Pop's Living Dead
LA CityBeat, 2003 ~ By DENNIS ROMERO ~ For too long, the zombies of rock culture have been bogarting the spotlight and pacing around the pop mainstream like pale-faced creeps, posing like Elvis, Hendrix, or the Ramones. The titans of rock have given the form all the life they could give it, but modern guitar-swingers are propping up the past like the boys in Weekend at Bernie’s. What more can be done with an axe and a bad attitude? Even the members of Nirvana seemed to have sensed they were hopelessly wallowing in refried history, shrugging through their anger – clearly born too late – and going through the motions like the cheerleaders in their own “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video. Rah-rah rock already. Having written about electronic music and dance clubs since 1991 (ironically, “the year punk broke”), I’ve always felt guitar music was just hanging around while digital-based sounds were moving pop forward, replacing the old and rebelling against rock in the same way punk turned ...