It’s been said by old farts like yours truly that modern-day bands composed of people in their 20s and early 30s have a lot to learn. For instance, I see bands with bassists playing with their ankles close to each other. Not cool, man! But what happening band is going to listen to my advice on issues like proper bass player stance and soloing hair? Maybe it’s time the real kidz teach the so-called kidz a thing or two?
Check out the following video from Haunted by Heroes, “The World’s Youngest Rock Band.” What lessons might these musical mighty mites teach their parents, aunts, uncles, and older cousins—and the bands these adults dig?
If you had to choose an Early 21st Century All-Musician team, composed only of musicians younger than 35 years of age and from bands of the last 12 years, who would fill out your 5-piece roster of drums, bass, two guitars, and keyboards? If you want to throw in a “sixth musician” on any instrument, even a laptop, go for it! But let’s leave singers out of this thread; they still get plenty of attention.
Even among the more contemporary bands I like I rarely feel like the musicians are highlighted. I was listening to some new album recently and thinking that the production kept me at an arm’s length from the music; everything was so focused on the the vocals and the extremely steady beat. If you had to “give the drummer some,” for instance, to which drummer younger than 35 would you turn? I just spent 3 minutes trying to begin to answer my own question, but any cool, modern-day “musician’s musician” who came to mind was already past 35 (eg, Jack White [37], Omar from The Mars Volta [37], Nels Cline [55!]).
Surely a large part of my question is a function of my age and lack of touch with modern music, but I’m also curious to know if people still cherish musicianship (of any favorite style of music) the way my friends and I did growing up. We were just as likely to make fun of Neil Peart, Steve Lukather, and their ilk, but we could have easily produced an alternative list of shit-hot musicians who should have been on the cover of those chops-oriented magazines. I can’t even name mainstream “chops” types younger than 35, can you? (Surely I must be forgetting some obvious contenders.)
Of course this thread begs the question, How many Townspeople are young enough and in touch enough to answer this question? Nevertheless, I think it’s a question worth investigating.
Did you catch George Harrison‘s son, Dhani, on Conan the other night? I did. Dhani was promoting a new app he helped develop that presents his father’s “stunning stash of vintage axes.” The app, like most apps, didn’t turn me on—not to mention the fact that I’m typically not into gear porn—but Harrison the Younger was delightful: loaded with poise, charm, humor, and all the qualities we could hope for in George’s kid.
It took awhile for Dhani to catch on, didn’t it? While John’s boys, Julian and Sean, long ago burst on the scene and then settled into the occasional feature trumpeting a new, understated release…while Stella McCartney has spent years as a celebrated fashion designer (not that I would understand that scene, but I do see photos of her arm-in-arm with celebrities and fellow fashion designers)…while Zak Starkey follows in the footsteps of Keith Moon to prove to the world that he’s a bigger son of a drummer than Jason Bonham…Dhani seemed to be kept under wraps until he appeared on stage as part of a star-studded tribute to his father, playing acoustic guitar on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”
Let’s face it: Dhani has claimed the title of Coolest Offspring of a Beatle. It’s looking like he’ll have to mess up royally to lose that title, unless Paul’s 8-year-old kid from his failed marriage to Hamish Stuart Heather Mills develops into a childhood sensation or one of his other kids with Linda springs forward and does something special.
So who is the second-coolest offspring among members of The Beatles?
In this week’s edition of Saturday Night Shut-In your host, Mr. Moderator, samples mostly new releases, or at least new additions to his collection. This is sure to ignite the long-awaited RTH Youth Movement. Members of the Bad Attitude Club are encouraged to listen in, if only to strengthen their staunch opposition to most things new and unfamiliar.
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/RTH-Saturday-Night-Shut-In-64.mp3|titles=RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 64]
[Note: The Rock Town Hall feed will enable you to easily download Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your digital music player. In fact, you can even set your iTunes to search for an automatic download of each week’s podcast.]
Who still pays attention to Saturday Night Live? For me, the mainstream is largely off of my radar, so I’m not so sure how this Lana Del Ray thing came to my attention, or why I find it fascinating—but I do.
To summarize, Lana Del Ray co-wrote and sings this song called “Video Games.” She performed on SNL and suddenly the Internet was flaming about what a train-wreck it was. I’m not defending this performance—it’s not great and it’s not comfortable to watch, but it’s not the biggest mess I’ve ever seen on SNL or other TV shows.
But what sparked this uproar? One of the most notable sources was a tweet from actress/”musician” Juliette Lewis, who wrote, “Wow, watching this ‘singer’ on SNL is like watching a 12-year-old in their bedroom when they’re pretending to sing and perform #signofourtimes.” Lewis has since deleted her tweet and said some nicer things about Del Ray. Maybe she realized she was standing on shaky ground herself?
I dare you to watch both of these videos. Do you choose the pot or the kettle?
The following video treasure was provided by Mr. Royale.
We here in the Halls of Rock Town are sometimes taken to task for being overly negative, snarky, hyper-critical, and all too often, just downright rude. As part of our collective efforts to bring a bit of sunshine and light to the world wide web, we occasionally make an extra effort effort to find something good to say about, you know, stuff that is clearly godawful.
It is in that spirit that we embark on yet another effort to bring some positivity to our proceedings. Please spend some quality time with the video above, then — if you can — please find something nice to say about it. You’ll feel a whole lot better, I promise you.
I look forward to your comments. Just remember, if you can’t say anything nice about this video… please don’t say anything at all.
