Top of the B-List
Not only do I love to listen to music, I love to read about it, too. Here are a few recently discovered sites with interesting and thought-provoking criticism. I also love that they are all incredibly wide-ranging in terms of genres and time periods:
Do you know any more? Hit “Comments”…
I added some excellent photos to my Spoon interview, courtesy of Thadd Day, who’s making a documentary about the band. More details as they are available.
Brooke and I saw Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra last night. I’m not a big jazz fan, but I’m glad Brooke impulsively ordered the tickets. I enjoyed the show a lot, but as always, found the jazz musician’s habit of sitting around looking bored waiting for his next solo annoying. The only performer who really seemed into things for the entire show, apart from Marsalis, was the drummer, Herlin Riley, who was excellent. When he finally soloed in the second to last piece, there was a collective whoop from the audience.
A few months ago, I mentioned my fondness for the droning/robotic music of the late 70s/early 80s. One of my favourite albums from that period is Gary Numan’s “Replicas.” The pre-“Cars” Numan always had a good mix of guitars to go along with the synths. “Replicas” really holds together well as a complete album, mainly due to the consistent imagery of a future filled with aliens and robots. It’s also an album with a lot of gay imagery, although I didn’t know that when I was 15. Any album which uses the word “boy” and “boys” that much in the lyrics should have tipped me off. Numan uses the alien/robot imagery as a good metaphor for difference in general, and his homosexuality in particular, feeling like an outsider, and responding by turning off emotions. It’s a powerful statement to an adolescent, who’s feeling awkward and powerless, to imagine himself as a machine. My friend Brent actually tells me he used to wonder quite seriously if he were a robot. I can’t wait to see A.I. with him.