My Life...

...and here lies the beautiful idea that used to be a current, useful blog designed to be informative and entertaining...

Oh, before I finish that tacky, irreverent eulogy, maybe I'll use this time to update you on the reasons I haven't been able to update this site as much as I want to. I currently picked up another job at a music licensing company called Rumblefish, Inc. Yes, your man is living the dream trying to sell Indie, licensed music to different television/film/video game/Internet productions that need sonic branding or licensed music.

My first impression? These people are too fucking cool to comprise a serious company. Then, I realized it was because they are all musicians. They all have bands and side projects and shit. So when I decided to stick up for Creed today in the office, you can imagine the backlash I received. Not that I haven't been fighting that headwind all my life. But alas, I won't put you through that argument again. I will refer you to the blog I wrote about two months ago. Read It. Learn It. Fall under its pragmatic voice.

Alright, but on a positive note. I have only picked more bands to digest into my "internal catalog." My favorite that I have picked up from around the office is the Eagle Seagull which I mentioned in passing in my last blog. I have no idea if they have released a full album yet. I have the EP entitled, "I Hate EP's." Granted it's an Indie band doing their best imitation of what a good Indie band should sound like, but it's a rather good imitation to their credit. Think the Killers without all the good parts (i.e. the glam, heavy-synth sound). The reason I like them is their honest transitions. To illustrate and convey the most sincere parts of their songs they often transition to acoustic guitar punctuated with stoccato punches on the keyboard. In "I'm Sorry But I'm Beginning to Hate Your Face" the song goes through about three transformations with the end exploring every inch of sonic space with Carrie's violin leading the assault.

Eagle Seagull is nothing you haven't heard before, but the fact that they are everything you like in other bands, the pickup may be worth it.

My boss mentioned to me earlier this week, to some jokey effect, that I may be stuck in the 90s musically because I mistaked The Hold Steady for The Counting Crows (an honest mistake if you ask me). And then I thought about it. Aren't we all a byproduct of that momentous time we first found ourselves introduced to the beautiful siren that is music? I mean yes, Creed, Alanis Morrissette, Jewel, Britney, Nirvana were my mainstays back when. And to be honest, the fact that I have found listening to the amount of good music that I do now seems to be somewhat of a miracle. Growing up in the teenie pop-bopper movement could have seriously destroyed any appreciation for a well-crafted, delicate hook that isn't punctuated by "Yeah!" It could have destroyed any appreciation for a song that isn't composed in a verse/chorus/verse/bridge/chorusx2 pattern. And while the 90s definitely had a sound and a face from the rebirth of college rock/alt-grunge bands to the boy band craze, this decade feels oddly aimless.

Music tends to imitate its environment and the reason pop was perhaps more fluff than ever perhaps indebted itself to the fact that our economy was thriving and bubblegum anthems resonated well within our spirit. This decade has a much different persona economically and spiritually than the one of the last. Artists are multi-dimensional and with the onslaught of the Internet PR has had to redefine how to carefully craft an artist's image. Transparency has never been greater and I am waiting for a face or ideology to emerge as a symbol for this decade. Maybe Kanye? Maybe commercial rap? Eminem/50...Aftermath Records? Maybe the Killers? Maybe Jack White and the White Stripes/Raconteurs? Honestly, this will be hard to determine because the Internet has made music so widespread that even the top selling artists are finding it hard to separate themselves as juggernauts and impervious to downfall.

Anyways to wrap this up I'm going to finish with some liner notes on what I think is hot and not.

HOT:

Devotchka. Period. I'm proud that I saw them before "How It Ends" ended up as the song for the new Gears of War videogame that just came out. They are amazing live and amazing as a band. Go. Get. It. From playing bars in Eugene to being featured in an international campaign for one of the biggest videogames of the year. Cool.

Q-tip. His new album, "The Renaissance" is first played in the morning and last at night and I will hopefully be writing that review soon.

Europe's "The Final Countdown." From GOB dancing enthusiastically around the stage in his magician get-up to sports arenas at halftime...I will never get enough of this 1986 smash hit.


NOT:

Kanye West: As the time draws nearer and I am hearing more of his singles for the upcoming album, I am seeing how dire he is need of a dropoff. He really believes he can do whatever he wants and we HAVE to like it. I do not and I do not. I have never heard anyone sound so off tune while using an autotuner.

Chinese Democracy: Any album that takes longer than a decade to produce isn't worth the wait. We have been waiting and waiting for this Guns N' Roses albums and they sound nothing like Guns N' Roses! If their lead single has any bearing on what the album will sound like, they are going down the road that Metallica went down. A clean, polished, and generic rock album that isn't worthy to carry the brand name that they spend tireless years creating.

The argument whether hip hop is/isn't dead: It isn't dead. It never will be. Shut the fuck up.


This. Is. Truth.