The Joy of Discovery Returns

I remember the first time I heard the beginning of The Pixies' Doolittle. My roomate had just borrowed the tape from someone down the hall and I stopped what I was doing as he pressed play on the stereo. With the first notes, his eyes widened and his jaw slacked. I might as well have been looking in a mirror. We both knew that we had discovered treasure.

Through the years, other albums provoked similar astoundment. But as I grew older, it seemed these treasures were fewer and fewer between. Perhaps the problem is I don't have buddies pointing me toward new music like I used to...nobody's storming into my room with a new album he heard about from someone down the hall.

It's easy to think that as we age, we will never find any good new music. So we fill our mp3 players with the same music that we remember we liked. But all it takes is sense of curiosity and a willingness to explore. Eventually the joy of discovery will return.

Thank goodness for the internet: custom playlists, internet radio, recommendations and what-not. The tools are there for us.

Here are some recent gems I brought back from the wilds:

• Gogol Bordello: Gypsy punk. Eastern European cousin of The Pogues.
• Ted Leo + the Pharmacists: Great jogging music.
• The National (Alligator): A little moody but not too dark. The lyrics keep it interesting.
• Levon Helm (Dirt Farmer): Levon might be setting up a Johnny Cash style comeback.
• The Decemberists: That "baroque" indie pop I've been reading about.

I hope I'm not leaving anyone out. Oh wait. I guess you're wondering about that album cover.

I made a playlist with some music I thought sounded like Vampire Weekend: selections from Paul Simon's Graceland; some Talking Heads; David Byrne; the "riddim" experiments of The Clash, King Sunny Ade. I guess that explains the world music part. But there's also a bit of that baroque pop thing I keep reading about (see above).

This band seems to cause extreme reaction one way or the other. Even though they hardly have their first album out, there's already some Vampire Weekend backlash. My boss saw them on Saturday night Live last week and told me they were terrible. "They don't have any testosterone! They don't even have any estrogen!" I admit that they are not winning over any fans playing live with their weekend-at-the-Hamptons threads. But being that I've listened to the album nearly everyday this month, I've got to give them some credit.