Black Lipstick...

Sometimes you just need a little dirty rock in your life. Sometimes that need is filled by a band like Daimond Nightsbut other times it needs to be a bit more unkempt. You know, a little sloppy, ragged. unhinged, more Velvet Underground than Van Halen, more Sticky Fingers than Pet Sounds. Lately that particular bill has been filled by Sincerely, Black Lipstick by Black Lipstick. Both the VU reference and the Stones reference are apt starting places for these guys. But I can also hear REM (they probably wouldn't admit it) and the driving drone pop overtones of Luna. There's also a nice boy-girl vocal interplay on some of the songs that has a charming kind of we-can't sing-great-but-here-we-go-anyway attitude.

From Sincerely, Black Lipstick

Grandma Airplane

Also check out this excellent review over at Coke Machine Glow. It's not the review of the music as much as the discussion of the current nature of music consumption that's so striking. I've been feeling this for awhile, the tendecy to consume music in large amounts due to availability but never falling deeply in love with any of it because it feels like we need to rush on to the next thing. I guess it's self critical to a certain degree since I do write a music blog, music reviews, band interviews, etc. I do miss that feeling I had when I was young of sitting down in my room with a record (let's say The Specials The Specials) and deveouring it, playing it over and over, reading the lyrics, being %100 committed to the idea of it. I suppose part of that had to do with money being hard to come by thus making purchases much more important, but a lot of it had to do with the fact that it was hard to find out about bands so when you found one you latched on like a pitbull. Is music, particularly "alternative" and "indie-rock", turning into an episode of Short Attention Span Theater? There's lots of quality music out there and that shouldn't be a problem, it should be as blessing. But perhaps the total unfettered access to it ends of being detrimental. Than there's the whole issue of trophy records. Albums that are purchased based on buzz but are never loved or listened to with extended admiration. Instead they're name dropped into conversations as if they were celebrity sightings, worn like badges of hipness but not loved or deeply appreciated. I try to be engaged with the music I post here at Bars & Guitars but sometimes I'm guilty of playing this game or worse propagating it. So I may slow down my posts a little. I've always shot for 5 a week, but maybe 3 updates a week would allow me to better present the music to you good reader. Just something to think about. We'll see. I'm not going back and proofreading all that spittle so please forgive the typos.