A couple of things, right up front.

One: Please just assume that the subject matter of this, my blog is swear words, OK?

It’s actually not, but just so you know I am actually a fairly epic fan of swear words and of their gratuitous deployment. As in, I am definitely not one of these people who saves up the swear-word-usage for special occasions, so when they swear you totally know how really, really pissed off they are I’m serious I’ve never heard him use that kind of language before holy wow I can’t believe it look out.

No. It’s definitely not like that with me. The profanity, the scatology, the sacrilege, these are my Plan-A, go-to modifiers. So this is your fair warning, OK? I’m actually kind of holding back right now, so if you’re offended by that kind of thing, just don’t read this, my blog. Because I’m not going to apologize for it & besides you’ve now been alerted. You can go ahead & consider this like my Parental Advisory sticker. Ok, so that’s out of the way.

The actual, intended subject matter here is music I’m listening to right now today. OK, but before getting to that here is the second of the up-front-things.

Two: Here is a cautionary tale for you people in your, like, late 20s & early 30s. One day very soon you are going to wake up and have No. Fucking. Idea. What’s going on in popular music. It’s not going to be a gradual thing. It’s just all of a sudden: you’ll know nothing whatsoever about all the bands that are selling out at the clubs & other smallish venues you used to attend so regularly. & at the same time you’ll be *astonished* to realize that the music you’ve been listening to all along has –overnight– become a big, expensive exercise in NOSTALGIA. When you want to get out to see & hear a band you know & love, it will cost you hundreds of dollars to sit politely in a stadium and watch the show on a giant video screen surrounded by OLD people, one of whom you will have suddenly & inexplicably become. Holy fucking shit, you will say. When-slash-How did this happen to me?

I hear you snickering: “ha ha that old blogger is so funny for, surely, this would never happen to me since I have always been & therefore ever shall be so fucking cool. The vanguard of popular culture is my birthright, my province, indeed my domain.” Hey you, young(ish) people: this is probably the only warning you are ever going to get. That wolf at (y)our doorstep is Cultural Obsolescence. Beware. Heed its snarl.

Anyway, that brings us to the final one of the up-front-things.

Three: My rhetorical stance here is not of the smarty-pants variety. I make no claim to being in the know. I’m not smarter than you, I’m not cooler than you and, in all certitude I am not nowadays prettier or thinner than you (god damn it). I just love the music is all. I love it & I love that singular thrill of discovery. Of hearing something surprising & new & challenging, of becoming abruptly enamored of something previously unheard-of. So, I fully intend to wax euphoric here on this, my blog about whatever band or song I just now discovered. & I’ll ask you to please don’t sneer over how you’ve known about that band forEVER & where the fuck have I been? Because I do have this like whole other life to lead, & bands & songs & whole genres can & frequently do elude my notice. This will happen to you, too (see point no. 2, supra), so let’s help each other out, yeah?

Because we’re all friends here & no prizes are being awarded. So let’s just listen. & you know, talk about it. Thanks for being here.