One of my chance discoveries has been Calvin Johnson - the perfect apostle of non-assembly line music. So necessary to have one, wouldn't you agree? Oh, by the way Johnson runs an electronica band too. His eponymous band is his side project. But you wouldn't equate Johnson with anything electronic or "space age-microwave-processed-popular", never that kind of category. He most certainly defies categorization. Instead, please prepare to be startled.
And startled I was. With Rabbit Blood, or I Am Without or Can We Kiss? and his albums - What Was Me or Before the Dream Faded. He got me sitting bolt upright, afraid of his turn of his phrase, the music coming from a dark warm place that had me shouting out the silly anarchic word "soul".
A first parallel - Johnson is what Morrison must have wanted to be I guess. He takes a hard look at the blues, and he delves bodily into poetry, with a droning rich voice that you may suspect is nearly out of tune with his hollow deep strummed guitar.
You'll be tempted to think Johnson's "odd" or eccentric, and you'll be right. He is. So while you make up your mind, here's a cool YouTube playlist to show you the genius of this cool, hip, and spare Washington born artist:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBB84F0590BD59AB4
And startled I was. With Rabbit Blood, or I Am Without or Can We Kiss? and his albums - What Was Me or Before the Dream Faded. He got me sitting bolt upright, afraid of his turn of his phrase, the music coming from a dark warm place that had me shouting out the silly anarchic word "soul".
A first parallel - Johnson is what Morrison must have wanted to be I guess. He takes a hard look at the blues, and he delves bodily into poetry, with a droning rich voice that you may suspect is nearly out of tune with his hollow deep strummed guitar.
You'll be tempted to think Johnson's "odd" or eccentric, and you'll be right. He is. So while you make up your mind, here's a cool YouTube playlist to show you the genius of this cool, hip, and spare Washington born artist:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBB84F0590BD59AB4
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