last night i went with the posse to see fennesz and keith rowe at MIT, a "non-event" that seems to have been 'curated' instead of 'booked,' if you know what i mean. all tomorrow's parties ruined that word. rowe's set was hard for me to get in to with its base of machine hum, snips of stolen radio, weird surging cut outs of sound after sharp crescendos. fennesz slayed me in 01 with Endless Summer, and I was not disappointed with his revisiting of that mood in two segments of his set, just absolutely huge, heartbreaking sheets of distortion sculpted and beat up (har har, intended double).... reminding me of a conversation i had with luke that same day about how frustrating it is that you can listen to one record or all your records, or all the records in the world together in one lifetime, but each decision you make means you're not making the other decisions, and something is lost in the choice. he said 'or, you could just listen to the first sample of one CD forever...i kind of think that's what heaven is like,' which i didn't really understand but then POW fennesz just make it happen for me. and...he's so dreamy, he made my friend josh exclaim that which is the title of this post. also, fennesz looks like boris karloff a little, when the lights are low. (but he doesn't look like nick cave. no one does). it was kind of lovely and kind of ridiculous, this concert.
also kind of lovely: my first piece for the Village Voice is out today.
also kind of ridiculous: air guitar championships
5.25.2004
fine, i guess you don't look like nick cave
so, a few days ago i got into what became a very strange conversation/fight with someone about how ridiculous it was that i would posit that he looked like nick cave. the logic was not that he looked or didn't look like cave, but rather that the statement was bankrupt of meaning, because 1) he didn't know what nick cave looked like and 2) because of that, there was no acknowledged stylistic kinship, and thus I shouldn't be able to infer anything about his state-of-being from his weird, sartorial and bone-structure coincidence.
well, what struck me about this was that five years ago, when i was 20, this would have been a totally acceptable thing to say to someone. people were 'still figuring out' their style, their worldview and what place artists and musicians, writers and whomever else, had in shaping how we spoke, carried ourselves, and yes, dressed. i suppose this is insulting to someone as they mature, because we're supposed to be over it and not taking cues from lame rock stars, even ones as beautiful and well-heeled as nick cave. so, ya, dude, i take it back, you don't look like nick cave. you fully look just was robotically h&m as everyone else our age. does that make you happy?
but really, this is one of those annie hall moments. know the scene where woody allen is in bed with the blonde rolling stone critic, and she's boring the crap out of him with her jabbering wit re: some concert...har har, there's me! only i'd like to think that my mind operates way outside the bounds of 'rock writing,' whatever those bounds are, to include some of the 'normal' things that people talk about (tho god help me, i'll never be so tacky as to talk about wealth management in public). still, as i get older, it does seem like explicitely caring about popular music, as a profession, becomes less and less cool and more ridiculous, especially as a woman. Ann Powers says it best here. All this comes from a Girl Group conversation about music, writing and aging re: the Nick Hornby op-ed in the NY TIMES. My response to said is below. Also here's sasha frere-jones' response...thanx to amy for posting it for the group.
Re: Hornby, link here: XXXX
Whoa - this reads to me like an incredibly conservative 'gee, wasn't
rock better when it was white men singing about love' revisionist
nostalgia piece, sadly sent to the top by the nytimes in their new
quest for celebrity music writers. tirade follows.
most problematic ideas:
-invoking of the sad, middle age man's 'justify my existence' through
rewriting what rock 'should be' to fit his listening, which is silly bc
he's only working in a narrow, media created frame of what rock has
been anyway, like 'vh1 told me i can't like rock!' oh NO, welcome to
not-being-the-target-market! now you have to be creative in your lyric
listening/identification through music like all the non-white,
non-male, non-hetero, non-young, (and maybe in ameri-pop's case,
non-Xtian?) people!
- music is 'too full of itself' because obviously, Jerry Lee Lewis
wasn't full of himself, but instead just trying to have 'fun' without
that damned self-consciousness that plagues modern man. Quote:
"And if bands see the need to use electric drills instead of guitars in
order to give vent to their rage, well, bring it on. But is there any
chance we could have the Righteous Brothers' "Little Latin Lupe Lu" —
or, better still, a modern-day equivalent — for an encore?"
umm. well, you could, but hey buddy, it's different times. one of the
most bizarre things to think about is how people since the 80s have
been fetishizing 60s culture, and think about it -in the 60s, 20 years
ago was the 40s, so fetishizing the 60s now would have been like people
in the 60s fetishizing the 20s - a.k.a. "Honey Pie" by the Beatles, a
piece of nostalgia shlock, charming but throwaway period piece, not an
'authentic' return.
- rock can't be both high and low, commerce has **suddenly** ruined
this duality, known to me as the "mansion on the hill' syndrome
lamented finely in the book of the same name.
-no mention of women, as already mentioned, but of special interest -
my joke for the week has been inserting the term 'heteronormative' into
everything possible...
- slighting Throbbing Gristle, as if a)anyone reading the Times knows
what the hell you're talking about and b) it was a personal crusade
against provocative, sexually ambiguous music that doesn't make you
feel like chasing tail, but instead examines what is chasing, what is
tail.
"I just want it to have ambition and exuberance, a lack of
self-consciousness, a recognition of the redemptive power of noise, an
acknowledgment that emotional intelligence is sometimes best
articulated through a great chord change, rather than a furrowed brow."
"However, there is still a part of me that persists in thinking that
rock music, and indeed all art, has an occasional role to play in the
increasingly tricky art of making us glad we're alive. I'm not sure
that Throbbing Gristle and its descendants will ever pull that off..."
the immediate above, true, but not the only, and hasn't been that way
for a while. arrgh. sorry for the long ass email - this kind of
top-of-the-mountain regurgitation of VH1 rock narrative with fake fru
fru language makes me a little yarfy.
finally, Slate ran this about the Hornby backlash phenomenon...
well, what struck me about this was that five years ago, when i was 20, this would have been a totally acceptable thing to say to someone. people were 'still figuring out' their style, their worldview and what place artists and musicians, writers and whomever else, had in shaping how we spoke, carried ourselves, and yes, dressed. i suppose this is insulting to someone as they mature, because we're supposed to be over it and not taking cues from lame rock stars, even ones as beautiful and well-heeled as nick cave. so, ya, dude, i take it back, you don't look like nick cave. you fully look just was robotically h&m as everyone else our age. does that make you happy?
but really, this is one of those annie hall moments. know the scene where woody allen is in bed with the blonde rolling stone critic, and she's boring the crap out of him with her jabbering wit re: some concert...har har, there's me! only i'd like to think that my mind operates way outside the bounds of 'rock writing,' whatever those bounds are, to include some of the 'normal' things that people talk about (tho god help me, i'll never be so tacky as to talk about wealth management in public). still, as i get older, it does seem like explicitely caring about popular music, as a profession, becomes less and less cool and more ridiculous, especially as a woman. Ann Powers says it best here. All this comes from a Girl Group conversation about music, writing and aging re: the Nick Hornby op-ed in the NY TIMES. My response to said is below. Also here's sasha frere-jones' response...thanx to amy for posting it for the group.
Re: Hornby, link here: XXXX
Whoa - this reads to me like an incredibly conservative 'gee, wasn't
rock better when it was white men singing about love' revisionist
nostalgia piece, sadly sent to the top by the nytimes in their new
quest for celebrity music writers. tirade follows.
most problematic ideas:
-invoking of the sad, middle age man's 'justify my existence' through
rewriting what rock 'should be' to fit his listening, which is silly bc
he's only working in a narrow, media created frame of what rock has
been anyway, like 'vh1 told me i can't like rock!' oh NO, welcome to
not-being-the-target-market! now you have to be creative in your lyric
listening/identification through music like all the non-white,
non-male, non-hetero, non-young, (and maybe in ameri-pop's case,
non-Xtian?) people!
- music is 'too full of itself' because obviously, Jerry Lee Lewis
wasn't full of himself, but instead just trying to have 'fun' without
that damned self-consciousness that plagues modern man. Quote:
"And if bands see the need to use electric drills instead of guitars in
order to give vent to their rage, well, bring it on. But is there any
chance we could have the Righteous Brothers' "Little Latin Lupe Lu" —
or, better still, a modern-day equivalent — for an encore?"
umm. well, you could, but hey buddy, it's different times. one of the
most bizarre things to think about is how people since the 80s have
been fetishizing 60s culture, and think about it -in the 60s, 20 years
ago was the 40s, so fetishizing the 60s now would have been like people
in the 60s fetishizing the 20s - a.k.a. "Honey Pie" by the Beatles, a
piece of nostalgia shlock, charming but throwaway period piece, not an
'authentic' return.
- rock can't be both high and low, commerce has **suddenly** ruined
this duality, known to me as the "mansion on the hill' syndrome
lamented finely in the book of the same name.
-no mention of women, as already mentioned, but of special interest -
my joke for the week has been inserting the term 'heteronormative' into
everything possible...
- slighting Throbbing Gristle, as if a)anyone reading the Times knows
what the hell you're talking about and b) it was a personal crusade
against provocative, sexually ambiguous music that doesn't make you
feel like chasing tail, but instead examines what is chasing, what is
tail.
"I just want it to have ambition and exuberance, a lack of
self-consciousness, a recognition of the redemptive power of noise, an
acknowledgment that emotional intelligence is sometimes best
articulated through a great chord change, rather than a furrowed brow."
"However, there is still a part of me that persists in thinking that
rock music, and indeed all art, has an occasional role to play in the
increasingly tricky art of making us glad we're alive. I'm not sure
that Throbbing Gristle and its descendants will ever pull that off..."
the immediate above, true, but not the only, and hasn't been that way
for a while. arrgh. sorry for the long ass email - this kind of
top-of-the-mountain regurgitation of VH1 rock narrative with fake fru
fru language makes me a little yarfy.
finally, Slate ran this about the Hornby backlash phenomenon...
5.21.2004
smarmy indie rock assholes should never be their own publicists
take yer pick. if you've done your homework you'll know that music critics have said exactly those things so far. or been similarly confused. but only you can decide whether i'm offending you.
anyway, if you like the music, that's the important thing.
dc wrote:
Ya, well, I'm really confused about this email - are you offending me,
my friend, my profession, my school or just being, you know, witty and
offhand?
--- rob mccolley wrote:
> oh, i remember. "music dept." means people who spend 8 hours a day
> in a cubicle room, have swollen upper lips or red spots on their
> jaws, and go to classes where they learn to be a master.
>
> see, i confused it with "music director," a person who receives piles
> of cocaine, twinkies, and playoff tickets in the mail. in this case,
> a guy named matt.
>
> dc wrote:
> Rob,
>
> don't follow yr message, but i'm friends with matt (we writers stick
> together) and he's a writer for pitchfork. i'm a writer elsewhere. i
> got yr CD to my philadelphia address.
>
> best,
> daphne
>
> --- rob mccolley wrote:
> > AAM sent one to THIS guy.
> > WBSRMATT LEMAY BROWN UNIVERSITY
> > what were they thinking?
> >
> > what you're saying is you want one too. is that it? EH?!?
> >
> > dc
> wrote:
> > Hello Rob,
> >
> > I wonder if Brooke from Fanatic gave you my mailing address for yr
> > CD?
> > If so, please take note of my address change - I'll only be here a
> > little while longer, then will be moving to NYC in the fall. I'll
> > send
> > you an email again when I've moved.
> >
> > Best,
> > Daphne Carr
> >
anyway, if you like the music, that's the important thing.
dc
Ya, well, I'm really confused about this email - are you offending me,
my friend, my profession, my school or just being, you know, witty and
offhand?
--- rob mccolley wrote:
> oh, i remember. "music dept." means people who spend 8 hours a day
> in a cubicle room, have swollen upper lips or red spots on their
> jaws, and go to classes where they learn to be a master.
>
> see, i confused it with "music director," a person who receives piles
> of cocaine, twinkies, and playoff tickets in the mail. in this case,
> a guy named matt.
>
> dc wrote:
> Rob,
>
> don't follow yr message, but i'm friends with matt (we writers stick
> together) and he's a writer for pitchfork. i'm a writer elsewhere. i
> got yr CD to my philadelphia address.
>
> best,
> daphne
>
> --- rob mccolley wrote:
> > AAM sent one to THIS guy.
> > WBSRMATT LEMAY BROWN UNIVERSITY
> > what were they thinking?
> >
> > what you're saying is you want one too. is that it? EH?!?
> >
> > dc
> wrote:
> > Hello Rob,
> >
> > I wonder if Brooke from Fanatic gave you my mailing address for yr
> > CD?
> > If so, please take note of my address change - I'll only be here a
> > little while longer, then will be moving to NYC in the fall. I'll
> > send
> > you an email again when I've moved.
> >
> > Best,
> > Daphne Carr
> >
5.20.2004
the eu noise directive, order now on soleilmoon
Gross sent me this link about band and orchestra directors being exposed to high levels of noise. luckily, with decreased funding for all arts and social sciences programs through the magnificent failure of no child left behind, there only noise pollution teachers will experience will be while waiting in the long unemployment lines.
From the above link, the sinister corporate interest comments of Sec. of Education Paige include these Tipper-like anxieties about libidinous, heathen-friendly popular culture:
"We face formidable forces--music, movies, the arts and even our culture itself all teach students to prize greed, celebrity and indifference, and to disregard violence. I have a particular concern about the lack of positive role models. Overall, we are failing to foster good character."
Har har, rap is making our culture more violent. If only everyone would behave, we could focus more on war.
Noise noise, well I was trying to find all those articles about orchestras having to change their dB levels bc of the EU's directives on pollution levels, but all I could find was this funny link to the EU Noise Directive", which has detailed instructions on how loud yr household appliances can be. No wonder the Europeans don't deserve defense contracts - they're so fussy!
From the above link, the sinister corporate interest comments of Sec. of Education Paige include these Tipper-like anxieties about libidinous, heathen-friendly popular culture:
"We face formidable forces--music, movies, the arts and even our culture itself all teach students to prize greed, celebrity and indifference, and to disregard violence. I have a particular concern about the lack of positive role models. Overall, we are failing to foster good character."
Har har, rap is making our culture more violent. If only everyone would behave, we could focus more on war.
Noise noise, well I was trying to find all those articles about orchestras having to change their dB levels bc of the EU's directives on pollution levels, but all I could find was this funny link to the EU Noise Directive", which has detailed instructions on how loud yr household appliances can be. No wonder the Europeans don't deserve defense contracts - they're so fussy!
5.19.2004
multi-mafia connections
okay, today i interviewed matt from bedhead/the new year for stop smiling, and turns out he is getting his doctorate at brown. yesterday i interviewed the head booking agent for the middle east, and he too is getting an advanced degree at brown. i'm officially part of some kind of fucked up, overeducated, overmotivated to privledge quasi-professional yuppie punk continuum. well...at least i didn't go to harvard. uggh, i can't believe i even wrote that as a joke.
all i want to do is listen to willfully miserable music these days. right now it's...ya, it is...the cure best of, and last night it was five leaves left (n.drake), which is now totally indistinguishable to me from Sea Changes, by Beck (a mediocre album which sounded great at the time), the newish mohave 3 (i'll never give up - shoegazers unite), son house and love life.
there are a few not really great photos of LL in Winterberg's book, which is a shame because Katrina Ford is the most amazing performer i've ever witnessed and it doesn't really translate as well as the post-hardcore rock bonanza action of dudes in wb's book. maybe he knows how to photograph people holding instruments better, or dudes in general?
also, deborah frost just joined girl group, and seems totally amazing. here's part of her first post:
"...but maybe one of the nice things about that era was that it
was not necessary to categorize it all... that probably had more to
do with the statistic-lovers who 'd spent most of life before
growing out their crew cuts & inhaling a puff or two debating
batting averages that they (being even less adept at pushing
pencils than coordinating any two given limbs in the service of
any elegant, much less useful, activity) could only dream about...
in other words, the geeks who morphed into a professional
league of their own-- rock critics."
all i want to do is listen to willfully miserable music these days. right now it's...ya, it is...the cure best of, and last night it was five leaves left (n.drake), which is now totally indistinguishable to me from Sea Changes, by Beck (a mediocre album which sounded great at the time), the newish mohave 3 (i'll never give up - shoegazers unite), son house and love life.
there are a few not really great photos of LL in Winterberg's book, which is a shame because Katrina Ford is the most amazing performer i've ever witnessed and it doesn't really translate as well as the post-hardcore rock bonanza action of dudes in wb's book. maybe he knows how to photograph people holding instruments better, or dudes in general?
also, deborah frost just joined girl group, and seems totally amazing. here's part of her first post:
"...but maybe one of the nice things about that era was that it
was not necessary to categorize it all... that probably had more to
do with the statistic-lovers who 'd spent most of life before
growing out their crew cuts & inhaling a puff or two debating
batting averages that they (being even less adept at pushing
pencils than coordinating any two given limbs in the service of
any elegant, much less useful, activity) could only dream about...
in other words, the geeks who morphed into a professional
league of their own-- rock critics."
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