Keep Going.

It is well known that Music is an integral part of The String.  It always has been.  The very beginning of the String started with Shooter and SeaDick at a concert at Wrigley field.  That is another blog post altogether (oh boy). Music is a fundamental part of everyone’s life.  

Except Kool.  We don’t ever discuss who is the greatest Greek rock Band of all time.  I’m not sure he has earbuds in his indigo puffy vest to be honest.

SeaDick loves all kinds of music.  So do I.

Gramps picnics more at Ravinia then anyone I know and he sees some great shows (Pipes would like Susan and Derek if he would give them a listen).

Angry loves his PJ and likes some of the new progressive stuff.  I think we both can thank the Wee One for that . (more on him later).  

Mongo has a excellent and varied taste as well….from Jimi to JJ Grey.

Tito always has something playing while golfing… either on a speaker or in his buds.  Should have came to FIDLAR Tito!

Gnoob loves Billy Squier.  He is an anomaly as usual.  He is and will always be the outlier.

And then there is Pipes. Stuck in the vortex of the safe same music over and over.  

And over.

Poor Bastard.

Pipes and I went to see FIDLAR — a California Skate punk / garage punk band —  on Thursday night at Metro in Chicago (a lovely dump).  My 18 year old daughter and her friend were with us.  I thought the show was great and the crowd was insane.  We might have been on the higher range of the age demographic, but the show literally was all ages.  We stood by the bar for better beer service and stayed away from the insanely sweaty crowd surfers.

I think Pipes liked it (until the shitfaced hillbilly sox fan plopped his fat ass between us at the bar), but maybe would have enjoyed listening to the juke box at The Lodge more.  And, yeah, I know the words to the FIDLAR songs Pipes.  

Pipes told me that he likes what he likes. (“you should know what you like by now” might have been his exact phrase) He likes great music too.  Bruce. Eagles (Pipes Eagles blog post) Etc.  The classic staples of our youth.  His playlist might mirror the programming for the radio station 97.1 The Drive in Chicago.  

I’d go insane listening to that over and over.

And over.

I love the classics.  I am a Who guy at my core.  I am a Springsteen guy. U2. Stones. Zeppelin. Zevon. Van.   I grew up listening to all the classic rock and I love it and listen to those songs all the time.  Those songs still evoke certain feelings and memories from the past.  I also love the unique music from the 70s 80s and 90s.  Hell I have an 8 hour playlist of nothing but the live version of my favorite songs from the classic rock genre.

But — Creativity didn’t stop.  Art (and music is an art form) hasn’t stopped.  Every band or song you listen to doesn’t have to be from a R&R HOF member band or artist.  

Pipes wrote a blog the other day about the programming on Sunday nights on HBO.  I watched a lot of the shows he mentioned and I agree with him on all of his points.  He also has a great family tradition going on.

Over the years, HBO has been a great place to see great content being created.  The Wire. Boardwalk Empire.  The Sopranos.  GoT. Hell East Bound and Down.  Oz was fucked up though…but I still watched it.

People are still creating great stuff.

The same is true for all creative areas…. Movies. Books. Documentaries.  Non HBO TV shows even.

And Music.

Why a person would intentionally limit themselves on actively exploring and experiencing new music does not compute in my brain.  You don’t have to like everything.  Liking something new will not mean you like the classic stuff any less either. It doesn’t get replaced.  Nothing will get diluted or forgotten.  You just like more stuff.  That’s a good thing.

Thankfully Spotify makes exploring a lot easier today.  Following friends lists or certain playlists is a great resource and Spotify itself is really good at recommending what you might like.

But explore for fucks sake.  Listen. You will be amazed at what you will find and what you like and appreciate.

You will also be surprised by the talented creative people out there making and performing really good music today.  It’s not all shit (and there is a lot of shit don’t get me wrong)

Knowing people who are music fans also helps.  Spending 4 straight days at Lolla and a full day at Riot Fest helps too.

Angry’s friend the Wee One puts out a CD of his favorite bands and tunes every December recapping his favorite new artists and songs from the prior year.  I received his 2015 picks and was exposed to some great talented new bands.  I am looking forward to his CD (or spotify playlist hopefully) this year.

A sample of what was on his 2015 list:

FIDLAR

Jessica Hernandez & the Deltas (On SeaDicks best of 2015 list too)

Circa Waves

DMA’s.

Mongo introduced me to  Eric Lindell and JJ Grey and Mofro among others.

SeaDick introduced me to Frank Turner…St. Paul & The Broken Bones among many others…we have been to a few concerts together over the years.

Even my daughter introduced me to Hippo Campus, Fitz and the Tantrums and even Motion City Soundtrack at Riot Fest this past September.

Nothing from Gnoob or Kool yet.

My point is there are some phenomenally talented people out there creating NEW music.  

Explore it Pipes.  Soak it up.  Enjoy it. Don’t be a baby.

Thankfully, My house is always full of music.  My daughter will be listening to Halsey in her room. I can hear Sympathy for the Devil playing from the boys bathroom while one of them is getting ready.  The other boy is trying to teach himself to play Baba O’Riley on the piano (no wonder he’s my favorite kid)

And my saint of a wife listening to the Eagles Take it Easy in the office.  She and Pipes are in the same vortex although she just announced she likes the Revivalists after hearing it on my playlist.  “Keep Going” is a good song Pipes and good advice.

Give it a listen.