Bayonets – Strawberry Hill
Similar artists: The Last Shadow Puppets, Arctic Monkeys, Queens of the Stone Age, Desert Sessions, Mark Lanegan
Genre: Lo-fi Rock, Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
Rock musicians have no choice but to fashion themselves as Renaissance men. Their interests, however, have less to do with the bare bones of science and progress. It’s only natural that they first desire to understand the topics that lie just outside common, fact-based explanations.
Their passion, at least occasionally, drifts toward the esoteric, the transcendent and the magical. After all, a rock musician is nothing else if not a modern healer, shaman and guru. They perform rituals. Of course, they’d be interested in poetry, in old knowledge and in the power of performing rituals themselves.
This is no exception. Bayonets’ “Strawberry Hill” is retro-rock infused with a kind of magical melancholy. It’s the kind of rock performance that could just as well be performed in a club as well as in a witches’ den. It’s a song written as a response to bands QOTSA and Arctic Monkeys’ brand of charm-offensive old-school sounds, and it works just right.
Jason Wade – Chucky Blondin
Similar artists: ØZWALD, Spoon, The Shins, Broken Bells, Local Natives
Genre: Indie Folk, Folk rock
Everyone loves dreamers, but nobody would like to employ them. In fact, a dreamer hoping to get far by working a regular job is bound to face disappointment, perhaps even crippling anxiety. It’s just how it is. Forget all the stories about modern corporate leaders who used to daydream about their inventions or meditate with gurus back in India. That’s all just propaganda.
In order to find a semblance of happiness, the people whose lives are truly moved by their fancies must find their own paths. This may mean taking a leap of faith and opting to become an artist. Even more difficult, this might mean having to hide those illusions from others and use them as the foundation for a secret world. Happiness is not a guarantee, but one moves closer to it when choosing either one of those two.
Jason Wade is a man who dreams for a living. The newest single, “Chucky Blondin,” with its mysterious character and ethereal arrangement, is the latest of a work that appears to be a direct continuation of ’60s dream rock. One gets the feeling that this easy-to-like, palatable retro trip on which Wade is on is as much a career choice as it is the result of having no other choice. Some people get to make up stories to get by, and they’re some of the only folks who’ve truly found themselves.
