Adventures in iTunes: New Discoveries

One of the massive benefits of going out on the road with a group of really talented people who dig music is that I always seem to come home with some fantastic recommendations for new music to listen to. There are few things I enjoy as much as sharing the stuff I love with other people who will love it, too, so when people return the favor and pass things along my way, I quite naturally get all giddy about it.

Alex G's Share Your Story Tour was no different. So, I'd like to take the next few moments and pass along to all of you some of the great music I've been turned on to by the people who joined me out on the road.

~

Brandon Flowers - The Desired Effect
Perhaps more well-known as the lead singer of The Killers, Brandon Flowers put out a record just this year that fits really, really nicely into that revival of '80s synth-pop I wrote about a few months ago. To simply describe it as such is probably too much of an over-simplification, though. On this record, Flowers is, more than anything else, a great songwriter. But, he did manage to get the word "gravitron" into a song, so I guess the '80s thing fits pretty nicely, too:

  


The Gaslight Anthem - Handwritten
This record's a few years old now and The Gaslight Anthem has been around for longer than that, but someone finally had the wherewithal to suggest that I listen to them. What a record Handwritten is. This band just drips east coast rock 'n' roll - you won't have to listen too closely to hear the Springsteen influence - and in this day & age, that is a wonderful thing. It might seem like solid, dependable, well-written rock records are a thing of the past, but these guys prove that notion dead wrong. I can't wait to dig into some more from these cats.




LANY - I Loved You.
LANY's a new-ish band, once again hearkening back to that '80s thing everybody knows they love. This stuff is just so good & easy to listen to: singable, dance-y, memorable. It sticks in your head in the best way. LANY (along with the other artists mentioned here, really) is showing people what pop music could be again. Maybe it's even better to say they're showing people what music can be. There is great new music happening out there, folks. It's just waiting for you to get your ears on it. 

Rest.

We've all heard something like it before:

"I'll sleep when I'm dead."

"Rest is for the week."

"It's all about the hustle."

Our modern culture isn't big on rest. And that shouldn't come as a surprise given our proclivities-bordering-on-obsession in regards to distraction, over-indulgence, materialism, and commerce. If we do anything at all as a people, we go. We associate stopping with weakness, we are addicted to an ideal of constant achievement, and we are uncomfortable with stillness & quiet. We define a successful life in terms of measurable quantities (read: "bank account") and relegate any and all attention that could be paid to the inner life to a back burner that never gets lit.

Rest is not our thing.

This thought has been bouncing around in my own head for at least a year now. I discovered awhile back that I more-or-less sucked at rest. For the life of me, I could not take a solid day off without feeling like I was missing out on an opportunity to do something. For that reason, I found myself massively frustrated every time I wound up moderately sick - which is to say, sick enough to make being around people in a social context completely inappropriate but not sick enough that I would feel justified in just letting myself recover. I would find myself asking questions like, "Am I really so sick that I can't workout a little?" and "I can still practice, right?"

For whatever reason, the sense of need I felt to do would make me feel like a slacker if I didn't power through in some way and accomplish something. 

I think I had bought into the lie that enough hard work, enough effort, and enough achievement in some way magically guaranteed the realization of my dreams. If I could just continue to keep chipping away at the stone, eventually God would have to move me right where I'd always wanted to be.

But then I began thinking about all of the things that go unheeded when the idea of rest (not to mention the necessity of it) is viewed as a universal pejorative. Did I really want to be the guy who couldn't slow down, who couldn't relax, and who couldn't find it within himself to appreciate where he was at any given moment if that place didn't happen to be THE PLACE he hoped & prayed he would one day end up?

Success & its Anticedents OR Why "Successful People" Don't Post Inspirational Memes

Last night, the boys of Modern Suspects and myself had a quick laugh over this meme:

This morning, I woke up thinking about it. Not just laughing about it anymore, but thinking about it. So, here we are.

Now, on the most basic level, I get it. This is supposed to be funny in a cynical, "I'm cooler than inspirational memes" kind of way. It's supposed to imply a wink and a smile at the notion of being tapped into what's really going on: namely, that successful people don't post inspirational memes because they don't need them, and that the people who do actually take the time to share these kinds of ideas are those with some sort of desperate need to believe that they're not missing the boat or that life isn't passing them by.

But here's the deal.

I couldn't help but think this morning that if the idea that "successful people" have no time for inspiration or encouragement or philosophy happens to be true, then that fact says a lot more about "successful people" than it does about anyone else.

The Summer of Sound (Part I)

Summer 2015: the season that is.

In between the sometimes-gratifying, too-often-frustrating DIY home projects my wife and I have been getting ourselves into, the family wedding that now stands at less than a week away, and the numerable one-off gigs I've been able to be a part of, I've found myself neck deep in work with both Modern Suspects and Hillary Hand. As I've written about already, the Suspects have been crushing the summer festival scene here in Colorado, and we're not even close to finished with it yet. Hillary has put together a new band since releasing the EP we've been working on for the past few months, and I'm thrilled to report that our sound going forward - like the record itself - is definitely something of which people are going to want to take note. The work this season has been great. Busy and hectic, yes, but great. I am fortunate beyond words to get to work with the musicians I do.

But in addition to all of that stuff I've been doing myself, there's another aspect to this summer that can't go unmentioned (read: 'unblogged'). Summer is concert season, after all. And, given the number of performances I've been able to absorb lately, 2015 might just take its place as the single best year of live performances I've ever experienced.

Zac Brown Band @ Coors Field

My wife and I began our summer hijinks by attending the first-ever live music performance in the history of Denver's Coors Field (recognized more widely, of course, for being the home field of the Colorado Rockies). Now, granted, my wife didn't exactly know we were going to this show: I used it as an opportunity to surprise her for her birthday (which was a few days afterward). The Zac Brown Band brought its own unique and spectacular brand of country music to town that night, and given both the event's historical significance as well as it's taking place during Independence Day Weekend, the band delivered...

...and delivered seriously.

To put it mildly, these cats can play, and they've used the past few years to carve out an altogether unique identity for themselves in the midst of a genre that continues to grow ever more rote & generic. ZBB shows are packed with musicality, genuine patriotism, and an ever-so-unexpected set of cover tunes that all meet up to create a fast-paced and energetic roller coaster of a performance. It's hard to imagine that many other contemporary bands come close to this level of showmanship.

Rush lights up the audience @ Pepsi Center

A handful of days later saw Rush's R40 tour grace the Pepsi Center. In what is probably going to be the trio's final performance in Denver (as Neil Peart is starting to show symptoms of arthritis in his hands and elbows), the band delivered a true retrospective: beginning their show with selections from their most recent Clockwork Angels release and proceeding systematically backwards through their 40-year career, all the way to a final encore featuring the song Working Man, the band's first-ever single. As the show progressed backwards in time, the music, the stage setup, the instruments, and even the lights progressed with them: the songs from the '80s featured laser lighting, those from the '70s dry ice snaking across the stage. Even Peart's drum kit got a facelift during the intermission, and the second half showcased the legend on a set built to look like the one he played on records like Moving Pictures and Permanent Waves.

 

The Rush show served as a celebration of a four-decades-long career that has seen one of the most unique and masterful bands in rock 'n' roll not only survive, but thrive, despite their rejection by popular radio and print media. Rush has proved for more years than I've been alive that great music has staying power because people really do want to hear it. There are those who, despite the entrapment and allurements of mediocre & redundant pop culture, still want to be blown away by the music they choose to listen to.

And, to wrap up the first half of our summer concert series, my wife and I took in another performance by the great Bruce Hornsby at Denver' Botanic Gardens. The setting for shows like this is about as informal as it gets, with concertgoers situated all around the stage on a small amphitheater-style lawn. There are no significant stage elements to speak of (in terms of lights or pyrotechnics or what have you), so the music truly becomes the star of the show. And there are few artists more suited to headline such a show than Bruce Hornsby.

Hornsby's sets are notoriously casual & jazzy, with the man himself calling out tunes to the band as they go, signaling for solos and endings, and doing his best to put on a 100% unique performance each and every night. There are no set lists or predetermined arrangements, so whatever the audience is getting, they can rest assured it's a show like no other. The informal setting of the Botanic Gardens fit Hornsby's performance style perfectly, and, as always, he showcased his magnificent songwriting, virtuosic playing, and almost infinitely broad sense of musical appreciation in a way that leads one to think he might still be in his artistic prime.

Bruce Hornsby's stage @ Denver Botanic Gardens

It's a huge breath of fresh air for me to partake of performances like these. They serve not only as awe-inspiring experiences in and of themselves, but also as reminders that all is not lost when it comes to the condition of music in the 21st century (from either the standpoint of a musician or fan). To try a metaphor: in a world seemingly obsessed with novels written for 15-year-olds, it's good to know that we still have the work of  Neil Gaiman, Dennis Lehane, and Cormac McCarthy to read, appreciate, and celebrate.

It's good to see marvelous music still doing well amidst what seems like an overwhelming onslaught of petty & disingenuous pap. It's good to know that real musicians are still out there getting it done. It's good to know that there are other people still interested in hearing the best they can get their ears on.

So the summer of sound continues. There are more shows to play and more shows to attend coming up next month, and then...

....well, then, I'll be on a tour of my own.

But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, shall we?

~

Hillary Hand - 'In My Head'

The day has finally come.

Hillary Hand's new EP In My Head is available on iTunes.

This has been one of the coolest projects I've ever been a part of, and I couldn't be more excited that it's finally available.

Now, I could write all about how original and unique Hillary is at an artist (because she is), how amazing the studio experience was (Nate Jones is a magnificent producer & guitarist), or how cool it is to be drumming on a record with the incomparable Matt Bissonette on bass (it's pretty cool).

I could write about all of that.

But I would rather that you all just listen to the songs and dig on Hillary's music soul & all of the stuff the rest of us came up with to support it.

I hope you dig it. I hope you enjoy listening to it half as much as we enjoyed making it.

Happy listening!

~