Homicide Life on the Streets season 6 just came out on DVD.... and one as I was watching the first episode I was struck by a single line from the show.
Callie Thorns character is asked why she left the Seattle PD for Baltimore, her Response was grunge is dead, and I was suddenly aware of the connection between the grunge movement and the shows development legacy. Like it or not both grunge and Homicide changed the land case of pop culture that they were playing in. Grunge really was exciting and accessible for many young people in college in the early 1990s (including me) who were feeling like the metal and pop that we had shoved down our throats in the 80s meant nothing and had no relevance to our lives. Grunge on the other hand was poppy and tuneful but dealt truthfully with real issues for us: lying baby boomer parents, the realities of drug addiction, disaffection, self loathing, social dislocation and the rest.
Homicide on the other hand really did change the rules for cop dramas and infuse excitement and intelligence into the form. The show pioneered the steady cam, the realistic dysfunction of police (with out going the NYPD Blue route of the tortured cop with demons) and the effect of the job on the people who day in and day out dealt with death. The show was mostly solid and thoughtful, in its best moments it made you want to scream and shout and cry, just like grunge. Never mind the constant use of names of members of grunge bands for characters on Homicide, it was the energy and the drive of the early 1990s that informed both cultural events.
Whats strange is that at the time I liked Homicide and loved Grunge (which shot me to listening to metal and then to punk and now country and rock and roll and everything else that makes me want to stand up and scream Im fucking alive, even with all the darkness around me, I breath, I hunger, I lust, I dream and I wont stop until this body gives out on me), now I just kind of like grunge and I love Homicide. I can watch these shows and see and hear and feel the magic of one of the best shows ever to air on TV. Homicide gave us: Oz, The Shield and The Wire (the last two of which rank right along Homicide as grade A cop shows post Hill Street). Grunge gave us Creed and Nickleback, which left the better descendents? I think its clear.. anyway there is a masters thesis on 1990s pop culture in the Homicide/ Grunge axis, only I dont have the energy to write it.
The Atomic Swindlers. Ive written about them before in this space (you can look back and find their link or google them). They have finally released their first CD and I recommend it highly. Its a very retro- Bowie era glam record, with enough hooks and thats catchy enough to bounce around your head after youve listened to it a couple of time. They tell me that they are doing well in there local radio market and I hope that this is the one that breaks though for Gary and Roy. They have been playing rock since 1977 with their power pop/ punk group New Math, and then in the 80s with their Burroughs/ flying burrito brothers inspired cowpunk outfit, The Jet Black Berries, before playing in the Raw Migillys a more acoustic outfit. Any way back in the late 90s the record label that I ran with my brother re-released a bunch of New Math stuff on CD and there was a reunion show. It was all the original member sans the lead singer (a kid form a local band stepped in and sang) and I guess that was the where the drive to form the Atomic Swindlers started so if you looking for something new to check out, you could do a lot worse than the Swindlers.
I hate UPS, they never seem to deliver my packages when I am home so I have to drive to the next town over and find their depot.
Ok, next time
More what if Bo Diddly had been as influential as Chuck Berry
Jeremiah on DVD
The Wire season 2
And what ever else I feel like writing about.
Oh and you all need to read Hairstyles of the Damned by Joe Meno, even if those bastards at punk planet published it..
Callie Thorns character is asked why she left the Seattle PD for Baltimore, her Response was grunge is dead, and I was suddenly aware of the connection between the grunge movement and the shows development legacy. Like it or not both grunge and Homicide changed the land case of pop culture that they were playing in. Grunge really was exciting and accessible for many young people in college in the early 1990s (including me) who were feeling like the metal and pop that we had shoved down our throats in the 80s meant nothing and had no relevance to our lives. Grunge on the other hand was poppy and tuneful but dealt truthfully with real issues for us: lying baby boomer parents, the realities of drug addiction, disaffection, self loathing, social dislocation and the rest.
Homicide on the other hand really did change the rules for cop dramas and infuse excitement and intelligence into the form. The show pioneered the steady cam, the realistic dysfunction of police (with out going the NYPD Blue route of the tortured cop with demons) and the effect of the job on the people who day in and day out dealt with death. The show was mostly solid and thoughtful, in its best moments it made you want to scream and shout and cry, just like grunge. Never mind the constant use of names of members of grunge bands for characters on Homicide, it was the energy and the drive of the early 1990s that informed both cultural events.
Whats strange is that at the time I liked Homicide and loved Grunge (which shot me to listening to metal and then to punk and now country and rock and roll and everything else that makes me want to stand up and scream Im fucking alive, even with all the darkness around me, I breath, I hunger, I lust, I dream and I wont stop until this body gives out on me), now I just kind of like grunge and I love Homicide. I can watch these shows and see and hear and feel the magic of one of the best shows ever to air on TV. Homicide gave us: Oz, The Shield and The Wire (the last two of which rank right along Homicide as grade A cop shows post Hill Street). Grunge gave us Creed and Nickleback, which left the better descendents? I think its clear.. anyway there is a masters thesis on 1990s pop culture in the Homicide/ Grunge axis, only I dont have the energy to write it.
The Atomic Swindlers. Ive written about them before in this space (you can look back and find their link or google them). They have finally released their first CD and I recommend it highly. Its a very retro- Bowie era glam record, with enough hooks and thats catchy enough to bounce around your head after youve listened to it a couple of time. They tell me that they are doing well in there local radio market and I hope that this is the one that breaks though for Gary and Roy. They have been playing rock since 1977 with their power pop/ punk group New Math, and then in the 80s with their Burroughs/ flying burrito brothers inspired cowpunk outfit, The Jet Black Berries, before playing in the Raw Migillys a more acoustic outfit. Any way back in the late 90s the record label that I ran with my brother re-released a bunch of New Math stuff on CD and there was a reunion show. It was all the original member sans the lead singer (a kid form a local band stepped in and sang) and I guess that was the where the drive to form the Atomic Swindlers started so if you looking for something new to check out, you could do a lot worse than the Swindlers.
I hate UPS, they never seem to deliver my packages when I am home so I have to drive to the next town over and find their depot.
Ok, next time
More what if Bo Diddly had been as influential as Chuck Berry
Jeremiah on DVD
The Wire season 2
And what ever else I feel like writing about.
Oh and you all need to read Hairstyles of the Damned by Joe Meno, even if those bastards at punk planet published it..
judas:
mostly, i would like to thank grunge for matchbox twenty. now there's a really good band.