About a year ago I got a late night text from my music buddy Chris that contained a short video from a live show in St. Louis where a buncha Hipsters were chanting "Ho, Hey!" Immediately I woke up and listened. He told me I MUST see this band, and so the album was downloaded (maybe Chris hooked me up on that one too) and jammed incessantly for several weeks.
As usual, I did my best to spread the love and some caught on faster than others (you know who you are- ahem!), but there was something about the rawness that I figured wouldn't be quite as cool to other music listeners as it was to me. I mean, that's sort of my deal; I love pared down recordings where every instrument has a defined sound and you can tell who and what is making each note ring. So the slightly "off" voice of the lead singer, the live feeling of the album recording of "Classy Girls", and the where the hell were they when they recorded "Ho, Hey" sound are just too ideal to my ears. I'm kind of happy to say I was wrong and really pleased that this folksy sound is proving appealing after way too much auto tuning for way too many years. (Google it if you don't know what I'm talking about. It's trickery. Like padded bras and fake eyelashes.)
Here we are a little over a year has passed, and the nay-sayer and I are on our way to see them for the first time. He obviously likes them now as do like half the kids in the country, but I'm doing my best to deal with that. It's like Chris said when we started hearing them on the radio-- it's more annoying that we can no longer see them in little venues than anything else. I'm not sure what the capacity is at this outdoor place we are heading to, but I know it's close to sold out and it's bound to be a few thousand of my closest Hipster and teenager friends. I could hear the collective "ugh" coming from most of my friends, but I have to disagree. The cool thing is that kids are usually the first ones to pick out new stuff because they aren't afraid of change. I'm going to go with that because I am ready for some musical change.
We need something real and raw. If Mumford is any indication, the nation wants it too. And even if I'm not a huge fan of them, I appreciate what they are doing and am excited to see these singer songwriters make some kick ass music and get some credit for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment