I got lucky.
Twenty years after I stopped being a rock critic I got back into writing about music where
1) It is possibly the greatest era ever for popular music
and
b) there is so much of it the only way to review it in any thorough sense is to blog about it.
Yesterday, I spend an hour streaming the Lazerproof mix tape. Godlike genuis Diplo meets La Roux. Twenty years ago I’d be listening to it all years long but since I can’t download mp3s I’ve had to put it away to listen to endless other music. And so much of it, despite its inability to reach a mass audience, as brilliant as anything the past 55 years of rock as thrown up and much, much, much more of it.
Bob Lefsetz was bemoaning the state of live music. Well, I dunno but tonight I am going to see one a concert at Bowery Electric. FOR SIX BUCKS. I caught a set by ObamaNation -one of their first. And they were terrific. Already formed. And it happens all the time -much more often than it has any right to.
It might suck for these bands that deserve to make a livng doing this but so what? It doesn’t mean it sucks anymore. In a different life, in the eighties, Titus Androncus would be unreachable. They wouldn’t be sleeping on your sofa, they’d be hiding in four star hotels. I wish Patrick was richer, but I appreciate the comunity between band and fans (and fellow musicians).
The pop charts haven’t been this great since the sixties. Lady Gaga we know. But Usher? Black Eyed Peas? T.I. -this is pop music as art form. From Dr. Luke to David Guetta pop has seldom been so great. I remember watching the charts in the 80s, even the 90s, aghast at the louisness. Today, right now, I love seven of the top ten songs.
Remember Bob dylan’s “Hard Times In New York Town”? Back in 1962, before he had a recording contracting contract, just acoustic guitar and voice (“They trip you when you’re up, they kick you when you’re down”!) at the chelsea Hotel. Well, guess what? Today he coul buy the softward and get a sound as good as Phil Spector’s wall of sound. Indeed, everybody in the entire world is Phil Spector. You don’t like that? Fuck you, where are your punk credentials. That’s why James Murphy deals in tech… BECAUSE HE CAN.
This is a terrific time to listening to music. From Kevin Greenspon to Shinobi Ninjas to Modern Hut (who haven’t released anything yet!!) to Freddie Gibbs to Kaiser Cartel to Kid Cudi to Wesley Wolfe and all points in between: let a million bands rule the States. I can’t write fast enough.
Enjoy… who knows when it will happen again.