Remember that really weird kid from high school? You know, the kid who washed his hair with crisco, always wore a vest and was the star of Canterbury Tales? Ever wonder what happened to him? Did he make it on broadway? Did he become the first guy to get into Juliard for playing the pan flute? No, his name is Colin Meloy, and he went to college in Montana, learned the guitar and started The Decemberists.
The Decemberists defy simple classification. The best way I can describe them, is if REM and Fleetwood Mac had a baby, and that baby went to art school, it would be The Decemberists. Colin Meloy's hyper-literate, historically obscure lyrics sometimes makes me think his writing process involves going to the library and trying to write songs based off of historical footnotes. Don't believe me? Look up the lyrics to "Odalisque" and "The Shank Hill Butchers" and then do a wikipedia search. Heck, do a wikipedia search for The Decemberists while you're at it. (I'm not saying that I've done it...) These guys definitely got an A in AP History. Their last album "The Hazards of Love" was a full on rock-opera about a love triangle that involved a shape shifting forest beast, and an evil queen. I think. I still don't really know what that record was about.
However, "The King is Dead" is something entirely new for The Decemberists. And the thing that's so strange is how normal the record is. Seriously. It's a country record. Full of pedal steel guitars, fiddles, harmonicas and Gillian Welch backing vocals. REM's own Peter Buck plays guitar on half of the tracks. It sounds normal, not over blown, and you don't have to listen to it with a thesaurus in hand. There's no concept (except that's its country sounding), and it's short (only 10 songs). But it's really really good. The songs are more focused and Colin Meloy's voice has a surprisingly good range.
Lyrically, most of the songs are sort of "Workers of the World Unite!" The opener "Don't Carry it All" is sort of a workers anthem that features the line "And you must bear your neighbors burden within reason", which makes sense, if The Decemberists are going to make a country album, it's not going to be an odd to Jack Daniels and belt buckles like most modern country. It's going to be a throwback to the old days when country music was the anthem of the rural working class.
The Decemberists have always had a folky sound. So the leap to country isn't as big of a jump as it may seem. It suits them, and they can still mix in a little accordion and use lines like "every vessel pitching hard to starboard". The bluesy "Down by the Water" is a great song, that perfect mix of genres that is incredibly catchy and listenable, it's what the band is built on. "All Arise" has a real hoedown feel with a fun fiddle part. The best track is probably "Calamity Song", it's a backwoods, country rocker about the end of the world. The sort of song that only this group could pull off. The twin ballads "January Hymn" and "June Hymn" are both pretty solid. Just simple acoustic songs that paint idyllic pictures of the countryside during their respective months.
Yes, the record is short at only 10 songs. But there really aren't any throw away tracks. There's no filler. I'll pay $9.99 for that. So put on your best felt vest, throw on some hypster glasses, and have a hoedown with the drama club! It's fun, I promise.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
The Dispatch Business Plan
In honor of Dispatch coming to Atlanta, I'm going to break down how 3 dudes from Vermont became an Indie Success Story.
Dispatch never signed to a major label. Their songs were never played on any major radio stations. They've never had a number one hit. They've never won a grammy, or had a music video on MTV or VH1. But if you went to college sometime in the last 10 years, odds are you know the song "The General" by heart. And I'll bet you also know songs like "Flying Horses", "Out Loud", "Bang Bang" or "Two Coins". Dispatch's final concert, dubbed The Last Dispatch, drew a crowd of 100,000 people to Central Park to see the band perform one last time. Somewhere in America, there is a record company putting millions of dollars and all their resources into a band, trying to help them become 1/10th as popular, as Dispatch is. How did this happen? And what is there to learn from it?
I'll take a page from Malcolm Gladwell and say that Dispatch's success was due, in part, to timing. In 2000 Napster was the new cool thing, and in a weird way, it rendered the traditional record company obsolete. Here's the dirty little secret of the music industry: musicians don't make money off of album sales, record companies do. Musicians make their money off of merchandice (shirts and stickers and things) and live shows. You always hear these stories about bands like NSYNC who sell $30 million worth of records and end up make $1,500, that's because the majority of that money goes to the companies who paid for the album to be made. It's really hard to make any real money off of album sales unless you have the number 1 album in the universe. Which is part of why the Metallica argument against Napster (Their basic argument was "We're sticking up for the smaller bands because that's who this really hurts!") was so ludicrous. Bands like Dispatch have NEVER made money off of selling music, they make money off of getting people to go to their live shows. Napster was a FANTASTIC invention for the little bands. Now anyone, anywhere could hear their music, get online, see when they were coming to their town, and go to the concert. They were no longer restricted by their cd distribution (it's expensive to ship cd's to every store in America). Without the internet and Napster, Dispatch wouldn't have had near the success they had.
Instead of fighting technology like Metallica did, Dispatch embraced it. They even offered a forum on their website where fans could trade mp3s of live shows. (The Grateful Dead did the same thing in the 70s with tape trading, Phish was also a big pioneer of this idea) The internet was free advertising and distribution, two of the biggest needs that a big record label fulfills. But Dispatch also had a really good product. The songs were great, and the live shows were even better. Free marketing and distribution won't help you if you have crappy music and can't play live. The common denominator in all good artists is this: they tour, a lot. Bands have to hone their live performance, and you learn by doing. It's very hard to find a great artist of any genre, at any level, that doesn't tour relentlessly. By touring, a band can not only hone their skills and perfect their craft, but can develop a following, the people who love their music ravenously and will do anything to see the band play. And that is something that a band has to earn. In order to develop people who love your band, you have to love your fans. That means you have to do things for them. Cheap tickets, giveaways, free downloads, signing autographs, playing a few extra songs at a show, a band has to prove that they love the audience, before the audience can love them.
Dispatch also made their concerts special. Each one was unique, so if you go to 5 Dispatch concerts, each one will be a unique experience. (In the business world, this is known as client/customer retention) So the band had a quality product, loyal customers, free distribution and marketing, who needs a major record label? And look where it got them: the largest concert in the history of independent music, a cult following, a "hit" without the radio, and a special entry in my blog (ok, so they don't really care about the last one).
So why does this matter? Because if you want to go see a major act perform, get ready to shell out $100, just for the tickets. Because record companies are fighting itunes to raise their prices. Because venues are telling bands to be done playing by midnight. And there are more one hit wonders than ever. True success in music is about establishing a fan base, and that takes time, effort and sacrifice. And some good songs.
Dispatch never signed to a major label. Their songs were never played on any major radio stations. They've never had a number one hit. They've never won a grammy, or had a music video on MTV or VH1. But if you went to college sometime in the last 10 years, odds are you know the song "The General" by heart. And I'll bet you also know songs like "Flying Horses", "Out Loud", "Bang Bang" or "Two Coins". Dispatch's final concert, dubbed The Last Dispatch, drew a crowd of 100,000 people to Central Park to see the band perform one last time. Somewhere in America, there is a record company putting millions of dollars and all their resources into a band, trying to help them become 1/10th as popular, as Dispatch is. How did this happen? And what is there to learn from it?
I'll take a page from Malcolm Gladwell and say that Dispatch's success was due, in part, to timing. In 2000 Napster was the new cool thing, and in a weird way, it rendered the traditional record company obsolete. Here's the dirty little secret of the music industry: musicians don't make money off of album sales, record companies do. Musicians make their money off of merchandice (shirts and stickers and things) and live shows. You always hear these stories about bands like NSYNC who sell $30 million worth of records and end up make $1,500, that's because the majority of that money goes to the companies who paid for the album to be made. It's really hard to make any real money off of album sales unless you have the number 1 album in the universe. Which is part of why the Metallica argument against Napster (Their basic argument was "We're sticking up for the smaller bands because that's who this really hurts!") was so ludicrous. Bands like Dispatch have NEVER made money off of selling music, they make money off of getting people to go to their live shows. Napster was a FANTASTIC invention for the little bands. Now anyone, anywhere could hear their music, get online, see when they were coming to their town, and go to the concert. They were no longer restricted by their cd distribution (it's expensive to ship cd's to every store in America). Without the internet and Napster, Dispatch wouldn't have had near the success they had.
Instead of fighting technology like Metallica did, Dispatch embraced it. They even offered a forum on their website where fans could trade mp3s of live shows. (The Grateful Dead did the same thing in the 70s with tape trading, Phish was also a big pioneer of this idea) The internet was free advertising and distribution, two of the biggest needs that a big record label fulfills. But Dispatch also had a really good product. The songs were great, and the live shows were even better. Free marketing and distribution won't help you if you have crappy music and can't play live. The common denominator in all good artists is this: they tour, a lot. Bands have to hone their live performance, and you learn by doing. It's very hard to find a great artist of any genre, at any level, that doesn't tour relentlessly. By touring, a band can not only hone their skills and perfect their craft, but can develop a following, the people who love their music ravenously and will do anything to see the band play. And that is something that a band has to earn. In order to develop people who love your band, you have to love your fans. That means you have to do things for them. Cheap tickets, giveaways, free downloads, signing autographs, playing a few extra songs at a show, a band has to prove that they love the audience, before the audience can love them.
Dispatch also made their concerts special. Each one was unique, so if you go to 5 Dispatch concerts, each one will be a unique experience. (In the business world, this is known as client/customer retention) So the band had a quality product, loyal customers, free distribution and marketing, who needs a major record label? And look where it got them: the largest concert in the history of independent music, a cult following, a "hit" without the radio, and a special entry in my blog (ok, so they don't really care about the last one).
So why does this matter? Because if you want to go see a major act perform, get ready to shell out $100, just for the tickets. Because record companies are fighting itunes to raise their prices. Because venues are telling bands to be done playing by midnight. And there are more one hit wonders than ever. True success in music is about establishing a fan base, and that takes time, effort and sacrifice. And some good songs.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Kanye West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy"
To the mainstream!
I feel like one day looking back, we're all going to realize that Kanye's Dropout Trilogy ("College Dropout", "Late Registration" and "Graduation") is one of the great achievements in Rap, and in popular music. Not only are all 3 albums sonically interesting (they are the cornerstone of the modern hip-hop sound), but each one carries a unique lyrical theme and sonic blueprint. "College Dropout" uses a neo-soul sound to back songs about rebellion and making your own way. "Late Registration" polishes up the sound to more pop friendly pallate to back songs about life at the top. And the synths and electronics of "Graduation" work with the theme of moving on.
So, after following all of that up with the huge letdown of "808's and Heartbreaks" (did we really need to hear Kanye try to sing?) along with several bad public moments, it was fair to wonder if Kanye's best days were behind him. Was he out of creative juice? Did he exhaust all his good ideas on the first 3 albums? Would he now become "that guy who everyone used to like who now just does a verse on whoever is popular at the moment's new song"? On "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" Mr. West responds by saying "You ain't seen nothin' yet!" After his public persona has become a model for petulance, egotism, and just general asshole-ish-ness, you would expect a grown up, somber, and reflective Kanye. And you would be dead wrong.
Lyrically, Kanye goes the opposite way and embraces all the dark parts of his personality. He turns the cockiness, anger and ego up to levels never before seen (even for a man who describes himself as a genius!). But it also seems he knows that this probably isn't a good thing. Songs like "Power", "Monster" and "Runaway" gives little hints that he realizes he's out of control. But he can't stop himself. Nowhere is this dynamic better examined than in the chorus of "Power" where he begins by remarking "No one man should have all that power" only to end with "til then f--- that, the world's ours!" The dichotomy of self-loathing and massive ego makes it a lyrically interesting album from start to finish. His rhymes are sharper, more focused and thrown out with a speed and viciousness that he's only hinted at in the past.
Sonically, this is Kanye's Sgt. Peppers. There are odd breaks. Choirs. Fuzzy keyboard solos. Lyrics rapped through what sounds like an oil can. Samples from King Crimson. Drums on top of electronic drum beats. Layered pianos and keyboards. And on and on and on. Consider the song "Gorgeous" that features a chorus sung by Raeqwan (an odd choice) and Kanye raps the verses through an old cruddy microphone to give his voice a distorted quality. All backed by an old school bluesy-funky guitar riff. Midway through the song, right before the chorus, there's a drum part added over the top of the beat just to give the song an added kick of momentum. Don't even get me started on the feedback and keyboard filled coda for "Runaway" which spans over 3 minutes long at the end of the song. It's either most self-indulgent or brilliant moment of the record, and I don't know which.
Is it all too much? Maybe. But for a man with so many character flaws (narcissism, anger, petulance, self-absorbtion, further narcissism, lack of respect for other people's acceptance speeches and of course, narcissism) one thing is clear of Kanye West: he is constantly pushing himself to be better. This album draws on all the things that make Kanye who he is, but also push him into new, more daring territory. It's like he constantly listens to his own music and says "I can do better" and that is, in it's own way, admirable. He refuses to rest on his laurels, he constantly innovates and strives to push himself further and further his craft. So maybe he's not such a bad guy after all....Nah! He's still a bad dude, but the man can rap!
I feel like one day looking back, we're all going to realize that Kanye's Dropout Trilogy ("College Dropout", "Late Registration" and "Graduation") is one of the great achievements in Rap, and in popular music. Not only are all 3 albums sonically interesting (they are the cornerstone of the modern hip-hop sound), but each one carries a unique lyrical theme and sonic blueprint. "College Dropout" uses a neo-soul sound to back songs about rebellion and making your own way. "Late Registration" polishes up the sound to more pop friendly pallate to back songs about life at the top. And the synths and electronics of "Graduation" work with the theme of moving on.
So, after following all of that up with the huge letdown of "808's and Heartbreaks" (did we really need to hear Kanye try to sing?) along with several bad public moments, it was fair to wonder if Kanye's best days were behind him. Was he out of creative juice? Did he exhaust all his good ideas on the first 3 albums? Would he now become "that guy who everyone used to like who now just does a verse on whoever is popular at the moment's new song"? On "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" Mr. West responds by saying "You ain't seen nothin' yet!" After his public persona has become a model for petulance, egotism, and just general asshole-ish-ness, you would expect a grown up, somber, and reflective Kanye. And you would be dead wrong.
Lyrically, Kanye goes the opposite way and embraces all the dark parts of his personality. He turns the cockiness, anger and ego up to levels never before seen (even for a man who describes himself as a genius!). But it also seems he knows that this probably isn't a good thing. Songs like "Power", "Monster" and "Runaway" gives little hints that he realizes he's out of control. But he can't stop himself. Nowhere is this dynamic better examined than in the chorus of "Power" where he begins by remarking "No one man should have all that power" only to end with "til then f--- that, the world's ours!" The dichotomy of self-loathing and massive ego makes it a lyrically interesting album from start to finish. His rhymes are sharper, more focused and thrown out with a speed and viciousness that he's only hinted at in the past.
Sonically, this is Kanye's Sgt. Peppers. There are odd breaks. Choirs. Fuzzy keyboard solos. Lyrics rapped through what sounds like an oil can. Samples from King Crimson. Drums on top of electronic drum beats. Layered pianos and keyboards. And on and on and on. Consider the song "Gorgeous" that features a chorus sung by Raeqwan (an odd choice) and Kanye raps the verses through an old cruddy microphone to give his voice a distorted quality. All backed by an old school bluesy-funky guitar riff. Midway through the song, right before the chorus, there's a drum part added over the top of the beat just to give the song an added kick of momentum. Don't even get me started on the feedback and keyboard filled coda for "Runaway" which spans over 3 minutes long at the end of the song. It's either most self-indulgent or brilliant moment of the record, and I don't know which.
Is it all too much? Maybe. But for a man with so many character flaws (narcissism, anger, petulance, self-absorbtion, further narcissism, lack of respect for other people's acceptance speeches and of course, narcissism) one thing is clear of Kanye West: he is constantly pushing himself to be better. This album draws on all the things that make Kanye who he is, but also push him into new, more daring territory. It's like he constantly listens to his own music and says "I can do better" and that is, in it's own way, admirable. He refuses to rest on his laurels, he constantly innovates and strives to push himself further and further his craft. So maybe he's not such a bad guy after all....Nah! He's still a bad dude, but the man can rap!
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sufjan Stevens- Illinois
Sufjan Stevens reminds me a lot of Grady Tripp, the main character in Michael Chabon's Wonder Boys (surprise! I'm a book nerd too!). Grady Tripp is a pot-smoking college English professor who is working on a follow up to his critically acclaimed best seller, which he wrote 7 years ago. Everyone thinks he has writer's block. He actually has the opposite problem, he can't stop writing. He is already well over 2,000 pages and, has several weddings, murders, catastrophes and calamities still to add to the book before it will reach it's conclusion. He has been working on the book for 7 years, he has included in it a genealogy of the major characters' horses, and their dental records. He simply can't stop himself.
Similarly, "Illinois" is, I believe, the second album in Sufjan Stevens' attempt to make an album for every state in America (there's 50 of them for those of you who struggled in American History). He has since abandoned the project, and released a new album "The Age of Adz" which I haven't listened to yet. The itunes version of "Illinois" has 26 songs on it. The normal version has 22. The majority of songs are over the 5 minute mark and have titles such as "The Black Hawk of War, or How to Destroy an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning", "A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane but for Very Good Reasons", and my personal favorite "They are Night Zombies!! They are Out Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhh!!" He can't seem to stop himself from writing.
The album (recently named Paste Magazine's Best Album of the Decade) is a sprawling work. There are choirs, horns, strings, banjos, wurrlitzers, pump organs, droning sound effects, guitars and more choirs. All of it is built around Sufjan's quiet whispery voice. Lyrically the songs all focus around some aspect of Illinois' history or notable people and incidents from the state. Most of the songs have a slow mournful sound to them and fall into the mid-tempo ballads category. Occassionally, he mixes it up: the slow funk of the Zombies song (I'm not going to re-write all of that!), and the guitar rock of "The Man from Metropolis Steals Our Hearts" or the big piano chorus of "Come on! Feel the Illinoise!". This isn't to say that all of the slow stuff is bad, "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." is a great song as is "Decatur, Or, A Round of Applause for your Stepmother", "Casmir Polaski Day" and the anthemic "Chicago".
I like the record. It doesn't fit nicely into one category. It sprawls between folk music, classical, operatic, and pop. But it sprawls a little too much. There are too many noise interludes, too many choirs singing the chorus' and few too many slow ballads. If Stevens could reign himself in a little, and edit himself, it would be a better, more consistent record. After a while it begins to seem tiresome to listen through another musical interlude, or another women's choir singing the chorus to a song that has gone on for 6 minutes. I normally like songs that are a bit longer, but for whatever reason, this record seems to drag on. It's not just that it's long, it's that it feels long.
Stevens is certainly an interesting song writer. And I think there is something to be said for aiming high and trying to make something big and bold rather than something that just tries to fit in. I just wish he could stop himself once in a while. There's nothing wrong with a song not having a 3 minute noise track intro, or just having 5 slow ballads instead of 10 on a record. In Wonder Boys, a character remarks after reading most of Tripp's novel, that it feels like he didn't make any choices. Instead of choosing what to include and what to leave out, he just included everything. "Illinois" is kind of the same thing. Stevens just included everything, and while the good stuff is really really good, you have to wade through some mediocre music to find it.
Similarly, "Illinois" is, I believe, the second album in Sufjan Stevens' attempt to make an album for every state in America (there's 50 of them for those of you who struggled in American History). He has since abandoned the project, and released a new album "The Age of Adz" which I haven't listened to yet. The itunes version of "Illinois" has 26 songs on it. The normal version has 22. The majority of songs are over the 5 minute mark and have titles such as "The Black Hawk of War, or How to Destroy an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning", "A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane but for Very Good Reasons", and my personal favorite "They are Night Zombies!! They are Out Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhh!!" He can't seem to stop himself from writing.
The album (recently named Paste Magazine's Best Album of the Decade) is a sprawling work. There are choirs, horns, strings, banjos, wurrlitzers, pump organs, droning sound effects, guitars and more choirs. All of it is built around Sufjan's quiet whispery voice. Lyrically the songs all focus around some aspect of Illinois' history or notable people and incidents from the state. Most of the songs have a slow mournful sound to them and fall into the mid-tempo ballads category. Occassionally, he mixes it up: the slow funk of the Zombies song (I'm not going to re-write all of that!), and the guitar rock of "The Man from Metropolis Steals Our Hearts" or the big piano chorus of "Come on! Feel the Illinoise!". This isn't to say that all of the slow stuff is bad, "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." is a great song as is "Decatur, Or, A Round of Applause for your Stepmother", "Casmir Polaski Day" and the anthemic "Chicago".
I like the record. It doesn't fit nicely into one category. It sprawls between folk music, classical, operatic, and pop. But it sprawls a little too much. There are too many noise interludes, too many choirs singing the chorus' and few too many slow ballads. If Stevens could reign himself in a little, and edit himself, it would be a better, more consistent record. After a while it begins to seem tiresome to listen through another musical interlude, or another women's choir singing the chorus to a song that has gone on for 6 minutes. I normally like songs that are a bit longer, but for whatever reason, this record seems to drag on. It's not just that it's long, it's that it feels long.
Stevens is certainly an interesting song writer. And I think there is something to be said for aiming high and trying to make something big and bold rather than something that just tries to fit in. I just wish he could stop himself once in a while. There's nothing wrong with a song not having a 3 minute noise track intro, or just having 5 slow ballads instead of 10 on a record. In Wonder Boys, a character remarks after reading most of Tripp's novel, that it feels like he didn't make any choices. Instead of choosing what to include and what to leave out, he just included everything. "Illinois" is kind of the same thing. Stevens just included everything, and while the good stuff is really really good, you have to wade through some mediocre music to find it.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Rap v. Country Music
In the wake of the CMT Awards and Taylor Swift dominating every conceivable music sales record there is, I thought it would be a good time to bring up an interesting thought I had the other day.
Hip-hop takes a lot of heat for the content of it's lyrics. And rightly so. There is a lot to not like in hip-hop. The music is often misogynistic, and focuses on things like violence and drugs. Now, I've always said that rap is a PRODUCT of life in the streets, it does not cause it. Music is a reflection of culture, it does not cause culture to exist. We like to blame music for the ills of our society but more often then not, musicians tend to write about what they see around them, not what the wish they see. Rap takes a lot of heat for "glorifying drug dealing and using". While there is definitely some validity to that, if you're going to kill rap music for their talk of drug use, you have to kill country music as well.
Quick, write down 5 songs by 5 different country artists. It's ok, I'll wait. Got it? Good. Now, I'm willing to bet that 4 out of those 5 songs all contain some sort of reference to alcohol (1 is probably a Taylor Swift song and she's squeaky clean). Alcohol use (and abuse) is probably mentioned in 9 out of 10 country songs, period, across the board. Think I'm wrong? Just listen to country radio and count how many times someone mentions "a bottle of whiskey" or "a cold beer". Yet, parents would much rather have their children listen to country music than rap. Country music has that family values feel to it, but it's not. Alcoholism is a LOT more prevalent in America than crack cocaine usage by a wide margin (I don't know the exact stats and I'm way too lazy to look them up). So if we're going to give rap hell for talking about drugs, we HAVE to give country music hell for glorifying alcoholism. Period. Jack Daniels is as a country as cowboy hats and belt buckles. And in a country where alcoholism is rampant, and DUI's kill almost as many people as heart attacks (I'm guessing), that's not a good thing.
Sure, rap has other issues (the n word for example), but if you don't like a style of music because of it's subject matter, you need to be consistent and not just pick and choose what problems you want to ignore. If you want to lash at Kanye for "We Don't Care" then you need to remember Toby Keith's "Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses".
SIDE RANT THAT IS SORT OF BUT NOT QUITE RELATED: I'm sick of hearing that rappers aren't talented. Rap has, without a doubt, the best collection of song writers there are. Do you really think "Honky tonk ba-donk-a-donk" required more talent to write than "Big Pimpin'"? Go back and listen to them both and try and tell me otherwise!
I'm not saying you should burn all your country records in protest. I'm not saying Nicki Minaj is a better role model than Carrie Underwood. I'm just saying "Call it both ways!" I'll step down from my soapbox now.
Hip-hop takes a lot of heat for the content of it's lyrics. And rightly so. There is a lot to not like in hip-hop. The music is often misogynistic, and focuses on things like violence and drugs. Now, I've always said that rap is a PRODUCT of life in the streets, it does not cause it. Music is a reflection of culture, it does not cause culture to exist. We like to blame music for the ills of our society but more often then not, musicians tend to write about what they see around them, not what the wish they see. Rap takes a lot of heat for "glorifying drug dealing and using". While there is definitely some validity to that, if you're going to kill rap music for their talk of drug use, you have to kill country music as well.
Quick, write down 5 songs by 5 different country artists. It's ok, I'll wait. Got it? Good. Now, I'm willing to bet that 4 out of those 5 songs all contain some sort of reference to alcohol (1 is probably a Taylor Swift song and she's squeaky clean). Alcohol use (and abuse) is probably mentioned in 9 out of 10 country songs, period, across the board. Think I'm wrong? Just listen to country radio and count how many times someone mentions "a bottle of whiskey" or "a cold beer". Yet, parents would much rather have their children listen to country music than rap. Country music has that family values feel to it, but it's not. Alcoholism is a LOT more prevalent in America than crack cocaine usage by a wide margin (I don't know the exact stats and I'm way too lazy to look them up). So if we're going to give rap hell for talking about drugs, we HAVE to give country music hell for glorifying alcoholism. Period. Jack Daniels is as a country as cowboy hats and belt buckles. And in a country where alcoholism is rampant, and DUI's kill almost as many people as heart attacks (I'm guessing), that's not a good thing.
Sure, rap has other issues (the n word for example), but if you don't like a style of music because of it's subject matter, you need to be consistent and not just pick and choose what problems you want to ignore. If you want to lash at Kanye for "We Don't Care" then you need to remember Toby Keith's "Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses".
SIDE RANT THAT IS SORT OF BUT NOT QUITE RELATED: I'm sick of hearing that rappers aren't talented. Rap has, without a doubt, the best collection of song writers there are. Do you really think "Honky tonk ba-donk-a-donk" required more talent to write than "Big Pimpin'"? Go back and listen to them both and try and tell me otherwise!
I'm not saying you should burn all your country records in protest. I'm not saying Nicki Minaj is a better role model than Carrie Underwood. I'm just saying "Call it both ways!" I'll step down from my soapbox now.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
The Avett Brothers- Live Vol. 3
The blog got a facelift!! This means it's time for more music!
There is a delicate balance in live music. At what point does technical perfection (i.e. making sure every note is correct) hinder the performance? Classical music puts technical perfection first and instead of a lively and entertaining show, you get a group of people, seated, totally unaware of the audience and completely focused on nailing every single note. The inverse of this idea is something like punk rock: turn up the amps, who cares if you mess up, or if the drummer is a little off, just jump around and go nuts and the people will love it. Ideally, I guess you would want to be somewhere in the middle, a lively performance to excite the crowd, and a technically proficient performance. The Avett Brothers tend to ere on the side of the performance.
The Avett Brothers are a country, folk, bluegrass, rock group from North Carolina. The band, composed of two brothers, their friend on bass and a few other musicians (cellist and drummer) who come in and out. The band's newest album "I and Love and You" and its title track both favor much less banjo and more piano ballads. But live, the Brothers tend to go with the tried and true formula of banjo, acoustic guitar, and upright bass at full volume sung/screamed with as much energy as they can possibly muster. Their new live album is borderline exhausting, if not for the few slow ballads hidden throughout the set, you get the feeling they would just drop mid-song from exhaustion.
The live album captures a concert they did in their native Charlotte, NC after the release of "I and Love and You". The band is ecstatic to be home and you can feel it through the speakers. After wrecking the beginning of "The Ballad of Love and Hate", guitarist Seth Avett apologizes saying "I'm so happy I can hardly stand it right now" and starts the song again. It's that kind of a sloppy performance. They play so hard and so fast that they tend to drown each other out, guitars and banjos aren't balanced and they scream until it sounds like their throats bleed. But damn if it isn't fun!
You can hear them trying to catch their breath between words, their throats sound strained, the minimalist style of instrumentation is pretty bear bones, but still, it's a rollickin' good time (so good in fact that you want to leave the 'G' off the end of words and replace it with an apostrophe!). On their records (Emotionalism is my personal favorite so far), that sound doesn't always translate. They just don't seem to fit well in a recording studio, but on stage, it's what the Brothers are made for. They are at home, in their element, and all those songs that seem to be missing something, or just a little bit rough around the edges, sound perfectly at home when being played at full volume in front of a raucous crowd.
The song selection leans heavily on old favorites the oddly sweet "Murder in the City", a crowd and personal favorite "Shame" and "Talk on Indolence" the beginning of which must be heard to be believed. "Paranoia in B Flat Major" and "When I Drink" are other favorites. Some of the new stuff: "Kick Drum Heart" and "Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise" also fits in well. The change from banjo rock to piano ballad isn't as weird as you would think it is. All in all, it's a hell of a lot more fun than a night at the opera.
There is a delicate balance in live music. At what point does technical perfection (i.e. making sure every note is correct) hinder the performance? Classical music puts technical perfection first and instead of a lively and entertaining show, you get a group of people, seated, totally unaware of the audience and completely focused on nailing every single note. The inverse of this idea is something like punk rock: turn up the amps, who cares if you mess up, or if the drummer is a little off, just jump around and go nuts and the people will love it. Ideally, I guess you would want to be somewhere in the middle, a lively performance to excite the crowd, and a technically proficient performance. The Avett Brothers tend to ere on the side of the performance.
The Avett Brothers are a country, folk, bluegrass, rock group from North Carolina. The band, composed of two brothers, their friend on bass and a few other musicians (cellist and drummer) who come in and out. The band's newest album "I and Love and You" and its title track both favor much less banjo and more piano ballads. But live, the Brothers tend to go with the tried and true formula of banjo, acoustic guitar, and upright bass at full volume sung/screamed with as much energy as they can possibly muster. Their new live album is borderline exhausting, if not for the few slow ballads hidden throughout the set, you get the feeling they would just drop mid-song from exhaustion.
The live album captures a concert they did in their native Charlotte, NC after the release of "I and Love and You". The band is ecstatic to be home and you can feel it through the speakers. After wrecking the beginning of "The Ballad of Love and Hate", guitarist Seth Avett apologizes saying "I'm so happy I can hardly stand it right now" and starts the song again. It's that kind of a sloppy performance. They play so hard and so fast that they tend to drown each other out, guitars and banjos aren't balanced and they scream until it sounds like their throats bleed. But damn if it isn't fun!
You can hear them trying to catch their breath between words, their throats sound strained, the minimalist style of instrumentation is pretty bear bones, but still, it's a rollickin' good time (so good in fact that you want to leave the 'G' off the end of words and replace it with an apostrophe!). On their records (Emotionalism is my personal favorite so far), that sound doesn't always translate. They just don't seem to fit well in a recording studio, but on stage, it's what the Brothers are made for. They are at home, in their element, and all those songs that seem to be missing something, or just a little bit rough around the edges, sound perfectly at home when being played at full volume in front of a raucous crowd.
The song selection leans heavily on old favorites the oddly sweet "Murder in the City", a crowd and personal favorite "Shame" and "Talk on Indolence" the beginning of which must be heard to be believed. "Paranoia in B Flat Major" and "When I Drink" are other favorites. Some of the new stuff: "Kick Drum Heart" and "Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise" also fits in well. The change from banjo rock to piano ballad isn't as weird as you would think it is. All in all, it's a hell of a lot more fun than a night at the opera.
Monday, October 11, 2010
A New Music Crush: Rogue Wave
Apologies for the blogging hiatus. Life tends to get busy with things like work, bills, playoff baseball, college football and important things like music blogs tend to fall by the wayside faster than school funding in a tough economy. (Wow, went dangerously close to going political there!)
Anyways, let's start off with a story! A number of years ago I had a gift card that was burning a hole in my pocket and was walking through the local record store and not finding anything that interested me. Thus, I started looking at bands I had never heard of and finally decided to buy Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot which I had heard some good things about. It was love at first spin, and now Wilco is one of my all-time favorites. Thus, I decided to periodically invest in new music from artists who I've never heard. You never know who you might discover. It doesn't always work (I gave Yo La Tengo a fighting chance, but it's just not happening for me) but every so often, I find a band like Rogue Wave.
I started with "Asleep at Heaven's Gate", their 2005 album. Interesting side note: in researching the band there is a lot of discourse and argument over what is their best work. itunes loves Asleep at Heaven's Gate and Amazon thinks its their worst record hands down. Paste Magazine hates all their stuff except for the early demos. Spin loves "Descended like Vultures" but hates everything else they've done. And Rolling Stone refuses to acknowledge that the band exists. (Their website is horrible and whoever designed it clearly never wanted anyone who visited it to be able to find anything).
After listening to "Asleep at Heaven's Gate" a few times I started to wonder: "Why don't I own all of their albums?" Rogue Wave is a perfect mix of acoustic based pop-melody and screeching guitars, ambient keyboards and driving beats. They are simultaniously capable of unplugging and playing a simple song like "California" and then turning up the volume and getting a little avant-garde with a song like "Harmonium". I made it about a week and half before I bought "Descended Like Vultures". So far, I'm starting to lean towards "Asleep at Heaven's Gate" being the better of the 2, but that might be just due to familiarity. I guess you could say they fit in the same vein as The Shins and Modest Mouse, only not nearly as weird or depressing.
The one thing that Rogue Wave does best is creating melodies that do not leave your brain. I'm sure my office-mates will tell you that they're sick of listening to me walk around humming the chorus to "Like I Needed" over and over and over again. "Ghost" is probably my favorite song at the moment (and yes the chorus is constantly stuck in my head), although it took me several listens and finally a google search to figure out the lyrics. I could not for the life of me figure out if he was saying "Cause its you I wanted" or "It's here if you want it" it's the former not the latter. Is that the ultimate credit to a song's catch-ability? When you are singing along even though you don't entirely understand what is being said?
I also like Rogue Wave because when you can understand the lyrics, they are mostly incredibly positive and upbeat. My itunes was on random the other day and seemed to be picking up only sad songs, so it's nice to inject a little sunshine into it.
Here are some tracks I think you should check out. C'mon! Try something new:
Ghost
Like I Needed
Salesman at the Day of the Parade (it's a great song with a weird name, I promise)
Harmonium
Chicago x 12
Lake Michigan
California
Bird on a Wire
Anyways, let's start off with a story! A number of years ago I had a gift card that was burning a hole in my pocket and was walking through the local record store and not finding anything that interested me. Thus, I started looking at bands I had never heard of and finally decided to buy Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot which I had heard some good things about. It was love at first spin, and now Wilco is one of my all-time favorites. Thus, I decided to periodically invest in new music from artists who I've never heard. You never know who you might discover. It doesn't always work (I gave Yo La Tengo a fighting chance, but it's just not happening for me) but every so often, I find a band like Rogue Wave.
I started with "Asleep at Heaven's Gate", their 2005 album. Interesting side note: in researching the band there is a lot of discourse and argument over what is their best work. itunes loves Asleep at Heaven's Gate and Amazon thinks its their worst record hands down. Paste Magazine hates all their stuff except for the early demos. Spin loves "Descended like Vultures" but hates everything else they've done. And Rolling Stone refuses to acknowledge that the band exists. (Their website is horrible and whoever designed it clearly never wanted anyone who visited it to be able to find anything).
After listening to "Asleep at Heaven's Gate" a few times I started to wonder: "Why don't I own all of their albums?" Rogue Wave is a perfect mix of acoustic based pop-melody and screeching guitars, ambient keyboards and driving beats. They are simultaniously capable of unplugging and playing a simple song like "California" and then turning up the volume and getting a little avant-garde with a song like "Harmonium". I made it about a week and half before I bought "Descended Like Vultures". So far, I'm starting to lean towards "Asleep at Heaven's Gate" being the better of the 2, but that might be just due to familiarity. I guess you could say they fit in the same vein as The Shins and Modest Mouse, only not nearly as weird or depressing.
The one thing that Rogue Wave does best is creating melodies that do not leave your brain. I'm sure my office-mates will tell you that they're sick of listening to me walk around humming the chorus to "Like I Needed" over and over and over again. "Ghost" is probably my favorite song at the moment (and yes the chorus is constantly stuck in my head), although it took me several listens and finally a google search to figure out the lyrics. I could not for the life of me figure out if he was saying "Cause its you I wanted" or "It's here if you want it" it's the former not the latter. Is that the ultimate credit to a song's catch-ability? When you are singing along even though you don't entirely understand what is being said?
I also like Rogue Wave because when you can understand the lyrics, they are mostly incredibly positive and upbeat. My itunes was on random the other day and seemed to be picking up only sad songs, so it's nice to inject a little sunshine into it.
Here are some tracks I think you should check out. C'mon! Try something new:
Ghost
Like I Needed
Salesman at the Day of the Parade (it's a great song with a weird name, I promise)
Harmonium
Chicago x 12
Lake Michigan
California
Bird on a Wire
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