Site Presented By
Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Found a story in Cleveland Scene about the Box, too:
http://www.clevescene.com/2007-12-05/music/the-brits-are-alright/#comments
Check it out.
Deft incision into the most salient argument at hand.
However I think there is a case in pt. that are exceptions that might make us have to re-examine your otherwise very helpful rule that (as I hope I'm doing justice to in paraphrasing) at the least, good rock/pop vocals (and I agree that the mise-en-scene of the vocals make or break all acts) should have aggression, or, failing that, *assertiveness* in them. And white folks (of which I'm one) can't legitimately claim that black folks didn't do it each and every instance, better and before, them. The one seminal, exception that I'm wrestling w/ myself over though is:
--Nick Drake
His vocal assertiveness is unworldly in its understatedness. As unworldly as Robert Johnson, et al, were, themselves, I've yet to hear anything Drake's vocal style (never mind his guitar)owes to the blues. Some of his arrangements? Yes, certainly, based in Jazz. But his vocal delivery?-- all his own. "Black Eyed Dog"...sure, inspired by the intellect of Johnson. But a mere aping of the original? Absolutely not. The first earth had ever heard such a thing.
I enjoyed reading Simon Reynolds' article about the Brit Box. As host of the Britsound Radio Show we recently interviewed the creator of the Brit Box, ,John Hagelston from Rhino Records.
Check out the interview:
http://www.britsound.com/radioshow/downloads/hagelstonedit.mp3
Cheers!
Rob Quicke
Britsound Radio Show
why do we feel the need to intellectualize why we do and do not like certain politicians?
why do we feel the need to intellectualize why we do and do not like God (or god)?
Most of your letters are not gibberish. Just because be-bop is taking a long weekend does not mean that you need to "scat." Just stop.
World Muisc, as you narrowly define it, is not "uniformly garbage" you arrogant fuckwit. I'll take Malian Taureg rockers Tinariwen over almost any current American or Brit guitar band any day of the week. I'll take Colombian alternative duo Aterciopelados over any of their Anglo counterparts hands down. Pound for pound, Manu Chao rocks harder than any cornfed American rockers currently on the charts. As our own pop becomes more and more uniform and less and less interesting, it looks like the REAL alternative music is being made elsewhere - and you need to get your head out of your ass.
Duke Ellington said it best: There are two types of music, good and bad. And if it SOUNDS good, it IS good.
And of course, it's mostly in the ear of the beholder.
"World Muisc, as you narrowly define it, is not "uniformly garbage" you arrogant fuckwit. I'll take Malian Taureg rockers Tinariwen over almost any current American or Brit guitar band any day of the week. I'll take Colombian alternative duo Aterciopelados over any of their Anglo counterparts hands down. Pound for pound, Manu Chao rocks harder than any cornfed American rockers currently on the charts. As our own pop becomes more and more uniform and less and less interesting, it looks like the REAL alternative music is being made elsewhere - and you need to get your head out of your ass"
My god, Anonymous, Eulogy was offering an olive branch to fans of non Western music! And you're STILL going all rabid over it!
Look, Putomayo is just evil. And it embodies the pretentious middlebrow foodie buffet mentality of SHALLOW world music fans--not ANY fan of music from around the world. Do you really think a Putomayo compilation compares to a full album of Manu Chao or Caetano Valoso?
You're creating a false conflict between those who like your average indie rock and those who like, for lack of a better term, international music. IT'S POSSIBLE TO APPRECIATE ALL KINDS OF MUSIC AT THE SAME TIME.
This whole mentality that ANY countries' music is inherently more "real" than any others', is condescending and just plain wrong. Especially when there's so much feedback that goes BOTH ways, creating new inspirations. You want an interesting comp? Try The Sexual Life of the Savages, on Soul Jazz: it chronicles a bunch of Brazilian bands and their own idiosyncratic take on the post punk sounds of Joy Division and ESG. Or the Indonesian prog rock of Shark Move. Or Flower Travellin' Band's "Satori".
None of this has much to do with Putomayo baby food.
And calling someone a "fuckwit" and demanding that they pull their head out of their ass? Out of line.
"And if it SOUNDS good, it IS good." That's really deep. I hope you don't mind that every uncurious listener of dreck from Pat Boone to Vengaboys to Bowling For Soup has essenentially copped that justification for being loyal to derivative blandities. It sounds good to my untrained ears, therefore I don't have to seek out a fuller perspective or more exciting options.
I really wanted to dig Reynolds' piece, having devoured his pro-rave screed Generation Ecstasy. I got a couple cheap laughs at cloistered indie kids and clumsy Britkissers, but as others have noted, it's disheartening to see Reynolds join Sasha Frere-Jones' choir of "Needs More Black Music". It's certainly one thing to say AR Kane is a great band, it's entirely another to say Curve isn't a great band because they don't sond like AR Kane. Curve isn't a great band because whatever they did well, they didn't do enough of it.
Leaving that out, the central critique seems to be that Britpop was musically, largely boring. And I have to agree. The really interesting shit was being made up north, by Death in June and Nurse With Wound and Current 93 (all of which were unadhered to any ethnic influences, black, white or otherwise - and forget the unremembered 60s). Disco Inferno released some of the densest pop ever, filled with tape loops, found sound, and no desire to capture a zeitgeist. Happy Mondays I'll always feel loyalty toward, because Shaun Ryder was a lyrical shaman, and his crew did have a loopy affinity for the groove (when they went all-out house, results were mixed, but as a shambolic dance band they were titans).
But really, most American critiques of the scene are skewed. The NME put out a Britpop retrospecticus a few years back, and even its editors couldn't help but crow that they fostered the idea of a "Britpop" scene, and they loved every lager-swilling, "Three Lions"-singing, Damon-baiting minute of it. Britpop was the sound of a young nation waking up and getting dumb. It had its moments, but largely it was a time for foppish experiments and appeals to lad-dom. Like the mods, it was always about the scene, the energy, more than the music. And in that regard, the scene didn't need Bo Diddley riffs or Sun Ra loopiness to enliven it.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
