Sorry for not posting in a while, I’ve been captivated by Frontline’s awesome underview of the Bush Administration in my extra time at work this week. In terms of my last post, I’m just going to link ya’ll to Columbia lecturer Scott Horton’s excellent distillation of Obama posted to Harper’s the other day. The cat is pretty much in the bag in terms of the cast for this year’s reality show ‘The US Presidential Election,’ and Clinton’s death throes (here, here, and here) are going to make a hilarious montage for our non-Idol contestants, John and Barack. But I digress. Speaking of Judases: Battlestar Galactica had a two-page spread ad in Rolling Stone this week that parodies da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper,’ with Six as christ and Apollo as Judas. Eight days!!! OoOoooOoh!
The cultural insularity of music today is not simply the consequence of deficient pedagogy or propagation. It would be too facile to groan over the conservatories or complain about the record companies. Things are more serious. Contemporary music owes this unique situation to its very composition. In this sense, it is willed. It is not a music that tries to be familiar; it is fashioned to preserve its cutting edge. One may repeat it, but it does not repeat itself. In this sense, one cannot come back to it as to an object. It always pops up on frontiers.
-Michel Foucault
Yeah, so on that note, link dump:
Believe it: Four glorious hours of In Rainbows‘ haunting closer “Videotape”, committed to an obsolescent media format, with accompanying visuals from Philip M. Lane and some pretty swank cover art designed by Jacob Blandy.
Shejay: A world-wide network of female DJs, producers, vocalists, promoters and musicians in the field of electronic and dance music. (MP3’s here)
Dave Matthews tickets go on sale this Saturday! Matthews and Bob Dylan are shockingly some of the only two mainstream live acts that offer tickets for a ‘reasonable’ fee (usually between $45-60). So why on earth would someone pay $85 to go see these fucktards play? Can’t we just start a national recycling drive to hand out old copies of boybands of yore to the twelve year old girls that will go see them? God I can’t wait until Hannah Montana has an abortion scandal because of them. SOS, really? ABBA should come and slap the shit out of them. Someone please give them some LSD.
Okay, so I missed Obama’s speech yesterday, but reading the transcript in my office this morning made me break down and think a little. Eloquent prose aside (after seven years of President Shrub it’s nice to listen to someone speak in sentences), and even though there wasn’t really any one policy action he was outlining as a president-elect, I’m aware and transformed by the exigence of the speech itself. He rallied all the correct arguments, accented all the correct impacts, and projected alternatives (prophesied? okay okay, I’ll lay off) for an emotional architecture of solvency. The synthesis of excellent rhetoric and semiotic inflection made me eat that shit up in ways you can’t imagine.
Since the election campaign started about a year and a half ago, I’ve done nothing but bitch and complain about the appalling process (read: reality show) Americans call ‘Elections.’ I’m committed to third party candidacies, feed off the asinine caricatures politicians make of themselves, loathe the amount of wealth spilled for a few ballots, and generally distrust the issues chosen for campaign platforms. And while I still think my hesitations have their merit, I sometimes forget that radical change can truly come from within institutions–from the bowels of governmentality. As for Hilary, no matter how important the novelty of having a woman president may be, she hasn’t put herself out there. She’s here to service power, and not to have power service us. For those who look to her as a feminist, she still has a lot to learn about Seneca Falls.
I really wanted Kucinich. He’s unabashedly liberal, totally weird, and so full love that people often can’t access his lens of politics. I’m totally proud to call him my Congressperson. Plus, his favorite musicians are Willie Nelson, Ani DiFranco and Michael Franti. He’s a kindred stoner. But Joan Baez supports Obama. And Obama is down with Miles Davis, Bob Dylan and the Fugees. Fu-Gee-La baby.
In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination — and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past — are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds –- by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.
I still have a lot problems with Obama. His website indicates that he supported Israel’s blitzkrieg of Lebanon in 2006. He wants to expand the military by adding nearly a hundred thousand soldiers and Marines. He’s blatantly lacking any dialogue about gender and sexuality issues. His plan for energy consumption pretty much consists of replacing oil with biofuels and ethanol. His ideas on immigration are shockingly uncritical and amounts to ‘border security’ coupled with assimilation through bureaucratic means. He’s not talking about how to legally fix the insane expansion and annexing of executive powers in the past seven years. Obama is way outdated on the economy, and nowhere is he outlining the criminal processes occurring in the name of money, nor the transparency and civil liberties displaced.
In short, he’s not perfect. But a my roommate Sarah has been hounding as she researches imperialism and democracy in Iran, we need to stop abandoning–indeed, attacking–liberals who may not fight for our particular brand of liberty and progressivism, but realize that in the end, we are all struggling for similar humanness.
“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace” ~ Jimmy Hendrix
Just in case anyone missed the cover of Rolling Stone this week, I’ll bring you up to speed: Barack Obama is the second coming. He is the Cristo Redento, the latest incarnation of Horus, will probably give birth to the next Dalai Lama, and clearly, the Big Cheese. Even the homosexualites want to lick his pretty face (wait, what was the question again, Sullivan?).
‘Salvation’ and ‘redemption’ both reflect really dangerous rhetoric in political spheres where discursive complexity is minimal (blogosphere aside–generally speaking, we have three candidates, and about two or three mass media outlets). Although Obama has done surprisingly well at resisting the temptation to slide into populism, the discourses of redemption that orbit his campaign are not helping to envision solutions to our fucked up postmodern imperialism, or our current financial meltdown. A frenzied populace, who fear decisions and critical assessment of the America in which we live, would rather double-down on ‘hope’? That’s called externalizing democracy. There’s an incredible amount of political agency we abandon when, for starters, the economy overruns both the government and its constituents… If Obama wants to be a leader, he needs to earn that now through action, and not just give us a poetic IOU.
Saying that, the one *ahem* redeeming aspect of Rolling Stone’s Obamagasm was Bob Boynton’s interview with Cornel West. Asking about “handing the reins of power” to someone inexperienced, West replied:
There is a certain freshness and newness that people confuse with inexperience. I don’t think Obama is actually inexperienced when it comes to governing as president. He’s going to choose a high-quality team, and he has shown he is capable of excellent political judgment… I told Obama that when he wins–which I think he will–I will celebrate for one day. I’ll break-dance in the morning and party in the afternoon. But the next day, I’ll become one of his biggest critics.
Obscure Sound posted about Jim Noir yesterday! It’s a great write-up and the streaming songs included are making me itchy for 8 April when Noir’s new LP is released!
And Liz: that Facebook music player is annoying as fuck. I recommend using Songza–it’s fast and able to extract audio from Youtube, so you can find some really obscure recordings easily. Just a heads up for ya’ll.
I happened to be shuffling through some backfiles of news articles on hip-hip and rap this morning trying to make sense of the fear I have over what Madonna’s new LP means for that genre and the industry. (There’s a whole post in the works about this topic for later, but here’s an example from fan forums: “Woop! Tres excitement! Though I’m also apprehensive about her going all supposedly ‘hip hop’ & using the ubiquitous Timbaland as producer (seriously can Timbaland just go on holiday for a year or 2?! …every song nowadays is done by him or has him in the background or something)…Still, any Madonna album is a good thing to look forward to!” That flavor of statement reminds me (not just of Kanye West–also a whole separate post…) of the timbre of argument that’s usually a harbinger of assimilation; a form of assimilation distinct from synthesis (sonic, in this case) because someone like Madonna forecloses musical dialog by subsuming/co-opting/reclaiming a history and allowing it to be heard only through the filter of her music. This is not the first time Madonna’s done this; in fact, there’s plenty of literature indicating this trend is formulaic in her music).
Sheesh. Regardless, ISO50 made me laugh, since he posted these cool faux-7″ sleeve mashes (check out other artwork by Nikolay Saveliev) to make them look like the covers of academic articles:
I killed some time at my office scrolling through Scott’s ISO50 blog and also found this cool vintage Playboy shot, which reminded me of the razzy Barkley video earlier.
I just downloaded a sick cover of ‘I’m Waiting for the Man’ (Velvet Underground) by the Belgian band Été 67! The group primarily sing in French, and channel a Dandy Warhols/Cafe Tacuba approach with contours that bring to mind Kings of Convenience. Definitely worth a listen if you’re looking for something new and guitar-crunchy!
Unfortunately, I can’t locate any way to access their music without iTunes. An interview with the band on French radio OUIFM with an acoustic set can be found here, and SHIFT magazine has an (English) interview with them here (includes some fascinating bits about language and trans-national performances in that corner of the EU).
Check out the bootleg excerpt from their live show last May–the singer is really fucking cute! That, and the band launch into the song completely
Greg Kot over at the Chicago Tribune reported last week (whoops, I missed it) that Pitchfork is set to launch an online 24-7 video channel April 7th! Wait, you mean we’re actually going to have a music channel that’s about music? And one that doesn’t feel like I’m watching a single continuous commercial? Whoa. Pitchfork rocks. From their site:
Pitchfork.tv will become the first online video channel to screen full-length feature films, vintage concerts, and music DVDs free of charge. From the Pixies’ 2004 reunion tour film LoudQuietLoud and Todd Phillips’ notorious GG Allin documentary Hated, to Jimmy Joe Roche & Dan Deacon’s acid-drenched visual art piece Ultimate Reality, Pitchfork.tv will highlight a different film each week in its entirety.
Yes! One the bands I was introduced to while living in the UK, Jim Noir, are releasing their new album April 8! Their first album, Tower of Love, is an incredible feast of psychedelic happy music. When my friend Ryn had me listen, it felt like someone had wired a jukebox to ’summer afternoon’. Jim Noir channels a mellow-pop electronic sound that’s rife with the sonic repertoire of Cat Stevens, The Beatles, Beta Band, Heart (total guilty pleasure), and Mama Cass. Noir makes all the music himself except at live shows where he brings in some mates. Plus he wears a bowler hat constantly. *swoon* For this new album, self-titled Jim Noir, I’m grabbing a copy in 12″ vinyl as soon as they press it because there are no copies available anymore for their first album, and I expect this one to do the same.
His Manchester-based label, My Dads Recordings, has a terrible website, but pop by their State-side distributor Barsuk Records to download the single ‘Don’t You Worry‘ from the new album (also available at Spinner.com). Or you can check out a few of the songs streaming from their MySpace page. One of the things I love most about Jim Noir is how well he unexpectedly layers the sampled grooves and builds the tracks as a DJ might–including the ‘break-downs’–yet still retains a folky/Help!-era Beatles atmosphere. It’s a stunning surreal instrumental timbre, and yet it sounds effortless–as if you had just happened to pluck out a sweet radio station. With only a cursory listen to what’s available from the new album, I’m elated that there doesn’t seem to be any sophomoric ego infusion on his part. It’s truly light-hearted mood-lifting music. Full review when I get my hands on a copy for sure!
I love the video of ‘My Patch’ from the original album (ARISE Chicken!):
Inductions into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame are tonight and the ‘Class of 2008‘ include The Dave Clark Five, The Ventures, John Mellencamp, Leonard Cohen, and, for some reason, Madonna. Sexed-up celebrity, yes, pop-culture phenomenon, yes, famous rock and roller? Fuck no…
Aside from the obvious curiosity of the Hall of Fame inducting a singer-only that plays no instrument, I’ll level with you all: Madonna has altered the landscape of popular music, and especially what people come to expect when they consume it. BUT, without her music videos, without her mixing masters and producers who infuse her voice with music to bring it alive, she would have a hard time bringing subversive change to world music. Has anyone ever read her lyrics? There’s not much more emotional charge there beyond what a fifth grade poem might inspire. That’s not a criticism of her music, however; The Madge has been able to musically braid artists like Bowie, Donna Summer, and little femme Mapplethorpe into an incredible cache of rich sound that energizes the listener repeatedly without fatigue. Thats sweet, but it ain’t no rock and roll! MTV made her, and they can continue to award her, but don’t throw her in with Dylan, Joni Mitchell, or Aretha Franklin–they’ll do laps around her for sure.
John Soeder of The Plain Dealer writes up the nomination bill, and poignantly articulates the symbolism of Madonna:
As for Madonna, her greatest creation remains Madonna herself. As she puts it in “The Confessions Tour” DVD: “I am the art.”
Despite the pop bent of her music, Madonna belongs in the Rock Hall, says Stein, president emeritus of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation’s board of directors.
Madonna has “a true rock ‘n’ roll spirit,” Stein says.
“She takes chances. She doesn’t care about the odds. She cares about whether she believes in something or not.
Whatever. The fact that the Dealer chose to describe her induction by collaging the evolution of her fashion (as opposed to, say, her album work) probably speaks to my point better.
