If there's one thing I miss about this era in music (its the fact that it didnt suck) its that it was always pleasantly surprising when you met people who recognized the likes of Wolf Parade or Broken Social Scene, but really these acts were immensely popular. People forget how much social currency there was in the obscure band nobody had heard of, and how quickly that become a self-mocking trope. But the fact is that it took time to bulldoze through these huge catalouges of new music that got released and still keep up with all you hadn't already heard. In 2006 there wasn't the kind of suffocating internet consciousness to hammer you for not being totally aware of every Spoon song ever recorded.

There was a thread for this years ago that I reckon got lost in the great pruning. Either way the theme was that an era in music had ended without really anyone noticing or marking the occasion.

Don't you think this dynamic is still taking place, only with new and different bands?

Well, the death of film was that we lost the middle market: everything became either mega-budget blockbusters designed for the Chinese to understand, or shoestring-budget arthouse fare, with nothing in between. Maybe a similar thing happened to music.

Yeah, the movie business sucks. I must be the only dude who can't stand these fucking superhero films. Enough already! I liked Joker and I liked the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy, but everything else you can throw in a big dumpster as far as I'm concerned. We need more 50-80 million dollar budget movies.

I dont think its still the case. People just throw on Spotify playlists and expect to have new music that is algorithmically certain to be at least somewhat enjoyable. Nobody goes scouring through the depths of OiNK (RIP) or giant directories of mediafire/megaupload links anymore. And the forum culture that surrounded sharing those links is dead. There was something to finding things for yourself.

That said, Spotify sometimes puts me in touch with music that couldn't be more spot on and when I go digging for more I'm at a loss for how they made the connection. Forgive me for missing U.N.P.O.C.'s moment in the sun two decades ago, but Spotify somehow found that and put me in touch with something that I surely wouldn't have ever encountered otherwise.

The problem is that Spotify is so good and so ubiquitous that its crushing any other way of finding new music.

Wasn't the garage rock scene in 2002 kind of the beginning of the end for rock in general? I loved that period. The Strokes, The Vines, The Hives, White Stripes, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, the Thrills etc... Too much music sounds the same these days. Is it the record labels or are kids too addicted to their smartphones to bother with guitars?

Absolutely not. The best album of 2020 will probably be by Fiona Apple. The best album of 2019 was by David Berman. No one's stepping up, it's the same people hanging on. Except Berman, because he killed himself.

I think when someone looks back on 2020 ten years from now, Fiona Apple's album will not be considered to be the best album of the year. There's some new band out there that is going to release a dynamic album that' s going to prove to be more important and have more staying power than an album put out by an artist that's been release albums for over 20 years.

Indie Rock will be dead because all the venues that cater to them will no longer exist.

I didn't really get into the Shins. I think for me their "yep, that's a 2000s indie band, all right" lane is occupied by Spoon. I loved "So Now What," but I think that was really more the Shins impersonating the Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev. And "New Slang," but everyone loves that one, it's in a classic Sopranos scene and everything.

Chutes Too Narrow is a remarkable album.

I dont think its still the case. People just throw on Spotify playlists and expect to have new music that is algorithmically certain to be at least somewhat enjoyable. Nobody goes scouring through the depths of OiNK (RIP) or giant directories of mediafire/megaupload links anymore. And the forum culture that surrounded sharing those links is dead. There was something to finding things for yourself.

That said, Spotify sometimes puts me in touch with music that couldn't be more spot on and when I go digging for more I'm at a loss for how they made the connection. Forgive me for missing U.N.P.O.C.'s moment in the sun two decades ago, but Spotify somehow found that and put me in touch with something that I surely wouldn't have ever encountered otherwise.

The problem is that Spotify is so good and so ubiquitous that its crushing any other way of finding new music.

Beulah's When Your Heartstring's Break is maybe THE record I forgot existed. Why did I let that happen!?