So I tried to get in touch with the goings-on in the music world by downloading a bunch of songs from groups tapped as making the best records of the year...this being on a mailing-list I'm on for indie stuff. Of all the 23 songs I put on a CD-R, there was probably only one whose CD I have plans to pick up. I'll give the cd a couple more listens and admittedly some of the track selections were random, but I must say the bands generally didn't move me too much. I wonder if it's just me...but I recall reading a post about this band The Shins and downloading a track burned from a 7" I think and being very impressed. The track was "Eating Styes From Elephants' Eyes" in fact. I knew nothing about this band and now they're one of my favorites. I don't see why it should be impossible to be impressed by new bands some more.
That said, the lone track I really like a lot from the cd is by Oddfellows Casino. It's certainly a very British song; it could only be by a band from the Isles. It has that quaintly old-fashioned pastoral countryside vibe and the sort of character-sketch observations that were popularized in late 60's British pop-psych. It has a kind of skewed melody and nice organic production. Nice work lads! It doesn't sound however like the band is trying to be anything other than themselves though. It isn't knowingly smirky or self-satisfied. It isn't trying (to my ears) to BE a 60's song. It just has a nice craft to it that is often lacking now. It seems like too much stuff now is trying to be something instead of just being itself. Just because we've lived through so many different eras of music shouldn't mean we have to be so conscious of it. Things don't seem to happen quite so naturally these days.
I don't expect any shockingly NEW music or anything groundbreaking...I just want to hear bands with their own identities who sound like THEMSELVES. In the 80's there were TONS of them. What has happened I don't know. People seem to have forgotten you can be informed by the past without trying to sound just like it. There are exceptions of course like Belle and Sebastian. Sure they have a few songs that pay aural tribute to heroes but overall they sound like themselves and not like they want to be in another time. They harken back to old-time QUALITY but can't really be mistaken for a 60's band. I think the Decemberists have their own thing going and are getting better and better. Their last record was my favorite of 2003 (Her Majesty, The Decemberists) and they were probably my favorite live show of the year (though there wasn't much competition admittedly!). There are bright spots but there used to be years where almost everything right below the surface of mainstream was at least pretty good. Well...I'll keep listening. I'm working on CD-R #2 now...
9:30:31 PM 
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