My thoughts on music books.

This is an essay I've been thinking about writing for a long time. A common complaint I've read about many music books is that all the information therein is readily accessible on the internet. Even if that is true, I think that a few things justify a book. First of all, people are incredibly lazy. It takes a certain person to do more than a cursory search. A very curious person. A slightly deranged person. (Hey, I'm describing myself here.) Second, nothing on the internet feeeeeels permanent, from an academic standpoint. Unless, it's on one of those really legit websites and not a dodgy fansite. Fansites are great for compiling trivia, but they're not always kept up well, or even updated all that often. Third, music journalism is not just about compiling facts, it's also about interpretation. As a journalist, or even a music journalist, one can try and place the subject in context, a factual framework. This is the important part. This is what separates hobbyists from the professionals - the fact collectors from those who do something with those facts. Fourth, a good writer presents information in a factual, yet readable way. Similarly, things which appear in print also have an air of credibility. You don't believe everything you read on the internet, do you?

So yes, the internet may make things a bit complicated for music journalism and music history, but it hardly makes music books obsolete.

Shared experiences on the 'net.

R Stevens of Diesel Sweeties fame was struck by the shared experience of watching the debate and twittering about it. He liked it so much that he organized a twitter event to relive that feeling. Yesterday at 8:00 EST many people listened to the original version of Thriller AS ONE. And twittered about it. Future events are in the works. Pixies?

An ill-written rant.

The economy. Ugh. I don't even want to mention it. But as we all tighten our belts, we can still enjoy new music - well, to borrow from NBC, it's not new but it's new to you. My solution is BUDGET VINYL and USED CDS. Not revolutionary by any means. It's just that I'm proud to say that I buy records for $.99. For a buck, it's hard to feel any buyer's remorse, even if the album sucks. Rach and I are the proud owners of The Lexicon of Love, Rumours, two Robert Palmer albums, and many more.

Not that I'm a vinyl freak by any stretch of the imagination. Basically, I grew up on Disney soundtracks and Engelbert Humperdink and The Beach Boys. I didn't really see the huge appeal of records.

The price of new vinyl? Totally cheeses me off. Rach and I were looking at the rock section and Playing the Angel costs almost $25. Give me a break, recording industry. Not to be nostalgic for a time I wasn't even alive, but the Smiths released Hatful of Hollow at an attractive price. THERE WAS A REASON FOR THIS. They wanted to move lots of units. And it worked. Imagine that.

Oh yeah, go to The Record Exchange to get cheap vinyl and be all cool and support independent record stores, if you're in Boise, that is.

Youtube surfing

Rachel and I were on a youtube kick and we first looked at literal "Head Over Heels", the followup to literal "Take On Me". Then we got to watching all the dorky Tears For Fears videos we could stand and then our thoughts naturally turned to Depeche Mode. Basically, I've watched all but a couple of the videos on this list. Twice. It takes four hours. That says a lot about my life.

But on to the thrust of the story. I found that the DM press conference from Oct. 6 was posted on youtube. (Part one of five here). What I learned: not much because I already know tons of DM trivia, but I did find out that I like Martin Gore's chuckle. And if I ever met him I'd just ask him to laugh. That says a lot about me? Also, they are quite funny, as one of the press mentioned. Dave Gahan even made a Sarah Palin reference. It didn't make a whole lotta sense, but A for effort, Dave!

Related link: Depeche Mode dot com, still under construction

SotD: "Androgynoel" by Federal Drugs Administration

I'm a big fan of Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt and all of those under the name The Mighty Boosh, so this song made me laugh and I felt in on the joke. Supposedly this song was inspired by a real life conversation. Someone actually said something along the lines of "I wish you were more like Noel Fielding." I quickly friended them on MySpace and that's when I found out that they post a new song each week! That's pretty great, don't you think? Their music is now available on itunes, as their page states.

SotD: "Money (That's What I Want)" by The Flying Lizards

Inspired by my current monetary situation. Enjoy!

Bits and Pieces

Is it sad that I get music news off MySpace? Well, I trawl so you don't have to.

Scott Matthew is working on his second solo album and Spencer Cobrin announced recently (ha! more like ages ago.) that he's in on that project. Yippy skippy. And as I still don't think his first album is available in the US I'm S.O.L. So I make do with what is posted on Matthew's and Cobrin's MySpace pages. (Related and none of my business: Gary Day totally left a comment on Spencer's MySpace! *Fangirl squee!*)

Depeche Mode dot com is under construction and the revamped site will be up and running "soon" to reflect the new album underway. There was a press conference in Berlin early Monday morning in the US that featured snippets of two new songs. YouTube videos were quickly taken down. The press conference was to confirm the new tour "Tour of the Universe" European dates (scroll a bit, there you go). No telling when they will announce the dates for the North American leg.

Moby and a friend made a video which he described as a punk version of Making the Band. I haven't watched it yet, oops.

I think that the UK release of Robots in Disguise single "The Tears" was today. Do they even have US distribution? Somehow I don't think so. Video

The US release of The Streets' new album Everything Is Borrowed was Tuesday. I haven't listened to this yet, but expect some commentary from me soon.

Adam Ant totally won an award from Q Magazine and jokingly mentioned that Coldplay was fully biting his style, dudes.(more on Family of Noise

MySpace tells me that The Slants are looking for a new drummer.

SotD: "One Step Beyond" by Madness

So I was reading Wil Wheaton's blog (like I do) and he made a Madness reference. ("Rachel! You don't know "One Step Beyond"?! CLICK IT.") And that is all the motivation I need to choose a SotD. Also, my friend Murphy already shared this song with me, like, a year ago.

Incidentally that entry marked the closest I've ever been to registering with his site. (BOOKS! YAYAYAYAY!) That is something that I'm resisting for whatever reason. Also, someone at Ada Community Library must be a fan because they have his first two books which we then requested. My geekiness, let me show you it.

Rock and Roll Poetry

I was sitting in English class my junior year when the class was given an assignment. Write a pantoum. My friend and I basically took inspiration from the concert we had been to earlier in that school year. (September 5, 2002 - oh my gosh, how do I remember this?) The concert was Incubus with 30 Seconds To Mars as the opening band. Well, amidst all the items thrown on stage someone gave Incubus a "perfectly good right shoe" as Brandon Boyd announced.

This concert also marks the only time we made t-shirts in an effort to prove what devoted fans we were. My sister Rachel regrets this as it definitely proves how sad we are. No matter! On to the poetry!

The Rock Star
by Krystal Sorrell and Sarah Beukelman

The fans screamed
We exchanged a glance
Someone threw a bra
Someone threw a shoe

We exchanged a glance
The opening chords rang
Someone threw a shoe
The light caught his eye

The opening chords rang
He smiled at us
The light caught his eye
He began to sing

He smiled at us
Someone threw a bra
He began to sing
The fans screamed

SotD: "Freeze Frame" by J. Geils Band

Paul Justman, "People love parachutes."

Rachel guessed that was what motivated the imagery of this video.

Who knows? It's still a pretty good song.

Related link:
J. Geils Band on wikipedia

SotD: Multiple by Mustard Plug

So I was having a normal conversation when Mustard Plug came up out of nowhere. Now ever since I read Rip It Up by Simon Reynolds which is an examination of post-punk, I've been interested in ska but I haven't done much yet to educate myself. I only know a little bit about Mustard Plug, my knowledge consisting of "We Want The Mustard" because a friend included it on a mix CD for my sister and me. Then my freshman year of college I downloaded a random bunch of songs, but I subsequently deleted them off my hard drive to make room for stuff I liked a little bit better. BUT I can say that these guys are quality.

"Beer Song"
"Mr. Smiley"
"Thigh High Nylons"

Related links:
Mustard Plug's official website
Mustard Plug on Wikipedia

On College Radio

My sister and I had an internet radio show back in college. We certainly weren't a cultural force on campus because the station had no solid listener base, but I had fun. This brings me to something that bothers me about myself. I can't stand the sound of female radio DJs. I am totally a feminist you guys! There's just something that sounds repellent as women try to lower their voices to sound smoother. (And less feminine?) I think I read somewhere that female voices are harder to understand because their voices are higher. My favorite singers are baritone voices - maybe because they are easy on the ear. The thing is I don't think I have this same issue with women who work on radio ads. They seem to talk in their natural tones.

All this is just me rambling on about something about which I know little. I miss my radio show and I think I could be a DJ but I don't have any real training in broadcast techniques. I also lack any control over my voice. I failed utterly to modulate my voice consistently.

This is kind of related to my reading material. In the past fortnight I've read The Sex Revolts by Joy Press and Simon Reynolds as well as She Bop by Lucy O'Brien. The former decoded gender in rock and roll and the latter was a straightforward look at women's participation in the music industry. Reading both filled in the picture for me and forced me to look at the gender breakdown of the music I listen to. From a cursory glance at how many "chick bands" I listen to, the answer is few. Most of what I listen to his masculine even if it isn't cock rock. Does this make me a poor feminist? Well, no, that's stupid of my inner voice and you to even ask that. It just means I'm under educated and radio isn't exactly the way to find music made by women. Women also excel in musical genres that are not radio-friendly. It can be difficult to find good experimental stuff.

Of course that's where word of mouth can become so crucial. I have a friend who I go to when I want to talk music. She owns tons more than I do and she was interested in music that was close enough to music I listened to but different enough that it was fresh. And that's ultimately where women (and anyone, of course) find new music that's not on heavy rotation on MTV. (For all the videos that they play anymore, RIGHT?!) Historically we can look at the Riot Grrl movement for example. All the "grrls" created female networks that highlighted female acts among other things.

Now that this blog post has mutated horribly, I'll end it now.

Hi kids,

I'm back from not having any internet and boy am I glad.

I caught a show last Sunday. Mindless Self Indulgence at the Knitting Factory. I was slightly disappointed in my experience. Let's get started with the opening bands.

DEARESTAZAZEL: Oh my word, what? Okay this group was totally cheesy and slightly desperate? If they were trying to be ironic I missed the joke. They were just okay musically. The drummer took his shirt off, the guitarist stuck his tongue out and I was not impressed. The only one I could relate to was the bassist, who at times had a goofy grin on his face as if he couldn't believe he was actually on tour. That was the only genuine moment in their set.

INNERPARTYSYSTEM: All right, these guys are slightly better, but there was still something severely lacking in this outfit. They had synths, which I like on a basic level. Unfortunately they had a conventional sound, complete with fairly obvious lyrics when it came to the love song. (I didn't really understand the other songs.) During the love song the singer caressed his mike stand in a really disturbing manner. Rachel and I noticed an album review in Spin and it kind of summed things up well by giving the album 2 1/2 stars. There is a bit of promise in their set, but they fall just a bit short.

MINDLESS SELF INDULGENCE (you probably thought I just didn't know how to use the spacebar, but the other bands' names are really all just one word): These people know how to put on a show. Jimmy does audience interaction well and everyone knows it. I got a pat on the head by Jimmy during one point and I think a sibilant sound meant that I got a bit of spit on me. That's all well and good, but this was actually way less satisfying than the show I caught two years ago. For one thing, there was no encore. Encores are practically a given, but we were told to clear the floor. Dang. Last show, I got a dollar bill signed and Jimmy wrote Urine on my arm. (I have a picture of it somewhere...) A drunk friend of mine also grabbed my hand and made me squeeze Jimmy's ass but that's neither here nor there. I didn't hang around but I don't think they were giving out autographs. So all in all, none of the band's blew me away.

OH and Jason Mraz sold out. Who knew that would happen? NOT ME. So shed a tear for me.