Live Oak Blues What happens.

To this day, we are unable to discuss emerging music without talking in terms of place, location, city of origin, and so on–if for no other reason than it provides us with a facile shorthand. But with the internationlization that the Netz provides, is there even a city-specific scene to discuss anymore? Back in the day, you could hear a band and say, with some authority, “yeah, early-70s New York” or “that’s at least influenced by Seattle.”  Even my Gainesville once had a discernible, nationally recognized punk scene and, I am told, there was a Gainesville “sound” (although for the life of me, I still don’t know what that was).

Such legit scenes were helped by an insularity that predated the availability of immediate information. You had to wait for Creem or Maximum or your fave zine to arrive. You had to depend on the knowledge of your friendly neighborhood record store owner. It was the heyday of the professional music critic and one’s trust in him became sacrosanct. In those days, band photos often carried the backdrop of the city from where they hailed. Place was actually important.

On my radio show, “Left Of The Dial” (every Monday from 3 to 5 on Grow Radio), I am exploring the concept of city scenes to see if the place itself helped define the sounds of its bands. I began with San Francisco and the Bay Area, which to my calculations had three scenes in its history that you could hear: the Hippy Era (1965-1972), Punk 1 (1978-1985), and Punk 2 (1990-present). This Monday, we’ll be looking at Detroit, a place with multiple, diverse, and often simultaneous scenes. If’n you’re interested, please “like” my Facebook group and join in on the listening thread during the show.