I liked this concept enough to steal this bit of a post from an AV Club article where they review the Billboard Rock charts. I guess this is why that dude in the cubicle next to you always complains about there "not being any good music anymore" all the while still shelling out $125 per ticket to see U2 or a reunited RCHP?

See also: Fitz and the Tantrums

That goddamn Foster the People song reminds me of:

We used to shit all over this when it was called ABC.

I get a skewed perspective being in Austin, but I feel like these bands are Generation X Mom & Dad Rock, an influence of thirtysomethings.

I haven't given this a whole lot of thought, so there may be giant holes in this, but I see it as two-fold:

I. I'd bet my generation is more inclined to purchase more music and possibly listen to more radio—than the younger generations, who have never really acquired substantial media collections. I don't really buy physical media anymore, but not actually buying music I like still feels a bit odd or mildly dishonest, whereas kids my brother's age (22) have basically grown up in a streaming, on demand entertainment environment.

II. I recently read an article about Generation X vs. Generation Y and beyond, and it mentioned something I never really thought about, i.e. Generation X is much more counter culture than subsequent generations. I realize it's a small sample, but in general, my circle of friends loves these bands. I dig the Edward Sharpe record and can leave the rest. At 35, I realize I'm not as young as I used to be, I'm not ready to resign myself to James Taylor, and I don't have the sheer amount of unstructured time I used to have to cast a wide net for new music and see what I can drag in.

So I think that it is the professionally established, settling down with families kids of the 1990s who are driving this sort of respectable Adult Rock (not to mention the whole culinary & food truck craze, but that's another post) is a natural evolution (and possibly effectively test-marketed, but I'm doubtful of that sort of ingenuity in radio) from rock radio out there right now, which is dominated by the 90s, specifically Jane's Addiction, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, all of whom I heard in the past two days on local radio. Our parents had Solid Gold Oldies and Classic Rock and Fantasy Cruises with Leslie West of Mountain, and we have Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe and whistlestop concert tours.

FWIW, I also hear a lot of this stuff the first time on NPR

That's very interesting. I've been pushing a semi-same theory but without as much deep thought, to wit: Mumford and Sons is music for people who don't have the time or energy to see Dave Matthews as much as they used to, and/or go to church more regularly than they did in the 90s/early 00s.

I want to hear your food truck corollary here, TCB. I've been spending an oddly disproportionate amount of time recently pondering a massive overarching theory of culture as it now stands. It has something to do with what I was saying in the politics thread, but also pulls in stuff I picked up from that Bill James crime book, and probably also stems from dealing with dumbies, hucksters, and unreconstructed Klan level racists on a daily basis.

Or maybe I've been listening to much Joe Rogan Experience, and am suffering from a contact high/residual psychedelic experiences.

That Rogan pod will fuck with your head for sure.

As an aside: I like a handful of songs from Edward Sharpe and Foster the People.....and one Mumford song is decent enough.

I can't stand Edward Sharpe...

Also, with that band being on Letterman and then playing ACL, how can one honestly say that



My students love that crappy band, and where did they hear about it? With all the information on the internet, they are so overwhelmed with where to even start. It's being filtered to them somehow though. They're not actively pursuing music, and honestly, we probably didn't either. It was filtered to us through radio and video, and then maybe through college radio and print if we were total music junkies, but it was still filtered.

all of these bands (foster the people, edward sharpe, fitz) have a few great pop songs...I play them out a lot but the albums as a whole don't do a whole lot for me...

oh god the food truck craze...ooooooh you put pulled pork with a ton of sriracha on a tortilla, you're so innovative. people are going apeshit for this in ATL (only because the trucks were shut down by local government so it feels like your breaking a law)...Honestly, I'd be happy with a fucking hot dog stand/gyro cart on a corner

way to pick on one of the weakest tacos they offer

Let's go ahead and throw Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes in the mix with Mumford, FtP, and Edward Sharpe.

And MGMT.

Hastily thrown together, as it was just sort of a random realization in the car the other day. I'm no anthropologist/sociologist, so this will obviously be tinted through my lens of experience, as someone who turned 18 in 1994:

I agree that Generation Xers are more counter culture than the generations that followed. We value indie, we value DIY, we value people breaking out in a new direction, we value people that imagine something and just go make it. It doesn't have to be a massive success, either.

Some big cultural shifts that reflected pre-packaged, corporate backlash that are pillars in my youth, and shared with other Gen Xers:
+ The explosion of hip-hop, especially artists that made a name for themselves with no radio/MTV airplay, hustling and selling tapes out of trunks
+ Lower budget, DIY style films: Clerks, Friday, Pulp Fiction
+ Zines & blogs
+ College Radio, 1990s Alternative Music, 120 Minutes
+ We always had Earth Day

But now we are older and value different things. We are establishing ourselves professionally, and a lot of us have young children. We have more money, and our time is taken up by the day-to-day adult routine. Going to a lot of shows and hanging out at bars with cool jukeboxes doesn't fit into that scheme as well for most 35 year olds.

Restaurants, however, fit very well. When we were 22, you would eat at Ryans or a Chinese buffet or Taco Bell. Now, you won't (or shouldn't). So now that we have some extra cash, and we don't close down bars with our friends, we will meet them out for dinner & drinks, brunch or happy hour. And while the great white majority of us will still eat good in the neighborhood at Applebee's, our counter cultural inclinations have evolved into more age appropriate pursuits that have the same philosophies that we've been shown to value: independence, craftmanship, artistic freedom and being different.

So the vast proliferation of fucking Carraba's and Chili's and Applebee's from late 1990s and early 2000s have become the crappy hair metal bands. Farm-to-table, duck fat, pork belly and ramps all might as well be wearing flannel and Jeff Ament hats (or filmed in black & white, if you prefer).

The food trailers are just an extension of the change in restaurant trends (which could have even started with microbreweries), with lower overhead costs. I think it's a way for us who are now old enough to see & feel ourselves aging a little to hold on to our youth and our culture without being the Over 30 Hipster.

well, its one of the only ones I can eat (no seafood for this guy)...I assume we're both referring to yumblii or whatever...

Yeah, I think it's yumbii, but I don't know how much the food differs from the restaurant (Hankook Taqueria). Fairly positive they're owned by the same people, though, so they should be pretty similar.

Anyway, the go-to at Hankook has always been the beef (bulgogi) taco. Chicken and shrimp tie for second.

I'm all for street food, but Atlanta isn't really the place for it because we don't have a pedestrian culture and aren't particularly pedestrian friendly. It's sad that food trucks are a "fad" here, but I don't think they're really practical enough to last, aside from the occasional hot dog truck here and there which we've always had.

I think I was poisoned by Boner's BBQ truck...

King of Pops is fantastic

I'd honestly rather go to that new Delia's Chicken Sausage place in EAV, you been there yet? its great!

I'm not sure if I even agree with the starting point of this discussion. Gen Xers were more the product of corporate-sponsored counter-culture, which gave them the illusion they were counter culture without actually being counter-anything. The generations after Gen X are part of an internet-intensified muddle of the mainstream and the uber-indie, a world in which electronic word-of-mouth has become as (or more) powerful a promotional tool as entire PR departments. The thing is, that same world is inhabited by at least two other generations, which may explain why the most homogenous, least offensive music apparently falls under the banner of "silent majority rock" (that is, it cuts the widest swath among the generations active on the net).

In other words, it's the same old same old.

Of course you wouldn't.

yeah, but he's got a point...

Bon Iver/Fleet Foxes do get covered by pitchfork and blogs...unlike the others...

I also think they arrive at their particular suctitude via another avenue, set of influences, and by breaking through via different media.

And Rads, while I understand your particular problem with Cory's original thesis, I disagree with your conclusion that its the same ol same ol. The reason this is even a phenomenon is that we don't have 10 million unit movers dominating the market, but we do have a group of bands that is "dominating" what charts we do have, and you're not seeing odd or anomalous bands break through the muck of the bland corporate rock that is currently representing the top of the pops.

That and NO ONE is talking about these bands. If you or I went to a party 10 or even 5 years ago and someone mentioned their over abiding love for say, The White Stripes, we wouldn't immediately dismiss them as an Applebee's eating, cell phone belt clip wearing, gelled hair and cargo shorts fucking douche bag salesperson for Sysco Foods or Cisco Systems.

But if someone dropped Edward Sharpe or Mumford on me last night at the bar we were at for my birthday I would made a point of deriding their tastes and asking why they were trying to ruin my party.

And before we all pick out the one or two bands that Paste and Pitchfork have mentioned or that you kind of like or doesn't make you immediately want to shoot yourself, remember that I started a thread about The Airborne Toxic Event - after my dad's 50 y. o. audiophile friend mentioned them to me.

I know at least three people who talk about Mumford & Sons. And I never talk to anybody about anything.

this reminds me of the homerpalooza episode of The Simpsons.

Fu, I somehow got distracted by Radcliffe The Contrarian and missed your food truck post. Thats fucking brilliant dude. Get Chad to hook you up with a guest column in the local weekly rag or website.