Rhinofy-The Pulse
XM’s got a better buffer, but Sirius has better audio quality.
So, usually I’m on XM, because I abhor the dropouts.
Then again, my XM receiver lacks one feature, the button that would allow you to climb up the band station by station. I only get that with Sirius. And every once in a while, I decide to explore…when I’m burned out on my usual XM presets, when Howard Stern is in reruns, I run up the Sirius dial.
Which is how I found myself on the Pulse last night.
Yes, I’ve got both XM and Sirius in the car. A relic of the ancient days when their programming was different. Still, you tend to listen to the usual presets. And stumbling upon something new is thrilling. Especially when they’re playing unfamiliar music, that you like.
"Bully"
Shinedown
The station said 10, but I thought the hard rock station was further up the dial.
I’d like to say that Shinedown is breaking the formula, doing something completely new. Alas, the band is not.
But this is fully palatable.
It’s an amalgamation of hair metal and Linkin Park rock/rap and if you’re a twelve year old male or a matron who’s got tats and once rocked out, you’ll dig it. Especially the dynamics, from loud to quiet and back again.
Then again, the hair metal bands never tackled serious subjects…
It’s 8 AM, this hell I’m in
Seems I’ve crossed a line again
For being nothing more than who I am
So break my bones and throw your stones
We all know that life ain’t fair
But there’s more of us, we’re everywhere
Alienation is the essence of rock and roll. Because that’s the human condition. That’s what Shinedown has right.
And on one hand, I don’t think you can ever eliminate bullying, but calling attention to it is still good. Once upon a time, the nerds executed their revenge in a film, hopefully they can do that again!
Meanwhile, isn’t Robert Carradine a great actor?
HA!
"Wind It Up"
Barenaked Ladies
So they’re doing so much construction, I’ve got to shoot past the Mulholland exit and go all the way to Whole Foods, down in the flats of Sherman Oaks, before I double-back to my destination.
Which is when I heard this.
Which once again flummoxed me. This rocked too hard for the teen pop stations inhabiting the lower reaches of the Sirius/XM dial.
And I was still in the Shinedown mode, pedestrian rock executed well.
But accelerating up Woodcliff, I got hooked. I liked this even more than Shinedown. This was better than pedestrian. Who was it?
I looked down at the readout, one of the many advantages of satellite radio, and saw it was BARENAKED LADIES?
Forget the novelty hits. This is an intelligent band which writes music with great changes and harmonies. Doubt me? Listen to "Baby Seat"!
That’s how I got hooked. About a decade ago.
Then the band went indie too soon, leaving Reprise and releasing the album "Barenaked Ladies Are Me", which contains this track.
I love the lyric about the "mobile phone", these acts are all evanescent, why worry about your lyrics being timeless when you’re not gonna be.
Still, it’s the almost metal riff that hooked me initially.
And then the melodic verse with the stringed instruments working out underneath.
Then the anthemic pre-chorus before the explosive chorus itself.
Listen for the exquisite guitar work.
Don’t be too hip to like this.
To say it’s infectious is to be uncharitable. This is better than most of the hard rock you listen to.
And there’s even a wailing guitar solo!
I’m also including the live take which sounds like a modern day Doobie Brothers, and that ain’t bad!
"I Won’t Give Up
Jason Mraz
Jason’s last hit, "I’m Yours", was ubiquitous. But most hits don’t penetrate society to the degree the insiders in this business think they do. In other words, you can ignore not only Selena Gomez, but Justin Bieber and the rest of the hit parade.
So I never heard this before, from Jason’s new album. I was waiting for the buzz to reach me.
And I’ve got to applaud Jason for not repeating himself. Everybody’s too afraid to march forward these days, they play it safe, recording the same damn song until no one cares anymore and then going on an endless oldies tour.
I won’t give up on us
Even if the skies get rough
I’m giving you all my love
I’m still looking up
Still looking up
Are you macho in the bedroom?
Everybody’s a child at heart. The only route to intimacy is openness and vulnerability.
These lyrics might look unremarkable on the page, but Jason doesn’t sing them with smug confidence, but a heartfelt desire to connect. He’s closer to the singer-songwriters of the seventies, Jackson and Joni, than the hacks of today’s hit parade.
It’s so simple. Yet when he amps it up at 1:47, it’s like Lloyd Dobler outside of Diane Court’s window, pleading.
And you know John Cusack is always cool.
I don’t want to oversell this. But if you’re someone with more questions than answers, who desires a magical relationship, you’ll relate.
And when the rest of the voices come in at the end, it’s like that Foreigner song "I Want To Know What Love Is" without being bombastic. Yes, love is a religious experience.
P.S. I’ve also included the demo, which is included on the album, to show you where the song came from.
P.P.S. I’ve also included the Bonus Commentary, which is a bit too stultified, and in days of yore, I wouldn’t recommend doing this, but today you’ve got to come down off your pedestal and connect with your fans, give them everything that you’ve got. Distance, intrigue, mystery…that paradigm rarely works anymore.
So this morning, I looked up the Pulse, I wanted to see what it was, what kind of station played stuff that rocked and soft stuff too in an era where niches never cross.
Turns out it’s one of those weird stations that not only plays a breadth of material, it’s not all brand new, it can go back a decade.
You can see a playlist here:
And I’m still not exactly sure what the station is.
But I will tell you that I love being exposed to new music and finding out it’s good, that’s what life is about, new experiences.
Then again, I’d be even more interested in a station that featured music just as winning that was testing limits.
