Wild horses couldn't drag me away...

I've been listening to a lot of 60's work lately and quite frankly, there's absolutely nothing like it. The 60's were a brave, radical period across the globe. Free thinkers grew tired of the restrictive norm, threw their inhibitions out the window and lived the way they saw fit and this latitudinarian aura gave birth to a revolution in artistic expression; something we take horribly for granted in this age of infinite accessibility. Music being the most expressive art form we have (at least today) it evolved and took on a life of its own. There was nothing that could stop it and god damn it must have been empowering. Songs like Mr. Tambourine Man served as an anthem for the searchers and wanderers, a sort of reassurance that they were not alone. FM stereos cranked to high served as their SOS beacon as they prowled the roads looking for their herd. The southern fried country boys were soon fraternizing with the rock and rollers of the north in light of crossbred artists like The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers, creating a brotherhood of understanding few of us can really understand very well today.

This isn't to say that all is lost for us looking back. Not by a long shot. It's just become apparent to me that the excitement has gone. The thrill of finding an artist has lost its luster with the explosion of MySpace and file sharing programs and with that, the artists have lost the ambition to dig deeper themselves and work to really pour themselves into their music. We have some groups digging beneath that current of course. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is a good example. Their album ‘Howl’ went completely against the grain of their previous efforts and threw their fan base off entirely. It wasn’t a revolutionary work, more of a step back, way back, circa 1930’s back porch gospel and blues. And once the people found it they ate it up. With this, I think we’ve noticed a big re-ignition in our lust for rootsy Americana with bands like Fleet Foxes and O’death and while their hearts are in the right place, they’re still falling victim to trendy over production. It seems a cycle to me in the past two decades or so, digging through the past and reworking what we already know and love. I’m just anxiously awaiting another breakthrough. A massive one.