Cole Swindell Dating Tip

An Open Letter to Ian MacKaye

Been a long time, dude. What’s up? You’ve been keeping a low profile these days, minus the occasional podcast interview – but I’m psyched you’ve still got plenty to say.

But you know, hey – so, I know a lot of folks ask you this all the time… but can we please get Fugazi back?

I know, I know you’re tired of getting asked. I’m confident promoters from all over the world throw piles of money at you or promise to donate the money to whatever charity. You’re a group of men who stand on principle, and that’s rad as hell. Right now, I’m trying to appeal to those principles, too.

I don’t claim that I know the world’s business to an infinitesimal level, but I do know that we need y’all to be one of the voices that resonate to sort this whole mess out. Open up a newspaper, or click open Facebook and people are a goddamned mess. The country pretty much hates one another, and even our comedians are like, “what do we do now?” It’s an odd, surreal time in America.

But, one thing I do know is we could use the power of positivity in our lives right now. What more could we ask for than to be at some youth camp, or YMCA or non-corporate venue and hear that opening bass riff of “Waiting Room” or any classic track off Repeater? We need the voices of our heroes to guide us when the path is clearly just fucked up.

The world needs Fugazi back in the saddle. We’re minus all of the political bands who have something to say. We have no guiding principles, and no one is there to lead us in the selfie-cum-millennial ideology we’re mired in. The world is a dreadful, maudlin place at the moment; it’s downright frightening for a lot of groups. Sure, some folks think the water is fine, but the best art, the bands and artists with real mojo, they need something to hang their hat on, and boy howdy we’ve got the canvas for the next couple of years.

So, please give it a think. We’re waiting, and we’re ready. Come on back.

Thanks,

Your pal,

Robert Dean 

Monday Morning Memes: Evil Kermit, Aaron Watson, FGL

 

Awkward Gary Levox Photo of the Week

Sunday Sidebar: Cody Jinks

Sunday Sidebar: Cody Jinks
By Kevin Broughton

Every so often in popular music – and mostly in the bro-country glop that inundates the airwaves – someone will drop a Biblical reference. To let folks know they’re in touch with their roots, don’t you know? Maybe just a verse or a phrase: “She ain’t been washed in the blood of the Lamb.” Someone even pointed out a song to me – the singer shall remain nameless – that asserted all one needed to know could be learned from John Cougar, John Deere and…the most famous verse in the New Testament. That is -- if not blasphemous -- tacky, stupid and ham-fisted, to say nothing of presuming one’s audience moronic. It’s a move, generally, to be avoided.

But what if the artist in question makes sincere, authentic, soulful country music? Well, I’ll bet we can carve out an exception for Cody Jinks. His 2016 release I’m Not the Devil (which peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard country charts) has, as the title suggests, many spiritual themes.

“There's spiritual imagery in all of my albums, it's just how I write,” says 34-year-old Texan Jinks. “That’s me.”

My first listen to Jinks’ album was a couple months after its August release. As it happened, I had listened to a podcast on Christ’s Sermon on the Mount not an hour before. Understandably, my antennae went up when I heard these lyrics from “Give All You Can”:

But I remember Matthew 5,
I'm thankful to be alive.
And I know there's people on that mountain
Who are a lot like me.

“'Give All You Can' definitely asks questions to the listener,” says Jinks, “but they're the same questions I ask of myself. Having said that, we had a lot of fun cutting that one because of what we did musically at the end of it; it’s one of my favorites on the record.”

All well and good; still, one gets the feeling this wasn’t a casual Biblical reference dropped in to establish some sort of cultural street-cred with potential listeners below the Mason-Dixon.

“I've probably read Matthew 5 as much as anything in the Bible,” Jinks says. “It's a tough life. People are people, and we all share the same wants, needs, and desires. Everyone falls short.”

Nope, not a casual reference at all. “The Beatitudes and Similitudes are the epitome of how we should live and think,” he continues. “The Sermon on the Mount was intended for people that were in dire need; some things never change.”

True, but some things do. And there’s a need for more songs like this one – and albums like this one, which is a 2016 Top 10 for me. We could all use a dose or two of “change” like this.