But I'm gonna look at the positives here. First off: fuck music. At least the sort of music that costs money on the internet. I mean… aside from the new Van Halen and that Beach House thing that everybody swears is fantastic, but that I just can't be convinced to give a shit about… what the hell has 2012 given us? Probably a ton of great shit. Ok fine. I'll buy that, but still, fuck you, I don't care. In 2012 the majority of popular music is a bunch of bullshit filler lumped into a physical product that nobody will actually buy, and structured around 1 or 2 actually decent singles that will tear up the charts, get hella downloaded on itunes and spotify or whatever the fuck, and serve as a catalyst for a world tour where the big money acts will eventually make their real cash. So.. maybe nothing's really changed I guess. There's a new Madonna album out called mdna. That sounds pretty dumb. I haven't heard it yet, and I probably never will, but I spun the shit out of True Blue last night it still rocks ass. Maybe the new one is good. I don't know. Who gives a shit?
But I digress… that tangent was supposed to be a lead-in to something… which is that the free stuff floating around in the ether… this is where it's at man. Like… creatively bro! This is where it is in 2012. The unsigned bands that are still hungry. Or maybe just the ones that don't give a shit. Or that are too adequately contented floating around in their drugged out universe to be bothered with the pursuit of legitimacy. Or the ones who pursue it adamantly, but just haven't gotten a lucky break. Bedphones. Or Johnny Manseed "rapping" into a vocoder and spitting genius garbage that only I and a few other close friends can actually decipher… that's mostly what I listen to these days.
But there's a lot of other brilliant stuff out there to be mined that may even appeal to real life humans, and in 2012, I think the best thing a true music lover can do is go fourth and mine the shit out of it.
Which brings me to this thing: Coolata Lounge CDs
This webpage is home to Marshall Stacks. Marshall Stacks are a band (?) that, as far as I know, are basically comprised of one super insane dude and probably an associate or two (?) just guitar soloing all over the damn place, over walls and walls of crazy sounds coming from god knows where, accompanied by hazy, erratic, and sometimes difficult to interpret vocals. If there's no way you could possibly see liking something that loosely fits such a description than 1. This band probably isn't for you, and 2. I feel sorry for you.
An internet friend of mine likened this music to the Royal Trux album, Twin Infinitives, and that's as good a place as any to start playing the RIYL game. Both efforts are all over the damn place, but in defense of Marshall Stacks, Mannequin Dojo is much much more listenable than Twin Infinitives. In my humble opinion. The melodies are much easier to locate, and though it can be jarring at times, it is rarely if ever boring. And not just because the music is "challenging," but because it's pretty damn great. And quite fun in a "freak out hard and maybe jump around a bit" sort of way. Really, it's pretty good music for a guy like me - a guy who doesn't know anything about the technicalities of music - to write about. My concise description of the sonic properties: it's pretty fucking nuts, and you have to hear it to understand it. Which you can do here in a link provided by a Marshall Stacks friend/collaborator:
Marshall Stacks - Mannequin Dojo
Seriously guys… I'm listening to this right now for what seems like the hundredth time in this still young 2012. Holy fuck. If you take nothing away from this post, please go listen to Naked on a Helicopter / Zeithomesium right now and dare to tell me that this music doesn't just absolutely fucking murder it. This is real deal rocking rock music for rockers, but it's disguised as challenging weird indie shit.
Anyway, let's end this post where it began. With some vague bullshit about illegally downloading music versus buying it from somewhere. The "buy some shit" section of the Coolatta Lounge webpage currently features one line of text reading, "No Items." If this ever changes, I look forward to throwing some serious cash money at this supercharged awesomeness. Jam this album, and please spread the word. It can only help this band, the state of music in general, and your quality of life. God speed Marshall Stacks. I hope you get a chance to sell out like bastards and pull all links to this shit off the internet.
Oh, and these guys have an album from 2010 that I haven't listened to nearly as often, but it's really good, and it starts off with a minute long "cover" of Rage Against the Machine's Guerilla Radio. So fuck yeah on that.
EDIT: just thought of a decent point of reference. Ween and 12 Oz Mouse
'sall I got.
