The Family You Choose

#2 in an ongoing series from Junk Drawer contributor RW about his experience working at The Beachland Tavern in Cleveland, OH.

A jam band is playing in the ballroom. This means there are more blonde dreadlocks, hula hoops  and Cat in the Hat hats than usual at the Beachland tonight.

I'm working the door, checking ID's, making sure people can find the bathrooms and the bar, though not in that order. I wish I was working the Tavern though.

Night Sweats is headlining there (We have two venues, the intimate tavern and the ballroom). And I was hoping to get a look at  Bobbypins debut performance. They are the opener and consist of two regulars here at the club and one of our bartenders, Lyndsey. Actually both bands have staff members in them. Jeff, a manager here plays bass in Night Sweats.

 

No surprise really, club workers in bands. Terry and Melanie (a bartender and a manager) are thinking of forming a band simply because they are some of the few employees who aren't already in one. Of course, they're visual artists, so they're pretty darn close.

It's nice to see everyone supporting each other. Jeff supporting Lyndsey by inviting her band to open for his, the kitchen crew coming out after the kitchen closes to yell “Yes!!” at his band's every screaming punk riff.

A music club can become a bit of a family for the people working there – yes it's a fucked-up dysfunctional family, but what family isn't? The advantage, here at the Beachland at least, is that most every family member is connected by a love of music.

Night Sweats is singing a song called “Piss,” and everyone here feels like they are just where they belong.

What I Might Do - Take 3

Most of the time, simplicity rules.  As a debut single this is very, very impressive deep house with a real soulful feel.  

Granted, this is not my go-to genre of music.  I can't call myself a scholar or even a devout student.  But I like what I like and this is my blog so I am sharing it.  

Still, I almost would not have discovered this track due to poor visual choices. 

The first video for it was just meh.  Released over a year ago, if this video below had been my introduction to the track I might not have heard the whole song.   The video actually subdues the bounce which is too bad because it looked expensive to shoot.  

Maybe skip it and keep reading and come back to it at the end and you will see what I mean. 



Then in October of this year they released the next video below for the club edit.  The methodology, as astutely observed by one Youtube commenter, was "ass, ass everywhere".  

Again - it looks expensive but if this had been my introduction I honestly might have watched it to the end for the exquisite as..um...shots of Tel Aviv.  

But I still would have been unmoved by the music. This video keeps the viewer outside of the fun.  This video says - this song is not really for you.  

So again, maybe skip this video for now and come back to it if you want at the end. 



Thankfully, whoever is working with Ben Pearce believes in this track and they kept making videos for it.  THIS video below is the one I just saw yesterday and I have now listened to it ten times.  

The video makes you feel like you could be part of this party.  It doesn't look expensive - heck, a lot of it is out of focus - but it does look like a lot of fun and that is what I look for in a dance track. 

WATCH THIS ONE FIRST: 


If I am going get freaky, I want to know that other people are going to go there with me, right?  

Seriously, if this doesn't move something in your body you might want to reach for the oil can because you iz rusted. 

So thanks for going back to the drawing board for multiple takes, Ben Pearce. I want to come to your next party.  If you want to invite the surfer girls too that is okay by me.  Just don't forget to invite your friends Sophia Disgrace, Remi Black and that guy in the pink shirt that looks like my brother-in-law. Those are my people.      

Reports from the Beachland with RW

Exciting news here at the Junk Drawer - we have a guest contributor!

My good buddy RW lives in Cleveland and he will be telling us about shows that he sees and other observations from his job at the Beachland.  

That is all I am going to put out as an introduction because I hope my faithful readers that don't already know RW will get to know him and the Cleveland music scene through his writing.  

Thursday 21 November 2013 at the Beachland

Saw Mono. For some reason they didn't do it for me tonight. I've always liked their approach to songs: quiet beginnings that lead to cacophonous walls of sound. 

But tonight the quiet beginnings struck me as precious. They didn't grab me, and I found myself twiddling my fingers, waiting for the feedback.

I remain a fan.

The surprise of the evening was Mick Turner, who opened. I wasn't familiar with him at all. In fact, I thought I'd missed the opening act completely. I thought the older guy on stage was sound-checking Mono's instruments.

He was doing the one-man band act, creating drum rhythms, loops, all with a lyrical and sometimes blistering guitar over the top. It was engaging and beautiful. I think I saw a member of Mono watching admiringly from behind the sound booth.

Cocksure

Is there a nation that is more fluent in swear words than Scotland?

I seriously doubt it - somehow the brogue really brings the filth to the forefront.

Earlier this week I was making a mix for Mitchell and I went out of my way (aka digging through boxes) to put on the eponymous track from Murder Inc. 

Released in 1992 during one of Killing Joke's many hiatuses, Murder Inc. featured Chris Connelly on vocals and his menace and swagger are used to a beautifully bruising effect when he declares - "Make no mistake, we've come to fuck you over"

21 years later - today - Connelly reaches out on Facebook with that sardonic and self-deprecating Scottish wit:

The Revolting Cocks (well, some of them) are back... now they're COCKSURE! If you ever had nostalgia for the giddy heights of 1987 but still have modern aspirations, you will not be disappointed -- the album is packed with grooves, laughs and dirty words!

In the parlance of our times, instead of a few well placed F-bombs there is a LOT of swearing on this track.  Definitely NSFW.



As someone who spent the last two days with Nitzer Ebb's "Belief"* in my car's tape deck, I feel I qualify as one who is open to something that is reminiscent of Wax Trax's glory days with current production values. 

"There was a laugh track at my arraignment..."

 I like this track and I want the rest of this album to follow suit. 

*"Belief" holds up very well, btw. back in the day I played this tape so much that the lettering faded off one side. 

Blank Project

When Neneh Cherry teamed up with The Thing, the result knocked me on my ass.  

One year later, The Cherry Thing is still an album I turn to when I want a heaviness that swings.  

So learning that I have to wait until mid-February to hear more of this upcoming solo album from Ms. Cherry is definitely going to test my patience. 

Produced by Four Tet?  Yeah, my instincts are telling me to bet high on this one. 

What is in a name?

About a week ago, I was in a conversation with SD and Trocc after a show at Schuba's.  The topic had drifted to music (surprise) and I was struggling temporarily to remember a band's name...

Me: "Shoot, umm...it is one of those bands with a three word name..."

SD: "Steel Pole Bathtub?"...chuckle...

SD: "King Cobb Steelie?"...snicker...

Me:  "Shut it!  No, it was...um...AGENT SIDE GRINDER!"...giggles...

Trocc: "That is a terrible name."

And I couldn't really disagree with him.  Except I did - because I like the band.  

That is why SD was chuckling at his suggestions as well because the Junk Drawer has a soft spot for both Steel Pole Bathtub and King Cobb Steelie. 

SD could give a fuck about those bands but he listens to bands with names like Sunburned Hand of the Man, Pocahaunted, and MV & EE so take his opinion on chuckle worthy band names with a grain of salt.    

But this got me thinking of about how the name of something is completely irrelevant, until you start creating a reputation for that name.  Then that is your brand, right?

It is easy to slag band names when you don't have any interest in their music. But once you fall under the spell of the music you can forgive practically any name.  
Here are a few that currently annoy me: 

• MGMT - so, I am supposed to say each letter of this name? Why exactly? This band used be called The Management and then when they found out some other band had that awful name, rather than take that as a sign they simply started calling themselves the abbreviation of the word.  I hate the word management, partly because the worst/pointless/LONG meetings I have to attend all start with it.  
• Trampled By Turtles -  aren't we clever? 
• The Pains of Being Pure of Heart -- nothing this twee sounding could be good for you in the long run. 
• Mumford & Sons -- a bit too on the nose for their style of new wave banjo, polished old timey-ness.  Plus it makes me think of Sanford & Son whose theme song I like infinitely better than anything that XRT has forced me to listen to by these guys. 

What band names do you dislike without any regard or knowledge of their music?

Four Fists

Here's something to shake the cobwebs out of your Monday afternoon. 

I am starting to get really excited for this upcoming full length collaboration between P.O.S. and Astronautalis - they are calling themselves Four Fists and here is a song that they did a while back but is just getting released as a 7" now as a bit of a teaser. 

I have only seen Astronautalis once but he definitely dances to the beat of his own drum and in his own words, he is fast becoming the Killah Priest to Doomtree's Wu-Tang Clan, with scads of appearances on their best joints.

For instance, here he is on one of my favorite tracks from last year's album from P.O.S. 

Not game for a lame name change

Jefferson Airplane - "White Rabbit" & "Somebody To Love," legendary performances like the Monterey Pop Festival. 

Jefferson Starship - Blows Against The Empire  wins a sci-fi Hugo Award but is burdened over time with "concept album creakiness."

Starship - performing on the Star Wars Holiday Special with a guy (not Grace Slick!!) singing into what looks like a neon dildo - "We Built This City" & "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now."

Where am I going with this, you ask?

Fair enough. I am distressed by news of an impending name change.  I fear that it signals a creative nadir of something that I once cherished. 

Y'see, I didn't always work for an organization whose mission is to prevent and end homelessness.  For a decade I ran an organization that tried to improve the quality of life for homeless children.  

It was such a small organization that I was involved in every single facet of it. It was such a part of my identity that when someone spoke of it by name I felt like they were also saying the name I was born with.  

And I was fine with that because it was a solid name, a righteous name. A name that conferred vitality and a directive.  I was there when this name was born out of necessity and I tried to live up to that name 365 days a year.   

As I made what I hoped to be a graceful exit, I seriously considered getting that name as a tattoo.  Boy am I glad I didn't act on that impulse!  

Yesterday I learned that with the help of a consulting group, it has been decided to replace this name that has served the charity well for 14 years.

First of all - FUCK that consultant and to hell with the entire field of consulting. If I never work with a consultant again for the rest of my professional life I will not regret it.  

Consultants justify their existence by presenting themselves as agents of change - whether that change is needed or not soon becomes irrelevant.  They predicate action fueled by the insecurities of people made to fear that they are clinging to some outdated model of success. 

This is nothing new.  Committees love to cede decisions to an outside expert rather than lead and risk having their convictions challenged.  

The only time I could see clear to hiring a consultant is if his name is The Wolf and I just accidentally blew someone's brains all over the back of my car.

Now, you've got a corpse in a car, minus a head, in a garage.
Take me to it.

But to add insult to injury - the new name is a genuine headscratcher on the WTF-scale of Huh?!? 

It isn't going to be publicly revealed for a few months so I don't want to ruin the surprise (and I guess I hope it isn't too late to turn this camel around). But if you want to hear it, just get a hold of me. 

I was talking about this with my composer buddy SW and his first lament was that the departing name even had a nice octave progression.  

The whole ten years, saying it every time I answered the phone, and I had no idea that there was an octave progression at work.  

To me it just had a "nice ring to it".  Now I feel stupid to admit that because the mission of the organization is to bring music education to underprivileged children that wouldn't otherwise get it. 

This new name that is coming down the pike is just a brick.  A part of my past is dying and in case you couldn't tell I am not happy about it. 

Rock By Kids

Earlier this year, thanks to Mitchell, I saw a duo called Skating Polly play the Empty Bottle.  

I was blown away by the scruffy charm and intensity from these two stepsisters who were just 12 and 17 at the time.  

My courage to write about them back then failed me.  

Because of their young age I didn't know how to talk about them except to say, "look at these kids play!" which seemed reductive and patronizing.  They deserved better than that.  



Then tonight I discovered Unlocking The Truth and I was reminded of that excitement I felt while watching Skating Polly on stage.  

That youthful exuberance is about as close to immortality as we as can hope to get.  The lack of fear & the laser focus becomes harder to maintain as we pass through adolescence and into adulthood.  

Unlocking The Truth - Malcolm Brickhouse & Jarad Dawkins from The Avant/Garde Diaries on Vimeo.

As they say on The Avant Garde Diaries:

There is a particular moment right before fame strikes a young musician – between the full flowering of talent and believing in a dream so pure and strong as to feel bulletproof – which at the same time is almost imperceptible as it is happening. 

How cool would be a collaboration between the Pixies/Nirvana loving girls of Skating Polly and the Disturbed/Metallica fanatical boys of Unlocking The Truth?  

Stranger things have happened - we are living in a world where The Judgement Night soundtrack just celebrated its 20th anniversary.  

Suddenly I look forward to purchasing instruments and lessons for my offspring.  I feel hopeful for the future.  

Skating Polly photo by Jeff Foy

Unlocking The Truth photo by Loren Wohl

Doing The Right Thing

When my friend Paul was managing a band, his email signature was a quote attributed to Hunter S. Thompson: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I loved seeing that quote every time I got an email from Paul.  I took it to mean that he was determined to retain his humanity. 

But it turns out that Hunter never really said or wrote this. 

Still, it resonated enough to proliferate right?  

And why should we let something like factual research get in the way of a good gestalt?
 
But in reality, as I have shadowed the music industry in my career for the past 17 years, I have actually come across some real stand up, honorable people. People with principles. It is good to be reminded of that once in a while.

This week I was given a sterling example of how amidst the rip-offs and the screw-overs, you can still find people to admire for their courage and tenacity to do the right thing. 

  This guy - who would probably prefer to be nameless - he stuck to his plan to help out the non-profit I work for even though it meant a LOT of headaches and bullshit obstacles. 

It would have been more expedient for him to shrug his shoulders and say, "at least I tried."  But he dug his heels in and found a way. 

He didn't do it for the glory or the recognition.  He wanted to help out people that many others have forgotten.  He did it because he wanted to stick to his original deal and because he has integrity. 

I would like to take this moment to thank him. 

DES-SAH!

I have no idea what prompted my buddy Riot Mike to book Dessa for Riot Fest but I am so grateful he did. 

If you have not seen Dessa perform live, then I feel sorry for you.  It is a mesmerizing, diamond bright thing to witness.  

Her lyrics are unique - tough but humble - seething with a hunger, wracked with mortality.  Right at the moment that you think she is just trying to be too clever by half she eviscerates herself.  If that isn't the soul of poet then I don't know what is. 

I once read a blog call Dessa, "a very photogenic person of substance".  That is putting it mildly. Her beauty is so severe that it just levels me.  It is bone deep, you just know that she is going to be turning heads well into her sunset years, like Lena Horne or Julie Andrews.  

It is also completely incidental to her career and talent.  I wouldn't even bring it up except that I don't want cynicism to creep in while you look on this picture and think that I just am smitten by her looks.  I mean, I AM smitten, but that is y'know, like I said, incidental.   

I have also never seen an Official Lyrics video done so artfully.  You might want to strap on the headphones and put this one on full screen.  Oh and grab a sweater cuz you might get the chills. 

Maybe Reckless should start selling kale...

File this under "Aw, Hell To The No!"

Not to be outdone by Urban Outfitters, Whole Foods has started selling vinyl.

C'mon people!  There are a LOT of amazing record stores to shop at.  They are sacred spaces, like churches...

I don't know what to really make of this at the moment, just shaking my head at it.  It DOES give me a great excuse to post this video though... 

2 short zombie films worth your time

I make no attempt to hide my unabashed love for zombies.  They are my favorite monster genre by a WIDE margin.  

But there are so many zombie cash-ins at the moment that some decry it as a tired and played out trend.  And there is certainly evidence to support that argument: Zombie modes in countless video games, the flashy yet soulless Resident Evil movie franchise, Jane Austen novels re-written to include zombies...

But a lot of it has been pretty awesome too and received deserved attention: The Walking Dead, World War Z, Zombie Dust beer...

Here are two short independent films that are really well done.  They have a lot of heart.

CARGO  - 7 min.
   
Cargo from Daniel Foeldes on Vimeo.

SPOILER - 17 min



Watch 'em both and tell me which one you like better? 

I am reminded of a sketch that I once commissioned for my buddy RW.  It was a zombie dad cradling his baby daughter.  It was a dicey proposition - it could have turned out horribly in the wrong hands - but the artist did a tremendous job.  Both these filmmakers did the same in my opinion.   

So Apparently This Is A Thing...

And I might just finally succumb to it.  

September 7, 2013 is Cassette Store Day. 

I have not understood the minor resurgence in cassette tapes among the experimental music fringe.  It felt like they were just being contrary for no good reason.  

I mean, you lose on artwork, audio fidelity, collector value; I really can see no upside...and yet...and yet...

Right now cassettes are all that I can rock in my car!  And I am getting a little tired of being stuck at least ten years ago as far as my musical choices. 

Exactly one store in Chicago is participating.  A place I have never heard of prior to this post but is brand new and operating out of an old Currency Exchange/Payday Loan place.  It looks very junk drawer-ish from their FB page. 

So now Cassette Store Day is also an excuse to check out a new record store...enticing...worth considering...

Hold the phone - here comes the 411 to seal the deal.  One of the releases is from Pulled Apart By Horses.   

Dem turned me on to this band a few years back and I like their moxie.  Their very first record was "Live At Leeds" and they even swiped the album cover.  



There is really no other way to close out this post except with this video.  You are welcome. 

Epic Pukes

I often fall out of habit with this blog and I feel bad about it.  I gotta get better at the short share.  If you find something cool, just pass it along.  

Epic Pukes by Pablo Iranzo is a great example. There is nothing really to say about these pieces except that these three are my favorite. 

Shout out to the very prolific AudioPorn Central where I found this. I guess this is what they mean by the technicolor yawn.

This Pablo guy is super talented - After spending a little time tooling around his site I also have to say that this video could easily be one of those montages that seem to start every Redbox rental that encourage you to check out other titles. 

The Beatles "Help"- Film Trailer Version from pablo iranzo on Vimeo.

Fun with Hair

Serious question:

Which one of these two videos is having more fun with hair?

This one?  

Jack by Breach

Or this one?

It's You by Duck Sauce
(Suffer through the fifteen second ad, it's Duck Sauce - they put out great videos)


While you ponder that - Here is a picture of Billy Gibbons. 

Heavy Nuggets Vol 2

If every issue of Mojo magazine came with a cd comp that was this amazing I would be a lifetime subscriber, no question. 

Heavy Nuggets Vol. 2 nods to Sabbath right from the album cover.  This is heavy blues and hard rock from Britain around the same time as Black Sabbath's rise.   

Here are three cuts to whet your appetite but I heartily encourage you to seek this issue out. 

Jay Time by Bullet  


Lame by The Incredible Hog


Listen To The Silence by Blossom Toes


Nice, huh?  You would have to have ears made of tin to deny the righteous groove of these and the other 12 tracks on this comp. 

BTW In case you were wondering, Mojo did put out a Heavy Nuggets Vol. 1 six years ago and it was just as good.  Here you can stream the whole thing and hear for yourself:

 


As a bonus, here is a cover of Fleetwood Mac's The Chain by Liars from a Mojo comp from a few months ago that left me absolutely gobsmacked.

Eddie Money Jokes

For the longest time I have been a collector of Eddie Money jokes.  

Well, actually it has only been since 1999 as this Red Meat panel strip was the very first item in my collection. 

The second was a situational pun that I had created with the help of my good buddy CJB;

• Have you ever taunted a confident friend to a wager on a piece of trivia where they exclaim, "I'll bet you any money!"?
• Well, you then pretend to mishear and repeat it: "You'll bet me Eddie Money?!"  -- equally incredulously.

For over a decade that was the entire collection.  Just the two jokes.  But I WANTED to add one more.  I have thought desperately on how I could take my lone encounter with Eddie Money at a charity golf outing and turn it into a joke that savages him for the being the lucky hack that quickly evolved into a pathetic has been that he is by also pointing out that he remained a scummy racist throughout. 

Fun fact: Eddie Mahoney got the nickname Eddie Money while he was a NY cop.  

But I couldn't find a way to do it without being reduced to repeating something so reprehensibly meanspirited and racist.   

The fact that he said what he said to me just to puncture my good will after he had already climbed into a limo that my charity paid as it drove away just underscores what a vile prick and a coward this guy could be. 

Then lo and behold, last summer Eddie Money himself participated in the best gag to date, this bizarre commercial for Geico.  This seemed at least partial karmic retribution. 

Wow.  Did Eddie Money bet someone Eddie Money and lose it all?  

This sure seems like the desperate actions of someone in hock to some pretty tough guys. 

After a decade of dormancy the collection grows by 50%!

Then last week, my buddy Barsk posted about this cover on FB. 


Coliseum covers Eddie Money

I might not have even clicked on it, but Barsk was smart to highlight the fact that my man Bruce Lamont sat in and provided saxophone.  It is my strict policy to look into anything Bruce does when there is a chance.  This policy has served me well since its adoption. 

As the pre-performance interview with the band points out, this cover choice was in part a tip of the hat to another couple of Eddie Money  jokes.  This time in the form of surrealist prank calls to Mr. Money from someone known only as Longmont Potion Castle. 




So far I have only been able to find the second one.  So this is just the start. So now we are up to five jokes in the collection and each one is completely unique!

I am going to investigate this Longmont fellow further but I think I am going to take it slow.  

"Don't delete anything on my fucking computer buddy!"  

King Midas Sound - Aroo/Funny Love 12"

A clear personal standout from the bacchanalia that is Record Store Day is this 12" single from King Midas Sound released by Ninja Tune. 

Both tracks have very distinct personalities.  Aroo would qualify as the banger I guess.  It doesn't halt so abrasively on record. 

 

Aroo - 

 

While Funny Love is the spooky, meditative drone.  This track gets a dub treatment on the vinyl as well.  

WARNING: There are flashes of bare breasts in this video so don't fire it up with your boss in the room.

Funny Love -

All 12" singles are not created equal.  This one delivers a LOT of replay value for my money and makes me excited for the next full length. 

 

Guilty Pleasures

My homeboy Danko Jones writes a blog for the Huffington Post.  His latest entry was a fairly passionate tirade against the concept of musical guilty pleasures.   

Danko detests the term and he claims that it only exists because self-appointed "style bullies" act as musical gatekeepers to deem what is cool and what is not.  

"You should never feel guilty about the music you like," Danko asserts at the end of his post. 

Now my admiration for Danko knows practically no bounds.  It is uncomplicated, like having a taste for french fries.  I don't understand why Danko isn't among the most well known and loved musicians on the planet.  The man is bona fide.

So, it pains me to call bullshit on him and his assertion.  He doesn't actually believe it and furthermore, it neglects to consider many beneficial aspects of guilt when mixed with pleasure.

Proving that Danko is just as complicit in passing judgement on another's musical taste is as easy as shooting fish in a barrel but should be done regardless so we can move on...  

Consider Exhibit A: His blog post at the end of last year where he describes  his reaction after finally watching the video for Gangam Style:   

Upon watching the video (on Dec. 9 at 12:55 p.m.) and seeing the view count, I promptly tweeted this to the world:

"This Gangnam Style phenomenon is more proof we are on a planet overrun by village idiots." 

He then goes on to say that his tweet got "over 100 retweets and 100% support."  Does that sound like someone smugly claiming to having a mob of gatekeeping, taste-making bullies behind his knee-jerk tweeting to you?  Yeah, me too.    

C'mon Danko!  Do you really expect me to believe that you don't believe in rules?  You opened your set proclaiming The Rules for over a year and we loved you for it. 

Now, maybe what those interviewers should be asking Danko and other musicians is something more akin to: "What musical styles or artists do you enjoy that your fans might not be able to easily discern based on a similarity to your own style?"  It is a bit more of a mouthful than just asking for guilty pleasures but maybe Danko truly does listen to everything guilt-free. 

But the claim that feeling guilty about some of the music you like is solely a insecure byproduct of external forces is pure scapegoating.  Being a lapsed Catholic myself, I have an admittedly complex relationship with guilt. But I am here to tell you that a little guilt can help you to refine, defend and explore the emotional underpinnings of your unique and personal relationship to music.  

In other words, guilt is sometimes (not always) good for you.  Thanks to guilty pleasures, you get to experience more types of music and enjoy them in different ways.  

Hallmarks of a true guilty pleasure can be any one of the following:

Pop Candy: You know from the start that it isn't going to stand the test of time and that eventually you will grow tired of it.  It is cheap and easy. If they routinely play this music on a station that you don't have pre-programmed into your car, then you are a taking a detour in the candy aisle. 

The Ted Nugent Stranglehold Defense: You find the musician(s) that created this music morally repugnant.  Or you find the lyrical content to be vile and reprehensible but you keep coming back.  

Eye Candy: A variation of the pop candy guilt, this time the factors that drew you to fixate on this music heavily skews towards the sex appeal of the performer.  Do I really like Shakira's music that much? 

Apple Polishing a Tarnished Legacy: When your rock gods start delivering substandard fare and you just are not willing to admit it.  Aerosmith's Permanent Vacation was a favorite guilty pleasure of mine for quite a while.   

Stroke of Luck: This music gets bound up to some pivotal memories and then is powered by that context.  If REO Speedwagon "I Can't Fight This Feeling" was playing during your first kiss at the sock hop with your sweetheart, that song is lashed to your life, like it or not. 

For example, I like Gagnam Style even though I happen to agree that the song is an insipid fad.  My appreciation may have started as purely contextual - you can blame my kids.  

They started hearing it sung by other children on the playground.  That was their only experience with the song so they would come home and ape what they heard and it would come out like this when they sang:  "Whuppa-cana-stile.  Ohhh, Saxy Lady.  Saxee Lay-DEE!"  

First this confounded it me but soon it delighted me to hear my baby girl playing with her blocks while softly singing to herself about a saxy lady. 

*****************************

My friend Brian V. told me back in college that people have more fun when they are dancing to music that in some ways they consider bad.  If you have been to a wedding in the past thirty years your own experience should bear witness to this.  

Do you know anyone that is a devout fan of Kool & The Gang,  B-52s, Village People and Nick Lowe?  And yet the removable parquet dance floor is full of people dancing like simpletons that were handed sparklers at all those staples of the Wedding DJs set. We are all guilty of banality sometimes and occasionally we wallow in it together to absolve ourselves of our private sins.