Bedouin & the "Scene" (was: HW: Recent v Old / Poll)

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

At 17.36 +0000 99-11-23, Jonathan Jarrett wrote:
>        It's part of a bigger phenomenon, it seems to me: the bands you
>might see at a festival, like HW, Bedouin or the Ozrics, are not the same
>as the stoner ones that you might see at this Man's Ruin mini-fest that
>will some day happen in London. They just don't blend at all; in London it
>even comes down to venues, the stoner bands play the Underworld or the
>Garage and Alan and Huw play the Riggers or wherever. Yet it's not as if
>the two sides are unaware of each other. Why is there this split between
>the scenes? Is it the same in the US? It's odd and frustrating.

At Strange Daze this past year, I noted the bill was heavy on "space" and
less heavy on "rock"--Born to Go and Farflung being notable exceptions. I
suppose people who like the heavier stuff gravitate towards "stoner" and
people who like the lighter gravitate towards "space/ambient"?  Our society
is so label conscious, there seems no escape.

Hawkwind at their best straddle the light and the heavy, and I wish there
was more crossover in the scene(s). I like the heavy blanga stuff, I like
the spacey trippy stuff, I like them very well both at the same time :)

But Bedouin seemed to me like a Motorhead-influenced band that due to their
heaviness would fit well in the "stoner" scene (Sabbathoid or not) but were
marketing themselves on the strength of Alan's associations with latter-day
Hawkwind. I appreciate the desire of the _artiste_ ;) to avoid
pigeonholing, but a little careful pigeonholing which raises awareness of
your music among audiences who will probably like it might be a good idea.

Cheers,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
mailto:cea20 at cus.cam.ac.uk
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~carl/