Entry tags:
Stuff about music, and music
Including the first-ever time a cover has made me uncomfortable. You've been warned.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/magazine/06GirlWalk-t.html?_r=3
Last week I pointed to Girlwalk the attempt to make an album-length free dance video. Unbeknownst to me, the New York Times found it a week earlier. Paul Tough is more taken with the dancer than I am, but it's still a cool review.
http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Skull_Tape/track/Whip_My_Hair_Drowning_In_BloodWillow_Smith_Cover
I've been holding onto this one for a while. It's a good tune, but it makes me squirm. I realize that - at the core - mash-up is appropriation. It's the taking of something, and use of it in another context. Lots of artists are very much into and encouraging of remixes and mash-ups; others are vehemently opposed. What we have here is an appropriation that makes me twitch. Skull Tape is covering/remixing Willow Smith's "Whip My Hair." Let me put it another way: an adult white man is appropriating the music of a ten-year-old black girl. Can you see why I might get a little skeeved? It's also, frankly, an odd transposition. Black hair, particularly black womens' hair, has a political charge that caucasian hair lacks. Hell, nobody thinks twice about long-haired rockers. Head-bang much? So who cares if a white guy is singing about whipping his hair around?
On the one hand, to be covered is to be a real musician; you don't cover songs by nobodies. On another hand, Willow Smith is not your average child - not even your average child musician. She may be a black girl, but she's no more the typical black girl than Bill Cosby is the typical black middle-aged man. On the Nth hand (I've lost track of hands here) white musicians have been ripping off black artists for, approximately, ever. And frankly, so have black musicians. Dozens of rappers and hip-hoppers got their starts taking riffs or even whole tracks from Motown and funk artists who went uncredited for far too long. None of this makes it any easier to sort out how I feel about this particular track, but maybe writing some of it out will help me, or help you.
http://dorothysurrenders.blogspot.com/2011/03/pitch-imperfect.html
http://vimeo.com/18729177
I'm forever indebted to MizA for pointing me at Dorothy Surrenders, a blog by a lesbian, mostly for people who like looking at pretty women. Her tag line is "Why let the boys have all the fun?" and she's a major pop-culture sponge. Occasionally, though, she dips into serious territory. For example, I got my pointer to Rebecca Drysdale's awesome "It Gets Better" video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTQNwMxqM3E&feature=player_embedded) from Dorothy.
In particular, she shares my serious dislike of the overuse of Autotune both to make mediocre singers sound passable, and most horribly to mangle the output of singers who have actual great voices. My mini-rant about Clare Maguire, for example. Here, Snarker points out something I've tried to show in the videos I link to - if you can catch a live performance of someone you can get a much better idea of what they really sound like. The Vimeo of Jessie J that she links to is raw and damn, that girl can sing. As much as I like modern electronic music, with its digital wizardry, you need talent in there somewhere or you get garbage in, garbage out.
OK, enough with the stuff about music. Here are some things you can just listen to...
http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Sub_Swara/track/Speak_My_Language_feat_Dead_Prez
It's been too long since I heard some relatively pure American drum thunder. If you've known me for long enough you'll remember how much I loved Concussion Ensemble. Sub Swara (http://subswara.com/) remind me a little of that, though it has way more electronica and modern influences. No vocals, no pretense at a verse and chorus structure - just serious bass thunder. And then you get some straight-up rap that I'm sure won't be to most of your tastes but that's OK, too.
http://audioporncentral.com/2011/03/illegal-sunday-smash-r-u-gonna-be-my-t-v.html
Smash, a UK masher, has taken one of the classic bits of a classic movie (Brad and Janet's first scene with Frank in "Rocky Horror") and put it over the classic rocking of Jet. This one is pure fun.
http://audioporncentral.com/2011/03/jamie-woon-lady-luck-the-video.html
Jamie Woon is finally going to put out an album, yay! I wasn't particularly impressed with his previous single but this one is much better. It's got a high snappy energy that makes me think of some of the better male crooners of the 1950s (Daddy-o!) that mixes extremely well with his silky vocals. It's a great contrast/complement to "Night Moves" and makes me think he won't just be a one-hit wonder.
http://audioporncentral.com/2011/03/she-wants-revenge-take-the-world.html
She Wants Revenge (http://www.shewantsrevenge.com/) haven't had a new album in over three years, and their dark energy has been sorely missed. This isn't really new music - it's a remix EP - but it's awesome. It's got some of the best elements of goth mixed with electronica and, frankly, raw sexiness. Yum. Now if they'd just get on with making some real new music...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/magazine/06GirlWalk-t.html?_r=3
Last week I pointed to Girlwalk the attempt to make an album-length free dance video. Unbeknownst to me, the New York Times found it a week earlier. Paul Tough is more taken with the dancer than I am, but it's still a cool review.
http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Skull_Tape/track/Whip_My_Hair_Drowning_In_BloodWillow_Smith_Cover
I've been holding onto this one for a while. It's a good tune, but it makes me squirm. I realize that - at the core - mash-up is appropriation. It's the taking of something, and use of it in another context. Lots of artists are very much into and encouraging of remixes and mash-ups; others are vehemently opposed. What we have here is an appropriation that makes me twitch. Skull Tape is covering/remixing Willow Smith's "Whip My Hair." Let me put it another way: an adult white man is appropriating the music of a ten-year-old black girl. Can you see why I might get a little skeeved? It's also, frankly, an odd transposition. Black hair, particularly black womens' hair, has a political charge that caucasian hair lacks. Hell, nobody thinks twice about long-haired rockers. Head-bang much? So who cares if a white guy is singing about whipping his hair around?
On the one hand, to be covered is to be a real musician; you don't cover songs by nobodies. On another hand, Willow Smith is not your average child - not even your average child musician. She may be a black girl, but she's no more the typical black girl than Bill Cosby is the typical black middle-aged man. On the Nth hand (I've lost track of hands here) white musicians have been ripping off black artists for, approximately, ever. And frankly, so have black musicians. Dozens of rappers and hip-hoppers got their starts taking riffs or even whole tracks from Motown and funk artists who went uncredited for far too long. None of this makes it any easier to sort out how I feel about this particular track, but maybe writing some of it out will help me, or help you.
http://dorothysurrenders.blogspot.com/2011/03/pitch-imperfect.html
http://vimeo.com/18729177
I'm forever indebted to MizA for pointing me at Dorothy Surrenders, a blog by a lesbian, mostly for people who like looking at pretty women. Her tag line is "Why let the boys have all the fun?" and she's a major pop-culture sponge. Occasionally, though, she dips into serious territory. For example, I got my pointer to Rebecca Drysdale's awesome "It Gets Better" video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTQNwMxqM3E&feature=player_embedded) from Dorothy.
In particular, she shares my serious dislike of the overuse of Autotune both to make mediocre singers sound passable, and most horribly to mangle the output of singers who have actual great voices. My mini-rant about Clare Maguire, for example. Here, Snarker points out something I've tried to show in the videos I link to - if you can catch a live performance of someone you can get a much better idea of what they really sound like. The Vimeo of Jessie J that she links to is raw and damn, that girl can sing. As much as I like modern electronic music, with its digital wizardry, you need talent in there somewhere or you get garbage in, garbage out.
OK, enough with the stuff about music. Here are some things you can just listen to...
http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Sub_Swara/track/Speak_My_Language_feat_Dead_Prez
It's been too long since I heard some relatively pure American drum thunder. If you've known me for long enough you'll remember how much I loved Concussion Ensemble. Sub Swara (http://subswara.com/) remind me a little of that, though it has way more electronica and modern influences. No vocals, no pretense at a verse and chorus structure - just serious bass thunder. And then you get some straight-up rap that I'm sure won't be to most of your tastes but that's OK, too.
http://audioporncentral.com/2011/03/illegal-sunday-smash-r-u-gonna-be-my-t-v.html
Smash, a UK masher, has taken one of the classic bits of a classic movie (Brad and Janet's first scene with Frank in "Rocky Horror") and put it over the classic rocking of Jet. This one is pure fun.
http://audioporncentral.com/2011/03/jamie-woon-lady-luck-the-video.html
Jamie Woon is finally going to put out an album, yay! I wasn't particularly impressed with his previous single but this one is much better. It's got a high snappy energy that makes me think of some of the better male crooners of the 1950s (Daddy-o!) that mixes extremely well with his silky vocals. It's a great contrast/complement to "Night Moves" and makes me think he won't just be a one-hit wonder.
http://audioporncentral.com/2011/03/she-wants-revenge-take-the-world.html
She Wants Revenge (http://www.shewantsrevenge.com/) haven't had a new album in over three years, and their dark energy has been sorely missed. This isn't really new music - it's a remix EP - but it's awesome. It's got some of the best elements of goth mixed with electronica and, frankly, raw sexiness. Yum. Now if they'd just get on with making some real new music...