Soooo… I have another idea. Everything I read about music leads to several trends which at this point are not even really trends but reality. With my recent boycott of the news and my desire to put together my “Best of 2013” list I buried myself in music for the last month and a half and I was impressed and humbled by how little of it I had screened or listened to at all last year. So here are the things I have learned and am trying to assimilate into my musical listening life:
1. There has never been more good music out there. Seriously. A ton of people are out there recording and writing and when you put a million monkeys at a million typewriters…it is like taking a million monkeys and equipping them with a million Garageband programs… It might not be the Guttenberg Bible… but you might get “Royals”.
2. Being overwhelmed with product (anyone can put out a CD) because of ease of entry to market (Garageband, Pro Tunes etc…) we are overwhelmed. We are also overwhelmed because we can access 99% of what is out there for free on Spotify, Pandora and YouTube. YouTube, by the way is taking over the position that Radio formerly held for finding new music. The key is to find the filters that take out the crap and that is a challenge.
3. The record companies are dinosaurs similar to the legacy airlines and mainstream religious denominations. Their main value is their history (library of recordings and rights) and their ability to still get media attention. But don’t be confuse, they are irrelevant. The industry will continue to amble along and give us Katy Perry and Britney, and Madonna and U-2 and the Eagles but the old bands are only marketable because they are old and Katy Perry and the like (Beiber) have limited shelf life and so we need a constant parade of good looking kids singing well written over-produced dance numbers. There is an exception (sort of) for country music in that they have found a current recipe (take good looking younger singers who can sing, provide them with Nashville Hit Machine Songwriting (America, Trucks, Patriotism, Beer, Heartache, Darkness, Rain, Alcohol, Pride) and find a back up band that can crank out the same Eagles based power chord country rock) to keep selling new music, all of it listenable and most of it shit.
4. The CD is dead. It has gone the way of the 78, the 45, and the LP. I have 1500 CD’s in my basement and to the extent they are not on my iTunes Cloud they might as well not exist. Perhaps my future grandchildren can build things with them.
5. The format of an artist putting out an album every two years or so is dying, dying, needs to die and is almost DEAD whether the artists or industry realize it or not. The public buys by the song unless you're like me and you're a junkie. No one but a small slice of us give a shit about 9 crappy tracks on a CD other than “the hit”. People like us like a song and wonder what else is there and sometimes we find something good. A CD with 3 good songs is a GREAT CD and the public will buy those three songs and pay .99 cents or $1.29 or whatever Apple Tells us to pay and the kids will download them for free but we don’t want or need an album. The industry needs the album/CD because it is their “model”. Music has moved on.
6. EDM (Electronic Dance Music) is the thing where there is growth and excitement in the industry. I am 52 and I would posit that if you're over 40, don’t try and pick up on this music. I know a lot of it is excellent and well done but it does not translate to those of us who grew up thinking ZZ Top was edgy.
So what I am going to do to try and make sense of this new world is to curate the St. Louis Diner Review, “Neverending Playlist”. I am thinking I keep it at 50 songs. Not everything will be recently released. Some of the songs I stumble over have been out there for some time and some are just “chestnuts” for me which I want to share occasionally. Those of you who look to me for some new music ideas can click on this link and go to the playlist where I will try and add a new artist or recently released CD and post 3 songs from it in the mix. I plan on keeping this going in my car myself as my 2014 soundtrack. Perhaps I just keep adding to it and never delete anything but I think “the weak must die” and that even the great tune deserves to ultimately be retired. I will be happy to receive any feedback on the list or on additions to it as the year progresses. I don’t know how much time this will take and it could be an epic fail but the thought of it amuses me and I need more amusement.
I am going to start it with 15 songs. I will do three songs off of a recently released album. You have to go find them or download them though perhaps I could put a YouTube link in… but most of the songs are too new to be up yet. Get your iTunes account or get set up on Spotify and load em up.
We are starting with 15 songs and will go from there. The thought right now is three songs from a new CD and one random track from my iTunes library. Sometimes discovering old music is just as good or better than discovering new music.
So Willie Nile, as I have said before heaping praise on him is some cross in attitude, singing style and lyrical quality with Dylan and Lou Reed. It is all New York attitude and swagger. he came to my attention several years ago with a song called “Cell Phones Ringing In The Pockets Of The Dead”. It is a nice metaphor.
A chestnut from Built To Spill this is a Friday after work song, perhaps when the sun is shining. “Life is just a joyride, drink a lot of beer and climb inside!” Just the advice to give your high schooler. Listen, smile and turn it up.
Gaslight Anthem: Never know what to think of them. Cool name. This is evidently a collection. They started as a Jersey punk band in 2006 and I would now argue have learned to sing and play their instruments. I love covers and their version of “Tumbling Dice” pleased me. It takes balls to cover the stones. Chris Christie/New Jersey balls.
Beth Bombara: Local songstress. Has an EP out that is really good and she puts on a nice live show normally backed by a “Tennessee Two” type ensemble. Live her songs twang but her recorded stuff is much more refined. Great pipes. Local girl. Go buy it and even better see her live.
Rosanne Cash: River and the Thread is a little early to be album of the year but the critics have jumped on hard and fast. It is a really sweet CD with nice even production and great writing. She brings some friends along to play on it and it has some nice surprises.
Bree Sharp: Another one from deep in the iTunes Library. She sings like a likeable Sheryl Crow. Really like this song. I think I found her because she recorded a pretty good cover of “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright.”
Sleepy Kitty: Of course I am a fan. Another local band via Chicago they are getting a nice national buzz. Throw them on a Saturday Night Live performance and they would be unstoppable. They are becoming a pillar of the Cherokee Street scene. I keep saying “they” because it is Paige Brubeck and Evan Sult. She rocks the guitar in a Jack White manner and Sult pounds the drums and sings and does everything else needed. They just wow me and I was worried I would like this CD because their first CD “Infinity City” was so unstoppable.
ST. LOUIS DINER REVIEW NEVERENDING PLAYLIST
Artist
|
Album
|
Track Name
|
Listen
|
Date Added
|
Willie Nile
|
American Ride
|
Life On Bleeker Street
|
2014
|
2/3/14
|
Willie Nile
|
American Ride
|
Holy War
|
2014
|
2/3/14
|
Willie Nile
|
American Ride
|
There Is No Place Like Home
|
2014
|
2/3/14
|
Built To Spill
|
The Normal Years
|
Joyride
|
1996
|
2/3/14
|
The Gaslight Anthem
|
The B Sides
|
Tumbling Dice
|
2014
|
2/3/14
|
The Gaslight Anthem
|
The B Sides
|
Queen of Lower Chelsea
|
2014
|
2/3/14
|
The Gaslight Anthem
|
The B Sides
|
American Slang
|
2014
|
2/3/14
|
Beth Bombara*
|
Raise Your Flag
|
Mountain Sun
|
2013
|
2/3/14
|
Rosanne Cash
|
The River And The Thread
|
A Feathers Not A Bird
|
2014
|
2/3/14
|
Rosanne Cash
|
The River And The Thread
|
Modern Blue
|
2014
|
2/3/14
|
Rosanne Cash
|
The River And The Thread
|
Your Southern Heart
|
2014
|
2/3/14
|
Bree Sharp
|
Sunday School And Cigarettes
|
More BS
|
2006
|
2/3/14
|
Sleepy Kitty*
|
Projection Room
|
Batman: The Ride
|
2014
|
2/3/14
|
Sleepy Kitty*
|
Projection Room
|
The Hoax
|
2014
|
2/3/14
|
Sleepy Kitty*
|
Projection Room
|
Hold Yer Ground
|
2014
|
2/3/14
|
No comments:
Post a Comment