Anti Music with Jonathan Richman

This year, I’m grateful for a friend turning me on to Jonathan Richman. He embodies a sound I’ve been searching for all my life. Just now, I was thinking of his performances as a kind of revolt against punk. He completely rejects the technology and the posturing of pop music. So here’s a little taste as I promise to write more about why I’m calling his music “anti-music,” when it’s really some of the purest/rawest music I’ve ever heard. Be sure to stick around for the Ice Cream Man song to get going around 2:05.

Notice how he abandons the microphone at what I would argue are some of the high points of his songs in the live clip, above. It’s like there’s no way for the microphone to contain the joy he wants to convey, so he just draws his audience in even further by letting the sound drop away–and you just get pulled into the childish joy of the music making–that is unless you are too cool for school.

‘It’s still summer to me’ thanks to the lingering warmth and the ridiculous smile this music has given me these last 5 months. Some of my annoyingly awesome favorites: