Azealia Banks is dancing around on a building top with a cowboy hat but part of me can't wait to hear the streaming single from Woods and then there's that banjo-bursting howl-hoot Mumford & Sons album that all the magazines keep reminding me to memorize and there's a ton of local release shows coming up, but...really, I'd like to just go back and listen to some nostalgic lil' Autumn jams like Computer Perfection's "Able Archer" or even their newer, just-barely-Bradbury-ian "I Need A Serious Love"....
But then, oh, the spill of tweets keep chirping for me to fleck them dead-worm-segments of my attention in the knotty nest of need-to-knows...and another incensed email-screed spurts in from MoveOn.org wanting me to get out on the streets and stir up left-propping fervor...
...and before I know it...it's time to clock-in to the day job and whirl through another day of low-simmered worry and perfectionist-offset indigestion and more longings to just be back in my comfort zone at a keyboard with headphones and warm sonorous pianos and noisy freaked-up brass and adventurous melodies zapped through my brain, body, soul, feet, hands, eyes...whatever...
And meanwhile there are refugees in Syria, labor tensions for miners in South Africa, a drought wreaking notable havoc on the environment (and economy)...and here at home we have crumbling infrastructures, neglected education systems, postponed attempts to alleviate climate change and various other shrugged-off issues like an entire War...
...as we head into the Presidential Debates tonight...
How's one to focus? How engaged are we now versus back then...? We hate to admit it, but when nothing really seemed to: "Change"...I'm pretty sure we all got ostensibly...(is there any other word for it?)...jaded.
What is the best soundtrack for the next decades segment of disillusioned...Who best sings-for-our disbelief these days...
Is it still protest-icon Bob Dylan, singing of "Long and Wasted Years" on his new album, or is it Dan Deacon composing an electro-thrummed opera on his new four-part digi-symphony titled "USA..."
Or would you rather just dig into some reliably cathartic punk tantrums?
How could it be anyone ...just a one, true voice, one band, one song, one anthem... in this hyper-jumble of musical artists and ideas and beat-based sentiments. It isn't any wonder we can't keep up on every headline (even if Forbes recently found "...Coverage of Candidates Overwhelmingly Negative").
Whoever you find, whatever album, whatever track or style or sound, I hope it's helping you meditate in these frustrating days. Find a soothing song to drown out the noise of the pundits. I'm not sure what's going to come out tonight at the debates, how relevant or provocative any of their spiels will be, so maybe a certain song, somewhere out there, streaming, will help remind me to lighten up, get back in the groove and keep an open mind. Find what moves you, somewhere out there... Relax, decompress.
Or perhaps the best remedy is something lively...something Live!
Where was I going with this? How's one to focus? Should I watch the debates....? Or just put a record on...
I'll see you at the Record Store...
Sugarcoats / Mexican Knives / Growing Pains / Too Weird...
(Oct 6 - Found Sound inFerndale, live local music starting at 9pm sharp)
...that oughta' be a cathartic kicking-out-of gnarly jams, meet up, rant and rock...
And onto the next Debate....
~p.s. ~ and if I could contribute something more valuable than a rant, it would be recommending that local bands apply to this year's Mittenfest Music Festival (happening at the end of December); a fundraiser for 826 Michigan and an all-around "good-time holiday get-together." -The Deadline is tomorrow...
