Difficult Music

Most of today’s installment deals with that obsession of all nerdy music fans…

LISTS
Beautiful and Concise
Thanks to High Fidelity and other peeks under the mossy stone that conceals my subculture, list-making amongst music geeks has been exposed as the sad cliché that it is. But the practice still thrives, because the crux of the matter is that lists just say so much, so quickly, and so honestly. A dear friend of mine had a dream once where the phrase “information is beautiful and concise” popped out at her. We’ve spent a long time trying to decipher that statement, and now I think it was talking about lists.

Do You Like Dido?
I don’t think you can hide anything in a list. Every listed item is like a pair of gonch hanging from your clothesline. Show me your grocery list, and I’ll know your marital status, whether you have kids, if you need more fibre in your diet, and how much time you spend on the couch. Show me a list of 25 CDs in your collection, and I can tell if you’re a Dido fan or not. At least that’s the premise of this list from The Guardian. Are you in your thirties and clinging to the notion that you’re hip while still feeling rather threatened by today’s music? Check your CD collection against this list and see how you’re doing. (I’ll cop to owning The Joshua Tree, though I can’t find it in the house. I think my sister took it. Oh, and I've got that Oasis album, too.)

Best of 2001
I’m so chuffed—I’m getting my "Top 15 Albums of 2001" list printed in the new issue of Unrestrained! magazine. I know it’s not the most stunning literary achievement, but hey, the boys at U! seem to value my copyediting services, and they’re good sports about letting me in on their year-end roundup action. For the morbidly curious, here’s the list (artist, title, and record label):
1. Opeth – Blackwater Park (Music For Nations/Koch)
2. Katatonia – Last Fair Deal Gone Down (Peaceville)
3. Nick Cave – No More Shall We Part (Reprise)
4. Neurosis – A Sun That Never Sets (Relapse)
5. Bjork – Vespertine (Elektra)
6. Amorphis – Am Universum (Relapse)
7. Transatlantic – Bridge Across Forever (Metal Blade)
8. Devin Townsend – Terria (HevyDevy)
9. Porcupine Tree – Recordings (Snapper)
10. Mammoth Volume – A Single Book of Songs By… (The Music Cartel)
11. Anathema – A Fine Day to Exit (Music For Nations/Koch)
12. Miriodor – Mekano (Cuneiform)
13. Sigh – Imaginary Sonicscape (Century Media)
14. Solefald – Pills Against the Ageless Ills (Century Media)
15. Djam Karet – New Dark Age (Cuneiform)

But that’s just my list, and I’m a bit mental. For a better sense of what constituted good pop music in 2001, visit The Village Voice’s Pazz and Jop Poll. I think Nick Cave and Bjork are there, but as for the rest… Well, you’re as likely to see Sigh there (check out their official website, created by local lad Dennis Leong) as you are to see Michael Campbell at Blunt Bros. puffing on a big ’gar.

LOCAL MUSIC REVISITED
Roadbed…I Like
My local music installment of a couple weeks ago had a serious omission. I forgot to mention my friends Roadbed, and their official site by gforceCreative. Roadbed are a kind of jazz-pop-indie-rock trio who never fail to put on a top-notch show. Like all great bands, each member has a distinct personality. If you replaced any one of them, it would be a totally different band. On drums, you’ve got Two-Sticks—one suave MF with a feather-light touch that drives the ladies wild. On guitar, there’s Shockk—the embodiment of all things caffeinated and rocking, able to switch from Metheny to Slayer and back again in a click of a stomp-box. Finally, on bass and vocals, we have Super Robertson—man-mountain and mountain-man, poet, diarist, facial-hair experimenter and They Might Be Giants fan. They’re friends, we’ve collaborated in the past, and I’ve seen more of their gigs than I’ve had hot dinners (guess that makes me—gulp—a “Roadhead”). Go see ’em at a fine venue near you.