Look Smart!

Posted by Keath in New Music | 0 comments

I was listening to an interview this morning with Gary Cross, author of Men To Boys: The Making of Modern Immaturity, when I was struck by the question: what is mature musical taste? With the theoretical “standard path” you start with children’s music, move on to teen pop, rebel with punk pop, maybe go through your angsty grunge/emo phase, then gain an appreciation for classics like The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and The Who. Some, though, consider all rock to be juvenile and prefer jazz and/or classical. Some, with considerable justification, point to bands like XTC and say “well, that’s pop, but it’s better written and more sonically interesting than much of mainstream modern jazz, which has mostly devolved into continuously revisiting the same twenty standards.” I vote we just take it on faith we’re progressing and don’t worry about establishing a scale to rank ourselves against. I suppose all the above is basically a long-winded way of saying “Why are we discussing this when we could be listening to new music?”

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I’ll admit it: it took a couple run throughs before this Xiu Xiu track convinced me of itself. Jamie Stewart’s vocals have always been an acquired taste but the more I listened the more it became the song’s charm. Well, outside of that piano riff, which is one of the coolest things I’ve heard all week.

MP3: Xiu Xiu – Gray Death
[Off Dear God, I Hate Myself, available for preorder]

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This Scanners track has a dark force to it, along with opening vocal melodies that remind me of Foo Fighters “All My Life.” It’s obviously a well written, well executed song, proving, at the very least, Scanners is a band that knows how to do this music stuff right. The Foo Fighters thing – that’s just me, right?

MP3: Scanners – Salvation
[Off Submarine, out February 16.]

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I’ve always been fond of the French slogan (oft attributed to Jean-Luc Goddard), “Je suis Marxist, tendance Groucho,” which roughly translates to “I am a Marxist of the Groucho tendency.” I actually made myself a bumper sticker of it once.

I have no idea if Groucho Marxists share the comedic anarchy of their namesake, the contrarianism that seems inherent in French nature, or if they just think it’s a cool name. With tracks as much punk pop fun as “Was That So Hard,” I’m not sure it much matters anyway.

MP3: Groucho Marxists – Was That So Hard
[Off Don Giovanni Records Sampler, available for free download]