Do you consider yourself an egotist, as many blogs I’ve seen claim?
Yes, but with no social skills. If you have social skills, you don’t spend your life alone learning to play a lot of instruments.
In the 1990s, ironic stances in pop felt very fresh. These days, bands from the Arcade Fire to TV on the Radio have a new seriousness. Has a sense of play been lost in rock?
During Republican regimes, music gets serious. We’re in the worst one yet. Not even “defiant” seems to have made an appearance. Folksy and comforting are the “in demand” sound. I guess America has become soft and complacent. I sure hope the bastards don’t make another “war” to stay in office longer.
The same goes for postmodernism — it’s now a dirty word, but I don’t know what else to call so much music that recalls previous eras. Do you think we’re in a perpetual era of recycling?
God, I know I am. Every Monday night separating the glass from the plastic and putting it out on the curb.
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