I've had so much on my mind lately, both on and off this blog, that only now do I have time to offer a preliminary comment on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class of 2016; my formal comments will come when the class is officially inducted in April. There are five acts being inducted this time, a sore spot being that none of them are female, and all but one of them are classic rock acts; the fifth is a rap group. They are Deep Purple (yes! finally!), Cheap Trick, Chicago, Steve Miller, and the rap group N.W.A.
I can hear the complaints already. N.W.A., whose name does sound like an airline, don't belong in there because rap isn't rock, some say, while others wonder what the hell all those classic rockers are doing in the current Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class when their artistic and cultural influence was minuscule, and influence - not record sales - should be the main criterion for induction. Where were any of these people in 2008, when a certain single-named female non-rocker was inducted for her multi-platinum sales? She did leave a big artistic and cultural impact on pop, though, and we're still trying to dig out of the rubble caused by that meteor.
Plenty to sort out here, but, like I said, I'll wait until spring.
Meanwhile, I forgot to mention one band that gave me hope for rock and roll's future when I complied my winners' and losers' lists for 2015 and named rock and roll as an unlikely winner of the year. I'm talking about Lake Street Dive, a band from Boston - named for the dive bars on Lake Street in Minneapolis, guitarist Mike Olson's hometown - that broke through on the indie level with their 2014 album Bad Self Portraits. The group, fronted by singer Rachael Price (bassist Bridget Kearney and drummer Mike Calabrese round out the group), mixes indie pop with soul and jazz into what could be called a "sophisticated bar sound." (Remember what Elvis Costello said; writing about music is like dancing about architecture.) Perhaps the best way to describe their sound is to refer to this quote from drummer Mike Calabrese: "We want it to sound like the Beatles and Motown had a party together." Well, Lake Street Drive won the lottery in 2015, as Bad Self Portraits led to a good record deal with a major label. So score another win for rock and roll in 2015. Their follow-up LP, Side Pony, is being released on Nonesuch Records in February.
(Lake Street Dive. From left: lead singer Rachael Price, drummer Mike Calabrese, guitarist Mike Olson, bassist Bridget Kearney.)
A couple of caveats, however, are in order. First, Lake Street Dive is not a new band - Side Pony is to be their seventh album, so they're already more like old pros than young Turks about to take the world by storm. Second, their musical influences are likely to be written off by the "kids" who think of the Beatles as that group one of Kanye West's collaborators used to be in and who think Motown is a musical. Third, "Call Off Your Dogs," the first single from the new album, sounds more like Abba and Leo Sayer having a party together (see what Elvis Costello meant?); it's a sound recalling mid-seventies pop rock with a slight touch of disco. Well, to be honest, it's growing on me. But I hope Lake Street Dive don't let mainstream success spoil them to the point where they lose the sound that made them so enjoyable in the first place. So, even if Lake Street Dive go on to great success and keep the momentum of rock and roll's recent resurgence going, it's not going to rescue rock and roll either.
Oh, yeah, I also mentioned in my post of winners and losers lists that you shouldn't blame pop divas or rappers for the lack of decent rock stations in the New York area, but instead should blame the people who run radio conglomerates. That does not mean I am absolving pop and rap stars of any blame for the decline of rock and roll. True, they don't have any more control over radio formats in a given market than you or I have, but their musical influence and their assaults on rock tradition still single them out as enemies of rock, and they must be resisted. Because Ms. Cyrus, Mr. Carter, and Mr. West, while they may not be responsible for rock stations going off the air, probably smile when one does.
How do you resist them? Simple: Buy Lake Street Dive records. :-)
That should at least get Lake Street Dive into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame someday. ;-)
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