It was only a couple years ago I remember some friends lamenting how out of touch they were with the music of today. At the time I could scoff at them; they lived in an isolated world that didn’t include Lightning Bolt or Tussle. It was OK—they didn’
That dueling guitar sound I previously mentioned, where two people play rhythm guitars in the same key, is actually called weaving, something pioneered by a number of older blues players, as well as the Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones. » Listen to outtakes from the Rolling Stones’ Their Satanic Majesties Request at
Let’s not be hasty and rule out anything that sounds like the construction down the street. First off, it’s painting with a wide brush. You’ll block out too much and eventually paint yourself into a pleasant, drowsy corner with Norah Jones. Second, it’s too escapist. These
I’m a sucker for dueling guitars—or any dueling instrument, for that matter. Whether it be Allman Brothers’ solos, Bach’s Goldberg Variations, or the soundtrack to an ‘80s videogame played by dueling electric violins, they all have that intertwining golden braid I can’t resist. One player goes
It was one month ago to the day that I was wondering, “Why can’t it be colder?” Seventy degrees in January seemed excessive. I asked myself, “Where’s that comforting isolation that comes with mid-winter cabin fever?” Without four proper seasons my biological clock goes haywire; my voice
I had always thought punk rock was mainly a British phenomenon, if for no other reason than its ruling party was composed of people who looked as if they might drop their monocles at hearing the use of profanity. It seemed more anti-establishment in a Three Stooges way. I’
OK, forget all of these new bands with their false haircuts and arbitrary affectations. There’s a reason people are nostalgic for the music of a bygone day and age without video games—where you spent most of your life toiling at soul crushing work and the rest realizing the
Living as a once-Trotskyist megaforce, now war-toting superstar can take its toll. Particularly when your personality subdivides into pro wrestlers.
Maybe Bill Drummond is right. Maybe we are inundated with a glut of music nowadays via mp3s and too much of it is nostalgic. Rather than obstinately avoiding all music for a day, we should instead be aiming for more current sounds to widen the cultural breadth. Sure there’s
I feel like at every point in my life I’ve had some arbitrary musical exclusion only to have it whittled down over time. It’s true: There’s always been some section of music I refuse to associate with. At first it was classical music, mainly since that was
