THROBBING GRISTLE IS COMING TO SOCAL

And not only that...

They're playing at Coachella.

WTF.

My love/hate relationship with Goldenvoice is not unlike my resentment/admiration of California as a whole, and The Culture of Cool that permeates every nook and cranny of this goddamn state. I guess it could be worse - I could live in New York City. Ha!

Seriously though, every year the Coachella lineup reads more and more like Pitchfork Media's "Best New Music" list and it makes me want to be sick all over myself. The word "Indie" and subsequently the Idea of remaining independent from the stifling effects of Big Media and the capital with which it was established has been hijacked and tied up and mouthfucked by Ryan Schreiber and his gang of intellectual rapists. "Selling Out" is now a totally desirable circumstance in circles once driven to making pertinent and moving artistic statements by the consensus reality's indifference to their own, circles now completely overtaken and utterly (even permanently?) swooned by even the lightest mention of their efforts by The Tastemakers at Bitchdork and their subsidiaries. I guess all people really want is to be loved. Or at the very least, paid attention to.

"...what we do is very sincere. The bands that we pick, that comes from a genuine point of us really liking them. We’re not really calculating about any of this kind of stuff..."
- R. Schreiber, 2007

Am I being ridiculous? Perhaps. But notice all the acts performing at Coachella this year not signed to major lables. Notice, if you will, the "indie" lables they've signed to instead: Matador, Merge, Sub Pop, Touch & Go, etc. Now visit Pitchfork. See all those big ads? You'll never get far enough inside to see Pitchfork's books, and thusly how much they're being paid for those ads, but you'll notice that ALL of them are for albums put out by the lables listed above and others like them, all stinking of corruption to varying degrees. See, you'll also find that, almost universally, the albums that Pitchfork is being paid to advertise also get Much Higher Ratings. This is, of course, not yet backed by scientific data, but I'm taking the method to this whole racket as we speak, dear reader. I firmly believe that Pitchfork is paid not only to advertise shitty groups, but to give them high ratings as well, and since nearly every major music rag now takes it's queues from p4k, all available channels are becoming more and more flooded with limp and depressing "rock" tailor-made for perpetuating the anxiety, darkness, and lack of hope or motivation to be found within the collective hearts of Western Men & Women.

Which is perhaps the way Throbbing Gristle wanted it all along? The irony of such a group playing at such a festival is nearly impossible to even digest. Rest assured, I'll be there. Check this space in a few months for a full report.