Music to Me

Sometimes it is very easy to forget that not everyone shares your own particular tastes and preferences, especially when there is one particular thing that seems so vital to your life that it is completely beyond comprehension that one could exist with out it. One such example is chocolate. In my mind there are few things better-- bars, cake, milk, candy, I'd eat it all. Yet I happen to know someone who does not at all like chocolate..hates it in fact. I'll never understand it but I try to reason that it's no reflection on her personality or worth as a person. Obviously though, I'm not just talking about chocolate, unless Hershy's started giving out free downloads, and then we'd have an exclusive entry. What I'm talking more specifically about is the idea that some people don't feel the same way about music as say, I do. I can think of a couple of conversations I've had with people and it's always weird to stumble upon someone who says that they just don't listen to music that much. It's just not that important. Music is for the background in the car other selected moments. Technically it could be lived without. It's around this point that I physically move my jaw into the closed position, because I know I'm not the only one who counts music as a second heart beat, an ever present rhythm of life that fills in the gaps in my history. The different albums I've purchased over the years often come to represent that season in my life from the time I was in the sixth grade. There have even been times when I have felt so defined by a song that that's pretty much all she wrote. It's me. It's my soundtrack. It's all of our soundtracks. Songs and events become iconic in memory just because of the pairing. I listen to the radio, mp3 player, or a CD whenever I get a chance. Basically, just because I can, I do. So someone who is not on that wavelength becomes almost an oddity to me...as if I found Bigfoot in my back yard and all I could do was stare and marvel at how I didn't know he actually existed. To each it's own. I'm not much for judging and I'm sure equally strong passions spring up in different places. But man, what a quiet world.

In Case You Missed It

Normally I try to write about current items of interest, but every now and then I like to go back and look at things a second time. Whenever I discover a band that I really like, I investigate--look up bios, band member names, histories, and of course discographies. If a band is really good, and I mean really good...I try to get a hold of their older albums. One band like that is Death Cab for Cutie. I tuned in around the release of Plans which happened to the band's fifth disc and knew almost immediately that this was going to be a long term relationship. The next time I got a chance, I picked up their second CD, We Have Heard the Facts and We're Voting Yes. Honestly, when I first played it I thought it was kind of slow but I sat with the lyrics and a certain tranquil beauty surfaced from that fusion of words and music. So mellow, so cool. Anybody that can romanticize the mundane and suburban truly must have a gift with words. There are some real gems on the album like "405" which is that kind of odd stream of thoughts had while driving an endless highway, plus the added action on the idea of "what if I just kept driving?" Tantalizing. Then there's "Company Calls" which also makes eyes at the thought of just picking up and getting out. Death Cab are the masters of the melancholy without the depressing part. I particularly like "No Joy in Mudville" for it's sheer imagery. Brownstone buildings, southern corruption, incomparable cool. It's not flowery stuff but when combined with the tone of the song, it just evokes explosions of images. Death Cab lyrics are always great, but this is just so finely crafted. If for some reason, this disc has not made it's way into your collection, check it out. It was released some time ago but it's worth another look if you skipped over it at some point. You might just hear flashes of your own life in it's notes.

Guitar Hero?

There's something I've been wondering for a while and I'm hoping maybe someone out there has got some thoughts on it. By now most people are familiar with the video game Guitar Hero, in fact it's pretty inescapable. Kids, teenagers, and even adults have sunken an incredible amount of time perfecting the art of pushing buttons on the plastic fret board of a plastic guitar in rapid succession while reading cues off their television. To me it's an odd place to be. A friend was recently rambling about how cool it was to play some super difficult or iconic rock song flawlessly and like an original. I sat there wondering if this person was aware that they're really not playing it; it's an illusion. That got me wondering about all the kids, past and present, who are so impassioned about music and will not stop until they can make it their own, until it pours out of their very finger tips. It takes so much work and love. How are they effected? Personally, I was not raised on video games and I have not played Guitar Hero, but I do play the guitar... a real guitar...and I taught myself not only to play but to read music. It was anything but instant gratification and I'm still working because it hasn't been that long and I really and truly want to be good. So, what happens to the kid who doesn't have the grand prize of playing "Smoke on the Water" or rattling off a Chuck Berry bass run, dangling in front of their face to keep them going and practicing? Learning to press buttons accurately and quickly is not the same as learning notes and chords and getting to the point where transitioning between the two is second nature. Strumming isn't even always that simple! I pretty much obliterated my fingerprints and every time I look at my fingertips I smirk with pride. Our society is so heavy on instant gratification, it worries me to think maybe people will hone their virtual skills only because it's easier. If I had a video of the way my friend spoke about the game and the pride that he had in saying how good he was while he had an electric guitar sitting under his bed that he had never attempted to play, it would scare anybody. For the sake of the guitar, I almost asked for it.

The optimist in me would like to think though that Guitar Hero would maybe introduce kids to the glory of an instrument, but if this is this what it takes for a kid to figure out what "Freebird" is...I just don't know. I'd also like to think that folks out there can separate the two, buttons versus strings, plastic versus wood, sitting on the edge of your bed looking at the TV versus sitting on the edge of your bed with your eyes closed because your fingers remember every string and every fret. Hopefully the difference and the worth is obvious and the game will become a launch pad for budding musicians. I just don't know. In my mind, if someone said "guitar hero," I'd say," Les Paul, Chuck Berry, Willie Nelson, Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townsend, Keith Richards, and my grandfather too," way before I'd ever say "video game."

Any thoughts? I'm riding a bit of a line here and all comments are more than welcome. They're encouraged. Always. It's no fun if all I do is preach from my keyboard.

White Stripes: You Don't Know What Love is (You Just Do as You're Told)

Six albums in, the White Stripes are still as color coordinated and screwy as ever and their latest release Icky Thump has managed, it seems to generate more press about what the heck that title means than anything else. Honestly, I haven't heard the album in it's entirety so no judgement here, but I have heard a couple cuts and they weren't too bad. One in particular (check entry title because I'm not typing it again) surprised me to an extent because it felt like a departure from Jack White's nasal whine and vocal eccentricities. Pretty solid, kind of cool...possibly worth snagging off of iTunes. As always the Whites keep things refreshingly uncluttered, a bit of guitar and a bit of percussion and my mutable affinity level for the duo shoots up. The song feels well made and without that feeling like something is lacking yet you can't put your finger on it. It's definitely not "Blue Orchid" or "White Moon" off of Get Behind Me Satan which are piles of notes and chords barely recognizable as songs. "You Don't Know..." is more traditional in a sense like "As Ugly as I Seem" or "I'm Lonely (but I ain't that lonely yet." I like that. If there was one thing that irked me though, the first time I heard the song it reminded me of another and by some miracle I realized that one part of the chorus bares great similarity to "To Love Somebody" by the Bee Gees, but so many years down the life line of rock, total originality is extremely rare. Everything is derivative of something.

That said, I'm curious about the rest of the album. I wonder if it will ride the usual roller coaster of Jack White giving new and unwanted meaning to the phrase "creative liberty" only to coast into just cool rock in top form. I'll try to push aside my usual annoyance with him, especially after his latest turn bashing Detroit in every other interview. The White Stripes wouldn't have been without Detroit and I wish he'd remember that.

In any case Jack and Meg White are to the point where, like it or not...they're here and on several instances proved that they are worth checking out...like him or not.

Anybody Out There?

Most people are pretty into themselves. I think that's a fair statement, and why not? It's what's in front of us that's the most obvious and with that most accessible. So, by extension if we're into ourselves, we're into our habitat. That's fine too. I like my habitat. It's pleasantly messy and at times crazy...but even bigger than that is the realization that sometimes I don't have much of an idea of what's going on in other cultures. It's got nothing to go with politics and wars and everything to do with music.

In case, if anybody hasn't ever picked up a copy of Paste magazine, I'd like to say it's one of the greatest music magazines out there and reading it is a must. Besides covering more mainstream alternative, it covers the up-and-coming and off-beat, as well as the international. What's even better is their sampler CD. Some one with a hungry appetite for music, the chance to hear a variety of singles from more established folks like Marc Broussard to a funky guy like Kristoffer Ragnstam from Sweden, is a thing of beauty. And with regards to the later whose song "Man Overboard" is a delicious mix European flare with a bit of a club sound, it's very modern, very cool, it gets stuck in my head ll the time. Another cool song recently highlighted is "White Tiger" by Pétur Ben from Iceland. It's along similar lines and very enjoyable having a definite structure and driving shifts in the song. I guess my point is that sometimes it's hard to keep up with the American music scene let alone one from another continent but there's gold over there and it's unfortunate to be blind to it. Both songs are in English just in case anyone was wondering, 'cause I know someone was. One song that isn't though, is Gör Det Nu by a group from Sweden called Dungen. I've actually seen this CD in the store. Folks, I have no idea what the heck that means, but it doesn't stop me from trying to sing along.

At the end of the day, it just makes me want to keep on my toes for whatever else I can find. There's a whole lot beyond our borders. Stay tuned.

Adventures in Trying to be Open Minded

A few days a ago I saw a flyer advertising a rock band playing at a local church in my area. I'm not into Christian music, it's just a genre that I never had much exposure to and having been raised on The Beatles and The Rolling Stones...yeah. So I was curious given the fact that the band was making the distinction of being a Catholic band and I thought it would be interesting to see if there would be a difference. I'm not much into blanket statements about anything, there are always exceptions to the rule so I was ready to keep an open mind. That said, when my friend and I arrived to see barely twenty people milling around the place, I had a bad feeling. We were greeted by an overly enthusiastic manager directing us toward seats, acting like it was great that the small crowd gave us our pick. She had a small table with a couple of shirts, cds, and stickers. We stood around and she kept trying to push the start time back incase more people showed up but by 7:15 it was pretty clear that was going to be it. The whole time the band was stuck over in a little nook with their guitars which was completely visible to the audience. Needless to say it was almost comical when the manager introduced them with such drama and they stepped out from the nook a few feet away. At that point I'd already made a deal with my friend that we'd give it three songs and head over to the ice cream parlor.

Three songs later when we were trying to make the most discreet exit possible, it felt really disappointing and all I could think was what they should have done differently. For instance, they should have picked a smaller room to perform in instead of the main sanctuary which can accommodate several hundred people for any given service. They couldn't have thought there was going to be a massive turnout. With a smaller room at least they could say it was fairly full. It's all about the spin.

Something else; cut the cheap theatrics. Pure skill needs no help in shining. It was the cheesy intro and the jumping all over the place and cliché interactions between the guitarists. I couldn't help but think that I've seen this stuff before. Add in the classic audience banter, "anybody like Reliant K?" and the countdown started. There was some irony in the lead singer referencing more of a commercial success like maybe Reliant K or Switchfoot because I believe that some of their popularity stems from lyrics that don't read like they were written a few centuries ago. Keep the audience in mind! 16 to maybe 26 years old-- that age group wants more relatable content, more subtle.

I'm no expert on the genre and I usually don't curb my opinions, but I've seen enough bands with the "I think I can" mentality go down in flames that I just don't feel like ripping them a new one by using their name in this entry. They were young guys, I would just hope that they would get their act together and who knows what can happen. In any case, it's always fun to check out a random band on a whim. Give it a try, to quote Matchbox Twenty, "bad trips make great stories."

Concert T Shirts...Oh the Vanity

Concerts are terrific. Seeing an artist make their music live can be an unforgettable experience, possibly even good enough to make a person forget how much they had to shell out to see a moving blur of color playing a blotch that kind of looks like a guitar on a stage a quarter mile away. No body guaranteed an intimate setting. So, at the end of the evening when the artist has dramatically disappeared below the stage or whatever, what's the first thing that have the crowd does? Buy a forty dollar shirt with the name and face plastered across the front. Sometimes the shirt is more than the ticket. For the longest time, I wondered why. I never much had the compulsion to pay more than five for a poster...why is it that some concert goers cannot resist? I've got a few theories.

BOASTFULNESS: We all know what costs what and maybe they think it looks impressive and some people will be awe struck. It wasn't enough for them that they actually went to the damn thing. Might as well display your recreational budget on that shirt and that especially goes for people who seem to own only concert T's.

LOOK AT ME! : In some cases though, I'm inclined to think that it's a way to advertise what awesome taste in music a person thinks they have. If they get a couple people to fawn over how they love that band too or ask when they were in town because they totally would have seen them...extra points. The more indie the better. If no one's heard of the band on the shirt...extra extra points.

LIFESTYLE: It's like saying that a person has nothing better to do than keep up with who is playing at what hole in the wall or big venue and then attend. It makes them seems very much "in-the-know" and how great is that. But then one of the most anoying things is the fake concert T. Sometimes I have to refrian from shouting at a 15 year old kid, "you weren't even alive when the Doors were playing!"

In the end, I'm not swearing off concert T's, I'm just making a request for the exploration behind motives. If someone is cool with being a advertisement for a band for free because they genuinely like the band and maybe want to help get the poor guys off the ground, that's fine and everything done lightly to moderately is always cool. Let's not over do it, people. I still say they should be paying us to wear their apparel, but whatever. Concert T's : Wear Responsibly.