Young people today’s music is garbage etc. In the 70s I thought, “Wow, music can’t get any worse than this!” But then, it happened in the 80s, but I thought, “Wow, ok, NOW music has hit the high point of lousy”. And so forth. Until today, when everything sounds like a) a rip off of an old, better song, b) a Beatles b-side or c) that newfangled black thing where they don’t even match up the beat with the melody; it is always a little skip behind. What is that?
Also I can only listen to, say, Live Through This or The 1920s Radio Network so many times a day.
So for a while I started tuning into Q107 because it was the only thing with enough gritty traction for my brain. But last summer they had this all-Woodstock weekend and that did me in.
In my search for music that combined novelty and familiarity, I have been reduced to listening to surf guitar and rockabilly podcasts twenty years after the hipsters. Finally getting around to watching Walk The Line got me interested in Sun Records for the first time, too, I’m ashamed to say.
Two days after I found Garage Punk, they sort of folded, but there’s still some activity over there. Radio Oblivion is particularly good.
Old Time Rock and Roll is fun too. The guy has a cool “DJ” voice and an astounding record collection, and he themes podcasts around “Bubble Gum Music” or “Forgotten Black Artists.” The “American History” show featured clips from “The First Family,” which were much better than I expected.
But I’m still looking.
