Kevin Moist

KM kicks things off

It seems like just last week we were putting the finishing touches on our "Best of 06" columns, yet here we are again trying to make sense of another four seasons of musical output. In retrospect, it seems like I didn't really come across a lot of new music that was breathtakingly new this year, but I did hear plenty of stuff that pleased my ears just fine. Like my friend Tony Dale (below), I'll call it a year of consolidation and expansion rather than revolutionary advance, but I don't think that's a bad thing at all; refining and extending are worthwhile steps that easily can be forgotten in the midst of today's constant mania for novelty.

I've always been a pretty firm believer in Sturgeon' s Law, the postulate credited to science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon that "90% of everything is crud" - a number that, in today's user-generated media world, might seem even higher. But I think the percentages are holding pretty steady, it's just that the sheer volume of stuff out there has jumped exponentially in recent years. Which is a great (if sometimes exasperating) thing for dedicated music fans (though perhaps not for their bank accounts), since it means that the overall amount of genuinely creative sound production has also exploded. Certainly the ability to self-release and virtual-distribute one's own music has made it possible for folks who wouldn't have gotten a second glance from most conventional "record labels" to spread their sounds to similarly-minded others

If there's a drawback to the ongoing deluge of musical riches in this microlabel networked post-whatever age, it would have to be the sheer difficulty of keeping up with all the wondrous and varied sounds emerging from all corners of the geo-musical spectrum. It's just too damn easy for quality to fall through the cracks, especially if it's not aligned with a currently "hip" label or scene (and yes, scene-herd thinking is as alive and well on the undergrounds as anywhere else). Take, for instance, Norman, OK's Anvil Salute, whose stellar second CDR release New Crusaders of the 11^th Commandment sat in a pile beside my stereo for nearly five months before I finally got around to hearing it - at which point it immediately shouldered its way into a spot on my best-of-2006 favorites list - and

Among a whole weekend of high musical points, one of our favorite experiences at last April's Terrastock 6 in Providence, RI was the festival's opening set by Tanakh. Their recently-released CD Ardent Fevers had really spun our heads, & it ended up being one of the real recorded highlights of 06. Tony Dale summed up our feelings in his 06-roundup rave, calling it "a sensory overload of songwriting classicism and rock dynamics, tightly controlled pop-songs and explosive guitar freak-outs ... Shattering the paradigm of the psychedelic underground, Ardent Fevers is a release that deserved to be heard by millions." So we were especially interested to see how they would work this stuff live, and fought our way through various (mostly self-created) potholes to be sure we were at the AS220 club in time for them to take the stage.

KM up first

The practice of looking back on a previous year's cultural output seems to be almost a necessary ritual among those who pay attention to such things, but 2006 highlighted a whole range of developments that make such attempts harder and harder to countenance and conceptualize. In music especially, most of my serious-listening friends and acquaintances seem to agree that this past year was one real damn doozy, and even kind of dizzying in some regards. The sheer abundance of music (available via microlabels, self-releases, downloads in addition to the usual channels) made it nearly impossible for any individual to keep up with new developments in any but the smallest corner of the world of sound. Plus, I mean, the whole concept of time as a linear count-up and count-down thing is starting to get pretty fuzzy in our

Y'know, it's kinda surprising that a publication located as far off the main highways as Deep Water Acres still receives a significant amount of music sent our way for possible review. We're mighty grateful for it though, yes we are. There's just such an explosion in creative independent music-making nowadays, and thanks to technological advances so much more of it is available/findable than ever before, that it can be a real bear to keep up with it all. We do try to stay on top of things, but making time even for the music we've spent our hard-earned money on (or traded a chicken for, or whatever) can be a big enough challenge, let alone sorting through all the surprises that arrive in the mail. Now, it's only fair to note that some of those items don't necessarily fit within our particular purview, though we're still thankful for the chance to hear ‘em. But at least a few do hit us right where we live (here, that would be), and so we'd like to take this opportunity to spill a few words in their honor.