joe p – Fighting In the Car
The work of some artists is deemed to be classic for a good reason. It’s probably survived for a long time among people’s preferences and will probably, do so in the future, inspiring others to create their own versions.
Now, rock music, the singing, and writing aspects especially, have provided plenty of heroes along the way. Many, like myself, study these people in the same way that painters begin by copying the great masters’ work. However, if rock is to survive in the modern context and not become a vestige of the past, something quirky that doesn’t quite speak to our modern issues, it needs to compete.
Modern trends are only there for a second, and they’re gone, but they point the way towards what the world is feeling at a particular moment. Joe P has created a very interesting blend of classic 90s songcraft and modern hip hop production. His writing references the delicate approach of Jeff Buckley, the clever power-pop of Weezer, but also the modern, confrontational style of Tyler the Creator. Others might scoff, but I support folks fighting to keep rock relevant and not just the interest of jaded nostalgia-nerds.
Cosmic Crooner – Deep Down In Jazz
How did we ever live without being able to reassemble every style of art and freely make fun of it? Must have been pretty boring times, I reckon. Thank heavens for post-modernism, or whatever the rich college kids are calling it these days.
We are now given the permission to mock everything, reassemble it, build out our own works while using as starting points the works of others because, frankly, we feel like we’ve seen and heard it all a bunch of times over. In fact, the next you hear a brand new rock band, you’ll likely have them introduce to you as “The next…“. There ya go.
Cosmic Crooner might be the next Alex Turner, or at least someone that has been getting a kick out of the frontman’s showboating as lounge lizard and sly man about town and has been taking it seriously enough to design his own take. Deep Down In Jazz is stylish and comical, a nod to the outrageously charismatic and well-dressed European singers of the 1970s. I see no reason why this act wouldn’t work.
