Kimball Frank – Don’t Call Me
Genre: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
Ask an AI to write you a story, and it will. Ask them to complain about their love life, and they’ll fall flat. Or, well, they’ll lie in an unconvincing manner. And don’t bother telling me that regular stories can be just as dramatic as heartbreak.
That’s the very reason why, for now, the jobs of songwriters are well and truly safe. Humor and depression come naturally to some but not to computers. The dream of creating a machine that can easily come up with musical gems is far away.
It’s not much different from the approach taken by many record labels during the 1980s. It was then, I know that they’d try to use stats about what kind of guitar tone or vocal style worked best for rock hits. All we ended up with were pale imitations of the real thing.
I say all of these for one reason. Kimball Frank’s Don’t Call Me is a wholly believable breakup song filled with rage, love, and jealousy. It’s an aching love affair that might as well be about the end of the world. And it’s these sorts of cries and what we do with them that keep the lights on for the music business.
Jake Simmons – Them and Them and Us Again
Similar artists: The Hold Steady, Weezer, Titus Andronicus, Deer Tick, Dinosaur Junior
Genre: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
Should rockstars infuse their songs with a political message? Sure, some musicians have done a tremendous amount for certain worthwhile causes. But let’s not pretend like everybody is Bob Dylan or John Lennon.
Most of your rockstars aren’t qualified to mow your lawn, let alone tell you who to vote for. Why even vote at all? They won’t be able to tell you. It is, however, a time of political activism that permeates the entertainment world. Or, rather it’s a time of would-be activists.
I used to care a lot about politics when I was a kid. I also used to hang out with a lot of older people. That’s what they did. They’d discuss politics and football. I never thought the former would become so popular or that the latter would lose so much of its standing.
Jake Simmons’ Them and Them and Us Again do a marvelous job of telling us how these imagined political divisions cause rifts between each other. It’s always the left versus the right as if politicians even know which side they’re on.
Simmons’ clever, pleasantly melodic bummer power-pop does a great job of reminding us.
