New Wave (or how we went back to the basics and established something different)

Now, stand back...for your own safety!!! We are about to delve into a style of music that always makes me smile. Its new wave baby! Kind of a musical relative (ancestor?) to power pop so of course I like it :) Recently the Cars have gotten back together...how cool is that? 93% cool 7% ice cold. Anyways I have to say that Touch and Go has been gathering fame in my mind... i love the shift into the galloping guitar... so fun. The guitar solo must have been an influence on my boy Rivers. Just what I Needed has been a staple in the family. Anyways, Fountains of Wayne, Weezer and many others have a lot to owe to these folks.

New wave also had much stranger stuff. It earns a bunch of comedy points. got to love those hats, funny thing is Weird Al's parody of the style was actually a great example of it.

A related movement in the 80's was goth. Now I grew up on The Cure...mainly because of Nia. As I mentioned previously, her and Matt always faught the war of influencing me with thier music. I do say that on the many battlefronts of said war, The Cure triumphed. Quiet Desperation is the English Way, and so these were true Englishmen. Like new wave, they brought things back to the basics at times, but with darker subject matter. Unfortunately, Goth has kinda a bad name these days, associated with emo, but these guys were before Hot Topic so they be exempt from lame. (side note, hot topic was and sometimes is sweet...though too Twilighty nowadays, hopefully they will find thier way again) Anyways, Robert Smith soundly defeated Mecha Streisand so he's good in my book. He's even making some pretty good music now. Any ha-ways, to the Cure, here's links to a bunch of sweet songs. (and here's a sweet covers from mr. Ben Folds)

Going back to me, {since we all know the purpose of blogs is thinly veiled self praise [I had to get some aquabats in... (kind of a nerdy new wave feel to em)]} Some of my memories of the Cure include hearing the Fruity Loops version of "A Forest" and (inspiring?) me to make some sweet techno from Fruity Loops back in 1998ish. The program was sweet, though mostly made of samples. One of these days i'll post all the songs i made (there's like 30! they are all very...educational I even sold a few... for lunch money :). Also, I love how Matt and Nia went to each others concerts...Nia rocked out to Iron Maiden and Matt enjoyed him some Cure. Also the back and forth to the Living in a Bubble lyric. Almost as infamous as the "And Hairy" vs "And Heavy" banter from Nightmare Before Christmas dialogue (speaking of Santa Clause).

There it is folks, The Cars and The Cure... next topic?

So where were we... again?

ah yes the 70s... these were dark times. full of studio glitter pop. Well i guess that can be said of any decade, heck even the sixties had it. Oh well, i'll dwell on the stuff i would have liked back then if i was there...as evidenced by what i like now from then.

Something happened in 1973 that pretty well changed the landscape of rock. Recorded so well, and imitated and redone many a time to this day. I'm talking of course of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Consistently on the top 100 best selling records even to this day. Its a standard that music lovers buy again and again for every format that comes out in order to test the new fangled technology. I have many a memory of this record, everything from a sweet laser show in a hawaii imax theater, to listening to it on my first Sony on the way to and from school in second grade lol. More on those mix tapes later...they are surprisingly still pretty awesome mixes that i still listen to from time to time. Anyways its as timeless as they come.

Lets see, the seventies introduced us to a most wonderful genre...no i'm not talking about disco, i be talking about something that is used as a modern description of awesome. Its totally punk rock. Its glory days started in this decade and once and a while is revived. New York Dolls, Sex Pistols, the Clash, The Ramones... good stuff that is still "relevant" today. (what a snobby music critic thing to say...) Its basically stripped down fast rock. Sometimes based on just 2 chords, its not the most complicated stuff, but its fast and fun. I was listening to the Hives the other day and was pleasantly surprised that they have kept this up since the wonderful garage/punk album Veni Veni Vicious. Punk is sometimes about partying, sometimes about politics, sometimes angry, sometimes happy. Here's to punk, still rockin all these years later.

Anyways, Clash time... So I need comments on this, Combat Rock vs. London Calling? Who shot the shot? I have to admit, I'm more than a little biased toward Combat Rock. Its what I grew up with, again going back to the tapes I had in Japan... I absolutely loved Inoculated City (what a strange kid I was). And of course, the family band played Should I Stay or Should I Go all my life. Recently I'm lovin this one. Now i'm finally starting to discover what the fuss is about with London Calling. Its strongest is its title track which stands up to the best of Combat Rock. Also Spanish Bombs makes me happy. Ben Folds recently did a cover of Lost in the Supermaerket, which also made me happy. Anyways... i still say Combat Rock despite them critics. OK OK Arcade Fire just won Album of The Year Grammy, couldn't ignore that. I think that album was influenced by both of these records...save that discussion for another time.

Oh man, almost forgot, another titan of the 70s... Led Zeppelin. These guys rocked hard, got terrible reviews in their time but are now widely considered well, awesome. They have a crunchy guitar sound courtesy of mr. Jimmy Page and a very bluesy based rock...which was genre defining. Nowadays, well, recent yesterdays i guess, The White Stripes continued this tradition. If you haven't yet, go watch It Might Get Loud, I got in on blu so come on over, come on over baby. (please don't click on that link...you know what it is anyways)

Next time: perhaps new wave and goth? sounds good to me till then, goodbye loves!