90s Alt-Rock Self Loathing Anthems

like, "lol, i'm getting paid to crack jokes abt getting paid, trip"

which is a worm eating its tail, but so's everything else, so...

weren't becks parents like real deal LA art weirdo vets and friends w/fluxus and yoko ono and shit?

mom was a Warhol "star", grandfather was with fluxus

nonetheless Beck was homeless in NY prior to moving to LA and recording Loser

i just looked it up Beck's dad was a studio musician arranger and worked on DEATH MAGNETIC (no markers)

Yeah that Fluxus thing makes me more suspicious of him, not less. Also: SCIENTOLOGY.

OK, with Yorke, there's the possibility that he's gonna buttonhole you at a party and talk about Noam Chomsky for an hour, or take over your stereo and force you (force, heh) to listen to Joy Division until you both get thrown out of the party. But, like I said, Yorke is every dude I dated in college.

But this is what it comes down to. That with Beck I really had diminishing returns after Odelay so he's like a one night stand that hung around too long, while Radiohead are like this 20 year ~relationship~ like you ended up marrying your college sweetheart, even though he got you kicked out of your own party the night you met. So I'm gonna have affection for Creep because it was the start of something, while Loser was a one punchline joke.

And Beck was like, hipster homeless, not real homeless, so puh-lease.

have you considered you are just stringing together increasingly fantastical theories and impressions about two people you don't even know and acting like it says something about their art?

(This has become a proper irrational old skool ILX taking sides where you end up hating a song you once actually really loved because you are so deep in the ~rhetoric~ maaaaan)

And Beck was like, hipster homeless, not real homeless, so puh-lease.

Um, what does this mean?

Um, UMS, it's a bit rich for tearing me a new one for arguing this way on a thread that I started inspired by a piece of slash fiction. If you want a serious debate about the aesthetics of the 90s, go start your own.

By Hipster Homeless, I mean Williamsburg. I mean, people who sofa surf because they are too dedicated to their ~art~ to get a proper job, not people who actually have structural issues with their lives that have caused them to become homeless.

Um, what does this mean?

Olympia, WA

But, the social landscape of the early 90s was pretty different in that regard, to what "hipster" means now. I think that the lines between the two probably have become narrower in the past 20 years, and this is the subject of a billion and one ILX debates already, so we don't need to get into that here.

because they are too dedicated to their ~art~ to get a proper job

beck washed dishes, mowed lawns/operated a leafblower, worked other menial jobs etc. many of which are directly referenced in his early material fyi

I dunno what "structural issues" means - he came from a broken home where both of his parents were flakes and one of whom was a cult member so I just... waht

Yeah, that's only because being a Barista at Starbucks wasn't a career option outside of Seattle yet.

But, I fully admit that this annoyance is probably a lot more about a "type" that I encountered a lot, in NYC in the early 90s, than it is about Beck Hansen as a human being.

If you want a serious debate about the aesthetics of the 90s, go start your own.

― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Wednesday, February 22, 2012 5:50 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i will do no such thing

projection is a wonder to behold sometimes

because they are too dedicated to their ~art~ to get a proper job, not people who actually have structural issues with their lives

Sounds like issues to me, like most 'artist' issues.

Beck's dad arranged Radiohead's "15 Step" for the band's collaboration with the USC Marching Band at the 2009 Grammy's according to Wiki. Weird, huh?

xxxpost

and you, frankly, are being quite mean to beck

Obviously you know way more about Beck's personal life and family than I ever have, Shakey Mo, but, y'know, I was never a big fan, so I never dug into the back story.

Dude, it is not a serious thread. It was based on a slash fiction story. It is all about projection, and our interpretations of rock stars based on our media filtered perceptions of them, and who they remind us of. Sorry if you actually misinterpreted this for anything other than that.

Beck's himself the victim of diminishing returns but at least he can sing and write.

i always figured loser-beck was a stoner busker hippie flake who would tell funny stories at parties [/projectin']

tbh I can't tell from his lyrical doggerel whether Yorke has read Chomsky, much less understood him

I mean, it is specifically that early 90s slacker aesthetic that bothers me. Too many people I knew who dressed like that and played in noise-folk bands and were living this kind of lower east side lifestyle, and you'd actually go back upstate with them, and find out their parents were bankers living in massive suburban houses in Schenectady and there's nothing wrong with being that - you would not have Sonic Youth if it weren't for setups like that. But, not being a huge Beck fanboy, I'm not aware that his back story wasn't that, because he specifically reminds me of so many people who were precisely that. And it just seemed pretentious - not in some cool Brian Eno sort of way, but in a representing oneself as something one has no right to sort of way. Yes, it's an assumption, but it's an assumption based on an experience I had too many times.

Apologies for not having read the man's entire biography before starting a jokey thread. That was remiss of me.

I hate those guys too but you've got problems if you're confusing Beck and Ethan Hawke.

i always figured loser-beck was a stoner busker hippie flake who would tell funny stories at parties [/projectin']

yeah if we're fantasizing about meeting these two dudes at a party, I imagine Beck was the guy in the gas mask throwing things off the roof and doing whippets and Yorke was the miserablist chainsmoking cloves in the corner and attempting to interest people in his reading list

It is kinda funny, though, that people are so willing to take me to task for being kinda mean about Beck when I've been being just as mean about Radiohead, but no one's butthurt on Thom's behalf.

Wait, that's my job, I guess.

tbf, if you are snowhat hippie bum guy, it is much more awesome to have rich parents than poor ones.

Obviously you know way more about Beck's personal life and family than I ever have,

lol my research = paying attention to his lyrics, scanning his wiki entry a few minutes ago

no one's butthurt on Thom's behalf.

thom is eternally butthurt (plaintively) on thom's behalf. like, he's got that shit covered.

tbf I may be feeling overprotective about Beck after scanning some early threads about him a little while ago and being startled by the relentless invective/hatred/dismissal from ILM circa early-2000s

yeah if we're fantasizing about meeting these two dudes at a party, I imagine Beck was the guy in the gas mask throwing things off the roof and doing whippets and Yorke was the miserablist chainsmoking cloves in the corner and attempting to interest people in his reading list

YES! This is much more the spirit.

I dated that guy. Every damn time. I never learned. So I'm voting for the Creep, not the Loser. :-P

lol my research = paying attention to his lyrics, scanning his wiki entry a few minutes ago

Nope, you're right, I've never actually done either of those things.

iirc the popists despised him as a talentless poseur and the indie-ists (?) despised him for, I dunno, getting too popular or something.

you can't win

Aaaawww, now you're making me feel sorry for Beck. It's OK, he has a ~very nice time~ with Thommy in the fic.

lol

I was hoping it was slashfic about two songs, not people.

'hoping'

Slash-up meets mash-up, that'd be kind of awesome, actually.

who wants to get small?

It is kinda funny, though, that people are so willing to take me to task for being kinda mean about Beck when I've been being just as mean about Radiohead, but no one's butthurt on Thom's behalf.

Wait, that's my job, I guess.

― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Wednesday, February 22, 2012 6:10 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

apology accepted. i will forward it along to beck.

the internet seems unsure if beck is 5'4" or 5'7" btw

The author of the story has just suggested that there's really only one way to settle this: NAKED MUD WRESTLING.

If Beck is 5'7" then I'm 6 foot and change.

Thom Yorke's exact shortness has long been the subject of speculation and debate. He is tiny, though. Like, pocket sized. I reckon Thom 5'2" and Beck 5'4".

The author of the story has just suggested that there's really only one way to settle this: NAKED MUD WRESTLING.

sensing a fairly vague distinction between reporter and subject here

LOL, um, no. If I'd written slash about Beck, I'd have researched the subject a little better, and would have known his background. You can go look on cheesecake archive if you don't believe me.

beck: sufficiently dirty but insufficiently dronerock