Now I know why I love satellite radio and hate Pandora and Last.FM.<\/p>\n
You can’t trust the public.<\/p>\n
I just tweeted, asking people to tell me about an INCREDIBLE track, something as good as Gnarls Barkley’s "Crazy". And what came back wasn’t shite, but stuff so far off the radar screen that it could never become mainstream.<\/p>\n
You want a heads-up?\u00c2\u00a0 Dive into people’s hard drives.\u00c2\u00a0 Because people are listening to a vast cornucopia of stuff. Freed from the constraints of radio and MTV, they’ve found what appeals to them.\u00c2\u00a0 And what appeals to them won’t appeal to you, no matter how much they try to convince you their stuff is great.<\/p>\n
Kind of like TV On The Radio.\u00c2\u00a0 I was told about a track that wouldn’t close a parched man in the desert, even if he was guaranteed a glass of water if he made it all the way through.<\/p>\n
On one hand I love this era.\u00c2\u00a0 All the gatekeepers, all the holier-than-thou arbiters, their opinion means NOTHING!\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not saying YOU can’t like TV On The Radio, just that most people don’t, most people want something closer to reality. Like Shinedown.<\/p>\n
Just got a call from Lyor Cohen.\u00c2\u00a0 He reminded me of this track he played me at the Beverly Hills Hotel a year ago. One I made him turn off because the sound system was so shitty.\u00c2\u00a0 I dialed up Shinedown’s "Second Chance" on YouTube, even though Warner’s banned their videos from the service.\u00c2\u00a0 And instantly I got it.\u00c2\u00a0 This is akin to Nickelback.\u00c2\u00a0 Slick, professional, with hooks large enough to catch every fish in the ocean.\u00c2\u00a0 I knew INSTANTLY why it was a hit.<\/p>\n
And I’m sure all those people tweeting me are going to hate it.\u00c2\u00a0 They hate what it STANDS for!\u00c2\u00a0 It’s too mainstream, sans the edges that insure that not everybody can like it.<\/p>\n
Fifteen years ago, the album containing "Second Chance" would have gone multi-platinum, the label could probably break another single and get it to FIVE TIMES PLATINUM!\u00c2\u00a0 But now the hipsters can listen to their own tunes, and Joe Average just doesn’t hear this stuff.<\/p>\n
In other words, there’s room for a real Top Forty station.\u00c2\u00a0 An outlet that plays the best of the best.\u00c2\u00a0 The REVERSE of the balkanization we’ve experienced in the radio world.\u00c2\u00a0 People know quality, they can love a great hip-hop track even if they’re a hard rocker, a great pop cut can cut through.\u00c2\u00a0 As long as the cuts are truly great.<\/p>\n
But there are too many commercials on radio.\u00c2\u00a0 The new outlet’s got to be online.\u00c2\u00a0 A trusted place where people can go and hear the great new stuff.\u00c2\u00a0 A promise MTV delivered on for years, but then abandoned.<\/p>\n
Truly, you’d be stunned how far from the mark the tunes the dedicated music fan is tuned into are.\u00c2\u00a0 Makes me want to invite them all to the desert, to their vaunted Coachella festival, and have that otherworldly man from the "Twilight Zone" come down with his cookbook, "To Serve Man", and get all these prognosticators to walk the gangplank and DISAPPEAR!<\/p>\n
Tell me a band that’s broken from Coachella?<\/p>\n
I can’t think of one.\u00c2\u00a0 But I’ve got an earful of drivel from the hipsters who attended.<\/p>\n
Not that I care, but it’s an interesting paradigm.\u00c2\u00a0 The newspapers, they’re losing their power.\u00c2\u00a0 All top-down voices are losing their power because it’s more about MAINTAINING power than servicing the public.\u00c2\u00a0 Do they really think the average American wants to HEAR THIS SHIT?<\/p>\n
Speaking of what you want to hear, I’m gonna list a few cuts you might find interesting.<\/p>\n
________________________________ Haunting.\u00c2\u00a0 What Americana music should deliver.\u00c2\u00a0 Your soul should be touched, you should not be embraced by steel wool guitars that scratch you, but don’t penetrate you. ________________________________<\/p>\n 20 Minute Loop<\/span><\/p>\n You’ve got to give this stuff a chance.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that big a chance, about thirty seconds.\u00c2\u00a0 And then you’ll hear the airy voices, the harmonies…\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like Brian Wilson and Todd Rundgren had a baby.\u00c2\u00a0 Not quite as talented, but if he worked with his parents, he could probably come up to snuff.<\/p>\n This is early-seventies, and if you remember this era, you’ll hear the promise.<\/p>\n The track that was recommended is #2, "Dr. Vitus Werdegast".\u00c2\u00a0 But everything I played contained magic.<\/p>\n http:\/\/20minuteloop.bandcamp.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n ________________________________<\/p>\n "Love, Love, Love"<\/span> PLEASE hang in here.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ll think you’ve heard this before, it’s plodding and mediocre and then about a minute in, you’ll hear the MOST exquisite chorus.\u00c2\u00a0 If only there was a verse that matched it.<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/astallaslions<\/a><\/p>\n ________________________________<\/p>\n "Cable TV"<\/span> You’ll HATE this!\u00c2\u00a0 It seems like something an art student cooked up in his bedroom.\u00c2\u00a0 The canned percussion, it’s almost offensive.\u00c2\u00a0 Then, you suddenly get hooked.\u00c2\u00a0 This could have very easily been a hit in the eighties.\u00c2\u00a0 (Does sound a bit too reminiscent of "Raspberry Beret" though…)<\/p>\n http:\/\/swg.fm\/733<\/a><\/p>\n ________________________________<\/p>\n Joe Bonamassa<\/span><\/p>\n If this guy sang better, he’d already be a star.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, there’s definitely something here. ________________________________<\/p>\n I could find each and every cut the tweeters recommended.\u00c2\u00a0 Usually on the Web, but I also had Rhapsody, Napster and Spotify as a backup.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead of a narrow filter deciding what got to me, I could hear EVERYTHING and decide for myself.<\/p>\n Not that everything sounded so good.\u00c2\u00a0 The tracks on blip.fm sounded positively AWFUL!<\/p>\n Which brings me back to that Shinedown cut…<\/p>\n
"I Never Made To Make You Cry"<\/span>
Peter Klimes<\/span><\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.stillmusic.com\/wordpress\/?p=109<\/a><\/p>\n
As Tall As Lions<\/span><\/p>\n
Fol Chen<\/span><\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.jbonamassa.com\/bonusblues\/<\/a><\/p>\n