Does anyone listen to Max Tundra?

No one in real life seems to.

I generally make one or two epic, life influencing older-musical discoveries per year. Its easy to stay up to date with music that's being released in the present. Its harder to comb through the past's nearly endless stockpile of releases (going back to 1950's or so) to find something that will really deliver to your tastes and satisfy your needs.

2007 was a good one. Got into both Talking Heads and Beach Boys (not to mention 2007 was an epic year for new releases, as well). 2008 was split between Tom Waits, and The Magnetic Fields. Maybe it's too soon and I'm self-biasing, but I think 2009 is going to be remembered as the year when I started listening to Joanna Newsom's first album (infinitely better than Ys, which I already kinda liked a lot), and discovering Max Tundra.

I started with his 2002 album "Mastered By The Guy At The Exchange", its both his best and most accessible. The album is a genre-bender, a trait shared by most of my favorite records. The music is busy and scatterbrained, and sometimes has an aesthetic that will turn people off right away. If you're aware of the talent this guy has, I can't imagine not liking, or at least appreciating, the album. Max (or whatever the fuck his real name is) has the exceptional talent of sequencing noises at all the right places. I really think that being a musician might be a prereq for fully enjoying it. Depending on what track you're on, you'll hear Max out Daft Punking Daft Punk, out Fiery Furnacing the Fiery Furnaces, or out Locusting The Locust (to a lesser degree, obv).

So I guess I posted this with two goals. If you're already a fan of Max Tundra, you're awesome, I'm glad I'm not alone. And if you aren't, maybe you should give it a go? Convincing, yeah?