Peter Hartlaub's editorial from the San Francisco Chronicle captures a lot of my thoughts about the popularity of Guitar Hero and the new game Rock Band (although I strongly disagree with his take on "Mississippi Queen," a wonderful song). For someone who enjoyed spotting all the video game references in the latest volume of Scott Pilgrim I get irrationally angry whenever I hear of these games. I actually worked at a place that had Guitar Hero in the break room and enjoyed playing it. I just felt full of shame as soon as put down that fake guitar I fake rocked out on.
My thoughts became a bit more focused when I heard the story on the Guitar Hero/Rock Band rivalry on KCRW's The Business. I learn that the minds behind Guitar Hero "wanted to make playing music easier." WHY? Why take away the satisfaction and learned experience of actually putting in effort to develop musical skill? People aren't actually playing music anyway, so the creators failed in their quest. But now kids can simulate all the feeling of playing a garage band classic like "Sunshine of Your Love" served to them by just following colored dots on a TV screen. Some things are too convenient these days.
That same episode of The Business started with a piece from Rob Long that, in explaining his take on the current WGA strike, compared the Internet to Wal-Mart. Everything's there, everything's cheap (or free) and most of it is crap. That got me thinking about how the '00s in the United States is basically "the Age of Wal-Mart." Even if you live in a city such as San Francisco that doesn't allow Wal-Mart to build within its borders there is still that megastore psychology infecting the culture. Since you can get everything you want why should you care about anything? That's why Guitar Hero and Rock Star bother me so much. Now there's nothing special about learning the mighty riff of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man," which was a moment of true joy for my 13-year-old self. Learning to play rock 'n' roll has lost its value. So much of what was great about popular entertainment has been devalued by machines and consumers quite happy to be lazy chumps.
Le sigh...I'm just ranting because I always feel this way after coming back from the Southern California suburbs where I visit my family. I step outside the bubble that is SF and I get a nice slab of mainstream America put on my plate. Seeing the boorishness and the ignorance of the vast majority of these Humvee driving, Wal-Mart shopping dolts I have to share this country with fills me with ire. These games probably aren't stopping anyone who is already interested playing music, although I don't think they're going to inspire anyone either. They will expose kids to quality rock 'n' roll bands like The Who, The Rolling Stones, The Clash and, yes Mr. Hartraub, Mountain.
Don't mind me, I think everything went to Hell when we switched from vinyl to CD's. I'm 24 by the way. Permanent Link: 6:11 PM |
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Monday, November 19, 2007
Shanksgiving
I suppose the reason why I gave you two posts today with lots of pretty pictures was because I'll be away from the computer for a whole week. I'm flying down to the heart of Los Angeles, of course I'm talking about Burbank, and then I'll be going to the soul of Los Angeles, of course I'm talking about Oxnard. I will also the mind of Los Angeles, of course I'm talking about Moorpark. I can't wait. Permanent Link: 6:43 PM |
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Pure Joy
I've just seen the recent Simpsons episode that featured Alan Moore, art spiegleman and Dan Clowes as guest stars (also Jack Black as the owner of a new comic book shop). It felt weird to see an episode of a show watched by millions feature humor that only a select group. In fairness only the first act dealt with the new comic book store in town although there's a nice call back at the end. At times I felt I was watching a show borne out of Mike Sterling's imagination. He is the first one I know to bring up the idea of "Watchmen Babies." I made screen captures of some of my favorite moments.
The Death of Casper
Two of my favorite pieces of pop culture ephemera in one place: The Thing (or rather "The Thung") and The Super Bowl Shuffle.
"Which baby is your favorite?"
Alan Moore love you-lu all the same.
"League of Extraordinary Freelancers -- Activate!"
"Maus is in the house!"
Anyone who shops for comics in L.A. might have noticed that the store Coolsville is based on Meltdown comics on Sunset, right down to the weird Japanese stuff. Permanent Link: 11:14 AM |
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Scott Pilgrim by Kevin O'Neil
Yesterday League of Extraordinary Gentlemen artist Kevin O'Neil stopped into Comix Experience as part of his U.S. tour to promote the new LOEG book. I was excited by it. I already had a sketch from Mr. O'Neil before, a great Mr. Hyde done in 2004 at the Los Angeles Times Book Fair. I figure I'd ask for something a little different. Since League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier and Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together, two of the most anticipated comics of the year, came out on the same day how about we do something with that? So I asked Mr. O'Neil to create his version of Canada's favorite boy rocker.
Here's the source material:
Here's Mr. O'Neil's take:
I like to think of that as Scott Pilgrim in twenty years.
When I brought this blog back I promised I would post at least once during a weekday. I have two hours to turn in something. I've been busy this week but I will push on. Must...make...post...look...to Devo...for inspiration.
"Planet Earth," the last song on Devo's Freedom of Choice isn't the album's best moment. That would be the one-two punch of "Freedom of Choice" and "Gates of Steel." It's still a great song and it fascinates me. It profiles a type of mentality I often find in myself as well as other people who happen to be smarter than most of those around them. It's a real feeling but not one I hear in a lot of popular music.
Brian Posehn may have named his album Nerd Rage but that might as well have been the name of every Devo album. When I first started to go through Devo's catalog I was surprised how much anger there is to the band best known for "Whip It." I knew the name and philosophy of the band came from the idea that man is de-evolving, as evidence by the human fallibility and chaos around us. I didn't know that the band in general, and Mark Mothersbaugh in particular, set their sights so intensely on their contemporaries in Akron and the rest of America, harboring a healthy supply of resentment and ire against them. "Jocko Homo," the band's anthem and my personal favorite Devo song, seems to indict the human race for being "teachers and critics" who still manage to find time to cut loose and dance. Devo doesn't temper their point-of-view with much introspection (Well, almost no introspection but we'll get to that later). They have so much confidence in their cynical outlook that even the thinnest evidence is forceful.
"Jocko Homo" comes from the band's first album Q: Are We Men? A: We are Devo! By the time third album Freedom of Choice came around the jagged experimentation led into this tight synth-pop sound. You could place the album alongside The Human League and Missing Person's work as an example of the best of synthesizer-based new wave. The anger in the band can still be found, though. It's hard not to miss it on the album's closer.
Over one of the most energetic and jerkiest melodies on the album Motherbaugh chronicles his irritations with the dominant species of his home planet. First it's the materialism so prominent in the Reagan '80s. The opening lines seem to be a reaction to a commercial for beauty products (or at least the body image anxieties the fashion industry can instill in women) as well as energetic, Gordon Gecko-like Wall Street fervor: "I heard a girl in a dress/Say her face was a mess/I heard there's no reason why/I heard that now's the time to buy."
I said earlier that Devo's anger isn't tempered by introspection. While I still think that's for the most part true "Planet Earth" captured my attention the first time I heard it becuase of the regret heard in Mothersbaugh voice and lyrics. The chorus says "On planet Earth/I'll probably stay." Mothersbaugh's voice deepens on that second line. He sound depressed that he's trapped with the rest of these man-apes who "Drive around in cars/Get drunk in local bars" (I have been told by people from the Midwest that those two activities make up the bulk of an average evening's fun). Mothersbaugh is so fed up with it that he doesn't yearn to leave his city or his country. He wishes to be away from the entire planet (and probably the whole solar system just to be safe). His desires exceeds mankind's actual achievements in space travel (unless he wants to spend the rest of his days in MIR). But having an imagination greater than those he despise, they who make up the majority, is just the problem.
That yearning in the song is one I've seen in so many people, mostly men, who are a little too clever and a little too opinionated. They fit the profile of a nerd, no doubt about it. Since you can't fly off to another planet the only escape you have is to go deeper into your own mind with more cerebral entertainment than a game of high school football. Devo is band that's there for the kid who savors sci-fi paperbacks, superhero comics and the humor of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. The only other piece of popular culture that expresses this sentiment so well that I can think of are the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy novels by Douglas Adams. There the Earth and everything on it is destroyed within the first few pages. The only humans left are the meek Arthur Dent and the woman he fancies Tricia McMillan (I haven't even gotten to how sexual desires fit into the subject's psyche). The mostly harmless inhabitants of Earth are done with early on. There are much bigger and better worlds to see. Looking at the above performance clip Devo looks like a band that could have a residency at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
I still find the song somewhat hopeful, although it's not from anything acknowledged within the lyrics. Listening to the song I want to grab Motehrsbaugh by the shoulders, as well as anyone who agrees with him, and tell them that they aren't above the human race in any way. These feelings of alienation they have are just as much a part of the human experience as any of the greediness illustrated. The very idea that someone can think past that and that there is an alternative should offer some relief. There is some greatness to strive for. The last verse offers a grim look at what happens when someone doesn't realize this: "I saw a man on a stage/Scream put me back in my cage/I saw him hang by his tie/I saw enough to make me cry." When Motehrbaugh sings of "a man on a stage" could he be talking of himself and/or his bandmates? Maybe, but with the line about being hung by a tie it's more likely that he's invoking your average office drone. That man probably wanted more than what the humans he saw around him had to offer but had no outlet for it. The millions that Devo have entertained throughout the planet and for over thirty years do have somewhere to go when they want to think of more than just "dream[ing] of being stars." There's a good reason why the band has such a strong following. They have a way of touching the innermost felt feelings of a person without ever sounding emotive. The more they looked outward the more they spoke to feelings many had dared not made public. Permanent Link: 9:59 PM |
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Thursday, November 08, 2007
Henry Lee - Nick Cave & P.J. Harvey
I don't know how this became "P.J. Harvey Week" on my blog (not that I mind, I've now established how I spell initials here). Here's the video for "Henry Lee" from Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds' Murder Ballads. It has to be one of the romantic pieces of film I've ever seen. It's not overtly sexy or comedic. Those seems to be the only two ways popular entertainment can depict romance. It's just a nice portrait of an adult couple. It didn't work our for Nick and Polly Jean but I'm sure they're both doing okay these days. Permanent Link: 9:05 PM |
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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. Permanent Link: 6:03 PM |
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Tuesday, November 06, 2007
In her kiss, I taste the revolution
When Kerri Koch realized her documentary Don't Need You clocked in at around forty-five minutes did she think that it was a quick and direct burst of energy like the songs from the Riot Grrl bands the film profiles? Maybe but it didn't feel like that to me. The thought I had when I saw the credits roll at the time most films are hitting their midway point was "that was it?" Documentaries don't depend on visual inventiveness like other types of film. I've seen plenty of fine documentaries done with RadioShack-bought DV cameras and FinalCut Pro. What they depend on is how much information the filmmakers have gathered about a subject and how they communicate it to the audience. When encountering documentaries the part of my brain that appreciates films rarely turns on. Instead I start to use the same mental muscles I use when I edit a piece of journalism. The two biggest questions are "why should we care about the subject matter?" and "does the piece get really in-depth about the subject matter?" Koch is clearing putting a lot of energy trying answer the first question but since she fails at answering the second it hurts her original intention.
Koch didn't really need to do too much to convince me about what was great about the Riot Grrrl movement. The most important band of that brief period was Bikini Kill. As soon as I hear The Singles I absolutely fell in love with the band. It now sounds odd, considering the politics going on at the time, but to my fourteen-year-old self Kathleen Hannah's voice was just about the sexiest thing I had ever encountered. To some of of the feminist theorists interested in Bikini Kill that might have looked like a problem. Why, when coming across this music with origins decidedly from a female perspective, must I immediately think of it in sexual terms? All I can really say is that the sexual feelings the music created in me (and still does) only made me think of it as better than most of the other punk rock bands I was listening to at the time. I was very familiar with DIY punk rock music, my favorite band at that point was probably Operation Ivy, but they only inspired feelings that teens usually want from rock 'n' roll, namely that escape from a boring suburban life. Bikini Kill had all that plus they talked about "wip[ing] our cum on our parent's bed." The lustful thoughts planted in my brain by their sound did not make me think less of the three women and one man in the band as musicians. Their music rocked just as much as anything else I listened to but it also sent me into a dreamy haze like nothing before. As far as I was concerned they were only an improvement on what had come before.
At that time I loved a lot of bands with hard political messages (Rage Against the Machine was another favorite at the time). I would try to read as much about these bands as I could but their philosophies didn't make much sense to me. I can't fault the bands here, though. I was a kid in high school for chrissakes! Even after a teacher made my psychology class watch Manufacturing Consent, the documentary on Noam Chomsky, I was in no shape to either digest or create any reasonable political thoughts. I could only pretend I knew what the Hell I was talking about by dropping a few important names and terms. Now that I'm a bit more socially aware I look at the ideas behind the Riot Grrrl movements admirable but often times confused (and then I'm reminded that a lot of the women in the movement were only just out of or still in high school for chrissakes). From the interviews with Hannah, Allison Wolfe from Bratmobile and others a lot of the Riot Grrrls seemed to spend a lot of time in crowded rooms arguing. This happens in poltical discussions all the time but it seemed the only things people could agreed on were the general ideas of bringing in feminist opinions to punk rock. The whole idea of punk rock was that there was no line between band and audience but in the 1980's hardcore scene that only seemed relevant to young men. Women were often seen as "coat racks" while their boyfriends entered the mosh pit. Everyone agreed that part of "Revolution Girl Style Now!" should be that women could be a legitimate part of creating underground rock 'n' roll. But when it came to how that music should be represented or the what the race and class make-up of the Riot Grrrl movement was that only seemed to lead to never-ending bickering. The worst example is when Ian MacKaye says he got flack for writing and performing the Fugazi song "Suggestion," with its lyrics such as "is my body the only trait in the eye's of men?" MacKaye thinks that those who feel that he had no right singing such lyrics can plainly fuck off.
I get the sense that Riot Grrrl wasn't a case of a new philosophy springing out of subculture. This was an older philosophy, one crafted in part by Gloria Steinem, whom a young Hannah saw speak in Washington D.C., used to transform an established subculture. It succeeded by the time Olympia hosted the International Pop Underground Convention in 1991. With Bratmobile, Heavens to Betsy, 7 Year Bitch and other bands performing it was clear that rock 'n' roll in the Pacific Northwest was taking major steps towards equality. It was at that time that the rest of the United States was looking at the Pacific Northwest with great intensity thanks to the so-called Grunge movement led by Nirvana, a band very close to Bikini Kill. It's been written about in many places but the best known anecdote is that since Kurt Cobain was dating bassist Tobi Vail and Vail preferred the deodorant Teen Spirit Hannah wrote "Kurt smells like Teen Spirit" on Cobain's wall. This was one of the many reasons the national media placed the microscope on musicians who never thought they'd be known to anyone outside of those who subscribed to the Sub Pop singles club. Being the biggest Riot Grrrl band Bikini Kill also became the biggest victim of the media exposure. They lost their identities to journalists who refused to challenge their way of thinking to what the band was saying. It's no wonder why the band broke up in 1998, except maybe why it didn't happen sooner. The band hadn't made enemies with each other. They had made enemies with the outside world.
The film succinctly profiles that rise and fall of Riot Grrrl. You get some good insights from the interview subjects but there was so much more that could be examined and increase the film past its truncated running time. What about the bands outside of the Pacific Northwest who were tagged with the Riot Grrrl label. Where was L7 and PJ Harvey? Those artists might had a similar aggressive sound but the politics were different. What about Ani DiFranco, whose politics were similar but whose sound was quite different? One thing I wanted to know was what Bikini Kill guitarist Billy Karren felt being a man right in the middle of this. Watching the extra interview footage included on the DVD I was mesmerized by the harrowing stories Hannah had about the reaction Bikini Kill got on tour. The violence they saw no band had had to deal with since The Sex Pistols in 1977. It made me think that perhaps Koch should have created a documentary on Bikini Kill. There her film could have a real focus while at the same time straying into many interesting areas. The footage of the band performing Rebel Girl at the same show as the clip above made realize that the in-fighting and media hype didn't matter. It was the power these four could create mixing politics and music that remains so vital. Permanent Link: 9:07 PM |
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Thursday, November 01, 2007
Scenes from a major bookstore/media outlet
"Your Mom digs me."
For at least two more weeks I'll be working at a major bookstore/DVD/music sellers. One of the big chain ones. This one's in a mall and near a university (my alma matter in fact). I spend a lot of time in the music side and I decided I'd reveal the buying habits of our customers. People who want to get a handle on the ever changing music industry need cold hard facts before they construct their brilliant opinions. I can't offer any summation of the entire music buying public. I can just offer what I've seen. It's all real, though.
1) CDs are fun for kids and their grandparents: We might be near a university full of twenty-somethings but you wouldn't know it from who's coming up to the cash register. The store on a whole doesn't see as many young people relative to the people in the area. Teens and young adults are not as common as middle-aged adults, their kids and their parents. That means we get a lot of requests for new work from older artists. I think we've sold out of the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss album. For a while we couldn't keep the new Springsteen on the shelf. The kids eat up Disney Channel material like High School Musical, Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers. I've helped more than a few seniors find a Tony Bennett or Frank Sinatra CDs (this after I explain the difference between CDs and DVDs).
What do all of these demographics have in common? They don't use computers as much people my age (24). Hell, I have an employee discount I still go to eMusic and iTunes rather than paying $18.99 for a bloody CD. Go to iTunes and you can get the same CD for half off! No hassle with packaging or the surly staff (ahem), it's right there on my iPod and I saved ten dollars. Why the Hell wouldn't you get music that way? I suppose if computers confound you and you make a comfortable income spending $18.99 for a CD maybe three or four times a year sounds okay. Maybe you'll get a fifth one just to shut the kids up so you'll get an hour to yourself.
I clearly remember a man, he looked around 45, bringing in a newspaper clipping on unsigned artists. He gave me the name of one of the artists to look up. The article had her MySpace address but did he go there to find her music? No, he went straight to a happy corporate retail outlet. He even got one of those kids who works there to handle that crazy typewriter-looking thing in front of that weird TV.
2) People still want their music television: It's hardly controversial to declare that MTV is a joke. The network has gone from being thought of as trendsetters to being thought of as unimaginative idiots who can only create content by putting cameras on vapid sluts (I mean, if these sluts had something to say then at least we'd be somewhere). But people will still learn about music from TV. I told you how popular The Disney Channel brand is. People are still asking for the Bennett special. But if you want to know who one of the biggest stars of the music world is I say look no farther than Andre Rieu. Holy moley. Minutes after one of that violinist's specials airs on public television we'll get requests for it.
It's a small amount of people who will go beyond TV and the culture section of the newspaper to find new music. We're just a vocal lot. Again, most people like me know better ways than to obtain music than waiting to see what's on after Dr. Wayne Dyer's latest special. But for most people that's enough. These people have hard jobs and don't have the time to see what rated a 7.8 or above on Pitchfork. That's why they have enough money to pay for these prices.
3) Expect Britney Spears to be doing a week long residency at The Castro Theatre in 2020: There are some CDs young folks do buy. Britney Spear's latest product, it cannot be considered anything else, is a fast seller. Most of the audience seems to be young gay guys and the women who love them.
Of course, I'm sure there are just as many gay men and women who would go for the Plant/Krauss CD over whatever Spears' army of producers have concocted. It's certainly a specific type who's buying this CD. I knew plenty of them when I went to school. You're a young kid from a small town who hung out with a tight knit group of weirdos in high school, signing songs from Nightmare Before Christmas to cheer each other up becuase you didn't get invited to the popular kid's party that you didn't even want to go to anyway because you know it's just going to be a bunch of losers who are probably too scared to drink beer or whatever. Now it's your first year at a state university. This university isn't anywhere, though. It's in America's Gay Mecca, one of the greatest cities on Earth, San Francisco. Now you can be you with no judgments. There's freedom like never before. Freedom from bigotry but also freedom to party and dance your ass off. Apparently "Gimmie More" is the soundtrack of choice for a lot of these kids. Spears has certainly become one of those campy tragic figures that strikes a chord for some gay males. If I was part of her management I'd rework that into a business plan. There's a loyal fanbase just wanting to be courted.
The three observations probably don't add up to a whole lot by themselves. I can tell you I certainly see a lot of people my age at Amoeba Records. They have a lot more copies of The Knife's new CD and you can probably get it for $7.99 used. You don't need to step over displays for whatever book Oprah had on yesterday, either.
Just deal with my own neurosis here: all these descriptions come from my love of these people. I love identifying groups of people and noticing their little foibles. I thought I turned in a good post and then thought "oh no, I probably pissed of all the little kids, middle-aged adults, senior citizens and gays who read this blog." Maybe I did or didn't it's just that I'm yet another young Jewish guy whose mind is always running around in circles for no good reason -- HOLY SHIT I DID IT AGAIN! Permanent Link: 7:53 PM |
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