Music Rant...Because Politics Isn't Enough

I don't really have any political rants today because, well, fuck it, I'm basically just exhausted with it. It looks like Obama's doing well. Maybe one of these days I'll go into my issues with him and with Hillary and why I'm probably going to vote for Hillary anyway (given the opportunity), but not today. Today is for relaxation and getting excited about the Ben Folds concert tonight, so I figure I'll spend some time ranting and raving about the bands I've been listening to recently.

So I don't think I search out really obscure bands; anytime someone hasn't heard of my music it's because it's old or French. I'm not really into a music 'scene,' or whatever the kids are calling it these days, but I do enjoy new stuff. I just count on a select few people to give it to me. One of those people is my maternal uncle, who has excellent taste, and he recently sent me a link to The Detroit Cobras' MySpace page. I'm glad I made an exception of my MySpace ban rule for them, because they're pretty much kickass. The Cobras are a relatively unknown indie garage rock band (out of Detroit, weirdly enough) and their energy and enthusiasm is downright contagious. Their songs are catchy; basically, the sound is pure Detroit, blues and soul and punk mixed together, although the closest thing to them is probably early White Stripes -- think the title album or maybe De Stijl. It's awesome. The band members are women, too, and the lead singer sounds almost like Janis Joplin, which is an incredible compliment.

Another (for once, comparitively obscure) musical obsession is an Irish band out of Dublin called The Frames. I heard about them somewhere online -- fuck if I remember where -- and I knew the movie Once starred their lead singer, Glen Hansard. So I figured I'd check out the movie, see if he was good, and go from there. As it happens, Once is a brilliant movie -- sweet and human and real in a way that is very rare anymore -- and has one of the single best soundtracks I've ever heard. So I downloaded some Frames and I was hooked. They're really pretty hard to describe; they don't exactly have a rough sound, but it has an unfinished quality that is oddly endearing. They opened for Bob Dylan in Australia, if that's any indication of style and quality. The weird thing is that they've been around sinced 1990, which makes me feel incredibly cheated -- I could've been listening to them for years already.

Also, due to the concert (tonight! I'm psyched), I've been listening to a lot of Ben Folds and Ben Folds Five. For snarky angry white-boy piano rock, he really can't be beat. He does sad songs and love songs well, too, so he's basically the total package. I've heard that he's even better live, which makes me feel all happy and squirmy inside.

And because all the other stuff is...too staid?...I've been listening to some techno-y electronica dance stuff, mostly just songs here and there that I've heard in movie soundtracks or elsewhere. Among these are "Thé à la Menthe," by Nikkfurie (if you saw Ocean's Twelve, it's the song that played during the laser dance scene, a.k.a. the best scene in the whole movie); "Strange Ways," by Moby (it was played during the credits of all three Bourne movies); "Harder, Faster, Stronger, Better," by Daft Punk (I have no excuse for this one, it just happened); and "Danse Macabre," by Saint-Saens (played during the opening and closing credits of Jonathan Creek, this is actually a very memorable classical piece with an spiralling violin section that blows my mind every time I hear it). I've also been listening to some jazz, blues, and pop stuff, if only because I listen to music nearly constantly and it just happens.

So go check all those things out.