This is literally bringing tears to my eyes.<\/p>\n
Do you remember going to the record store?\u00c2\u00a0 Not today’s uber-hip emporia, giving the middle finger to digital, but the one in the sixties?\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe not even an independent, but a chain?\u00c2\u00a0 Like E.J. Korvette?<\/p>\n
I do.<\/p>\n
One hot summer I drove to Korvettes in Trumbull to buy the Beach Boys’ "Surf’s Up".\u00c2\u00a0 Because I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Beach Boys fan.\u00c2\u00a0 The only album I passed on was "Friends", and I kicked myself when it went out of print and was completely unavailable.\u00c2\u00a0 So, I bought every one thereafter.\u00c2\u00a0 Which led me to "Sunflower"…\u00c2\u00a0 This is the best of the post- "Pet Sounds" albums, everybody’s involved, from Carl to Dennis and I just LOVE "It’s About Time" so I was looking forward to "Surf’s Up" not because Brian played the title song on Leonard Bernstein’s TV special years before but because it was the latest opus by my favorite band.<\/p>\n
I stopped at the Merritt Canteen for a burger, putting my purchase beneath the seat of the VistaCruiser so it wouldn’t get warped in the summer heat and then drove home, shut the door and dropped the needle on the vinyl.\u00c2\u00a0 Ecstasy.\u00c2\u00a0 Just me and the music.\u00c2\u00a0 Alone.<\/p>\n
And now I feel the same way.<\/p>\n
The labels loved the nineties.\u00c2\u00a0 When it was all MTV all the time.\u00c2\u00a0 The TV channel made stars and the public bought them.\u00c2\u00a0 There was an indie scene, but it wasn’t always the best acts and so many of them were left field.\u00c2\u00a0 But then post-Napster the majors tightened the screws even tighter, with the death of MTV they only put out guaranteed hits.\u00c2\u00a0 Radio became a producer’s medium and most of us who remember the heyday of FM radio and "Rolling Stone" tuned out.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that we didn’t want great new music, we just didn’t know where to find it.<\/p>\n
But now the world has gone totally topsy-turvy.\u00c2\u00a0 All the GREAT acts are indie.\u00c2\u00a0 And the word of mouth online is deafening…if you happen to be riding down that highway.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re on a different road, you never hear it.\u00c2\u00a0 Today, the John Grant story reached my freeway.<\/p>\n
The album’s been out since April, but I didn’t even know the guy’s name, nor his old band, the Czars, but I’m listening only because Ian testified and I’d say my jaw is dropping, but it’s different from that, I’ve been transported right back to my bedroom on Farist Road in Fairfield, Connecticut, just me and my music, it’s like the seventies all over again.<\/p>\n
You remember that era, right?\u00c2\u00a0 When music was EVERYTHING!\u00c2\u00a0 It drew the most creative minds, it was the only place you could find truth.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, movies were great, but they were fiction, records were real!<\/p>\n
I could wait a few days and fully digest this project, give you a review from a distance, but I want to capture the passion, the shock of hearing something so great. Something so honest, so authentic, featuring a guy who’s got a good enough voice who can write hooky changes and knows you don’t have to be in someone’s face to reach them.<\/p>\n
I’ve only hit one mediocre cut so far, "Silver Platter Club".<\/p>\n
Not that I loved the opener, "TC and Honeybear".<\/p>\n
But the second cut, "Marz", BLEW MY MIND!<\/p>\n
So intimate, it lives in your head, but makes you feel connected, because of its inherent humanity.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s so pretty, in an ugly way.\u00c2\u00a0 You know what I’m talking about. Mainstream media tells us pretty is on the outside, but we know it’s on the inside.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not something that’s sold, it’s something that radiates, that draws you in.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s love…\u00c2\u00a0 You just want to get closer.<\/p>\n
I’m playing "Marz" again right now.\u00c2\u00a0 It reminds me of going to the IMAX theatre.\u00c2\u00a0 It reminds me of gray days on the east coast.\u00c2\u00a0 Wearing my fall jacket, traipsing through the fallen leaves.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s got what Brian Wilson sells, but distilled in a modern way.\u00c2\u00a0 Everything is influenced by what comes before, but "Marz" is truly original. In the U.K. John Grant would already be a star!\u00c2\u00a0 They know artistry!\u00c2\u00a0 The press and the BBC don’t care first about commerciality, they don’t care if the act is ploughing new ground, they just want to certify GREATNESS!<\/p>\n
And I was just about to write then.\u00c2\u00a0 But my e-mail program had not finished cycling through the last e-mail, so I let the album play.\u00c2\u00a0 And the next track was good, but the one after that, "Sigourney Weaver", was JAW-DROPPING!\u00c2\u00a0 Like so many great cuts, future favorites, I wasn’t immediately hooked, and then there was a change…<\/p>\n
I’m new to this.\u00c2\u00a0 But I can’t help but tell you.\u00c2\u00a0 Because if you remember those days, alone on your bed, maybe wearing headphones, reading the album cover as you marinate in the sound, THIS ALBUM IS FOR YOU!<\/p>\n
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