Do You Know Cressida; Or Why I Enjoy New, Old Music More Than Just New Music

Like Monday's post, today's entry started out as one thing, but slowly became another.

I'll explain, starting with the second thought.

I don't recall who said this, or what context, but someone recently offered the idea that listening to new music has become a chore. I can relate. 2019 has so far, been less than a thrilling time for new music. Each day, I try to find inspiration, hoping to discover something and then introduce it to you, as I did last week with Luther Russell. As it turned out, the guy's been around for years. I read Mojo, Uncut, Shindig, Stereogum, all with the hopes of finding that next best thing. Lately, I've come up empty. And it's not only frustrating, but time consuming and quite frankly, no fun. It's a chore.

The most fun I have listening to music, is when I'm pulling out classics that hadn't been played in some time, or, like this morning, discovering something that has been around for ages, like Cressida. If you have been a fan of Cressida since their 1970 debut, why didn't you tell me, damnit?

How did I stumble upon Cressida? The same good people who brought you "Come Join My Orchestra," have just released a new boxed set called, "Lullabies For Catatonics: A Journey Through The Avant-Pop/Art-Rock Scene 1967-1974," described in the press release as "A three CD set-Lullabies For Catatonics charts the journey without maps that was fearlessly undertaken in the late '60s and early '70s by the more cerebral elements of the underground, inspired by everyone from Bartok, Bach and The Beatles to Dada, Dali and the Pop Art movement. Suddenly pop music was no longer restricted to moon-in-June lyrics and traditional song structures. Instead, it embraced the abstract, the discordant and the surreal as pop became rock, and rock became Art."

The set includes tracks by Soft Machine, Be Bop Deluxe, Giles, Giles & Fripp, Procol Harum, Renaissance, and a few more, whose names will be familiar, as well as their output. But, it's the other names like, Audience, Comus, Curved Air, Matching Mole and Jade Warrior, that really intrigue me. I've seen these records around for years, and have been too busy listening to "The Who Sell Out" and "Rubber Soul" to have heard a single note. Then, there are bands like 9:30 Fly, Deep Feeling and Cressida, today's highlight, who I never heard of at all.

Why is this more fun than listening to a new band? I think first and foremost for me, these artists were recording around the same time as all of my favorite artists, and many were signed to the same labels--Harvest, Decca, Columbia, Deram, etc.--so there is a quality and an assurance that I am not finding in new music these days. Another reason is the thrill of the hunt. Many of the lesser known artists were one and done, two if they were lucky. And lastly, I have loved what the people at Grapefruit Records have been doing. Every one of their boxed sets, from the two I have already mentioned to "All The Young Droogs" and "Let's Go Down & Blow Our Minds" seem to be painstakingly curated to my taste. I now trust these guys.

I have not given up on new artists, but to steal a line from NBC, going back twenty years when they were about to start summer reruns, "If you haven't seen it, it's new to you." Well, I have not heard Cressida before today, so this is new to me, and it is in my wheelhouse, and I am digging it. It's not trying to be the next big thing. There is no hype to ruin the experience, save my little plug here. There are no viral videos. And they will not be appearing on the Jimmy Fallon Show. They simple made a record or two that are worth hearing. Music.