I need more glockenspiel!

You might not know it from the movie-heavy content here, but music is a major deal in my life. Like fresh breath to The Geek in Sixteen Candles. Maybe some day, in the not-too-distant future, I’ll be able to talk about music (or food, or cars, or the appalling dearth of enlightened political discourse in 21st-century America) without involving movies. Though I can't imagine why I'd want to.

Anyway, the source of my current ersatz tumescence is Page France. And not just because keyboardist / glockenspielerin / cowbellist Whitney McGraw is such a cutie. I really dig their sound. And the video is about as perfect a moment of pure rock-and-roll bliss as I can remember seeing. It’s literally a bunch of kids who decided to get a band together and put on a show in somebody’s basement. Which isn’t to say it’s trifle. Frontman Mike Nau clearly has something to say and a way with words. And I’ve always had a soft spot for twangy, nasal angst that’s equal parts humable and intellectually ingratiating.

Now, here’s the thing about me and music: at this point, I’m well beyond trying to keep up with every new band of the moment. My idea of a hot new act is Franz Ferdinand or Neko Case. I’m just now discovering The Coral, if that tells you anything. Thanks to an Entertainment Weekly subscription and a job that forces me to interact with tragic hipsters ten years my junior, I’m obliquely aware of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and various indie flavors of the month. And every once in a while, I take an interest. But my dance card and my iTunes is mostly full of artists that provided the soundtrack for my youth, peaking at about age 25. Lots of 80s pop and punk. Lots of old-school country. A big ol’ dollop of something loosely defined as “Americana” (which includes the likes of Lyle Lovett, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, The Derailers—basically anything played on WNCW). There’s also a dash of mainstream hip-hop (Outkast) and the occasional guilty pleasure (Pink).

That said, I’m probably a lot more open to new music than people my own age (extremely late 30s). In any case, me taking a shine to a new band—that I didn’t read about in EW or The New Yorker—is a pretty big deal, relatively speaking.

Thanks to Paul at Hee-Haw Marketing and his Tune In Saturdays feature for hipping me to Page France.