Friday, March 27, 2009
Infrequent Posting
I have not been updating this thing as often as I would like. That is largely because I've begun to play music again and, consequently, have allocated a lot of time I don't have towards that pursuit. Unfortunately, things like declaring my gushing love for Fall Out Boy or how I don't think I can finish an entire dancehall album have gone by the wayside. I think that's probably wise.
I stopped playing music in any capacity when I came to law school. That eventually drove me nuts and I started this blog, which in turn taught me to really question why I like certain songs and, even more specifically, certain sounds. A great example is all those fucking "eh"s in Rihanna's "Umbrella." Those little vocal snippets, on paper, would seem so colossally stupid that I doubt anyone would take the trouble to record them. But they are the one of the defining sounds in the entire song, which, as we are all aware, was a massive hit. Rihanna's voice is smooth and the song is constructed around her tone. She isn't just the singer, she is the lead instrument and, to that extent, those "eh"s are the vocal equivalent of a synth stab and here, because of the construction, it's brilliant. Much of the chorus plays out this way. If the mixing and eq had been different, if she were just a singer and not an instrument here, we would call this pop music gibberish (see: "dancer" in The Killer's "Human"), but that is not the case and the result is this:
Umbrella (feat. Jay-Z) -
Before I came to law school, I spent a lot of time playing with Mac's Garageband. I would slap together beats and try to record over them. I love Le Tigre and I wanted to do something in that vein. Le Tigre did a tremendous job of bringing riot grrl aggression into indie dance music. It was also a brilliantly low fi and catchy. I read a while ago (maybe on their website) that their sound was largely dictated by the equipment they had access to at the time. But, for that scene at that time, the sparkly perfection of modern rock-influenced dance music wasn't nearly as prevalent and expected. Le Tigre, and specifically Kathleen Hanna, wrote great songs, but early on, they could have been sloppy rock songs. They kind of sneaked it into the dance genre by appropriating some of the more obvious signifiers of that style: claps; an active snare; electronic drums. What Le Tigre illustrated really well is that genres are more fluid than we realize and that you can effectively evoke a style or scene by adopting some of the strongest aesthetics of that genre. A great example is how a double-pedal kick drum with a click pad will always be a metal signifier. Same for dual guitar solos. When we hear either in a different context, we know that is what the artist is trying to refer us back to; those are the associated emotions and feelings the artist is trying to borrow by bringing that influence in.
I had Garageband and only a cursory knowledge of how to produce a song, so I figured I could kind of "own" the whole low fi sound that Le Tigre had. I wanted to do something dancey, dark, and aggressive. The results were less than inspiring, but the process was a lot of fun and I learned a lot with each attempt. It is very easy to slap some drum hits together and put an instrument or two over it, but making it interesting and engaging is brutally difficult.
Shred A - Le Tigre
Long story short, I'm back to where I started, except more committed, smarter, and with better equipment. The sound I wanted to work on in '07 is the same one I am working on now and have been, almost every day, since September of '08. There is a steep learning curve, but it's helped me think about music differently and even if the whole project blows up, at least I'll have gained that knowledge and appreciation. I want to know how fluid genres really are and I want to adopt the aesthetics of southern rap, metal, and house and see if there is any one place on my musical Venn diagram where these genres overlap. It sounds weird, but then again, so does a riot grrl dance party.
I stopped playing music in any capacity when I came to law school. That eventually drove me nuts and I started this blog, which in turn taught me to really question why I like certain songs and, even more specifically, certain sounds. A great example is all those fucking "eh"s in Rihanna's "Umbrella." Those little vocal snippets, on paper, would seem so colossally stupid that I doubt anyone would take the trouble to record them. But they are the one of the defining sounds in the entire song, which, as we are all aware, was a massive hit. Rihanna's voice is smooth and the song is constructed around her tone. She isn't just the singer, she is the lead instrument and, to that extent, those "eh"s are the vocal equivalent of a synth stab and here, because of the construction, it's brilliant. Much of the chorus plays out this way. If the mixing and eq had been different, if she were just a singer and not an instrument here, we would call this pop music gibberish (see: "dancer" in The Killer's "Human"), but that is not the case and the result is this:
Umbrella (feat. Jay-Z) -
Before I came to law school, I spent a lot of time playing with Mac's Garageband. I would slap together beats and try to record over them. I love Le Tigre and I wanted to do something in that vein. Le Tigre did a tremendous job of bringing riot grrl aggression into indie dance music. It was also a brilliantly low fi and catchy. I read a while ago (maybe on their website) that their sound was largely dictated by the equipment they had access to at the time. But, for that scene at that time, the sparkly perfection of modern rock-influenced dance music wasn't nearly as prevalent and expected. Le Tigre, and specifically Kathleen Hanna, wrote great songs, but early on, they could have been sloppy rock songs. They kind of sneaked it into the dance genre by appropriating some of the more obvious signifiers of that style: claps; an active snare; electronic drums. What Le Tigre illustrated really well is that genres are more fluid than we realize and that you can effectively evoke a style or scene by adopting some of the strongest aesthetics of that genre. A great example is how a double-pedal kick drum with a click pad will always be a metal signifier. Same for dual guitar solos. When we hear either in a different context, we know that is what the artist is trying to refer us back to; those are the associated emotions and feelings the artist is trying to borrow by bringing that influence in.
I had Garageband and only a cursory knowledge of how to produce a song, so I figured I could kind of "own" the whole low fi sound that Le Tigre had. I wanted to do something dancey, dark, and aggressive. The results were less than inspiring, but the process was a lot of fun and I learned a lot with each attempt. It is very easy to slap some drum hits together and put an instrument or two over it, but making it interesting and engaging is brutally difficult.
Shred A - Le Tigre
Long story short, I'm back to where I started, except more committed, smarter, and with better equipment. The sound I wanted to work on in '07 is the same one I am working on now and have been, almost every day, since September of '08. There is a steep learning curve, but it's helped me think about music differently and even if the whole project blows up, at least I'll have gained that knowledge and appreciation. I want to know how fluid genres really are and I want to adopt the aesthetics of southern rap, metal, and house and see if there is any one place on my musical Venn diagram where these genres overlap. It sounds weird, but then again, so does a riot grrl dance party.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
The-Dream
I really like The-Dream. I am embarrassed to write that and, as he becomes more famous and his music and persona inevitably aligned with other popular r&b and pop artists, I expect that embarrassment to grow. The man sings about fucking. Fucking girls he meets at clubs, girls he loves, your girl, etc., etc. He's not a creative lyricist and has an unhealthy reliance on/obsession with "oohs" and "ehs" as vocal fillers (melodic, well timed fillers, sure, but fillers nonetheless). He sings almost exclusively in falsetto and never lets the audience in on how much of The-Dream is real, honest-to-god r&b from this man's soul and how much of this is some goofy, fun shit people can get smashed, instantly recognize, and then stagger and dance to. It's almost irrelevant. The production is so clean and sparkly. Every sound is well illuminated and in its own little space. There's no clutter, no two ideas tripping over each other. It's smooth, like the character of the artist himself, like we are supposed to believe the lyricist is, like we are supposed to want to be the next time we approach a potential partner with a line like "have you ever had someone do it to you while they was playing in your head? ooh ooh oh, ooh ooh oh." This is not someone I know nor someone I identify with, but it's such a nice, complete package with everything lined up just so that I can't help but be impressed.
The Village Voice made me privy to The-Dream here. It's a nice read. The dude's from Atlanta. I live there. Maybe we can hang.
Put It Down - The Dream
Mr. Yeah - The Dream
Monday, March 16, 2009
Birthday Mix
It's my birthday today. I make a mix every year on my birthday that I creatively label "The Birthday Mix." The Mix is a collection of the music that I've listened to over the past year (since my last birthday) and, in that sense, is a nice mile marker in my continuing understanding of music. It is also, of course, a reflection of major and minor events in my life during that period. In the sense that I listened to this music during these events, the CD has a sound track quality that I always find very interesting whenever I revisit an old Mix. The rules are simple: I can include any song that I've listened to since my last birthday. This has typically meant songs that I discovered during this time period, but I'm not sure if that, as a rule, has always been adhered to. Also, the mix has to be able to fit on a CD. That's it.
1. Gaslight Anthem - "High Lonesome" - The Gaslight Anthem's '59 Sound was the right record at the right time this summer. It's an album completely lost in the somber side of daily life, strikingly sincere and emotionally complex. It's artfully produced and holds the prestigious distinction of being the most soulful punk album I've ever heard. Christ, even Pitchfork liked it. The chorus in "High Lonesome" contains the aside "I always kind of, sort of wished I was someone else" that sounds so bare and heavy that it pulls me in every time I hear it. It's been years since I liked an album this much.
High Lonesome - The Gaslight Anthem
2. Menomena - "Muscle 'N Flo" - I wrote about this song awhile back. The band does such an amazing job of making all their instrumentation count. The majority of the song is so sparse and groove based that when they start adding layers and creating accents, it gives the song a very noticeable boost of energy. The bridge features some really well placed and well played church organ. It's a smart and well written song that is self-aware enough to know how to maintain its momentum while not letting the instrumentation or composition become predictable.
3. The Replacements - "P.O. Box (Empty As Your Heart)" - I'm pretty sure this song is only available in the fucked up, unmastered demo version. It's certainly the only version I've ever heard. The recording, while frustrating, gives the song an appropriately raw feeling to it. I'm sure I've written this before, but I'm a sucker for great songs that are poorly recorded. It feels as if the band knew they were on to something great and were too eager, and hungry, to wait for a better recording. This fits neatly into that category. The band ends each chorus with a small, palm-muted riff that, when heard in context, sounds something like a sigh. I can't tell you why, but it never gets old for me.
4. Fleet Foxes - "White Winter Hymnal" - I first heard this song on a hungover Sunday morning following a near sleepless Saturday night. "White Winter Hymnal" is serene and beautiful, calm and calming. It always feels in-place. That said, I think I will forever think of it as a soundtrack for trying to shake off the previous night.
White Winter Hymnal - Fleet Foxes
5. Young Jeezy - "Put On" - This song is astonishingly well produced. Like, whoa. I don't want to say, in print, the sort of things I would do to ever write a beat like this. The song has a dark, epic feel it that works so well in juxtaposition to Jeezy's slow, cocky flow. Also, it has a vocoder-enhanced Kanye verse where he is actually rapping.
Put On (Featuring Kanye West) - Young Jeezy
6. Hour of the Wolf - "Overload" - I saw Hour of the Wolf at Fest and they played one of the most exciting sets I've seen in years. It was one of those moments when I was reminded why I started listening to punk rock in the first place.
7. Lucero - "When You're Gone" - This was one of those gifts from my iTunes: a treasure I discovered by putting my library on random. Lucero is a great band, but I had never spent much time with their earlier material. "When You're Gone" sounds, appropriately enough, like a late night bar anthem.
When Youre Gone - Lucero
8. Crystal Castles - "Crimewave" - I don't know if I can ever listen to this song again. Crystal Castles were one of the first bands that I wrote about when I started blogging and they are really fantastic, interesting, and challenging. I think their deconstructionist approach dance music pushes the genre's boundaries and plays with our traditional ideas of sound. That said, "Crimewave" has been in steady rotation on my iTunes and iPod for a long time, maybe too long. I guess even the best of songs get old.
Crimewave - Crystal Castles vs HEALTH
9. The Dismemberment Plan - "The City" - I found this song during last semester and played it constantly during my daily drives to and from campus. With a litany of responsibilities and obligations, I sometimes wonder to what extent I am personally responsible for creating a relatively small world in Atlanta. Regardless, it can be stifling at times and I think after a very intense and exciting summer, it was kind of a shock to my sense. "The City" was a nice background to my discontent.
Crimewave - Crystal Castles vs HEALTH
10. Machine Go Boom - "Elmer's Glue" - Simple, uptempo, angst-y indie rock song. What more do you need?
11. At The Gates - "Slaughter of the Soul" - I wandered into a record store this summer while trying to kill some time. Slaughter of the Soul was blaring over the shop's speakers and I couldn't quite pin down what it was that I was hearing. I knew it was familiar, but that was the extent of it. I picked up Slaughter of the Soul a good deal before then, but I never really explored it. It totally caught me off guard. I've kind of been in love with the record, and especially the fairly brutal title track, ever since.
Slaughter Of The Soul - At The Gates
12. The Devil Makes Three - "Graveyard" - Dark and semi-creepy acoustic folk rock. The harmonies are so subtle and effective, I don't know if they could have been done any better.
Graveyard - The Devil Makes Three
13. Supersuckers - "Pretty Fucked Up" - I heard this in a loud, crowded bar sometime in May. I remember my friend put it on the jukebox and got physically excited (that kind of sounds sexual) when it came on. It's a perfect bar-rock song. Short, cocky, drunk, sour, and fully equipped with competent if not showy guitar solos.
pretty fucked up - supersuckers
14. The Copyrights - "Kids of the Black Hole" - This was one of my early summer jams. I'm pretty sure I listened to it every time I went to the gym. May was a pretty shitty month and I spent a lot of time feeling completely buried. I guess listening to this song was a nice boost of energy. It's also a pretty amazing pop punk song, which is easily my greatest guilty pleasure.
15. Against Me! - "Thrash Unreal" - I really wish these guys weren't so fucking talented. This album is squeaky clean and catchy in embarrassing ways. Of course, it's also packed with some really great song writing and I'm happy for the band. They're completely deserving of all the success they've achieved and their contributions to punk rock, and perhaps rock music generally, will have long lasting and powerful reverberations. Side note: I ran to this song more than any other song, ever.
Thrash Unreal - Against Me!
16. The Hope Conspiracy - "They Know Not" - Oh, so that's who you write a hardcore song. "They Know Not" is off the band's amazingly titled Death Knows Your Name. The song is also, oddly, the most listened to song on my iTunes. That definitely doesn't seem healthy.
17. Screeching Weasel - "Leather Jacket" - This was the year that I finally got Screeching Weasel. Something clicked. "Leather Jacket" is a really great taste of Screeching Weasel that barely stretches out past one snarling and catchy minute.
Leather Jacket - Screeching Weasel
18. Feist - "I Feel It All" - Feist plays some of the most competent and soulful indie rock I've ever heard. I spent a lot of time listening to Feist when I thought I could switch from coffee to tea. I was wrong. The only lasting vestiges from that experiment are a box of tea bag and a few Feist records, only the latter of which will be used in the near future.
I Feel It All - Feist
19. Sufjan Stevens - "Chicago" - OK, I was wrong. Sufjan is a brilliant song writer. Whoops. I mean, "Chicago" was composed more than it was written. God, the fucking choir is so enveloping and warm. Whoa.
Chicago - Sufjan Stevens
20. Polar Bear Club - "Election Day" - "Election Day" is a great post-hardcore song with some really fantastic drumming (is there ever enough crash and kick in these songs?) and about as catchy a chorus as the genre will allow. I found this at the start of the summer and have been obsessed with it ever since.
Election Day - Polar Bear Club
21. Paul Wall - "Bangin' Screw" - "Bangin' Screw" is just Paul Wall at his best. The organs scream, the kick rumbles, and Wall slays three consecutive verses. He largely relies on familiar rhyme schemes, but it's like his voice and flow were made for this shit. Also, when was the last time you heard funk guitar on a rap song? Like, funk guitar that wasn't atrocious?
Bangin Screw [Amended Album Version] - Paul Wall
22. Broadway Calls - "Bad Intentions" - I'm out of adjectives to describe music. I mean, this song is a lot of fun and totally infectious. Sometimes that's all that matters.
Bad Intentions - Broadway Calls
1. Gaslight Anthem - "High Lonesome" - The Gaslight Anthem's '59 Sound was the right record at the right time this summer. It's an album completely lost in the somber side of daily life, strikingly sincere and emotionally complex. It's artfully produced and holds the prestigious distinction of being the most soulful punk album I've ever heard. Christ, even Pitchfork liked it. The chorus in "High Lonesome" contains the aside "I always kind of, sort of wished I was someone else" that sounds so bare and heavy that it pulls me in every time I hear it. It's been years since I liked an album this much.
High Lonesome - The Gaslight Anthem
2. Menomena - "Muscle 'N Flo" - I wrote about this song awhile back. The band does such an amazing job of making all their instrumentation count. The majority of the song is so sparse and groove based that when they start adding layers and creating accents, it gives the song a very noticeable boost of energy. The bridge features some really well placed and well played church organ. It's a smart and well written song that is self-aware enough to know how to maintain its momentum while not letting the instrumentation or composition become predictable.
3. The Replacements - "P.O. Box (Empty As Your Heart)" - I'm pretty sure this song is only available in the fucked up, unmastered demo version. It's certainly the only version I've ever heard. The recording, while frustrating, gives the song an appropriately raw feeling to it. I'm sure I've written this before, but I'm a sucker for great songs that are poorly recorded. It feels as if the band knew they were on to something great and were too eager, and hungry, to wait for a better recording. This fits neatly into that category. The band ends each chorus with a small, palm-muted riff that, when heard in context, sounds something like a sigh. I can't tell you why, but it never gets old for me.
4. Fleet Foxes - "White Winter Hymnal" - I first heard this song on a hungover Sunday morning following a near sleepless Saturday night. "White Winter Hymnal" is serene and beautiful, calm and calming. It always feels in-place. That said, I think I will forever think of it as a soundtrack for trying to shake off the previous night.
White Winter Hymnal - Fleet Foxes
5. Young Jeezy - "Put On" - This song is astonishingly well produced. Like, whoa. I don't want to say, in print, the sort of things I would do to ever write a beat like this. The song has a dark, epic feel it that works so well in juxtaposition to Jeezy's slow, cocky flow. Also, it has a vocoder-enhanced Kanye verse where he is actually rapping.
Put On (Featuring Kanye West) - Young Jeezy
6. Hour of the Wolf - "Overload" - I saw Hour of the Wolf at Fest and they played one of the most exciting sets I've seen in years. It was one of those moments when I was reminded why I started listening to punk rock in the first place.
7. Lucero - "When You're Gone" - This was one of those gifts from my iTunes: a treasure I discovered by putting my library on random. Lucero is a great band, but I had never spent much time with their earlier material. "When You're Gone" sounds, appropriately enough, like a late night bar anthem.
When Youre Gone - Lucero
8. Crystal Castles - "Crimewave" - I don't know if I can ever listen to this song again. Crystal Castles were one of the first bands that I wrote about when I started blogging and they are really fantastic, interesting, and challenging. I think their deconstructionist approach dance music pushes the genre's boundaries and plays with our traditional ideas of sound. That said, "Crimewave" has been in steady rotation on my iTunes and iPod for a long time, maybe too long. I guess even the best of songs get old.
Crimewave - Crystal Castles vs HEALTH
9. The Dismemberment Plan - "The City" - I found this song during last semester and played it constantly during my daily drives to and from campus. With a litany of responsibilities and obligations, I sometimes wonder to what extent I am personally responsible for creating a relatively small world in Atlanta. Regardless, it can be stifling at times and I think after a very intense and exciting summer, it was kind of a shock to my sense. "The City" was a nice background to my discontent.
Crimewave - Crystal Castles vs HEALTH
10. Machine Go Boom - "Elmer's Glue" - Simple, uptempo, angst-y indie rock song. What more do you need?
11. At The Gates - "Slaughter of the Soul" - I wandered into a record store this summer while trying to kill some time. Slaughter of the Soul was blaring over the shop's speakers and I couldn't quite pin down what it was that I was hearing. I knew it was familiar, but that was the extent of it. I picked up Slaughter of the Soul a good deal before then, but I never really explored it. It totally caught me off guard. I've kind of been in love with the record, and especially the fairly brutal title track, ever since.
Slaughter Of The Soul - At The Gates
12. The Devil Makes Three - "Graveyard" - Dark and semi-creepy acoustic folk rock. The harmonies are so subtle and effective, I don't know if they could have been done any better.
Graveyard - The Devil Makes Three
13. Supersuckers - "Pretty Fucked Up" - I heard this in a loud, crowded bar sometime in May. I remember my friend put it on the jukebox and got physically excited (that kind of sounds sexual) when it came on. It's a perfect bar-rock song. Short, cocky, drunk, sour, and fully equipped with competent if not showy guitar solos.
pretty fucked up - supersuckers
14. The Copyrights - "Kids of the Black Hole" - This was one of my early summer jams. I'm pretty sure I listened to it every time I went to the gym. May was a pretty shitty month and I spent a lot of time feeling completely buried. I guess listening to this song was a nice boost of energy. It's also a pretty amazing pop punk song, which is easily my greatest guilty pleasure.
15. Against Me! - "Thrash Unreal" - I really wish these guys weren't so fucking talented. This album is squeaky clean and catchy in embarrassing ways. Of course, it's also packed with some really great song writing and I'm happy for the band. They're completely deserving of all the success they've achieved and their contributions to punk rock, and perhaps rock music generally, will have long lasting and powerful reverberations. Side note: I ran to this song more than any other song, ever.
Thrash Unreal - Against Me!
16. The Hope Conspiracy - "They Know Not" - Oh, so that's who you write a hardcore song. "They Know Not" is off the band's amazingly titled Death Knows Your Name. The song is also, oddly, the most listened to song on my iTunes. That definitely doesn't seem healthy.
17. Screeching Weasel - "Leather Jacket" - This was the year that I finally got Screeching Weasel. Something clicked. "Leather Jacket" is a really great taste of Screeching Weasel that barely stretches out past one snarling and catchy minute.
Leather Jacket - Screeching Weasel
18. Feist - "I Feel It All" - Feist plays some of the most competent and soulful indie rock I've ever heard. I spent a lot of time listening to Feist when I thought I could switch from coffee to tea. I was wrong. The only lasting vestiges from that experiment are a box of tea bag and a few Feist records, only the latter of which will be used in the near future.
I Feel It All - Feist
19. Sufjan Stevens - "Chicago" - OK, I was wrong. Sufjan is a brilliant song writer. Whoops. I mean, "Chicago" was composed more than it was written. God, the fucking choir is so enveloping and warm. Whoa.
Chicago - Sufjan Stevens
20. Polar Bear Club - "Election Day" - "Election Day" is a great post-hardcore song with some really fantastic drumming (is there ever enough crash and kick in these songs?) and about as catchy a chorus as the genre will allow. I found this at the start of the summer and have been obsessed with it ever since.
Election Day - Polar Bear Club
21. Paul Wall - "Bangin' Screw" - "Bangin' Screw" is just Paul Wall at his best. The organs scream, the kick rumbles, and Wall slays three consecutive verses. He largely relies on familiar rhyme schemes, but it's like his voice and flow were made for this shit. Also, when was the last time you heard funk guitar on a rap song? Like, funk guitar that wasn't atrocious?
Bangin Screw [Amended Album Version] - Paul Wall
22. Broadway Calls - "Bad Intentions" - I'm out of adjectives to describe music. I mean, this song is a lot of fun and totally infectious. Sometimes that's all that matters.
Bad Intentions - Broadway Calls
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