Pop II

I do have a newfound appreciation for a different kind of pop. Pop music.

As I posted a few days ago I thought the Modest Mouse CD was kind of fun to listen to. For Emily's birthday I bought me, I mean her, the most recent Beastie Boys and Guster CDs.

The Beastie Boys will always have a special place in any 30something's heart. I haven't heard the whole CD yet, but so far it sounds like their standard output, which is always a good thing. I read a preview for the Beastie Boys concert in the Twin Cities a few years back. I believe I was reading the City Pages. The Beastie Boys were touring with Tribe Called Quest. The preview said something to the effect that those two bands represent what mainstream rap music would be like if it hadn't been overtaken by police helicopters and womanizing. I don't know enough about rap to know if this is true or not, but it sounds plausible to me.

The reason I haven't heard much of the Beastie Boys CD is because I've been busy listening to the Guster CD. It reminds me a lot of another Boston trio, called Buffalo Tom, which is still rocking along and going strong. Guster is a lot more mellow and the law of diminishing returns isn't as dramatic for me when I listen to Guster. I go from really liking Buffalo Tom (and wondering why I don't play their CDs more) from being sick of them in about five songs. But I could listen to Guster all day.

I have been in a music-listening rut lately. I unconciously found myself listening to Texas musicians only for the past 12 months. Now I'm on this pop music kick. It's kind of refreshing, in ways that soda pop are not.