Rock. Is. Not. Dead. (Pt 1)

                                       photo by Bertrand used under creative commons    

by Tzarathustra

For a while there it was thought we'd soon be awash in great music as technology liberated the masses of bands that were waiting to break out. Then came years of computer music as technology liberated nothing so much as its self and rock music was purportedly on life support. 

This series is my justification that rock and roll is not dead, or 

even close to it. The kids may not want loud guitars anymore, but 

there are isolated enclaves of dirty rockers doing their thing. I'll 

admit that there is probably no rock revolution waiting to storm the 

gates of pop culture because that's not the world we live in 

anymore, but there are a ton of great bands out there toiling away 

in obscurity, doing it because they have to just to get it out 

somehow, just waiting for people to listen to the great things 

they're doing. 

What will follow are the ones that I've stumbled across lately. It's all heavily indebted to the blues in various ways, as all good rock 

music is. It's dirty and loud and satisfying, as all good rock music 

is. Everyone keeps pondering how we're going to save rock and roll, 

but they're looking at it backwards. We don't save rock and roll. 

Rock and roll saves us.

First up is The Blackwater Fever from Australia. Somewhere between the bluesy riffing of the Black Keys' early days and the psychedelic sludge alternative of Soundgarden and Monster Magnet 90s alternative