TVD First Date | ...with Drew Smith's Lonely Choir

I mean, he's got a song called "Nilsson Sings Newman" for chrissakes. Could there be a better fit for a "First Date"?

"Thank you Jon and TVD for sharing my music with your readers.

I am first and foremost a fan of good music - melodies, writing, arrangements, and production that don't belong to any particular era or category other than just plain good music. As a music listener, I believe there was a ton of amazing music recorded in the 1970's. Spending a lifetime trying to discover it all would not be enough. I still buy vinyl because I believe it is the only way to have a completely fulfilling listening experience. However, I am not a purist. I will listen to the iPod on long car rides, and I believe there are modern bands still left to discover with influences in the right places.

I absolutely fell in love with Harry Nilsson about 4 years ago. I still don't have all of his albums because each one I get is like a black hole that turns my world upside down, crumples me up, and spits me out into a completely different view of my surroundings. The intensity of my fascination will probably subside. It did with Van Morrison, The Beatles, The Kinks, Neil Young and so on, but the pure thrill of having another superhero in my music collection is enough to make some question my priorities.

"Nilsson sings Newman" is my favorite album. It has affected me more than any piece of art ever has, and I am not sure that I will have the joy of discovering something as influential to my artistic life ever again. I dare not emulate it, but I did write about it in a song of the same name.

I hope to capture in my own writing some of the same moments that I look for in other musicians' work. I aim to have sincerity, and I hope that it finds you. Thanks much for listening. Best, Drew"

Drew Smith's Lonely Choir - Nilsson Sings Newman (Mp3)
Drew Smith's Lonely Choir - NYC Song (Mp3)
Drew Smith's Lonely Choir - Travel My Dark Road (Mp3)

TVD's Daily Wax

Via Wiki: "Post-punk was a popular musical movement in the mid to late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the early 1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental. Post-punk laid the groundwork for alternative rock by broadening the range of punk and underground music, incorporating elements of Krautrock (particularly the use of synthesizers and extensive repetition), Jamaican dub music (specifically in bass guitar), American funk, studio experimentation, and even punk's traditional polar opposite, disco, into the genre.

It found a firm place in the 1980s indie scene, and led to the development of genres such as gothic rock, industrial music and alternative rock. Post-punk's biggest influence remains in the vast variety of sounds and styles it pioneered, many of which proved very influential in the later alternative rock scene."

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that among these handful of songs, a bridge was built from 'punk' to 'post punk'. Not these songs specifically and/or in this particular order, but there's a maturation process here that begins say, with Gen X and traverses that bridge via Wire and The Cure, and gets us to Gang of Four with a late night butt wiggle via Ian Dury. (Am I over-caffeinated this morning?)

Generation X - Ready Steady Go (Mp3)
Ian Dury & The Blockheads - Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (Mp3)
Wire - Surgeon's Girl (Mp3)
The Cure - Boys Don't Cry (Mp3)
Gang of Four - Love Like Anthrax (Mp3)