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The
Rant of Yroc
!?!
So everybody’s
got something, and I’ve got music. You know everyone needs that
one thing in their lives that is outside of their “normal”
everyday functions of reality. Now I could wax philosophy about what
is reality and if there is indeed a reality, but I won’t. It bores
me, because my thing is music and not philosophy. Some people love horses,
or gambling, or even gambling on horses. I love music. Be it live, on
vinyl, CD, cassette tape, or on the radio. Be it coming from Nebraska,
Akron, New York City, Nashville, New Orleans, or Los Angeles. Be it
coming from a man, woman, light, dark, black, white, Asian, American,
Australian, Mexican, or Alien. As long as the artist or group is making
their pure, honest vision of music, being that it is not overproduced
from some artificial source, then music is where I’m at.
I strive to enjoy the pleasure in music like a baseball player striving
for a home run or a perfect game. I look for those moments in a record
store where I find something so special that I didn’t even know
that I was looking for it. I look for those moments at concerts when
a band gets on such a role that they step outside themselves and produce
music that even they can’t explain. I look for those moments when
an entire audience is filled with anticipation and then explodes in
appreciation as the music starts. I look for those moments in the day
when a certain song or lyric comes from within my brain without warning.
I look for those moments when I’m playing that I no longer think
about what I’m doing and I just let it happen. I look for those
moments when music consumes my body and takes over performing my bodily
functions, so that if the music stops so do I…
Seeing as you now know my passion for music, I can safely say 3 months
into the year 2003 that 2002 was a fantastic year for music. While 2002
was still blanketed with mass-market corporate pop, there was a true
artistic explosion of powerful music that came out below the mainstream
airwaves. Up and coming artists like Robert Randolph, The Black Keys,
The White Stripes, The Strokes, and this year’s Grammy princess
Norah Jones showed that a post-post-new wave movement of musical expression,
one in which anything goes as long as it is inspired, is on its way.
At the same time of this resurrection, older faces in music turned in
passionate years in 2002. The Who, Van Morrison, Joey Ramone, Bob Dylan,
R. L. Burnside, B. B. King, The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, George
Harrison, and Paul McCartney all produced a brilliant album or a successful
tour during the year, but alas these greats continue to burn out from
this lifetime just like so many did before them. This places a greater
responsibility on the post-post-new wave of music that hit in 2002 to
keep striving for artistic gratification rather than the financial rewards
of fame.
2003 does have promise. The White Stripes, Ben Harper, The Black Keys,
Soulive, Widespread Panic, Trey Anastasio, String Cheese Incident, The
Strokes, and Phish are all expecting to release new albums of original
music in the months approaching (with most being released in April).
The Bonnaroo Music Festival, which coincidentally made its first appearance
in 2002, is back again this summer. This time James Brown, The Dead,
The Allman Brothers Band, The Roots, and many others have joined some
familiar faces from last year to guarantee Manchester, Tennessee will
be rocking in June. So keep your ears open and allow yourself to go
out and have a good time at a concert. With all that is happening in
this world we live in, we all owe it to ourselves to indulge in something
pleasurable, and that’s why I love music.
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