The Needle Drop
June 23, 2010 7:50 AM Subscribe
The Needle Drop with Anthony Fantano (self-described as "the internet's busiest music nerd") featuring new music from The Books - “A Cold Freezin’ Night” , Laurie Anderson -- stream Laurie's new album, Homeland, here -- Ariel Pink and lots more. Youtube channel.
I like the video reviews even though his manner is slightly affected and his verbiage a tad pretentious.
On the whole we need more in-depth and thoughtful music writing, even in video form. Far too many music blogs are just converted (or unconverted!) press releases or unthinking snark. Especially refreshing on the Janelle Monae review where he separates out any discussion of hype or marketing from his examination of the actual music. Not sure I would like getting a beer with this guy but I'm glad he exists.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:19 AM on June 23, 2010
On the whole we need more in-depth and thoughtful music writing, even in video form. Far too many music blogs are just converted (or unconverted!) press releases or unthinking snark. Especially refreshing on the Janelle Monae review where he separates out any discussion of hype or marketing from his examination of the actual music. Not sure I would like getting a beer with this guy but I'm glad he exists.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:19 AM on June 23, 2010
I very often choose samples based upon how awesome they sound.
posted by mintcake! at 8:51 AM on June 23, 2010
posted by mintcake! at 8:51 AM on June 23, 2010
and I expect her to respect the world's vocal traditions, largely by not using them as background samples to spice up her own pieces.
when it comes to communication via pure sound, cool trumps correct every day in my little corner of the universe.
posted by philip-random at 8:57 AM on June 23, 2010
when it comes to communication via pure sound, cool trumps correct every day in my little corner of the universe.
posted by philip-random at 8:57 AM on June 23, 2010
cool trumps correct every day in my little corner of the universe.
That's what the hipsters wearing Aboriginal headresses think, too.
posted by Theta States at 11:55 AM on June 23, 2010
That's what the hipsters wearing Aboriginal headresses think, too.
posted by Theta States at 11:55 AM on June 23, 2010
when it comes to communication via pure sound…
When it comes to communication via pure sound, you should recall that Laurie Anderson is a performance artist who trades on wordplay and connotations rather than musicality. Most of her recorded pieces make the listener reexamine the banality of daily life. So sticking in a sample of Central Asian folksong, for absolutely no reason other than "it sounds cool," is contrary to what the rest of the album is trying to achieve.
However, having listened to the album, I haven't noticed much, if any, of the pernicious and omnipresent sound of throat singing.
Incidentally, those who are interested in learning a little bit more, but not too much more, about Tuva through the eyes of American visitors should watch Genghis Blues, a gently entertaining documentary about a blues artist who travels to Tuva to compete in a biennial throat-singing competition held there.
posted by Nomyte at 1:54 PM on June 23, 2010
When it comes to communication via pure sound, you should recall that Laurie Anderson is a performance artist who trades on wordplay and connotations rather than musicality. Most of her recorded pieces make the listener reexamine the banality of daily life. So sticking in a sample of Central Asian folksong, for absolutely no reason other than "it sounds cool," is contrary to what the rest of the album is trying to achieve.
However, having listened to the album, I haven't noticed much, if any, of the pernicious and omnipresent sound of throat singing.
Incidentally, those who are interested in learning a little bit more, but not too much more, about Tuva through the eyes of American visitors should watch Genghis Blues, a gently entertaining documentary about a blues artist who travels to Tuva to compete in a biennial throat-singing competition held there.
posted by Nomyte at 1:54 PM on June 23, 2010
cool trumps correct every day in my little corner of the universe.
That's what the hipsters wearing Aboriginal headresses think, too.
Theta States, thanks for dropping a phrase from my sentence and thus mis-representing my position.
Or maybe, I should just put it this way:
That's what ... Aboriginal[s] ... think, too.
posted by philip-random at 3:04 PM on June 23, 2010
That's what the hipsters wearing Aboriginal headresses think, too.
Theta States, thanks for dropping a phrase from my sentence and thus mis-representing my position.
Or maybe, I should just put it this way:
That's what ... Aboriginal[s] ... think, too.
posted by philip-random at 3:04 PM on June 23, 2010
Theta States, thanks for dropping a phrase from my sentence and thus mis-representing my position.
when it comes to communication via pure sound, cool trumps correct every day in my little corner of the universe.
That's what the hipsters wearing Aboriginal headresses think, too.
There, fixed that for you. Your whole sentence doesn't change the point.
And this is not a slight at Laurie Anderson, but just on your statement. I don't see how we can just drop cultural context because we're talking about sounds.
posted by Theta States at 6:13 AM on June 24, 2010
when it comes to communication via pure sound, cool trumps correct every day in my little corner of the universe.
That's what the hipsters wearing Aboriginal headresses think, too.
There, fixed that for you. Your whole sentence doesn't change the point.
And this is not a slight at Laurie Anderson, but just on your statement. I don't see how we can just drop cultural context because we're talking about sounds.
posted by Theta States at 6:13 AM on June 24, 2010
... and ummm, I do see that we can just drop cultural context when dealing with sound, simply because so much of what's great about music's evolution over the past say thirty years has been the wholesale, sometimes brilliant, sometimes reckless, sometimes brilliantly reckless mixing and mashing of all manner of contexts (cultural, theoretical, methodological, you name it).
Am I bored to death by someone taking a "native" chant and dropping it over a sampled beat and calling it exotic? Yes. Am I continually blown away by the strange and beautiful and sometimes EXTREME ways that an artist with a good ear can use weird and wonderful sounds (who cares where they came from) to enrich his/her work ? HELL YES.
So I'll always choose to suffer the former to guarantee I'll occasionally get the latter, because that's the stuff that expands my consciousness, makes the world both larger and smaller at the same time, both stranger and more hopeful ... because there's something forever fascinating and unifying about the way different musics can find a way to merge with one another.
posted by philip-random at 7:06 AM on June 24, 2010
Am I bored to death by someone taking a "native" chant and dropping it over a sampled beat and calling it exotic? Yes. Am I continually blown away by the strange and beautiful and sometimes EXTREME ways that an artist with a good ear can use weird and wonderful sounds (who cares where they came from) to enrich his/her work ? HELL YES.
So I'll always choose to suffer the former to guarantee I'll occasionally get the latter, because that's the stuff that expands my consciousness, makes the world both larger and smaller at the same time, both stranger and more hopeful ... because there's something forever fascinating and unifying about the way different musics can find a way to merge with one another.
posted by philip-random at 7:06 AM on June 24, 2010
I too thoroughly enjoy cross-polination of musical traditions. But cultural analysis should never be dropped for fear of stifling that same cross-polination.
The music and the cultural theory evolve simultaneously, hand in hand.
I think to say "cool trumps correct" hand-waves very important issues we can look at (like sticking chants on top of drum loops, like history of white people and hiphop, like the commodification of queer and latino cultures, like New York house producers creating "African House" by sampling The Lion King, etc etc).
I still want people to do what they do, but it's totally fair to look at the cultural contexts if the artist didn't bother to. Art doesn't get a free pass from analysis just because it's art, it invites that analysis.
posted by Theta States at 7:19 AM on June 24, 2010
The music and the cultural theory evolve simultaneously, hand in hand.
I think to say "cool trumps correct" hand-waves very important issues we can look at (like sticking chants on top of drum loops, like history of white people and hiphop, like the commodification of queer and latino cultures, like New York house producers creating "African House" by sampling The Lion King, etc etc).
I still want people to do what they do, but it's totally fair to look at the cultural contexts if the artist didn't bother to. Art doesn't get a free pass from analysis just because it's art, it invites that analysis.
posted by Theta States at 7:19 AM on June 24, 2010
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Why? I respect Laurie Anderson's storytelling and music-making, and I expect her to respect the world's vocal traditions, largely by not using them as background samples to spice up her own pieces.
posted by Nomyte at 8:16 AM on June 23, 2010