Dear Reader:
Congratulations! You have found this time capsule in the western part of what my people used to call the United States, and I hope you find the salvaged information from this long-lost civilization fruitful and informative.
I know my generation didn’t make it easy for you – I’m sorry for the sweltering heat caused by global warming and the ensuing attacks by roving hoards of angry, armed penguins and polar bears, and I apologize for our idea of replacing the Stock Exchange for multi-layer, home-based pyramid marketing schemes and making Beanie Babies the national currency. To be fair, I think no one could have foreseen what would have happened after President Bill Gates Jr. (or, as we called him, "2.0") was defeated by Senator Paris Hilton, and the beginning of our ongoing "War on Mammals".
I want you to know that not all of us were mindless lemmings - there were some things that we did, some small pieces of art that actually showed the human race could have been worth all the initial hype it received. They are all here in this hermetically-sealed Folgers coffee can – put the shiny discs into the playback machine we used to call a Discman and see if you like them...
There is a CD from this group called Animal Collective – I know it’s an ironic name for a group considering the horrendous Mammal Revolt of 2013, but as far as I know they’re all Homo Sapiens, so don’t feel threatened. Their CD Strawberry Jam is a great example of the fragile beauty and bold adventure that can still be found in Rock. I won’t even try to describe it - if there are any computers that still work in your world, you can see a video of the song "Fireworks" from the album here.
Easier to describe, but no less compelling, is the album from Animal Collective vocalist Panda Bear. Person Pitch is one of the great true "solo" records to come out in recent years – imagine Smile-era Brian Wilson collaborating with Lee "Scratch" Perry and Caetano Veloso, and you are getting close to how mesmerizing and creative this beautiful album really is. Here’s a cool homemade video to the song "Comfy in Nautica".
Another band that has a bit of a west coast vibe is the latest by the great Canadian band The Besnard Lakes – unfortunately, you would now know Canada as the great forbidden land mass overrun by killer mutant beavers, but at one time, people lived in that desolate region. The Besnard Lakes are the Dark Horse is the long-awaited Brian Wilson/Spiritualized mash-up come to pass, and it really is one of the most unique releases to come out this year. Here is their video to the song "For Agent 13".
One band that has been quietly but forcefully working its magic for over 20 years is Swiss band The Young Gods – this industrial/electronic group has been an influence on artists as diverse as David Bowie and Trent Reznor, and their newest CD, Superready/Fragmenté, is all mean-machine distortion and drums, as evidenced by this live clip of the band performing the song "C’est Quoi C’est Ça".
If anyone can be considered this generation’s Bob Marley, it would have to be Manu Chao – an international artist with appeal beyond his genre, and an activist with a drive for real political and social change. The CD La Radiolina is the sound of optimism and the belief that one person can really make a change in the world. Here’s the video to "Rainin’ in Paradise".
One of the most surprising new releases is from the French band Alcest, and their album Souvenirs D’Un Autre Monde. The Death Cab for Cutie-meets-My-Bloody-Valentine sound is unique and very compelling – it is a great album to bring you out of the doldrums if you need your sunshine laced with a nice helping of guitar distortion. Here’s a video of the track "Ciel Errant".
It’s a shame we had to burn all the books to set up the flaming moat at the Mexican border to head off the sabre-tooth lemming invasion after we melted the polar ice caps - it means that we will probably not have any new, literate bands like Okkervil River to listen to. Of course it’s extremely ironic that we all had to run south across the border to safety to evade the hoards of invading lemmings, but that’s another matter... The Stage Names from this Austin band is full of amazingly well-written lyricism and alt.rock-perfect hooks – just the album to tide you over since the next Decemberists release won’t come out until the electrical grid gets up and running again. If your portable generator works, you can check out the video to "Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe".
The perfect music for dancing the apocalypse away is the great CD by Columbiafrica called Voodoo Love Inna Champeta Land. This is a brilliant, funky record that highlights the amazing music of the Cartagena port of Columbia, where sailors would bring soukous and highlife records from Africa off the ships and DJs would mix it with the cumbia and pop of Latin America – music that is impossible to place from any one part of the planet, but you know you want to go and party there. To check out an NPR story about the CD and hear the music of Champeta, click here.
Of course, there are some people for whom the latest Rob Zombie movie is just a bit too upbeat – the Brooklyn band A Place to Bury Strangers is just the shot of oppressing gloom you need. Their self-titled debut is an Ian Curtis-meets-Ministry wall of white noise that is the perfect soundtrack to those nights when you need to put the black nail polish on and take a walk through the graveyard. Check out this video for the song "To Fix the Gash in Your Head", and please, stay away from the brown acid.
Another band from Brooklyn, Yeasayer, looks to be the long-lost follow up to Talking Heads’ Remain in Light – their CD All Hour Cymbals contains the same sense of African and Middle Eastern influences shot through an Eighties New-Wave prism, a long-lost sound waiting to be rediscovered just as soon as we all feel safe enough to leave the bomb shelters. Here is a video of the band performing the song "2080".
Well, I hope this gave you some insight into our civilization in its last years, and whether you are some long-lost descendent of the last remaining humans or if you are some sort of sentient, evolved penguin making the world better than we did, I hope you take the time to party like it’s 1999.
Good Luck,
Rico,
Bomb Shelter/Starbucks in what used to be Los Angeles