Musical Philosophizing and a Love Rant (Part I)

Over a month into my job, I find that I really like all of my co-workers. They're great people, as witnessed by the previous post, on Friday, almost all of us made it the same bar to hang out after work. But, after two years in Utah, I finally found someone who on a daily basis I can talk about music with. I didn't remember how long it'd been. (Oh, and not to take anything away from Nate, and other friends I can call on the phone, but it's not the same as when you have daily access.)

In Boston, I could hang out with the Slow Kids, or Shayna, or JHal, or New Robyn and rant and rant all day about our various music pretentions. And, when I started hanging out at The Model, you couldn't turn around without bumping into someone who was pretentious and willing to rant about what's the hippest music, movie, etc. Then, in Utah, I met a number of Nate's friends who were pretentious about music, but seriously, anyone who says the Mars Volta is the only great band of our generation obviously has very little sense of what's good. That's not to say Utah didn't have it's perks. I was able to introduce the Postal Service to Jen, who's since been told that the music is perfect for her (not by me). I was able to introduce the Shins, and have my own "New Slang" from Garden State moment with Dallas. That's always a good feeling.

Here, my friend Pete, is your typical High Fidelity type of music person. Out of the blue, he'll say something like "Have you ever noticed the greatness of track 2s from an album?" Meaning something along the lines of, it seems track three is the one meant to be on the radio but there's something great about the ones that aren't radio-friendly. He's since challenged me to make such an album. Now, he's a sports writer, he thinks in terms of stats, etc. But me, I'm really bad at that sort of thing. I can barely remember the names of songs I like on any given record so I'm very unlikely to remember which track number it is. That being said, I am absolutely excited to be thinking about music like I used to.

Of course, once my mind gets rolling, I can't shut it up, so I've been thinking about three bands that currently get my panties in a bundle, and so that I can subject everyone to my opinion, without further ado, I'm going to tell you about those bands and give my very own Love Rant. Because I have a busy lifestyle (or rather because I'd like to pretend I do), I am going to do it in three parts.

1. Wilco - I know, I know, I've been in love with Wilco for some time so it should come as no shock, but as of late, I've been putting all of their albums into heavy rotation again. I, of course, could never comment on which is their best. I know my favorite is Summerteeth, but there's just too much good stuff to ever say what is the best. But right now, A Ghost Is Born is really making me think about music on an emotional level: meaning that they do a really good job of conveying their message through just the music, not just the lyrics. Casey and I once were talking about Sonic Youth and that they're just noise, and yet critics eat it up. Now, I've always known that I was a bit of a music snob (okay a lot of a music snob), but with A Ghost is Born, I'm finally a believer in noise being a good use of an album's time. For instance, I'm sure it drives anyone who's heard the album insane, but the noise and reverb for like 10 minutes after "Less Than You Think" is, to me, emphasizing the point that there's not a lot to this music thing that Jeff Tweedy has going for him. And on "Handshake Drugs" and into "Wishful Thinking" Tweedy ends a song about drug use in a haze of noise showing the great oblivion of the drugs, but then bounces out of it on a song where you're hoping for your world to get a little bit better. There's a lot of other reasons why this album is to be cherished, not least of which are the digs at the music industry ("Company in my Back" and "The Late Greats"). All I can say about Wilco is their live album is out and if that means I have to forgo eating to purchase it, I will, and I'm waiting with bated breath for the next album that Rolling Stone assures me is coming soon (They also say that Barack Obama is a fan of Wilco and Uncle Tupelo; now I'm not sure if that's politics to make Mr. Obama look cool, but he's already so hip that I'd buy that he really is a fan, which in fact ups his already cool persona.)