Another few weeks, time just cooks along

Ah, this is what its like to weed through the weeks, focusing upon the titular bits of truth in a sea of misinformation, and trying to stay dedicated to the fruit of my passion: learning something viable for the workforce. (If I can even get into it considering the fact so much of it is under extreme uncertainty) I would like to believe that the world is a true and just place, only I've been learning this isn't so because certain things are in place that makes living your own life somewhat difficult, or damned miserable.

Something was posed to me a week ago, "what is the universe trying to tell me." This put me in a reflective mood, to ponder about. In my life I've always felt that my timing has been off. This idiom throws my prior comprehension a bit askew. Perhaps its that there was nothing wrong with my timing, in fact I'm supposed to be unfolding in my own aspect.

I've been blindsided with folks whom have been conditioned to believe and function a certain set (correct) way. That the paradigm I've been entrenched with doesn't suit their expectation/judgement of what it is. I'm being encouraged that isn't so bad, nor does it make me feel less of a person because I couldn't do it like most people. The universe has been trying to tell me that I'm fine, that what I'm doing is enriching to my perception, that I can't ask for anything more. That I'm to be contented with that fact. I've been exposed with harsh bitter judgement, which has fostered a cancerous climate towards me personally. I've been told numerous times that I'm not doing it right. For them I say fuck you, I've survived, done things on my own terms, and have enriched experiences for it. I've survived because I used my intuition, and gut instinct. Helps to have a bit of wisdom, and smarts to go with that.

Continuing on the new stuff segment that I was writing last time. I've been finding more groups of long gone status. Fudge Tunnel, and Leather Strip (still together last checked). Fudge Tunnel, a band that has roots in the slow doom sound. Raw, and poignant. This is an apt description I can give. Its pretty remarkable considering all that was out at the time. Entombed, and others were knee deep in the scene, Fudge Tunnel was a band muddled in the scene that was over flowing with similarities.

Then I go to Leather Strip, never heard anything from this German band tied to the industrial scene. Surprising on how much I still don't know about the industrial scene. I'm a listener of extremes, carving a wide swath of musical tastes, I have found metal music can be confining in its own right. Otherwise, this year has me searching back a little bit. Being exposed to as many different styles as I can.

I'm kind of tired of the styles label. There is so much out there that I've honed in on specific groups that I remember, and following the connections to other groups of the period. I think personally, the scene was explosive, challenging, and inventive. Yeah there are clones of regular type music styles, but its in the presentation that sticks with me. I'm not big on the flash, its heart, and substance that I get.

Hence, I've even gone back and looked at Siouxsie and the Banshees catalog. I think they're peak was 1987 with the covers album Through The Looking Glass. By the time Superstition 1991 came out, this era had moved on. Bands whom were born in the 1970's didn't survive much into the mid 1990s. I look at this period with profound nostalgia. Something about being exposed to different types of music really stuck with me. That I constantly hunt for that elusive different, and unique. I felt though during the period bands whom where clinging to their mantra, where losing out to the next wave of crop pushed out by the labels. People had moved away from the mod look, hair/cock rock, punk scene, and clamored around for a much more varied harder sound. Whereas the folks groomed on this style moved on, and never really looked beyond that music style.

My feeling is that the industry as a whole kept trying to push their fresh agendas to the homes of kids like myself. Announcing new offerings of Rap, Grunge, Hip Hop, R&B Hip Hop. I stopped really paying attention to the pop scene around 1992. Because I had felt that what I wanted to listened to was being largely ignored by the masses. I turned to the underground scene for substance. I would occasionally poking my head up to see what was going on in the proceeding years. I had aligned myself to only one specific style, which made me an elitist asshole. I find it can be really difficult to waft through the chaff when it comes to bands, and music. There is so much, that its hard to sift through what is, and what isn't. I suppose the backing of label interest or having a advertising firm step in and coach ones career makes sense. There isn't a market for the style I love anymore. In fact its teetering on irrelevance. So, I dusted off the cynical attitude, and pushed through it. Since 2000, I've opened up more, focused on a few areas that I think and feel are very important. Sure bands have come and gone, as youth trumps over the established group. The staying factor is often missing, but I don't align myself to that process, I don't care as long as one does what they love, the fans will always be there. Something the blokes in Novembers Doom were discussing is that the album era is long over. Short term attention spans, no one really has the time to sit through a full album. I'm that singularity that still does. I treat it with great respect to still have that ability. Otherwise until next time, lets see whats out there...

Thanks for reading.

B.