I am a huge lover of music. I listen to music for the better part of most days, and not just passively. I think our generation, largely, has gotten into the habit of listening to music in the background. And we've been brought up on such fucking crap that it's no surprise. I think that the early nineties and beyond was largely a black hole for American popular culture with music suffering the worst. Rock stagnated utterly in the wake of the death of Cobain and the epic grunge scene, Rap struggled with the loss of Biggie and Pac, and alas, BoyBands exploded in popularity. I spent all of high school listening to classic rock because it simply had more to offer than what was being produced at the time.

Well I am glad to say that I think we have entered into a new age of musical innovation. Once again, artists are pushing the aesthetic limits of popular musical genre, and engaging music as an intellectual medium like never before. 90% of the music I listen to these days was made in the last couple of years, and I am sincerely happy about it as it was weird to be disillusioned with the music of my generation, only an inheritor of the antiquated (but still excellent) 60's/70's rock that my parents grew up with.

Anyhow, all that being said, I'd like to share a few songs that have really impressed me recently.

It's very rare that I hear a song on the radio with any kind of positive reaction. I'll listen to lil 'wayne when I'm driving, but not happily! Anyhoo, I did, indeed hear this song on the radio for the first time a few weeks ago. It's amazing. At first I was sure it was Thom Yorke, but it turns out to be a band called Civil Twilight. I know nothing about them, but it's really consonant, cool music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bWeffwX6JM

Speaking of Thom Yorke, this is probably my favorite of his recent works. The video is worth a watch too as it is aesthetically similar to his music (minimalism, embedded with tremendous intelligence):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wepAxJ6BN30

Kid Cudi is the future of hip hop. This dude is SO SICK. Fuck the worn out Cash Money/Hos trope of Rap; bring on the existentialism, the vulnerability, the confusion, the unquenchable SPIRIT! I could, and do, listen to his new album, the Man on the Moon from beginning to end on a regular basis. This is my favorite track:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1t5kZPVt7M

Enjoy. If you guys like this kind of stuff, I would be happy to keep offering song selections with some meditations included.