Archive for August 29th, 2008
“The Best American Band”
- filed under Misc.
There is a French music blog that I like to look at, called blogotheque.net. I don’t read French, but I’m usually impressed by the videos and the pictures and the audio that they feature, especially when they invite bands to perform without amplification on streetcorners, stairwells, and elevators.
My ignorance is part of its appeal. Since I don’t really know what the posts say, the site feels a bit mysterious, their recommendations somewhat clandestine.
I discovered a marvelous band there called the Volebeats. The group is from Detroit and not at all from France. The site called the Volebeats ”the best American band,” an opinion seemingly offered first by Ryan Adams.
I was surprised to learn of an American band from a French blog, and even more surprised to learn that they were our nation’s best. They are not, of course, but they are awfully good.
They have a number of albums out and have been around a number of years, in the way you might expect once you hear what they sound like.
That is to say, they sound from the very beginning of their career like a band not unaware that they will be around a number of years and produce a number of very good albums and that it will require a French blog to proclaim their greatness.
Sky and the Ocean is my favorite Volebeats album. It’s a country record, which doesn’t sound an awful lot like Detroit, except for the sadness. It reminds me of the Jayhawks and the Silos and the Star Room Boys, other bands waiting for French blogs to proclaim their greatness.
This post was occasioned by the fact that the Volebeats are playing this weekend in Detroit. It does not appear that the band plays that often, and if I lived in Detroit or anywhere nearby I would definitely go to see them. They are good enough, that, for this weekend at least, I am sad that I don’t live in Detroit or anywhere nearby.
Reading and Writing
- filed under Music
In some other lifetime I am able to write about music this well. In this lifetime I am happy to be able to read it.
The Palin Pick
- filed under Misc.
I blogged my thoughts on the Palin pick at The New Republic this morning. Bottom line: There is much we don’t know about Gov. Palin. But at least in the short term it will shake up the race and leave some asking why Senator Obama didn’t pick Senator Clinton to be his Veep.
Prose and Poetry
- filed under Misc.
There isn’t much to be said this morning about Senator Obama’s tremendous speech that hasn’t already been said. He did everything he had to do and more last night, providing an intensely interested American public key details about what he would do to bring about change in Washington, DC. His attacks on McCain were pitch perfect and the biographical details offered inspiring. It was a great end to a very successful convention.
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