"One thing I could never confess..." -Los Campesinos
Ten years ago I was certain that music was dead in the United States. It was my 4th year in college and I remember driving from West Palm Beach, Florida to Greenwich, Connecticut. The radio in my car didn't work and I had an old school Boom box that I would feverishly tune as I drove in and out of the various signals that dot I-95. I remember three songs: "MMMM Bop" by Hanson, "Quit Playing Games with My Heart" by The Backstreet Boys, and "All for You" by Sister Hazel. By the time I hit Washington D.C. I was content to sit in the sweet mournful silence knowing that Top 40 music sucked (still does) and that music was doomed.
Then I got wrapped up in the radio station at my college. It was a crappy station. We had a gigantic music library for a radio station that couldn't be heard up at the cafeteria a paltry two hundred yards away. But it was my experience with the guys at WMVL that changed my perspective on music. My buddies at the time Ad-rock, and Tony! Tony! Tony! were instrumental in this as well. Both of them were well versed in the Ska movement (something us landlocked desert boys didn't get much of). But more importantly they got me exposed to independent record labels.
I spent my office hours as the Programming Manager and Station Manager listening to the music that was sent to us by the various music promotors and indie labels. And I was pleased to discovery that music was alive and well: it had just gone off the radio.
Labels likes Art & Crafts, Polyvinyl, Paperbag are working diligently to actually discover music and get it out to those of us that still use music as more than a background distraction and actually prefer to listen to an album in order from start to finish.
The result is Amy Millan, The Most Serene Republic, Architecture in Helsinki and Los Campesinos! The last band's new album is one that I absolutely can't turn off right now.
In "Hold on Now, Youngster..." Los Campesinos have unleashed a fury of sound. This is one of those sum of the parts albums. When I first heard the single, "You! Me! Dancing!" I was intrigued enough to buy the album, but I didn't appreciate the song until I got the whole thing in context. The context of an album, which seems to be a lost art amongst the radio play bands, is something that I grew up listening to. I cut my music teeth on "Oranges and Lemons", "Green", "Dead Letter Office", "Unforgettable Fire", "Nevermind" all albums that strung together the tracks of the album into a full story.
The individual tracks on "Hold on now, Youngsters..." are also individually quite strong. Standouts like "Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats" recall the post-punk scene of the mid-eighties and seem to channel the Pixies but by marrying it to a more aggressive version of the new romantics. "This Is How You Spell "HAHAHA, We Destroyed the Hopes and Dreams of a Generation of Faux-Romantics" (winner of the longest song title in my library award) drives in a shoe-gazing ballad about breaking up. And "...And We Exhale and Roll Our Eyes In Unison" generates a ton of noise without losing any harmony or rhythm.
This is a pretty shitty recommendation because the long and short is that I can stop listening to it long enough to write down how much I love it.
I can only say that this album is yet further proof that music isn't dead. It is just hiding out.
Then I got wrapped up in the radio station at my college. It was a crappy station. We had a gigantic music library for a radio station that couldn't be heard up at the cafeteria a paltry two hundred yards away. But it was my experience with the guys at WMVL that changed my perspective on music. My buddies at the time Ad-rock, and Tony! Tony! Tony! were instrumental in this as well. Both of them were well versed in the Ska movement (something us landlocked desert boys didn't get much of). But more importantly they got me exposed to independent record labels.
I spent my office hours as the Programming Manager and Station Manager listening to the music that was sent to us by the various music promotors and indie labels. And I was pleased to discovery that music was alive and well: it had just gone off the radio.
Labels likes Art & Crafts, Polyvinyl, Paperbag are working diligently to actually discover music and get it out to those of us that still use music as more than a background distraction and actually prefer to listen to an album in order from start to finish.
The result is Amy Millan, The Most Serene Republic, Architecture in Helsinki and Los Campesinos! The last band's new album is one that I absolutely can't turn off right now.
In "Hold on Now, Youngster..." Los Campesinos have unleashed a fury of sound. This is one of those sum of the parts albums. When I first heard the single, "You! Me! Dancing!" I was intrigued enough to buy the album, but I didn't appreciate the song until I got the whole thing in context. The context of an album, which seems to be a lost art amongst the radio play bands, is something that I grew up listening to. I cut my music teeth on "Oranges and Lemons", "Green", "Dead Letter Office", "Unforgettable Fire", "Nevermind" all albums that strung together the tracks of the album into a full story.
The individual tracks on "Hold on now, Youngsters..." are also individually quite strong. Standouts like "Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats" recall the post-punk scene of the mid-eighties and seem to channel the Pixies but by marrying it to a more aggressive version of the new romantics. "This Is How You Spell "HAHAHA, We Destroyed the Hopes and Dreams of a Generation of Faux-Romantics" (winner of the longest song title in my library award) drives in a shoe-gazing ballad about breaking up. And "...And We Exhale and Roll Our Eyes In Unison" generates a ton of noise without losing any harmony or rhythm.
This is a pretty shitty recommendation because the long and short is that I can stop listening to it long enough to write down how much I love it.
I can only say that this album is yet further proof that music isn't dead. It is just hiding out.
Labels: music
posted by V. at 10:31 AM
2 Comments:
And oh how times change, as now I have to turn to you for musical recommendations as I remain so far out of touch with anything at all connected to the hip world. Thank goodness.
V--
Great post. Really enjoyed it. I heard the single "Y! M! D!" a couple of summers ago (I think) and assumed it was an anomaly. You make me want to get the album.
Post a Comment
<< Home