They're Baaaaaaaack!

The Strokes "Under the Cover of Darkness"

The Armpit Collection XXXII: Willie Dixon

Willie Dixon - The Chess Box Set

This is one of the best record purchases I've made over the past few years. 3 discs of the finest modern blues, the guy basically wrote everything. A blueprint of the rock n roll that was to come.

The Armpit Collection XII: The Rock n Roll Quartet

Led Zeppelin Song Remains the Same (full version)
The Stooges Fun House
The Rolling Stones Exile on Main Street
The Velvet Underground Loaded

These albums are pieces of a tightly wound (albeit loosely played) version of rhythm and blues based rock n roll - in my mind. This version was created when blues and country were formally being introduced to popular culture. It was cemented by Elvis Presley, climaxed in the mid sixties, exploited in the later sixties and early seventies, and of course was later changed, progressed, shit upon, however you want to see it. I love rock n roll at it's earlier forms, like earlier Armpit entry, Elvis' first RCA record, and I love other types of music that might be labeled as rock n roll, like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon or the Boss' Born to Run, for instance. But it's that exploited period where I find just the right elements of cynicism, romanticism, classicism, any cism you can think of, for my rock n roll. There are many bands who enter popular music culture in an attempt to ride on a wave of great music, some are the wave, like Led Zeppelin or the Stones. And then bands like the Stooges and the Velvet Underground flex greater influence to later generations of musicians, yet their musical output might be placed somewhere else due to the time of their existence. The albums above all came out within a few years of each other, the height of rock n roll exploitation and change. You've got raw-driven-sex rock n roll in the Stooges, expertly-crafted-large rock n roll in Zeppelin, gritty-romantic-self produced rock n roll in the Stones, and self aware-song form experimentation-attitude rock n roll in the VU. All those adjectives are there and they most certainly are rock n roll.