I'm a really heavy user of Amazon, both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. I remember miserable years, of being a fan of hard to find music,and having to trawl and trawl through record stores - but not any more. Anything than can be bought new, and even more obscure stuff that can be bought second hand, is just a mouse click away now, isn't technology wonderful.
One of the more amazing tricks Amazon does is to recommend you stuff. Most of the recommendations are garbage right enough, what do computers know. But one day when I was looking around on Amazon, this recommendation for a singer that I had never heard of popped up. I must admit, if the cover did not have a picture of Jenny Lewis on it, I might have clicked on by, I am a human male after all! The CD was called "Rabbit Fur Coat by "Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins", I listed to a few samples on Amazon and was impressed enough to risk $15 to buy the CD.
I then accessed the font of all knowledge, Wikipedia, to find out more. This was Jenny Lewis's first solo album, her regular band is called Rilo Kiley. From the description of the band on Wikipedia, they sound like they should be awful! They were formed in LA by two former child actors, Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett, I have no knowledge of the shows they were in. In my experience, actors also being musicians does not regularly work out.
However, I couldn't have been more wrong. I've now bought all three of Rilo Kiley's CD's, as well as Jenny Lewis's new solo effort. Rilo Kiley's latest, "More Adventurous", is a 25 carat classic. On a recent business trip to India, it was never off my iPod. It is a gorgeous mix of musical styles, great intelligent playing, smart lyrics and great singing. The above caption is a lyric from a song on that album, it's called - "The Absence of God". I love the opening track too, it's called "It's a Hit". I love the irony of the lyric, it may have been a hit though, I'm not sure. Anyway, it's another smart 3 minute piece of enjoyment. The first two albums are excellent too.
I bought my first record in 1973 - wow that's 34 years ago, I'm getting old! I used to run home from high school in the very early 1980's, as I was so desperate to hear - "I am the Walrus", I was so obsessed with the song. I wondered sometimes if all my great musical passions were behind me, I spent most of the 1980's and early '90's getting into one band or another, and those bands tended to form the soundtrack of my life in the given year.
But it's been a year or two since I found a new band that really inspired me. So, it's been nice, thanks to Amazon, to find a new band to be passionate about. I feel like an old guy who realises that he can still fall in love.
I'm off now to have a sandwich, then indulge in a guilty pleasure - 24. More on that later. Or maybe not.
Oh and I made it to the Mall today and it was open and actually not too stressful for once. That's mainly too boring to talk about, but I have gone down a waist size in trousers! Wow - see what you can do when you don't drink like the Scots do any more.......
Here are some Rilo Kiley related links -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rilo_Kiley
http://www.rilokiley.com/
http://www.rilokiley.net/
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