Well, I’ve been trying. My attempts to find new music usually come in fits and starts — Pitchfork’s best new music section is generally pretty reliable, but sometimes they spend months and months in genres that I’m not interested in (or my RSS subscription to the section breaks which l, uh, just discovered it had). When that happens it’s time to hit up the music blogs and take some shots in the dark.

I did that, and I grabbed the new Decemberists, too. Unfortunately, the results were kind of disappointing. It could be that I just need to give these albums a few more listens. Or my unfavorable impression may have been due to my fancy-pants earphones being in the shop for service yet again (yes, I’m a snob), leaving me to listen through muddy $10 wraparounds that I bought at CVS out of desperation. Whatever the reason, the following failed to adequately whelm me:

Pony Up! – Make Love To The Judges With Your Eyes

Inspired by this cliptip post, I gave this band a try. They’ve got the songs but not the production. The album sounds like a well-made demo tape — there’s a lot of potential, but the execution is uninspired. All they really need is a pro in the studio, forcing them to play through each composition like it’s going to be the last pop song before the world ends. I’ll check in next album (or maybe next tour).

The Decemberists – The Crane Wife

Colin Meloy’s epic ornithophiliac triptych gets off to a rockin’ start. But it drags, it’s pretentiously out-of-order (and that’s in addition to the Decemberists’ normal baseline of pretension), and what’s up with combining parts one and two into a single track? Do the Decemberists really think they’re going to single-handedly turn the tide against the ipodification of their industry? Cause, uh, they won’t, regardless of how many Japanese birdfucking myths they reference. And given that, I’d prefer that they stop screwing up my meticulous playlist management.

Cold War Kids – Robbers and Cowards

To my ears these guys sort of sound like the Arctic Monkeys, except tired. Given that I’m not a big Arctic Monkeys fan, that’s enough to consign them to my ipod harddrive reclamation efforts. Also, I’m bothered by the fact that the first thing I ever read about this band was in the context of complaints that they were getting too much blog-buzz. Same thing with this meme. I think internet fads now occur at such a speed that they can only be observed as they destructively collide with boredom, sending particles of ennui and ascii skittering across a bubble chamber BoingBoing.

So that’s the current, sad state of my attempts at musical exploration. I can legitimately recommend the Annuals album, though (as Caralyn noted here). And hey, you haven’t worked all the way through this list yet, have you?

ALSO MUSICALLY RELATED!: Is that Rhett Miller singing the latest Chili’s commercial? A: Yes, yes it is.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 14th, 2006 at 11:03 pm and is filed under music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.