The Litter Box

JOEL SELVIN'S RECENT two-part series in the San Francisco Chronicle bemoaning the state of the local music scene gets an A for grammar and sentence structure but a C- for content – and everyone in the scene who read it agrees. The articles offer further proof of how completely out of touch Selvin is. What he unwittingly exposes by suggesting that the once proud Bay Area scene has crumbled (or "disappeared," in his words; he also uses "crater," "dissolution," "once booming," and "evaporate") is himself as he stares into a generation gap. Let us review:

"San Francisco studios are ghost towns, populated by what little small-time business remains in the city." It's true that fewer artists use large studios than in Selvin's glory days and that new recording technology (computers and Pro Tools) can be set up and used in a rehearsal space, dramatically altering the face of making records – here and everywhere else. But to suggest that local studios are on life support is silly. Tiny Telephone, Different Fur, and Tim Green, to name just three, are not only doing fine, but they also have a good reputation that's spread nationally. What Selvin has discovered – that corporate consolidation has changed recording, producing, management, and public relations – applies to every major city in the country. The situation is not, as he seems to think, unique to the Bay Area.

"For years, the Bay Area music industry nurtured a steady procession of new and exciting rock talents – from Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead to Metallica and Green Day." Uhhh, yeah. There's no question that Metallica and Green Day paid their dues, but exactly how they were nurtured – other than playing gigs for little pay and sleeping on sofas like every other band in the world – is a bit fuzzy. What's really going on is that Selvin's standard is the major-label contract (note the bands he uses as examples), and he is clearly preoccupied with major labels and commercial radio – his motto could be "If it ain't in Rolling Stone, leave it alone." But what can you say about a guy who apparently prides himself on a personal relationship with Fleetwood Mac? If it weren't for Journey, the poor bastard might never have survived the '80s.

The greater issue is whether the health of a music scene can be measured by Billboard charts and record sales. Try this: no way. Why would any band with artistic ambition want to be on commercial radio? There's nothing wrong with selling lots of albums, but – excuse me while I beat my favorite dead horse – San Francisco has always backed the wrong band. I mean, come on! There's a reason Thurston Moore is taking Erase Errata out on tour and not Stroke 9 – and it's not because he believes they're gonna sell a million albums. There's a reason why the SLA made the Datsuns look like a bunch of monkeys at Slim's last month, and why the Sermon handed the Dirtbombs their ass during Noise Pop. San Francisco has a wealth of talented bands, despite being ignored by Bay Area dailies.

To suggest that "local rock scenes in places such as Detroit, Omaha, even Sacramento ... get more respect than the Bay Area these days" is a statement born of frightening ignorance. Ask anyone from Detroit how they're treated back home and you'll get the same rough answer: they're ignored by the local press. Just like in San Francisco. Bands from out of town beat on the doors of local clubs to find gigs because they know the city has a supportive underground scene – and you'd know it too, if you put $5 in your pocket and went out at night once in a while.

The scene has changed considerably since those good old days, and the lumbering corporate leftovers, propped up by Selvin and his cronies for too long, have been replaced. There's a new, sleeker model of band at the center of a scene that's very different too – decentralized and diverse, qualities that Selvin mistakes for a lack of cohesiveness and community. He's baffled, and apparently so are the bookers and managers quoted in his stories. The real issue here is that a critic has to go out and do some homework, instead of waiting for a corporate spoon-feeding.

The music scene in the Bay Area is alive and well, and what Selvin writes about it couldn't matter less – and for him that's the real problem. He can't let go of long-irrelevant yesterday because he can't face a tomorrow in which he has no clout and no status. It isn't going to get any better.