The Internet, Consumerism, and Music

Originally written January 5, 2022

    Very few artists are credited with the creation of something entirely unique. Some may point to the Velvet Underground or Captain Beefheart as monoliths in underground music, creating masterpieces unlike anything before or since. As time progressed new and interesting ideas seemed fewer and far between. With the rapid evolution of technology and communication, ideas are spread more rapidly and farther than every before. Trends come and go within the blink of an eye, most unaware of its existence at all. In this modern digital age, it is becoming harder and harder to conceive a totally original concept like it once was. Everything feels like it’s been done already. It’s all become the same. The rising and falling tides of fads wash over us, repeating on loop every 30 years or so. This sterilization of creativity and musical exploration makes Chuck Person’s Eccojams Vol. 1 all the more fascinating and awe inspiring. 

Cap’n Jazz - Burritos, Inspiration Point, Fork Balloon Sports, Cards in the Spokes, Automatic Biographies, Kites, Kung Fu, Trophies, Banana Peels We've Slipped On and Egg Shells We've Tippy Toed Over

        Out of the quiet suburban lawns of Chicago, childhood friends played together in a band. They were made up of brothers Tim and Mike Kinsella on vocals and drums respectively, Sam Zurick on bass, and Victor Villarreal and Davey von Bohlen both on guitar as well. Forming in 1989 and breaking up in 1995, the band only ever released one album and a handful of EPs and singles. Despite their seemingly short lived and miniscule output, the band is highly regarded as a pillar in the emo genre. A figure so colossal it overhauled an entire genre, breaking it down to its components only to reassemble it into something completely new. A style nearly unheard of, and one that would sweep the world of music throughout the ‘90s and 2000s, leaving influence in every corner.