flat. While there's some variation and expansion, it's not enough to prevent it from sounding like a continuation of the classically-inspired punk they're known for.
-I'm most conflicted with Minus The Bear's Omni. On the one hand, it is almost a complete 180 from the experimental, jammy prog-rock of Planet Of Ice. Hell, it's standing quite a bit of a ways from the cool, meandering noodling of Menos El Oso. In both cases, Omni disappoints because the band retreats into a shell of musical simplicity and rehashed themes (the drink/do drugs/have sex until our faces fall off trope was well covered early in their career). On the other hand, the album is undeniably catchy, fun, and sexy. They channel a lot of 70's and 80's funk and R&B on the record, making it their most accessible record to date and a great summer album. So I guess it's not a total loss.
-The Hold Steady's Heaven Is Whenever suffers the same fate as American Slang, except to a higher degree. Craig Finn is still trying to weave stories about going nowhere 20-somethings, and the band is still trying to write bar room Americana rock, but the album lacks the charm and sophistication of their previous records. Perhaps is the absence of their keyboardist, who brought a great amount of nuance and feeling to their songs. Perhaps it's just been done in exactly the same way for 5 records. Whatever it is, it just isn't clicking for me.
But all is not completely lost. Below you'll find a track from each record. They definitely don't suck, and you definitely should listen.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment