Every once and awhile you stumble upon some band you consider “the best new s—t you’ve heard in a while.” I find that I make claims like this with considerable frequency. It’s something that has started to bother me more and more lately, so in the spirit of self-loathing, I’m going to have at it.
One possible explanation for the overabundance of claims along the lines of “it’s the best thing I’ve heard in awhile,” is that the overall amount of media we can consume is so massive (thanks to the internet machine) that the frequency of stumbling upon something that is good in a genuine way is so marginal that when we come across something that is even halfway decent we cling to it for dear life.
This is bulls—t. Believe me, I’m as accountable as any of you other clowns for making assertions such as “it’s the only new music that matters.” While such statements carry some meaning, asserting them with such frequency seems to take away from the novelty of finding an artist whose work truly makes you feel like you’ve discovered something honest and genuine (I keep using that word like a shmuck). At its core, it is boy-who-cried-wolf syndrome.
Consider this the beginning of a new era. From now on such assertions will be saved for only when I really mean it; for when I really feel like I’ve uncovered something that makes me feel like no band or artist has before.
On that note, let me tell you about Milk Music. They’re the best new s—t around.
Milk Music could have been plucked out of some grungy 1980s basement and put through a filter of everything that was great about the psychedelic revival of the 1990s, sent from the past to rescue us from making false claims about “the best band I’ve heard in awhile.”
They are the best band you will have heard in awhile. With only two releases, last year’s Beyond Living and a live EP recorded earlier this year, Milk Music is elusive in the way a great up and coming independent rock outfit should be.
Drawing from influences such as Dinosaur Jr., Nirvana, Sonic Youth and Neil Young, Milk Music are exactly what the independent music scene needs right now, exactly the kind of people that founded the independent music scene back in the 1980s, slackers.
I’m torn between wishing that they stay under the radar long enough to keep making music the way they cut their first two releases, and wishing they get the recognition they deserve so everyone can hear what I have heard in listening to them (vindication!), the best new s—t around.
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