Thursday, September 26, 2013

Gallo Speaks...




You guys know Grant Gallo, right? He's from around the way. He's down for brutal music. He works on 6th Street, so he witnesses all manner of throw'd off shit on a daily basis. Gallo is one of the last legit people in Austin who's doing this rock-n-roll thing for the "right reasons*."
Gallo wrote a brief essay that echoed many of the thoughts going through my own head. Read what he said below. Read his original post here.


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I am SO FUCKING TIRED of seeing person after person after fucking person on band pages arguing with each other in the comments threads. Is making some dickish point, about some shit that probably doesn't matter, to someone you probably don't even know really more important to you than whatever band it is you have taken the time out of your day to like and read posts from? REALLY?!
THIS, more than anything, is what I see to be the cause of the "dying scene" everyone keeps talking about. True, heavy music fans really don't make up too high of a percentage of music fans in our country, but we are never going to move forward if all we can do is fuck with each other about petty bullshit that won't even be remembered in a week.
I realize that some things people say are ignorant and should be argued or addressed, but much more often it's two kids trying to prove who is more badass or who is more metal or hardcore or kvlt or more what the fuck ever. Enough of this shit, it's time we become a community again as fans of heavy music, because fans of other music damn sure aren't going to understand us. Anyone with me?
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Here's a picture of Grant Gallo chillin' hard.


Now, let me be clear... I LOVE arguing about music but I love the Rhodes Roundtable/debate club aspect of it. Think of me as a mobile heavy metal think tank. Not only do I love arguing about metal, I absolutely love making smart-ass comments about everything and anything. But that is not what Gallo is talking about.

I believe what Gallo is addressing is the team/gang/groupthink mentality that has infiltrated not only underground music but nearly every aspect of life at this point. Everyone wants to "win", reason and logic be damned. Yet, none of them have any clue what to do once they've "won." Better yet, what the hell is anybody "winning?"

Music is an art form, not a competition. There's room for everyone, even the bad stuff. Bad is subjective. Taste is subjective. The objects of Gallo's rage have clearly forgotten this (or never learned it in the first place). No Funeral has always held the perspective that it's a much better use of everyone's time to highlight the good stuff and to ignore the bad stuff, rather than waste time slamming it endlessly. There's room to have fun when criticizing and analyzing rock and roll but this misguided, relentless negativity has to go.

Metal is only one aspect of life. The social appeal is that we, the headbangers, can relate to each other through our culture in a way that is not possible with members of conventional social norms. In other words, we all have to spend most of our days with people that don't get this music and would rather see it thrown into the sun. Let's all agree to not make life needlessly complicated for each other by slamming bands, slamming other people, and being a general nuisance. At least two of us in Austin are sick of this attitude and I imagine that thousands of others share the sentiment.



I suppose that's enough of an emo trip for today. We've all got to get back to work. Or, like Mayor Quimby, we've all got better things to do.



* = There's no dictionary definition of the "right" reason to be involved in metal and hardcore but I define it as treating this music like a performing art. It's not an excuse to score free drugs, free women, avoid 9-to-5 work, and generally live in a world of delusion; but you wouldn't know that from walking around this dump of a city.






\m/

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