Every so often, someone will come up to me and say, "Man, rock and roll is dead!" and then I hear a song that tells me, no, rock and roll is not dead, it may not be the same three chords and mayhem, but if a tune can get you to pump your fist or bob your head, then I say to you truly, in the immortal words of Heavy Pettin', "rock ain't dead."
To prove my point, I give you the following examples. First, the Beauvilles. Faced with a firing squad, do these young men cower? No, they do not. They burst forth with song and bring the rock.
Then you have Les Savy Fav. I won't say this video is the best video. Looks more like an afternoon with friends, a keg of beer, and a video camera, if you were to ask me, but then, don't ask me:
I wish I could find a video with a good studio version of Spoon's "The Beast and Dragon Adored". The tune is absolutely rock and roll and about rock and roll. Unfortunately, this amateur film with the music as the background will have to do:
Then you have My Morning Jacket. I've heard two new tunes off their new album and like them both a lot. Here's the official vid for "I'm Amazed".
Leave your suggestions in the comments section, and enjoy with a Goose Island Pere Jacques.
To prove my point, I give you the following examples. First, the Beauvilles. Faced with a firing squad, do these young men cower? No, they do not. They burst forth with song and bring the rock.
Then you have Les Savy Fav. I won't say this video is the best video. Looks more like an afternoon with friends, a keg of beer, and a video camera, if you were to ask me, but then, don't ask me:
I wish I could find a video with a good studio version of Spoon's "The Beast and Dragon Adored". The tune is absolutely rock and roll and about rock and roll. Unfortunately, this amateur film with the music as the background will have to do:
Then you have My Morning Jacket. I've heard two new tunes off their new album and like them both a lot. Here's the official vid for "I'm Amazed".
Leave your suggestions in the comments section, and enjoy with a Goose Island Pere Jacques.
9 comments:
I direct your attention to The Waking Eyes.
Their 2004 record, Video Sound is so unabashedly, rockingly awesome that it's...well, that. It will, as Wooderson might say, blow your doors off. Their brand new record, Holding On To Whatever It Is, is equally awesome, if a little more diverse in its sound. It's also not available in the US yet, which really chaps my ass. Although, if one were really industrious, one might have made use of certain audio recording programs to get the tunes off of the stream from their website. But seriously, guys: put the damn album on the iTunes US Store! I honestly want to spend my money on you!
I haven't heard their debut, Combing The Clouds, but I intend to buy it tomorrow alongside the new record from People In Planes, which you should also check out. It's called Beyond the Horizon, and you should go rock out to "Mayday M'aidez" right now. Especially since the intro sounds like it's right out of Big Trouble In Little China.
I'm too lazy to link all these other bands, but here's a few more that I believe are preserving the Rock. Google them or something:
Coheed and Cambria
Blacktop Mourning
The Enemy
The Hard Lessons
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
And two which are defunct, but awesome:
Big Wreck
The Juliana Theory
Sadly, this is my first contribution here. I wish I had the time and ambition to post more often; I'm much more suited to this discourse than my occasional Pajiban quips. (Although I did finally crack the Top 10 of Eloquence last week!)
Thanks for the suggestions, Sean. Awesome!
Well, at least you threw "The Beast and Dragon Adored" in there, that is an incredibly solid track.
This post really highlights my difficulty finding rock artists I enjoy these days: there's those with great music, but offputting vocals (Les Savy Fav, who I have given near ten chances now) or those who are missing the soul (here I speak of the Beauvilles) or those who I'm just not into (My Morning Jacket, hometown heroes of my hometown).
I'm hard-pressed to find a rock band these days who I can get into. Brand New is nice in that every new album from them is a pretty big step forward, something appreciable as against the norm. I am counting down to hipster backlash on this point. I can take it. One of my favorites is "Play Crack the Sky", which is a slower one and a bit overdramatic, but still an excellent piece of songwriting.
I love Ratatat, but I'm not sure you could necessarily consider them rock. But when they put the licks out, they are fucking out. See "Seventeen Years" for evidence.
The Thermals can certainly bring the rock, but after a while they get repetitive. Damn, do I ever love "Pillar of Salt", though.
Honestly, though, the rockers I love the most these days (save maybe the aforementioned Spoon) are Kings of Leon. If someone asked me if rock is dead, I'd first look at them like they just vomited a live cat, then play "McFearless". Question answered.
Sean, nice call. I'm two songs into Holding On To Whatever It Is and it's pretty okay!
Wow. Here's an example of how the comments to a post are actually better than the post itself. Thanks for the good stuff everyone. I'm learning a lot of kickass stuff about new music today.
Is this a serious list of bands that make you think that rock isn't dead? I seem to be convinced the other way by it...
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