Thoughts on the current counter culture..(hint...it can't be bought over the counter)
I came to New York City years ago searching for the radically minded mythical folk music circuit that spawned the likes of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez from the Greenwich Village coffee shops. However, the scene i sought out was nothing but an echo of a faded time, buried beneath a corporate plague, rising rent and gentrification. Years down the line, i stumbled upon, what I consider, the modern equivalent of the 1960’s folk circuit in the diy music community. It’s alive and breathing through raspy cigarette coated vocals and sweaty basement sing alongs. Rapidly moving along the interstates and highways, rattling on freight trains and mechanically erratic vehicles filled with dreamers heading toward donation based house concerts, bound for glory and propelled by the internet. It’s a song written on an out of tune guitar or plucked upon a banjo. It’s washtubs and washboards, played by dirty kids without a shower. It’s got its heros and its tragedies, its failures, and its triumphs. It’s xeroxed zines and screen printed patches waxing philosophical mayhem on a leather jacket. It’s prophetic graffiti, stickers, pins and stick and poke tattoos, It’s self education, self organization, and selfish yet selfless all at once. It’s in the starry hungry eyes of every idealist weirdo i have met along the road, spitting in the face of injustice and hitching a ride toward a new tomorrow. It’s a wild moment in history and if you are reading this, you are probably a part of it. Call it diy, call it folk punk, call it revolution, call it foolishness…call it whatever you want. I like to think that this is the stuff of inspirational legend, lightning in a bottle, magical liberating chaos on fire, a time that people are gonna write about…
