IT'S OVER.

no more updates.

Best Band Ever?

"Technicolor Pogo Punk" is one of the most descriptive genres I've ever heard. I knew that Polysics were big in Japan, but I had no idea they were THAT big.

Full post on this later... but for now, enjoy the madness.

playlist for tuesday, may 1, 2007.

note: next week will most likely be our last 2-6am show.
we're partying it up, so call me and we'll figure out what's going on.

rosie thomas - "songbird"
ken andrews - "allergic"
bedroom walls - "do the buildings..."
azure ray - "new resolution (TPS mix)"
barr - "this song is the single"
man man - "zebra"

elliott smith - "don't go down"
sister vanilla - "can't stop the rock"
...trail of dead - "baudelaire"
do make say think - "bound to be that way"
ariel pink - "hardcore pops are fun"

the flaming lips - "free radicals"
grandaddy - "summer, it's gone"
destroyer - "new ways of living"
deerhoof - "+81"
erase errata - "ca. viewing"
paris, texas - "cadillac of high hair"
braid - "first day back"

the rolltop loys - "new untitled demo"
the sadies - "tiger tiger"
friends of j - "josie"
bonnie "prince" billy with tortoise - "daniel"
love of diagrams - "pace or the patience"
sleater-kinney - "jumpers"

the wedding present - "love machine"
belle and sebastian - "get me away from here, i'm dying"
minus story - "you were on my side"
let's go sailing - "icicles"
pinback - "concrete seconds"
mk ultra - "red cross"
radon - "lying to you"
the concretes - "say something new"
oxes - "top trucker"
!!! - "all my heroes are weirdos"
the catherine wheel - "i confess"
cave in - "new moon"

dan deacon - "wham city"
math the band - "my math teacher sold heroin"
bear vs. shark - "the employee is not afraid"
love is all - "make out fall out make up"
ratatat - "one"
the evens - "shelter two"
yo la tengo - "from a motel 6"
my bloody valentine - "sugar"
handsome furs - "what we had"
indian summer - "angry son"
darker my love - "13 o'clock"
boris with michio kurihara - "rafflesia"
andrew jackson jihad - "i'll be your lake if you are my skipping stone (live)"
thao nguyen - "vision in red"
okkervil river - "narcorrido"
the mountain goats - "slow west vultures"
jay reatard - "my shadow"
the queers - "goodbye california."

Beirut - "Elephant Gun"

Not much to say here besides "best video this year?"

Fuck the British Press: Why Favourite Worst Nightmare is a Complete Nightmare

This is a rather childish rant, so excuse me please. I'm in class still, so it comes off as a bit scattered.

I’ve never understood the way the British music press works; here in the US, we essentially only have monthly magazines, with the exception of Rolling Stone. I’ve always seen the “weekly” form of music press as cheap, an almost tabloid like version of what the press should be. With the music industry, there isn’t really enough news to fill a weekly magazine besides Billboard, but that’s for insiders who care about the news. In the past few years, magazines like New Musical Express have become a real problem for musical trends in the United States. Magazines like this have always been known as hyperbolic at best, but they’ve really gained a reputation for a two key features: their interviews and their lists.

I’ve interviewed bands before and I’ve often asked them what they thought about music and what they like or admire. It seems to me that no one’s ever told me who they don’t like in the music industry and why. I doubt that these interviewers are asking for dirt, so what is it about these magazines that makes the musicians want to talk? Mudslinging through NME is so easy. If you say it at Friday’s gig, it’ll make the print deadline and make it to the newsstands by Monday.

The funny part about this story is that that’s not what’s really bugging me about magazines like NME. NME, in particular, is notorious for their lists. They revise their “Best Albums of All Time” list every few months, adding in whatever flavor of the month they feel is worthy of the hype. Of course, they’ve had a few hits (well, mostly Oasis), but it all came crashing down when I heard that they placed Arctic Monkeys’ debut album within the top five of all time, ahead of several Beatles and Clash albums. How does that happen? I don’t even like the Beatles and I know that the Arctic Monkeys are trash. Of course, I know this happens every few years, but why is it still a problem?

Today, I read a report that ten of the twelve tracks from Arctic Monkeys’ new album are within the top 75 of the Top 200 Singles. The other two songs are ranked at numbers 77 and 114. What the hell? Hype really sells overseas, apparently, because there are bands that can’t get one song on the charts, let alone every single song from their twelve-song album.

Because of the hype, Arctic Monkeys have become one of the biggest spectacles in the world. I will admit that I liked that “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” song when I first heard it, but after that first week where I couldn’t go outside without hearing it, I wanted to kill myself just to make it stop. I’m not sure how this album is going to shake out with American radio and television, but I’m hoping the backlash catches up.

playlist for tuesday, april 28, 2007.

raider (domi)nation
manowar - "overture to the humn of the immortal warrior"
saxon - "die for metal"
manowar - "i've got to rock (to stay alive)"

hella - "let your heavies out"
barr - "half of two times two"
elliott - "blessed by your own ghost"
deerhunter - "spring hall convert"
lungfish - "hear the children sing"
american analog set - "waking up is hard to do"
gruff rhys - "beacon in the darkness"
let's go sailing - "sideways"
mark kozelek - "rock n roll singer"
mark lanegan - "one way street"

orchid - "...and the cat turned to smoke"
guitar wolf - "roaring blood"
big business - "easter romantic"
the melvins - "#2 pencil"
sister vanilla - "jamcolas"
andrew wk - "party party party"

(guest set by matt strasser)
!!! - "bend over beethoven"
brainiac - "silver iodine"
deerhoof - "the galaxist"
beirut - "elephant gun"
lightning bolt - "dracula mountain"

a noise set featuring:
black dice
the mountain goats
ride
lots of movie speeches

joanna newsom and the ys street band - "cosmia"
rocky votolato - "lilly white"
karen o - "tracks 1-3"
page france - "mr. violin and dancing bear"
rob crow - "i hate you rob crow (single version)"
benni hemm hemm - "snjórjljóssnjór"
YACHT - "we're always waiting"
of montreal - "tropical iceland/and she was (live)"
the fiery furnaces - "single again"
cake - "war pigs"
the little ones - "gregory's chant (live)"

midnight movies - "patient eye (james iha remix)"
someone still loves you boris yeltsin - "half awake (deb)"
the honorary title - "thin layer"
sonic youth - "teen age riot"
the lemonheads - "become the enemy"
dear nora - "(i can't believe) i left california"
billy bragg - "california stars"
the new amsterdams - "from california"
the old 97's - "just like california."

Live Review: Lightning Bolt @ 1269, April 11, 2007.

fe·vered
a. A condition of heightened activity or excitement: a fever of anticipation.
b. A contagious, usually short-lived enthusiasm or craze: disco fever.

When I was tasked with writing a Lightning Bolt live review, I was overwhelmed. I first tried to break it down into manageable pieces. What words described that night? Fevered was the perfect word, or so I thought. When I looked it up, the results above were not quite sufficient; this was the definition of "fevered" not considering actually having a fever. Though I wasn't sick, the feeling in the room was beyond the illness that your mom used to get you out of school for. There was a sort of heated, angsty anticipation I had never really felt before.

When I heard Lightning Bolt was coming through Los Angeles, I was excited. I'd never seen them before and listening to their music only made me curious. They never announced the locations of either shows in LA, so everything happened by word of mouth. This particular night, somewhere around 700 people showed up to see the madness in action. The wall of people leading up to the stage seemed inpenetrable. The one thing on the halfpipe stage clearly visible upon entrance was a big circular mirror hovering above a wall of speakers that the band brought with them. This was a hostile show of force.

The setup period seemed too long, and though the band apologized for the wait, part of me wants to believe that they wanted to make everyone wait just that much longer.

From the first drum hit straight through to the last fuzzy bass notes almost an hour and a half later, the noise didn't seem to stop. There must've been 40 people on the top of the halfpipe and 150 surrounding the band on the stage. Right below the stage is where most of the madness happened though. After the initial rush of "2 morrow morrow land," everything seemed to open up. Somehow, I'm surprised that no one got severly injured. Everyone, including Ted Leo, was getting really into the experience.

Lightning Bolt ran through a good amount of their recorded material, mostly focusing on material off of Hypermagic Mountain and even working in some improvisations. I wish I could describe more of what went on; this is really where the word "fevered" comes in handy. The middle hour of the show (after the first 15 minutes and before the last 15 minutes) seems to run together in my mind, as if I were hallucinating. The heat of the room, combined with the constant noise assault creates the perfect fever dream scenario. The last 10 minutes were something to remember, however. Lightning Bolt jammed on "Dracula Mountain," a song that everyone seems to know. The crowd went absolutely apeshit. There were kids jumping off of the halfpipe, 15 feet off the ground. Kids were dancing all the way back, realizing that something like this wasn't going to happen again soon.

If you've never been to see Lightning Bolt, get out of your parents' basement and see the world. Treat yourself to a good pair of earplugs and a bottle of water and live a little. These two guys are proof that RISD is one of the coolest places to be.

PS. Here's a great documentary about Lightning Bolt that I found on youtube. It has a running time of 71 minutes and the quality isn't that great, but it comes from a DVD that you can find on the intarwebs for purchase. Watching the first three minutes will give you a good idea of what you missed.

playlist for tuesday, april 3, 2007.

!!! - "heart of hearts"
plok - "snickerpuss"
the constantines - "shine a light"
illinois - "headphones"
let's go sailing - "too many stars"

kamikaze hearts - "half of me"
low - "breaker"
deerhunter - "spring hall convert"
yo la tengo - "pass the hatchet"
jay reatard - "my family"
hella - "world series"
bonnie "prince" billy - "master and everyone"
do make say think - "bound to be that way"

kill creek - "hardly accounted for"
foot foot - "out of the sand"
fragile fawn - "love to love to love"/"indian giver"
kiddo - "thom yorke (demo)"
the black heart procession - "we always knew"
love of diagrams - "cool (live)"
dear nora - "loose"
mirah - "sweepstakes prize"
gruff rhys - "lonesome words"
rodriguez - "only good for conversation"
lcd soundsystem - "time to get away"

i'm from barcelona - "oversleeping"
marnie stern - "put all your eggs in one basket..."
deerhoof - "+81"
ooioo - "eye mix 1"
cibo matto - "sugar water"
black black - "honey in your ears"
the pogues - "the wild rover"
limbeck - "home is where the van is (ed rose version)"

cursive - "frankly mr. shankly"
jets to brazil - "sea anemone"
refused - "rather be dead"
the raveonettes - "remember"
the one am radio - "i think this is my exit"
statistics - "reminisce"
the appleseed cast - "innocent vigilant ordinary"
team sleep - "kool aid party (with mike patton)"
charlotte gainsbourg - "the songs we sing"
nouvelle vague - "blue monday"
tilly and the wall - "lost girls"
clap your hands say yeah - "the sword song"

art brut - it's a bit complicated sampler:
"pump up the volume"
"direct hit"
"post soothing out"
"late sunday"
"nag nag nag nag"

Uncertainty, Inadequacy and How Andrew WK can Solve All Your Problems

I've recently discovered that I'm one of those people that doesn't really know how to slow down. For me, it's either "stop" or "go." There isn't anything in between, as hard as I might try or as much as I might convince myself. Can I set my sights lower and expect to get there? Is that being fair to all those who have given everything so that I might do the same, or is it more selfish-bastardry?

The last week has been strange. It started out so slowly and ended so strangely, with even more scary things in the middle. The one encouraging part of the week was the one music related part, so I feel that it should get filed into the archives of this blog, rather than anywhere else. I had the chance to meet Andrew WK and see him speak. It was the most amazing experience I've ever had at the station. He's been doing lectures all over the country about "living the best life" and "having a good time." While this is not wholly surprising, considering the nature of his music, it's the way he talks about it. If you check his Wikipedia entry, there's no college listed, and yet he speaks much more eloquently than anyone I have ever met at this school. It's not revolutionary science or anything, but something about the way he spoke was so impressive.

At first, I was skeptical. I mean, think about it. Rock and roll Tony Robbins? It had to be some kind of act. It was an elaborate one, and I eventually figured out that he had to be somewhat serious. Then, I had it in my head that I was just enamored with the idea of this ridiculous figure doing something other than rocking my face off, but as the ideaology burrowed further into my head, I realized that everything he said was true and that maybe I shouldn't take myself so seriously. i can't think about not living up to my own standards, because that's exactly what they are. They're not for anyone else; they're for me. I can't ever let myself down, unless I give up absolutely. I still don't know what's going to happen tomorrow or the next day, but living right now is the most important thing. I used to forget that a lot, but I went out and bought a pair of white pants and I'm planning on wearing them on special occasions to remind me of this ridiculous man that I met and all that he stood for.

In that spirit, here's a bit of what you missed.

playlist for tuesday, march 13, 2007.

the raiders - "unchained devastation fury"
r=w=a - "undone (demo)"
peter bjorn and john - "up against the wall"
love of diagrams - "no way out"
benni hemm hemm - "sweaty in the sunshine"
all smiles - "moth in a cloud of smoke"
deerhunter - "octet"

lavender diamond - "find a way"
mess up the mess - "morrissey already ate"
born ruffians - "this sentence will ruin or save your life"
mission of burma - "donna sumeria"
the aislers set - "the way to market station"
low - "belarus"
jacob berendes - "jla dreamer"
gershon kingsley/leonid hambro - "rhapsody in blue"
bedroom walls - "do the buildings..."
tussle - "here it comes"

the dead science - "unseeing eye"
illinois - "alone again"
belle and sebastian - "i'm a cuckoo"
the sea and cake - "parasol"
hella - "let your heavies out"
jennifer gentle - "tiny holes"
of montreal - "gromlandic edit"
pink nasty - "burn"
pj harvey - "to bring you my love"

serena maneesh - "drain cosmetics"
do make say think - "herstory of glory"
the locust - "AOTKPTA"
my brightest diamond - "golden star"
a hawk and a hacksaw - "saltwater"
m ward - "headed for a fall"
carter family - "hello stranger"
the postmarks - "looks like rain"
the sugarcubes - "birthday"
ted leo/pharmacists - "biomusicology"

architecture in helsinki - "tiny paintings"
au revoir simone - "fallen snow"
the pipettes - "dirty mind (demo)"
thao nguyen - "feet asleep (live)"
page france - "spine"
the stills - "love and death"
tv on the radio - "poppy"

christie front drive - "radio"
bear vs. shark - "ma jolie"
comeback kid - "defeated"
the (international) noise conspiracy - "ready, set, go!"
foot village - "korea"
cave in - "off to ruin"
the mae shi - "lamb & lion"
the mae shi - "run to your grave"

Artistic Merit, Despair and the “Professional Appreciator” Ideal

Sometimes, I don’t understand how serious people can break out of whatever’s holding them back and go out and create something. I understand that there are people in this world who don’t take things as seriously as I do, but I know that there has to be someone out there making it who wasn’t before and never thought they would. The idea of the “professional appreciator” comes from Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity. Any obsessive music fanboy will know the reference, but to anyone else, “professional appreciator” is a nice way of saying “creep.” The idea that someone could appreciate something to the point of it being almost a profession is saying that you have nothing better to do and that you actually might enjoy having nothing to do besides learning everything there is to know about whatever it is you’re into.

The reason I write about this is because of a particular state of mind that you have to be in to understand: despair. I couldn’t think of a better word for it, and I don’t mean to be so particularly bleak or melodramatic about it, but it seems to work. Just like all other professional appreciators, I dream of once being able to step out from behind the keyboard and be able to do what all others can’t. In my case, I would be making music, but it isn’t that simple. Our lives are lived in solitude and because of that, we are harshly critical of everything. Cynicism and self-consciousness tend to go hand in hand with the particular personality type I’m talking about. If I were to ever get out and put something into the world that wasn’t there before, I’d be absolutely terrified that it wouldn’t meet someone’s standards, let alone my own. Of course, these are doubts that most anyone feels on a day-to-day basis without being a professional appreciator, but if you are one or you know one, you’ll also know the higher standard that we hold ourselves to. Since we’re better than most people and we know more, we should be better and never make mistakes; this definitely seeps into the other facets of life quickly.

I was watching Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation recently and thought about one thing in particular: the use of the song “Sometimes” by My Bloody Valentine. I’ve never felt as strange as when I saw that scene in the movie. On one level, there’s nothing particularly emotional about the scene. The cinematography is nice, but there isn’t a whole lot going on in the plot. It’s a damn ride in a cab, and yet there was something else there. Kevin Shields is a solitary man, who, I would imagine, is much like those professional appreciators out there. My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless took over a year and 14 sound engineers to record. You could say that he wanted to get it right. After nearly conquering the world with the album, Shields broke up the band and went into hiding, never to return to the surface again. Of course, occasionally people would see him milling about and every once in a while, he would release a remix of someone else’s song, but he seems to be the archetype for kind of person I’m describing. I got all estrogen-filled at that one moment in the movie because of what Coppola was implying by using the song. I felt that way because I know what it must’ve taken Shields to create something like that and the isolation that was involved. I wondered if I could ever do it, or ever do anything, for that matter.

The moral of the story: be good to yourself and your friends. You know someone like this and all you have to do is reach out and tell him/her it’s okay. What’s good enough for other people should be good enough for everyone. As we say in my line of work, “Know that you won’t ever understand their experience, but be supportive.”

Is this a cry for help? Hardly. I just think that some of you assholes could be nicer, that’s all.

playlist for monday, march 5, 2007 (6-10am).

ella jenkins - "what shall we do today?"
i'm from barcelona - "oversleeping"
freedom dub - "paradise city"
jens lekman - "your kick beats back like death"
wilco - "either way"
kings of convenience - "failure"
feist - "so sorry"

lavender diamond - "here comes one"
peter bjorn & john - "paris 2004"
bishop allen - "things are what you make of them"
camera obscura - "tears for affairs"
arcade fire - "keep the car running"
andrew bird - "armchairs"
epicentre - "re-vision (visit)"

iggy & the stooges - "search and destroy"
let's go sailing - "sideways"

damien rice - "when doves cry"
the format - "wind that blows (demo)"
neko case - "i wish i was the moon"
limbeck - "trouble"
broken social scene - "major label debut (fast)"
rilo kiley - "patiently"
the little ones - "heavy hearts brigade"

ben kweller - "wasted and ready"
cat power - "metal heart"
the thermals - "remember today"
the wedding present - "it's not unusual"
saturday looks good to me - "i wish i could cry"
ten in the swear jar - "san jose fight song"
orange juice - "lovesick"
chad van gaalen - "burn 2 ash"

low - "breaker"
oxes - "panda strong"
fragile fawn - "indian giver"
some girls - "ex-nuns/dead dogs"
barr - "this song is the first single"
dear nora - "round and round"
silver jews - "getting back into you"
m. ward - "to go home"

wilco - "impossible germany"
the decemberists - "apology song"
ghost mice - "sing out"
the weakerthans - "everything must go"
mike park - "born to kill"

billy bragg - "the milkman of human kindness"
okkervil river - "the president's dead"
ted leo/pharmacists - "CIA"
jawbreaker - "kiss the bottle (live)"
armalite - "new wave"

belle and sebastian - "stars of track and field"
!!! - "all my heroes are weirdos"
ooioo - "umo"
hella - "friends don't let friends..."
lcd soundsystem - "time to get away"
menomena - "the pelican"
deerhoof - "believe esp."

The Wilco Experience: Fanboy-ism, Liveblogging and the Whole Truth.

Tonight is a special night for those of us who are diehard Wilco fans. Following the spirit of the last few albums, Wilco decided to beat everyone to the punch by leaking their own album. I promised myself I wouldn’t get all geeky and liveblog the whole experience, but I HAD to write something. Partially, it was due to my extreme enthusiasm for the album in general, but I also felt that doing this is, in some way, a response to all the rest of the fanboys out there who don’t quite get it yet.

I am writing this because I’ve joined a community of enthusiasts much like myself; I’ve recently signed up for an account on the much-maligned “AtEase messageboards.” This is the messageboard responsible for the Arcade Fire leak and most of the ridiculous music rumors on the internet. When the first few tracks off of the new album Sky Blue Sky leaked, there was pandemonium on the board. Blogs were shut down and the RIAA were surely to blame. People didn’t know what to think about the music either. Many of the songs had been played live, but no one really knew what to expect in the recordings, because Wilco is known for playing very straightforward versions of their songs live. It would be next to impossible to recreate some of the studio work put into an album like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but that’s besides the point. The music was described by one blogger as “some Randy Newman horse shit” and by several AtEase members as “dad rock.” I decided I needed some time alone with the songs because, I will admit, I didn’t understand A ghost is born the first few times I heard it.

After hearing the songs, I decided that hearing only a few songs wasn’t fair and representative of the whole. When the full album stream went live about an hour ago, there I was, sitting in front of my computer, foaming at the mouth. I was simultaneously on the messageboard, gauging other responses out of curiosity. What was said was somewhat surprising, but in the same, was not surprising at all. I knew immediately by the mood of the album, this wasn’t going to be the typical Wilco album. Generally, Jeff Tweedy is about making big statements with album openers, with big songs like “Misunderstood” and “I am trying to break your heart,” but this time, it started off slowly with “Either Way,” which in itself, is an ambiguous, lukewarm statement.

The thing is, I’m getting tired of the “Well, it’s okay” and “it’ll be a grower” comments. If you don’t understand what’s going on in this album, it won’t grow on you and you won’t understand why it’s going on your year-end, best of list. The “dad rock” tags are correct in some sense, but not in the spirit that they were originally intended. Jeff Tweedy has two children and god knows how old the rest of the guys are. The album is about maturing gracefully, rather than just getting old. The songs are not at all adventurous, as many have said, but it’s not about breaking everyone’s expectations and preconceived notions anymore for Wilco. It’s about writing music that people are going to listen to in 50 years. It’s about longevity. Wilco and “unconventional” have become somewhat synonymous because of their past few albums and people have come to expect it, without regard to the music. A band can be “all reinvention, all the time,” but it turns into gimmickry and it gets ridiculous in some cases (see Sonic Youth catalogue). Bands that intend to be influential, not only in sound, but in presence, need to make solid statements in cautious, well written and mature albums like Sky Blue Sky. Sonic Youth just did it, as a matter of fact; Rather Ripped was a straightforward pop album, without any of the Jim O’Rourke “charm.”

My point is this: forget what you think you know and just appreciate music for what it is. Sky Blue Sky is just a good album. You can’t weigh the fact that it’s “not a Wilco album” against the strength of the music, because the album will stand the test of time and half of what you think is “sooooo amazing” won’t be relevant this time next year. Of course, there are legitimate complaints about the album, but there is no perfection. It’s good, and that should be all there is to it.

playlist for tuesday, february 27, 2007.

EDIT: an article.
great reading on questioning rock criticism.
i can't say that i agree wholly with chris ott's opinions, but something to think about.

jesu - "conqueror"
my brightest diamond - "gone away"
nellie mckay - "tipperary"
blood brothers - "usa nails"
do make say think - "the universe!"

solar anus - "skull alcoholic"
deerhunter - "strange lights"
aqueduct - "living a lie"
love - "alone again or"
hot snakes - "retrofit"
rocket from the crypt - "evil party"

bert jansch - "katie cruel"
dark meat - "three eyes open"
hella - "world series"
!!! - "myth takes"
lansing-dreiden - "dividing island"
taken - "never an answer"
red sparowes - "buildings began to stretch..."
wilco - "hell is chrome"

menomena - "air aid"
xiu xiu - "crank heart"
guided by voices - "girls of wild strawberries"
the meat packers - "beautiful day"
the whitest boy alive - "inflation"
elliott - "blessed by your own ghost"
tom waits - "road to peace"
the catheters - "reaction"
(this is the point where things get a little hazy, as i almost fell asleep)
a track by the lucksmiths
camera obscura - "if looks could kill"
(then torres took over and some songs were played while i lied down)
matt and kim - "yea yeah"
the weakerthans - "aside"
shinobu - "beijing bears"
polaris - "hey sandy"
deerhoof - "+81"
lifetime - "young, loud and scotty"
jawbreaker - "shirt"

the jam - "i need you (for someone)"
the clash - "death or glory"
kid dynamite - "hateful"
fugazi - "two beats off"
mewithoutyou - "bullet to binary"
erase errata - "high society"
the dismemberment plan - "secret curse"
the rise - "if all you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like nails"

m ward - "to go home"
the constantines - "love in fear"
limbeck - "big drag"
lavender diamond - "open your heart"
i'm from barcelona - "oversleeping"
smoosh - "it's not your day to shine"
elliott smith - "coast to coast"
the polyphonic spree - "lithium"
tusk - "tree of no return"
math the band - "the day absolutely everything exploded"

2007: The Year in Music thus far.

note: this post contains thoughts poorly sewn together by the framework of "an essay."
it's a little less than coherent, but try to cut me some slack. this is why i'm practicing.



The end of February is coming quickly, which means we’re already months into the new year. Some of the albums that have already come out make me think that there could hardly be any more good music leftover for the second half of the year. Albums by Lavender Diamond, Andrew Bird, LCD Soundsystem and so many more have already made it onto my year-end list. The size of “indie” releases this year, however, makes me think that this era of independent music will come to a quick end. It started in 2005, with mainstream radio discovering two albums: the Arcade Fire’s Funeral and the Postal Service’s Give Up. Every alternative/rock radio station of any size started playing songs off of those albums alongside other “indie” artists like the Killers and whoever else had the right sound. Give Up went platinum and became Sub Pop’s biggest seller, outselling Nirvana and it was all over. Atlantic Records signed Death Cab for Cutie and the next thing you know, Death Cab is getting airplay on VH1 and Star 98.7, KROQ has picked up Cold War Kids and Sufjan Stevens and the Shins sell 300k in their first week because Natalie Portman said that they changed her life. The Arcade Fire’s album is bound to sell as many albums, if not more, and are scheduled to appear on Saturday Night Live tonight; other artists who have played SNL this season include the Shins (who, of course, played “New Slang” even though it’s anything BUT new) and Lily Allen.

Artists like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Of Montreal try to resist mainstream attention by being artistically dense, be it in sound or performance, but it seems like none of that really matters anymore. It’s becoming harder and harder to be on “the cutting edge” anymore; even freak-folk, which has been described by many as “outsider music,” isn’t so inaccessible anymore. Every semi-hipster A-lister has been seen backstage hanging out with Devendra or CocoRosie and has been in the press, praising Zappa, Beefheart and anything David Byrne touches. Actors and actresses are even getting into it themselves. The best example of late is Jena Malone (of Donnie Darko fame), who has gained the most attention from Pitchfork and Stereogum in the last two weeks for her music, which is unique to anyone who doesn’t live in New York.

I say all this to emphasize how little I know about the direction music is going in. All I have are observations.

Over the last month, I’ve noticed how many amazing post-rock/instru-metal albums have come out. Everyone seems to know who Boris is, but they don’t realize that they have more than that album with the pink cover. Albums from Red Sparowes, Jesu, Explosions in the Sky, Do Make Say Think and Pelican are all to be released within the first few months of the year. Explosions in the Sky were the first instrumental act to be featured on Conan O’Brien’s show this past week, having to edit one of their songs down to an acceptable length. They gained most of their initial exposure from scoring both the Friday Night Lights movie and TV show. Within the next eighteen months, I expect to see one of those post-rock type acts playing stadium size venues or places like Red Rocks in Colorado or even the Hollywood Bowl.

Post-Punk/electronica/dance releases also seem to be one of the big genres for the year. The aforementioned LCD Soundsystem album is probably going to be a big deal just based on car commercials alone. Related act !!! released a surprisingly varied album that will push them into the stratosphere of independent acts that can sell out the Avalon two nights in a row. Most people remember the Avalanches and are anticipating their return to music, but even more are anticipating the new Dntel album because not only are there indie all-star guests, but Jimmy Tamborello has learned how to do pop music using the Ben Gibbard method since we last left him. The reason people like this stuff became apparent to me after I heard about the Girl Talk show at the Echo. I was told that the crowd was a lot older than your typical Echo Park gig and it looked like none of them had ever been there before. The reason people like this stuff is because it’s so accessible in comparison to all other forms of “indie.” You don’t have to like music in the same way to like to dance.

The next few months are going to be interesting, considering that festival season is coming up. Coachella’s lineup has bands like Sonic Youth, as usual, but also has the reunited Rage Against the Machine, making it the first year that it made sense for KROQ to post the lineup on their website. Bands like the Hold Steady are making the rounds, playing alongside the reunited Police. South by Southwest is probably going to be more crowded than ever and it’s because the “indie” tag isn’t so much about patronage as it is about sound. Is it hypocrisy to still call it “indie” rock or “outsider music” or is it just the natural evolution of things?

Sufjan Stevens and Swedish Indie Pop: A Sermon on Overstimulation

The last few years have been good to me, when it comes to music. For one, I’ve really carved out “what I like” and “what I don’t like.” It’s not quite carved in stone, as I am proven wrong from time to time, but for the most part, I have particular tastes now. On top of that, the last few years have been ripe with albums of music I’ve grown to love. I love a few things in life: Midwestern second wave emo, prolific artists and indie pop. I’m here to talk to you today about two of those three things.

Prolific artists are often difficult, considering their nature. If they stick around for any length of time, they’re usually temperamental and their discography is very varied, to say the least. I can’t fault an artist for “wanting to grow,” but on the other hand, not being willing to grow is a sign that an artist is lazy. With Sufjan Stevens, things seemed different. Here was a guy that had put out two albums that did so-so and then announces that he’s going to do an album for each of the 50 states. He puts out the first one, and then does something else. People doubted him, but when Illinois came out, he was crowned the king of independent music. The sound of the two state records was much the same: beautiful, full and masterfully orchestrated pop for geeks. Sometimes I wonder why it’s being played on KROQ, but then again, I can’t question any of that, considering how many people list “Devandra Barnhart” on their Facebook profiles. In the span of a few years, Stevens released three full albums (two state albums and a full b-sides/demos collection) of amazing music. And they were damn long albums, too; all three clocked in at well over an hour. A few questions come up: where does it end and why am I so tired of it?

The same questions come up with Swedish indie pop bands. “Twee” pop and the likes somehow became the new rock and roll in Sweden overnight and no one seemed to notice. While the (International) Noise Conspiracy is recording their new album with Rick Rubin and the Hives are busy guesting on every hip-hop producer’s all-star tribute to himself, pop radio in Sweden is playing artists like Loney, Dear, Jens Lekman, Peter Bjorn and John and the list goes on and on. It’s getting hard for me to keep up, considering how much I really love the stuff. I realized how much there really was when I recently rediscovered a great album on my iPod by a band called I’m From Barcelona. The first few times I heard it, I thought it was derivative and cheap, but what isn’t, really? It takes some level of skill to write music and all that much more skill to be a part of a 26-piece band. I really want to believe that this isn’t some sort of trend or backlash from the rock and roll revolution of the late 90s, but I guess that’s just the way things work.

As we reconsider “where it all ends” and how oversaturated the market for indie pop in general is, we really have to look to the future. Overstimulation means it’s time for something new. It just scares me that within five years, I’m going to forget half of the stuff I’m listening to now, just because it isn’t in the indie rock majority anymore. So, what is the next big thing? Well, if I knew, I wouldn't be here, would I? I would probably be making money somewhere else.

The Suburban Soundtrack: On Why Gregg Gillis’ Girl Talk is the new (sub) urban art form

here's an older piece i found today.
it was probably written 6 months ago or so.

Whether a conscious decision or not, Girl Talk’s new album, Night Ripper, is a perfect portrait of suburban life. It is art less than beautiful and it is something that will be added to the great “indie rock canon” of sorts. What someone like Nic Harcourt will never understand is the Generation Y lifestyle. Almost everything we worship is urban in one way or another. The city is where life takes place and we know it. Urban art forms like graffiti have invaded our lives. Mixed media is another art form that is very prevalent with young people. Collages have always been one of my favorite methods of expressing myself because it wasn’t limiting. I could paint if I wanted to, but if someone else had already done it better, I could just use what he or she had and add it to something else I like. This isn’t for everyone, obviously, but I think it’s kind of cool. This is exactly what Girl Talk is all about.

Girl Talk is the new face of “bastard pop,” which started out in the UK with “mash-ups,” but Girl Talk is more than just two songs haphazardly tied together; Girl Talk is all about mixed media. It is colorful and meticulously thought out. Each of the 16 songs on Night Ripper contains samples from several songs from very different schools of thought, which is the real genius behind the album. The songs sampled are the very best from popular hip-hop, modern rock, pop and even “indie.” The interesting thing is looking closely at the samples contained therein. The ingénue of the internet has provided us with a magnificent tool called Wikipedia, and the entry for Night Ripper has a fairly comprehensive list of samples. Anyone from Yin Yang Twins to Smashing Pumpkins to M.I.A. to Neutral Milk Hotel is sampled. On one level, these things have nothing in common and truly don’t deserve to be “mashed” together into one song, but when you take a step back and look again, you realize that all of the songs contained create a soundtrack of sorts, a soundtrack to suburban America.

Ever since the inception of dance music in this same vein, each new artist has tried to outdo the other in some way, be it having more bass, being more obscure or even referencing the right musicians. These head nods to favorite musicians, be they of the same genre or not, are very cool. Taking parts of songs and putting them together has always been questionable in the sense that audio plagiarism is just as bad as written plagiarism, but is much easier. If someone’s already written it, why should you have to? Is it plagiarism to mashup or is it the respectful head nod? In the case of Girl Talk, I think it’s a little of both, but in a very good way. Gillis has constructed some of the sweatiest, high voltage dance music constructed from other songs and on some level, it is cheap and somewhat fad-induced, but what isn’t? It does take a great amount of musical talent to put together mashups and they’re just damn cool. To even know about a certain musician enough to namedrop is a lot; you have to know a lot about their music to know where it should be placed in a bastard pop song and by extension that is a form of respect. Real musicians will tell you that it is the highest form of respect.

Mission or Mannifesto?

the reason for this blog is a bit of a mystery to me.
essentially, it is a placeholder for a blog to come on the kxlu website, but it is also so that i can get some of my writing groove back.
occasionally , someone else will post, but it's mostly going to be me (chris 2).
this isn't a music blog, so much as it is a collection of music related editorials.
so the question of "mission or mannifesto?" comes up.
i don't feel that either is appropriate in this case.
we will have something eventually, but for now, this is all we have.

New Rave and the Downfall of Indie Rock

I heard something upsetting recently. I read an article on the interweb about the coming of “new rave culture” ushered in by the band Klaxons. From what I’ve come to understand, the band is nothing more than NME subsidized crap. Bear in mind, I’ve never heard them for this reason, but that isn’t the only reason I refuse to listen.

In the era of Web 2.0, it’s hard to sort through all the crap, be it major label sponsored blogwash or people with bad taste shilling for bad bands. The idea that indie rock is so readily available through the internet, while at the same time remaining unattainable and “independent” is a fallacy; it simply can’t work that way. These things are mutually exclusive. Most real rock critics look down on New Music Express, but sometimes people take the bait. With Klaxons, it seems hit-or-miss in terms of their domestic success. They’re obviously no Arctic Monkeys, but it could surely head in that direction. The idea of “new rave” being pegged as the new indie trend is a bit offensive. I’m not the most indie rock guy; in high school, I wrote gushing reviews for Jimmy Eat World’s Futures and Funeral for a Friend’s Casually Dressed and Deep in Conversation. One thing I do know now is that there is good music and bad music in the world. Any kind of music that requires me to get really stoned on E and dress in neon overalls to understand is bad music. I realize that “new rave” is supposed to be a hipster friendly version of this, but a bastardized version is the same to me.

Indie rock isn’t supposed to have a certain sound, but it also shouldn’t open the floodgates to the mainstream. Hearing the new watered down Death Cab for Cutie single on the local adult alternative station is depressing because I know what they used to sound like and I know what they used to be. I can’t really expect for bands like that to stay pocket size, but somehow I expected it to last a little bit longer. I also thought that something else would come along and save me from having to listen to KCRW. Anything that hasn’t already been discovered by the Clear Channel empire is either so outlandish, only KXLU DJs would play it, or it is super insulting, like the idea of “new rave.”

I can’t go on doing this if I’m not ahead of the curve anymore and that is the most terrifying thing about the “indie rock revolution.” In an age where every Facebook profile has “ACDC, the Eagles, punk, some emo, 50 Cent and COLD WAR KIDS… anything but country and anything I can dance to” listed under music, how am I supposed to be able to listen to music anymore? Great things that I used to love were ruined by those that stole indie rock. Frat boys in disguise can go see The Science of Sleep with some girl that they’re into and come out talking about how great the cinematography was and how amazing the new Lily Allen b-sides are, but they’ll never be respected. New Rave won’t mean anything to anyone five years from now, except for the precious few “new rave/bar rock” hybrid bands of college dropouts touring all of the tri-state area. Trends are not means of currency and they definitely won’t get you anywhere.

“Is there a solution?” you might ask. I would suggest that there isn’t a clear-cut one. I suspect that something will happen in the next year or so and indie rock suddenly won’t be cool again. There might or might not be a martyr (I’m looking at you, Conor Oberst), but there will definitely be bloodshed. Things will happen organically and the balance of the universe will be returned, but only after what seems like forever. Those of us who really appreciate music will see some ridiculous things and go through fleeting periods of hating ourselves, but it will be okay. Everything will be okay.