Bandwidth

Or,
IS THIS COOL ENOUGH FOR YOU?

I’m 28 now, and in the modern age, I think that’s old enough to be past it. Upon hearing a statement such as this, people who are older than me will utter a belly laugh, chortle wildly, whilst uttering some kind of platitude such as, “My goodness! I wish I was still your age, tearing it up with wild abandon! Go forth, and wreak thy havoc upon the unsuspecting public! You are youth personified!”*



*Dialogue invented by the author.



But the truth is that culture is moving at such a vastly accelerated rate, that even someone who is arguably in the prime of their life can be completely left behind if they’re not careful. And in my case, I’ve not been careful. My pop culture references are alarmingly out of date (I recently made a reference to Lori Petty which was met with complete bewilderment) and I’m feeling increasingly alienated from my surroundings. Things that I think are ‘cool’ don’t seem to be ‘cool’ anymore. And I’m not sure if anyone thinks stuff is ‘cool’ anymore.



As an example of this, just before Christmas I dragged my weary bones out of my coffin to the Menagerie to see Mr Joe Lally, formerly the bass-mangler in Fugazi, the legendary post-hardcore band. Now to me, there is nothing cooler than seeing a member of Fugazi in a relatively small venue on a rotten Thursday night, a feeling akin to standing in the presence of Superman. Fugazi were one of the most important bands of the late 20th century, pioneering a new way of doing things, encouraging forward thinking and promoting a culture of self-reliance and positivity. They also made some incredible music which continues to blow my mind to this very day. They’ve been on “indefinite hiatus” since the start of the decade, seemingly never to return. But various band members have been active in new projects, continuing to preach their gospel of DIY activism.



In a nutshell – Fugazi were a band that actively encouraged you to give a shit about stuff.



The mighty Ian MacKaye played in Belfast in the church hall above Common Grounds café a few years ago with his new band, The Evens. There, he delivered a stirring set of raw punk rock, with folkish overtones, to a crowd of enthusiastic onlookers, including some very young kids, who were no doubt getting their very first taste of rock and roll. It was moving stuff, and Joe Lally is as crucial to the appeal of Fugazi as anything else, so I was expecting a similar reaction.



Well, the old saying goes that there was only 13 people at the Last Supper, but that didn’t stop it being a legendary event…which is about the same amount of people who were there for Joe Lally.

Not that he let that get in the way of things, delivering a strong set of exploratory rock music, which fused jazz and funk rhythms to the polemical style Fugazi are frequently associated with. At one point, Lally left the stage, and went to stand at the bar, creating a weird and disorientating displacement between crowd and performer, which helped remind us that performance can be a LIVING, BREATHING THING, rather than some kind of staid event which we attend just to stave off suicide for another hour or two. He then gave us an acapella song outlining some of his views on war which, if somewhat simplistic, were completely heartfelt.



It’s a shame that there weren’t more people there for him to connect with, but I guess it was refreshing to see a guy who genuinely cared about something enough to get up there and do something about it.



Is that ‘cool’, these days? I don’t know.



I’ll tell you what’s not cool, though: selling yourself out.



Your correspondent is ashamed to admit that he has engaged in an activity that will result in him sent directly to indie-hell, a complete and utter betrayal of everything he holds dear and everything that he stands for.



Yes, dear reader, your correspondent WILLINGLY went into a high street retailer, and purchased a pretend retro Star Trek t-shirt.



And as if this isn’t enough, your correspondent will confess that he has a GENUINE retro Star Trek t-shirt in his possession that he wouldn’t be caught dead in, for fear of being deemed ‘uncool’.



My brain is still struggling to calculate the mathematics on this one, so bear with me. In 1993, my teenage self went into a comic book store, spotted a garishly coloured t-shirt sporting a picture of the starship Enterprise flying through space, bearing the legend, “To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before…” I immediately dug out my pocket money, thinking this was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. There I was, an adolescent Star Trek fan, celebrating my love of Star Trek, buy wearing a Star Trek t-shirt. Cool, eh?



Not cool apparently. A flick through a diary from 1994 contains the following entry:



“Non-uniform day in school today. Wore my Star Trek t-shirt. NEVER WEAR STAR TREK T-SHIRT TO SCHOOL EVER AGAIN.”



It seems that back then, the cutthroat world of Grammar school was not prepared to tolerate the existence of a nerdish kid wearing a Star Trek t-shirt. Apparently, being into stuff wasn’t cool.

So how is it that I can go into a high street retailer and purchase a ‘retro’ Star Trek t-shirt with out any shame, and then wear it on a night out, thinking to myself, “Yeah…you’ve GOT IT GOIN’ ON”? How did my cultural bearings become so askew? We’re facing a situation where I’m wearing an ironic t-shirt, in a completely sincere way, but am too intimidated to wear a completely non-ironic t-shirt, for fear that I’ll be misinterpreted.



Or something…



WHAT!?!?!?

IRONY CIRCUTS OVERLOADING!?!?!?!?



CTRL + ALT + DEL


Anyway, it’s a pretty nifty t-shirt, and I think it’s cool.



And in a way, it’s possibly prompting a profound change of lifestyle. Perhaps if I was able to drop all this cultural baggage, I’d be able to just embrace my surroundings, and make the most of it? If I was true to myself, and were to acknowledge the inherent clichés in my being, then perhaps I’d be able to adapt myself to the modern age, rather than feeling like some kind of piece of cultural archaeology?



There are lessons to be learned. What Joe Lally is doing right now, is deeply, deeply unfashionable. His music is cerebral and intense – it’s certainly not party music. The sentiments he projects, and the sincerity with which he projects them, are deeply unfashionable. I mean, yeah – sure we all hate war, but like, do we have to totally go on about it, or some junk?



No, we don’t have to, but the point is that HE has to. And that’s what matters, whether we’re listening or not.



With this example, your correspondent has taken a look at himself, and acknowledged a few facts which will hopefully lead to better living through understanding.



Some points:



1. The undersigned is happy enough to wear his Star Trek t-shirt because- you know what? – he really likes Star Trek (only the original series, though). And the undersigned is also prepared to acknowledge the fact that he probably won’t wear his original retro t-shirt because it is over a decade old, and looks totally horrible, whereas his new one looks a bit stylish.



2. The undersigned is prepared to admit that he is a slightly hackneyed Pitchfork reader in his late 20s, who listens to a lot of indie-rock, but has never really felt the need to investigate hip-hop. And he’s ok with that.

3. The undersigned has come to the realisation that he doesn’t really like going out to clubs, etc, and never really saw the point in it. It’s not that he doesn’t like dancing, rather that the apparatus for him to do so does not currently exist.



4. The undersigned believes that by supporting local talent (musicians, writers, film-makers, photographers, etc) that he is making a difference. He believes you should do this too.



5. The undersigned is happy to celebrate the fact that he has many interests, and likes the fact that he can’t get interested in something without wanting to GET INVOLVED. Hence, releasing records, writing articles, doing his own comic, etc.



6. The undersigned has finally come to the realisation that he is more or less over breaking up with someone at the start of the year, but would still like to see them, just because he can’t remember the sound of their voice.




Yours, in hope,

Steven Rainey


And if that ain’t some kind of fully fledged cultural manifesto, then I don’t know what is!



Unfortunately, your correspondent attempted to put his newfound enlightenment into practice, by going out to Lavery’s on a Saturday night, and found that he didn’t really feel that cool – at all. All the hipsters and young people intimidated him, so he went home.



SO MUCH FOR THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING!