Don't Follow Rules (Ep. 54 - Indie Rock, Chiptunes, and Video Games) (Patreon)

How can you tell the difference between a rule that's best followed and a rule that's best broken? Some guidelines are there to help, like, stay out of the lion pit. But others are just rules for the sake of rules, like no white after labor day. And sometimes, one type looks deceptively like the other.

My guests this week are Daniel Culp, and his husband Stephen Van Doren. We'll mostly be hearing from Daniel, a musician who also goes by Aethernaut, and whose musical influences have veered from Pentecostalism to Duck Tales. Daniel grew up bound by rules, from what he should believe to what games he could play, until he made a clean break both in his life and in his songs. These days, he's enjoying some new-found freedom ... with the help of some familiar structure.

For my recommendation this week, I want to point you to one specific song: Take to the Sky by Tori Amos. Now I know Tori can sometimes be a little hard to follow -- she basically starts every single line by saying "okay wait forget that metaphor here's a new one." But this song, a B-side on Little Earthquakes, is pretty clear. "You can say it one more time," the lyric goes, "what you don't like. Let me hear it one more time then have a seat while I take to the sky."

It's a beautiful song, a perfect listen for when you need to feel defiant and independent and strong and fearless. Ready to explore the world, ready to break rules, ready to defy gravity. In fact, my partner James once called it "Defying Gravity" before Wicked existed, and that's a perfect description. Not to sound like an old man, but in my day we didn't have any queer witch musicals so we had to make do with the next best thing. And we liked it that way.

Check out video clips of media we mentioned on this week's show at http://www.mattbaume.com/sewers-shownotes/2016/3/29/dont-follow-rules-ep-54-indie-rock-chiptunes-and-video-games