The rumour mill

Now that the capture of the Wrens for Oya has been announced on their web-site, fresh rumours claim that the Hold Steady along with their label mates Les Savvy Fav are also in line to play at Oya this year. This promises to be quite an interesting line-up.

By popular demand, I give you a link to the video for Prince's "Black Sweat", which is just as minimalist and sexy as the song itself:

Prince: "Black Sweat" (video)

This Boy is...Excited!

This just in: The absolutely fantastic Wrens are confirmed to play at
Oya-festival here in Oslo. Now, it is yet to be posted on the respective web sites, but a newsletter from said festival have been mailed to subscribers with the news. This year's line-up also includes Amadou & Meriam, which means there are currently two good reasons to buy tickets.

US Popular Culture - on one disc!?!

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but by my own suggestion I have been given the go-ahead to compile a CD to accompany the American Popular Culture-course at my University. I found that very few of the students knew much about the artists that were presented in the various texts of the course, and that because they were unable to tell the difference between various developments in American music, they also had problems understanding the motives behind such developments. This was most notable when discussing the article"Things to Come: Swing Bands, Bebop and the Rise of a PostwarJazz Scene" (from Recasting America: Culture and Politics in the Age of the Cold War, Lary May (ed.) (University of Chicago Press, 1989) by Lewis A. Erenberg. Many had never heard the artists and songs in question, and most were not able to tell Benny Goodman apart from Charlie Parker, which may have made it difficult for them to grasp why the shift from Swing to Bebop in form and style was so important to the musicians, especially the African American musicians.

Now, while compiling this music is undoubtedly an interesting challenge, I am by and large obliged to limit my choices to the examples granted in the source texts. Erenberg's article, for example, explains the transition from Hot to Sweet, and further from Swing to Bop. Writing about the Swing movement, he puts a lot of emphasis on the importance of the steady and powerful drummer as a driving force, and how many song titles from that era had images of trains, which coincided with the sense of moving into a modern era with all the velocity and excitement this implied. This will almost certainly limit my choices to adhere with this view, while I might have wished to find another track to juxtapose with Bebop. The challenge is also to find the most representative track(or tracks - I may, or most certainly will include more than one) from the Bebop movement. I need to consider the its creators, but also how its transition from Swing is best exemplified. Erenberg explains many different reasons for the transition, all of which I agree with. Among the examples are: the wish to be at the center-stage - your own master as opposed to drowning in a whole run by a (white) leader; The complexity in rhythm and melody, both to showcase their talents, but also to move away from the notion of being an entertainer and gain respect as an artist; And also, how all this was a reaction to the society as a whole, especially for the black musicians in question, as witnessed by the more aggressive compositions of the era.

Much of this ties in with Kevern Verney's African Americans and US Popular Culture (2003. New York: Routledge) (my article/review of that book here), which discusses African Americans role in US Popular culture, both as creators and entrepreneurs, and as victims. Verney is not as specific about songs, which will present me with a bigger challenge in that respect. Which Bert Williams song do I chose to best represent this early hero of African American music? Which recording of Amos and Andy best demonstrate how terrible Minstrel representations of African American culture could be. Which songs best illustrate gospel both as a religious music and as a part of the civil rights movement. The same for 60's Jazz (free!, "free", or not) and so on.

I will also include other genres, such as various white roots music. Still, there is a limit as to what I can fit onto one recordable CD but its an interesting selection process, and with a little help from some mates, the end result will hopefully be handed over to the department within a fortnight. I will probably post the track listing on here as well for you to comment on.

Double double

Beeaaaaaaooooooooh...beeeeeaaaaaaooooooooh...
...bippbrwappbipp...chwapchwipchckchck...chktck...
brwaappbwappchkcktrpbrwappbuahwrapp

This was pretty much how Mats Gustafsson sounded during his duo improv-session with guitarist David Stackenæs at Blaa on Friday. They opened in a double-duo gig which also included a set by Ken Vandermark and drum-wiz Paal Nilsson-Love. While Gustafsson's on-stage antics and cracks-and-pops may be fascinating, I find it musically uninterestingng. His power playing fits better in the no-holds-barred power (sorry for using this word twice in a sentence) -trio The Thing. In this duo setting though, I found him and his partner too thin on themes to be intriguing.

Vandermark and Nilssen-Love are musically richer, thematically stronger, and basically more engaging compared to the opening duo. Vandermark's sound may not be all that distinct, but what he lacks in that department he more than makes up for in having an impeccable sense of melody and theme. His playing fits perfectly with the pulsating playing of Nilsson-Love, who might just be the best jazz drummer around (Sorry, Hamid Drake). The two of them create enough "hooks" to grab your attention, while never being afraid to let things rip.

Let me at the same time recommend FME's Cuts , which teams Nilssen-Love and Vandermark with bassist Nate McBride. Its five lengthy pieces remind me, structurally, of Charles Gayle's classic Touchin' on Trane. Vandermark and Nilssen-Love has a perfect companion in McBride, who has a full and funky sound. The album has enjoyed a lot of playing time on my iPod during the past few weeks. A late entry on my year-end list of 2005, it may also enjoy some critical success this year given that it was just released at the tail-end of last year.

Double trouble

There is two of them, they're very cute in a suicidegirls/Avril/early Ashlee kind of way, and blink-and-you'll-miss-it one of them appears to be taking off her undies about mid way through their video for "4Ever"(video link). But all of this is beside the point, because a good deal of The Secret Life of... is pretty darn good. Adolelescent love themes, either it's "Hey! Lets get in that car and run away" or "I'm so moving on", seem to work well in a spiky pop-rock setting nowadays, and although none of the songs on the Veronicas' debut quite match Kelly Clarkson's magnificent one-off from last year, a good few come pretty darn close. Especially the first half, where "4Ever", "When it Falls Apart" and "Revolution" are stand-out tracks. It falters towards the end, with mid-heavy balladery and a pointless (it sounds exactly like the original) cover of Tracy Bonham's "Mother Mother". But at its best, I revel in its wooziness. A-? Probably.

Bootylicious

Finally, a music discussion with some substance! I did get a good chuckle reading Woebot's discussion on the Black-Eyed Peas. He says about "My Humps":

I've done a little research on this and it seems people really do use the word "humps" and it's loathsome, but "lady lumps", jesus what a completely revolting phrase. I mean, "Booty" has a lovely full-some ring to it, "Booty" is about glorious in-your-face nudity, about hourglass buttocks busting the seams of tight jeans. It's akin to a Fugs-ian, counter- cultural call for hot, sweaty, *natural* sex. But "Humps" and (worse, I mean gravy has lumps...) "Lumps" are all about the body being uncomfortably fettered. OK, I can appreciate the "perv" angle, as much as the next red-blooded individual, but I just don't think it can be celebrated in the same way. Just like "Shorty" there is a gormless infantilism to the phrase "Lovely lady lumps" which really pisses me off as well. Grr.

"Glorious in-your-face nudity"! A knee-slapper. "Lumps" does sound pretty awful, even if said lumps look pretty good on Fergie. She can't sing for sh*t, though. The song in question ended up on Christgau's Pazz & Jop singles list, but I'm not convinced. I find it too sparse to be danceable, and too dumb to be sexy.

Bad sneakers and a...

I've had quite a few of these during the previous week. Coupled with some sun, they sure help to lift the spirit.

Zoilus on the concept of guilty pleasures. More links there. Now, I actually created a playlist on my iPod once that I ended up calling "gulity pleasures", but to me it doesn't signify anything other than being a collection of songs I like by artists I don't like, or can't stand even. Now, what's your pleasure?

Talking all that Pazz

This year's Pazz & Jop was published just as I was putting the finishing touches on my own 2005-list. Though there may still be some additions, this is as close to the finished article as I have come, especially the top 15-20. Whereas before, the P&J has inspired me to check out dozens of albums I had missed in the previous year, it seems like this year I've been better prepared, so to speak. Largely, this is due to file sharing and iPod'ing and blogging, which has given me more music to listen to, and better opportunities to do it. But I do not feel I've been more inclined to follow hype, as Mr. Christgau suggests has become a bi-product of blogging/file sharing. (I know he didn't have me in mind).

Le Matos and Simon Reynolds are at it again, with M.I.A. at the centre of it all. Reynolds is arguing rockism, and although I agree on some of his points, e.g. that "having something to say" is not necessarily a token of quality, at least not until one explains what is actually said. It's the same with politics in music; saying someone or other has "politically charged lyrics" is just a description and not an evaluation. Deciding whether those political lyrics are any good, on the other hand... Anyway, I don't think he explains his points well enough: it's almost as if the opposite of having (the akward term) "substance" is what we should look for. And the fact that Kanye is now approved by the rock-crit crowd does not hide the fact that his album(s) is(are) damn good.

Right, off to the Canaries for a week or so. Hardly the most cultural of places, you'd say, but a good mix of a chuck-full iPod, Margaret Atwood , and Don DeLillo will do the trick.