At the end of last quarter I made a bold pronouncement.
“Rock is not dead,” I exclaimed. But feeling
particularly bitter that day (it was 10th week after all), I made
my courageous claim only by way of introducing what I felt to be
five of the biggest problems in music today.
So to prove that I’m not always in grumpy-critic mode, to
show that there is still reason to be a music fan today, I give you
the five best things about modern music.
5. File-sharing: Damn the RIAA and damn the man!
They tried to stop us, but these days file-sharing is more
prevalent than ever. Sure it hurts sales for huge bands like
Metallica, but for small independent artists it means more people
hearing music they wouldn’t otherwise. That’s not bad;
that’s good.
4. Country gets hip
They were abandoned by Wilco and embarrassed by Ryan Adams, but
these days alt-country hipsters such as The Handsome Family are
finding a wider audience than ever before. As more and more members
of traditional indie/punk undergrounds across the United States are
discovering the likes of Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings, country
music is beginning to lose its “I listen to everything except
country” stigma. This not only exposes American youth to some
of this country’s greatest songwriters, but it also serves to
open the door for countless young, fresh, creative acts to
appropriate that classic sound into a whole new genre.
Required listening: Mekons, “Fear and Whiskey;”
Uncle Tupelo, “Anodyne;” The Handsome Family,
“Milk and Scissors.”
3. The rise of lap-pop
The term lap-pop is not yet a commonly accepted part of the
critical lexicon, but it’s getting there. Combining glitchy
IDM beats with lush harmonies and infectious pop vocals, the laptop
elite are finally bringing their electronic weirdness to the
mainstream.
The result is often stunningly beautiful. Check out The Notwist,
“Neon Golden,” Ms. John Soda, “No P. or
D.,” and, if you’re a fan of Death Cab for Cutie, which
frankly you should not be, the eponymous debut from The Postal
Service, a collaboration between Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello
of Dntel.
2. Def Jux
Founded by and featuring El-P, formerly half of the legendary
Brooklyn hip-hop duo Company Flow, Def Jux records is responsible
for releasing much of today’s best underground hip-hop. While
many of the biggest so-called underground acts (read: Jurassic 5)
limit themselves to stale repetition and shouts out to the
“old school,” the Def Jux artists continually push the
boundaries of the hip-hop idiom, adding lyrical freedom and
abstraction to highly electronic-influenced beats. When hip-hop
goes avant-garde, we’ll look back and say that Def Jux got it
there. What to listen to: Cannibal Ox, “The Cold Vein”
and Aesop Rock, “Labor Days.”
1. The return to relevance of Lookout! and Sub Pop
Sub Pop was the label that broke the grunge revolution, home to
bands such as Mudhoney, Green River and a little group called
Nirvana. Lookout! gave us Green Day and for years during the
’90s made sure that thousands of kids got their recommended
daily dose of sugary-sweet pop punk. But then they both just sort
of faded away. Stuck in their narrow genre classifications, both
labels lost innovative artists to more forward-thinking labels. But
now, suddenly, Lookout! has signed the best (that’s right)
artist in indie rock, Ted Leo, of Ted Leo and The Pharmacists. Sub
Pop has a veritable glut of talent, from Iron and Wine to Hot Hot
Heat to The Shins to the aforementioned The Postal Service. Someone
got smart at both of these labels and the result is some of the
most compelling rock on the market today.
The real number one? You guessed it: Frank Stallone. E-mail
Crossen at dcrossen@media.ucla.edu.