Saturday, May 31, 2008
Subversive Cinema: Scott Bartlett's OffOn
In 1972, Scott Bartlett played with (new) video technology and then filmed it. The resulting piece, OffOn, is a film of psychedelic colorized rephotographed video loops. In 2004, the film was selected for preservation under the Library of Congress National Film Registry.
"OFFON is so striking a work, so obviously a landmark, that it has been acquired by virtually every major film art collection in America, from the Museum of Modern Art to the Smithsonian Institute." - Sheldon Renan, Curator, Pacific Film Archive
Unfortunatley, YouTube's low-quality compression destroys much of the brilliance of the film. A nice DVD version can be found on "Treasures From American Film Archives Encore Edition".
-Klax
Thursday, May 29, 2008
RFT hearts KWUR Week artists
This year's RFT award nominees were recently announced, and they're chock full of acts you've (yes, you!) seen at KWUR Week. The Feed, who were last minute fill-ins from 2006, were nominated for best live act and best pop band. The Sex Robots, who were part of the 2007 St. Louis showcase, will be competing with the Feed for best pop band (pop?), as well as getting a best album nomination for Peat Sounds (technically by the Pubes, but hey, who's counting). So Many Dynamos, who played at the same show, were nominated for best live act and best indie rock band, where they'll compete with Man Man opener(/overshadower?) Bunnygrunt. From this year's slate of shows, Jumbling Towers and Say Panther each will be competing with So Many Dynamos for indie rock honors, and from the year's only hip hop show at the Gargoyle, Earthworms earned a nomination for hip-hop act, and DJ Crucial for hip-hop DJ. Basically, KWUR Week is the shit.
KWUR alum DJ Trackstar also got a hip-hop DJ nomination, and friends of KWUR Magnolia Summer were nominated for untraditional Americana/folk. You can vote on the awards by clicking here.
Monday, May 26, 2008
The Metric System of Lyrics
The other day, I happened to pick up Metric's 2005 album "Live It Out" on the street here in NYC for two bucks, and ever since then, I've been listening to it more or less obsessively, as is my fashion with new music. It's cemented a few ideas that have been floating around in my head. One, Metric is probably in my top five favorite bands of this decade. Two, the main reason I like Metric so much is because I think they have some of the best lyrics of any band out right now. And three, that this stance on Metric is a good example of my basic stance on the role of lyrics in music.
Lyrics can be a tricky thing to deal with. Good music doesn't necessarily need lyrics at all, and so it's possible and legitimate to see lyrics as not particularly important or disposable, even in traditionally lyrical forms like rock. For example, as Chacarron demonstrates, you can rap almost anything over a reggaeton beat and have a hit on your hands, although that's not necessarily a testament to the quality of most reggaeton. A better example is Led Zeppelin, whose songs consistently have some of the worst lyrics ever written ("we gonna go walkin' through the park every day"), but still, well, is fucking Zeppelin. But lyrics are also the best way we have to connect directly with a song. Lyrics are the easiest signpost we have for what a song is actually supposed to mean, even if that signpost has something to do with a one eyed midget, and it's lyrics, in the end, that everyone can sing along to and remember. So no, good music doesn't need good lyrics, but good lyrics can sure improve a song.
But then, what exactly are good lyrics? There is a certain school of thought that argues that the more verbose and literate the lyrics are, the better. I'm obviously setting this school up as a bit of a straw man, but these folks have a point. We want to hear beautiful words, beautiful descriptions in lyrics, since these kinds of things stick in our mind. It takes a smart person, who knows their way around the English language to construct those sort of images. And there are plenty of artists who use this "more is more" strategy to great effect, Bob Dylan, Cole Porter, Leonard Cohen and the like who will put amazing words in a song that you'd never think would fit in a song, and spectacular images that brand themselves on your memory. It's really a hell of a thing when this kind of song is executed well.
But more often, in my opinion, it isn't. Verbose lyrics can become like long guitar solos in a song: wankery, an unnecessary demonstration of skill that disrupts the song as a whole. Nothing is more annoying in a rock song then when you can hear people thinking that they're just so clever. Verbose lyrics also certainly don't make a good song. I'm thinking primarily of Voxtrot here. I remember being told a few years ago, over and over again, how Voxtrot was made of English Lit students, college boys, how the lyrics were just so literate and so intelligent. Ok, Voxtrot can write some good lyrics, admittedly. But the songs are painfully slow and hookless, they're no fun to listen to, and so hearing these great lyrics feels just about as fun and stirring as eating a bowl of healthy oatmeal, which is sort of the spirit in which these songs are commended, I feel. "Eat up your intelligent rock," the critics preach, "it's GOOD for you." I'm sorry, but I don't like to wait around while rock shows how sensitive it is, while it quietly teaches me a lesson. I think it's a much more profound experience to be so energized by a rock concert that you're jumping up and down, even though, in non-rock contexts, you're a mild mannered university student. What's more, I don't think Voxtrot's lyrics are so great. The insertion of ten dollar words and references just makes the whole song feel labored over. Instead of being smart, Voxtrot needs to tell me they're smart. And that's freaking obnoxious.
A lot of artists fall victim to this sickness. Peter Moren, in his solo album, seems happy a lot of times to let the song wait while he says something clever. Destroyer is even more the poster child of the verbose lyrics problem than even Voxtrot. A lot of my friends, and I'm sure a lot of people at the station, love Destroyer, but I've never been able to stomach his long, rambling, overly clever lines, and painfully slow songs, and I tolerate and even enjoy the same sort of songs from Bejar in The New Pornographers - when combined with sick pop hooks. On the Hip-Hop side, I would point to Aesop Rock as having an equivalent problem. I love Aesop Rock's early stuff, and I think easily, he is one of the most technically skilled rapper ever to wield a mic. But the problem with his later work is that he knows that, and more often than not, he'll let it get in the way of just doing a fun song.
So what do I like? For me, it's not about the length of the words, or the kind of words, or the uniqueness of the vocabulary/imagery. It's about the right few words in the right place. James Baldwin hits the nail on the head here, when, in an interview with Studs Terkel, he explains that the saddest thing about a Bessie Smith song is the understatement, the sheer, stupid obviousness of the way she follows the line "my house fell down" with "And I can't live there no mo'." It's the smallest things, put at the right time. I'll give you another silly example. One of my favorite lyrics of all time, and easily, in my opinion, the funniest line of all time, is James Brown, in "Payback" singing, "I don't know Karate / But I know cuh-ra-zay". From a sheer poetic standpoint, it's skillful how he uses assonance. And yeah, the line is funny, but it's funny for a reason. It resonates with us because it reminds us how ridiculous and desperate we all look when we get insane about relationships. It rings true. I think anyone who's been in a relationship knows cuh-ra-zay. And what's best is that you can sing along to it, and memorize it, which is kind of harder to do with, say, "colonnaded ruins domino." It's a short line, not especially beautiful, not ornamented or sophisticated. But it's a good damn lyric.
Metric is the standard bearer today of that school of lyrics. They don't have complicated lines, but they have the right lines in the right place. "Combat Baby", for example, is one of my favorite songs of the decade for the way it deftly paints the portrait of a relationship that seems to be cemented by constant fighting. From the first verse, when Emily sings about being "all caffeine-free and faux-punk fatigues", you know these people, and you probably hate them too. On "Handshakes", Emily encapsulates in one tight little refrain how much capitalism can suck sometimes: "Buy this car to drive to work / drive to work to pay for this car". And the great little anti-war song "Monster Hospital", that captures the frustrated mood of us lefties during this shitty decade with the half-stolen chorus "I fought the war / I fought the war / I fought the war / but the war won!" Through clever syntax, pointed details, and restrained references, Metric gives us a zeitgeist we can all sing along to. That's lyrics, man.
Well shit, you can compare for yourself.
Destroyer:
Metric:
Lyrics can be a tricky thing to deal with. Good music doesn't necessarily need lyrics at all, and so it's possible and legitimate to see lyrics as not particularly important or disposable, even in traditionally lyrical forms like rock. For example, as Chacarron demonstrates, you can rap almost anything over a reggaeton beat and have a hit on your hands, although that's not necessarily a testament to the quality of most reggaeton. A better example is Led Zeppelin, whose songs consistently have some of the worst lyrics ever written ("we gonna go walkin' through the park every day"), but still, well, is fucking Zeppelin. But lyrics are also the best way we have to connect directly with a song. Lyrics are the easiest signpost we have for what a song is actually supposed to mean, even if that signpost has something to do with a one eyed midget, and it's lyrics, in the end, that everyone can sing along to and remember. So no, good music doesn't need good lyrics, but good lyrics can sure improve a song.
But then, what exactly are good lyrics? There is a certain school of thought that argues that the more verbose and literate the lyrics are, the better. I'm obviously setting this school up as a bit of a straw man, but these folks have a point. We want to hear beautiful words, beautiful descriptions in lyrics, since these kinds of things stick in our mind. It takes a smart person, who knows their way around the English language to construct those sort of images. And there are plenty of artists who use this "more is more" strategy to great effect, Bob Dylan, Cole Porter, Leonard Cohen and the like who will put amazing words in a song that you'd never think would fit in a song, and spectacular images that brand themselves on your memory. It's really a hell of a thing when this kind of song is executed well.
But more often, in my opinion, it isn't. Verbose lyrics can become like long guitar solos in a song: wankery, an unnecessary demonstration of skill that disrupts the song as a whole. Nothing is more annoying in a rock song then when you can hear people thinking that they're just so clever. Verbose lyrics also certainly don't make a good song. I'm thinking primarily of Voxtrot here. I remember being told a few years ago, over and over again, how Voxtrot was made of English Lit students, college boys, how the lyrics were just so literate and so intelligent. Ok, Voxtrot can write some good lyrics, admittedly. But the songs are painfully slow and hookless, they're no fun to listen to, and so hearing these great lyrics feels just about as fun and stirring as eating a bowl of healthy oatmeal, which is sort of the spirit in which these songs are commended, I feel. "Eat up your intelligent rock," the critics preach, "it's GOOD for you." I'm sorry, but I don't like to wait around while rock shows how sensitive it is, while it quietly teaches me a lesson. I think it's a much more profound experience to be so energized by a rock concert that you're jumping up and down, even though, in non-rock contexts, you're a mild mannered university student. What's more, I don't think Voxtrot's lyrics are so great. The insertion of ten dollar words and references just makes the whole song feel labored over. Instead of being smart, Voxtrot needs to tell me they're smart. And that's freaking obnoxious.
A lot of artists fall victim to this sickness. Peter Moren, in his solo album, seems happy a lot of times to let the song wait while he says something clever. Destroyer is even more the poster child of the verbose lyrics problem than even Voxtrot. A lot of my friends, and I'm sure a lot of people at the station, love Destroyer, but I've never been able to stomach his long, rambling, overly clever lines, and painfully slow songs, and I tolerate and even enjoy the same sort of songs from Bejar in The New Pornographers - when combined with sick pop hooks. On the Hip-Hop side, I would point to Aesop Rock as having an equivalent problem. I love Aesop Rock's early stuff, and I think easily, he is one of the most technically skilled rapper ever to wield a mic. But the problem with his later work is that he knows that, and more often than not, he'll let it get in the way of just doing a fun song.
So what do I like? For me, it's not about the length of the words, or the kind of words, or the uniqueness of the vocabulary/imagery. It's about the right few words in the right place. James Baldwin hits the nail on the head here, when, in an interview with Studs Terkel, he explains that the saddest thing about a Bessie Smith song is the understatement, the sheer, stupid obviousness of the way she follows the line "my house fell down" with "And I can't live there no mo'." It's the smallest things, put at the right time. I'll give you another silly example. One of my favorite lyrics of all time, and easily, in my opinion, the funniest line of all time, is James Brown, in "Payback" singing, "I don't know Karate / But I know cuh-ra-zay". From a sheer poetic standpoint, it's skillful how he uses assonance. And yeah, the line is funny, but it's funny for a reason. It resonates with us because it reminds us how ridiculous and desperate we all look when we get insane about relationships. It rings true. I think anyone who's been in a relationship knows cuh-ra-zay. And what's best is that you can sing along to it, and memorize it, which is kind of harder to do with, say, "colonnaded ruins domino." It's a short line, not especially beautiful, not ornamented or sophisticated. But it's a good damn lyric.
Metric is the standard bearer today of that school of lyrics. They don't have complicated lines, but they have the right lines in the right place. "Combat Baby", for example, is one of my favorite songs of the decade for the way it deftly paints the portrait of a relationship that seems to be cemented by constant fighting. From the first verse, when Emily sings about being "all caffeine-free and faux-punk fatigues", you know these people, and you probably hate them too. On "Handshakes", Emily encapsulates in one tight little refrain how much capitalism can suck sometimes: "Buy this car to drive to work / drive to work to pay for this car". And the great little anti-war song "Monster Hospital", that captures the frustrated mood of us lefties during this shitty decade with the half-stolen chorus "I fought the war / I fought the war / I fought the war / but the war won!" Through clever syntax, pointed details, and restrained references, Metric gives us a zeitgeist we can all sing along to. That's lyrics, man.
Well shit, you can compare for yourself.
Destroyer:
Metric:
Monday, May 19, 2008
Discussion of KWUR as an Underground Station on KTUH 90.3 FM Honolulu
On Monday, May 19th 9:00pm CST, I'm going to give a brief outline of KWUR's experiences as an underground station in the St. Louis radio arena. The broadcast will be on KTUH 90.3 FM and the interviewer will be Charlie Applegate. So if you would like to listen, contribute, or even dispute what I say, please partake!
I will likely give a brief overview of our attempts to secure a wattage upgrade, and how repeated failures have actually driven us to stay ahead of the curve technologically. I will also comment on KWUR's role within the student body, including discussion of administration interference and SU opposition.
I do not know where the interviewer will take the conversation, so things could get interesting :)
Listen in at: http://ktuh.org/shows.php?listen
Word is bond.
-k
I will likely give a brief overview of our attempts to secure a wattage upgrade, and how repeated failures have actually driven us to stay ahead of the curve technologically. I will also comment on KWUR's role within the student body, including discussion of administration interference and SU opposition.
I do not know where the interviewer will take the conversation, so things could get interesting :)
Listen in at: http://ktuh.org/shows.php?listen
Word is bond.
-k
Saturday, May 17, 2008
R.I.P. Will Elder 1921-2008
"Will Elder, a legendary illustrator and co-founder of Mad magazine, has died. He was 86. An influence on subversive comic artists like R. Crumb and Daniel Clowes, Elder "could render anything he could see with the precision of a photograph," writes David Hajdu in his new book The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, "yet he had no inclination to waste his time on anything other than his overriding interest, pranksterism." Inducted into the Comic Book Hall Of Fame in 2003, Elder also worked for E.C. Comics and Playboy, who published his Little Annie Fanny comics for more than 25 years." -The AVClubObituary
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Heat Wave
Interesting stuff going down in Motown. Kwame Kilpatrick, dubbed "The Hip-Hop Mayor", was caught cheating on his wife with an aide (complete with hilarious intercepted text messages, and doing it on the city's dime, no less. A few days ago, the Detroit City Council voted to request the Governor of Michigan to remove him from the post.
Interesting stuff, but why am I posting about it on the KWUR blog? Because one of the members of the Detroit City Council is Martha Reeves. Yes, that Martha Reeves.
I know Ms. Reeves voted for the council to take serious action regarding the affair a few months ago, but I can't seem to find out how she voted on this latest measure, does anybody know? In any case, I think it's fascinating to see where soul artists (the ones who didn't burn out but faded away, in any case) ended up after their careers peaked. Some are still touring, and many do other, equally fascinating things. Anyhow, Ms. Reeves, in her past life:
Interesting stuff, but why am I posting about it on the KWUR blog? Because one of the members of the Detroit City Council is Martha Reeves. Yes, that Martha Reeves.
I know Ms. Reeves voted for the council to take serious action regarding the affair a few months ago, but I can't seem to find out how she voted on this latest measure, does anybody know? In any case, I think it's fascinating to see where soul artists (the ones who didn't burn out but faded away, in any case) ended up after their careers peaked. Some are still touring, and many do other, equally fascinating things. Anyhow, Ms. Reeves, in her past life:Sunday, May 11, 2008
Subversive Cinema: John Whitney's Permutations
John Whitney was an experimental animator and composer. He is widely considered to be one of the fathers of computer animation.
After studying music composition in Paris, he returned to the U.S. and began collaborating with his brother, James, to produce abstract animations. Their work, Five Film Exercises (1940-45) was awarded first prize at the First International Experimental Film Competition in 1949. By 1950, he was creating animation sequences for television.
In 1958, he collaborated with title-sequence pioneer, Saul Bass, on the spirographic opening of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. In 1966, he was awarded IBM's first artist-in-residency. Until the 1970s, most of Whitney's animations made use of a complex analog computer. By the mid-1970s his animations were made completely with digital technologies. His work often uses self-composed music that explored mystical or Native-American themes. He continued making films until his death in 1995.
Permutations (1966)
"In PERMUTATIONS, each point moves at a different speed and moves in a direction independent according to natural laws' quite as valid as those of Pythagoras, while moving in their circular field. Their action produces a phenomenon more or less equivalent to the musical harmonies. When the points reach certain relationships (harmonic) numerical to other parameters of the equation, they form elementary figures."- John Whitney
-Klax
After studying music composition in Paris, he returned to the U.S. and began collaborating with his brother, James, to produce abstract animations. Their work, Five Film Exercises (1940-45) was awarded first prize at the First International Experimental Film Competition in 1949. By 1950, he was creating animation sequences for television.
In 1958, he collaborated with title-sequence pioneer, Saul Bass, on the spirographic opening of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. In 1966, he was awarded IBM's first artist-in-residency. Until the 1970s, most of Whitney's animations made use of a complex analog computer. By the mid-1970s his animations were made completely with digital technologies. His work often uses self-composed music that explored mystical or Native-American themes. He continued making films until his death in 1995.
Permutations (1966)
"In PERMUTATIONS, each point moves at a different speed and moves in a direction independent according to natural laws' quite as valid as those of Pythagoras, while moving in their circular field. Their action produces a phenomenon more or less equivalent to the musical harmonies. When the points reach certain relationships (harmonic) numerical to other parameters of the equation, they form elementary figures."- John Whitney
-Klax
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Album Review: Eli 'Paperboy' Reed and The True Loves, "Roll With You"
Blue-eyed soul revival out of Massachusetts, sounds like James Brown, Muscle Shoals. Hard to know how to judge soul revival records, since even the best records mostly aim at imitation. But Reed's at least cribbing from the right people, and doing a good job of it, too. He goes for the James Brown shrieks and can't quite make it, which almost makes it better. Good record, sincere, soulful record, do play.Play: 1+++(Yeah!). 3+ (see: Wilson Pickett), 4++, 6+++(lovely ballad, sweet bass), 8, 10++(he does these ballads really well)
Monday, May 5, 2008
Tom Waits in St. Louis
If you missed seeing Tom Waits on July 5, 1974 in St. Louis and assured yourself that he would come back to town soon, I'm very sorry because you were quite mistaken. After an absence from St. Louis of over 30 years, Tom Waits will play the Fox Theater on June 26th. The wait is over, at long last! No details about tickets yet, but these are sure to go fast.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Album Review: Peter Moren, "The Last Tycoon
Yeah, this is Peter from Peter, Bjorn and John, with a singer-songwriter gentle balladeer type album a la Destroyer or Joni Mitchell, also, especially Leonard Cohen. If you like that kind of thing, you'll probably like this - sweet, slow, interesting songs with intelligent lyrics. Me personally, I like music with a little more hook and urgency - like Peter, Bjorn and John, for example...
Play: 2, 3, 4+(like that song in Darjeeling Limited), 7, 8, 10+++(really love this)
Thursday, May 1, 2008
(Relatively) New Albums Worth Checking Out
Sonic Youth - SYR7Finally, the 7th installment in this ongoing, must-have, Sonic Youth experimental series. This is not for you Daydream Nation-only fans. Long-winded instrumental noise-weirdness. The best part is this series is it is actually a series. Each installment has consistent-looking album art. In addition to showcasing Sonic Youth at their most avant-garde, each album looks good together on your shelf. Sadly, this is the first vinyl only release of the series, which may destroy the uniformity of your SYR CD collection. Collect them all! Lee Ranaldo interview I did back in 2006 where we discussed this release coming shortly...
Thee Oh Sees - The Master's Bedroom is Worth Spending a Night In
Formerly OCS and The OhSees -- now Thee Oh Sees. Is this spelling change a Billy Childish reference/homage? Either way, John Dwyer (The Coachwhips, Yikes, Pink and Brown) and his band deliver yet another solid album. Keep them coming! This band has everything good: Punk, Folk, Experimental, Psychedelic, Soft, Loud, Male Vocals, Female Vocals. And John Dwyer will be happy to know that I think this sounds nothing like the B-52s...
The Fall - Imperial Wax SolventIt wouldn't be proper if a year went by without The Fall releasing an album. Mark E. Smith is back with a brand new band (that shouldn't be surprising). This is their 27 (or 28th?) studio album. I'm not sure if it is available in the U.S. yet but I know all you Fall freaks will find a way to get your greasy hands on it. Must. Have. Complete. 28. Album. Discography...
Rhys Chatham & His Guitar Trio All-Stars - Guitar Trio is My Life!
Table of the Elements has released another nicely packaged Chatham box. This 3 disc set features recordings from Chatham's recent North American guitar trio tour. Over three hours worth of repetitive dissonant guitar strumming! Included in the recordings: Lee Ranaldo, Alan Licht, Thurston Moore, David Daniell and Tony Conrad. Each performance of the piece at first sounds identical, but those who are patient will be rewarded after each uniquely slow-building climax...
-Klax
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