Papa Don't Preach

A previous post promised more later about Dad Rock. It's Father's Day, or at least the tail end of Father's Day, so what better day to revisit this apparent scourge of the music world?

And that was the plan. I had a whole post going but it really wasn't going anywhere. It had the obligatory Dad Rock concert attire joke (Old Navy tan cargo shorts; check! Tastefully wrinkled Pixies t-shirt from the 2009 tour when they played Doolittle; check! Cap from favorite golf course; check! Sweater to tie around waist; check! Bag of weed procured from stoner friend who the wife says "just needs to grow up;" check!). It had the thesis that Dad Rock is about going soft and mainstream (remember, it was us Gen X'ers who brought indie music from college radio stations to a mass audience). It even had a "look how cool I am" reference to Pailhead.



OK - I'm leaving in the Pailhead reference. And I'll namedrop Ian MacKaye and Al Jourgensen.

But the post really wasn't going anywhere. I was trying to defend Dad Rock while also trying to sound hip and keep some semblence of indie cred. Trust me, that's not possible. It's impossible for Dads to have indie cred.

Dad Rock often means you're soft around the middle and so is your music. It used to piss me off.  (You damn kids ever heard of Pailhead? Well, I just referenced them!) But aren't young people supposed to make fun of what their elders listen to? What I think is cool instantly becomes unhip to younger people - even to my 12-year-old. And I wouldn't want it any other way.

I'm going to see Wilco a couple of times in the upcoming week. No band these days gets tagged as Dad Rock more than Wilco. It's the price you pay for following a couple of albums worth of great experimental music with several albums of more mainstream, yet no less enjoyable, music.





Wilco hasn't spent a lot of time trying to defend themselves against being called Dad Rock. They're even sponsoring Little League teams in Illinois and Massachusetts. Wilco gets it and are comfortable with where they are as a band. Probably as comfortable as I'll be in my Old Navy tan cargo shorts when I see them this week.