Funny how my taste in music keeps changing. Just 4 months ago, I was reeling over Jethro Tull and Crosby Stills & Nash. Let me rephrase that– my taste isn’t changing, rather its just that I am accepting a lot of new music, special thanks to the Rantinghuman. This new and very interesting music is in the world of indie-pop. You won’t find these on music channel repeats. The music channels are not worthy of beautiful music. To name the bands I am talking about, these are- The Decemberists, The Clientele, and Neutral Milk Hotel. My personal opinion of these bands is that they’re awesome. An acquired taste I must say. It took me a while to get used to the style, and now I am strumming and singing the tunes virtually everyday. These bands are similar only in the sense that the words are simple. If this interests you, you’d care to read further. Just some of my thoughts about them.
I think I’ll start with the Decemberists. Colin Meloy’s voice is just stunning. I get the feeling he’s flirting with the melody, well in control. The combination of guitar, double bass cello, accordion and keyboard, and a female voice in some songs is fresh sound. They seem to have some progressive rock inclination, a song titled “The Island…” comes to mind. Parts of which did remind me of Tull. The new album called “The Crane Wife” is my clear favorite, though I’ve not heard all the songs in the album. They’ve experimented with storytelling through song. I thought it marvelous.
Clientele are an emotional lot. They’ve hit milestones with a reverberating lead guitar and of course, Alasdair McLean’s vocals. Wikipedia tells me that he uses a microphone plugged into a guitar amplifier resulting in a sort of breathy voice. Innovation there. They make beautiful music that is all about love, nostalgia, detachment. They further corroborate my point that rock musicians make the best love-songs. These guys are British, so the words are pronounced the way George Harrison did.
It took a little more time for Neutral Milk Hotel to become part of my regular play-list. The approach to song-writing is pretty close to what the Decemberists do. Rhymes and alliteration with storytelling and strange melodies. I still don’t like all the songs in the album “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea”, but the title track and some few others are very unique.
I am also very impressed by Radiohead. From what I hear, their recent albums have been very electronic. The album I have taken to is called Pablo Honey. Save a couple of songs, I enjoyed the rest. With this I come to the end of a rare post. Its been a while since I typed about music. November’s last.
Let's be very frank. How many of us knew of a genre called 'Industrial Metal?' I just found this out two days ago on Wikipedia, thanks to a couple of songs that I heard by Rammstein. These guys are just some freaks from Germany playing some really wild music. I have heard these three tunes– Engel, Du-Hast, and Amerika. They appear to be very beats oriented and the music is meant to be played really loud to feel the effects. They have the most unusual of influences. One particular song I haven't heard is called 'Dalai Lama' has lyrics inspired by some poem by Goethe.
I am beginning to like this 'metal' genre of music. The sensitivity is missing ofcourse, as is the case with most bands of this kind. I love the rhythm and superbly distorted guitar tone. So, what have I been listening to? Queensryche, Dio, Firehouse, Thunder, and Van Halen. Not too much though, I still like Jethro Tull. Nobody this far has come even a lightyear too close to them yet.
I am very disappointed with the new Rock bands that have emerged in the last 5 or 7 years. They seem to only do love-songs. Have they been falsely classified under "Rock"? I am not against love-songs, but I do expect some subject variety in Rock music. This is probably the reason that I am still listening to Jethro Tull and Pink Floyd, Credence Clearwater Revival, Queen, Wishbone Ash etc. That are primarily categorised under Rock, be it Progressive, Psychedelic, Blues. And of late, I have also taken a liking to the sounds of - Thunder, Status Quo, Van Halen, Megadeth, System of a Down, Oasis and the likes.
The new bands I particularly refer to are Coldplay, 3 Doors Down, Nickelback, Creed etc. What has happened to subject variety? Its all about fantasizing a woman in their lives, or the fact that some woman left 'em heartbroken. We haven't seen a movement, like the one in the sixties and the seventies. I do not expect the same one again but the new generation of people that I too am part of, must also witness a musical revolution. I thought Nickelback had good sound, but then they are getting monotonous, quite unlike the genre of Rock. The music sounds Pop-ish and for this reason alone, Pop audiences are beginning to fancy these new bands.
The way I see it, this is however not a bad thing. These bands are probably trying to get the attention of Pop audiences and when they have enough, will revert to their rock origins. Atleast so I expect and hope. Its good to be optimistic at times.
