Zoilus on the problem with indie rock

Carl Wilson (Zoilus) has an article in Slate in response to SF/J's much debated article in the New Yorker, and I for one think he nails the issue of indie rock's retreat into, eh, "whiteness" better than SFJ did. (Note: there are two pages). Key points:

• the excision of blues-rock from "underground" rock goes back to the '70s with the demise of top 40 radio, and '80s origins of American punk and especially hardcore (though, there are exceptions here too, of course)

• SFJ cherry-picks exceptions selectively, overlooking several important ones

• "if gangsta rap marked a break, it was because hip-hop became coded to reflect the retrenchment of the "Two Americas""

• the "trouble with indie rock" may have far more to do with the widening gap between rich and poor than black-white

• while it may be a cliche, "the particular kind of indie rock Frere-Jones complains about is more blatantly upper-middle class and liberal-arts-college-based, and less self-aware or politicized about it"

• their music is bookish and nerdy rather than body-centered, and "shows off" "its chops via its range of allusions and high concepts with the kind of fluency both postmodern pop culture and higher education teach its listeners to admire"(side note: don't mistake bookish and nerdy for smart and intelligent, and also note that it does not necessarily have to be one or the other. Both rap/soul and indie artists have shown admirable "chops" in both body and mind at the same time.)

• "this university demographic often includes a sojourn in extended adolescence" where the "musical consequences might include an open but less urgent expression of sexuality, or else a leaning to the twee, sexless, childhood nostalgia that many older critics (...) find puzzling and irritating."

But go read the whole thing. It holds together much better than I could ever hope to summarize in bullet points.

Update: a few quick things before I lay this topic to rest, at least for now:

a). although like SFJ, I tend to prefer music with "swing, some empty space and palpable bass frequencies" i.e. the American tradition, I don't necessarily see that as absolute necessities, and like Carl Wilson, I like some of the bands SFJ points his finger to.

b). I'm no apologist for indie. There's plenty of bad music out there, and not just indie. But I also think the reason why is not solely down to a lack of "miscegenation".

c). I agree that indie has a problem - culturally first and sonically second, perhaps - but as you may have figured out, I think some of SFJ's examples are off the mark and also that Wilson did a better job of figuring out what the problem is.

Idolator gets cranky, then mocks some more

More on SF/J in a post on Idolator today, where Jess Harvella answers some worried readers.

"People thinking this is me saying that indie rock should somehow be held exempt from its often dodgy racial politics--this wounds me. Forget indie rock, there's not a single aspect of white--and especially white male--culture that doesn't need to be mercilessly picked apart for both the covert and overt, conscious and unconscious racism that it perpetuates every day! This seems self-evident, but you'd be surprised how many white men are content to let their privilege go unchecked. (Wait, no you wouldn't.) And indie rock is a subset of white maledom that's notorious about letting its cultural assumptions go unexamined.

So I understand why Frere-Jones wrote the piece. I just happen to think the piece was bullshit, especially his bizonkers internal inconsistencies and wild generalizations over genre. Indie rock's race issues are more cultural than sonic, and though musical choices are always tied up with a musician's social outlook, someone choosing to emulate Bruce Springsteen rather than Larry Blackmon hardly constitutes a cultural crime. Indie rock's cultural, social, racial, and sexual hangups are not going to be resolved via the forced "miscengenation" Frere-Jones is looking for." (More here).

Agreed, and see my previous post for my comments on the inconsitencies and generalizations of SF/J's article.

Ps.: Gotta love the mocking 1-100 SF/J-score, too. Here's one of the rules: "- Subtract 15 points for slap bass. (That's a red herring.)". Big laugh.

Everybody's talking 'bout....

...S/FJ's piece in the New Yorker, where he laments the lack of soul in indie-rock. While it took some time before any reaction to the article appeared on the net, these last few days discussions have been fierce in this I love Music-thread, and yesterday Idolator picked it up, albeit half jokingly, by giving a SFJ-score to bands on the on-going (and largely indie) CMJ-fest.

Now, I admire a lot of SFJ's writing. I think he is a good critic, and some of our tastes are similar - he loves the Minutemen, as do I. He loves the Clash, ditto. We share an affinity for a lot of post-punk (which, btw, I refuse to give up on. I liked Gof4 before the post-punk revival, and I'll continue to do so. Get off your "that's SO yesterday" horse already).

One of the reasons I like these bands, and the reason I mention these bands right now, is their prominent use of the bass. The propulsion, juice, pulse, and ooomph of the bass, the way it can make the music swing. This prominent use of the bass may have its roots in largely black American strains of music: jazz, soul, dub, and funk. Their use of the bass is just of of several signs that these bands mixed a whole set of different influences, both "black" and "white", to create their sounds and music. SFJ notes that this mixing (I'll come back to his term later on) is part of what made these bands and other music that he loves so important and he thinks it is sadly lacking in modern indie-rock. Indie-rock, he says, has since the 90's strayed away from the African-American influences and instead turned to "whiter" influences making it "soul-less" or "less interesting". (Norwegian readers, note the similarities to some of Ole Martin Ihle's critique, but also note the significant difference: SFJ loves punk and early indie, which I fear Ihle isn't open enough to appreciate. To SFJ, indie doesn't mean "soul-less", it's just become soul-less).

Some of the discussions on SFJ's article has been about this point: indie's lack of "black" influences. On the basis of the article, that's an obvious thing to discuss. If you listen to the podcast which accompanied the article you get the feeling that he also thinks it is lacking the other way around. There is no mixing of sounds in neither indie nor hip-hop these days. Also note that he says that the sounds of "black" and "white" music used to be more difficult to pin down before, especially in the 60's and 70's, rather it was an American music where influnces had been fused over the years albeit with a distinctly rhythmic influence from Africa. To this point I agree, but it seems to have escaped the vast majority of those who have engaged themselves in the discussions over the article.

I feel that on one hand the article is just SFJ saying that he misses a Minutemen or a Clash in modern rock/indie. Fair enough, but there are several problems with the whole thing. I'll go over them one-by-one.

• His word for mixing of styles or influences is miscegenation, a highly loaded term originally intended to be derogatory.

• Taking a few current indie bands to mean all current indie is reductionist and false. Suerly there are exceptions to the rule. Also, what is the rule, or, what is indie?
  

• SFJ traces the problem as he sees it back to Pavement. Now, I love Pavement for several reasons, but my main point here is this: Can it not be said that Pavement's odd twists and turns, pauses and off notes are not so much a sign of lack of ability (you'll never convince me that Malkmus is a bad guitar player), but may rather be attributed to a delibertate choice of style and moreover be seen as an influence of Thelonious Monk (which has also been pointed out by Christgau, among others), a man who used odd twists and turns himself to create a very personal voice within jazz?

• It's difficult to understand why SFJ uses a band he likes, Arcade Fire, as proof of the problem. By doing so he freely admits that this mixing of styles that he misses is not the be-all of rock/indie, thereby making me think the "problem" - sonically - is not as big as the article, all four pages of it, would suggest.

• The article is not well written. SFJ's point comes across better in the podcast, where he explains, as I noted above, that American music didn't use to be "black" or "white", but a potent mix of both and that this is something he misses.

All this makes me think that made SFJ just wanted to cause a stir, to start an argument. It seems to have worked. He has answered a few e-mails on the blog on the online edition of the New Yorker. I've mentioned the I Love Music thread and the Idolator-thingy. Tom Breihan has a conversation with Rob Harvilla on his blog for the Village Voice, and Carl Wilson has announced that he'll have a response in Slate today, where he'll pull class into the argument. And now there's me, of course.

Everyone should get a copy

The new Oxford American's 9th Annual Music Issue comes highly recommended from fellow bloggers and knowledgable book store clerks alike. Judging by the table of contents, there's no reason why one shouldn't go get a copy. Off course you want to read in-depth pieces on the Clovers, Dwight Yoakam, and Thelonious Monk. Add to the writing a pretty decent twenty-six track CD, and you know you have to order your copy right now.

Sonny Rollins (new) Trio at Carnegie Hall, Sept. 18 2007

Francis Davis was there. (As were a host of music celebs, if we're to believe him).

Catching up with jazz

I was clicking through my jazz blog links earlier today, and found that I've been missing some interesting stuff the last few weeks. be.jazz has posted a few excerpts of a keynote address at the 2006 Guelph Jazz Festival and Colloquium by Greg Tate which asks the question of where jazz is giong for black musicians (and possibly a black audience for progressive jazz). Similar questions were asked a while ago which I tentatively gave my views on here. be.jazz picked it up from Soundslope, I belive, where I stumbled upon a link to a blog devoted to David S. Ware's projects, which in turn led me to this recording of "Aquarian Sound". The vid is a bit out of sync, but who gives a flying f***. This is simply amazing.

David S Ware - Aquarian sound
Uploaded by MrDrive

Against Me! and Future of the Left double bill

You may have noticed, if you ever pop by my favorites pages, that I like Against Me!'s New Wave. I really like it. One thing I noticed, which Steinar also picked up on, is that Tom Gabel sometimes sounds like D. Boon with his matter-of-fact lyrics and no fuss delivery. The opening couplet of "Americans Abroad" is especially Boon-like in the way he crams the words " Golden Arches rising above the next overpass / these horizons are endless" into a short space of time because he needs to say it. More on the Minutemen in the following posts (Or at least I plan to. I have a few thoughts on Mike Fournier's 33 1/3 book on Double Nickles... for one).

For now I'm looking forward to Against Me!'s upcoming gig in Oslo, where Future of the Left, whose Curses I've been listening to lately, are supporting.

Watch My Feet

This is ace! Slow, creeping verse, then speed up the tempo for the hook/refrain. Proper dace off track. (The dance itself is apparently called "Juke" and is the latest craze in the midwest. Kind of reminds of the way Leeroy of the Prodigy used to dance, but nevermind).

Dude 'n Nem: "Watch My Feet":

Sonny Rollins Trio at Carnegie Hall, 2007 version.

This should turn out great. Wish I could be there.

EMP 2008: Organizing the Boy Scouts for Murder is Wrong

You may have picked up on this already, but the theme/question for this year's EMP Pop Conference - in my opinion probably the best thing to happen in the field of music writing and journalism - were announced earlier this week under the heading "Shake, Rattle: Music, Conflict, and Change". Visit EMP's home page for more info on that.

I've always been a sucker music with a sociopolitical edge if it's smart and done right (as opposed to e.g. us vs. them-thinking and petty "fuck Bush" slogan-ism), I'm very excited about what the contributors will come up with. (In fact, the theme/question is so interesting I might end up posting a "paper" on the blog myself, though I should probably have kept that to myself since I rarely deliver what I promise on this blog).

I have to agree with Carl Wilson that the choice of the words "conflict and change" in the question is better than "politics and protest" which seems to me a more archaic way of looking at the subject, and this way the papers will hopefully take up other topics than the traditional discussions of politics in 60's folk and punk rock, though this is not to say that some insightful thoughts on those topics are totally unwelcome.

Digital Primitives

Digital Primitives (Hopscotch) is rapidly becoming one of my favorite jazz records of 2007. As opposed to two other favorites this year - the crunk jazz of 4 Corners, and the muscle funk of (((Powerhouse Sound))) - Assif Tsahar, Cooper-Moore, and Chad Taylor take a minimalist approach to jazz not unlike some of Kahil El'Zabar's 90's output.

Assif Tsahar plays tenor sax and bass clarinet, blowing simple yet forceful melodies and themes. Chad Taylor on drums and m'bira adds skittering beats, while multi-instrumentalist Cooper-Moore for the most part controls the low end (their MySpace-page lists hand crafted instruments - diddley bo, banjo, mouth bow, flute, drums. He played piano on one of the best jazz records of the 90's, William Parker's Peach Orchard, which Tsahar also played on).

The result is a kind of subdued funk, with traces of both blues, African music, and a touch of minimalist electronica in feel if not so much in sound. There is a song number as well, Ol' Saint Peter sung by Cooper-Moore, a lovely quiet blues.

Their website, as well as their MySpace, has sound clips from the album as well as videos of live-performances (click on the images). If you can't find the record at your local shop, Digital Primitives can be bought through the Jazz Loft (and probably through Hopscotch's web-site, though I'm not sure).

Pere Ubu - "Breath": it's now or possibly never.

I was pointed towards this rare video of Pere Ubu's "Breath" - the first track on their recently re-released Cloudland album from 1989 - by whoever runs the Home & Garden MySpace page (Ubu bassist Tony Maimone is/was in H&G).

As much as I love their quirkier moments, "Breath" remains one of my favorite Ubu songs. I think it captures as much as any other of their recordings some of Pere Ubu's recurring themes; people and places; urban development - for better or worse - and decay, and people feeling estranged and struggeling to find their place in this world of constant renewal. Lyrically, "Breath" seems to be a call for the world to stop for a moment, while the grander sound seems less urban than their previous records, perhaps to suggest that urban deveolpment has reached suburbia as well:

I know my way round town. / Used to live around here. / I know the sites to see, / the things they mean to me, / and how we tore it down. / Let me walk with you cuz it's breaking my heart. / The things that we had, / the good and the bad - now it's parking lots. / Don't let's talk about tomorrow - / Baby, standin at the edge of sorrow. / Let's watch the whole world just goin slow. / Let's watch the whole world goin slow.

The thing is, though, Pere Ubu and David Thoms have had issues with You Tube for a while, so I guess it's just matter of time before this clip is taken down. Watch it while you can, or better yet, go buy Cloudland. It's ace.

Max Roach, R.I.P.

Christ, I'm slow these days. I was devastated to learn that Max Roach - legend, brilliant drummer, original composer, and good looking cat - passed away recently. The always brilliant Destination-Out! pays tribute and has some great tunes available for download too.

Still there?

In case I still have readers of this blog, thank you for stopping by. Regular blogging will resume shortly.

More Lip Stick

No, this is not turning into a fashion blog, but to continue the theme from the previous post: Canadian fuzz poppers Mother Mother are having problems with their make up and are in dire need of a "Touch Up", they say, and I'm happy to listen to their complaints.

Fashion tips

Is it just me or are there more fashion tips in pop songs these days. Last year there was The Pack praising "Vans". Then there was this fabulous Lil' Mama track big upping her lip gloss:
And to top it off, the third track on American Idol runner-up Katherine McPhee's new record is about the joys of open toe shoes:

"Hey let's go / If they're not too high / Too low / I'll take them home / In purple, red, or gold / 'cause I know them boys / They like / Those open toes"

Are there more?

Ingmar Bergman, R.I.P.

One of my all-time favorite film directors. A lengthy tribute to the man can be found at the New Times' web site.

Molde Jazz, 2007

Ok, this is going to be fast and furious, but let me just give you a few thoughts on the festival so far.

I had originally not planned on going this year, for various reasons. Hence I had not studied the program thoroughly and I regret that now. I arrived on Wednesday evening, and by then I had missed Dave Holland, Vijay Iyer, and Alexander von Schlippenbach's Monk's Casino. Bummer. Add to those a joint project between Nils Petter Molvær and Bill Laswell, Sonore (a Brötzmann, Vandermark, Gustafson blowing session), plus the Rashied Ali Quintet, and Chick Corea and Gary Burton (not interrested), and you have a pretty decent program. I have previously stated that I thought Kongsberg was about to surpass Molde Jazz as Norway's best jazz festival, but Ornette Coleman and some promising youngsters apart, as a whole Kongsberg loses this year.

I'm baffeled, though, how Dave Holland's bio keeps reading "played with Miles Davies on so-and-so". Valuable as that info is - particularly to gain the attention of novices I guess - Holland has by now built his own impressive catalogue. His fluid bass style is pretty unique, and his records continue to recieve critical acclaim, though I still hold the great Conference of the Birds as my personal favorite.

Went to see a double bill last night: Elvis Costello and Allan Toussaint opened up for Steely Dan. more on that later, hopefully.

Tonight, Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet. Can't afford the Wayne Shorter ticket.

Ornette Coleman at Kongsberg Jazz June 6th, 2007

Man, that was a good gig. You wouldn't believe Mr. Coleman had collapsed on-stage just a few weeks beforehand, because on this evening he was on top form, even joking to the adience in between a few of the numbers and once asking if somebody wanted to come onstage and sing a song! His band was great too, three bassists plus Denardo Coleman behind the drums. No site of Greg Cohen from the previos tour, but his shoes were more than filled by Charnett Moffett who boomed up and down the neck of his bass and throwing in some wha-wha effects as well. The set list was filled with both material from Sound Grammar as well as some of his greatest hits, and when he finnished off with "Lonely Woman", my evening was complete. I've seen him three times now, this gig was the best of them.

I should have written more about this, but I leave for a lenghty trip tomorrow and I have to pack. If I can get ahold of a laptop, I may blog from Molde International Jazz Festival, which starts in a weeks' time.

Oh, Rats!

Now, THIS I wanna see: