New Music???!!!

At some point in life, you're supposed to quit following the newest music because all of that kids stuff is too loud and annoying.  That's what I thought anyway.  I am 31 now, but I have found that I listen to less of the classic rock station on the radio than I used too, and I still get excited when a new album comes out.  I enjoy discovering new groups and music even more.  I have not completely embraced Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, or Katy Perry, but I at least know who they are, and I can recognize their songs.  Some of the songs are even good.  So on one hand I will throw Johnny Cash or Edith Piaf onto a playlist with some Ralph McTell for good measure, but on the other, give me Taio Cruz or Grizzly Bear and everything in between.  I like music if it's good.  When I get right down to it though, my music roots really started in the early Nineties when the grunge scene was in its infancy.  To this day, my favorite music comes from that era or was spawned out of it.

A group born out of those years is Radiohead.  It is funny to think back on that time because I remember when Radiohead's first album Pablo Honey came out asking a friend if anything else on the album apart from Creep was any good.  I never found out.  There was a little used music store up the street from my house in those days, and I would go there pretty often to see if any good used CDs could be found.  I spent hours quite possibly over the course of many visits looking at Radiohead's second album The Bends wondering if I should buy it.  I didn't know any of the songs on it, and time and time again I talked myself out of it.  Later on during high school, I noticed a friend had Radiohead's third and newest album at the time, OK Computer.  I recall hearing that it won a Grammy.  I thought, I should borrow this to hear if it's any good.  I never did.  It was years and albums later that I discovered a boss at work who shared a lot of similar tastes in music with me.  The primary difference is that apart from Creep, I couldn't name another song by Radiohead, and they were among his favorite groups if not the favorite.  So I repented of my years of neglect and started listening to everything they had to offer.  I soon found that The Bends is one of the best albums out of those years period.  If I were making a list, it is near the top for best albums of all time.  I also discovered that at about the time The Smashing Pumpkins lost me with their electronic infused album Adore, Radiohead released similarly infused music on their albums Kid A and Amnesiac that blew me away.  In this renaissance of music appreciation I was experiencing, Radiohead released their album In Rainbows.  I remember when it came out that I couldn't believe it was a pay-what-you-want download.  I opted to pay $0, and I have since thought the album deserved much more than that from me.  So it is with anxious ears that I was informed by an email from some subscriber list I had joined at the time I downloaded In Rainbows that The King of Limbs was to be released in a matter of days.

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It has since come out, and I don't know what to make of it.  It didn't instantly grab me like In Rainbows, but it is Radiohead, and I am sure it will grow on me.  Radiohead isn't exactly new, and it isn't hardly what the kids are listening to, but a new album is to be celebrated and enjoyed because in my mind they will go down as a significant band in the annals of music.  Without Rock Band which has Creep on the track list, I would be surprised if most kids had ever even heard of Radiohead.  I have liked Rock Band for that though.  Just as it highlights old groups for younger listeners, it has opened my eyes to newer groups I would have otherwise never heard of since I am not exactly in the 'what's in pipeline' anymore.  One such group is Rise Against.

Rock Band 2 features a nice hardcore punk track by Rise Against called Give it All.  I generally play drums and came to enjoy its quick paced, difficult drum line along with the overall loudness of the song.  Sometime after becoming quite fond of this track I realized a repeatedly played song on one of my Pandora stations belonged to Rise Against.  Enter Prayer of the Refugee, and I am beginning to think Rise Against is a new band to watch for.  So it is with this in mind that I went to their official website to listen to the new album, Endgame.  I haven't checked Wikipedia or anything to verify if this happened or not, but it seemed to me as if their lead singer had left the band.  No more were the melodic screams I had come to enjoy.  The edgy riffs seemed strangely absent, and yet re-listening to the song samples, it is the same lead singer.  I can't understand what happened.  Bands evolve,  and this should be good, but too often they evolve and lose their essence in the process.  The great ones keep that essence and build upon it.  Usually after only a couple of albums it becomes evident which ones manage and which don't.  Sadly, Rise Against hasn't, but fortunately I can always go back to the ever excellent Radiohead.