Beau the Rocker: More amazing songs you may enjoy!

I think it's awesome just how much great indie rock there is out there during this very decade. Call me stuck in the past, but I've lamented as recently as 2011 over the dearth of original, moving rock n roll being created. I must say my ears simply were not open enough. Indie rock over the last 4 years has taken on a decidedly upbeat, electro-influenced vibe hearkening back to the 80's (My own band The Strangelights included), which seems like the natural say of the eternal musical pendulum. While The Smiths I hold in the highest regard because they were a sort of response to the overly synthesized, bouncy constant of early 80's Pop rock (The New Romantics and the Post-New Wavers bringing an almost fake embracing of their gender-twisted stylings to blend seamlessly with the very simulated nature of synthesized music). The Smiths' very credence was in fundamental opposition to the cheerful yet dissatisfying sound and look of the day. And thus was birth of Modern Indie Rock. The Smiths went back to the 4-piece basics of a rock n roll ensemble (obviously not the groundbreaking aspect of their importance, nevertheless it was a clear signal to the intelligent music-making masses that the old instrumentation was indeed sacred and still had much to offer the world). The groundbreaking and forever beckoning aspect of their rise was the way in which Morrissey's movingly deep, hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking lyrics coalesced with the sound so joyous and fulfilling that Johnny Marr unleashed. It was a magical partnership reminding us of the days of the Gershwin brothers, Lennon and McCartney and Leiber and Stoller, but fresh in its sudden and surprising convergence. That Morrissey brought his own far more literate spin to gender politics and sexuality, previously "flirted" with by the Durans and the Boy Georges, along with The Smiths distinct and keen cultivation of their visual presentation (Stunning 60's Movie posters as record covers, Morrissey's singular style), The Smiths ascended to their important place in the History of Rock N Roll. Many critics and musical historians agree they begot a the new era of alternative rock n roll for the world while infiltrating the British music world (whereas one could say that REM's emergence in the college rock scene of the US was of parallel importance). When I site the fact that England's equivalent to Rolling Stone - the NME once heralded the Smiths as the most important band in the history of music (even over The Beatles and Led Zeppelin), most casual rocknrollers are in immediate suspicion. But I really do believe that just as The Beatles took genres that were being honed and built up for years prior to their assimilation of them - the Beatles brought rock n roll proper, psychedelic rock, even hard rock to it's popular zenith through unequaled song writing. Well, just as they provided that gift to the world of music The Smiths have equal importance in "bringing up the rear" of rocknroll. Meaning they incorporated all that had previously been the ancestors of indie rock (The proto-punk of The Velvet Underground and Patty Smith, the glam of Bowie and T-Rex, the lush psychedelic textures of Love and Tim Buckley along with the woebegone pleadings of the less popular and more dark 60's girl groupers like Dusty Springfield and Sandy Shaw) and gave the future artistically stricken rock bands a template as to the path one could take not sacrificing their artistic vision, all the while unifying a huge and important sector of the music listening public, which would eventually be properly and somewhat ironically lumped into one group: that of Indie Rock. Thank you Smiths! On that note, rather then extol the glories of my favorite band further - if you haven't lost yourself in their startlingly brief collection of albums yet, the proper format in which to delve into their works is via their 4 proper studio albums, not on youtube. (Can you think of another group that packed so much brilliance and lasting importance into a career spanning merely four years?) I'd like to share with you a bunch of awesome new indie and alternative rock songs I've been jamming out to. Let us immerse ourselves into the glories of music's now! I'm ditching my begone-days musical snobbery in favor of a more inclusive excitement about the present and future of rock n roll!

"Moondagger" by Deastro