The sun is pouring down. Cats are spaced on 'nip, tackling each other and clawing away at my Bobby Brown LPs. All indicators of a good day. And lo and behold, an e-olive branch extended at TNRR, with nary a cage match necessary.
And of all the days to come in hot with
Mr. Truth also elects this moment to touch on how chillwave has started to nudge the sonic aesthetic toward the gloss and style of 80's synth-driven sounds. And I couldn't agree more.
Not only do I see the trend continuing, I embrace it. Sure, most of the new bands that tout Dazzle Ships (!) as influential will sound closer to Chromeo than Junior Boys, but less copies of Lament in a dollar bin is better for everyone.
(homage-wise, this is getting it right)
I had been considering a regular-esque foray into the criminally underrated and unfairly dismissed realm of 80's pop, so this is all quite fortuitous.
Stay tuned, intrepid reader(s?) .. as the post title suggests, first up will be Japan's 1980 masterpiece Gentlemen Take Polaroids.
Felt a real bit of encouragement the other day when I learned that Martin Hannett, famed Factory Records producer, was a chemistry major! He started his production career at 28, as well. You see, just nigh of my 28th birthday (and graduation, with a chemistry degree), I'm at a bit of an impasse about what to do with my life. Obviously I can't be writer. I've always held out a slight dream of producing music - it was what I originally intended to go to college for, after all. I suspect that's where my talents lie (if I in fact have any)... writing little riffs, sculpting the big picture, ridding the world of boring-sounding records. Will I become a producer this year? Should I produce records as 'The Truth', like Flood or The Matrix?
Flood Bro
Here's one of the best scenes about producing ever in a movie, from 24 Hour Party People. Thanks be to whoever had the good taste to upload the entire scene.
Did Martin Hannett invent sipping syzzurp in the studio?
Faster, but slower. It always amazes me how many people can't understand this simple artistic maxim. It's about Impact; something very few recordings have. The reason recorded music is so transformative, is about 50% to do with the production. The vibe is as important as the song itself - it's the world the song pulls you into. Take 'She's Lost Control' - not that great of a song, really, yet Tony Wilson's right on the money when he says "there's nothing else out there that sounds like this, and that's the best thing about it". The song basically invented post-punk. Joy Division were miles ahead of everyone else, vibe-wise (they would sound futuristic today) and Hannett definitely was a big part of it.
He's also responsible for possibly my favorite production ever, New Order's 'Ceremony' (esp. the early 3-piece version below). Youtube doesn't really do it justice, you need to hear it on 45 rpm vinyl. (Drew was gentleman enough to let me buy it back from him after I sold it, setting a good example for us all.)
When the record starts spinning, and you hear the kick drum, perfectly isolated and centered in the mix, with an assuring 4/4 thump while the Doppler-ed bass lines weave in and out, jagged guitars pierce the vast space around the song, and the haunted vocal issues forth, totally out of place sonically, yet just right, you feel genuinely excited; you get the sense that you're listening to Art, a singular experience, captured somehow on a 12" plastic disc. Real lightning-in-a-bottle type shit.
A nice puff piece about the real Martin, in the studio, twiddling knobs. For fans of 'practical' Youtube videos:
Here's a couple more tasty productions by Hannett.
Can't find the original Hannett version of this OMD song, but the version the band remixed is very, very close to his.
Did you know? The Stone Rosies recorded their first album years before their debut finally came out... with Marty Hanny. They canned the project at the demo stage bc they got into a fight or something (they would probably call it a 'kerfuffle') bc they couldn't handle the 'far out' sound Hannett was bringing (he was getting wild - and obese - at this point). They released the tapes some years later when they realized their careers weren't coming back [via burning out, then fading away].
Gnarly sounding version of 'I Wanna Get Around'
Was this song ever on Guitar Hero?
Not too many other producers captured sounds with as much focus and clarity as old MH. The few that come to mind are Steve Albini, Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening, and SST's man Spot, who gave us my 2nd favorite production of all time:
You think Kevin Shields liked this record?
That IS Rock and Roll. It basically proves that rock is as much the sound as it is the song. All you need is one chord, and one lyric. New Day Rising! New Day Rising! New Day Rising! Play it with enough feeling and you WILL win your local talent show. I remember back in the day, me and my roommate bought that record for our dorm room, and when we brought it to the counter the owner of the shop (Bull City Records, RIP) said, with a seriousness straight outta High Fidelity, "I listened to this every morning on the way to high-school". You don't say that about shittily produced music!!
So, just start a one-chord band for now. Stick to maybe... one lyric. Hire me as your producer. I can't guarantee success, but I promise our records won't sound like this (i.e. successful):
Kinda feel like building a studio with a fireplace in it, so I can use PRS guitars as firewood. Has a good song ever been written on a PRS?
I'm glad to The Sound took time out to demonstrate his sense of humor [India Arie] and his desire to be like everybody else [Arthur Russell - the preeminent credibility drop since his 2004 retrospectives]. Arthur Russell is another one of those white guys (from Iowa, by way of San Francisco) who is somehow semi-branded as black. Journalists usually throw in little descriptors like 'downtown art scene' [via Basquiat], 'afro-beat', and never mentioning he's from Iowa. Retro-hype kept building until that shitty movie about Arthur Russell's imagined life, starring Jamie Foxx.
Joanna Newsom is like this, too. Remember when she was supposed to be 'all freaky'/not-some-average-white-chick b/c she played the harp and sang in that silly affected voice? But here she is rockin a Chanel bag (same one that Cam Diaz and Emma Stone have)
Here she is at a hockey game, again with the frat bro from SNL.
John Cage also falls into this category, although for more subtle reasons. Interestingly, the frontman of Love (also named Arthur) usually isn't billed as a black person, except possibly when trying to draw comparisons to Arthur Russell's alleged blackness. Hipster credibility dynamics are very confusing...
Anyway, hope we can leave our friendly feud at that. I'll drop the Carles appropriations [riding copycat waves], although some terms (like Overgrounders) are public domain since there's not a word that better describes that concept. I just hope we don't have an 'angry' contributor (I don't know how such a nice guy like Drew can have so many angry-bro friends)
Now, some random thoughts.
Who likes the Walkmen? Are the only people who buy Walkmen albums coffee shop owners who want to drive out their loitering patrons? I had my afternoon ruined today by the Walkmen discography being on shuffle in a cafe. Annoying voice, undistinguished guitars, shrill trebly sound, for hours. I don't care if that guy has deep lyrics. Publish your poetry, spare us any more recordings. Are the Walkmen the american Muse?
File under: 'I'd Rather Be Dead'
(These are two different bands)
Something I have been feeling recently, is this video from Matrix Metals.
I think everyone should embrace the fact that 'chillwave' is the tip of the iceberg (no pun intended), and we're headed, I believe, into at least a decade-long shift towards this aesthetic. I'm personally excited about a return to synthy futurism in music/culture, the vibe of the 80s overground, when everything was slightly dark and full of possibilities. Ironically, this will entail a few more years of 'rehashing the 80s', asking questions like "wasn't Family Ties actually an awesome show?", throwing Yacht-rock theme parties, etc. before we break new ground.
I'm thinking about changing the format of my posts soon. Be on the look out. Don't forget to pick up the goodie below, as a sort of cure for the 'Walkmen blues'.
Yes, I will be Stan Getz so long as you'll continue to be an India Arie lyric. I think the synergy there is delicious and a real boon to the project.
Also, if you don't want your account hacked, Truth, you will need to concoct a less obvious password ("xenakisluv69". really?)
But I feel something akin to honored that Truth took a moment and tore himself away from his field recordings of Charleston pumpkin patches and 1960's rural exorcisms LPs to comment on the opining of an 'overground' bro. That it was all wrapped up in zany wordplay and his continued, semi-inexplicable appropriation of Carles is just buttercream frosting, really.
I did find the timing more than a dash coincidental that the moment he lobbed that grenade of trenchant commentary re; the new, bubbling underground movement that is dubstep that lil' ol' pitchfork continued their anointing of James Blake. I would check for bugs, homeboy. You are being watched. What could be next .. a vicious deconstruction of this up and coming scene?
But I suppose the point I want to make is that being a fan of Young Marble Giants and Vampire Weakend (OK, that pun was solid) are not mutually exclusive. There is a precursor for everything, but damned if I'm going to only listen to those with firsties. Am I disqualified from blissing to 'Geogaddi' because Klaus Schulze cuts exist? I can't holler the lyrics to 'Acquiesce' at my pops (winkwink, Tongue) because 'Helter Skelter' already did anthemic Brit pop?
(incidentally, this is my preferred minimalist pop)
(and preferred soul jam)
There is no shame in mixing and matching; songcraft and a firm melody hit the spot, whether riding 'overground Contra waves' or shit that Ryan Dombal hasn't even dreamt of giving an 8.4 to yet.
(and when you're done with those exorcism recordings, I'd like to compare them to my EVP reel-to-reels from Massachusetts mental institutions)
The Truth is obviously interning for Spin magazine
Family Of the Year is a Polyphonic Spree-ish sounding band that recently put out their debut album. Don't know much about them other than they have a song in an Advil commercial for which they allegedly stole the melody from an obscure Melvin Sparks hit, and they're on tour with Ben Folds (I have no idea who goes to Ben Folds shows in 2k11). Anyway, doesn't seem like a band I would be repping this year, does it? Well, there's no way they're getting any 'cool points' for having this jangly 2003 sound, but I don't think it matters, this band has songwriting chops like I haven't heard in a long time. This is probably the type of band that goes straight to the mainstream, doesn't even front in indie markets. Anyone want to go to Walnut Creek to see these guys with me? Won't tell anyone, promise.
Just found this really inspirational video of Ernest Greene (aka Washed Out) chillin hard at the lake. Being a 'regular guy' (100% Earnest-ly). This guy's life seems like a permanent twenty-something vacation, sorta like my own. Hate that I'm spending my vacation studying chemistry and not making music. Washed Out might be the epitome of modern young-adult bands. Wonder how much $$ he makes/how much his parents make. I wish they flashed dollar amounts next to every item in the video, MTV Cribs-style, just so people would know how much they need to attain this lifestyle. He mentions 'working' a lot, but I know this bro doesn't make much money off his bloghouse tracks (which are essentially cover songs anyway). He seems happy though. Why am I not this happy?
Things I have in common with Washed Out:
- 27 yrs. old
- white
- live in the suburbs of the Southeastern United States
- went to college
- have cute girlfriends/fiances
- blog
- consume lots of music
- live near lakes
- have access to boats
- similar haircut
- okay bodies
- been in 'former bands'
- know how to play synth/mess around on computers
- enjoy hot dogs, uncool karoake jams/open mics
He does document his life well via photographs and seems to travel a lot, which I don't do, but I can play guitar + have an OK collection of neckties, so I think we're about even. It stands to reason all I needs to do is pirate some software, buy a microphone at a pawnshop, and hang out at the lake more. Should've discussed life strategies w/ him at Hopscotch, but I was tending to my gf who was outside puking in a bush, which is what he would've probably done, if he were me, which he basically is, so I dunno.
Gonna get dreamy at Jordan Lake this summer. Who's down?
Don't know who The Sound is (Stan Getz?) but he seems intent on 'shaking things up', calling people out, and spreading the love of overground bands like Vampire Weekend and Amy Winehouse/James Blake. I guess he either hacked our site, or he's a friend of The Myth; either way I guess I gotta accept our new 'contributor'. It'll probably drive a lot of traffic to our blog, sharing all the New Radicals CD's and Coldplay Storytellers. Not gonna change my opinion on Better Than Ezra Koenig, but he seems like a sharp critic, so I say 'Welcome' (maybe he's got a sweet manga collection, who knows?)
Speaking of James 'Blake' Lively, wasn't it weird how I just wrote that trend-piece, and I was like 'Fck Dubstep, Fck Trends, Are We Not Men?' and then Pitchfork shot back 12 hours later with 'Dubstep is the New Trend, You Must Like James Blake', written by local teddy bear Grayson Currin no less? I'm gonna tell you the same thing I told you when a strange man offers you candy and asks you to get in his van - 'Don't Do It. You Will Regret This'. If you want minimalist pop, why not listen to some Young Marble Giants, or if it's Soul you need, try this:
Remember, you're in good hands at TNRR (just make sure you check who's writing the posts)
Lest things fully slip into some haggard (yet alluring) blend of Tongue's aural eroticism and a semi-semi-relevant Hipster Runoff spin-off, I have some sense of duty to dust off a bit of real estate with property lines snuggled between the 'outsider' or avant, and the 'hipster' pop music that seems to be the source of oh so much derision.
(incidentally, I have peer-reviewed studies that indicate 'hipster' means precisely the same thing as 'indie' or 'emo'. which is 'nothing')
I am alright with being the one who defends Vampire Weekend or James Blake. Because I know what they are supposedly aping; I've heard the source material. But that doesn't make "Horchata" any less infectious (and leave any 'whitewashed, faux South African' gripes at the door, I'm busy nodding my head). And Blake might be a skinny, white Brit but homeboy also croons like Antony and manipulates his Macbook like Stockton to Malone.
The Truth (holla!) is never as interesting as The Wish (gotta recruit her).
[Part 1 in which The Truth goes back on his word and delivers more content than promised]
Devo answered this question in the title of their first album - "We Are Devo" was the reply - a wry satire, the robotic voice a token of the detached, lifeless hipster persona, constantly defining itself 'in opposition to' whatever mainstream cultural values were at the moment, and therefore as baseless and arbitrary as mainstream culture itself. It also charts the 'devolution' of civilization back into a state of tribes, niches, fashions, away from the promise of technicolor pluralism offered by mass communication/the TVs/the Internets. Of course, ironically, the Internet has finally exposed hipsterism for the fraud that it always was (even though at one point, it did serve a valuable purpose as underground information exchange). Devo was probably responding to pressures from the Cleveland art scene it had started from (along with groups like Pere Ubu, who never 'sold out' and remain hipster bedfellows to this day) to 'conform' to a strict set of aesthetic values. Anyone who's ever been part of a scene, even your local church bingo scene, knows this pressure, and what a pernicious bitch it can be, esp. when you're trying to do something creative.
(and you thought David Byrnie had cool dances)
[Psuedo-social-psychology preamble over, getting to the point]
I was reminded of this when I was reflecting on one of the more recent hipster fads, Italo Disco. "WTF is Italo Disco", I asked myself somewhat rhetorically back in 2k7, when the term first 'sprouted' like a head of cabbage. I kind of knew what it was - after all, who hasn't heard the ultimate Italo Disco track - 'Rhythm of the Night'? I was a little bit concerned, though, too, because there was something 'trending' right beneath my feet that I was woefully ignorant of (honestly I felt a lil bit insecure about this). I should have remembered then one of the Principles of Rock: HIPSTERS NEVER DO THEIR OWN RESEARCH. Trends do not happen because a bunch of white tweens take a break from messing up their Chuck T's to go dig up an obscure (foreign) subgenre from the past. That's too much work, too risky. No, there's ALWAYS an intrepid and tastemaking label behind these 'flash' trends. (Let's call them White Squalls, in homage to White History Month):
(P4K-endorsed trends + Music Festivals = giant wave.)
I just stumbled across the label responsible for the Italo Disco trend a couple months ago by accident, called, unsubtly, Italians Do It Better. A quick review shows that they launched in 2k6. This is such a classic example of trendy labels it should be a case study. Flashy, evocative graphics, high quality vinyls, limited everything, MODERN MODERN MODERN bands. Notice they don't reissue too much real Italo Disco from back in the day (which would actually be valuable, since that stuff is hard to find). Instead they have modern, easy-going tweens making psuedo-Italo Disco, and referencing it all over the place. This is a key element to the equation. Remember in the late 60s, when bands all wanted to look like Civil War generals? Do you think they dug up Civil War era sheet music and played it on accordion? Nope, they just listened to Big Pink. Hell, it's what made the Rolling Stones cooler than the Beatles; you could say you 'listened to blues music' when all you listened to were the Stones! "Close enough is always good enough (usually better)" - the hipster motto.
Anywayz, there's a reason the trend gained traction so fast - a lot of stuff on IDIB is pretty damn immediate and good.
(Drew is downloading this) DISCLAIMER: I take no credit for 'discovering' Glass Candy. This is simply their latest single.
Glass Candy is one of those me-too poseur bands with talent. Needless to say, they're the backbone of labels like IBID. Back in 2002, they rode the 'post-punk' train until it derailed, took a few years off, heard about the Italo Disco trend, and relaunched. Whatevs, it's good music ya'll.
Anywayz again, Italo Disco is pretty much 'over' now. Chillwave (which also might be 'ovr' - jesus how behind am I??) superseded it - who knows what will come next... my guess if someone can figure out how to make R&B sound white enough (and sknny enough - the 'heavy lover' concept doesn't jibe with health-conscious whites heavily invested in slim fit wardrobes), then it'll be that.
I'd like to start off by bucking the trend, or rather - the title. What does The Tongue think IS rock and roll?
SHE is rock and roll. Who is she? Just some random you met in a blanket fort a couple months back. Why is she so rock and roll? Or better yet, let's explore why rock and roll is so sexy.
A girl telling you that she puts "Runeii" from Talk Talk's "Laughing Stock" on nearly every mix cd she composes is the equivalent of her falling to her knees 7" from your waist. Atleast for me it is. Doesn't every music man pine over the thought of drinking stouts and porters (stouts and fucking porters!) with a female that is genuinely thrilled that you kind of turned her on to "Spirit of Eden", demanding that she take repeated listens. And then she does, and eloquently verbalizes why the tension between the ambiance, the percussion and the amplifier is so hot.
This is based on a true story. And it makes me almost as flustered as the guitar tones on Hendrix's "Crosstown Traffic". I wish every man this experience (no pun). We all want a babe that can rock and roll with us, while also tolerating our affinity for The Blue Nile's "Hats". Hey, sweetheart - you ran into a man that can enjoy the finer contemporary bullshit from the coke-soaked 80's.
Dedicated to all the women who turned someone on to Slowdive, to any girl who suggested making out to "In A Silent Way", and maybe to the UK ladies that like Bark Psychosis half because they're kinda cool and half because they've got a little secret.
With my posts becoming rare and more scarce, I fear posting anything...but then I remember that most of this shit is crap anyway so who cares.
A Much appreciated Thanks to the Truth to help keep this alive. I don't know weather to find the co-incidence that all of the videos that he's posted all share the low fi super 8 camera vibe. Like 'look, we don't create new music, so its gotta look like its old too'...I dunno. Perhaps its a theme that these newcomers may be onto now, but whenever I see a car commercial with a throwback blurryness and song lyrics going "...and I'm happy to go running away.." you know where I'm going with this.
That being said, perhaps 2011 will be a glitch year...the start of a new era, pretty soon Hot Releases out of Carborro will be on 96 rock bumping...bumps, clicks, whatever you call the avant/noise/blahgshgjh genre...I know I am excited to hear the new Aphex Twin...and yes the stuff that comes out on Warp records.
