All tagged essays
There’s not much chance to turn around until you reach Cedar Key, which looks exactly as you might imagine it: Everything built out of that dark, weathered wood. You see kids with coolers selling various morsels like oysters and clams on the side of the road. You drive on bridges running over muddy shoals. This article first appeared on darrenwhitecreative.com on Feb. 11, 2013.
I watched Yacht Rock: A Documentary on Max this weekend, and I thought it would make for a good opportunity to reflect on this odd little subgenre that has become its own cottage industry over the last decade or so. The documentary focuses on a certain type of bouncy, smooth adult contemporary music popular in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. This is the music that filled radio airwaves right after Motown’s classic era ended and right before MTV changed image-making in music forever.
For me, the answer is easy – I don’t have any other marketable skills. I am unfit for manual labor (tried that), my math skills are remedial (that means bad) and I’m too honest for sales (didn’t get past the interview). Writing keeps the lights on, even if they aren’t burning brightly.
Japandroids released their fourth and final record, Fate & Alcohol, last week and so it seems like a good time to write about this band, the emotions their music stirred in listeners and who at least one of those listeners was.
