Brothers.

My little brother and I have a musical bond. There is, of course, the standard sibling bond as well, primarily embodied by the phrase "rack of lamb," but that's another post. The musical thing, though, was engendered by that holiest of eras, The 80's. And it mostly happened during the 80's. None of the johnny-come-lately stuff for us, nosirree.

This musical bond was also assisted by the presence in the greater Hartford (CT) area of several rather good college radio stations -- WRTC, WWUH, WESU, WFCS, (on a good day, if you were more southwest than
northeast - WXCI), and of course WHUS, where I even did a couple of stints as a staff DJ. (I'd also DJ-ed at WCCX when I was in college, but let's just say that my musical tastes were less than fully developed at the time.) With coverage like that, there was almost always a chance to find a show playing some great non-commercial punk/new wave/indie music.

In Arms

My brother and I often talk about "what's new" musically, and he's asked me more than once "how do you find new stuff?" (Is Hartford devoid of good college radio these days or does he live too far out in the boonies to get a good signal?) I guess I find it checking out things like Paste Magazine, or Starbucks compilations (yeah, yeah, so sue me), or from other people.

Like last week, on my way to the airport, I was listening to The Kings of Convenience, Quiet Is The New Loud. I'd been introduced to KoC by my ex, who was very much into what I guess is described as the "new folk" genre, primarily of the female singer songwrite type, but with occasional forays into something including a Y chromosome or two.

So when I went to see my brother last summer, I made sure to have a lot of my newer discs with me. We ended up one evening having to tear apart his washing machine, and decided it was a good time for music, so I grabbed Quiet Is The New Loud from my bag. It was "newer" then, and different, and I just thought it would go over well. I put it into the boombox and hit play. The first notes of guitar came out, then the gentle harmonies of Erland Oye and Eirik Glambek Boe.

"Oh," said my brother, "Simon and Garfunkel."



I didn't even bother with The Postal Service.