Airwaves

by Brian Golslow

At what point do talented artists finally get absorbed into the mainstream, becoming a nicely packaged piece of nostalgia? Last weekend, as we pulled into the center of Northampton, the local alternative-rock DJ hit us with hard news, news that hurt worse than learning Kennedy was assassinated, the Challenger had blown up, or Buckner booted the ball. "Going retro with the Talking Heads." Going retro? With the band of geeks who visited the Clark Pub and had walked the Orpheum stage between Eddie and the Hot Rods and the Ramones a few years back? Has it really been 20 years? Is my generation in the process of becoming obsolete?

As host of one of the earliest radio shows dedicated to punk rock back in 1977 (at WCUW), I've spent a good part of my life trying to bring music that was important to me to a greater number of people. For too many years, my favorite bands (the Avengers, X, and Fleshtones are three that come to mind) defied logic by evading any (let alone commercial) level of widespread success. Then, in the early '90s, Nirvana broke through, and stations, needing to find a way to tie into the growing "grunge" movement, craftily added dozens of should-have-been-hits to their playlists, with groups like the Buzzcocks and Ramones finally receiving major airplay. Thanks to the fact they were never played in the first place, they sounded fresh, and for a short period of time, underground rock's past two decades found a home under the alternative-rock radio banner. And in an act of happy irony, groups such as Fleetwood Mac, who had sold multi-millions of albums, were written out of history by writers and broadcasters with punk-rock ties. It looked like we had won.

Even last summer, as the Sex Pistols slogged their wallets (and bulging stomachs) across the world, there still seemed to be a creative thread between the modern era and the music that came out of London, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco in the mid-'70s. You could even feel the reverb from the original vibrations laid down by the Stooges and MC5 half-a-decade before that, linking everyone from the so-called underground together. Hell, even when the soundtrack for Trainspotting adopted Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life" as its anthem, you could still imagine riding subway trains on the way to a punk gig, thinking you were above it all, laughing at all the people dressed up for a night of disco dancing to music by bands (if you could call them that) like KC and the Sunshine Band, the Village People, and the Bee Gees. Wait a second -- isn't that the new retro thing? Has punk already been replaced a second time? Geez -- better grab those early REM and U2 albums before it's too late!

HAVING TAKEN A SHOT at living in the Pacific Northwest, poet Rich Boucher got out before the rains came, returning to the Worcester area, where he quickly re-initiated his endless performances at local coffeehouses, libraries, and music venues. This Wednesday, April 30, he takes to the airwaves, where he'll discuss life on the road and in the Worm, as well as read from his two self-published works, Swimsuit Apocalypse and troublemaker. You can hear the Uxbridge resident on Hullabaloo, which airs every Wednesday from 8 to 9 p.m. on WCUW (91.3 FM).

THE DAVE MATTHEWS BAND's 1996 Fleet Center performance is featured on the April 28 Sunday Night Concert Series, which airs at midnight on WCUW.