Tag Archives: Music

Artist Spotlight, Music, Opinion

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard: A Gen-Z Rock Band for the Social Media Age

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Rock is dead, or so they say: bands don’t top the charts or chart cultural trends any more; guitar is no longer the central focus of pop music. The reasons for this are myriad: the rise of hip-hop over the past 40 years has supplanted rock as the primary musical revolution, which in itself is slowly being supplanted by electronic music. The realities of the music industry and broader economy make it more difficult to support a group of musicians; it is much less expensive and easier to focus on one single person making music. Focus has shifted to producers and bedroom musicians, crafting every sound themselves in a home studio. These sonic morsels can be delivered directly to fans online, skipping the traditional need for label distribution. 

Rock is, of course, very much NOT dead. (And long may it live!) It is just not front and center, which is perfectly alright. In fact, the entire music community has become more fragmented. If you are not a giant common denominator pop star like Lady Gaga, you are not going to be sitting atop the mainstream. The internet has allowed people to find the music that they want to listen to without the radio or mainstream media, which has contributed to the lack of monoculture within music. Everyone is part of their own scene, not connected to a geographical place but distributed across the world via the World Wide Web wherever sympathetic ears reside. 

In this current moment, there may be no better home of pure unadulterated rock and roll than the Land Down Under. Throughout the history of rock, Australia has birthed a plethora of quality artists, but has especially been carrying the torch over the past 15 years. The biggest commercial success is psychedelic Perth outfit Tame Impala. Over the years, frontman Kevin Parker has moved to working with many big names across the music landscape, helping to install his sound firmly into the mainstream cultural zeitgeist. 

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Artist Spotlight, Features, Music

Living Dead: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Grateful Dead

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Fire On the Mountain

In July of 2007 my high school cross country team traveled to just outside of Boone, North Carolina for a week long training camp. It was nothing official; in fact, we could not technically refer to it as training, or even a team event, as FHSAA rules prevented practice before a certain date. It was officially just a group of friends who all happened to be on the same cross country team, traveling with a few parents and another man who just happened to be their coach.

We piled into a transport van, schlepped the 10 hours up from Florida, and eventually pulled into a rental cabin nestled in the woods by a stream. We had morning and afternoon practices everyday, which mainly consisted of interval training, pacing exercises, and hill work. In between practices, we spent our time exploring the forest, swinging on a rope swing into a nearby river, and generally goofing around as teenagers on an unofficial trip do. We put in a lot of miles that week, but no workout was as tough as our mountain climb. One morning, we drove a few miles from our cabin to the base of Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi River. Our coach’s directive: run to the top. 

It was a slog. The uphills were brutal, and the occasional descents were treacherous. Yet the mountain’s forested beauty was breathtaking, and it was on that ascent that I first felt a real bond being formed between me and my other teammates, especially one who would go on to be a lifelong friend. 

About halfway up we came to the state park from which the rest of the trail continued. Yet we had already been running for hours, and we were exhausted. Our coach mercifully decided that we had already proven ourselves and offered to shuttle us back to the cabin. We gladly took up his offer. As a means of celebrating our efforts, Coach’s soundtrack on the way back was the Grateful Dead song “Fire On the Mountain.” It was extremely apropos: not only had we felt the fire in our legs and lungs as we ran up the mount, but the song also begins with the immortal lines “Long distance runner, what you standin’ there for? / Get up, get out, get out of the door.”  

The song is not really about distance running; it’s more of a call to action in regards to personal realization. To our high school ears the music was goofy, with a loping beat that did not lend itself to running. Yet for the rest of the week, whether during warm ups or during a run (in which Coach would drive next to us), we heard that song. It became the theme song for our entire season, and I still have my ‘07 Chamberlain High School XC shirt with FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN emblazoned across the back. I knew that the song would become a nostalgic memory for me through the trip and our collective experience as a team, but at the time I was unaware of the significance that the band who performed it would come to have in my life.

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Music, Opinion

Joyous Noise: Hark, How I Hate Christmas Music

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Contrary to my often cynical outward persona, I love the holidays. The way people come together, the decor, the palpable magic in the air. What I don’t love is the music. That isn’t to say that there isn’t great Christmas music out there, because there is. Some of the most beautiful music ever has been composed to commemorate the birth of Christ, and the modern observance of the holiday has provided us with tons of warm-hearted, nostalgic chestnuts.

Yet I cannot stand modern, commercial Christmas music. It’s the complete opposite of anything tasteful, tuneful, engaging, or even fun.

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Discography, Features, Music

…But I Like It: Ranking The Rolling Stones’ Post-1967 Discography

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“Oh but Rob,” you probably think. “You wrote so lucidly about The Rolling Stones’ first several albums, are you ever going to drop some insight on the rest of their career?” Don’t worry dear Reader – I’ve got you covered. Ohhh yes! Another Rolling Stones article! In honor of their newest record – the band’s 24th studio album – it only makes sense to look at their remaining studio output, and rank their albums from 1967 onward. That year marks the first time that they released an LP with the same unedited tracklist on both sides of the Atlantic, which makes it much easier to look at the album as a single body of work. 

The Rolling Stones have had a long and winding career, full of ups and downs in both personal life and public favor. The remarkable thing about the band is that no matter the time period, and no matter how they negotiate with contemporary trends in mainstream music, they always end up sounding like themselves, and always seem to have a broad appeal. Of course, over time they’ve put out a few duds, if just because of the law of averages. Even on their worst efforts, there are songs and grooves that add a welcome wrinkle to the broader picture. The Stones are a very tight and capable band, and when you dig into their back catalog it’s surprising to be reminded of how diverse and responsive their sound can be. Even the fact that they included a couple covers on every release is a benefit, not a weakness. They’re a band that spotlight their influences in a way that brings them to the attention of an otherwise ignorant audience. Some say the band was never the same after they expanded beyond the rough garage-blues of the Sixties, or after their fey psychedelic period, or after Brian Jones died. Yet there’s still a common thread that runs through the decades: at the end of the day, outside of influence and changing taste, the Stones remain a band that has a deep understanding and feel for the base foundations of rock, and always do it right. That’s why they remain popular – because if someone likes rock music, they probably like the Rolling Stones.

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