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Broadcasting from just outside Hollywood, the seat of show business, Smolin says he believes jam music will never get Tinseltown's attention. "I continue to have strong doubts that this music will ever gain mainstream popularity. Partly its the length of the compositions; they do not fit any commercialized format; I don't think this will translate into something that mainstream media can commodify. The other thing is the bands themselves aren't particularly ambitious, at least in terms of gaining huge mainstream commercial success. There's that kind of do-it-yourself underground ethic that runs through the jam band community. When people do make it big, they're usually shunned." | ||||
| But as an ex-punk rocker who has watched that scene spawn alternative rock, a style very accepted by the mainstream, could he see jam bands traversing a similar trajectory? "Certainly String Cheese Incident, I think they're inches away from being a huge mainstream success. But I really don't see the scene itself... | |||||
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"On the other hand I don't know. A couple of interesting things are happening in the scene that may change that. One, which may be the most significant development in the jam scene since the Grateful Dead ended: Some of the younger bands are beginning to adopt aesthetic musical ideas from electronic dance music, the techno world. Sector 9, Disco Biscuits, The New Deal, Lake Trout, a bunch of them are coming up. This could conceivably allow the scene to transcend its little niche and move into a bigger arena, because those bands are really cross-pollinating with the techno crowd. | ||||
| "You can still use the term 'psychedelic music,' but you can no longer equate 'psychedelia' with 'hippie.' That is changing. Now you go see the Disco Biscuits play, you see frat boys, you see kids who ride skateboards, kids who've been at raves for the past week and are bugged out on Ecstacy. You see such a cross section of underground types that you can no longer say that jam band or psychedelic music equals hippie music. That has ended. | |||||
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"The other thing that's going to be interesting to watch, and may change the popularity of jam band music, is as we get farther and farther away from the Grateful Dead themselves playing live -- every day that gets farther into the past, and you have kids in high school right now, they don't really care much about the Grateful Dead and who they were, but they're much more interested in the young bands that have descended from the Grateful Dead. So as you get a majority of the audience that has never seen the Grateful Dead live, which will happen in the next 10 years or so...That's going to change the public perception of the music, and maybe the acceptance." | ||||
| With a population of 15 million and an economy that thrives on entertainment it would seem Los Angeles should have coughed up a dozen successful jam bands by now. Instead, most fans can't name a single L.A.-based group. Smolin says its a product of the city's club culture. "L.A. and New York have the same problem, in that until the bands have a large enough following there aren't any clubs that will let them play the big two set, jam-style show. And in L.A. the way the clubs work is the clubs book five bands and they each play a 45 minute set. And that makes the jam bands miserable; at 45 minutes they're just getting started! So that's part of the problem with this culture. Its not in the soil, its in the club owners trying to sell as many drinks as possible." | |||||
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The Music Never Stops
is not aired outside of the Southern California area, and
Smolin says he has no plans to syndicate, explaining,
"I'm always thinking about it, but the obstacles are
tremendous." The show is broadcast over the Internet
in Real Audio, however (link below). In the meantime he is up for the Jammy for "Best Jam Radio Show" again this year, and continues to be very active in growing the L.A. jam scene. |
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| The music never stops, and if L.A. is lucky, neither will Barry Smolin. |
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