Liberal Street Fighter

So again I wonder how I got by without this marvelous little device, (though the nagging little music nerd in my head whines we should have gotten more gigs!). Anyway, this narcissistic exercise of posting random 10’s, or cat pictures, dog pictures or whatever is one of the silliest things about blogging, but also one of the funnest. It’s pretty neat to get a little glimpse into what people love, what motivates them.

Some time ago, when I was still buying for a store, my manager crushed my self-image a little. I’ve always thought of my tastes as being fairly eclectic, the “more music snobbish than thou” syndrome, yet prided myself on being able to enjoy “Free Ride” when it came on the radio. Snobbish, yet not. Call it the midwestern boy in me. Anyway, we were sittin’ around on a day when the orders were pretty much done, and he looked at me and said that my tastes were “conventional”.

Wow.
I was pretty crushed, but I guess in a way he was kinda right. I’ve never been one to be way out front on music trends. Maybe more so than people who bought top 40, but I frankly hated punk when it first came out, still hate most dance music and emo sounded like a pathetic regurgitation of yet another wave of DIY neo-primitivism. Learn how to play your fucking instrument, dammit!

Anyway, here’s today’s random ten, with some more pontificating about music and taste after the jump.

  1. “9th & Hennepin” – Tom Waits
  2. “Little Johnny Jewel” – Siouxsie & the Banshees
  3. “3rd of June” – Yello
  4. “The Things You Leave Behind” – Amy Rigby
  5. “(Get a) Grip (on Yourself)” – Stranglers
  6. “Got My Mojo Working” – Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown
  7. “Promise” – Violent Femmes
  8. “Sugarlight” – X
  9. “Third Eye” – Tool
  10. “Tonight’s The Night” – Neil Young

The whole trend chasing thing always left me a little cold. I tend to resist trends, and the people who look down their noses at people who don’t “get it”, which is admittedly hypocritical, but what can I say …

I’ve always enjoyed a wide range of genres, of artists, though my friends have pointed out to me that I have a propensity to like people who talk as much as they sing, like Matt Johnson, Johnny Cash, Stan Ridgeway and Kris Kristofferson. I have a definite bias for music rooted in the blues, from blues to soul to country and into metal. I’m not a huge fan of pop, power pop, guitar pop, girl pop … quick little clever ditties have to work hard to earn my love. I like big grand gestures, people who spin big myths, or tell intricate stories, or who weave mysteries who’s clues aren’t always immediately apparent.

I miss drama in music. From Kate Bush to Queen to Tool and so many other musicians and bands I love, there used to be some majesty in music. It doesn’t have to be a big kind of majesty: I like the quiet magnificent disintegration of Townes Van Zant as much as I enjoy Freddie Mercury’s bombast. There are still artists around that have it, Neko Case being a current favorite, but most music seems paltry and empty and … boring. Jam bands make me want blow my brains out, and the umpteenth generation of now formulaic “punk” makes me want to scream, especially now that I’ve gone back and fallen in love with so much that I’d missed when it first came out decades ago.

I want artists to tell me a story. Help me get a glimpse of the world through fresh eyes. These days, that tends to come from roots artists for me, though I have to admit that I’m a sucker for Shakira’s stuff, both the spanish and english langage recordings. She actually seems to have something to say, though that might be her hips talking. Some study or other claimed that men’s judgement is affected by hot chicks, so who am I to argue?

So anyway, just some things that came to mind regarding taste and music as I looked at the latest incoherent list spit out by my “DJ – random tracks” choice on my Zen. What are you listening to?