In any case, next generation tunesmith Droge got a nice career bump off of a valuable friendship with Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready (who introduced him to PJ-and later Springsteen-producer Brendan O'Brien) and the deliriously sardonic single off his first album, "If You Don't Love Me (I'll Kill Myself)." On his second time out, Find a Door furthered his promise with another collection of entirely self-composed, melodic, passionate rockers and ballads. Is the industry trying to tell us that anyone under 30 who doesn't rap is "alternative"? The major difference between Droge and thirty years of jangly American heartland rock and roll purveyed by the likes of the Byrds, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Tom Petty and John Mellencamp is this: he's younger (I was going to add a flip comment here about the funky hats Droge seems partial to, but then I remembered Petty's Mad Hatter turn in the video to "Don't Come Around Here No More"). If Pete Droge is "alternative," then so are Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Bruce Springsteen. How else to explain a band on the scale of U2 winning the 1994 Grammy for "Best Alternative Album"? Alternative to what-elevator music? And then an artist like Pete Droge comes along and is immediately pigeon-holed as falling into the authentic, industry-sanctioned, pre-programmed, radio-ready category of "Alternative Pop/Rock." Labels, we are periodically reminded, are inherently silly.
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