In Which We Said We’re Not There Man

by Molly Lambert

“Thank you Mr. Batman…er, Bateman…er, Zimmerman.”

Actual trailer for the Todd Haynes Bob Dylan movie I’m Not There, which looks so Mod Cult it made me nostalgic for college while making me nostalgic for the tumultuous 1960 and 70s, which I’m always forgetting I didn’t live through.

Yes, it’s hard to imagine now how musicians racially integrating was so novel and revolutionary in the…wait, what? Will Oldham shows up in the fifteenth chapter of Trapped In The Closet, aka the gangsta Les Miz?

Are you fucking kidding me? Did he make a bet with Andre 3000 about who could cameo in the most videos one drunken night at Waffle House? He’s in the last minute, but it’s somewhat worth it to watch the whole thing. You know, for context.

Oh my god Will Oldham…Oldham…Oldham…

It’s pretty weird to me that Will Oldham is now conceivably more famous among the BET/IFC watching communities than Devin the Dude. Man would I love to hear a dopesmoker jam from those two clowns. Devin’s “white person” voice could probably pass for a Bonnie Prince Billy song.

Something crazy is going on in music these days. And it’s a combination of MySpace, youtube, iPods, and the internet. I still can’t believe 50 Cent and Justin Timberlake made a song called “Ayo, Technology” but maybe they’re onto something.

It’s responsible for things like Daft Punk and Kanye, Timbaland and Nelly Furtado, fuckin’ Thicke, Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse. All that music that already sounds like an iPod commercial the first time you hear it.

What’s going on in music isn’t bad, it’s just sort of overwhelming. The notion of grass roots marketing has been so thoroughly transformed by the web. I sort of cry tears of joy for our culture when things like Tay Zonday happen. Just a few years ago I was proclaiming the death of ethics when The Swan aired.

he’s so calm, he’s so cool

But it turns out we’re a pretty ethical people, obsessed with fidelity more than ever. I’m not talking about the government, mind you. I just mean the arty folk really. Everyone seems to have moved into a sort of post-genre world. There seem to be more groups than ever that are just a dude, a chick, and Garage Band.

It’s great, see what I’m saying? Every community is now an online community. You can’t have a subculture without it popping up online. If you hide it under a rock on purpose that’s lame anyway. Sure, we get hurt when our favorite bands get popular, but why wouldn’t you want them to sell t-shirts? So you can keep seeing them in your friend Tim‘s basement forever?

he’s the dude

And sure they sounded better before with that shitty lo-fi production, but I guess there are people out there for whom that is an actual impediment to music’s quality. They’re a mysterious unknown quantity, like those people who claim to like Bob Dylan’s songs, but hate the sound of his voice. Ditto Neil Young. What’s wrong with those people, by the way? Are those the people that become Five For Fighting fans?

With wikipedia and such, no knowledge is privileged anymore. Be they the tenets of Captain Beefheart or Xenu, you must accept the fact that anyone can now be an amateur expert in anything. If you love something, set it free in the wilds of the internet. But don’t blame me when some White Person from Brooklyn gets a Devin tattoo.

“R&B” – Devin the Dude: mp3

“Nothin’ To Roll With” – Devin the Dude: mp3

“Doobie Ashtray” – Devin the Dude: mp3

Devin the Dude wiki

“Zeldar” – Devin the Dude: mp3

“Briarpatch” – Devin the Dude: mp3

Molly Lambert is Senior Editor of This Recording