Everyone give a warm welcome to James Rodd, our newest contributor. This is his first piece, on what he believes drives pop music and culture. It is also our first staff op-ed article, falling under the series State of Mind. Enjoy, and feel free to comment in agreement or disagreement.

All my life I have heard people, whether it be the media or someone else, say that popular culture is cyclic and repetitive. Basically this means, things that were once “in” and fashionable will come back full circle at some point and be “in” and fashionable once again.

I don’t agree with this at all. In fact, I sincerely hope it is a fallacy because I am not looking forward to seeing my pre-middle aged ass in spandex or leather pants again, reliving my metal head days ca. 1987 – 1995.

Here’s how I see it: pop-culture is an amorphous shape.

Read the rest…

Not much really tickling my fancy this weekend in town other than Pony Pants…

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Saturday Feb 16
- For those so inclined, Serj Tankian, the versatile voice of System of a Down, plays Rams Head Live. He is shilling his solo material which sounds remarkably similar to SoaD…maybe with just a little more ethnic flavor/diverse instrumentation. But I guess since System is on a sort of hiatus, this is better than nothing.

- DC’s Kodiak delivers some blues-flecked rock at Charm City Art Space. They do a killer cover of Social D’s “Ball and Chain” if they decide to tune before they play their set.

- Telenovela Star from NYC sound promising; at times, they channel the best of Sleater-Kinney with distorted guitars and vocals atop punishing drums. But really they are a bit harder to pigeonhole. They headline a show at the Metro Gallery with fellow New Yorkers Object and local boys the Payola Reserve.

Sunday Feb 17
- Top billing goes to the aforementioned Pony Pants show at Talking Head on Sunday.

- As much as I adore DC’s twin-fronted, cute-as-a-button twee-pop band Exit Clov, I don’t want to pay the cover for Against Me! in order to see Exit Clov’s opening set…

- If you are closer to DC, I recommend you head over to the Black Cat to check out DC’s own Death By Sexy playing their own brand of dirt-and-grime rock and roll along with our hometown kids in Fishnet Stalkers.

- And unfortunately, Linkin Park is still marching along doing their thing at 1st Mariner Arena…