Deliver me (from bad music this summer)!

Cut the Chatter, Red 2, coming at you from Maryville, TN, the Smoky Mountain Mecca (not really, but sort of!).

Earlier this year I wrote a series of blogs on music and I haven't kept that up for a number of reasons. Even though I've heard some great bands, there usually isn't a comparable other worth crafting another episode of Battle of the Bands. There is some wonderful music this year, but either its been coming out at a trickle or I've been snooping around in the wrong places. As a result, I ended up spending a lot of time going through old classics while keeping an ear to the ground for some new releases that would stimulate my musical soul. I really enjoyed Andrew Bird when I got his album, but one person can't shoulder the load for the entire musical community.

Starters - Beirut
In any event, yesterday I drove from Auburn to Maryville, TN and that moment came. I downloaded the Beirut album (not the EPs) a while ago but I had never added them to my iTunes or burned a copy of the album for driving enjoyment (I don't have one of those bourgeois iPods...yet). While Beirut's Gulag Orkestar is a 2006 release that did not appear on Hawkins' roster for 2006, I think it would have been a top contender last year. I can't remember ever listening through an album a second time immediately after the first, but I spun Orkestar around again. It's something like indie meets world music from the Balkans, along with some Latin flair. The title track sounds like something you'd expect to hear in a Tarantino flick during the opening credits. I will definitely be listening to these guys for quite some time.

Heavy Hitters - Dinosaur Jr. and The Ponys
I grew up listening to oldies, country, and R&B, but I cut my musical teeth on rock classics like Queen, the Who, Rush, and Led Zeppelin, as well as shred oriented Dream Theater, Metallica, and Joe Satriani. Great solos, guitar hooks, and riffs aren't always prominent in the alternative world, and I mourn that. It doesn't frustrate me, because the alternative/indie world is really the only place where artists are independent, interested in saying something, and doing something on their own. But Dinosaur Jr. and the Ponys both seem to provide some solution to that problem. It is very seldom that I want to pick up my bass and learn a riff to an alternative groove, but "Double Vison" on the Ponys' Turn the Lights Out has me jonesing to get back to Pensacola to learn some riffs. Similarly, Dinosaur Jr.'s Beyond features great guitar licks, which might be some of the more significant solos in years. Earlier I had reviewed Deerhoof's Friend Opportunity, and while I enjoyed it more than Deerhunter, and not to be defamatory to that band, but it's presence as a rock band, even though they weren't completely going for that, is unconvincing. Not so with the Ponys and Dinosaur Jr.

If you have any interest in current rocking, check these guys out.