Ok, now a lot of you are bitching and whining about the state of music these days. Recently I came across a video of Henry Rollins from 1991 saying, "These poor kids! I wouldn't want to be 17 and have to look foreward to Winger!" The same applies today, but replace Winger with Staind or Sum 41 and you get my drift.

The problem is pretty simple. There are about three companies who own pretty much every music store, radio station and music venue in the United States. Therefore, anything that doesn't sell or "move units" is sent the way of the indie label. Now I have nothing against major label bands per se, the Flaming Lips are one of the most daring bands out there and they're on Warners. But the label thing isn't just ruining music, its ruining a generation of music fans, too. Here are a couple of bands and CDs I dig that you may or may not hear on your local rock station that is owned by Clear Channel or Sony.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

Ok, horrible name, culled from a Marlon Brando movie. The band, a trio from San Fransisco, is the young fans of Joy Division, the Church, Jesus and Mary Chain and of course, the Velvet Underground. Noisy, detuned guitars, distorted vocals and heavy, deliberate drums mask the fact that their sound is not that original, but it'sgood to hear a heavy band that Fred Durst doesn't approve of. Or even know about.

If you dig the aforementioned bands you'll love em to death.

New Order Get Ready

These kings of 80s pop are back, this time they are playing TOGETHER (unlike their last release, 1993's messy Republic). Peter Hook's bass is in high gear, while there is actually GUITAR on what is essentially a dance record. Nice to hear. Also check out the new Garbage if you miss rock music you can dance to.

Just a couple examples of what's out there if you know where to look. And I'd appreciate it if somebody would let me know of anything else out there.