Oh, Sweet Memory (Ode To Decent Music)

I found an awesome site last night that really took me back to the days when everything wasn't total crap....
No, I'm not talking about Retro Crush. Nor am I talking about Screw Attack. No, friends -- my nostalgia today isn't about TV, video games, or even snack foods. Today I'm thinking about fine music.


Ah, the good old days of music. I was a teenager in the 1990s, and that was the greatest time to be a music fan...perhaps only behind the 60s. See, prior to, say, 2002, we used to have these crazy buildings everywhere called "Record Stores" where one could go and purchase actual, PHYSICAL CDs and cassette tapes. Yeah, you could buy"albums" which contained all of your favorite music, and no computer, credit card, or I-Pod was required. Back then, music was still like art -- an album would be compiled so as to make for a coherent musical presentation; its songs had to fit together in such a way as to make the listening experience enjoyable and occasionally moving for, like, 35 minutes AT LEAST. People didn't just download one random song back then; they actually had to buy, you know, A WHOLE ALBUM with as many as 16 or 17 songs on the darn thing! Can you believe that, kiddies??? This meant that the really good artists tended to rise to the top, since the 15 bucks you'd spend on their CD would be more worth it. That is, it was a waste of money to buy the album of some crappy band with only one good song out of 12.

There was also an entire consumer infrastructure to support this odd way of doing things. See, MTV, for example, would devote a large portion of its air time toward showcasing musical artists of all kinds. Heck, the network for a period was almost a vanguard of quality -- it actually had an agenda of pushing interesting new artists. You could tell that among the folks in charge were some genuine music fans (just as it was with radio back then). In between episodes of The Real World and Beavis and Butthead there would be music...so much MUSIC! That's why we needed special stores to buy it all!

Over time, this eroded, though, as the mindless, irresponsible pursuit of profits and ratings came to completely dominate not only MTV, but all facets of mass media (and everything else, really). People got lazy; anything with a message became too boring to pay attention to. Britney and Backstreet emerged. Towards the tail end of the Clinton era, a culture of all-out suicidal greed seemed to take over our crumbling republic, and good music was one of the first things to go. Dominating television and radio these days are not artists, but mere performers -- Kesha and Nickleback types whose only goal is to produce three or four decent songs that lots of people will download and then forget within a year. The Citadels and Clear Channels took over radio, making every station in every city exactly the same; MTV pushed its musical programming back to some Triple-Platinum Tier satellite service called MTV 987, replacing music-oriented content with reality shows about skanky broads in New Jersey, and guys who staple their genitals to skateboards for thrills. Goodness, everything went downhill quick, didn't it?


But I'm getting way too negative and wandering into territory that I don't have the time to explore today.

No, no -- the reason why I felt compelled to post an entry on this dreary Tuesday afternoon is quite simple: I found a great website with all sorts of neat Nirvana videos! Yeah, Nirvana!!! That's the band that changed my life, you know. I remember the fateful day when I heard Kurt, Krist, and Dave for the first time: it was the summer of 1992, and the boys played "Lithium" on the MTV Video Music Awards. I knew almost nothing about the band before that, having only tuned in that day to find out what Weird Al Yankovic might do, and was absolutely blown away by the Nirvana performance. My God, it still sends chills down my spine. Check it out:


Such noise! Such raw energy! It was like heavy metal, but not really. I didn't know what to make of this group.

The weird singer guy didn't even TRY to show of his guitar abilities, like Slash or the dude from Metallica would. In fact, his song had no solo at all -- the guitar parts were all really simple, awesome sounding power chords. So rough...like something I could have played. And that drummer. Holy smokes, the moment Dave Grohl starts smashing them cymbals I still feel something stir in my soul; something rebellious and alive. It's like, DUDE -- you're not supposed to hit the drums that hard! You might break them!! And I hope you do!!!

As Weird Al said of Nirvana, "Boy, this oughtta bug your parents," and he was so right. At the age of 13, they were the awesomest band I had ever encountered (and still are). Oh, and as a bonus -- as I researched Nirvana, I discovered that the VMA performance was not a mere anomaly; these guys were ALWAYS like that: totally chaotic, abrasive, and wild.

So, the other night I found this site that has an archive of some of Nirvana's best moments on easy-to-load flash video. It's not like that lousy YouTube site, where Nazis come and delete everything that wasn't approved by some moron in a suit three minutes after having been posted. No, sir -- this is the stuff as it was intended, unedited and unpolished (just like Nirvana itself). They've even got the group's totally neato New Year's Eve performance from 1993. Look at the end when they smash their instruments -- Kurt Cobain motions to the crowd to come and rush the stage. That's awesome!

(Power to the people!)

But keep this in mind: today's post isn't just about Nirvana. Imagine all of the great resources our friend Internet has provided for us to track down missed and loved music from the past. I may be checking out rare performances of Something in the Way on random fan sites, or long-forgotten That Dog videos on the You Tube, but YOU could be revisiting your favorite Led Zeppelin or Cure moments. You know, whatever crap you're into. Huzzah for Internet!

Anyway, while we're talking about wild blasts from the past, here's an animated film made in the early 70s. It's imported!

Fantastic Planet (1973)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070544/


Netflix description:
A band of humans -- known as Oms -- are kept as domesticated pets by an alien race of blue humanoid giants called Traags in director Rene La Loux's animated sci-fi classic, said to be based on the Soviet occupation of the Czech Republic. The story centers on an Om named Terr, who escapes his subjugation with a Traag learning device and eventually uses it to educate other Oms and incite them to revolt. The film nabbed the Grand Prix at Cannes.

So, Fantastic Planet is a very Terry Gilliam-style animated movie about a crazy planet on which humans, known as Oms, are mere pets to a superior race called the Traags. Here's the catch, though: the Traags aren't necessarily all THAT superior to us. Their main advantage is simply one of physical size. Us humans are like insects to the Traags, so they have little trouble keeping us under control...until, of course, we get the courage to fight back.

The story focuses on an Om named Terr, who is taken in as the pet of a Traag called Tiwa. She treats him fairly well (I guess), even allowing him to sit in on her telepathic "learning sessions." Through these, Terr gradually learns the ways of the mysterious and mighty Traags, and when he finally decides to escape, he uses such information to educate other, "wild" Oms who hide out in trees and caves around the Traag planet countryside.

Now, I don't want to spoil the whole deal for you, so I'll just say this: The Oms revolt, exploiting the one real weakness that the Traags have. Do they WIN??? You'll have to watch for yourself to find out.

And it's worth it to do so, as this is a special movie. Not GREAT, mind you; just special. See, here we have an example of primitive animation being used in all the right ways to tell a rather profound and compelling story. The planet to which this film's title refers is a bizarre, fascinating place indeed. Trees laugh at passersby and crystals spontaneously sprout from the ground; the dominant creatures reproduce through metaphysical avatars and the ground randomly opens up to swallow inanimate objects. How to make sense of it all?


Well, of course, our hero Terr has a way: his Traag telepathic learning device. In that sense, this picture reminded me of Battlefield Earth, in which a heroic human uses a hostile alien race's own technology against it to save the world. Of course, Fantastic Planet is a bit different in that the humans are not being held captive on their own world, but on that of their overlords. Plus, Fantastic Planet is not total pile of crap....

It's pretty engaging, actually. You'll feel a bit weird about the constantly looping, porn-like soundtrack, and the animation, as noted, is very awkward. It's weird, it's wacky, it's spacey, and it's French (which ought to explain a lot). Hey, Fantastic Planet is only 77 minutes, so you might as well check this baby out. Reportedly, it has some kind of political message about the Soviet Union...but what movie DIDN'T back in 1973???

If you've got an open mind, give a rental to Fantastic Planet. It won a bunch of European awards and stuff. What are you, anyway? Some kind of uncultured oaf???

3 out of 5.

b.