(I put this up on thekowalskis.com and given Mr. Wrong on Myspace.com and my "ABORT ME" song on live journal, I realized something is really getting under my skin and I'm fucking pissed off!)

A friend sent me this rant about the Video Music Awards, which I refused to watch because I would probably wind up launching a perfectly good television out onto 30th Street.

I could probably wax on about the state of the music industry, how it sucks, how Clear Channel and MTV control the gates for all musicians to reach a mainstream audience and have crushed indie music - banished us all to college radio and tiny bars. Judging from the volume of the articles on the subject, and by the actions of some some well-respected folks (Listen to Little Steven's Underground Garage!), we are not alone in feeling frustated, but we are not the majority, either. We may have a silent majority on our hands, though, and the chickens are coming home to roost...

I need to become musical terrorist. I will take sonic potshots at celebrity culture (Paris Hilton has a record! Kill me now!), pre-fab pop stars and shill rockers. I BUY from artists whom I enjoy and ignore those who degrade the form. I think doing your own thing is the best revenge, but getting an audience to hear the sound of protest is yet another.

My next musical project needs to be along these lines - angry music for angry people. I want to be like Black Flag was 20 years ago - a voice of a generation - a voice of frustation. I'm a novice at anger, but it's boiling up. I need to channel my angst CREATIVELY and become a beacon - a pied piper for others who feel the same way but have not yet articulated it in music. I want to write that song that has hoards of people saying, "That's EXACTLY how I feel!" (Gals, rememeber when you first heard, "You Oughta Know"?)

It will never be mainstream, but how do you get to a CRITICAL MASS - in indie media or channels - it's very hard, but I think the 100th monkey phenomenon applies (see Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest). You need to get your message out like buckshot until it becomes a cultural phenomenon, and then each person will think they thought of it themselves and embrace it. Become a lightning rod of sorts. Once "cels" are established, they will grow and multiply. The revolution will snowball on its own.

The Kowalskis will never be this. The Kowalskis is music I want to hear and play, for my friends and other people who stumble upon us and like us, because I'm too unfocused to be more ambitious for myself. The Kowalskis don't STAND for anything, but that's fine - that's entertainment and I like it and I won't stop, but we won't be anything more than a good band and a good time.

BUT as for TERROR ROCK - that will be different - once you have a philosophy and mission, the music is secondary. You can attract more of an audience with an IDEA than with a tune - ain't that sad. If the tune rocks, too, that is an additional benefit.

My father always said, there is more money than ideas. I think I have a couple of killer ideas. I think I can kill this shit BY EXAMPLE. BE IT.

If you are not a part of the solution, you are part of the problem, and I'm getting ready to solve this problem once and for all.

Hope this inspires other cels. Let's bring this stinking "music industry" to red alert!