Monday, April 28, 2008

Some notes on racism

Reading the "new" Kurt Vonnegut book, Armageddon In Retrospect, a collection of unpublished essays and speeches and letters, and came across this gem from his last written speech, scheduled for a year ago yesterday, April 27, 2007 (not delivered because he fell and hit his head and died):

The most spiritually splendid American phenomenon of my lifetime is how African-American citizens have maintained their dignity and self-respect, despite their having been treated by white Americans, both in and out of government, and simply because of their skin color, as though they were contemptible and loathsome, and even diseased.


I have always admired Vonnegut as a model citizen and held his political persuasions as beacons, and this statement is a great example of why. With this in mind, Obama's proximity to the presidency became again surprising to me. I am not surprised that America is seemingly now ready to let a black man lead the country, but that a black man would even want to be the leader of the country responsible for the things it has done. Not that that in any way gives him more claim to the presidency, but the weight of his desire should be acknowledged in context. As should Clinton's.

While we're on the topic, I feel I should point to this article by a guy named Tim Wise, a polemicist and anti-racist writer. It's about the Reverend Wright "controversy" and why he thinks it's unfortunate bullshit. It violently claims that Rev. Wright was mostly correct in saying the things for which he was condemned. And he blames white people's addiction to lies and historical misinformation for their inability to see the truth in what Wright said. It's worth a read, though it is a little vitriolic for my tastes and at times too general. He also neglects an awful culprit in the mess, the media. But this bit is worth pointing to:

So what can we say about a nation that values lies more than it loves truth? A place where adherence to sincerely believed and internalized fictions allows one to rise to the highest offices in the land and to earn the respect of millions, while a willingness to challenge those fictions and offer a more accurate counter-narrative earns one nothing but contempt, derision, indeed outright hatred? What we can say is that such a place is signing its own death warrant. What we can say is that such a place is missing the only and last opportunity it may ever have to make things right, to live up to its professed ideals. What we can say is that such a place can never move forward, because we have yet to fully address and come to terms with that which lay behind.


Is it just me or does it feel like somethings gotta give sooner or later? The Rev. Wright hullabaloo is certainly far from receding (even today he gave a speech wherein he said that his comments were taken out of context in a damaging way. That speech, incidentally, was taken out of context on every news program I watched and in almost every article I read). And Bill Clinton can't seem to stop whatever it is he thinks he's doing. These are just a couple of instances that make me think this election campaign is going to be more arduous on the American people at large than we think it will be. At least more so than it has been so far. And probably more so than we are ready for.

mark.

from the ashes...

Not even sure I'll remember how to do this. It's been a while and we will hopefully not have such an extended lapse in communication, much to the delight of our many readers, I am sure. We took an unintentional hiatus to pursue our own personal endeavors, including making music, a play and money (the latter of those three things not being related to this first two, of course. This is New York, after all).

But some exciting things happened while we were away from our computer screens. And while we'll do our best to recount some of those things that were particularly wonderful, our focus is still onward and upward to the future. That means tomorrow, which is a big deal, indeed. Tomorrow three records we're very excited about will be released. The buzz so far and the tracks we've heard tell us that our excitement is not mislead. And a strange thing is that they all have very self-referential titles. They are: Portishead's Third, The Roots' Rising Down, and Jamie Lidell's Jim.

Hopefully, we'll give you an update when we get back from Sound Fix tomorrow morning.

That's all for now. Here's something great that happened while we were away that we all can't seem to get enough of, still:



Great.
mark.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Los Campesinos! HOLD ON NOW, YOUNGSTER by kevin

Since I first discovered Los Campesinos! when they were (mercifully) overpowering Amy Winehouse’s set at Lollapalooza last year, I’ve spent the past 6 months having sadly abbreviated one man dance parties to their debut EP Sticking Fingers Into Sockets. Impressively, even at a mere 5 songs long, the Welsh septet’s catchy hooks and songwriterly lyrics have kept me fully engrossed even after a gluttonous amount repeated listenings. I’ve trolled their MySpace listening unreleased tracks, begging for a U.S. tour, and counting the days until the release of their full length album Hold On Now Youngster. This waiting game is nothing new to me, and invariably the result has been eventual bitter disappointment. So many times have my fragile rock and roll dreams been shattered, I was scared the first time I pressed play. I needn’t have been. The self appointed “Second most punk rock band in Britain” delivers here 12 of the most eclectic, introspective, and downright danceable songs in recent memory.

The disc opens on a rocking note with the young group’s signature song “Death to Los Campesinos!” This infectious, upbeat number sets a nerdy tone early, peppered with daydreams about robots. While imagery like “ctrl-alt-deleting your face” may seem too clever by half, that tends to be just how I like my punk rock lyrics. As the album progresses, the prevalent themes become quite obvious: the traditional rock and roll standbys of love and loss, intimacy and alienation. One could reasonably guess this just from a glance at the track listing, with song titles like “Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats” and “This is How We Spell HAHAHA We Destroyed The Hopes and Dreams of a Generation of Faux Romantics.” Bonus points for actually incorporating the verbiage of these titles into the lyrics of the songs (unlike a certain once-prolific Indie Rock superstar I could mention).

What separates Los Camesinos! angsty stories of the heart from every other group of whiny emo punk-rock kids is the depth and complexity of their lyrics. Lead singer Gareth pours his soul into the microphone on every song, alternately delivering pithy insights (“when the smaller picture/is the same as the bigger picture/you know that you’re fucked.”) and taking us down long and rambling roads such as this gem from “We Are All Accelerated Readers”:

“I’m not Bonne Tyler/And I’m not Toni Braxton/And this song is not going to save your relationship/I’m not shitting/This sentimental movie marathon has taught us one thing/its that the oppostite of true love is as follows:/reality.”

The eclectic music pairs perfectly with the lyrics; Keyboardist Aleksandra’s supporting vocals provide a perfect complement to Gareth, and many numbers incorporate even more voices, creating a choral feel akin to The Polyphonic Spree. The instrumentation is similarly lush, with horns, violins, and even a glockenspiel lending fullness and variety to the melodies. And unlike so many other pop groups, the music actually serves to help tell the story. The wonderful “…And We Exhale and Roll Our Eyes in Unison”, opens loud and raucously, detailing an argument between a couple (“It's bad enough you ever use the word as an adjective/
But to suggest we do it in heels is really quite crass”). Over a mere two minutes the song deftly downshifts, leaving us on a quiet and elegiac note (“And woe is me/and woe is you/and woe is us/together.”)

The great strength of Hold On Now Youngster is how perfectly Los Campesnios! fuse these sorts of pining, inward lyrics with such irresistibly danceable music. Anybody who can’t get down to “Don’t Tell Me to Do the Math(s)” or the aptly titled “You! Me! Dancing!” must be a very unhappy individual indeed. The second most punk rock band in Britain has come to the U.S. And they’ve brought with them one of the most purely entertaining albums in recent memory, and easily one of the best albums of the year.


mediumkev@gmail.com

Dirty Projectors @ Music Hall of Williamsburg 4/9...

was best show I've seen in New York City.

more later.
mark.