BEACH HOUSE and THE POLITICS OF BOBBY SOCKS
(It's 1:pm saturday - not sure if I'll go anywhere - brain is on fire. COMPUTER is still severely handicapped)...
POST BEGINS - (aka: INDIE AND THE FLIGHT TO SAFETY...) {Well, apparently, boring Baltimore has a thriving new music scene - I add that to Portland (OR) and New Jersey. (I think NY sucks at the moment - a hypothesis)}. As far as I'm concerned, Beach-house kicks the xx's ASS. I like their personal approach to music, sounds and words. Victoria LaGrange has a slight rasp to her voice which sometimes is a bad thing, but when subdued it gives their sound a 60's folk-pop feel. (And that leads into the theme of this post). Their lyrics are profound and simple - sometimes too simple - like haunting nursery rhymes. They draw from the moody-dreaminess, plus the blatancy, of Roy Orbison.
[Incidentally, I listened to "THIS AMERICAN LIFE" and heard a few self-styled versions of the "We Want THIS kind of Nanny" song from the movie, "Mary Poppins". Well done - and the COUNTRY version could so totally have been a Randy Newman version - in fact I think he should do it. But these, too, were a kind of haunting nursery rhymes from the Baby Boomer past... (Touching on the theme again). *BTW - I urge you to listen to this week's "TAL" to hear the story of the kids and their unique mom inventing imaginary people to escape each other's control. It really is a fascinating study in PSYCHOLOGY - anti-social personality, narcissism, paranoia, magical thinking, persecution complex, reverse psychology...? I didn't know if the mom was really nuts or really a genius, using reverse psychology on her kids, UNTIL the very end of the story... *cliff-hanger* Those of you into psychology, go listen to it].
Back to Beach-House: Well, the kinds of music that are thriving are Indie, including Indie-Folk, Betty-Boop/iPod commercial music, and Dream-Pop, which is what Beach-House plays. Now, I'll leave it to another post to get into these different coalescing music trends, but I want to say one thing about Dream-Pop:
Dream-Pop is a NEW term - for a style that has been at the core of Indie from the very beginning. It is a style that the xx has been trying to remanufacture artificially with great guitar and sucky voices. It is a style that goes back to Mazzy Star, the Sundays, the Cranberries, the Cowboy Junkies, and MANY other Indie artists who also use(d) it to some degree, like Belle/Sebastian, Morrissey, Belly/Muses, Liz Faire, Aimee Mann, Romeo Void, instrumental groups, & even Norah Jones and her spin-offs, etc. The song "Norway" by Beach-House could almost have come from a Cranberries CD. So - I am crankilly disturbed by the introduction of this newfangled term "Dream-Pop" - but on the other hand, it gives me a NAME for identifying this Indie style - so it's a wash.
But maybe the difference with Dream-Pop is that it might be reach as far back as, not only Orbison, but the Beach Boy's "Pet Sounds" - but that would be saying that other Indie groups have not borrowed from these artists, when they have. The thing that is definitely different is this: 1 - It's POPULAR. *2 - It is associated with other Indie trends reaching back to the 60's and 50's more obviously. 3 - The lyrics, though very different in sound/style, slightly more resemble pop lyric structure, simplicity &/or upbeatness. (#3 is still a hypothesis).
Thus begins the theme of this post: Part One: Much Indie Music, (in general), though grounded in core-Indie style, is harkening back to the 60's and 50's - and there are sociological reasons for this. Another way of viewing the trend is that formerly marginal/rad/emo, and perhaps "art-snob/elitist", Indie has been evolving away from the 60/50's for so long that it has now evolved INTO a form similar to, or echoing, those times.
Beach House: Roy Orbison. She-him: Nancy Sinatra? Norah Jones: Cool Jazz. Leapfrogs: Led Zepelin. Flaming Lips: Pink Floyd. When you stop and think about it, it becomes clear that the phenomenon is widespread - especially with so many Indie singers resurrecting the styles of Doris Day, Dusty Springfield, Billy Holiday, etc. And on the instrumental & male side, there are groups resurrecting the Beach Boys, Beatles, Animals, Bob Dylan, etc. And what is Norah Jones doing running around with Wilco? It's the BIG STAR connection. Big Star, (Alex Chilton, R.I.P.), from the 70's, who were based on a Memphis soul-modified 60's British Invasion style, primarilly GEORGE HARRISON, was extremely influential to the evolution of MANY modern rock bands, like Wilco. (Not to discount the influence of Harrison directly). Norah Jones, daughter of Ravi Shankar, (Harrison's buddy), was BORN out of the whole British Invasion crowd.
So, why is this happening? Well, on the one hand, it's a natural artistic growth. And, part of that point is this: There was so much experimentation and GOOD music of the 60's which never got the chance to EXPAND because it was either crowded out by other types, (popular or corporate), or was cut short by the ending of that hopeful era - (by Nixon, cops, drugs, stagflation, and other negativity - finally quashed by the Reagan era).
But there is another reason why Indie is going retro: Aging Baby boomers are supporting the Indie market. They are also in control of the music industry. My theory is that aging Baby Boomers are lamenting, and seeking to revive, their hopeful childhoods. Thus they are supporting music which reminds them of those times.
I have OFTEN pondered this: The whole Beat-Folk-Hippie movement(s), and the rebellion against establishment, was SO MONUMENTAL... WHY, in god's name, did the Hippies all become Yuppies and ultimately destroy the country? I know they were into SELFISHNESS, that's a given - but it doesn't explain everything. Because there was a LOT of TRUTH to the 60's - how could they so ABSOLUTELY turn their backs on it?! Just because Limbaugh skewered Hippies? (Which was the only good thing Limbaugh ever did). WHY have the Boomers gone for SO LONG without REALISING the destructiveness of their ways?!
So - I always INSISTED to myself that ONE DAY, there would HAVE to be a HUGE change, based around Boomers, comparable to the force of those changes in the 60's. Well - it finally happened: over-leveraged "securities" failed; the home real estate bubble collapsed; a "black" man was elected; HEALTH CARE became an intense and absurd issue; the crazy corporate-sponsored Tea Baggers arose, and cars from Ford to Toyota became FAILURES. The only problem is: This isn't enough - there will be MORE of this intense sociological bowel movement coming in the fairly new future. And I KNOW this from trends research, such as the imminence of inflation in a nevertheless slack economy, but also from my many observations of CONTINUING BOOMER DENIALS in many spheres such as government, Wall Street, social, etc.
That said, it now becomes visible that the retro-fitting of Indie is a part of these wider changes - part of the late mid-life crisis of Baby Boomers. And I don't want to belittle the crisis: Much of it is socioeconomically SERIOUS. But on the music scene, my take is this: Boomers returning to the LEFT are supporting the retro Indie trends - and that includes Boomer media moguls selling it on TV to the rest of the population, including to conservatives.
Psychadelic 60's riffs; echoing distant and soft voices; the introduction of more folk and cool jazz, and reminiscences of Doris Day singing all happy on a sunny day - this is the Indie they want: It is SAFE. It is happy and sexy and lazy and rich and emo and unstressed. And younger people are listening to it, buying it, and MAKING it, ALSO because it is SAFE. It is comforting in a now dangerous world. As the middle class falls, the LEFT-oriented are adopting the safe persona of the Indie artsy elite - which also explains the success of Apple.
But what about those Boomers who are oriented to the RIGHT?! Well, they, like the born-again LEFTIST Boomers, are hypothetically buying up the Indie Music as well, but more of the stuff reminiscent of pleasantly-haunting nursery rhymes, and the 50's - in other words, music of their earlier childhood. But they don't have time for much of it, because they are out running around with teabags on their heads and guns in their pockets - "pow! pow! bang! bang! I'M Davy Crocket! I'M the Lone Ranger!" And - it is also likely that MANY of them may be CONFRONTATIONAL to Indie and retro-Indie, as it may trigger the "LIBERAL ELITE" red flag in their LIMBIC brain regions ...
Now the whole sociology behind the Tea-Baggers would take too long to discuss. But my main theory - which I am now completely convinced of by now - is this: The Tea-Baggers, and their ilk, now in retirement age, (and including some intensely ambivalent "Silent Generation" folks like McCain), are rabidly in denial of the following facts: 1 - They have spent their lives on selfish and destructive activities. 2 - They are going to die soon. 3 - THEIR trickle-down voodoo economics fucked up the nation and THEIR pocket books. 4 - Their religious absolutes and their libertarian market "Invisible Hand" have mainly been errant and DESTRUCTIVE magical thinking. 5 - Blacks are human beings, with intelligence and conscience and competence and compassion. 6 - Reapplying the PAST will never resolve the future. 7 - Their aggressiveness and banality and lies will never convince people that they are right. 7 - The majority of Americans don't think as they do. 8 - Fox News is NOT REALITY. 9 - INCORRECT: They have done, and can do, NO WRONG, because they know what's best. 10 - They have NOT been anointed the PARENTS of AMERICA, now that their own children have moved out and can no longer be CONTROLLED. (Tea-Baggers think that the way they MUST PARENT America is by acting disciplinary, deceptive, authoritarian, asinine and JERKY-JERK).
Well, I don't want to say that many Tea-Baggers don't have proper concerns - they do. I agree with some of them. I disagree with most of them. But their reductionist psychology is so transparent, it is easy to see what their REAL motivating force is: FEAR. They are afraid. And, they have a right to be. But because they are in denial, their only direction is to lash out, not to solve problems or look into their hearts and resolve problems and offer solutions, etc.
Anyway, back to music: They may be seeking SOME of the safe Indie stuff - or ABBA, in the case of John McCain - but they are mainly seeking haven in two types: Christian Pop/Rock, (which is also SAFE, though a rip-off), and religious folksy-rock which is less safe and is also a rip-off, of the 60's.
Now, to the crux of my Tea-Bagger profile: The teabaggers were once the kids who obediently looked askance at the liberal 60's protesters. They remained sheltered and favoured by their parents. Answers seemed simple to them then... and NOW, like "Don't give out more unemployment benefits unless you can pay for them NOW!", because things came easilly to them as kids. And compassion for strangers - especially THOSE BLACKS - was frowned upon unless it involved religious narcissism. They grew up and went on to create the credit-funded, trickle-down false dogma of the 80's, (while liberated leftist hip-types were getting lost in Disco), and propagated this crap for 30 years in complete safety. Then they wake up one day in a cold sweat, with a flood of debt and discord threatening them, and they want to BLAME someone because it just DOESN'T FIT!
But, moreso, the secret of their economic lie has been psychological: A symbolic gassing and cremation of the LIBERAL class of Baby Boomers. Upon this, an impoverishment of the middle class, alongside a theology of actual "political correctness", they have built up their fortunes, if not their security.
But for 40+ years they have ALSO been holding in their seething childhood jealousy and resentment of those liberal protestors - with all their fun and limelight and drugs and power and music and culture and clothes and hipness and politics and so forth.
So what happened? They finally shook up all that envy: and took to the streets - doing EVERYTHING they HATED the 60's protesters for doing - although seen and distorted through the lense of spiteful and magical-thinking children. That is to say, they FINALLY got their chance to do all the things they envied the 60's of doing. And must I say, their covetous interpretation has been nothing but a great ball of ABSURDITY.
That's my theory.
Then there is everyone in the middle - plus the Neo-Cons & Neo-Libs who basically have installed the whole false ideology, ad absurdum, to the middle class. Well, they are being tugged in two directions - go left? - go right?
It's safe to say that those boomers, etc., who are LEFT-oriented, and/or Progressive, want to be safe by relaxing and drinking coffee and listening to Dream-Pop and playing with their iPads. But that won't solve problems. The COFFEE PARTY is a perfect example of a liberal reaction to the times: Coffee/Indie based, it is GREAT as a social movement of sorts, but completely inane as a political PARTY, fgs.
And so long as the Tea-Baggers and other conservatives maintain their intense DENIAL, and rudeness, well, THAT won't solve problems either.
Thus: More bad times ahead.
OK - that's all for this post. I have thoughts on the "Vampires" trend - which is related to Indie and David Lynch of the 80's - and which also involves a flight to safety - as does the flight to Movies based on 50/60's comic books - but I'll get to these some other time. Plus other stuff. I'm going to feed my dog now. Bye.
This will also be (partly?) posted in indie_lifestyle and t_r_e_n_d_s - please join. This post doesn't even get into the corporatisation of Indie and coffee-houses - nor my idea for a novel ~5 years ago which basically presaged a tea-bagger-like PARTY emerging from a corporate COFFEEhouse!!! This post also hasn't touched on the corporatisation of Indie and coffeehouses, which has socio-political implications....
Suggested sites: Google "Sound Opinions" and also NPR's "World Cafe" for stuff on Beach House - (from the outskirts of WDC, btw)....
http://www.stopmybenefits.com
Join: coffee_partyusa
http://www.worldwidehippies.com
Book: "The Fourth Turning"
http://www.stopthechamber.com
POST BEGINS - (aka: INDIE AND THE FLIGHT TO SAFETY...) {Well, apparently, boring Baltimore has a thriving new music scene - I add that to Portland (OR) and New Jersey. (I think NY sucks at the moment - a hypothesis)}. As far as I'm concerned, Beach-house kicks the xx's ASS. I like their personal approach to music, sounds and words. Victoria LaGrange has a slight rasp to her voice which sometimes is a bad thing, but when subdued it gives their sound a 60's folk-pop feel. (And that leads into the theme of this post). Their lyrics are profound and simple - sometimes too simple - like haunting nursery rhymes. They draw from the moody-dreaminess, plus the blatancy, of Roy Orbison.
[Incidentally, I listened to "THIS AMERICAN LIFE" and heard a few self-styled versions of the "We Want THIS kind of Nanny" song from the movie, "Mary Poppins". Well done - and the COUNTRY version could so totally have been a Randy Newman version - in fact I think he should do it. But these, too, were a kind of haunting nursery rhymes from the Baby Boomer past... (Touching on the theme again). *BTW - I urge you to listen to this week's "TAL" to hear the story of the kids and their unique mom inventing imaginary people to escape each other's control. It really is a fascinating study in PSYCHOLOGY - anti-social personality, narcissism, paranoia, magical thinking, persecution complex, reverse psychology...? I didn't know if the mom was really nuts or really a genius, using reverse psychology on her kids, UNTIL the very end of the story... *cliff-hanger* Those of you into psychology, go listen to it].
Back to Beach-House: Well, the kinds of music that are thriving are Indie, including Indie-Folk, Betty-Boop/iPod commercial music, and Dream-Pop, which is what Beach-House plays. Now, I'll leave it to another post to get into these different coalescing music trends, but I want to say one thing about Dream-Pop:
Dream-Pop is a NEW term - for a style that has been at the core of Indie from the very beginning. It is a style that the xx has been trying to remanufacture artificially with great guitar and sucky voices. It is a style that goes back to Mazzy Star, the Sundays, the Cranberries, the Cowboy Junkies, and MANY other Indie artists who also use(d) it to some degree, like Belle/Sebastian, Morrissey, Belly/Muses, Liz Faire, Aimee Mann, Romeo Void, instrumental groups, & even Norah Jones and her spin-offs, etc. The song "Norway" by Beach-House could almost have come from a Cranberries CD. So - I am crankilly disturbed by the introduction of this newfangled term "Dream-Pop" - but on the other hand, it gives me a NAME for identifying this Indie style - so it's a wash.
But maybe the difference with Dream-Pop is that it might be reach as far back as, not only Orbison, but the Beach Boy's "Pet Sounds" - but that would be saying that other Indie groups have not borrowed from these artists, when they have. The thing that is definitely different is this: 1 - It's POPULAR. *2 - It is associated with other Indie trends reaching back to the 60's and 50's more obviously. 3 - The lyrics, though very different in sound/style, slightly more resemble pop lyric structure, simplicity &/or upbeatness. (#3 is still a hypothesis).
Thus begins the theme of this post: Part One: Much Indie Music, (in general), though grounded in core-Indie style, is harkening back to the 60's and 50's - and there are sociological reasons for this. Another way of viewing the trend is that formerly marginal/rad/emo, and perhaps "art-snob/elitist", Indie has been evolving away from the 60/50's for so long that it has now evolved INTO a form similar to, or echoing, those times.
Beach House: Roy Orbison. She-him: Nancy Sinatra? Norah Jones: Cool Jazz. Leapfrogs: Led Zepelin. Flaming Lips: Pink Floyd. When you stop and think about it, it becomes clear that the phenomenon is widespread - especially with so many Indie singers resurrecting the styles of Doris Day, Dusty Springfield, Billy Holiday, etc. And on the instrumental & male side, there are groups resurrecting the Beach Boys, Beatles, Animals, Bob Dylan, etc. And what is Norah Jones doing running around with Wilco? It's the BIG STAR connection. Big Star, (Alex Chilton, R.I.P.), from the 70's, who were based on a Memphis soul-modified 60's British Invasion style, primarilly GEORGE HARRISON, was extremely influential to the evolution of MANY modern rock bands, like Wilco. (Not to discount the influence of Harrison directly). Norah Jones, daughter of Ravi Shankar, (Harrison's buddy), was BORN out of the whole British Invasion crowd.
So, why is this happening? Well, on the one hand, it's a natural artistic growth. And, part of that point is this: There was so much experimentation and GOOD music of the 60's which never got the chance to EXPAND because it was either crowded out by other types, (popular or corporate), or was cut short by the ending of that hopeful era - (by Nixon, cops, drugs, stagflation, and other negativity - finally quashed by the Reagan era).
But there is another reason why Indie is going retro: Aging Baby boomers are supporting the Indie market. They are also in control of the music industry. My theory is that aging Baby Boomers are lamenting, and seeking to revive, their hopeful childhoods. Thus they are supporting music which reminds them of those times.
I have OFTEN pondered this: The whole Beat-Folk-Hippie movement(s), and the rebellion against establishment, was SO MONUMENTAL... WHY, in god's name, did the Hippies all become Yuppies and ultimately destroy the country? I know they were into SELFISHNESS, that's a given - but it doesn't explain everything. Because there was a LOT of TRUTH to the 60's - how could they so ABSOLUTELY turn their backs on it?! Just because Limbaugh skewered Hippies? (Which was the only good thing Limbaugh ever did). WHY have the Boomers gone for SO LONG without REALISING the destructiveness of their ways?!
So - I always INSISTED to myself that ONE DAY, there would HAVE to be a HUGE change, based around Boomers, comparable to the force of those changes in the 60's. Well - it finally happened: over-leveraged "securities" failed; the home real estate bubble collapsed; a "black" man was elected; HEALTH CARE became an intense and absurd issue; the crazy corporate-sponsored Tea Baggers arose, and cars from Ford to Toyota became FAILURES. The only problem is: This isn't enough - there will be MORE of this intense sociological bowel movement coming in the fairly new future. And I KNOW this from trends research, such as the imminence of inflation in a nevertheless slack economy, but also from my many observations of CONTINUING BOOMER DENIALS in many spheres such as government, Wall Street, social, etc.
That said, it now becomes visible that the retro-fitting of Indie is a part of these wider changes - part of the late mid-life crisis of Baby Boomers. And I don't want to belittle the crisis: Much of it is socioeconomically SERIOUS. But on the music scene, my take is this: Boomers returning to the LEFT are supporting the retro Indie trends - and that includes Boomer media moguls selling it on TV to the rest of the population, including to conservatives.
Psychadelic 60's riffs; echoing distant and soft voices; the introduction of more folk and cool jazz, and reminiscences of Doris Day singing all happy on a sunny day - this is the Indie they want: It is SAFE. It is happy and sexy and lazy and rich and emo and unstressed. And younger people are listening to it, buying it, and MAKING it, ALSO because it is SAFE. It is comforting in a now dangerous world. As the middle class falls, the LEFT-oriented are adopting the safe persona of the Indie artsy elite - which also explains the success of Apple.
But what about those Boomers who are oriented to the RIGHT?! Well, they, like the born-again LEFTIST Boomers, are hypothetically buying up the Indie Music as well, but more of the stuff reminiscent of pleasantly-haunting nursery rhymes, and the 50's - in other words, music of their earlier childhood. But they don't have time for much of it, because they are out running around with teabags on their heads and guns in their pockets - "pow! pow! bang! bang! I'M Davy Crocket! I'M the Lone Ranger!" And - it is also likely that MANY of them may be CONFRONTATIONAL to Indie and retro-Indie, as it may trigger the "LIBERAL ELITE" red flag in their LIMBIC brain regions ...
Now the whole sociology behind the Tea-Baggers would take too long to discuss. But my main theory - which I am now completely convinced of by now - is this: The Tea-Baggers, and their ilk, now in retirement age, (and including some intensely ambivalent "Silent Generation" folks like McCain), are rabidly in denial of the following facts: 1 - They have spent their lives on selfish and destructive activities. 2 - They are going to die soon. 3 - THEIR trickle-down voodoo economics fucked up the nation and THEIR pocket books. 4 - Their religious absolutes and their libertarian market "Invisible Hand" have mainly been errant and DESTRUCTIVE magical thinking. 5 - Blacks are human beings, with intelligence and conscience and competence and compassion. 6 - Reapplying the PAST will never resolve the future. 7 - Their aggressiveness and banality and lies will never convince people that they are right. 7 - The majority of Americans don't think as they do. 8 - Fox News is NOT REALITY. 9 - INCORRECT: They have done, and can do, NO WRONG, because they know what's best. 10 - They have NOT been anointed the PARENTS of AMERICA, now that their own children have moved out and can no longer be CONTROLLED. (Tea-Baggers think that the way they MUST PARENT America is by acting disciplinary, deceptive, authoritarian, asinine and JERKY-JERK).
Well, I don't want to say that many Tea-Baggers don't have proper concerns - they do. I agree with some of them. I disagree with most of them. But their reductionist psychology is so transparent, it is easy to see what their REAL motivating force is: FEAR. They are afraid. And, they have a right to be. But because they are in denial, their only direction is to lash out, not to solve problems or look into their hearts and resolve problems and offer solutions, etc.
Anyway, back to music: They may be seeking SOME of the safe Indie stuff - or ABBA, in the case of John McCain - but they are mainly seeking haven in two types: Christian Pop/Rock, (which is also SAFE, though a rip-off), and religious folksy-rock which is less safe and is also a rip-off, of the 60's.
Now, to the crux of my Tea-Bagger profile: The teabaggers were once the kids who obediently looked askance at the liberal 60's protesters. They remained sheltered and favoured by their parents. Answers seemed simple to them then... and NOW, like "Don't give out more unemployment benefits unless you can pay for them NOW!", because things came easilly to them as kids. And compassion for strangers - especially THOSE BLACKS - was frowned upon unless it involved religious narcissism. They grew up and went on to create the credit-funded, trickle-down false dogma of the 80's, (while liberated leftist hip-types were getting lost in Disco), and propagated this crap for 30 years in complete safety. Then they wake up one day in a cold sweat, with a flood of debt and discord threatening them, and they want to BLAME someone because it just DOESN'T FIT!
But, moreso, the secret of their economic lie has been psychological: A symbolic gassing and cremation of the LIBERAL class of Baby Boomers. Upon this, an impoverishment of the middle class, alongside a theology of actual "political correctness", they have built up their fortunes, if not their security.
But for 40+ years they have ALSO been holding in their seething childhood jealousy and resentment of those liberal protestors - with all their fun and limelight and drugs and power and music and culture and clothes and hipness and politics and so forth.
So what happened? They finally shook up all that envy: and took to the streets - doing EVERYTHING they HATED the 60's protesters for doing - although seen and distorted through the lense of spiteful and magical-thinking children. That is to say, they FINALLY got their chance to do all the things they envied the 60's of doing. And must I say, their covetous interpretation has been nothing but a great ball of ABSURDITY.
That's my theory.
Then there is everyone in the middle - plus the Neo-Cons & Neo-Libs who basically have installed the whole false ideology, ad absurdum, to the middle class. Well, they are being tugged in two directions - go left? - go right?
It's safe to say that those boomers, etc., who are LEFT-oriented, and/or Progressive, want to be safe by relaxing and drinking coffee and listening to Dream-Pop and playing with their iPads. But that won't solve problems. The COFFEE PARTY is a perfect example of a liberal reaction to the times: Coffee/Indie based, it is GREAT as a social movement of sorts, but completely inane as a political PARTY, fgs.
And so long as the Tea-Baggers and other conservatives maintain their intense DENIAL, and rudeness, well, THAT won't solve problems either.
Thus: More bad times ahead.
OK - that's all for this post. I have thoughts on the "Vampires" trend - which is related to Indie and David Lynch of the 80's - and which also involves a flight to safety - as does the flight to Movies based on 50/60's comic books - but I'll get to these some other time. Plus other stuff. I'm going to feed my dog now. Bye.
This will also be (partly?) posted in indie_lifestyle and t_r_e_n_d_s - please join. This post doesn't even get into the corporatisation of Indie and coffee-houses - nor my idea for a novel ~5 years ago which basically presaged a tea-bagger-like PARTY emerging from a corporate COFFEEhouse!!! This post also hasn't touched on the corporatisation of Indie and coffeehouses, which has socio-political implications....
Suggested sites: Google "Sound Opinions" and also NPR's "World Cafe" for stuff on Beach House - (from the outskirts of WDC, btw)....
http://www.stopmybenefits.com
Join: coffee_partyusa
http://www.worldwidehippies.com
Book: "The Fourth Turning"
http://www.stopthechamber.com