Hear This Not That: Maligned Musicians

 

This summer, I have been spending less time listening to the big summer jams (the Mileys, Get Luckies, and Blurred Lines of the world), and more times exploring random artists who I have previously ragged on, or at least never got the full picture on. The three artists listed have all had their moment in the spotlight as sort of one-hit or some-hit wonders or as some sort of other pop culture entity. So I thought why not advice you away from their sugary and dangerous options and towards their better, healthier songs. So here’s another installment of Hear This Not That.

This NOT That: Defeating Relentless Radio-play

The car that I have recently been driving these days unfortunately does not have a good way to play an iPod. Thus, I have gotten back in the routine of listening to the radio a bit more regularly. And I use the word routine very intentionally. Radio stations are nothing if not routine. They have simply just become a cesspool of the same stinking few songs with their insignificantly tiny and terrible playlists. It is hard to find any sort of real variety or anything of real substance on the air at all. Although this does come in handy when I am in my Ke$ha, T-Swift, Katy Perry moods (which let’s face it, I’m always in the mood for these ladies), the rest of my times on the radio seem to be confusing and frustrating. Even classic rock stations have such small playlists, that it makes them unbearable to listen too regularly. So, in an effort to rid us of these stale, repetitive tunes, I will now direct my frustrations into another segment of “This NOT That”.

This NOT That: Looking Sharpe

I have been listening to a lot of Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros lately, as well as other Alexander Ebert Projects (which include his other band, Ima Robot, and his solo work, Alexander).  In all honesty, I am not sure there has been a busier man in music the past 3-4 years.  In that span, he has released two Magnetic Zeros albums, two Alexander albums, and one Ima Robot album.  Averaging over an album per year is a truly impressive feat, particularly when the end product has gotten consistently better (especially with his Edward Sharpe persona), culminating in the latest Magnetic Zeros album, Here.  I’ve only been listening to it for a couple weeks, so I thought it a little late in the game to review (it came out months ago), but thought I could hit on a couple recent Alexander Ebert songs, as well as a couple older ones, in another edition of This NOT That.

NOTE:  for those of you that are not familiar, This NOT That is a format where we take lackluster currently charting tracks, and replace them with more easily digestible alternatives.  Check out our last two entries in the series here and here.

This NOT That: Songs for Summer

Summer is just around the corner, and the heat has even peaked its head a little early (at least here in the Midwest). Summer is a great time for music, from all the big music festivals, outdoor concerts, to just driving with windows down and the music blasted, summer is pretty hard to beat. So here is another installment in our This NOT That series – offering healthier options for some of the more harmful songs from the Billboard charts.

This NOT That: The Healthy Choice

While doing some light reading out of his wife’s diet magazines one evening, Wes discovered a brilliant scheme for us to rip off for a new LxL segment. Thus, today I am bringing you LxL’s first of many, “This NOT That” write-ups. Basically, we take a quick look at what is topping the charts and offer alternatives that we believe are healthier, more choice options for our readers to be listening too. Our goal is to trash a bit on the modern rubbish that is currently out-performing a few of the lesser-known, yet better options. So below are three selections from the current “Top 40” lists that I thought were especially appalling. One single, one album, and one music video. Let’s talk healthy listening …