September 17, 2017 — There are a few things I check every week.

I type my favorite artists and then the word “news”. Sadly, my favs aren’t doing much. Well that’s not true, The Pretty Reckless is just really far away, and Lana Del Rey is almost done with her latest promotions.

I check charts. Charts are a disappointing thing for me these days. Taylor Swift’s odd song is number 1 on the mainstream pop chart. She has a new song that’s almost the same which debuted at number 4. The Foo Fighters have new album, their ninth and the first since 2014. The critics give it 3.5 stars, complaining alternatively and somewhat inconsistently that it doesn’t have a song with a “hook”, essentially no “hit”, but also saying it’s like a mix of half a-sides and half b-sides. The critics literally call that half good-half bad. The anticipated press on it had Dave Grohl saying it would feature a pop singer, the biggest pop singer, so Grohl said. That singer turned out to be Justin Timberlake, but Timberlake will only be on one song, and only on the la-la’s of the chorus. So that makes the record still a Foo Fighter’s record, not some pop-rock cross-over. My take on the two songs I’ve found is that Grohl is channeling the tougher sounds rock, and the one thing I wish rock would do is actually become less tough, you know less screaming lyrics.

I check general music news. As for the general music news, U2 cancelled a concert last night over street protests in the venue city of St. Louis, worrying for the safety of their fans because the police said they didn’t have enough personnel to guarantee the safety of the patrons at the venue. I find that news to be very scary, but honestly, I’m just too sick this weekend to really think about it. Everything else in general music forums is the same old stuff. And no, I can’t even read the stories about Gene Simmons and whatever he’s doing with some overpriced vault.

My overwhelming thought from my same-old weekly routine was … please can we have something I actually want to hear?

But not to be depressing, there was a ray of hope. While searching for links of the Foo Fighter’s new songs, I came across a clip of their June 2017 concert at which Dave Grohl’s eight-year-old daughter came on the stage to play drums. Mind you, this performance is not earth shattering, but that’s not my point. My point was this young girl wanted her father to teach her to play drums. He brought her on stage to display her elementary skills. Her song choice wasn’t something crazy or too tough; she played We Will Rock You, a Queen song. It’s yet another example of young ones finding their inspiration from the music styles of rock’s past. I don’t know how long I’ll have to wait for that bunch of kids to come up with something new, but they give me hope. Sure, in the meantime, we can listen to Taylor Swift in the car (that idiotic song is on every time I go somewhere); we can listen to the new Foo Fighters song (alternative radio is going nuts over their new releases, I’m sure about to play it just as much as pop radio plays Taylor Swift), but there will come a day….

a day when the youngsters will arrive. And I’m really hoping that song choice of young Miss Grohl bodes well for the style of music to come.

My favorite of the new Foo Fighter’s songs, and honestly there’s something that reminds me of a Pretty Reckless song in this one.