In the late 1960's music impresario Don Kirchner was asked to create a television comedy series about a rock band in swinging California that parodied both the Beatles and the emerging hippie culture. The result, a laughable situation comedy that has lasted in the minds of the American people for nearly fifty years. Mainly because of the catchy pop songs, many of which were written by such luminaries as Carole King and Neil Diamond who are alumni of the now defunct songwriting laboratories in the historic Brill Building in New York City.
While wrapped in more bubble gum than you can find on a child's tennis shoe, The Monkees served a vital purpose in our pop culture during their time on television and while their songs were originally aired on the airwaves making families laugh and at the same time making "scary" hippies seem harmless.
Our society has always needed silly icons in the pop music world since its inception. Think back to the scop who sang in the Canterbury Tales, to the Minstrel Show and Al Jolson in Black Face. The Monkees and their 1970's Scottish counterparts the Bay city Rollers... and Canada, it now appears, has their own version of The Monkees that it is sharing with us via the world wide web (or the "Internets" if you ask George W. Bush and John McCain).
It is actually quite humorous that in todays would that someone would try to recreate this silly television show formula centered around a rock band. The last time I remember a band appearing in a movie was the 1978 quasi-classic Halloween special "Kiss meets the Phantom." I think you are hard pressed to find that on DVD and Gene Simmons will sell ANYTHING with his picture on it. Bottom line, rock bands that make television shows or movies SUCK...or only suck ass poser rock bands make television shows and movies. I mean the only reason the Monkees have any credibility today is because they finally learned to play music is because they spent forty years on the road playing the same 20 songs and gained that credibility AFTER their television show was CANCELED.
I stumbled across the "band" Your Favorite Enemies http://www.yourfavoriteenemies.com . They are no doubt the modern day incarnation of all things bubblegum rock&roll. Equal parts Saved by the Bell and the Monkees they kind of freak you out that such a thing exists and that the music industry in Canada would go to such lengths to package this all together for consumption by the public. To that end, what is even more bizarre is that they have fan clubs in 9 different countries but not one in the United States. I went to their myspace page and signed up to be a friend as I have done for lots of people for this site and got a "gushy" love note like response from these guys. It was like I had joined a fan club or something and I was waiting for my official membership package to come through the screen or something.
I guess that it is time with our economy taking a nosedive, fighting two seemingly unwinnable wars, kids on drugs and dropping out of a education system. It is time for a show about a singing rock band. Oh, wait a minute...we live in America, the problems I just wrote about are American problems. Everything in Canada is fine. They are fine. They don't have they problems we have 'eh.
On a positive note though, Your Favorite Enemies are dedicated supporters of and donate a portion of their tour and album proceeds to Amnesty International, which I have always thought was a noble gesture and cause. So they must be good guys even though they play microwaveable music.
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