Well, those Neil Young lyrics certainly don't apply to my daughters, Irene and Chloe. These two Berkeley students are totally cool. They got to go to school. They will get to fall in love, and they've always been cool.
One of my modest summer goals was to "Keep on rockin' in the free world." What that means is to find new music. I mean how many times am I supposed to listen to Cake's Short Skirt/Long Jacket?
I've successfully found new music this summer, and, surprisingly perhaps, I stole some of it from my daughters.
Before we go any further, please understand the point of this blog entry is to recommend new music I like, and that will happen. My aesthetic is tricky. I'm a Gen Xer who went to the first two Lollapaloozas in '91 and '92, and with the second show, I was like "This is way too commercial. I'm done."
Back in the day, I liked the Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, My Bloody Valentine, Superchunk, Poster Children, Pavement, Sonic Youth, Boss Hog, John Spencer Blues Explosion, Pussy Galore, Guided By Voices, Yo La Tengo and music adjacent to those alternative and indie wizards.
After my '90s indie surge, a few bands, including the Brian Jonestown Massacre and Eels, came on my radar now and again. Eventually, the music world turned to streaming and algorithms, and the computer doesn't really work for me. It just can't understand why I am not into Arcade Fire or St. Vincent. So, yeah, I'm a total indie snob, and the Strokes are way too commercial, produced and fake for me. Hard pass on them.
Maybe I'm thinking about new music more now because Irene and Chloe attended Lost in Dreams in Downtown L.A. for a two-day electronic dance music festival for a second consecutive summer. They're pretty much the same age I was when I was at Perry Farrell's Lollapalooza, and, by the way, the crowd at Lost in Dreams is cooler because there are less frat boys and drunks. However, the people on stage at Lollapalooza actually had musical instruments as opposed to gadgets.
With Lost in Dreams, the conclusion Chloe arrived at, which I totally agree, is that Porter Robinson is the G.O.A.T. He headlined Saturday, and I've listened to a bunch of artists from the festival. Not only was he reported as the best artist live, his recorded music is by far the best of the Lost in Dreams performers — according to me.
Irene already had turned me onto Porter Robinson, and I liked a few of his songs. Now, I have total respect for the G.O.A.T. of EDM, which actually isn't at all my favorite genre of music. However, as a "digital artist," he actually sings and has a unique sound that works for me.
When you're looking for new music as a Gen X indie snob, it's not easy. In theory, the best way to find new music is word of mouth. However, that's tricky because how many friends truly have similar sensibilities? Unlike the '80s and '90s and early 2000's, we have access to everything nowadays. So how in the world do we narrow that and find stuff we actually like?
After being mesmerized by the book Mood Machine about Spotify and realizing that the music algorithm truly was not finding music I liked, I returned to KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic and Eclectic 24 on its app, and I did indeed discover new music to me. Then, I went through two years of Shazams and found a little more that worked.
Newsflash: As I'm writing this, my buddy Doug accidentally turned me onto the Bandcamp website and app. Whoa, a plethora of great stuff there. How did I not know about this until now? If you're reading this and don't know Bandcamp, I say check it out.
At the end of my lengthy new-music search, I can offer only five, or six, artists and music I've discovered this summer. However, I will also list 10 artists I've gotten to enjoy over the past few years and 10 killer songs from this summer. Some of this stuff is, like, a decade old or older but new to me, and some is totally fresh. If you're an indie snob too and like this stuff, great. If not, OK, that is totally fine.
The best artists new to me I've discovered are Westside Cowboy from Manchester, Destroyer from Vancouver, The National from Cincinnati/Brooklyn who is huge and has been around for 27 years yet I never gave the time of day, Aska Matsumiya who did the score for the film Skate Kitchen and HBO series Betty and the aforementioned Porter Robinson from Chapel Hill and just turned 34.
As a bonus rec, I must mention Three Loco, who I stumbled across and released one gloriously hilarious EP in 2012. I implore anyone to listen to either We Are Farmers, Neato or Not Coming Home Tonight and not crack up on some level.
