10-01-2025, 02:27 PM
(10-01-2025, 01:29 PM)jacket3ree Wrote:(09-08-2025, 11:17 AM)Publius Wrote: I recommend keeping current with music. It's a great way to stay mentally young. With streaming it's easy to access music, but with so much out there it's daunting to drink from the fire hose. I use three simple filters:
1. Listen to anything anybody recommends with EUTM if you've never heard of it
2. Check Metacritic on Friday (new release day) and listen to any album that rates 80+, anything 70+ if it's an artist you at least like a song or two
3. Listen to the top charting songs in your favorite genre. In my case it's Alternative which covers a lot of ground and is really whatever is cutting edge or innovative across many genres.
It does help to have a two hour round trip daily commute to work.
I tried, I really tried. I agree with Publius' sentiment here, but I just couldn't do it at last Saturday's wedding.
The couple and their friends are in their early 30s. I don't know this music at all. Apparently the deal is to encourage a mosh pit with everyone screaming the lyrics and putting their forefinger and index fingers in the air toward each other. Nothing slow. Almost nothing I recognized. The DJ mashed everything together and everything had a disco beat and the acoustics were horrible, but I metaphorically aged at least ten years into a curmudgeon standing there in my suit. They played a remix of Ain't No Mountain High Enough and a pretty close version of the Eurythmics, but that was all I knew. The rest of it was...good enough to find a quiet space with my wife and watch Alabama-Georgia. After the wedding we finished off the House of Guinness on Netflix (good modern Irish punk) and I found a documentary on Led Zeppelin, which includes footage of their first real gig, which is straight out of Spinal Tap's air force base concert. We also watched Sinners, which my wife loved for the vampires and music and I loved for the music. And a surprisingly good narrative despite vampires, which I usually stay away from as much as anything with zombies in it.
My tradition is to find local record shops and buy some vinyl. Sorry Publius, I am a lost cause. I bought a collector's 50th anniversary picture disc of the Dead's Blues for Allah, a special edition Little Feat's Don't Fail Me Now, a Mofi master of Santana's Caravanserai (because the only copy I ever had was on cassette) and some Levon Helm because Arkansas.
That said, I dutifully check out all the current recs here, so I hope there is hope.
At my daughter's wedding celebration (in Ensenada 3 yrs ago) I got to dance with her to "My Girl," which I used to sing to her as I held her to stop her crying when she was an infant (it always worked!). But then the DJ gave way to a mariachi band, and the real fun began.
Having played in a rock/soul band in the early 70's I have to admit that the disco/emo/grunge age was a real yawner for me -- too robotic/simplistic rhythmically. Since then, not much on the airwaves has made my playlist with the exception of MJ, Prince, and Jon Batiste.
