I was looking through the Book of Face pages the other day and ran across a post about The Sidewalk Scene. I remember them, friend Ray Brandes having been a frontman for them how long ago? Two years so? Three years? The post linked to a page which showcased four studio-produced tracks, all jangly and sixties-oriented. Music, in fact, that I remember fondly.
…but I could never pull it together. Of course, when I was young I thought I was a musician, piddling with the tonette in fourth grade, drafted into the junior high band in the fifth grade because they badly needed a bass drum player, playing drums in what could be called a jazz band then (though we were really not good enough to be called that), playing drums in the high school band and in a couple of rock bands and carrying it on through college. I loved music and was always around it but I was never really a musician.
Alcoholic Faith Mission. I put the name first because I want you to remember it, not to be cute with words. They have renewed my faith in music and, by default, the music business. I know. It’s a shade of its former self. I hear it and read it all the time. Statistics here, comments there. It is dying. It is dead. The only thing that matters anymore is format. Kids don’t hear it. Bieber, Perry, Jack White, Richard Waters, Springsteen, Minaj, LMFAO. This is cool, that’s not.
…and today, I’m in the ALL state of mind. What got me into this mood were two CDs I received in the mail fairly recently: Winterpills‘ All My Lovely Goners and Lisbee Stainton‘s Go. I am reluctant to say that I receive albums like this all the time but the truth is, I do. Maybe not this good and maybe not with regularity, but I get them all the time. There is so much good music out there that I can’t even begin to keep up, and that’s with my ignoring the major label, who hardly need my help to spread the word. Are these two special? They must be because I don’t think I’d feel right if I didn’t write about them quickly and in depth. This is the quickly. I shall save the in-depth for reviews.
Bullseye Records of Canada
