Tough Customer // Wire

Filligar

I was just reading a fascinating article on science and technology writer Kevin Kelly’s home site. In case you’ve never heard of him, Mr. Kelly is a board member of the Long Now Foundation and a co-founder of Wired magazine. He is also known for his trendspotting skills and his ability to point out the strange ways in which the future is creeping into the present day. His blog on improvised technology alone can keep me occupied for hours.

The article that caught my attention today was about how the internet is, in many ways, making ownership obsolete. I could try to explain that idea, but Kelly is a much better writer than I am, so I will just quote him at length:

“The good of the web serves me as if I owned it. I can summon it in full, anytime, with the snap of a finger. Libraries share some of these qualities. The content of the books are not public domain, but their displays (the books) grant public access to their knowledge and information, which is in some ways better than owning them.

Very likely, in the near future, I won’t “own” any music, or books, or movies. Instead I will have immediate access to all music, all books, all movies using an always-on service, via a subscription fee or tax. I won’t buy – as in make a decision to own — any individual music or books because I can simply request to see or hear them on demand from the stream of ALL. I may pay for them in bulk but I won’t own them. The request to enjoy a work is thus separated from the more complicated choice of whether I want to “own” it. I can consume a movie, music or book without having to decide or follow up on ownership.”

This is kind of a foundation-shaking concept when you think about it terms of capitalism and America’s pervasive consumer culture. So much of who we are is defined by what we own and our ability to purchase it. Imagine how that might all change if we all had access to the same stuff. It’s already happening in big cities and other places where the internet and a large population support high-levels of interconnectivity. For example, in San Francisco there are half a dozen car sharing services, where members mitigate the hassle and responsibility of car ownership by instead paying a fee for access to a shared fleet of cars when they need it. In New York women with champagne tastes and Budweiser financing can rent designer handbags by the week instead of spending a month’s salary to own them. And of course Netflix gives users access to hundreds of thousands of rental movies for less than $10 a month.

It is so interesting to see the ways in which the online world affects the real world (I’m not talking about that ho who got rich off of Second Life, BTW). In a lot of ways it’s like the tail wagging the dog, and it’s happening everywhere. Even the world of rock n roll has been touched by the strong influence of the internet. I’m talking, of course, about band names.

Back in the day, bands tended to pick simple names that were easy to remember, like The Beatles or The Supremes. But these days even the simplest words have at least two meanings - and if the internet has taught us anything, it’s that at least one of those meanings is almost always sexual. This is vexing for a young band trying to make its way in the digital age. Seemingly innocent names like Donkey Punch or Cleveland Steamer are off-limits because of what those terms produce in a Google search.

As such, new bands at the beginning of the 21st century have taken to inventing words that can’t possibly represent anything other than the band itself. Don’t believe me? Go ahead, Google “Filligar .” Every single one of the results on the first page is for the Chicago indie rock band of the same name. And why else would they call themselves that? Is it some kind of onomonpeia?

Well, listening to their new album Near or Far, I hear ambling, percussive indie rock. The music is anthemic at times, but mostly reminds me of a modernized version of Wilco - like if Jeff Tweedy was 20 years younger and living in a rent controlled apartment in Williamsburg. Of course, Wilco itself is somewhat derivative, so you’d also have to pepper that assessment with a sampling from rock n roll’s recent history. In all, Near or Far is an album that grows on you, with melodies and piano solos that sneak into your brain when you think you’re not really listening. While that is always an impressive musical achievement, it does nothing to explain the name.

Thus, I can only draw one conclusion: Filligar understand that in a dawning age of shifting priorities, the internet is the dominant point of access. As such, if you’re going to set up shop as an indie rock band in a sea of indie rock bands (and sexy double entendres), you had better make sure the signal-to-noise ratio is pretty high. Own that shit. Call yourself Filligar and bring on the future.

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