Hello you lot ~ welcome back to the blog or cheers for dropping in for the first time. If you read often you will know that I’m nearly at my wits end with the desert summer heat at this point but I forgot to mention the added extra we also see in the summer months once in a while – the dust storms. Directly east of me is open desert and a few times each year hot desert winds kick up a big wall of brown dusty air that is sometimes a few thousand feet high and then relentless winds bring the wall of dust into the city. It gets everywhere and you feel like you brushed your teeth with grit if you happen to be out in it. On the positive side on nights like tonight its then followed by a hurricane-like storm where heavy rain comes in sideways and the palm trees out back look like they are about to snap from bending too far over. Its been raining like that for well over an hour now so as long as the storm doesn’t knock out the power I will get this written. Flooding and trees down all over town according to the news and lightning  just stuck (not twice but once) the home of someone nearby we know of.

Our Price Records, 1980's - vinyl and more vinyl

I came to a realisation last night that keeping alive the importance of The Clash and their music – or indeed any music that you are really passionate about is partly and maybe mostly up to you as an individual to pass it on. For more than a few years now we’ve watched the decline of the record industry as huge chains of record shops and smaller neighbourhood versions both go to the wall due to the reduction in sales of CDs. Interestingly and encouragingly here its been the small independents that have weathered that storm better by connecting with their customers and creating a scene that people want to remain a part of. Meanwhile Tower Records and Virgin have both shuttered giant stores that used to be full of music and customers. I read that downloads now far exceed sales of singles versus a decade ago but therein lies the problem, people will purchase a song or two that they like but less and less often an entire album. Even the idea of bands releasing albums is considered closer and closer to being archaic. I’m probably at the end of a generation who collect music in a non digital format – my record and CD collection is both something I’m very proud of but also large, hard to move and not ideal for being mobile. One day I’ll have to decide who will want it when I’m done – once I thought it would be a kid to inherit it but now any younger person would look at me and say ‘just where do you expect me to put all that stuff?’ So now that people have digital music collections it doesn’t really lend itself to sharing in the same way as records or even CDs did. The thought of having someone bequeath a few I-pods full of tunes doesn’t have the same appeal as looking at album artwork and lyric sheets, yet even as I write this I know I’m sounding old and out of sync. Yet how do you keep the same passion for bands and artists when the connection is little more than a file on your hard drive?

Along with the slow death march of record shops is the current sad state of radio. It deserves a few articles on its own but for a city with over 2

When radio really mattered...

million people the radio in this town is little short of hideous. Its not just the lack of choice but the creative endeavour that dies with that lack of variety, a few giant companies own the bulk of American radio and its almost like they’ve now realised there is no reward in being truly independent as the internet covers all of those gaps so instead they’ll play nothing but established bankable artists round the clock. Even though there’s really no need for more Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith being channeled into cars driving round the suburbs, that really sums up the choice available outside of top 40 pop and rap in this city. Its not a good situation.

The optimistic side of me says that the internet counters a lot of the doom I’m reciting and to a certain extent that is true. Its easier and cheaper than ever before for a young band to not only get recorded but also to use myspace and any number of the dozens of online venues to get their music heard and ideally bought and downloaded. The glass is still just about half full when I remember the internet has not only led to the changes but also might be the only way forward in the not too distant future.

In spite of all this The Clash and many of their peers are riding a wave of respect unlike anything they experienced in the 80′s and 90′s. 15 years ago punk and post punk music hadn’t apparently matured to the point where anyone other than the original fans would be listening to it on a regular basis, never mind being motivated and inspired by it. At some point in the 90′s – I don’t recall the precise moment but I’m leaning towards 1997 something changed significantly. Maybe it was the 20th anniversary of when it all started? Suddenly saying out loud that a 5 year spell in music that brought about The Sex Pistols and The Clash, The Damned and The Jam, Talking Heads and X was possibly the most dynamic period of music we’ve ever seen. Perhaps the last truly genre altering period as the list of first generation bands and then the post punk apprentices created a musical legacy that was the definition of creative and inspired sounds. There have been brief spells since when it seemed something just as big was launching – Madchester in the late 80′s, Grunge in the early 90′s,  Britpop in the mid 90′s or the New York revival earlier this century. However each of those scenes seemed to end almost as quickly as they began partly because evolving was never on the agenda. Who picked up the pieces that the Stone Roses, Nirvana, Blur and The White Stripes left on the table anyway? That seems to be the stumbling block that punk and post punk never suffered from as it all changed so quickly and The Clash changed right along with it.

I guess I’m left thinking that word of mouth will need to do for the future – make sure people know that ska and rude boy sounds owe so much to The Clash and The Specials, that political rock of all shades was vein that passed from Dylan straight via Strummer and that Big Audio Dynamite were tying things together with rap and rock before the idea was even cemented. I don’t know if I’ll ever fully appreciate or have time to comprehend the overall brilliance of every great act in that spell between’77 and ’82 but I’m convinced it was crucial. Funny….last night was the Clash Bloggette’s daughters 12th Birthday. The bloggette announced to her daughter that “Wow, you have the same Birthday as Madonna” to which the child replied “Who?” (and she meant it). Goes to show being the biggest selling act of the 80′s and high up in the 90′s counts for nothing without word of mouth. Meanwhile the aforementioned 12 year old knows exactly who The Clash are and can sing along with the best of us even if she makes up her own lyrics at times (I blame Joe).

Mission accomplished I think…..word of mouth….