Wednesday, February 11, 2004

Let's Do a Time Warp Again

I found a great album two weeks ago - a band wrote the greatest 80s music album I've ever heard - in 2003.

The band is called My Favorite. They're a New York band, and it's like they've taken all the good parts from 80s New Wave music and have made one hell of an album.

For less than $20, you get New Order's guitar jangle, The Smiths' pathos and a little Echo & the Bunnymen thrown in for good measure. And now you're asking, why buy this when I can get the originals?

Well, the album is pretty damn good. Sure, it's an 80s throwback, but they really captured the sound and the feel of the music. Of course, I may be biased -- a co-worker once accused me of not buying an album released after 1992, and I couldn't dispute him. That's when I started trying to put my finger on the pulse of music again. And I turned to the greatest time waster known to man: the internet.

I found it trolling the internet one day - which is where I find most of my music now. I can't deal with commercial radio that much, with endless repetitions of Kelly Clarkson, Matchbox 20 and Kid Rock being forced on listeners.

Sure the Internet is 99% depravity - an endless parade of pornographers, gamblers, psychotics and philatelists, but it does have its uses also -- you can find great music that no one knows about. You can learn about movies, music, theater, art, news and anything you want. You can talk to people thousands of miles away. The power is there. You just have to look for it.

Sadly, people just look at me funny when I tell them about these things and generally think I'm nuts.

Well, I am, but for different reasons entirely. So now I'm going to pop the CD in the player and return to those magical days of big hair, bright colors and Reaganomics. God Bless the Internet.

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