[LEMONS] 6.13.2002
Project Mersh?
I went to go see The Shins and Mercury Rev at the Fillmore last night. Thanks Jim!The Shins, where do I start? Last year, while decrying bands like the Strokes for being too mersh, I told everyone and all how much I loved The Shins album, Oh Inverted World. How it was one of my favorites last year, in fact. Not only did I think it was an album full of beautiful pop, but I was also taken by the video for The New Slang, which recreates scenes from album covers by Husker Du, Cat Power, The Replacements, Slint, Squirrel Bait, Sonic Youth and The Minutemen, among others. With a SubPop label behind. Indie cred all around. And the song. Oh that song! The lyrics were incredible, and it came built in with a sense of nostalgia and melencholy. I just coldn't imagine a better pop song.
And then, one day, during the Olympics, I hear that haunting yodeling coming from... a McDonalds commerical. McDonalds! Of all the multinational corporations you could sell a song to, few would raise my ire more than McDonalds. McDonalds is, for me, the epitome of much of what is wrong with western society. And here's this intellectual, bookish band, obviously steeped in Indie music and indie philosophy hawking Big Macs.
And it infuriated me. It ruined the fucking song for me. It became, in my mind, immediately associated with Chicken McNuggets and McFucking Whoppers, or whatever. With fast food, factory farms, and fossil fuel pollution. I tend to agree with what Bill Hicks said about artists and commercials. Even if it is more and more prevalent these days. I mean, I'm getting used to this commercial shit. But McDonalds? Too much.
And when they came on last night, I was prepared to hate them. I'd said I was going to see Mercury Rev and "that band from the McDonalds commercial." And the were good. And then Jim and I went upstairs, and the Shins went into The New Slang. And I remembered all the reasons I loved the song. And the memories of listening to it as I was dealing with my grandmother's death and September 11 all came flooding back to me. And it was gorgeous. And they were superb. And after they went off--while I was hanging around outside with Jim while he smoked a cigarette, talking to Harpoer on the phone--I saw that the DIY thing wasn't just lip service, as I watched The Shins haul their gear to their van from the Fillmore. An Econoline no less. Get in the van. And the thing is, can I really hold it against a band just beacause they aren't political in the same way I am? Indie music is all wrapped up in politics. It's inherently political. But first and foremost it's music. It's art. Why do I have to intellectualize everything so much? why must everything be philosophical?
I still don't know how I feel. But before I went back in to see Mercury Rev, I stopped. And I said, "Hey, great show. And your album, it was one of my favorites last year." And I didn't add even if you did sell your song to McDonalds, although I wanted to. Instead, I just went inside, and wished the world was simpler.
new slang when you notice the stripes, the dirt in your fries.
hope it's right when you die. old and bony
- l i n k -
