Down the rabbit hole

Bienvenidos, mis amiguitos, and welcome once more to UOPTA. No, that doesn't stand for, "Uruguayans Obligatorily Pierce Their Appendages," but I wouldn't be shocked to learn that some South American natives practiced rituals like that. (My newly-married friends Dusty and The Mills are in Argentina and Uruguay for their honeymoon right now, so I'll have to ask them when they get back if they saw any pierced arms, legs, or...er, other appendages. Scratch that, I'm not asking anymore.) Instead, this UOPTA is where I write down some thoughts and stories and hope they turn out to be at least mildly entertaining. Hmmm, maybe I'm setting the bar too high. (Thanks to my dad for sending in that UOPTA. You can - and really should - send in your own to ptklein@gmail.com. Don't you want to be publicly thanked?)

As I've mentioned a few times in this space, I subscribe to Paste Magazine. The main reason I enjoy it is that each one comes with a sampler of about 20 songs. Of the 20, I've usually heard of maybe 5 of the artists before, so it's eye- and ear-opening. (For example, I'd certainly never heard of a band called "Throw Me The Statue" before receiving a recent sampler with a song of theirs on it. Not only do I like the song quite a bit, but I can't help but picture Michelangelo's David flying through the air while someone waits with an oversized baseball glove. That can't just be me, right?) Thanks to the 14 or 15 samplers I now have, my knowledge of fairly obscure bands has exploded, and I like that. When I occasionally make a mix cd for someone, I enjoy putting things s/he's never heard of before. In that last statement lies the crux of what I'm trying to get across. Bear with me please.

There's a band called White Rabbits. (I don't think there's a "The" in front of it, but I might be wrong.) I'd never heard of them before hearing a song of theirs on "Sampler 42." About a year later, another song of theirs appeared on "Sampler 53" by Paste Magazine. I really enjoyed it and put it on a mix I made for my friend Jon. It's called "Percussion Gun," and it's just a slightly different song than a lot of the cookie-cutter ones I hear in the indie rock genre. Well, a couple of weeks ago, my lovely wife and I got back into my car from a trip to the store, and when I turned the ignition, "Percussion Gun" came on. I looked at my radio for a good three seconds before I realized that it was on the radio and not from my cd in the car. I didn't like that. I liked it even less when I heard it three of the next five times I listened to that station. It seems that song cracked the rotation and the station is making the most of it.

Why don't I like that? Shouldn't I be happy for the band's success, which would (in theory) allow me and everyone else greater access to their music? Wouldn't that increase the likelihood of a tour stop in California at some point? Yes and yes, but I'm still bothered, and I think I've found the sentence to explain it: It's cool to live below the fold.

If you're not familiar with the term "above the fold," the basic premise is that when newspapers are displayed in a stack, the face-up part has the most important or intriguing stories in order to entice people to buy it. According to our friends at Wikipedia, "The term can be used more generally to refer to anything that is prominently displayed or of highest priority." It makes sense, right? (Wow, I feel all pseudo Malcolm Gladwell-y.) Well, let's look at my thesis sentence again: It's cool to live below the fold (or BTF as I'm going to call it going forward). What I mean by that can best be described in a few examples.

Have you ever hear someone say, "Hey, you really should check out the National Football League?" How about, "You know, the Beatles have some really good music." Or, "You know who makes a good hamburger? McDonalds." Probably not, right? It's not nearly as cool to share knowledge that already has a certain level of public consciousness. Think about the joy and excitement of sharing something BTF with a friend: a hole in the wall restaurant, a relatively unknown website, an independent film playing only in one small theater in town, a great vacation place on which a throng of tourists has not yet descended, or in this particular case, a band/song that most people in your circle haven't heard of. It's fun, and it feels cool. At the same time, it identifies the "teller" with the recommendation in a way that "above the fold" items can't. For example, when my friends go to the market and walk by salsa made by Ortega or Pace, I doubt anyone comes to mind. If they see the glorious bottle of Tapatio though, they very well might think of me. Yes, it's apparently all about me.

So why does the rising fame of White Rabbits bother me? What felt like insider knowledge and something cool to share with friends is becoming mainstream, thereby limiting (or erasing) my BTF knowledge. I saw this happen years ago with the band Everclear, and the results were disastrous. My friend Adam played their first tape (yes, tape) for me while on a class trip in Europe, and by the end of the excursion, I was ready to get all of my friends as pumped about this new band as I was. It worked to a large extent too. By the time their second album came out, good friends Greg, Jon, Lisa, and others all were totally into them. I clearly remember someone during my freshman year of college saying, "Hey, you like that band Everclear, right? I heard a song of theirs earlier; they're pretty cool." It felt great to hear that.

Then their next album came out with some real promotion behind it, and next thing I knew, things were headed downhill. (In hindsight, it was rather appropriately named, "So Much for the Afterglow." The one before that was maybe even more appropriate - "Sparkle and Fade" - because it encompasses both the rise and fall.) The rough and cool band I had rocked out to just a few years prior suddenly had a video on MTV with the rockers all pretty-looking and bouncing around in black suits. Then they totally fell in love with what had made them successful and made every song going forward sound exactly like their previous hits. I'm not kidding: same beat, very similar lyrics, and having either "Hey hey" or "She said" repeated at some point. A very short while later and they had lost me completely. I didn't buy their albums after that (and this was a band I had LOVED). I was so down on the direction they took after appealing to the masses that when Lisa and I actually saw them sitting in an Alabama airport at our gate, I just kind of shrugged and said, "That's interesting." (In fact, the guitarist ended up sitting directly in front of us on the flight, smelling like alcohol and sleeping the whole time. We joked about things we could've said to him like, "You guys used to be really cool when you made more than one song over and over again." I don't think that would've gone over too well though.)

Back to my original thesis: When you're touting something BTF, it's almost a no-lose situation. If it takes off, hopefully people will remember you as an early adopter and think of you as someone with an eye for talent. If it never takes off (be it a movie, restaurant, etc.), then you can always claim that it was too quirky/niche/esoteric/intelligent for the masses. Ergo, it appears that it's both cool and a smart bet to live BTF. Thank you. Q.E.D. and ipso facto, or something. (Hey, you know what's a pretty good beverage? Coca-Cola!)

With that, let's ride some sugary bubbles on over to the Car Watch.

My Bratty Kid Sister sent me a license a couple of days ago. It read, "(Heart) T SING." To me, there are three possible readings of this. One, the person loves to sing and is abbreviating the "to" with a form closer to how it's said in, "I love t'sing." Two, the person loves teasing and has that written as plainly as possible. Or three, the person loves both singing and teasing and somehow found a brilliant way to express both hobbies in one amazing plate. (I could force a fourth possibility with "hearty sing," but I'll spare you the nonsense.)

My homey Rockabye saw this bumper sticker earlier this week: "Isn't it baseball season yet?" Uh, dude, I don't know how to tell you this, but we're in the last few games before the playoffs. The season's been going on for like six months now. Geez, where have you been?

And lastly, my lovely wife saw a plate that she couldn't wait to tell me about: "SATIS5D." I'm sorry, but I'm not familiar with the word "satisfived." (Neither is my spellchecker, apparently.) What the hell? I don't easily jump to hate, but this driver's really tempting me. Does he con5d in his friends? Did the water in his freezer solidi5? Sorry, maybe I'm being unfair to the driver and shouldn't be vili5ing him so much.

Ok, that's it for me. I'm out of here, but I'll be back next week with more stuff and stuff. In the meantime, happy half-birthday today to my co-worker Rob, and happy half-birthday on Tuesday to Sacky Christi. That's all I've got. Remember, you can always email me at ptklein@gmail.com with UOPTAs, Car Watch items, or any random items with which I might identi5. Take care, friends.