(oh yeah, somehow lo-fi and bike helmets came to this)
As we know both mainstream and indie/underground are full of lame and sometimes inexplicable trends and fads. The current trend in independent/underground/nascent pop/rock scene that is emerging is the micro-genre of nu-fi, which I like if you took a glass of Lo-fi, stuffed it with fly-embedded ice cubes and left it rot in the July heat. Lo-fi was a play on words to differentiate certain independent musicians who didn't have the money (or desire) to make music with any decent fidelity. Artists during this period, such as Sebadoh, Guided by Voices, early Pavement, Beat happening, etc. made songs during this period that were fantastic mini-ballads and pop compositions that were made ever so charmulous by recording them with equipment that made the finished product sound like it was recorded in a chaw-hounds half empty (or is it half full? It's Tuesday already!) Chunky Fully Loaded soup spit can. Sure, it sounded like shit, but the fuzz, pops, scratches, and feedback of lo (or lack of) fidelity was like a brown paper bag covering some delicious hooch that you couldn't wait to rip through to expose the sweet nectar within.
Of course now we have musicians who grew up listening to the 80s-90s lo-fi artists and now record "lo-fi" intentionally regardless of whether or not they can afford the higher fidelity equipment. Bands such as Wavves, No Age, Time New Viking are the nu-wave of this sound and are starting to command some serios star power. Not that I hate them soooo much, but sudden trends and micro-genres that everyone goes apeshit over while forgetting the roots of such a sound tend to crawl up my ass and die.
Which is exactly the reason that I found this interview with the lead singer of Psychedelic Horseshit so entertaining. Read it, don't weep unless those tears are from painful laughing fits:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postrock/2009/03/sxsw_leftovers_talkin_expletiv.html\
after reading this, I checked out some Psychedelic Horseshit tunes and realized that does not only do they have a hilarious front man but they are nuts to the hut great.
Meanwhile, on the cycling front:
Wearing a bicycle helmet is not just for protecting your precious gray noodle, but are also a quasi religious lifestyle choice to lord over others akin to not smoking, buying fair trade coffee or spending three months worth of your coffee shop wages to buy a Macbook. I usually go helmetless and often get hassled about it by my more serious cycling friends/random idiot strangers on the street. Bike riders, whether casual/recreational or enthusiast in the US have this weird fixation on wearing a helmet. Like most things we think are good for us, it's mostly clever marketing according to the following articles. One juicy factoid here is that helmets are only tested for crown (top) impact and not at all for side and rear impact. So, when you smack the side or rear of your head into a sign pole or a Mini Cooper painted with the flag colors of some Europhile dipshit's anscestral home country your head might be just as likely to crack like a warm M & M as if you were wearing nothing but a side comb over. Read on:
http://www.copenhagenize.com/2008/07/cycle-helmets-and-other-religious.html
http://www.copenhagenize.com/2009/06/get-yer-torches-its-bike-helmet.html
What have we learned today kids? Grow a brain and use it. Use it to dig beyond the buzz band or micro genre of right now. And forget about protecting it with a foam and plastic covering when you're out on two (human powered) wheels.
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