Did you catch Broken Social Scene this past Friday night in Charleston? I did. The band was great. They played for about 3 straight hours. They had a few technical difficulties and the vocals were spotty at times, but overall they were pretty amazing. They played a lot of crowd favorites, including Anthems For a Seventeen-Year Old Girl, Looks Just Like The Sun, Lover's Spit, Cause=Time, Major Label Debut and It's All Gonna Break. They seemed to like The Music Farm and the crowd, and we were all rewarded.

I, on the other hand, was not a big fan of the venue or the crowd. The last show I saw there was Iron & Wine. It sucked. Where did all those Trustafarians come from? Truth is I've never really had a great experience at The Music Farm - and I'm including those years when my tolerance for idiots was a bit higher. I'm sure at some point I was one of them. So maybe I've simply outgrown The Farm. Broken Social Scene was an 18 and over show, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Who doesn't like nubile sorority girls? The problem with this crowd, though, was twofold. On the whole, they were unattractive, which was a surprise to me. You usually run into a bunch of people who look like they stepped out of an Urban Outifitters catalog (hence my "joke" last week) at these "indie" shows. But I'll forgive someone who's less than toothsome so long as they're not obnoxious. This crowd was both. And the two together is truly repulsive.


It starts with personal space. Everybody needs some. I eventually moved to the side of the stage next to the speakers to get mine. But I started out in a fairly good spot - not too close to the stage and not too central. The problem was that this really cool guy with a ponytail decided that my toes offered him the best vantage point of his all-time favorite band. He was right. But his ass was now in my crotch. I told him that I wasn't wearing a condom and he moved over a bit. Still, I was eventually driven over to the speakers by some short, round girls. And this is what awaited me:


Freaker by the speaker. OMG! That's my fave song! True, these girls were really enjoying the show and that's important. But they begged the question: Is this band that I think rocks really just gay? I don't think so. This band is great. Plain and simple. You Forgot It in People is on my deserted island list - so long as I could take 10 records. Yeah, I know, I'm only supposed to take one record, but this is all hypothetical and you get the point. It's an incredible album. It would give me the strength to last at least 2 days on that lonely island. Anyway, the problem is the Internet. And iTunes. And Hollywood.

There's this RJD2 song off of Deadringer - another deserted island record - where Copywrite compares RJD2 to an archeologist because he digs 45's up. It's what made - and still makes - RJD2 so exciting to listen to. He has a way of finding the most ridiculous beats and the most soulful lost tracks to pull from - mostly from the 60s and 70s. And it's what used to separate the music appreciators from the music junkies. Well, these days we can all be archeoligists. Google is our shovel and iTunes is our pickaxe. They both take the work out of it. Imagine the cover of Endtroducing . . . with an image of a guy scrolling through iTunes. That's almost where we are. Sure, we're not going to find every song from Stax/Volt or Hi Records, to mention a couple of labels, that RJD2 or DJ Shadow samples, but we'll find a fair amount. And there aren't many albums reviewed on Tiny Mix Tapes or Pitchfork that you can't find on iTunes. The fact that both of those sites, as well as a slew of great music blogs, are so popular doesn't help matters either. The idea of a band being your band is no longer realistic. It's too easy to discover new music. Turn on your TV. Everywhere you turn there's a Garden State soundtrack. We're all so fucking twee. And, oh, are we quirky! Here are the most obvious culprits:

Volkswagon
Coke
Grey's Anatomy
Anything on The WB
Six Feet Under
Saturn
The OC
Nike
And even Alltel had to ruin that Redbone song

Remember that great VW spot that featured Nick Drake's "Pink Moon"? Damn, that was a great spot. Without a doubt, one of my favorites. Anyway, that pissed off his longtime fans. And it's not about "selling out". Nick Drake was dead at the time (and still is!) so it wasn't like his music was going to take a new direction. Or he was "gonna change, man". It was that his music was going to find its way into some undeserving hands. It comes with every band. Even with Widespread Panic - a people's band if there ever was one - there's apparently something called the Home Team. I had no idea about this until I joined a fantasy football league - and a bowling league - with a bunch of guys who routinely travel to their shows and have been doing so for the past 18 years or whatever it is. Anyway, it has something to do with being a fan from the beginning. And at 35 or so, I imagine these guys qualify.

The bottom line is that we all hate newcomers. They're unworthy. They don't appreciate the music like we do. We knew that breakthrough album was coming out way before they did. We're about more than "3rd Planet" or "Float On" or "New Slang" or "Multiply" or "Don't Save Us From The Flames". We like the band. Not just the songs. We read about the artists and follow them from out little corner of the world. We stumbled upon their 1st album in a tiny little record store in some foreign town. It was meant to be. It was personal. That's why we got our tickets over two months ago. But it doesn't matter. The idiots are gonna find out. And they're gonna like your band. Because your band is good. And they're gonna show up at the shows late and demand a great spot on the floor. And they're gonna sing the lyrics to the slower songs. And they're gonna get really excited when a "fuck" or "shit" is in a song's lyrics. They'll sing that, too. And they're gonna move their bodies in way that will make you embarrassed to be in the same room - holding the same ticket stub. And they're gonna get stickers and tshirts. And they're gonna tell their other short, round friends about the best band in the world. And your band will suddenly become our band.

But it's okay. The music is still good. That hasn't changed. You don't need to take it off of your Shuffle.

Still, there's nothing like that time when you've got 'em all to yourself. After all, they're playing for you. So if you've got a band like that right now, enjoy it while it lasts. The season finale of Grey's Anatomy is in production . . .

For more on deserted island albums, check out this good book.

And if you've got a "damn you, you advertiser, for ruining a great song" moment, let me hear it. Through telepathy, please.