Sometimes it seems like all I talk about here are thirty year old records, and that's really not how I spend my time for the most part. Sure, I listen to plenty of old stuff, but I try to keep up with what's going on. Not that JD McPherson's 2010 album Signs & Signifiers is exactly new at this point (I think I found out about it in 2012?), but hey, it only sounds really old. It's actually a pretty recent record in the grand scheme of things.
I think someone told me to check out YouTube for a new band that they thought I would like (I didn't even listen to more than one song when I started clicking on other links). I've found this is kind of the way I use the internet to find new music. I click on things until I find something that catches my ear and then I call Music Saves and order it or ask them if they have it in stock. I think it's around 50/50 that I have to order it. Which should be expected, because I have a blog about my records that nobody reads, so odds are pretty good that I'm listening to records nobody bothers to listen to.
Which is kind of a shame. Not for me, but for people like JD McPherson. If it were up to me, this guy would be huge. I mean gigantic. This is the kind of music that spans generations, sounds timeless, sounds like fun and feels like the kind of music that you should be listening to with other people, dancing, drinking, howling and tearing it up on a Saturday night. I can't imagine that dancing to Kesha (sorry honey, I'm not spelling your name with a dollar sign) is any more fun than dancing to this. In fact, it can't be half as much fun. I can see JD McPherson and his band completely owning a small bar, but they could do an auditorium sized show, too. I can see the dance music that's popular being in big auditoriums, but there's no way they can make it work for 200 people. You can't jump out of a space egg or ride a wrecking ball in a bar, and really, no one wants you to. They want you to lean back and tear it up with something like Fire Bug, that's all energy and swinging fun.
I like that about this album. It seems like the kind of music that feeds off the energy of a crowd, and you might not think that would transfer well to vinyl, but it really does. I think it's probably one of those pure analog recordings where they band used vintage guitars, amps, microphones and boards to record this. Which is probably why they sound is so immediate and live sounding. North Side Gal tears it up just like Fire Bug, but songs like Gentle Awakening and the title track give yo a minute to dance nice and slow.
Much as I like the slow songs, I've always been the guy that asks a band if they'll only play their fast songs when I go see them (if I get a chance). I can't get enough of the unhinged craziness of Wolf Teeth, or the self assured, I Can't Complain. How can you? Stand up bass, one electric guitar, saxophone, piano. This is the stuff Rock N' Roll is really made of. These guys can even Stroll with the best of them on B.G.M.O.S.R.N.R. This is the kind of music that made me jump up and take notice. This is the kind of music people say never gets made anymore, and then when it's not only made, it's made as well as it's ever been done, the people miss out on it. I'm not going to rant for two hours why I think that is, but suffice to say that I don't think radio deregulation did anything good for anyone more than a handful of people that just siphoned all the money out of radio and left us with a husk of what once was. They said TV would kill radio, and it didn't. But the internet will because the people that make radio great are all selling Real Estate or working for some marketing firm. It won't be because it's better, because it isn't. It's just one more thing where you now have to do everything yourself, when in the past it was done for you.
I don't know if this is still in print. Probably not, but I'd bet you can still get the record if you order it. It's a nice record. 180 gram (pretty unnecessary if you ask me), and like I said, I think it's an all analog recording, so vinyl is the way to go. It's got a nice gatefold cover and mine sounds nice and clean. I like this one a lot!
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