There aren’t enough tributes

Posted on | December 16, 2004 | 3 Comments

Rarely do I discuss music on this blog, but listening to The Nation Blue’s latest record, do they still have it or what? No other band makes testosterone sound so desirable if off-limits to a theory glasses-wearing white girl. I remember a long time ago a conversation in maybe Round Midnight when scene stalwart and Little Ugly Girls drummer Bean pronounced: ‘They are a good band. But they used to be great’ – presumably referring to their breakout moment when Andy Stacey was still on bass (and in accordance with which I devised my tips for bands wishing to pick up chicks – Ian On may be kind enough to post this information in comments. End of year lunch with my boss today, and trying to think of how much I’ve written in the past 10 months that proves my productivity, I for some reason forgot to count that list, scrawled as it was in the darkly-lit corners of The Zoo, but I’m sure it’s up there with my best work).

Years later, I read cycles in my life through the Blue’s troughs and peaks. They make living that little bit more conscious. They make me want. Once they represented the hopes we had for Hobart, for ourselves, for a future without fascism and the start of being able to mean things to each other. Now, like other people I’m lately meeting, they represent a form of longevity, solidarity and intensity that surpasses all this, and that I want to make much more familiar.

Category: Randoms

Comments

3 Responses to “There aren’t enough tributes”

  1. Ian
    December 17th, 2004 @ 12:41 pm

    Mel you should post more often about music. Firstly because I know you listen to a lot of music and it plays some sort of role in your life (and appears to have done so for quite some time) and secondly, for an academic, you’ve got good taste in records (hahahaha). The RedSunBand CD you gave me was amazing until my room-mate and I lost it.

    Damnation by The Nation Blue is one of my favourite records of 2005, and I listen to all sorts of stuff. I’ve always had a lot of time for the band. They appeared on my radar right when exactly no one wanted to hear that type of music (many of their peers had broken up and they had few contemporaries). That is a difficult haul. In spite of which I’ve never seen them play a half-assed show; even in 2005 when they’re critically celebrated (at least in the circles I travel in) but still find themselves playing to 30 people at the Sands Tavern on a Sunday night. They were incredible that night, it was my favourite show of the year.

    I think theyíve improved dramatically both live and on record in the last couple of years. They used to be a good noise-rock band. Now their appeal seems much wider and hasnít come via a dilution of what their music is about. These days I think their a fantastic rock band, plain and simple.

    But Dr Gregg, to describe their music as ‘testosterone fuelled’ is convenient at best. You’d never hear me pick up my Sleater-Kinney records and go ‘hmmmm, these are awesome and yet I feel strangely excluded by their oestrogen fuelled stylings’. Hehehe. I donít think the Nation Blue can be justifiably framed that way. You may know better from personal experience but as a casual listener I would not consider them a uniquely male concern, theyíve never struck me as tough guys (and theyíve played in a scene filled with dudes who wanna be perceived in that way).

    Itís almost 2005, we no longer make assumptions about ëscreaming womení in rock music nor should we about rockís ëscreaming dudesí.

  2. Ian
    December 17th, 2004 @ 12:42 pm

    Shit…I’m getting my years mixed up. I always do that this time of year.

  3. mc gregg
    December 17th, 2004 @ 1:18 pm

    thanks ian. quite right – i can have a phd in gender studies and be a hypocrite, just watch me. i should stress i wasn’t trying to frame them negatively tho – surely that’s clear? (this is why i don’t write about music!) i wanted to describe what feels different about the masculinity they project. it’s empowering and it makes me want to be a boy – a pretty rare thing in this culture. if we must always be suspicious of biology in general, this nuance is certainly also subject to your critique. but i think listening *is* physical. and i value the performative effects of gender, while realising that they are always individual interpretations.