I posted this briefly last week and then took it down minutes later because I realized something in one of the links I included contained an image that’s not 100 percent appropriate for all of my audience.
In the time since then, my stats show that search terms linking to my blog are heavy on the bands/people I mentioned in this post. I guess for some reason, search engines are still linking to this blog when these terms are entered. People who search that stuff and end up here have got to be frustrated that there’s no information about the bands they’re seeking, so I’m re-posting what I’ve got, minus the questionable link:
Last week I realized this is going to be a very good year for music. 2007 was lame. When I thought about compiling my top releases of the year, I could only come up with four. Not that I really expect for 10 or more releases I’m interested in to come out in a given year anymore — my interests have turned as I’ve gotten older more toward things I missed out on in the 90s, didn’t know about in the 80s, or influenced everything I know in the 70s and 60s — but it was still pathetic, given just how interested I am in rock and roll.
While I think mainstream rock has gotten to probably its worst state ever over the past few years, the various musical sub-ghettoes in the underground have continued to produce music that is both challenging, fresh and just plain good. But even that’s fading away. I feel like as underground music gets more accessible, we’re seeing more artists lose touch with the feeling that rock music is rebel music and thus pander to things that make them more marketable.
Before you accuse me of being an elitist music snob who only likes bands that nobody else knows about (probably somewhat true), I’ll point out that two of rock’s biggest success stories in the past couple years — the White Stripes and the Queens of the Stone Age — seem to have avoided this pitfall and are successful doing their thing the way they want to. But those are exceptions.
Mainstream rock has too many boring, formulaic bads like Nickelbak or whatever. Modern “indie” rock has too many boring, formulaic, cutesy things like the Arcade Fire or whatever. There’s a real dearth of rocking rockers out there.
But 2008 gives me hope for change.
Why? Last week, in a span of two days, I got leaked tracks from new bands which include two of my favorite, favorite, favorite musicians in the whole wide world.
They are John Reis and Rick Froberg (pictured at left in their heyday). Reis and Froberg (pay attention close, this gets a little confusing) have a long history of musical collaboration: beginning in the late 1980s, they played dueling guitars in the band Pitchfork. By the early 90s, they’d upgraded to a new rhythm section and formed a new band, Drive Like Jehu. Jehu was, improbably, signed at one point to Interscope Records but they broke up around 1995, soon after the release of “Yank Crime,” which sits at or near the top of the list of my all time favorite records.
Somtime later, Froberg moved to New York (the band had been based in San Diego) while Reis continued work with his other band, Rocket From the Crypt (that’s another story in itself).
But in 2000, the two reconnected and formed Hot Snakes, a streamlined version of their former bands. With three incredible albums between 2000 and 2005, it is my humble opinion that Hot Snakes represent the best of the decade we’re seeing come to an end.
But that band broke up as well (right after I skipped a chance to see them live in Chapel Hill, thinking, stupidly, “they’ll come back through.”). Froberg returned to his work in visual art and Reis, by the end of 2005, wrapped up the two other bands he written and performed with (the aforementioned RFTC and another group called The Sultans. I told you this would get confusing.).
As a humongous fan of these two guys’ music, it’s been a pretty bleak landscape since 2006 reared its head.
So I got very excited a couple of months ago when I first became aware of a then-unnamed project that Reis was leading. I frequent the message board of the label Reis runs, and let me tell you, these guys have some of the most dedicated fans ever. Within days of the announcement, some fan had managed to get a copy of a rough mix of one song by the band, which we all found out will be called the Night Marchers, a reference to a Hawaiian legend about some ghost warriors. Pretty cool name.
The Night Marchers’ record, “See You In Magic,” is set to be released on April 22. The sound (what I’ve heard, anyway) is unlike much that I’ve heard recently. It really evokes the 1960s in a way that doesn’t make you think of dime store nostalgia. I think Reis and company understand more than just about anyone I can think of the different forms rock and roll — what I think of as real rock and roll, with all its rebellious, gritty and uncompromising feeling — has taken since its inception and how to synthesize those things into one streamlined, lean and mean feeling. It’s really good, and I can’t wait for the record.
That was all, like I said, a couple of months ago. I’ve been wondering since then whether Froberg would continue making music. He’s a very talented artist and I kind of see that as his main job, but he’s such a good musician that it’s hard to imagine him not playing.
So on Jan. 10 (I remember the date, I’m a nerd), I got word that Froberg had indeed formed another band under the name Obits, a name I can especially appreciate given my line of work. The news was this: Obits would be playing their first gig on Jan. 12 in New York City at a club called the Cake Shop. I scrambled to see if there was any way I could make it up there for the show, but constraints like my constant lack of funds conspired against me in a way that I may never get over.
That news was especially cool to me, since I’ve actually played at the Cake Shop before. It’s a tiny club on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and my band was able to take the stage there in March of 2006. Anyway, I was disappointed that I couldn’t go and hear what this new band would be like. But through my frequenting of the message board I mentioned earlier, I was able just about 10 days later to get my hands on a live recording of the entire show, and my goodness. It’s like another slice of the 1960s, mean blues spirit and all.
There’s such attitude in the music, and it’s real. I don’t know how I know that, I just do. It’s an honest expression, which is all I think music fans — of any type — are really searching for. I sat in my room that night, listening to the 11 tracks over and over and over, and I haven’t really stopped since.
Except for the moments in the following days, when I haven’t stopped listening to the three more live tracks which were recently made public by the Night Marchers. The knowledge that the Marchers will have a record available in just two months, and that Obits may have one coming down the pike before the year is over really gets me going.
I don’t know that my eclectic music tastes are going to be shared by many of this blog’s readers, but you can check out some of the songs that have been made available by both bands here (Obits) and here (the Night Marchers). I honestly believe that if you listen to this stuff with an open mind, you’ll find that it’s at least real music with little interest in how well it can be marketed (although I think many of these songs could be legitimate hits in a sane world, but that’s a different story). And if you’re a Reis/Froberg fan stumbling onto this blog, thanks for stopping by. I guess you already knew what I meant before ending up here.
So to quote one of the greatest rock and roll movies ever ($1 to whoever guesses what I’m talking about): Enough of my yappin’. Let’s boogie!
