Dea Matrona – Get My Mind Off
Similar artists: Queens of the Stone Age
Genre: Indie Rock, Garage Rock, Alternative Rock
One important piece of advice that I could give young musicians is to steer clear of band members obsessed with having the band’s songs fit into a particular style of music. This kind of relationship will go nowhere.
Sadly, many groups operate using just this particular logic. Tunes that sound as closely related to those made by another famous band, a group that is representative of a successful style, are supposed to bring in listeners.
It’s faulty logic. The great musicians, the real dreamers, are the ones that get excited over just about any genre. They’re ready to wildly take ideas from the least common of sources. Most importantly, they’re excited about what their experiments may yield.
Dea Matrona’s Get My Mind Off is a dance-rock tune that has no desire to cling to any particular style. The guitar hit like a desert-rock tune, the vocals fit snuggly as if belonging to a Prince album, and the groove is pure dance-pop. Most importantly, there’s a palpable delight ringing loud and clear from a group excited about where their experiments will take them next.
Youth Sector – A Definitive Guide to Easy Living
Similar artists: Devo, Parquet Courts, Talking Heads, Home Counties, Modest Mouse
Genre: Post-Punk, Indie Rock, Indie Pop
It’s easy to ignore other people’s problems when they do not affect you. Rock stars and celebrities, in general, are guiltier for this. It’s not hard to find proof. Just dig up any of their speeches where they passionately talk about all “the little people.”
For the most part, pop symbols are designed to be gigantic beacons of ignorance. They’re handed the things of which most others can only dream and are expected to perform, in exchange, at the audience’s whims.
It’s rare to find music with a bit of soul and even more so to locate art that is concerned with the well-being of others. When that does exist, it’s usually preachy and unable to convince casual listeners to pay it any attention.
Here’s an exception to that. Youth Sector’s A Definitive Guide to Easy Living could easily cut it as a sweet indie-dance number. But it does more. It bitterly but humorously talks about the homelessness crisis and what isn’t being done to solve it. The greatest artists, regularly, are the ones with the ability to offer humor to the bleakest of events. Youth Sector do this and throw some great dance grooves too.
