Easy Listening, BAH

I'm bored with acoustic.
Bored.
Back in the day I couldn't get enough acoustic. I watched MTV Unplugged. I wailed along with Jewel and Ani Difranco. I wanted to be a folky songstress with only my acoustic guitar and my horrible, horrible poetry. Oh yeah, I was at Lillith Fair. Eventually I gave up the poetry and the guitar, but I still gravitated to the songbirds of the acoustic guitar. I'm over that now.
The sad thing about being over something, is when other people are not. I get a listing in my e-mail of all the events that are going down in my town, and apparently slow acoustic jams are still all the rage. There was a listing one for a band called Vicious Mistress. That is an awesome name for a band. I go to read the little description, and it say, "You will love this all acoustic set." What a waste of a band name. Vicious Mistress sounds like a punk name, or at least hair metal band. If there was any wit in the form it would be a great name for a country band.
I get really frustrated that the only socially acceptable music in our small town is either country or acoustic. My husband and I sitting Rafferties the other evening (oh yeah, I am that hard core) drinking Tom Collins and listening to some of the worst country music ever created. Not Waylon or Willie or Johnny Cash but some song about some girl saying yes. It was almost unbearable.
I'm bored. So what have I embraced? Punk.
Oh yeah, 30 years old and making my two year old son listen to the Clash. And he likes it. When I sing Mary had a little lamb, he screams out "NO." I play London Calling, and he's like a little tranquilized monkey.
So, as fitting to the theme of the blog, I am embracing what I should have discovered when I was 12 years old. The beauty and simplicity of Punk music.
Currently on my playlist are the Clash, Sex Pistols, Patti Smith and for a newer spin PJ Harvey.
I love me some PJ Harvey.
She's not quite punk, but she's loud, angry, and she likes sex. She is my mother's worst nightmare. Why didn't I embrace her in my youth? There could have been hours and hours of my mother's torment. Torment the level of when our church handed out pamphlets of the bands who worshiped Satan, and my brother's favorite band KISS was at the top of the list. I could have cause endless exclamations of, "What is she saying?" and "Long Snake what?" But instead I was listening to Cowboy Junkies.
If you or someone you know are also bored with acoustic and you live in the Paducah, KY area, please check out the Punk shows at the KC Hall. The word around the campfire is the bands are pretty excellent. There are CDs available all over town. I would go, but it is mostly for teens, and I have a tendency to mother. No 16 year old needs some crazy stranger telling them why they shouldn't smoke, drink or experiment with sex and drugs.