This is the Time to Remember

I will not be posting very frequently for the rest of the year as much of my attention will be focused on examining and listing, in a very secretively scientific way, the top albums of the year. Most likely there will be 25, most of them featuring guitars and white men with dumb haircuts. But who knows???

Honestly, it's a pretty large undertaking -- so far I have 50 possibles and I know I'm missing about 25. I probably have to listen to more than half of these again, as I was most likely doing your mother or something similarly distracting while they were on. If you have any opinions about things I should consider, please indulge me. My email is brett (dot) baxter (at) gmail (dot) com, or you can let the world know how hip you are and put a message in the comments.

Finally, I will be in Las Vegas for the first full week in December. Any good record stores there?

Independence Day

Most of the music that hits the mainstream, and also the average brain the quickest, is immediate, punchy, upbeat music. Think of it, the most primitive form of music (I can think of) is tribal or African music. The drums are nearly always upbeat, chanting or chorus is encouraged, and a sense of release and glee are synonymous with the performance. Naturally, music evolves, but also retains some of those primal traits.

Then why is it the slow ballad-type song is so prominent these days? Acoustic based music is very popular indie terrain now, with an emphasis on single performers (Joanna Newsome, Devendra Banhart, Sufjan Stevens, etc.) and their personal, intimate and mostly slow-tempo songs. Have we forgotten to dance?

Not everyone. Obviously, I’m mostly speaking to underground music fans who like this stuff. Hip-hop is still churning out a furious rate of wonderful singles (David Banner’s “Play”? Good God.), dance is alive and well through Madonna and others, and Billboard pop chart music hasn’t seemed to put out a ballad of any importance in the last 5 years, to my recollection. And again, many indie or underground music fans love this shit even if they don’t admit it. Still, the ballad is alive and well for them.

Why is this? As a hobby or pastime, music collectors and fans have more steadily gotten away from the social aspect of music, or even enjoying it as an event rather than a constant thing. Instead, we now rely heavily on websites and internet information, a faceless, endless and constant tool for us to stay informed about new music, all while eliminating the personal contact of talking with your record store clerk or friends. Not only that, downloading has allowed us to binge on tons of new sounds that we may not even care for. Noise music has sprung forth through the frenzy, a music so strange and personal – for real, who can you share this music with if you don’t have hipster friends? The internet has allowed this lonely communication where we can learn about new things, consume them and express our opinions, just like me in this blog.

This is not to say that the internet is “at fault” for anything. If anything, it has exponentially increased the music idea pool faster than before and introduced us previously unseen forms of sound. But the majority of that underground music is personal, the community is shrinking.

Now maybe I’m wrong. Am I just not out communicating about music? Seeing or meeting the right people? Voicing my opinion enough? Or, am I right – just another faceless voice in an independent music chatroom?

(With that, a wonderful record to enjoy by your lonesome, and something that I was going to try to weave into the above, but couldn’t: Doveman’s The Acrobat is a great record of breathy vocals and soft arrangements. This one undoubtedly reminds me of wintertime – bare trees, cold breath, but looking out from inside, warmth radiating off the fire. Yeah, the songs are sad, but there’s something optimistic lurking right underneath. Spring is right around the corner after all…)

Help!

I've been getting a ton of spam through this website -- anyone out there know how to put a stop to this? Is it as simple as getting my email off the site? I'd like to keep the comments section open in case this shit blows up, but I keep on hearing about "children with adhd" and "cool, i have a site about bukkake too" (because of this post) because of it.

Also, all week I've been listening to Ryan Adams & the Cardinals' Cold Roses. Who knew?

(I swear something substantial will appear this weekend...)

Here's an article that got me semi-pumped about rock-crit. It can get deafening how monotone some writers/papers can get. Doug Mosurak, who writes Dusted Magazine's Still Single column, is a real fluent, fun writer. I don't claim to know who this guy might be on the radar of record collectorship, nor do I care, but I do know he has a good ear.

Etc.

If I didn't waste enough time on Google Maps, Gmail and Image Search (past 11:00 PM = SafeSearch off please), Google has probably found a way to kill my entire work day. Google Print has been introduced. I'll tell you, if I can figure out a way to read books by everyone from Stephen Hawking to Don DeLillo, online, during work, my entire future career is going to be ruined. 2:00 conference call or Harlequin Romance? You bet your sweet ass I'd rather hear about Antonio the Mechanic seducing Elizabeth the Housewife and bringing the love back into her life that Mark the Accountant has given up on after their marraige.

In other unrelated news, I recently saw the Fiery Furnaces live w/ supporting act Man Man. Of all people, my 14 (now 15) year old brother wanted to see the concert, so I decided to go with. It was an all-ages show at a local Unitarian Church where they hold DIY shows. I've been to the venue before to see ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, one of the loudest and worst shows I've ever seen. Well, same deal. The acoustics in this place, along with amateurish mixing, make everything bounce and sound so damn loud that its nearly impossible to enjoy. Add to that Man Man's herky jerk carnival sounds (fun for one song, awful for nearly 45 minutes of constant noise) and the Fiery Furnaces terrible live show and its a surefire shitshow. Now, Man Man I didn't come to see, so their so-so performance didn't tiff me too much. But the Furnaces, sweet Lord. I was already on the fence with their wordy bullshit concepts, but bringing it live and being unable to sound ANYTHING like the record is crap. Don't get me wrong, I love improvisation, but rendering everything unrecongnizable is a joke. Add that to the fact that Elanor had to read the words to some of the new songs. And that nearly every song sounded identical. Fiery Furnaces, you're dead to me.

Finally, I decided to nix the BowFlex get a new gym membership to Bally's Total Fitness. Expect my writing to be stronger, more streamlined.

Have a wonderful weekend!