This is gonna be a quick one…(but it’s been on my mind for a while).
Who says that the Year has to be divided into Quarters? — I vote for Thirds. That way,
we lump January thru April together, then May thru August becomes “the middle chunk.” In roughly that time period, these have been some of my favorite individual songs, stuck in my head in one way or another:
ARTIST SONG
Courtney Barnette “Avant Gardener”
Benjamin Booker “Violent Shiver”
Vance Joy “Riptide”
Beck “Blue Moon” & “Heart Is A Drum”
Milky Chance “Stolen Dance”
Young The Giant “Mind Over Matter”
The Kooks “Around Town”
Big Data “Dangerous”
Spoon “Do You”
Man Man “Head On (Hold Onto Your Heart)”
Alt-J “Left Hand Free”
Josier “Take Me To Church”
Robert Plant “Rainbow”
(A word here about the Australian influence on the above list…if I had to pick my two favorite new songs of the year, one male, one female, I would choose an Aussie singer/songwriter in each category: Courtney Barnette, who I hope to see this fall at Upstate Concert Hall, and Vance Joy, a dude whose real name is James Keefe. Both have quirky and distinctive voices, a surrealistic flair to their lyrics that reminds me of French poets of the early 1900’s. Word play is my thing, and these two are amazing. As for musicianship, if Courtney is actually playing lead guitar on her breakout, dry-witted song “Avant Gardener” then she is the best distortion-shredder since Annie Clark, and if not, I have to find out who is, and see that band. Vance Joy, on the other hand, melodically “swings the crap” outa his little ukelele in a YouTube video “On the Tram” with a version of Riptide that just totally hooked me, and a train car full of commuters back in Melbourne, or Perth, or somewhere back home, as well. These two combine with early-year favorite “Boy & Bear” so far to qualify for a musical gold, silver, and bronze in the singles category this year.)
I can’t help it, my tastes are still changing. Other than the obvious vintage guy of the group (the miraculously still relevant if not even revelatory Mr. Plant), and of course BECK, and perhaps SPOON, these performers on the list are not much older than my kids, if at all. The talent just keeps on coming… and there is more and more of it all the time that gives me faith in human expression, still evolving. Indie music is by its very nature non-formulaic.
In analyzing this, or just writing it down, I realize I am tilting to WEQX land more than WEXT lately. Frankly, I can’t take it all the time, but the former seems fresher than the latter, though not always with the deep sense of history WEXT brings.
Both stations could be accused of playing certain songs and groups repetitively, but for anything on the above list, I was happy to hear them multiple times. Though about half the above tunes were played on both stations, I believe the others would be the sole domain of the Vermont station, from Mount Equinox. Conversely, only WEXT would be playing “Rainbow.”
Perhaps I am finally getting a bit burned out on the “Beatles” emphasis by the NPR affiliate out of Troy. It seems they feel they have to cater to baby boomers of that era to support their public programming, though I’m not sure that’s true. (Full disclosure, I’m still sending in my monthly stipend.)
I can handle the old blues masters WEXT plays– John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Robert Johnson– but I get tired of the same Johnny Cash tune over and over, and got especially sick of Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s monotonous single (“Pretty Little One”) before their appearance at Proctor’s recently. So I turn to 102.7 FM more often than I used to. I happen to dig the snark humor of Jeff Morad in the mornings, and his slightly twisted view of the news, even if I have to hear some Toyota commercials and McDonald jingles now and then. At least at ‘EQX they allow the folks at 42 Degrees to balance things out a bit in the world of commercials…
WEXT still has the best syndicated radio shows in the land, WORLD CAFE with David Dye out of Philadelphia 10a.m. to Noon six days a week, and ECHOES with John Dellaberto, after midnight each night, an amazing kaleidoscope of soothing, sensual, cerebral sounds.
Some of my close friends don’t listen to the radio at all anymore, and prefer the mono-thematic drudgery of certain Internet stations, or Pandora mixes. I prefer the human element and the spark of the new. I have no idea how I might’ve found the ten or twelve tunes I started with here, without the intro from radio. I will be listenin’ till I kick!
(And I’m glad we have a couple of great radio choices around here, regardless of my minor criticisms.)
Take care & carry on,
Wayne, for WaynesWord2, at saratoga.com