Are you listening to any good new music? If so, I want to hear about it in the comments section. It's Friday, and here's the good new music that I am listening to:

Band of Horses--Compliments
Delta Spirit--Bushwick Blues
Brandon Flowers--Crossfire
The National--Bloodbuzz Ohio
Arcade Fire--Ready to Start

Why listen to new music at all? Instead, listen to old music you aren't familiar with. Most of the new music is heavily derivative of prior decades. Search out the great, relatively unknown bands of the past eras. For example, you like hard rock. You maybe have some Black Crowes records. You admit they sound a lot like Led Zeppelin, but the Zep are not making any new product. You settle for the knock off, the plastic imitation. Don't. Explore the world of late 1960s/early 1970s hard rock and discover the forgotten great bands, who may well have influenced Zeppelin. Or even been plundered by them. For example, Spirit. Those early Jeff Beck / Rod Stewart records. Heard those? Very few Zep fans have. There's a treasure trove of past classics waiting to be rediscovered. Choose the venerable but authentic over the novel but imitative. The dogmatic pursuit of novelty for its own sake has always been a symptom of declining standards in the arts, you know.

All of these songs will be featured in "indie" movies that I will hate.

This is why I listen and watch less and less. There is little real content left to care about.

Now that says one of two things: either I'm getting old, or I have excellent taste.

But I salute Mr. Flynn for attempting to elevate us beyond the status quo.

delta spirit's song is awesome, as is the National's