didn't watch the grammy's last night, which bums me out a bit, but read neil strauss's not so interesting round-up of the gig - fucking 'o brother' won a ton - signifying to me that Time Out NY's "why music sucks," while mistaking the cause, may have put a name to the disease. it's not that music sucks, really, it's that it isn't growing as it has - the lull is mindnumbing, but the lull is natural. so many people i know don't even listen to new music anymore, just back cataloging their neil young records and waiting 15 years for this shit to sort itself out - Weird to think of people 'discovering' Wilco in 20 years, like, where was I when this was happening? to which they would say of course, Yes, where were you indeed?

Blah blah, the music industry has filed an anti- RAC group called California Music Coalition, backed by the sinister owner of international labels at Ark21 + various luxury industries and manufacturers. Criticism is duly noted, but it's fucked to think that this whole thing is going to boil down to legislation when it should be equally focused on artist coalition, petitioning their own labels for things, becoming truly human in their reflection on the industry as a whole. People like Courtney Love, whose dispicable treatment of the Cobain legacy gives me chills, only discredit the RAC in the eyes of true music fans, musicians, etc. Heinous and bloated self-interest prevails regardless. Am interested in finding out about Just Plain Folks.

Other things - have been listening to Philly band aspera, whose Walkmen-esque textures on the cheap are sort of seductive, though their e.p. sadly deteriorates as each song goes by. have to give back my ex-friend's copy of common's 'like water for chocolate' which has the best, deceptively simple drum pattern across the first three tracks. since the horrible 'scratch' documentary i saw a couple weeks ago, i've been paying more attention to breaks and the lack of them in most modern, non-hip-hip music. in an article in this weeks' village voice, sf jones cynically talks about the early 80s music scene 'imagine a time when different races joined one another on stage and in the audience, where people in that audience danced,' etc. the article is stodgy old-people talk, but the complaint rises. why is only retro-fitted dance music (but not soul, never that) the only acceptable form in the indie scene.