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Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Man-sized no need to shout
Here's just a follow up thought to my last post on Riot Grrrl. I mentioned P.J. Harvey briefly. I read the article on her in the September issue of the British magazine The Wire. She has a quote that says to the effect that she was uncomfortable being lumped in with the Riot Grrrl movement, mostly becuase she hated the way that "Grrr" in the name looked. Imagine hearing her say that in her English accent and it's very funny. But listening to some Harvey today and thinking back to last night's post I realized what the major difference between Harvey and the bands coming out of Olympia.
Harvey was certainly writing songs from a female point-of-view but she didn't announce that's what was what she was doing. She didn't demand "Revolution Girl Style Now!" like Bikini Kill did at their first show. Harvey didn't attach any politics to songs like "C'mon Billy" or "50 Ft. Queenie." Her lyrics can be direct or abstract but they always seem to be coming from a very humanistic place. The language of politics, the talk of revolution or the taunting of other social factions, rarely appear. You can bring politics to her music but it's not a layer to her songs she ever made explicit. You can probably make the case that her early single "Sheela Na Gig" had political intentions but considering it with the rest of her career and statements she's made like "I don’t ever think about [feminism]. I mean, it doesn't cross my mind," (that is from Bust magazine) I'm hesitant to do so.
I'm also hesitant to state a preference between Harvey's mindset and Kathleen Hannah's. It is important for feminism to cross your mind at some point. I don't think you can become a well-rounded human being without challenging your own political and social preconceptions with new ideas. But I'm repelled when see that concentrating on political ideologies leads to this carousel of buzzwords like "post-colonial" and "post-modern" spinning around. It just leads to more reasons for people to become neurotic about the culture they live in and they culture they create. I believe I have made it clear on this blog that a battle against anxieties and neuroses in the creation of art is a battle worth fighting (it's something I certainly fight within myself). While observing certain artists in the punk genre (or in metal, electronica or whatever) I want to yell "stop thinking about what your bloody art 'means' and just fucking DO IT!" I love Harvey's work so much becuase she knows exactly when to stopping contemplating her creations and just let the music work. She can move from many different sounds, her latest album White Chalk presents a haunting piano-based style that is just brilliant, and still remain an artist you can recognize thirty seconds into a song. She is probably one of the most "with it" musicians around.
I suppose I did state a preference there, didn't I? I admit that I'm always looking for a point of transcendence in music. I certainly got it a few hours ago when, even on a crowed San Francisco MUNI bus, I could close my eyes and hear Harvey sing "How come he's so big/But good Lord he's been hid/Good Lord where're hid...HEY!" I find similar moments in very political bands like Bikini Kill and Fugazi. If politics infuses an artist with power to create transcendent music I'm all for it. But if it gets in the way I have no patience for it.
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