Rock music is dead, so why not try something else?

Contemporary classical music is still kind of an underground movement, but there's plenty of interesting music to excite the ear.

The Bang on a Can All-Stars, a contemporary classical outfit that performs music from many of today's top composers, has a new double album, Big, Beautiful Dark and Scary. For a few more days -- until Jan. 26 -- you can download the whole thing free.

Incidentally, there's a local connection to these guys. One of the Can Bangers, composer David Lang, is a composer-in-residence at Oberlin College. One of Lang's works will be premiered at a Saturday concert at Oberlin.