Searching for the good stuff
By NICK TAVARES
STATIC and FEEDBACK Editor
Maybe this is normal. Maybe this is aging. But I’m listening to a lot of the same stuff lately.
And by “same,” I don’t mean I’m just listening to the same album or song on repeat. But I spent at least half of December well down a Rolling Stones rabbit hole. I’ve spent most of the first week of this new year listening to nothing but the Black Crowes (hanging close to 2010 and before, of course). Looking at my own mixes and playlists, it might look eclectic to a stranger, but it feels like a lot of the same. Good stuff one and all, but the same.
In addition to age, creeping further into my early forties here, I blame the pandemic in part for this settling-in period. I was lucky enough to remain employed and healthy throughout, but with all that time at home, I got heavy into Discogs and adding to the record shelves, seeking out artists I’d read about or just wanted to invest more heavily within, to see what I could find. As I write this, B.B. King’s Live at the Regal is on the turntable. Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan are queued up behind that, with James Taylor getting a spin earlier today. Save for the Dylan record, all were released well before I was born and I believe acquired in the past three years.
That all works quite nicely for tonight. There’s a lot of snow on the ground, so I’ve been shoveling off-and-on all day and I’m winding down before the work week resumes tomorrow. I’m fine not knowing what’s going on right now beyond my secure little world.
But there’s a lingering tug of wanting to be in the loop. To say that I’m not interested in what’s considered the pop scene would be a massive understatement, but that’s permeated to the point where I’ve ignored everything. Example: I am apparently the last person — and definitely the last New Englander — on the planet to have heard of Noah Kahan, finally getting clued into “Stick Season” a couple of weeks ago. This dude is from Vermont, was on Saturday Night Live and is playing Madison Square Garden in a month. Where the hell have I been?
I think I’ve been inside. I haven’t been going to nearly as many shows as I used to, because I live just far enough outside of Boston now that it can be an ordeal to get in and out of the city, thank you very much, Mr. Crumbling MBTA. And, as previously noted, there’s a lot of older stuff that I’ve yet to digest. I haven’t been bored.
Still, it’s good to keep myself sharp. So the other day, I went looking around for a band, and for reasons I can’t explain, I landed on Black Midi. I have no idea what to do with these guys, but I was watching these videos in confused fascination. Is this where rock is now? What is this dude saying? This is wild — are there other bands like this? So I kept watching and listening. I didn’t hate it, certainly not. I’m just not sure what to do about it all. I’ll report back if I ever crack that one.
This is the beginning of the 20th year of this site. I’m not sure what that means, but I don’t believe it warrants any Rolling Stone-style commemorative anniversary covers. But I’ve tried to spruce things up a bit, including the slogan at the bottom of the header. It started off as “Let us tell you what to like,” and in my head the emphasis was always on the “us,” an alternative to some of the snarkier and wildly more popular sites out there that are still successfully running with their decimal-pointed rating systems. And what began as a group endeavor has slowly but surely become a solo project. So when the site reached a point where it had more than worn out its welcome, the slogan became, “Telling you what to like since 2005.”
But I’m not comfortable with that anymore. Specifically, I’m not into the idea of telling anyone how they should think or what they should like. We are bludgeoned on all sides and from all sides with what to think, how to feel, what to do. I have no interest in adding to the din of monetized false answers. But I do like the idea of digging around through record bins, listening to new stuff, finding some gems and trying to shed some light on them.
So here we are, or at least, here I am, looking around for new sounds and trying to write something coherent about them when and where I can. I’m not attaching any deadlines or pressure on myself to do so. And if you’ve made it this far, whether you were here 20 years ago or arrived thanks to a blip in the algorithm, welcome. And thank you.
Jan. 7, 2024
Email Nick Tavares at nick@staticandfeedback.com