Category: music

I’m just sitting here on the sofa, lights dim, listening to this staggeringly wonderful album pour soundwaves all over me, and I’m feeling all the feels.

Tonight I’m continuing the Radiohead. 1997’s  OK Computer is such a beautiful album. I can’t believe it is almost 30 years old. The years have gone by too fast.

Anyway, this record is just so beautiful. I’m sitting here with my cat and dog (wife is out of town) and I just want to weep from the otherworldly bliss. Yes, I find it that moving. And yes I like being a little sad sometimes. It helps.

Radiohead. Hail to the Thief. So good to fill up the room with this beautiful brilliance. Was going to listen to Kid-A, opened the CD case to find it empty! I probably ruined the CD in my car and threw it away years ago and forgot to replace. Oh well. Replacement now ordered. Being an adult with a little money is cool.

When this is over I’ll pull out the iPad and read some blogs post from people I follow using the Reeder app.

It is Sunday evening and I just opened this multi-disc Led Zeppelin live collection, How the West Was Won.

I can’t even imagine what these concerts must have been like. Holy shit — just so good. Mind-blowingly good. I’ll bet a lot of auditory nerves were well-damaged those evenings without a single complaint.

Damn I love having a nice stereo. Really the only good reason, other than having a yard for a dog, for owning a house.

I just finished listening to Coda earlier today. Also just amazing.

So in this post I’m going to walk back my statement about all the young people’s music being shit. It’s not. In the last few months I’ve seen two opening acts that I thought were really good. I was really referring to the music that is actually popular with the masses of young people, but I also admit I really have no idea what 20-somethings like. Basically I’m talking out of my ass, based on shit like Beyonce and T. Swift. But the truth is that even when all the greatness of Kraftwerk, Gang of Four, and so many other great bands was being created in the late 70s and early 80s some absolutely ghastly shit was also being produced.

That is my assessment, and a music-historian I am not. I’m just a dirty old skateboarder who likes his punk, post-punk, electronica, and classic rock. And if you are a Beyonce or Swift fan — well — not everything has to be for me, so carry on with your horrible music. Enjoy it, because life is too short to not enjoy things. Same for fans of all the new country stuff or whatever. Again – I’m talking out of my butt because I couldn’t name a single Beyonce or Swift song if my life depended on it. NOT. ONE. For the record, Swift apparently is generous with her crew which makes her a good person in my opinion. Beyonce – I have no idea – but that’s not my world. She did apparently make a country album, and as that may have upset racists it pleases me greatly.

So, to sum up —

Some of the kids are alright.

This band – Othering – opened for Gang of Four. Two guys. One guy played synths and operated the electronics and played guitar, and the other guy played drums. They were really good. I have no problem with people using electronics, actually. These blokes wrote all the music, programmed the synths, and really were great. The drummer as absolutely fantastic. I loved ’em. I don’t think this music video does them justice for how much they actually rock, but here it is.

Then we saw this band Rocket open for Ride a few months ago. Super band! When I saw them it filled me with hope — young people making great music with guitars, bass, and drums. Honestly, I thought they were better than Ride by quite a lot.

We went to see Gang of Four at the Granada here in Dallas last night

Great, great, great show. Two of the original band members, and the two new people (guitar and bass) were fantastic.

A stripped-down show. No bullshit. At one point something in the guitar’s effect chain failed and they had to do some quick patching up of things. Jon, the singer, told stories in the meantime. They got things working and the badass show continued. Great crowd of appreciative fans, and a band that gave it all they had.

We’ve seen quite a few shows this year, and this is maybe the only one that plays with no backing track, no click track, no bullshit. It was real as hell, and so so good.

I believe this is to be their last tour of the America, and I’m so glad I got to see them. A favorite band of mine for quite some time, I never really thought I would. I missed them last time they came through.

Honestly, probably the best show I’ve seen in a long time.

Old Man Rant Alert: One thing I would note. While people were taking some pics with cell phones (clearly I was), compared to the douchey bullshit crowd we saw at St. Vincent a couple of weeks ago I would say there were at least 80% fewer phones being held up constantly. I find it reasonable to snap a few pics to remember a show by, but then put the fucking phones away and enjoy the show.  It was quite noticeable, and I’m going to go out on a limb at say that while I like St. Vincent, her crowd is full of younger people who don’t have any fucking manners or know how to enjoy a show — probably because most of their artists and bands they like are shit. It made me even happier to be part of the generation I’m part of. We had (and have) the best music, the best fans, the best souls.