Cynicism (Why I Hate Kanye West)

Explosions In The Sky
Album: The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Space
Song: Your Hand In Mine

The guy has great stage presence. Has a broad sense of theatricality and showmanship. And his flow is admirable, from time to time. His rhymes are pretty good too. So why do I hate Kanye West?

"What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing." - Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan

"There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing." - Maya Angelou as quoted in Neal Zero, The Truth in Words

As a society we tend to overvalue cynicism. It implies a type of world weariness born from hard earned, perhaps bitter, experience. As such it implies wisdom. As such it implies intelligence. And it carries with it a cool cachet.

Close your eyes and picture a cynic. I see only the pretense of cool, of intelligence, and of wisdom. I see someone trying very hard to impress, more interested in the pages of Vogue than the pages of Mother Jones. I see someone with a chip on his shoulder, eager to prove his knowledge but lacking the subtlety to contextualize that knowledge.  I see someone more than willing to proselytize and to preach but someone ill equipped to listen closely.  I see someone desperate to succeed, but only in fields that popular culture values important.  I see Kanye West.

Okay. Now wipe that picture from your memory, and watch this: Explosions in the Sky, Your Hand in Mine.  I see a group of people who don't care how they are perceived.  I see a group of people willing to create something beautiful simply for the sake of beauty.  I see youthful idealism, perhaps even Romanticism.  I see nerdy earnestness. I see a group of people with whom I would like to sit and discuss music and art and whatever else we might feel passionately about.

Here's the studio version of the song, if you're interested.

How To Justify Spending $350 On Headphones

Morton Feldman
Composition: Rothko Chapel

Once upon a time, I was a new grad student at the University of Victoria.  Given that "new" and "dumb" are practically synonymous when it comes to grad students, it follows that once upon a time I was a dumb grad student at the University of Victoria.  Those were heady days, hanging out with other smart "dumb" grad students, spending hours, days, weeks listening obsessively to one composer or another, attending seminars with world-renowned musicologists.  An excellent adventure, to be sure.  Being dumb, however, I still hadn't found academic focus, and I spent many sleepless nights contemplating my thesis topic.  Eventually I pared my choices to two: one based on a relatively obscure type of wind-band music that I seemed to hear in the symphonic repertoire of various Classical composers, and the other on the music of  Morton Feldman.  I chose the former, partly because my thesis adviser's specialty was the music of the Classical period, partly because this seemed to be a relatively unexplored and therefore potentially academically beneficial field, partly because as a bassoonist I might have special insight into the topic, but mostly because at the time the UVic musicology faculty couldn't care less about Morton Feldman.  Stupid UVic Department of Musicology (circa 1998).

At any rate, I spent a lot of time listening very carefully to Feldman`s music in the late 90s, and grew to love it deeply.  Feldman is an American minimalist - a true minimalist, not a maximal minimalist a la Reich, Adams et al - with a profound interest in the nature of sound.  Listen to his music closely and you begin to enter the sound itself, a sort of three-dimensional space that shimmers and vibrates, disintegrates and coalesces with the slight gradations of timbre and subtle combinations of harmonic partials.  Some argue that Rothko Chapel* is his masterpiece, and I agree. I tend to hear it in terms of sound "spaces," with layers of rounded tones mingling with more angular ones, creating ephemeral, constantly morphing tonal landscapes.

Tonight, after parents or siblings or significant others have gone to bed, after the TV has been turned off and the books and magazines have been set aside, turn off the lights, close your eyes, and listen.

Preferably with these headphones.  Bought them a week ago.  Jealous?  You should be.

Oh, and next blog post I promise to get back to all things pop/rock/jazz/blues/noise/folk/punk related. Some days you just can't ignore Morton Feldman, I'm afraid.



* Written in celebration of the opening of the Rothko Chapel in Houston and dedicated to the work of Mark Rothko, a close friend of Feldman`s and one of the great American abstract expressionist painters.

Tyler The Creator: Petulant Child Or Budding Genius? Hmmm....

Tyler the Creator
Album: Goblin
Song: Yonkers

Over a bone-dry sample, a guiro coughed through a mouthful of dust, Tyler the Creator spits gristle.  At its bleakest a glimpse of a better outcome: a life-affirming gospel-inflected rhythm 'n' jazz break.  A false hope, the deathly, insistent percussion scraping to its bitter end.

I'm not quite sure what to make of this tune.  It's shocking, but is it anything more?   There's lyrical prowess here, and an interesting rhythmic flow, and a creative use of samples, but I can't help shake the nagging feeling that there is also something deeply childish about all of this.  Petulant and childish.  Like an angst-ridden teen eager to prove that his daily existence is more horrifying, more profound, more important.

Then again, Tyler the Creator is only 19 years old.  Lots of time to grow as an artist.  And I must admit that as much I harbor doubt about the artistic merit of this track I keep returning to it.  It's compelling, to be sure, and much more interesting than the vast majority of commercial hip-hop. I mean, Tyler > Kanye, without a doubt.

tUnE-yArDs

tUnE-yArDs
Album: w h o k i l l
Song: Bizness

Wow.  Just...wow.

There are times when a piece of music opens my ears to new ways of configuring sounds.  It's not that tUnE-yArDs do things much differently than Owen Pallett or similar artists, at least from a technical standpoint.  The use of performing live loops to create symphonic effects has become relatively common within the pop idiom over the last decade, likely in response to technological advances in looping software.  The proof in the musical pudding, however, is precisely in how that software is used.  This is where tUnE-yArDs excel.

I tend to think of Owen Pallett as one of the leaders in this field.  Listen to him and you hear lush textures, sweeping melodies, grand gestures; it's all very Romantic.  And I must admit that I believed that looping software was best used to this sort of effect, to create something symphonic in scope.  At least until I heard tUnE-yArDs.  When I listen to tUnE-yArDs I hear the musings of an "anti-Romantic": the music is wry and playful one moment, pointillistic the next, and gristly at the last.  And it's completely unself-conscious.  It combines elements of the blues and jazz and pop and world music in a funky stew.  It's all very...modern.

tUnE-yArDs is the brainchild of New England musician Merrill Garbus.  She began as a solo artist, but more recently she has used a full backing band to add even greater depth to her music.  There is an interesting performative element here, too -- a full band provides the muscle needed to match her more full throated moments.  And indeed she has a remarkable voice, with a finely attuned sense of phrasing and dynamics.  Her vocals are almost always completely controlled.  There are times when she reminds me of Ella Fitzgerald.  Enough said.

And now I'm off to listen to her complete oeuvre.  Back in a few hours.



One more, showing off her more refined side...




Goddam. Soooo good.  I think I'm in love!

Intense, Confrontational, High In Potassium

Melt-Banana
Album: Cell Scape
Song: Shield Your Eyes, A Beast Is In The Well Of Your Hand

Seminal noise-rock progenitors Melt-Banana have been around in one form or another since the early 90s.  Ichiro Agato (guitarist), Riko Yamamata (bass) are the driving musical forces behind the band -- both are technically proficient and both use extended performance techniques and an array of pedal effects to transform their sound in unusual ways.  The results are invariably interesting.

As always with bands like this, I hear in Melt-Banana a whole greater than the sum of its parts.  The bass riff in today's song is very cool, to be sure, and the guitar riff is freaking awesome, but neither is truly radical nor seemingly sufficient to create a viable song.  Combined, however, they create an interesting tension, and the scream-o vocals add an appealing element of...ummmm...psychosis?

Their CD recording of this tune is clean and balanced, and I recommend that everyone take a listen.  But it's the live performance that really gets my heart pumping.  There's an appealing element of danger.  I fear in particular for the camera person's safety.

Babies Babies Babies Babies Babies Babies Babies

The Babies
Album: The Babies
Song: Somebody Else

Side project of Brooklyn bands Vivian Girls and Woods.  Better than either and perhaps better than both combined.  Not much to say about this tune: basically it's straight ahead garage-y rock.  But sometimes that's all that's required.  Although it should be noted they do sound a hell of a lot like The Pixies here, all the way down to the Kim Gordon-inspired backup vocals.  Which is, of course, a very very good thing.  Enjoy.

Deerhoof vs Evil

Deerhoof
Album: Deerhoof vs Evil
Song: The Merry Barracks

Two facts you need to know about Deerhoof: 1. It features Greg Saunier, my favorite drummer in all of contemporary music; and 2. Jack, my younger son, all of eight years old, cites them as one of his fave bands.

A prouder dad you'll rarely find.

I just spent the previous two hours watching Canada's federal political leaders duke it out.  With words.  It was, as might be expected from any televised political debate, just this side of ridiculous.  Or sad.  Or obscene.  And as Harper smirked and Iggy grimaced and as all of them mantra-d their "talking points" ad nauseam, I felt a growing urge to hurl my remote at the television.  Thankfully, Deerhoof intervened.

Deerhoof vs evil.  Deerhoof wins.

And ya gotta like a band that appeals to little kids and music snobs alike.



Wait a sec, there is a third fact you need to know about Deerhoof. In doing a little research for this blog post I watched a recent interview with Dave Grohl. He cites Deerhoof as one of his favorite "new" bands. So put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Here's another live performance for those of you inclined to venture further afield. This is my favorite Deerhoof tune, "The Perfect Me":

Andy Shauf

Andy Shauf
Album: Four Songs
Song: I Am Lost

There's obscure, and then there's obscure.  Andy Shauf is obscure.

 Shauf is a Regina singer/songwriter, in my opinion favorably comparable to Iron and Wine and Sufjan Stevens amongst the quasi-folk set.  I first heard his music at the 2009 Regina Folk Festival and was absolutely blown away by the sensitivity of his guitar playing, his fine sense of melody, his crystal clear vocals, and his evocative and elegant style.

He has put out a full length album, Darker Days, and another EP, Waiting for the Sun to Leave, both of which are excellent and feature more polished songwriting and production than we hear on Four Songs.  But there is a touching naivete to the latter, and it features perhaps my favorite Shauf song, "I Am Lost."

Our featured tune is the second of two from the below performance at a tiny Brooklyn venue.  The audience is breathless here, as if expecting at any moment the tender, gossamer melody and whispered guitar to collapse in on itself.  Please watch and listen to the entire video -- it provides a good sense of Shauf's best qualities as a performer, connecting to his audience with an aching melancholy reminiscent of Lyle Lovett or Nick Drake's quietest moments, not to mention insight into his appealing self-deprecating manner.

Listen to Andy Shauf.  He deserves it.

Ricky Gervais Has A Hell Of A Set Of Pipes...

Elbow

Album: build a rocket boys!

Song: Lippy Kids

Why do certain artists or bands become superstars, while others work and create in relative obscurity?  You can argue that Elbow does not deserve worldwide stardom, that the music simply does not pass muster.  An untenable position, in my opinion, but there is certainly room for personal bias in matters such as these. What seems less open to debate is that Elbow should achieve worldwide stardom, that the music is both soulful and grandiose, both sensitive and bombastic, both jazzy nightclub and 80,000 seat stadium.  It bears repeated listenings.  My hand itches to lift my lighter into the cool night air...

And lead singer Guy Garvey looks like Ricky Gervais' lost twin.  Which doesn't hurt.  Or help.  Hell, it just is.  Garvey has one of the great voices in modern music, and he is a consummate melodist.  He oozes - like crushed foil - musicality.  His voice is supple, buttery, but with enough of a carefully modulated sandpaper rasp to veer round the sort of sameness that dooms Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby and a whole generation of crooners to the expectations of a contemporary listener.

There are times when Elbow borders on the maudlin.  There are times when Elbow reaches beyond sensitive and musical into cliche and vapidity.  And then there are times like this.  Enjoy them now, before they win their inevitable dozen or so Grammys.  You will say, "I was there, you know, before they hit it big..."  Feel free to cite me as your source.