Four thoughts.
1) I always wondered this. Why are a lot of East Coast American kids brought up to idol worship Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen? Is it the hometown heroes thing? I mean, they’re great – don’t get me wrong – but they’re good in a way that many other bands and singers are great. Growing up in Canada, we had our idol worship of Canadian musical stars (no, not Avril Lavigne and GOD no, not Celine Dion) like Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Bryan Adams, Neil Young and the Tragically Hip. There are others, of course, but they’re more topical idols. People like the McGarrigle Sisters (big in Maritime folk… but you might know of their progeny, Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright), Ashley MacIsaac (crazy Scots fiddler from Cape Breton, but you might know his stateside relative, White Stripes’ Jack White), Rush (some of you latecomers referred directly from Rock Band, ahem), Guy Lombardo (betcha didn’t know he was America’s top big band leader in the 1930s and Louis Armstrong’s favorite band), Jon Kimura Parker (classical pianist, I had his uncle as a piano teacher for a few years, so I got dragged around to a few of his shows), Glenn Gould (another famous pianist, did THE definitive version of Bach’s Goldberg Variations) and Oscar Peterson. Or the just famous: Shania Twain, the Crash Test Dummies, Diana Krall, Alanis Morissette, Sarah McLachlan, k.d. lang. Not downgrading their contributions of course. OK, so massively sidetracked. Anyway, my Canadian idol list has only one idol who is basically unknown to a lot of the United States, the Tragically Hip… but every good Canadian knows their Hip. I have yet to hear Ahead by a Century on an American station, and it’s not for lack of trying (the only station I can imagine playing it would be the local NPR station, though I haven’t been present for an airing just yet). Anyways, I was trying to figure out what defines an idol. Why do I instinctively know that the Hip is an idol and that Billy Joel isn’t, but on the other side of the Great Divide, the opposite is truth? But then I realized it was a stupid question: we learn from example. Everyone you grew up with says they’re gods, so they must be.
Goodbye, Kate (RIP January 18, 2010).
2) Were your musical tastes as a kid or junior high student cringeworthy? Do you listen to your old mixtapes and them burn them in gasoline fires? I had a friend tell me she was into “slit your wrists” music when she was a kid, a fact that made her “sound awful.” The musicians involved includes such luminaries as Dashboard Confessional, Coldplay, Guster, Jimmy Eat World, Matt Nathanson and Lifehouse. I had issues with that list, first being that I don’t know if those count as slit your wrists music… she did agree it was “weepy emo” but the real suicides (not talking in any serious statistical way here) were either satanist metalheads, or NFG, Saves the Day, the Misfits, My Bloody Valentine (which actually is decent shoegaze but is so asking for a rusty razor in a bathtub) and MAYBE Weezer fans. For me, the epitome of suicidal emo is My Chemical Romance, though temporally they are too late to be of use to my generation of 14 year old bleeders. Second, the only embarrassing inclusions on that list are Coldplay and Lifehouse. They’re not even really emo… they’re like this weird category unto themselves. Yes, they’re pop and rock but they don’t pop’n'lock like the rest of the goombas. Back to embarrassing… so I played some Aerosmith for a girl during elementary school and got laughed at. It was BIG. I though Aerosmith was cool, and here this girl was acting as if dudes with long permed hair, tight leather pants and more eye makeup than an aging hooker were LAME. I was like whatevs, you’ve got no taste. And then I stopped listening to Aerosmith for several years. OK, so that doesn’t count as cringeworthy but it was cringeworthy WHEN I was a kid. In junior high, I remember liking a lot of that 90s R&B stuff, ska/punk (Dropkick Murphys, Save Ferris, Reel Big Fish), the Cardigans, No Doubt, Oasis… I did like the Pixies, which is still cool… oh, I remember one lemon: Savage Garden. I actually liked Truly Madly Deeply for a little while, a dirty secret which became less dirty when I couldn’t (and still can’t) stand the song any more. If I dug down into my old mixtapes (which are mostly lost), I could probably find a lot more dirt but I know it’s there. The only consolation? I liked some of the songs from all those emo or pseudo-emo bands above but I was in no way, shape or form an emo kid. Much better to have been a nerd than one of those stringers. Haha!
Music to die to.
3) Jason Nevins is annoying. Stop making a career out of remixing top 40s. Worse, his recent work is vapid and boring, and they still keep putting them on clubplay.
4) Smokin’ tracks.
Wale needed the hipster-ized version. Lady Gaga don’t sound herself, I always picture Santogold doing it.
Fear of Tigers burning up my speakers on a daily basis. Hourly some days.
What has Big Boi been up to lately?
Holla, homeboys from the T Dot. Canadian rappers K-OS and Saukrates hit it Western style on I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman. Samples Phantom Planet’s California (best use of it… so over the OC), Nelly Furtado guests (can’t really make you love me… omg is that another Canadian? this post is just full of dem), video rocks and then BAM Astronaut right at the end.
Tags: Aerosmith, Alanis Morissette, Ashley MacIsaac, Avril Lavigne, Big Boi, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Bryan Adams, Coldplay, Crash Test Dummies, Diana Krall, Dropkick Murphys, Fear of Tigers, Glenn Gould, Gucci Mane, Guster, Guy Lombardo, Jack White, Jimmy Eat World, joni Mitcheel, K-OS, k.d. lang, Kate McGarrigle, Lady Gaga, Leonard Cohen, Lifehouse, Louis Armstrong, Matt Nathanson, Misfits, My Bloody Valentine, My Chemical Romance, Neil Young, Nelly Furtado, New Found Glory, No Doubt, Oasis, Oscar Peterson, Phantom Planet, Pixies, Reel Big Fish, Rufus Wainwright, Rush, Santogold, Sarah McLachlan, Saukrates, Savage Garden, Save Ferris, Saves the Day, Shania Twain, ska, Tragically Hip, Wale, Weezer