Welcome To College – Brian’s Next Step Music Primer

Here at Way Past College we’ve been noticing a alot  of hits being generated by the search engine phrase “music to listen to on the way to college” so Mike and I have decided to create a short primer in terms for those new freshman heading off to school for the first time, especially those looking to expand their musical horizons.  Think of this as a first step if you’re looking to break into the college radio scene on your campus or you’re just looking for some new tunes to spice things up a bit. 

If you’re into the Beatles now, try checking out The Velvet Underground.  The styles aren’t all that similar but just as the Beatles are the ground work for most “popular” guitar based music, VU really set the pace for the more avant garde sect, listening to their music will lead you towards other artists that you maybe wouldn’t have discovered if you just listened to Sgt. Pepper for the next four years. 

A lot of people think The Clash, The Ramones and The Sex Pistols are the pinnacles of punk rock, but there is so, so much more out there to discover.  If you like the stuff from across the pond check out Wire, the Buzzcocks and Gang of Four.  For the American side there’s always The Minutemen, Husker Du, Black Flag and of course Fugazi, never, ever underestimate the power that is Fugazi. 

If you’re really into Wilco but wish they were just a little more raw and experimental then you should really check out Califone.  All of their records are really fantastic but a good starting point is their newest album Roots and Crowns.   A great bonus included in checking out Califone is tracing the band back to where it started as Red Red Meat and going through their back catalogue, not mention fellow RRM splinter group Sin Ropas, a band criminally  overlooked by sites like Pitchfork. 

As much as I hate to admit it people do seem to really like the Dave Matthews Band.  You may be one of them, I hope you’re not, but if you are and you’re looking for something a little different, check out Built to Spill, they’re jammy but they aren’t too loose and they don’t really write anything that could be considered a love song.  You can’t really sway to them either, which, for me, is a plus.

Watered down Weezer seems to be bubbling up again (kind of like it did when I first went to college, weird) just leave those records at home.  Seriously.  Go pick up some Pavement albums, get your hands on Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and if you want to go back further you’ll find the Pixies and if you’re really feeling into those two go try some Guided by Voices.  Those three bands should give you a really solid base to build off of if you’re looking to get into indie music that isn’t Death Cab For Cutie or Vampire Weekend. 

Of course kids these days are hipper than when I took off for school so you all already know about Animal Collective and Arcade Fire.  Well how about going the other way to see where those bands cull their sounds from?  People will tell you Animal Collective is the most original band in the world but don’t listen to that, they’re good, I love their music, but you’ll find a lot of what they’re doing in the older Mercury Rev records like Boces and Yerself Is Steam, not to mention that Deserter’s Songs is amazing.  You can hear a lot of what the Arcade Fire is doing percussion/rhythm wise in the Talking Heads first two records, and from the Heads you can get into Eno and from Eno you’ll find yourself listening to some ambient stuff, just be careful, don’t overload yourself.

Everyone likes Radiohead right?  Well, check out Spiritualized and then tell me that Ok Computer is better than Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space. 

This could go on for a while so I’m going to end with a few quick hits:

Forget Vampire Weekend and listen to The Unicorn’s “Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone?”
Ditch the Sunset Rubdown and check out Frog Eyes
Forget the last two Modest Mouse record and check out the first three.
The Same with The Flaming Lips except check out their entire 90’s oeuvre.

Remember this list is mostly just for fun, there’s obviously no way I can know what you’re going to like or dislike, but if you’re really interested in music and want to find new things hopefully some of these suggestions will be helpful.  Oh, and if you’re reading this right now with a sneer and muttering to yourself about how you already know about all of these bands then its time to move on to This Heat, Silver Apples, Pere Ubu, Spacemen 3 and The Red Krayola, god speed.

~ by bgosling on August 15, 2008.