let's have a thread about ̶s̶c̶e̶n̶e̶s̶ notable music happe

Cap'n Squirrgle · **Posted:** Tue Aug 20, 2013 4:32 pm

Fertilizer is something.

FT · **Posted:** Tue Aug 20, 2013 5:25 pm

toots Wrote:

summer of 89 man

every t-top in town was blasting henry lee

toots · **Posted:** Tue Aug 20, 2013 5:33 pm

looking remarkably trim in his old age

Rick Derris · **Posted:** Tue Aug 20, 2013 6:09 pm

Still got it!

billy g · **Joined:** Mon Oct 25, 2004 1:41 pm **Posts:** 9020

Rick Derris Wrote:

billy g Wrote:

When I think of a scene, I think of there being a kind of musical terroir, a common sound/attitude/viewpoint that is not only present in the geography but somehow uniquely develops in that geography. Grunge has that. I'm not sure Athens does but if it does it would be an interesting story that I've never really heard.

I'd argue that Athens had it in spades. I don't really disagree with anything you've said here but I could argue that a common sound is less important than having a supportive scene that is allowed to grow organically.

In the late 70's, Athens was still a sleepy college cow town with a few bars to support college kids and maybe a few bands to play covers of Journey, Zeppelin, David Allen Coe, or maybe The Allmans. Having a career as a musician or be in a working bad was an impossibility.

Most all of the bands were associated with the UGA Art school. They were art freaks that played music for house parties and Athens was not the art friendly liberal place it is now.

There was no expectation of success so all of those bands at the time played each others shows, went to each others parties and slowly got better and better. It wasn't until the B-52's went to NYC that any of them thought they could do anything other than play Athens or Chapel Hill or wherever.

I also think the media found Athens to be a better story with these bands because it was such a random place for good bands to come out of.

Had what in spades?

I don't disagree with anything you really said. It's certainly impressive and interesting that so many bands came out of such a small town. Not taking anything away from that. Didn't Guadalcanal Diary come out of Athens too? I just think it's a much different thing than how I mentally define scenes.

Radcliffe · **Posted:** Tue Aug 20, 2013 8:01 pm

If you don't think late '70s/early '80s Athens qualifies then your definition of scene needs to be reconsidered.

For one thing, the prerequisite of a common sound/attitude/viewpoint is entirely misguided and unnecessarily stringent. One look at 1977 NYC nets you a variety of groups with pretty much nothing in common except the venues they played (eg: Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads, Dead Boys, etc). No common viewpoint. No common attitude. And definitely no common sound. So if your definition cancels out the golden CBGBs era in NYC, then your definition is, in a word, wrong.

billy g · **Joined:** Mon Oct 25, 2004 1:41 pm **Posts:** 9020

Radcliffe Wrote:

If you don't think late '70s/early '80s Athens qualifies then your definition of scene needs to be reconsidered.

For one thing, the prerequisite of a common sound/attitude/viewpoint is entirely misguided and unnecessarily stringent. One look at 1977 NYC nets you a variety of groups with pretty much nothing in common except the venues they played (eg: Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads, Dead Boys, etc). No common viewpoint. No common attitude. And definitely no common sound. So if your definition cancels out the golden CBGBs era in NYC, then your definition is, in a word, wrong.

There is no one universally agreed upon definition of a scene. If you want to define it as not requiring any common sound/attitude/viewpoint, that's fine. I'm not going to argue with you. What was going on in Athens in the late 70's/80's was definitely interesting and worth talking about. Whether it's a scene or not is just semantics. I was reacting to Toots' definition in his initial post:

Toots Wrote:

, 2) each scene would have at least 3-4 similarly bent artists to define the scene's "sound,"

I don't think Athens fits that. I actually do think 1977 NYC easily does.

Lrr · **Posted:** Tue Aug 20, 2013 8:37 pm

Cap'n Squirrgle Wrote:

You don't think so? (Thinking of Seattle Grunge, can't picture it still going on as-was)

This is all nitpicking on terminology, but no I don't think so. Scenes evolve and change, but if they end, I envision that to mean the city has dried up into a cultural husk. I don't hear anybody saying Seattle has a crappy scene these days.

To reference the Athens talk, I can seeing arguing that scenes end a lot more in college towns, as they tend to see a much greater percentage of their population being transient.

bort · **Posted:** Tue Aug 20, 2013 10:02 pm

billy g Wrote:

Didn't Guadalcanal Diary come out of Athens too?

I've heard very little of this band, but what I have heard sounds a lot like REM.

DHRjericho · **Posted:** Wed Aug 21, 2013 12:23 am

toots Wrote:

English Midlands - early 90s

Quote:

Grebos

Golden years: 1989-92

Music: Midlands rock bands such as Pop Will Eat Itself, the Wonder Stuff, Gaye Bikers On Acid and Crazyhead. PWEI are said to have popularised the word with their song Oh Grebo I Think I Love You.

The look: Hair shaved at the sides and long on top – somtimes dreadlocked, rarely clean. Big stripy jumpers, with baggy jeans or shorts.

Deadly rivals: None: most other youth cults considered them beneath contempt.

Public profile: Extinct. Greboes came and went, leaving little trace of their existence.

PWEI

I didn't realize this was tied to a scene. I forgot that PWEI song (probably haven't heard in 20 years) and really like it. Thanks for triggering that.

Would renegade soundwave have fallen into this scene, i can see similarities?

toots · **Posted:** Wed Aug 21, 2013 10:46 am

billy g Wrote:

I was reacting to Toots' definition in his initial post:

Toots Wrote:

, 2) each scene would have at least 3-4 similarly bent artists to define the scene's "sound,"

i should probably walk this one back a little. the death rock entry broke this rule already, i think.

toots · **Posted:** Wed Aug 21, 2013 10:55 am

admittedly, my definition of scene is getting a bit tattered, but i think there's something there that i'm getting at and i don't have the right word for it yet. i think what i'm trying to capture are instances of a phenomena that evokes comments like:

"man, wouldn't it be great to have been alive in [city] in [year], back when [something notable happened musically that involved multiple artists conjoined by either a sound, or a studio, or an attitude, or an enabling venue or cluster of venues, or a tribe of followers who all wore safety pins in their noses and made the news]?"

billy g · **Joined:** Mon Oct 25, 2004 1:41 pm **Posts:** 9020

toots Wrote:

admittedly, my definition of scene is getting a bit tattered, but i think there's something there that i'm getting at and i don't have the right word for it yet. i think what i'm trying to capture are instances of a phenomena that evokes comments like:

"man, wouldn't it be great to have been alive in [city] in [year], back when [something notable happened musically that involved multiple artists conjoined by either a sound, or a studio, or an attitude, or an enabling venue or cluster of venues, or a tribe of followers who all wore safety pins in their noses and made the news]?"

This works for me. Also, a big tent definition is good -- we're hardly in a position to discourage music posts here.

One of my favorite scenes to daydream about is Spanish Harlem in the late 60's and early 70's with all the Salsa, Latin Soul, Boogaloo, the wild clubs like the Cheetah, and all the labels like Fania, Tico, Salsoul, etc that catered to the scene.

I own a lot of stuff from that era with my favorite artists being Joe Bataan and Willie Colon. There are a ton of great smaller artists too though.

There have been a couple of documentaries released about the scene over the past five years. I keep meaning to try to track one of them down. Maybe I'll see if Netflix has any of them.

FT · **Posted:** Wed Aug 21, 2013 4:07 pm

toots Wrote:

looking remarkably trim in his old age

He's apparently an extremely loyal customer of whoever passes for Heisenberg in the Hoosier state.

let's have a thread about ̶s̶c̶e̶n̶e̶s̶ notable music happe

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