The Wreckers

I used to buy Chris Hillman records.

Oh, I knew he was in the Byrds.  But it was really because I loved that first Souther, Hillman, Furay record.  Oh, I know, the band hated each other, J.D. gave Richie no respect, but there were certain tracks on that album…  Shit, remember "Life ain’t so easy in this border town, too much dope and too much running around?"  Hell, that was BEFORE "Life In The Fast Lane"!

Needless to say I bought J.D.’s "Black Rose".  One of my favorite singer-songwriter albums ever.  ("The moon was yellow and the sky was blue, the night can make a promise of love or it can make you a fool"!  Hell, it’s YOUR TURN NOW!)  And two Chris Hillman solo albums.  Hell, I also knew him from Manassas.  Have you listened to that double album recently, FANTASTIC!

I’d like to tell you that Chris’ albums were fantastic, rare gems you should immediately pick up.  But that would be untrue.  They were just good, LISTENABLE!  And since I paid for them, that’s what I did, LISTEN!

Oh, I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.  I had the answers back then.  Today it’s a brand new world.  So confusing that oftentimes I find myself on the sidelines, or if playing, feeling clueless as to where the stream IS!

It was easier in the seventies.  There were so many fewer records.  And you could get a grip on the scene.  Today, it’s as if the NFL had 4327 teams and the American League sported a franchise even in Montana and a great number of the people said street luge is really where it’s at, and ESPN49 shows a block every Friday night and you’ve got to check it out.

I check out what people send me.  And the new albums of people I like.  And after that, I rely on satellite radio.  Do I miss shit?  ALL THE TIME!

But it’s frustrating.  Because when I want to appear hip, when I try to get a handle on things and I listen to the stuff the hipsters tell me is cool…it just doesn’t appeal to me.  Oh, maybe I understand it.  Can even get into an aspect of it.  But when it comes to saving the track in my iTunes library or deleting it, I delete it.

I truly thought it was me.  And then today I heard "The Wreckers".

Raymond Lynn:

In regards to the Wreckers sales, maybe the leggy blonde holding the guitar next to Michelle Branch helped sales. sure didn’t hurt….

The above e-mail led me to the Wreckers’ site.  I didn’t figure this had been part of the act’s appeal.  I hadn’t even seen a picture of the sidekick.

The Wreckers site featured the dreaded Flash.  If you’ve got the Flash you immediately demonstrate you don’t get it.  You insure I’m NEVER coming back to your site.  Because I don’t have time to sit through the same bullshit animations to garner new information.  Really, you can wait the better part of a minute to get to substance on these sites.  There’s a circle jerk going on here.  Web-designers want to get paid.  Label execs want to justify their jobs.  Acts are out of the loop.  Websites are not the new album package, at best they’re LINER NOTES!  They should be utilitarian.  Lightning fast.  Instantly clickable to find what you want.  There should be NO splash opening screen.

ANYWAY, after clicking to enter the Wreckers site, I heard a riff that was almost certainly James Taylor’s "Country Road", but then it changed just enough and the singer’s voice was sweet and palatable yet had a certain ATTITUDE!  And then, not long into the track, there was a chorus.

Shit, THIS is music.

Oh, I’m not gonna judge your beats-related track.  It’s just that Justin Timberlake’s "Sexy Back" I understand, I can see dancing/fucking to, but it doesn’t set my mind free, I can’t see driving cross-country to it.  (You can hear it at: Justin Timberlake)

What I’m saying here is the music APPEALED TO ME!  It SOUNDED good.  I LIKED IT!

It was like finding my old glove and pumping a baseball into the pocket.  No, it was like going to Sport Chalet and finding a NEW glove with the feel of the old one.

They say it’s about songs.  I think of a lot of today’s hit music isn’t songs, but tracks.  You can’t sing along.  They don’t provide the old visceral experience.  Shit, you should be able to sing the song with your buddies at the lake, if it’s REALLY good.

I’d like to tell you the songs got worse.  But they didn’t.  One after another of the songs streaming on the Wreckers’ site appealed to me.

I decided to take it.  I fired up my P2P program.  But in order to know what titles to download, I fired up Amazon, to get the track listing.  And since I was there, I read the reviews.

What caught me off guard was the excitement, the ENTHUSIASM!  Not all music slides off people, doesn’t get them in their gut.  Except for the couple bringing "Stand Still, Look Pretty"’s rating down to the four and a half star level, the reviewers were testifying.

I really liked Michelle Branch’s debut.  It was raw, and it was honest.  But the follow-up was slick and overproduced.  I didn’t even bother to call for a Wreckers CD.  Country isn’t my thing.  And she lost me with that second record.  But Raymond Lynn’s e-mail got me to listen.

And I’ve been listening ever since.  Playing the album again and again.

Don’t tell me they suck.  Don’t tell me they’re not revolutionary.  Don’t tell me you think Michelle Branch’s voice can be too girlish.  Don’t even bother to criticize.  That’s not the point.  Hell, I can BELIEVE, it’s not like song doctors came in and rewrote the tracks, it’s not like Michelle and Jessica are just pretty faces.  The music FEELS GOOD!

Have you read "Blink"?  It’s not "The Tipping Point", but it makes the point that experts can tell instantly.  I’m an expert.  I don’t listen to music with my mind.  Most times I can tell instantly whether something is good, certainly whether I like it.  Occasionally do I learn to love something over time?  Sure, but almost never if I wasn’t interested a bit first.

"Stand Still, Look Pretty" rekindles my faith.  In music, in my radar.  It sets my mind adrift on this waning summer day.  Thinking of going back to school, hitting the record store in preparation.

There’s a reason this record has sold in excess of 200,000 copies.  It’s GOOD!

Better than those Chris Hillman solo records, in fact.  But when Mike Marrone played "Slippin’ Away" on XM’s Loft I was brought right back to law school, and my one room apartment on Carmelina.

Years from now, when I hear "Way Back Home" or another Wreckers track on whatever broadcasting device exists, I’ll smile and think of this day of discovery.

And, someone WILL play this music again.  It’s not made to sell today and get out tomorrow.  There’s artistry involved.  And in an era when Paris Hilton makes records, that’s not something that should go by unnoticed.

The Wreckers

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