Another 10 Contemporary Artists You Ought to Listen To

It's that time again, time to remind you that there is hope for the future of music, once you sift through the cheap, creatively bankrupt, assembly-line talent polluting the airwaves. Which I have done. It's a sacrifice, yes, but it's for a good cause.

The following bands cover a pretty broad range of genre/style, so I doubt the average reader will like them all. That being said, I do like them all, and I think anyone can appreciate their merit as musicians, if not necessarily enjoy them.

So without further ado, let's check out these bands.

10. The Stills



What do you know, another band from Canada (specificially Quebec). Like the others on these lists, The Stills are pretty good (obviously). Pretty active throughout the early 2000s, they sadly disbanded in 2011, though I discovered them after the fact, so no big deal I guess. Anyways, I first came in contact with them after watching The Trotsky, a weird movie about a high-school student who believes he is the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky. That's beside the point. The Stills are great, let's move on.

9. Kacey Musgraves



I don't really know if I should even bother putting Musgraves here since she is well-known and has received lots of coverage in various media. Nevertheless, I'm going to mention her for a few different reasons. She has received attention since her music covers a lot more moderate and liberal topics/themes than most country music does. Whether you agree with said topics/themes will obviously vary from person to person, but regardless it is actually interesting in contrast to a lot of contemporary country. People whined about John Denver too, and he was one of the best country artists of the last century.

Not only that, but she is one of the few popular Country artists of this time who is actually singing real country music. It's nice for a change.

8. Lydia Ainsworth

Lydia Ainsworth is yet another Canuck musician, all the way from Toronto. I first heard her music while I was listening to NPR last winter, which was good enough that I looked her up. Predominantly an electric artist, her music is about 50-50 for me, but that which I do like, I love. For example her cover of Wicked Game, as seen above.

7. The Main Squeeze

A self-described blend of funk, soul, and rock 'n' roll, The Main Squeeze was founded in Indiana in 2010. I first heard about them when they came to Big Sky, MT in 2014. In the 5+ years that they have been touring and recording, The Main Squeeze have released two albums. They are not especially well known, which is a shame, since they are dang good. 

6. Electric Guest



Electric Guest is a fairly new LA based band with an interesting sound. Their body of work is pretty miniscule (one album thusfar), and it I'm not 100% sold on everything they do. But when they are on they are spot-on. They have sort of a folk-funk sound that I might describe as contemporary old-school.

5. The Leopards



Okay, so this one is a bit of a doozy. The Leopards are a Finnish band and are pretty darn obscure. It doesn't help that there is another band called The Leopards, who are from Manchester and are slightly less obscure. Perhaps then it is fortuitous that the latter Leopards are calling it quits (to the best of my understanding), though they also are pretty good and it is sad to see them go.

The Finnish Leopards have sort of an aggressive rock/pop/rockabilly sound. The rockabilly revival movement is really strong in Scandinavia (go figure), and a lot of the bands there are great, but aren't really doing anything new, so its nice to see The Leopards experimenting. Plus there is nothing better than listening to Scandinavians butchering English. One of life's simple pleasures really.

4. The Helio Sequence



The west-coast continues to be represented in The Helio Sequence, a duo from Oregon. Similar in some ways to The Black Keys and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Helio Sequence have been around since just prior to the turn of the century. As alternative rock groups go, I wouldn't necessarily say they are head and shoulders above others, but they are consistently good. I can take just about any one of their albums, sit down with my headphones on, and be perfectly satisfied with what I hear for the next hour. And some of their songs, like the above one for example, are very, very good.

3. The Trews



 These guys are actually pretty famous, but not famous enough, in my humble opinion. I first heard about The Trews while I was living on Prince Edward Island. They are from the Nova Scotia city of Antigonish and have successfully restored my hope for rock and roll.They have a pretty devoted fanbase (dubbed the Trewbadours) and have toured Canada, the US, and the UK pretty extensively. Hopefully they make it out to MT sooner than later.

2. The Quebe Sisters



I apologize I was not able to find a still-frame video for The Quebe ("kway-bee") Sisters, but it's really not a big deal anyways. I first discovered them while listening to The Prairie Home Companion. Texas natives, the three sisters (Grace, Sophia, and Hulda) and their guitarist and bass players have been tearing up the fiddle since 2002. They have some of the best harmony I have heard in a long time, and are probably some of the best current players of swing.


1. Rod Picott



Artists who are "real" are not necessarily uncommon, but they are always a breath of fresh air when you discover them. Picott is like this for me. While his music doesn't speak to me on the same level as Corb Lund (another "real" artist), for example, he puts a lot of feeling and personal experience into his music, which reminds me a lot of Stan Rogers. Musically, his style is a good mix of country and folk, with a bit of blues mixed in, which reflects the content of his music very well.


 For the first two lists, check these links: 1; 2 

Quest for Simplicity

Elections are just around the corner, relatively speaking, and things are pretty crazy. I have taken it upon myself to become an educated citizen of these great United States as well as a responsible voter.

The dark side of becoming informed is that I have become increasingly cynical. Every time I watch the news or turn on the radio, I find myself wanting to return to the good old days back when I was a little kid without a care in the world.

Unfortunately, time travel is not a viable technology, which has forced me to consider more practical solutions. Thankfully, after careful consideration, a solution has in fact presented itself. It is very simple and entails three easy steps:

 

1) Locate a small, uninhabited, tropical island on Google Maps.
 

2) Canoe out to the island.
 

3) Live there for the rest of my life.

Simple, eh?

It will be glorious. I will canoe out to that island. I will eat coconuts and tilapia all day. I will swim with dolphins and play with the Humboldt Squid. I will fish with spears and dive for abalone, and I will live like a king.

In the long hours of the night, I will compose sonatas in my head and I will rise in the morning to write them in the sand, and then watch the tide wash them away forever as the sun sets.

I will carve chess pieces from coconut shells and play against myself for weeks until Bobby Fischer himself descends from Heaven to say, “Hey, you did it, kid. You're one of the greats now.”

We'll sit down and have lunch, Bobby and I, and play a friendly game of chess. After a nice long chat, he'll wave goodbye, promise to visit again, and depart as he arrived. He won't return of course, he'll be too busy practicing for when Boris Spassky kicks the bucket to remember to visit me. But it's the thought that counts.

I will tally the passage of days on a rock that I will have named Sunny. Every year, as close to my birthday as I can guess, I will build a raft from palm leaves and drift wood and contemplate sailing back to civilization, before pushing it out into the current. I will watch it drift away until it disappears across the horizon. Then I will return to my hut and eat a delicious dinner of tilapia-coconut stew before lying down on the sand to watch the stars before drifting off to sleep, without a worry or care in the world.

Of course there are downsides. Canoes are expensive. And I can only imagine how quickly I would get sick of eating tilapia and coconut. Plus chess gets boring really quickly. And truth be told, I don't think Humboldt squid are particularly playful. Also, who can really say the French ever really stopped testing nukes in the South Pacific?

I guess I just have to admit my idea is probably flawed. But there are always other options.

Cryogenics for example. Ol' Disney had the right idea. Who needs time travel when you can simply wait for the World of Tomorrow to come to you? After all, a harmless bit of freezer burn never hurt anyone.

Right?