Dear Journal

I am unsatisfied with what I'm finding new in contemporary "unsigned" art punk (that's what I'm calling it for laziness's sake). I know there are great bands out there, and I'm sick of listening to valid hipster pop stuff like The Shins, Arcade Fire and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. The new Battles helped, but only a little. It was more of a distraction. It just seems I've hit a brick wall after these bands:

Abe Vigoda
Silver Daggers
Rose For Bohdan
No Age
The Pope
Shearing Pinx
Duchesses
We Quit!

Every other band I check out in this vein seems to be too primitive for my tastes, too loose in terms of "song" structure, or too far out in noise-land for me to really dig. While I might appreciate such music, that doesn't mean I want to listen to it on a consistent basis. And you can only search myspace friends for so long before you become inundated with garbage, or so lost you end up on a friend from high school's page.

I'd like to go more international (New Zealand, Japan, etc.) but that's a pain too. Sometimes I hate not living near anyone with good music taste.

On a positive note, I have recently become enamored with Old Time Relijun and White Mice, and plan on picking up some of their releases ASAP.