The Hear & Now: People who love music, it's time to listen up

I can't remember a day in my life that hasn't been about music. Really, I can't. In some form or fashion, my life has been dedicated to reading about, writing about, listening to, studying, playing, performing, promoting or advocating music.

Ask anyone who knows me. Music is who I am.

I just wish the pay were better.

But money never had anything to do with music for me. I booked shows for decades solely because I wanted it to happen. I didn't care if I made money or not and I have never and will never book a band, artist or performance that I don't personally want to see myself. Making money was never the point. The point is always the music.

And there is a ton of great music out there. I love Nina Simone and Johnny Cash as much as I love "Rock and Roll Over"-era KISS, cumbia music, Konono #1, Slayer, Dale Watson, The NO BS Brass Band or Lee Dorsey. As Duke Ellington once famously said, "There are two kinds of music. Good and the other kind."

People like Madonna make the other kind of music. For the life of me, I can never understand why people think she is talented. While there is no doubt that she is a shrewd businesswoman, I think of her music as a form of torture, the defining narcissistic sound of the soulless 1980s. Worse still, there was no escaping Madonna back in the day. She was everywhere.

You knew her songs if you wanted to or not.

Today, I have no idea what Lady Gaga sounds like. Sure, I am vaguely aware that she exists, but unlike the ruthless tyranny by which Madonna was inflicted upon the masses, I can easily avoid Lady Gaga with a plethora of listening options at my fingertips. She is only in my life if I let her be.

Now that is change I can believe in.

In today's world, media no longer dictate to you, you dictate to them. Radio plays the same 30 songs over and over again? Who cares? I've got 10 million songs on my iPod. MTV? What's that? I watch whatever I want, whenever I want on the Internet. Twenty bucks for a CD? Really? Why would I pay 20 bucks for a CD when I can download it for free?

This is old news. It's been a brave new world for a while now.

As someone who has spent his entire lifetime in and around music, the technological innovations of the modern age have been a welcomed relief from once totalitarian media concerned only with pleasing People magazine readers. While I understand that some people are perfectly content to listen to what they already know, I am not one of those people. I live by the theory that I have yet to hear my favorite band or song.

The Internet was made for people like me. People who love music.

The problem with new media is that they can be overwhelming. That's where I come in. It is my hope to use this precious space to turn you on to music and entertainment you might not otherwise hear about.

Take, for instance, the Black Girls, my favorite Richmond band at the moment. They remind me of Huey Lewis fronting Pavement covering tunes by KC & The Sunshine Band, Parliament and Modest Mouse at a party thrown by Brian Wilson.

Or maybe you are unaware of the one band that if everybody heard it with semi-regularity, the world would be a much better place: Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. She is James Brown, Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin rolled into one and the group's Brooklyn, New York-based label, Daptone Records, is the modern-day equivalent of Motown and Stax/Volt.

And continuing in the vein of music making your life better, here are some more groups and artists of the here and now variety you should check out regardless of your musical preference: The Two Man Gentlemen Band, Meschiya Lake & The Little Big Horns, Fuzzy Baby, Meshuggah, Chica Libre, Dengue Fever, Cigarbox Planetarium.

And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

So ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I hope I can turn you on to your next favorite music. It's what I'm here for.

Chris Bopst has recorded albums and toured with the Alter Natives, Holly Rollers and Mao Tse Helen, hosted a local radio show, booked and promoted shows, written extensively about music and was a founding member of GWAR. He can be reached at chrisbopst@gmail.com.