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>>Have to respond..Rock is dead???hardly, the Stones made more money last year than any Cheesey POP group....

So that's the proof rock is alive and kicking, that bunch of corpses raked in a ton of cash from old fogies like me?

The whole idea of a "rock" show in a stadium is anti-rock. Your point is making MY point--that ain't rock, it's more like a Vegas act. <

Offtopic but relevant to the above posts...

(dirtbombs)
note: the audio fidelity of the Amazon samples pale in comparison to the actual album and the audio excerpts don't do much to give a flavor of many of the tracks (they come in at odd points) but this 2 CD set with 52 tracks collects up many of the Dirtbombs' singles over the past 10 years or so. Disc 1 is all original compositions, Disc 2 is all covered material (including the Rolling Stones, Yoko Ono, Lou Rawls, and the Bee Gees). Do I like all of the cuts? No, some are too noisy for me and the style can vary from track to track but then I compiled my own single disc "jukebox" from the 2 CDs and have a very listenable 80 minutes (and I had a difficult time making some cuts).

I think this user review is a fair assessment:

I just saw the Dirtbombs last week in NYC and once again, they completely tore the roof of the joint. Once the double drummers kicked in, it was on! Within seconds, I was a pogoing sweaty mess.
From start to finish, Mick and the band put on an awesome display of rock excellence. And they managed to do it despite the fact that one of their 2 bass players had to run to the hospital with a sliced-open hand just a song or two into the set.
The Dirtbombs are rock deities.
I bow down. I bow down. I kiss their feet.
There is no question that the Dirtbombs are the current kings of the Detroit rock scene, as they have been for several years. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of other great bands coming out of the Motor City, but let's be serious, folks. It all begins and ends with this band.
Buy this collection of songs and douse yourself in some rock'n'roll kerosene!

<(bellrays) (the ponys) (holly golightly) (the sadies) (billy childish) (Total Sound Group Direct Action Committee)

These bands/performers have been playing for decades and they all have current bands/projects that don't try to live off the "fame" of past successes. And if they ever happen to come to your town, it will be at the bar level, not the "big arena" or even the Clear Channel owned concert fall for midlevel touring acts.

These acts don't follow the trend, they established it. Same core that was there before the grunge AND "garage rock" hey days.

That's great to hear, thanks for posting all of that, will definitely check these bands out.

THIS is where rock will revive, not in some stadium. Garage bands have always been the source of real rock, because the bands are obviously not in it for the money (yet) because there IS no money.

The ultimate symbol of the death of rock as a mass movement is the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. It's indicative of the mindset of people who grew up with rock as an outsider music, rebel music, now wanting to be part of the Establishment. Once rock went from music your parents didn't like you to listen to and became the music your parents listened to it became Pop.

In order to thrive once again, rock has to stop being comfortable music. I don't mean it has to be thrash or punk but it DOES have to be rock 'n' roll, not this stuff with nothing lyrics, PC politics, and completely unadventurous music. The Stones used to be "devil music," now they're this Vegas act that performs on the Superbowl! THAT's "rock 'n' roll"?

Rap has that dangerous quality to some extent (not really, as the rappers are praised in all the "right" magazines and Entertainment Tonight shows because they are easily-used props to show how "hip" the 'entertainment journalists' are), but the reason has nothing to do with artistry in the music or lyrics, only on the need to push SOME black culture in order to show 'multicultural sensitivity'. Rap, IMHO, has the completely opposite problem rock has--it's ONLY shock, without the musical excitement or creativity. It is almost anti-rock in its sensibility in that the songs seem completely calculated TO shock, whereas rock's greatness was its lack of uselfconsciousness. A great song isn't calculated to shock someone, it just DOES sometimes (though not all).

So again, thanks for posting these, I will definitely check them out.