Hey, Remember Alternative Rock?

I was flipping through the numerous fairly unnecessary channels that we have the other day when I came across something that caught my eye that wasn't She's the Man starring Amanda Bynes. I came across a name that made me think of man great memories of my mid-teenage years -- that's right, Matt Pinfield hosts a show on HDNet where he interviews bands, called "Sound Off with Matt Pinfield". (Wow, I just got the double entendre of the title -- both sounding off as in talking about stuff and also, the sound is off because they're not playing music. Beautiful.) Now, this show is probably one of the most boring shows I have ever seen -- Matt Pinfield and his bald, bald head talk to such hot new artists as the Goo Goo Dolls and "Weird Al" Yankovic (and this was on a "Best of Sound Off" episode!) But, I remember a time when Mr. Pinfield hosted the most groundbreaking musical adventure to ever reach my bedroom in small-town Minnesota on Sunday nights at 11:00 pm when I should have totally been sleeping instead -- "120 Minutes" on MTV in many ways helped shape me into the snob I am today. That's right -- there once was a time when MTV played music!

That time for me, and I suspect for many people in my age group with similar interests, was a time of great discovery and mystery. First, for me, "!20 Minutes" came on at somewhat of a risque time slot -- the only other entertainment on at the same time was "Jack Van Impe Presents" -- you know, the fake news show where the wife reads a news story about current events in Israel and Jack Van Impe quotes a Bible verse that has little to do with what is actually happening and probably also involves the apocalypse -- so "120 Minutes" was definite appointment television. I watched the MTV debut of The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony" (it came on right after the debut of "Hitchin' a Ride" from Green Day's third major label album Nimrod). I learned about what was supposed to be the new grunge (electronica) and grew to love the Chemical Brothers, which probably lead to my current love for edgy yet poppy dance music. I first saw the video for Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" and officially left my flannel shirts and Alice in Chains CDs in the dust.

In a lot of ways, I miss this era of music. Nowadays, obviously, independent music is a lot easier to distribute. A band like Vampire Weekend can be unheard of six months ago and show up in Entertainment Weekly's Top 10 cool things list in the most current issue. But the mystery and allure of learning about the next groundbreaking, amazing band is gone.

Of course, this is mostly a great thing. Bands shouldn't be forced to go through the machinations of record labels to get their sound heard -- in many ways, it allows musicians to develop their art without a profit motive, and that makes it all the more pure. But, I can guarantee that when R.E.M.'s new album Accelerate comes out on April 1, I am going to buy it, and I am going to force myself not to listen to any clips before I buy it, and I'm going to try to reminisce in that feeling of getting into something totally new that hasn't been tainted by my expectations. Oh wait...it's too late. Where's Matt Pinfield when you need him?

This entry was posted by Unknown, on Wednesday, February 20, 2008. You can leave your response.