Rise Above the Rest

With my renewed interest in the metal scene, I have realized it is far easier to find new bands that previously relying on Pitchfork and other review sites for passing along info. With metal, labels still have a place to play, giving traction and attention to bands that could be potentially working the margins. I wrote earlier about a couple records from a small American label called Easyrider Records. Another such label is the well-stocked Rise Above Records from England. Formed almost twenty years ago by Napalm Death's vocalist, they have a great catalog of heavy bands. If you are a metal head, you should seriously check them out.

Blood Ceremony, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats and Electric Wizard are three of the bands I really like on their roster. Two others I have recently been digging include The Oath and the wonderfully named Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell.

The Oath are a Berlin-based band and led by Johanna Sadonis on vocals and Linnéa Olsson on guitar. Both ladies are striking blondes. I mean...seriously. That is the bait to get you to notice. The music backs up the image. Solid playing, classic NWOBHM vocals, and two great songs make up their 7" single "Night Child"/"Black Rainbow".

Their sound is rooted in classic sounding European metal. It is not the scary kind of metal. It reminds me of a less interesting Blood Ceremony with their witchy underpinnings. That does not mean they do not have their charms. This EP is a nice appetizer for their full length due later this year from Rise Above Records. Sweet!

Here's "Night Child."

Whenever I think my band has a complicated name, I just need to think of the UK's Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell.  Named after a English naval hero, this power-trio is much much more 70s hard rock than metal. Their latest limited edition 7" on Rise Above Records is "Black Sheep" backed by "Elementary Man." Both are hard and fast and heavy songs. They are not deep or thought provoking but rock and roll doesn't always need to be deep. Many times they should just kick serious ass. If you like classic sounding riffs, check these cats out.

I can not seem to get the video to embed right, so here's a link to "Elementary Man." Just look at the clothes and you'll know everything you need to about these guys.

The Future Of Rock

First off, let me say that the state of rock n roll is just fine. Many folks I talk to somewhat lament the lack of hard rocking bands. They mention the Foo Fighters as the only one left standing. Bands like fun and Imagine Dragons and MGMT and Lorde and the plethora of "x" the "y" bands dominate the charts. Looking at the current Billboard Top 0 in Rock, the only two bands I think qualify are Pearl Jam and to a much-lesser-extent The Arctic Monkeys.  The rest of these acts are not rock acts. They are pop acts.

What these folks are talking about is the lack of rock acts on the radio. There is a TON of great guitar-driven music out there. Right now I am listening to a record by two young women from California called DeapVally. It's bluesy, gritty, sloppy rock like The White Stripes and The Black Keys. It's great ROCK music. And I will bet you haven't heard of it! LOSER!

HA! I jest. That's not your fault at all. It simply involves seeking it out. You are not going to hear Deap Vally, or any of the bands on my top 10 list (commencing later today), on the radio. If you get exposed to them it's going to be through your own efforts, your own searching them out.  There are ton's of places to find it, especially on the internet. There are plenty of websites to scour. I know, I am scouring them!!

Radio is a wasteland. There are outliers sure but for the most part big city radio is a dumping ground for the lowest common denominator. That's fine. Radio exists to make money for the people in charge. Being on the cusp of up and coming rock n roll is not a money-making opportunity. I think there is a great opportunity for satellite radio to fill this role but even Sirius and XM shy away from it. Little Steven's Underground Garage is a station I often turn to in the car, but the ratio of old-to-new is about 75-25. I really wish it would switch because there are so many great bands out there to be heard.

From yesterday's blog I think we are going to see that happening amongst less and less people. Music has become a background event for the majority of folks and their desire to spend time with music and only music is dwindling rapidly.

There's a line in Almost Famous that I love. One of the band-aids says it to Cameron Crowe's stand-in near the end, as they watch the new girls arrive backstage. She says "They don't even know what it is to be  fan. Y'know? To love some silly little piece of music, or some band, so much that it hurts."

I think that line says a ton about the state of music today. Bands are not followed, admired, or to use a stupid word worshiped like they once were. You can argue and say well look at Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift or Beyonce. They are huge!! But with their fans I do not believe the music is central. The image is central. The vibe, the party, the fact that it blends into the background of the gathering. That is where the connection is made. The song itself is secondary to the individual swirls it is the soundtrack to. Nobody lights a candle and sits in the dark and sees their future when they listen to Justin Bieber.

All that said...all that pessimism...and I am convinced that rock n roll at its core is fine. Big labels and record producers and svengalis are not  needed anymore to make rock happen. It is happening at a local level with the amazing bands I have met and played with here in DC. It is happening on the internet, as bands are able to get their music out to the people who are searching it out. There is so much music out there it it difficult to stand-out these days. And like at the birth of rock n roll and in its heyday, a great band needs a lot of talent and a basket of great songs and they need a shitload of luck. That's the way it has always been and that is what makes it so cool.

Later today I am going to start my countdown of my top 10 favorite records of 2013. I'll do a post for each album in turn. There will be a bunch of metal records, there will be some garage rock records, there will be some mellow stuff for the quiet times. What I hope most is that the list, along with my usual ramblings, inspire you to check these bands out. I think they are worth the time you can give them.

Passivity and Music

I have mentioned before how much I appreciate the music writing of Steven Hyden. I don't necessarily like all the same things he does, but I do find unsurprising congruence in our tastes. His latest submission for Grantland is about the failure of music in 2013 to take-off, or maybe re-take-off is a better way to put it.

At one point in his article, in the context of troubles within the record industry, Mr Hyden quotes a Forrester Research analyst named James McQuivey from a New York Times piece:  "Music is an accompaniment, to add to your jog, your workday, your prep in the kitchen...But it's not something you're eager to pay for if you don't have to." Mr. Hyden asks his reader if it depresses them as it depresses him. I would not say it depresses me; my parents passing away, the plight of children in Syria, those things depress me. But the idea of a major shift not just in music but in music listening seems to be happening.

Life, compared to 30 years, is much more distracting. The pace of life seems much more frantic. I want to be careful to not verge into curmudgeon territory, but even in high school I do not recall my teen-age life being as filled. Listening to music has an ability to be an extremely passive or an extremely active endeavor. Much more so than other media. You can't read a book in the background. You can't go to the movies and half watch it, well I guess you can but you don't get anything out of it. TV comes close, many people have the TV on at night to help them fall asleep. My wife is expert at this, but I find myself unable to not pay attention if there is any semblance of plot.

Music is both passive and active. People can switch from one to the other on the fly. But like books and TV and movies, appreciation of music comes only from attentiveness. In another Grantland piece, Ernest Baker discusses the new Beyonce record and his reaction to it and passive versus active listening and that once he actively listened it the record changed for him.

One of my favorite activities is to lay on the couch with the lights out, put a record on the hi-fi, slip on the headphones, and just listen. Listen intently to every note, every fill, every nuance of the record. The immerse myself in it. I've written before that I think vinyl is the best way to do this because it captures the essence of the music better than any other medium. Digital and the compression that comes with that fails to capture that. I don't want to drift into metaphysical mumbo-jumbo but good music can be a transcendental experience and that is only accomplished through immersion.

But who has time for that anymore!!! Life beckons! Doing this or that. Going here and there. Tapping away on a smartphone. There are distractions everywhere. I have friends that do SOMETHING every single night. I can't fathom that.  Just from a shear exhaustion level. For me, I cannot exist without down-time. I enjoy spending quiet time with my wife, with my records, with my guitar, with a book, with just myself. My wife and I went to the mall this morning. I knew my iPhone was low on juice so I planned to charge it in the car. Except I and taken the charger out of the car (it's probably in the other car). I expressed dimly and outrage! What would I do without my phone. But then I decided that I would go without. I would find a way to endure a couple hours without my lifeline. And you know what, I survived just fine without it. Waiting outside the stores at the mall I just watched people, looked around, thought things. A constant stream of information was not necessitated in order to pass the time. As I sat down waiting for my wife and her search for final gifts, I sat in a chair and watched a young woman talk on her iPhone while texting with her BlackBerry. During the call and after the call her eyes never left the BlackBerry, her fingers never stopped typing. I am in no way judging that activity, but I find it the perfect representation of modern living.

But to be that tethered, to have that much access, how is there time, how is there opportunity to appreciate a piece of music? I started putting together my favorites-of-the-year list. One record that was on the cusp of falling off the top 10 list I gave a listen to a few nights ago. And in listening through the headphones it was revelatory, it impacted me in a way listening at work or while typing on a keyboard or surfing the web never touched me. By listening to it closely and deeply, it resonated. It was like magic, it was a fantastically enjoyable experience to hear and appreciate the creation within those grooves. I think less folks have that experience anymore nowadays. It scares me only in that music could suffer for it. That bands will no longer be around to create this.

Stay tuned for part 2! Steve's thoughts on the future of rock and roll!

Bright Lights

One of the more interesting guitar players out there is Gary Clark Jr. His new record, Blak and Blu just came out and is one of the better records I have heard this year.  He is nominally considered a blues guitarist but he shouldn't be pigeon-holed into that genre. He has plenty of rock and plenty of straight blues and a good dose of R&B.

I first heard of him in Rolling Stone and with the song "Bright Lights."

That's from Eric Clapton's Crossroads Festival in 2010. It's a pretty killer cut. Just great guitar playing and a great voice. This song shows up on his Bright Lights ep from last year and again on the new record. It's a worthy song for double inclusions.

He played the 930 Club last Friday and I thought about going, but I also thought about seeing Earth, but in the end I didn't go to either because I am a loser and an old man. Well, not really, I was just tired from band practice the night before and didn't want to stay up too late. OK, I am a loser and an old man. Sue me.

Anyway, I like the new record. Like I said it's a good mix of rock and R&B with a classic blues vibe. It could easily have been a standard blues record, which would be kind of boring. I am not the biggest blues fan in the world. I appreciate it for the great talents that are in the genre, but I can only take it in doses. I have to be in the right mood for it. This record cuts through that though.

It probably won't make my favorite 10 of the year of the year but it's very enjoyable and will have staying power through next year. It's better than the latest Joe Bonamassa record and he's I guy I really like too. I download (legally of course) maybe 8 to 10 new records a month depending on what's new. I guess from reading the blog you're getting the impression I dig music, so it's only natural I reckon. If Gary comes back through town I will likely go see him. He also has excellent taste in guitars.