Borrowed Sparks – Marie’s Dress (Live)
Genre: Post-grunge, Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
Similar artists: Frank Turner, The Menzingers, The Gaslight Anthem, Counting Crows, Bruce Springsteen
Rock music, especially the alternative music scenes, are welcoming towards misfits. Sometimes this courtesy goes too far. Bad boys and girls are allowed to run riot. They run every red light and never pay a fine. What’s more, they even get to write a book afterwards as the world keeps clapping.
But, what about the good ol’ boys and gals? Are compassion and a willingness to take on responsibility enough to disqualify you from making rock music? For those still hung up on the rockstar image as the charm, drunk buffoon wearing leather pants, this may be true.
If it were true, however, for everybody we wouldn’t get the great songwriting found on Borrowed Sparks’ Marie’s Dress. This is music made using the Brian Fallon, or Bruce Springsteen style of songwriting. It’s written by the kind of guy to whom you’d lend money. This is the sort of person who’d help you move your furniture on a Sunday afternoon. It’s the kind of poetry written by someone who has a genuine interest in people, not just in themselves. Rock, and the world in general still needs these kinds of do-gooders, especially when they can write songs as well as Borrowed Sparks can.
Herb Dee – The Songs on the Radio
Genre: Post-Punk
Similar artists: Iggy Pop, Nick Cave
The general impression seems to be that rock musicians get away with things that regular people would not. Sure, the most famous ones are able to live a reckless life afforded by their status. But, this is true for anyone that’s obtained some measure of fame or wealth.
Even a greater luxury is the rock musician’s ability to say what they really feel. Or, rather shout it. Let’s treasure this before it becomes illegal, eh?
The message being hollered doesn’t even have to be a political one, nor a comment on the nature of life. It can simply be the sort of monologue that would make a regular person quickly lose friends in real life.
Herb Dee’s The Songs on the Radio sounds like a tune penned right before execution. It contains the sort of gloomy and dramatic lyrics, percussive acoustic guitars and church organ sound that wouldn’t be out of place in a Nick Cave song. Herb Dee’s made a song that sounds like the world preparing for a disaster. The world can embrace an artist even when they’re offering bad news.
