I'm living in this world because I'm scared to leave
Peace and harmony
Don't mean a thing to me
I'm done with love and make believe"
Time can be a strange thing, and how it affects a band and their music can be as altering as anything these days. Some, make that most, of my favorite bands are subject to the trivialities that time presents, whether it be as drastic as members leaving for other endeavors, or as simple as a change in style. Among these groups, bands I will discuss in detail, I have noticed distinct growths over short periods of time, not always for the better. But the point is that what makes the music scene in this age so amazing is its music's ability to be molded and reformed to fit or find new ears that are searching for new and original sound.
One of the biggest factors that I can think of may be the transition between indie labels and major labels. Many bands have fallen victim to the enticing stranglehold of the major label—with its widening revenues and delicious contracts, its hard for an indie band, whose members are scrounging each year to make their way from show to show, hoping merely to cast their eyes across a sea of dedicated fans, to avoid the perks of the major label lifestyle. Now, it's not like everything that comes with the major label is bad (please keep reading indie lovers). Mainstream music isn't all horrible and overplayed crap on 105.5 KWIZ (random name), and not all major label bands are to be thrown into the abyss of hoard-filled concert arenas where the best seat you can get anymore is miles away from the band. Some really great former-indie groups are now major label bands continuing their courses to amaze and wonder their fans, including my favorite band of all (its name never uttered enough, my beloved Decemberists). One can recall their somewhat lo-fi EPs and beginning demos that only cry out, "I'm an indie band, and I'm proud of it!" But recently, and that's in the last two years, they signed with Capitol Records, and released their latest full length album, The Crane Wife, which got a lot more publicity being on the major label. Before its release, and their signing to Capitol, I would never even imagine hearing them on the radio or anywhere except my headphones or their shows for that matter. But within a year, I heard them not once, but twice, at Starbucks of all places, I kid you not. And, while a small part of me cringes and goes, "no, not them!" the rest of me is glad to see them recognized, and wants to listen to them even more. As far as their musical changes, and they are plenty, I don't really mind. Colin Meloy, its frontrunner, is as good of a song writer than anyone else in the biz today, as far as I'm concerned, and the fact that he is still writing and putting out quality records is good enough for me. (Figures that I'd start with my favorite band, I'm too predictable.)
I'll stray from the major label topic, cause, frankly, I don't know what bands are major and which are indie these days. Another band I've been listening to in super abundance lately is Nada Surf. These guys have been through a lot as a band, since '95 when their first EP came out, and shortly after in '96 High/Low, which was a big hit due to the single "Popular". But from there, they didn't get too much recognition. Their '98 album tanked compared to the first record, and then they went out of the scene for five years without a record. They resurfaced in 2003 with Let Go, and a new sound with it, becoming the band I know and love today, soft and melodic tunes that no matter how rocking they may get, they are still calm and laid back enough that I can relax and fall asleep even (not out of boredom of course). Their latest two records, The Weight Is A Gift (2005) and Lucky (2008), are my two favorite, and I say both of them because I cannot find one single track from either one that I don't like, and can't tap my foot to and hum aloud. Over the twelve years, if they've gained anything it's consistency throughout the whole record. For those who haven't heard them, I suggest these two records, songwise, I really like "Always Love" and "Blankest Year" (from Weight...), and "Beautiful Beat" and "See These Bones" (from Lucky).
Speaking of relaxing, one of the songwriters out there I look up to most is Sam Beam, stage-named Iron & Wine. His music is possibly some of the most impressive and exhilarating sounds today. He started in 2002 with The Creek Drank The Cradle, which sounds as if he put a lo-fi mic up to his guitar, and made the record all by himself. There isn't anything too fancy with the songs from it, and that's perhaps why I love it so much. It's simple, it lets you focus on the lyrical genius he presents. Some of my favorite songs overall of his come from this record, such as "Weary Memory" or "Upward over the Mountain". Soon after came Sea and the Rhythm, a similarly lo-fi EP, whose title track is extraordinarily beautiful in how it portrays the story. Over the five years since these lo-fi records, he has unmasked new tricks, slowly, a few at a time, to create the layered songs he put on his 2007 record, The Shepherd's Dog. He added percussion in bits to his records, slide and steel guitar tracks, banjo, piano, upright and electric bass, etcetera. There's basically nothing that this man cannot do with a guitar, or have others do for him to make his music all the more amazing. And all of this flows into the power-house of indie labels that is Sub-Pop, also storing many of my other favorite bands such as The Shins, The Postal Service, Hot Hot Heat (although inactive), and bands I know to be good as well (despite not listening to them), Loney, Dear, Wolf Parade, The Go! Team, Flight of the Conchords, and many others.
If any one conclusion can be made, it would be that time does wonders to music. Even though some of my favorite and most influential bands are from the late 60s through the 80s, for instance, Pink Floyd or Zeppelin (bands that had as hard of times as any I can think of), it only takes time for one, a songwriter or a struggling musician, to find his or her true voice and translate that into their music. Take Colin Meloy, lead singer of The Decemberists for example (and as you see, I do that a lot). He was once lead singer of a country and western band named Tarkio out of Montana, but struggled with his songwriting. After they broke up, he completely changed the type of music he wrote, and began to style music that didn't seem to appeal to people (as I've heard him describe the transformation in various radio interviews). But what he found playing in coffee shops around the pacific northwest was that there too was an audience willing to listen to these sad, tormented stories he would weave. In time, he even found likewise musicians to join him in his awkward crusade (for that I am most truly grateful). I guess what I'm trying to convey is that taking time to reinvent yourself, even when you have no clue as to who you are or what you want to become, in music but also in life, the only thing you need is time to gather your ideas. I hope that, in this time of struggle, financially, ethically, perhaps even musically, that these words give you comfort, and most importantly, faith that there is in fact land beyond that ever-widening horizon.
P.S. Oh and if you can guess the band that I quoted to start this, you get 10 points.
Hint: While they all came together to form their band in NY, some members first played music together in Southern Cali before the lead singer attended NYU.
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