Aaaaaand We're Back!

Hey, Solid State! What the fuck is up? . . . hello? Anybody there? He-lloooo . . .

Oh man, I've done it again. I swear, it's really not my goal to singlehandedly kill the 7D music blog. But between Halloween, the Election, Bridget leaving, a lingering beast of a cold that keeps receding just enough to trick me into thinking I'm healthy and then shoots me down like Sarah Palin heli-hunting — I'm really gonna miss her, by the way — I . . . well, you know. We've been here before. I'm sorry. I'll change, baby, I swear. I mean it this time, really.

Anyway, during my most recent blogging hiatus, I spent a lot of time perusing the Internet, much more than usual,in fact. Not much else to do, frankly, when you're laid up in bed and it feels like a 40-pound hampster is clawing its way through your sinuses. In particular, I was looking for some new music resources. It's no secret that I'm not exactly a fan of Pitchfork — though I'll admit the sheer volume of info is impressive and occasionally helpful. And I'm growing weary of many of my old standbys. In short, I need a new drug.

My search was largely fruitless: a lot of the same info and opinions, recycled and regurgitated to death. However, I did stumble across one site in particular I really enjoyed and thought you folks might dig too. I was reading the New York Times "Paper Cuts" blog — which is actually about books. I like books — and found a peice written by British author and part-time musicologist Nick Hornby — see earlier comment: I like books, especially Hornby's.

The post is is Hornby's "2008 Playlist" and is, quite honestly, monumentally lame. Far be it from me to pass judgement on anyone else's personal taste; we all have our soft spots, to each their own, whatever floats your boat and so on. But the fact that his list-topper is Queen's "We Will Rock You" fairly reeks of early-onset fuddyduddyism. I'll concede aging hipster bonus points for Vetiver and Dr. Dog though. But the point here is not to tear down Hornby, who is among my top five most revered pop-culture scribes of the last 20 years . . . I'll stop now.

The point is that in his list, he references an MP3 blog called I Am Fuel, You Are Friends and cites it as a consistent source for cool new music. Damned if he's not right. The blog is maintained by a woman in Colorado Springs, CO who has really terrific taste — or at least taste that aligns fairly closely with my own, which is obviously amazing . . . ahem. Literally within 15 minutes of picking through her more recent posts, I identified four new albums I didn't know I wanted, but simply had to have. I ended up buying three of them, the best of the bunch being Chandeliers, the latest from Lucksmith-y Australian indie-pop outfit The Boat People. If like me, you're looking for a nifty new source for new tunes, I'd recommend checking it out.

Comments

[Justin Boland]

Hey man, if you ever want to subcontract out for some quality blog posts, you know where to reach me. I do a lot of ghostwriting these days and I love Vermont.

Biggest question from a hick exile: What's been up with the Radiator community radio station? How's that experiment going?