Strings. Strings of music. The world’s a distracting place. One minute, I’m listening to a worn-down cassette when I’m driving around with the windows down, hoping the tape won’t get eaten, memorizing songs on those twenty “car tapes” by sheer repetition, by sheer economics of not being able to afford more. The next moment, twenty years later, we’re amidst a deluge digital bitstreams from bands that sell millions of copies of their songs on the interweb. Many of these bands have never gone on a tour; they barely play outside. To me, they remain ghosts; distant things that rarely come into my consciousness, yet so many people are fascinated by them.

Maybe I can’t catch up. Maybe this new world of music delivery isn’t for me. Maybe, to others, how I love music and my tastes are what’ve become known as a “niche market.” But I don’t see it that way at all. Twenty-some years ago, bands like the Plugz and Hüsker Dü, dangled these little strings of music into the back of my throat. I couldn’t cough them out. I couldn’t stop listening to their songs, all the way through today. But instead of a small pox blanket of stiffening nostalgia, these bands remind me of the best there was and gives me handy reference points to the best of what came out last week, last month, last year. So here’s to 2009’s incarnations of Plugzes and Hüsker Düs. And even though, on the surface, they may sound nothing alike, I hear kindred spirits underneath the layers of machines so many people happily robe themselves in.

Hopefully, you hear something new today that makes you want to play them over and over and over again.

-Todd


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RAZORCAKE PODCAST #77

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Tracklisting:

Hex Dispensers, “Get Your Doppelganger On” (Douchemaster)
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Reigning Sound, “The Bells” (In The Red)
Future Virgins, “The Easiest Years” (Plan-It-X South)
Hüsker Dü, “Turn on the News” (SST)
Dead Mechanical, “Shitty Wedding” (Sex Cells)
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Sick Sick Birds, “Buildings” (Toxic Pop)
Plugz, “A Gain - A Loss” (Plugz)
Stab City, “Wolfpit” (Self-released)
Ergs! “Obligatory Song about Killing One’s Boyfriend” (Freedom School)
Rumpsringer, “She Makes Me Forget about My Overdraft Fees” (My Autentico)
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Manikin, “Sirens” (Super Secret)
Baseball Furies, “Blood on Your Hands” (Big Neck)
Ringers, “33 on 45” (1-2-3-4-Go!)
Hidden Spots, “Telephone Line” (Starcleaner)
Dude Jams, “Shit Fit” (Dirt Cult / Muy Autentico)
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Jonesin’, “Coming Around” (Dirt Cult / Muy Autentico)
Dear Landlord, “Last Time I Checked” (No Idea)