Just got back from our trip to Taos, New Mexico via Denver, Colorado. I don’t have a lot to report on the Taos music scene. The lovely wedding we attended featured a fine acoustic-based band playing covers of Sufjan Stevens and his ilk. They were just right for the event, but they were no threat to the sage brush. I also saw a young hippie woman sitting atop the roof of a hostel, accompanying her rich voice with a mandolin. She had an excellent voice, but her act was an anachronism.
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To every peckerhead up here who refuses to take off the Peter Fonda sunglasses and motorcycle jacket, I want to know right here and now what your beef is with Herman’s Hermits. And if you do have a problem, please provide a well thought out reason for your disliking. And I don’t wanna hear any of that Andy “my record collection consists of 8 greatest hits LPs, the centerpiece of which is that Stones thing that’s shaped like an octagon” Rosenau crap like “Yeah, and Freddie and the Dreamers really kick it out too” drivel.

Know you’re dealing with someone who knows the Hermits catalog very well.

Let’s go. I’m ready for it.

Sincerely,
E. Pluribus

This is not a politically correct opinion I’m proud to share, but I was listening to that Little Steven digital radio station now and then in the car we rented on our trip to New Mexico and just about every modern-day “bad girl” garage rock band that came up for play made me feel like I was watching the WNBA. Garage rock, to me, is such a dude’s domain. Hearing women try to cop that certain garage rock stance strikes me as highly awkward and lacking in…something. Likewise, I know the women who compete at the WNBA level could kick my ass on the hardwood, but there’s something unnatural about them playing basketball. There are other sports that women can play as naturally and gracefully as men, such as tennis (which I actually prefer to watch played by women thanks to their ability to maintain a volley), but women rarely have the natural motions that I come to expect from years of watching NBA games. Maybe it’s all the ponytails flopping around as they battle for a rebound and I’m simply a horrible person. (The Goldie and the Gingerbreads clip, on the other hand, is more like traditional girl group music, which I think fits women as well as tennis. This was one good band I heard on Little Steven’s show that I did not previously know about.)

More importantly, listening to that Little Steven station confirmed my belief that neo-garage is one of the hardest neo-genres to do well. The attitude copped by the original wave of garage bands is so outdated in this day and age. Hearing a modern crop of dumpy guys bitch about the fact that some girl won’t give them the time of day is played out, isn’t it? Why don’t these guys take up one of the new genres that invite dumpiness?