Brendan BensonGenre: Rock / Alternative Rock/ Power Pop
From: Nashville, Tennessee, United States
The music business is a fickle mistress. Before his collaboration with Jack White in the Raconteurs Brendan Benson's solo career wasn't exactly lighting fires. His debut album, One Mississippi, was released in 1996 on Virgin Records but despite critical acclaim sold less copies than a Paris Hilton covers album and he was unceremoniously dumped by Virgin. His subsequent two albums, Lapalco and The Alternative to Love, fared a little better but the world refused to be set alight. Then came The Raconteurs and bam the world recognises the name.
Back in August Brendan released his fourth solo album My Old, Familiar Friend to a much larger, more eager audience. Funny that isn't it. His music hasn't got any better, it's always been good, it's fame by association. While it's great that his solo work is now getting the attention it deserves and he's recruited an army of fair-weather fans it's sadly symptomatic of a society where the corporates can whack a celebrity name on any old product ramp the price up and the hordes of sleepwalking sheep buy it.
Go Try
MP3 - Brendan Benson - Garbage Day (Live)
MP3 - Brendan Benson - Tiny Spark (Live)
If anyone from the IFPI is reading this track is published with the permission of Banter Media & Management so please refrain from alleging infringement of copyright.
Go Visit
Brendan Benson - Myspace // Website // Last.FM
Go View
Brendan Benson
Whole Lot Better
2 comments:
i think that's really an unfair classification to make. i hardly consider myself one of the sheep when it comes to music, but i hadn't heard of brendan benson prior to his work with the raconteurs. once i heard him in the raconteurs and liked his voice and his melodic tunes, i explored his other work - same as i did with the greenhornes and blanche, other bands that members of the raconteurs play with. just because i, like many others, hadn't been aware of benson's career before he worked with jack white doesn't make us "sheep" to enjoy his work now. i think that most music fans would agree - they get turned on to music through extensions of their current taste and sometimes by accident. jack white is high on my list of favorites - so i always give a listen to people he works with, whether as a producer or as a bandmate. sometimes i like it and sometimes i don't. benson is one that i like - and i think that many other people stumbled upon his work through the raconteurs too. that's not a bad thing, and it's certainly not an insult to benson's talents. if i only listened to bands that had huge exposure in the mainstream radio and media, i shudder to think what my playlists would contain.
The point was aimed more at the corporates who treat the public as sheepwalking sheep by banging a celebs name on a record rather than investing time money and effort on new and interesting young bands. Like you I have also discovered a lot of music by following the musical tastes of my favourite bands. You are not one of the sheep my friend.
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