O O Ø O O O O
Escaping the Musical Doldrums
If you’re like me, you’re sailing through the musical doldrums these days.
Nothing you’ve heard on any of the often-punched stereo presets has piqued your interest. No band sounds new and genuine, no song interesting or insightful. While one tune by Audioslave caught your fancy last spring, nothing you’ve heard since has given you reason to investigate further.
Having just last week worked through the Jimmy Buffet box set on the bus rides home, you feel you can rest the parrothead paraphernalia for the better part of another year.
You wonder how much longer Bob Dylan can rattle on before Dan Bern assumes the throne of Great American Troubador. Until then, there’s still two weeks before the new album is out.
You contemplate progressive heroes Jethro Tull, but you’ve heard them all so many times before, and they haven’t really released relevant new music since 1988’s iconoclastic Crest of a Knave.
You wore out the Boss on your thesis, not yet two years passed. Someday you hope to again enjoy a continuous three-hour sitting of the E-Street band, but that doesn’t appear to be today.
For reasons of spirit, you just can’t bring yourself to drop the needle on another Tom Waits album.
When will the Waterboys finally tour Calgary?
Switching genres, you don’t intend to pull up another Willie Nelson until you can find something as classic and brilliant as Red Headed Stranger.
Toby Keith is an idiot.
Five hours of installing a closet organizer last weekend has put the Kid Rock discography to rest for at least a season. That much vulgarity is tough to metabolize without having it seep back into your life, occasionally with unfortunate consequences.
You assume someone will let you know when Ani DiFranco releases something reflecting her capabilities.
Where did ZZ Top go so wrong? Why did Sublime have to die? Why hasn’t there been a sequel to Jesus Christ Superstar? Is John Mellencamp still making records? Are any at least as good as Human Wheels?
The Jesus and Mary Chain, through all that racket, tends to make you just want to sit down and re-watch Lost in Translation.
Now that Shane MacGowan has returned, can the Pogues stop Waiting for Herb and get back to writing the kind of folk punk fusion that leaves both genres spellbound and breathless at their feet?
What’s a music lover to do?
If you’re like me, you head out to a wedding reception at the Saloon in Cochrane, Alberta, where country cover band Rooster in the Hen House is playing slightly recognizable pop C&W tunes. After the event, you hightail it back to Calgary to catch a couple of Peter’s milkshakes before they close the drive-through. Successive punching of the presets lands you at the mechanism of your revelation: CJSW’s Megawatt Mayhem, hosted by immortal messengers Kevin Woron and Joshua Wood.
For the hour-and-change it takes to return to the city, wait in the drive-through line, pay for two blackberry shakes—the best milkshakes on the globe—and make your modest way down Deerfot Trail toward home, you and your wife appreciate the sincerity and vigour of band after metal band.
Pulling onto the garage apron, the ephiphany hits: Rhapsody of Fire.
A sound so enormous it spawned a genre of its own: Omni-instrumental, voice-overed, chorally-bolstered, Italian-born, massive-haired, über-conceptual, fantasy-soaked, film score metal.
Epic. And so goddamn righteous.
So that’s what you do. You load up on Rhapsody, and rediscover just a bit of wonder.
If you’re like me, that is.
Evan Spence
September 5, 2006
OOØOOOODCCLXXII
September 5th, 2006 at 4:29 pm
You should check out Pandora. (www.pandora.com) It’s pretty slick! I’ve discovered a pretty fair bit of decent new music on there!
September 8th, 2006 at 9:35 am
Or last.fm, if you haven’t already heard of it. Grab their app, punch in someone you like and see if it gives you anything good. Found Rilo Kiley that way, it’s pretty good stuff.
September 10th, 2006 at 7:23 pm
I’m impressed by their algorithm. I found Titus Groan and Smog by way of Tull and the Waterboys.
’cause I was obviously looking for superobscure, hard-to-get stuff.
September 12th, 2006 at 8:49 pm
Oh man, when did ZZ Top turn up the suck?
Maybe give Rocketface a listen. Good Canadian boys, and you can listen to their whole album at http://www.rocketfacemusic.com/ just to see if you’d like it.
September 13th, 2006 at 3:19 pm
I have not heard anything in the past ten years that has not already been done in the previous thirty. for a while techno was fresh noise. Then the fresh wore away. I try to feel exited about the stuff pumped out by “K-rock!” or whatever, but frankly it’s just not that interesting. Enough of the power chords through an effects processor. I don’t need to hear more sounds like another frozen dead badger carcass bashed against a mic stand. Enough angst-ridden teenage lyrics! I yearn for somebody to attempt a flat9/flat13th, or even a lttle Maj7,/ min7 modulation. How about a melody?
September 19th, 2006 at 3:18 pm
What was the last pop song (i.e. song to hit mainstream radio) that actually made use of the minor, anyway?
The Police, for sure (Synchronicity 2), but I can’t think of a memorable recent example.
October 5th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
I need a Last.fm friend.
http://www.last.fm/user/nicksully/
February 12th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Thanks for listening! We love turning our listeners on to new music!