The Mellow Years

I probably stopped listening to real hard rock around 1998, but recently, I have been listening to more and more mellow stuff. A big part of that comes from me still going backwards and listening to older blues music. Don't be too mistaken though, mellow for me may not be mellow for you. Eric Claptons Me and Mr. Johnson is mellow to me, but for most, it is still hard rock. Also, that doesn't mean I started listening to Jack Johson or Dave Matthews. I would rather go Vincent Van Gogh on my face than listen to that garbage.

2003:Elephant: The White Stripes. I go into all this mellow stuff and the first album on this post is probably the hardest album I have bought in years. Candy and I were in Marysville listening to the radio when Ball and Biscuit came on. We couldn't believe how awesome it was. I think what I love most about The White Stripes is that they are a stripped down blue band. Jack White's guitar is amazing and Meg White's drumming seems to always push you around. My friend Ernie always talks about a sense of urgency in music. It is hard to describe, but you know it when you hear it. There is definitely a sense of urgency here.

2004:Me and Mr. Johnson: Eric Clapton This album represents perfectly what I was listening to at the time, and to a certain extent now. Clapton has been ripping off Robert Johnson for years, this time he at least gave him credit for it. Robert Johnson is the king of the blues. I was listening to Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, Mississippi John Hurt and a lot of acoustic Hot Tuna.

2005: Guero: Beck I moved from Oroville to Sacramento during the summer of 2005. I did most of the move in nightly trips cramming a bunch of stuff in the back of my Hyundai Accent. I probably made twenty trips back and forth. I can still remember Summer Girl on the radio and the smell of sweet peaches in the air as I drove past Marysville on my way back home. One thing about Beck, he always does something different and sometimes is takes me years to get his albums, but ultimately, I always come around.

2006:Back to Black: Amy Winehouse I stopped listening to the radio in 2006. There is just too much garbage out there. From New-punk to Emo, it makes me want to tear my hair out. I look forward to the day when music takes another revolution like it did in the late 60's-early 70's, and then again in the early 90's. Maybe it takes 20 years for tha kind of thing to happen. If that's the case, we are in for a treat in about five years. Amy Winehouse however, is a throwback. Candy has been playing this album non-stop for months now. I like it, but it's getting old.

2007:Chrome Dreams II: Neil Young The third Neil Young entry. Between this and his Massey Hall performance, these might be the only two albums I bought in 2007 that came out in 2007. I had a lot of these songs already on bootleg albums as Neil has literally hundreds of unreleased material that he has been promising to release for years. In fact the original Chrome Dreams was never released at all and has a whole set of different songs fans have been trading online.

2008:Accelerate: R.E.M. It's July and I haven't bought an album since December. R.E.M.'s album will be the first one I buy as I know it rocks, but nothing else interests me.

Some notes: One of the reasons the last part of the list was so hard is because the idea of the Album is dead. People are making songs not albums because of iTunes. That encompasses a big part of my distaste for modern music. That and the fact that musicianship has taken a step back to make room for flash.

In august I will be attending Outside Lands in San Francisco. There are a lot of new bands I have never heard play. Maybe that will spark some interest in somebody new.