Music Criticism Crisis

I recently read an essay by David Hajdu, a music critic for The New Republic and an associate professor at Columbia's graduate journalism school.

The essay was not specific to music, but rather to arts criticism. A critique of criticism of sorts, but also a speculation of where arts criticism may be headed. You can read it here, but here is one highlight:

Quoting an anonymous critic: "The world of music writing is becoming a lot like high school. Writers do not write about music so much anymore. Their job is to look cool and to align themselves with the right albums at the right time so that they're not belittled or kicked out of the cool club. I think that has really become a problem. People are afraid. There's this fear that you could hurt your career or your image if you go out on a limb and say, 'I don't like The Hold Steady or Arcade Fire.' So, for various reasons, people have decided to focus on the positive and be of good service to the readers."

Unnerving. But it seems about right, doesn't it? Of course one of the most popular sources of music criticism these days is Pitchfork, known for scathing remarks and dolling out few album reviews that score above a 7. And according to an article in Slate magazine, the site is provoking on purpose. Check it out here.

Going by Hajdu's rubric though, it doesn't seem like Pitchfork provides criticism any more real than these others. They are simply creating a new cool club.

In other news, I have a new favorite Brazilian artist (a favorite among many): Marcio Local

His new album Marcio Local Says Don Day Don Dree Don Don is worth a listen just for the opportunity to say the title. But if you need another reason,

He who doesn't like samba isn't a good guy.

He's rotten in the head or sick in the feet.

-Dorival Caymmi

A to Z

Still digging out from a hard drive crash that took 40% of my working music library with it. So you gotta sit still for the predictable preaching: music liberated from hard media can be ephemeral. Defrag. Back up. Backup your backup. That is all. See you next week.

Eh? More? Really? Sheesh, what does it take to earn that six-pack of Yoo-Hoo around here? Okay, but my head is spinning like a cat in a tumble dryer.

A recent post by Mr. Figurehead (with whom I hope to someday have a close enough working relationship to refer to by his first name) brought a smile of deep satisfaction. The subject was the demise of 'genre' and the resultant liberating effect. And yes, Waterloo in Austin was ahead of the curve. I never talked to the shop's owner about that philosophy, but it always seemed like a practical matter: fewer time-wasting backroom arguments about where to file an artist.

Dance music, for instance, was always susceptible to micro-categorizing, which seemed to be done more with the record store section owner in mind than the non-DJ customer. Here's a bit of a hoot: have a look at this All Music page that lists known Electronica sub-categories.

This reporter once spent a bit of time on an Americana advisory board that convened in Nashville. The board's charter was to heighten awareness of this 'genre.' The whole time, it was never clear what 'Americana' actually was. In general, it seemed to comprise roots music with twang but without Billy Sherill strings. Or something like that. Best I could figure, the prevailing attitude was that Americana is to country what alternative is to rock.

Still, even as 'genre' fades, more are invented. Their propagation seems mostly intended as placeholders for reviewers who can't bear to write one more 'if you like Explosions in the Sky, you should try If These Trees Could Talk.'

'Post rock.' Still don't have that one figured out. Oh, the sound falls within the grouping, generally, but the origins and meaning of the term are a mystery. 'Post-punk.' Eh? I'm still grappling with 'emo,' although it does come in handy as a way of avoiding over-wrought vocalists.

And yet...and yet...I do seek out certain placeholders myself. Two, in particular, that never fail to grab my attention are the related 'shoegaze' and 'dream pop.' The former had its heyday in the first half of the 90s. The latter seems an acceptable way of referencing its louder predecessor. (Oh, yes. Loud. Saw Curve at the I-Beam in SF in '92 and am still awaiting the resultant tinnitus).

'Dream pop' seems to have these characteristics in common: a simple melody with a reliable hook, gauzy vocals (often with a Brian Wilson influence), and a widescreen arrangement. And it is likely that every dream popper listened carefully to My Bloody Valentine.

My favorite practitioner is a Rhode Island band called The Brother Kite. Coming up we have a song from their 2006 release, 'Waiting For the Time To Be Right.' Next is Engineers out of London, who have a new album releasing next month. The track below, 'Come in Out of the Rain,' is from their eponymous 2005 release. And finally, Maps, a 'band' comprising of an English gentleman named James Chapman. His sound falls more on the electropop end of the dream pop spectrum...and I'm going to stop here before I do even more to prove Mr. Figurehead's point.







Fave recent Onion headline: Sixty-Year-Old Hippie Pitied by Forty-Year-Old Punk.' Cheers.

Old Guitar Tourturers Never Die..

...they just have Fender create customized guitars to their specs!

No really, I read the other day that this being the 30th year since Sonic Youth started gigging, Fender is creating a custom Thurston Moore guitar and a Lee Ronaldo version, all tricked out to their specs. Ignoring the irony of custom Fenders for guys who started their career abusing pawn shop guitars with screwdrivers on stage, reading this just took me back.

A long way back, say about 20 some years ago when I thought Sonic Youth's Bad Moon Rising was the coolest album in the world. It was back in that era discussed in the blog recently when people bought music based on cover art. Then it was so exciting to get home from Iowa City or Minneapolis or wherever we'd road tripped to a big record store and see what it actually sounded like.

Once of my housemates at the time was a little punk alterna-guy and our other three were very, very mainstream. After one play of Bad Moon Rising up in my attic bedroom, the cool housemate and I looked and each other and went "Whoa!!" or something similar. The other housemates yelled up from downstairs "Who's being killed up there? What the hell our you two listening to?"

You need to understand, even though we were in a band together, a band that covered a Sonic Youth song and a Joy Division song, it wasn't a very good band, and the punk scene in Cedar Falls, Iowa wasn't much of a scene.

The punks from Iowa City were just so much cooler. They had bigger hair, sharper jewlery, more holes in their clothes, the names of bands we'd never heard of spray painted across their t-shirts and actual Doctor Martens, back when they were really orthopedic looking. Cedar Falls punks just had army boots.

They also had their underground shows at a place called "the Church" a funky old church sans pews that could be rented really cheaply. We had our shows at Dean's Parkade Lounge, a ratty bar downtown that had a long room on the side where people had wedding dances.

So when I saw one of the Iowa City punks had on an actual store-bought Sonic Youth t-shirt I had to ask. They had played at "the church" a few months ago. She described it as "A religious experience."

The next time they came through the Midwest, it was at First Avenue so a carload of us roadtripped up after classes. Of course we got there at 8:00 and the show didn't start for hours. The thrill of the night was when Kim Gordon walked past our table with her bags of shopping in downtown Mpls. The place was empty, Sonic Youth seemed grumpy about that and the show wasn't really that good. I wasn't really into their next album, Evol, and never really into Sonic Youth after that, although of course the rest of the world was, soon enough.

And that Iowa City punks vs. Cedar Falls punks thing? I can't think of any of the Iowa City bands of the mid-1980's who ever made it very far. From Cedar Falls, of course, came the mighty House of Large Sizes, who definitely played around for over a decade. They still do a few reunion shows every year. (Remember, OK, this was all pre-Slipknot, and they were from Des Moines, anyway.) No custom Fenders for Dave and Barb of HOLS, but I did run into them last summer in Cedar Falls. Raising a son, living out in the country, growing vegetables and running their vintage shop.

Sounds just about right to this old Iowa punk.

THE CEDAR OUTDOORS begins this week!!!

This Thursday, July 2nd is the first Cedar Outdoors concert on our lovely outdoor patio. The Cedar will feature 9 concerts every Thursday in July and August. The event is free and open to the public of all ages. The night begins at 6pm and ends at 10pm with music starting at 7pm. Each week we will feature a different local beer or wine on special.

Kicking off the series will be Twin Cities septet, THE POOR NOBODYS.
The 'Pornos' as the band is often referred (amazing, I know) has released their debut record that is heavy on ensemble playing. Mandolin, Wurlitzer, violin, guitars, bass, percussion, accordion and vocals all shine separately but still support each other. What I like about the group the most is the dark side to their compositions. The music is best described as 'old world' but still has modern touches with occasional distorted electric guitar. Below is a clip of a recent performance at the 331 Club in Minneapolis.

We'll see you on the patio. Live outdoor music on the West Bank lives!

Fountains of Wayne Acoustic show

This is my first post to the blog, blush, blush. I'm trying to be witty when actually I AM PISSED OFF (which isn't pretty, ask Drew Miller, then buy him a beer and he'll tell you stories). What am I angry about? That after living in Minneapolis for 12 years, I move back to Massachusetts (to breed little Red Sox fans) and *then* there are rock/pop shows at the Cedar I would give my eye teeth for. ARGGGGH! It really is torture to see that Fountains of Wayne will be doing an acoustic gig, and if you are free, and not 2000 miles away you MUST go. If only to torture me about it afterward (I really am easy to tease, and most people find it amusing).



Okay, FOW -- come on these guys are Music Heads for Music Heads. Their albums are like scrapbooks of all the music they love and music fans love too. They digest every snap, crackle & pop of pop music and throw it into their own mix. And much like the best of smart pop, IMHO, Elvis Costello, their lyrics are dark, smart and funny. And Jon Auer of the Posies -- I mean could anyone get us closer to a Chris Bell/Big Star reincarnation?



Okay, that's it from Miss Hell, as I have to confiscate the Lego catapult from my children in the tub. Tell me all about the shows, please.

The End of World Music

World Music began on June 29, 1987. That is to say, the term "world music" was codified that day by a group of interested music professionals who gathered in London to try to solve the problem of how to better market a certain kind of music that had previous to then been called a number of different things ("Ethnic Music," "International Music," "World Beat," etc.). The primary motivating factor was to enable record stores to have a single, more palatable genre for the creation of a section in stores, with properly coded bin cards and organization, to compete on a more level playing field with "Rock & Pop," "Jazz," "Urban," "Children's," etc. etc.

(At this moment I would like to send kudos to the magnificent and truly independent record store Waterloo Records in Austin, TX, one of the only record retailers in the U.S. that never bought into the segregation of musical genres, and always stocked their general catalog alphabetically by artist, from A to Z. As a music enthusiast and retail customer, I always found this to be profoundly in synch with the real universe).

With the decline (and some feel inevitable demise) of record retail, and certainly the elimination of any clout that sector now has in the driving force of marketing music, it is becoming apparent that the entire structure of music genres is quickly becoming obsolete. This is actually a great, liberating development. Now the internet is the driving force of marketing music, so the artist's name is the only relevant category (hmmm... kind of like shopping at Waterloo, isn't it?). Isn't that really the way it should be? Shouldn't the only real category for Paul Simon's music be "Paul Simon?"

In the case of World Music, while originally designed in 1987 to liberate and modernize a genre that most people had come to associate with rather staid field recordings by old white guys of non-white (or at least non-western) "traditional" music in far off parts of the world...



...some would say that the creation of the "World Music" genre mostly made it marketable, even hip, for white musicians to take such sounds and techniques, and just make it more accessible to a mostly-white, more mainstream audience...



The marketing problem for something like this, even with the "World Music" identification, and creation of a section in every Tower Records (or wherever) to better place and sell this stuff, is that it was always too much of a challenge to find the actual CDs in record stores. Would this be (properly) filed under "Africa" in the World Music section? Would they go so far as to have a further sub-section for Cameroon? Did you need to remember that it was pygmie mysic from Cameroon? Because one thing was almost certain, unless you were going to be shopping at Waterloo, remembering the band's name, Baka Beyond, was definitely not guaranteed to help you find their CD, whether the store had it in stock or not!

Now, of course, just type the artist's name into Google, and the chances are extremely high that you can find lots of information, music and video samples of the artists work, and links to purchasing a CD or music downloads.

This means that now we really don't need to worry about whether something like this is "World Music" or not:



And with that I proudly announce that this band, BLK JKS from South Africa, will kick off the inaugural Global Roots Festival, on September 24, 2009 at The Cedar. This show is being co-presented by our friends at Walker Art Center.

Perhaps if there's one thing I'd like to accomplish with this and the other artists planned for the Global Roots Festival, it's to move folks away from the idea of "World Music" as a category with borders. Our full roster for the festival will follow in my blog next week.

And you know what the best thing is about the end of the "World Music" genre? There will be no meeting of "interested music professionals" to decide what comes next. Actual music consumers have already determined that.

Open letter from The Cedar’s air conditioner

Hello, I’m The Cedar’s air conditioner. You probably haven’t seen a lot of me, but there’s a reason for that. I’ve been trying in vain to keep this building cool, but the demands of 2009 are much greater than those of the 40s. Everyone complains about the poor polar bears being affected by global warming, but it’s affecting me too.

I have a lot to be proud of. I’ve been cooling this building since before some of you were born. Back then it was a movie theater, you know.

In my old age, I’m no longer able to function properly when temperatures reach the 80s and 90s. When it gets to be that hot, everyone should be at the beach anyway! The Cedar staff keeps me around for my good looks, though. You youngsters have never seen such a find piece of machinery.

Anyway, when I face the facts I know that my time at The Cedar is running out. I am 60 years old after all. I’m comfortable retiring early. This means, however, that The Cedar will be looking for my replacement. Finding an appliance of this caliber is not going to be cheap. These are hard vents to fill.

Kids these days are so reliant on air conditioning, or AC as they call it, and we want to keep you cool at The Cedar, even in the summertime. Your support will help fill the void left in my absence. They tell me you can even donate on the World Wide Web at www.thecedar.org/donate although I’m not quite sure what that is.

Thank you for your time,

Swampy C.