Retroselective: The Best of Jan. 2009
February has come far too quickly, but before we completely leapfrog the ass-end of January we thought it’d be appropriate to look back on the best of the past month. From indie rock bum-rushing the Billboard charts to Hip Hop Against Homophobia, these are the things that we felt best represented the past month. The bell has rung, the lessons have been learned and it’s now time to move on. Class dismissed.
Hip Hop Against Homophobia: While it was unfortunate that we had to turn people away, and that the people who did get in were crammed together and couldn’t move, it was ultimately inspiring to see such a huge response. We raised a lot of money for a great organization, made a significant impact in the local (and beyond) media, and planted the seeds for a series of great events. The next show will be a youth-oriented concert, and the one after that (as much as we love the Nomad) will be at a larger space. Stay tuned. Big thanks to the other sponsors: OutFront MN, Join the Impact Twin Cities, the Twin Cities Avengers and Tru Ruts/Speakeasy Records. [Kyle "Guante" Myhre]
Culture Bully Shows: I had very high expectations for the three shows that we presented this month, and my expectations were exceeded. Things started out amazing with the packed to the gills Hip Hop Against Homophobia and transitioned nicely into the standing room only Aby Wolf CD release show. The last week of the month had us promoting a showcase at the Acadia that featured some great up and coming artists. All three shows had great crowds and really showcased the strong and diverse talents that our local music scene has. I’m looking forward to more events we will be sponsoring and hope to see you all there. [Josh Keller]
Aby Wolf CD Release at the Cedar Cultural Center: One of my favorite local artists released her solo debut Sweet Prudence in January, and it was a fantastic show to support a fantastic record. I also helped myself to a free beer backstage. Score! [Jon Behm]
— Hip Hop Against Homophobia @ the Nomad
— Aby Wolf, Black Blondie and Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles @ the Cedar
— The Absent Arch, Suzanne Vallie & Les Ourses @ Acadia Cafe
— Aby Wolf, Black Blondie & Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles Backstage
— Aby Wolf “Sweet Prudence” Review
1998: Following Eminem’s “Crack a Bottle” this past month has been a blast. From its brief, shout-out laced initial inclusion on a mixtape in December, to a full blown studio track with 50 Cent and Dr. Dre backing Em up on verses—it’s been a great process from start to finish. The best part of the whole thing came when a commenter dropped some mind-bombs on me, enlightening me to the fact that I was wrong in saying that Em was biting Aesop Rock & Del The Funky Homosapien’s “Preservation” with the track. Turns out the beat is from Mike Brant’s 1970 track “Dans la Lumière.” Further making 2009 feel a bit like 1998 is a return of the Prodigy. In addition to last month’s “Omen,” the group dropped the brilliant “Invaders Must Die” single late last year, both in preparation for the first full-length from all three original members since Fat of the Land. At this rate it wouldn’t surprise me to see Fred Durst come out of hiding and start spitting some fire on the mic. Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that. [Chris DeLine]
— Eminem “Crack A Bottle (Number 1)”
— The Prodigy “Invaders Must Die” Video
— The Prodigy “Omen” Video
Songs of the Month: Maybe this means I’m a poor music writer, but I’m usually a few months behind the curve when it comes to “new” music. Heavy rotation in my CD player this past month: Beyonce’s “If I Were a Boy,” Kristoff Krane’s “Easy Way Out,” N*E*R*D’s “Sooner or Later,” Pink’s “Sober,” Brandi Carlile’s “Turpentine,” and Janelle Monae’s album Metropolis: the Chase Suite. [Kyle "Guante" Myhre]
— N.E.R.D “Sooner or Later” Video
— Janelle Monae “Many Moons”
January 17: The evening started with Solid Gold at the Turf Club. Wow. Man this show was wild! I had planned to photograph this but hordes of people and my own general drunkenness prevented me from doing so. Good lord I was drunk! I finished off the night in someone’s smoke-filled basement watching Vampire Hands and the Wrong Crowd playing some crazy psychedelic shit. My general apologies to anyone that I attempted to carry on a conversation with that evening. Awesome bands. Awesome evening. [Jon Behm]
— Vampire Hands & The Wrong Crowd @ The Caverns
P-Funk: After many years of admiring George Clinton and his seminal Parliament-Funkadelic from a distance (they are one of my all time favorite bands), I was finally able to experience their out of this world spectacle live and in person at First Avenue. The band, which still sounded great after all these years, provided George with a chance to get down to some of his classic jams with a full venue of his admirers. Although Clinton is clearly a man who has payed the price for some of his previous excess, he still brought down the house with a marathon show which lasted well over three hours and left the crowd tired, but smiling after hearing so many classic songs. [Josh Keller]
— George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic @ First Avenue
Twin Cities Spoken-Word Summit: It seems that a lot of people still don’t know that the Twin Cities have one of the strongest spoken-word and slam poetry scenes in the country. Two big regular slams, lots of open mics, writing circles, performances, youth programs, grant opportunities and some of the top poets in the country—Minneapolis and St. Paul are home to all of this and more. What was missing was coordination. This meeting, which included representatives from many of the spoken-word organizations in town, was largely about pooling resources and making sure that everyone in the area who is interested in spoken-word has an outlet and can get involved. One major, concrete thing that came out of the meeting: Minnesota Microphone, a go-to resource for anyone with any interested in spoken-word. Run by local poet Inky, the site features an event calendar, links to open mics and slams, and coverage of spoken-word events. [Kyle "Guante" Myhre]
Animal Collective: It’s not that this record needs any more praise, but I do feel like it is well deserved. The band, who has been taking chances and making some great albums over the past few years, finally made the album that is bringing them to a bigger audience. The production and performances are crisp and the band seems to have a clear idea of what they want their sound to be, which allowed them to make this amazing album. It was also very cool to see that the week their record came out it made it onto the top selling charts. It is good to see these great artists getting recognition for their music. [Josh Keller]
Indie Rock Storms The Charts: It was great see some brilliant releases actually garner respectable sales figures for a change at the end of January, as Andrew Bird’s new record Noble Beast hit the Billboard Chart at number 12, followed by Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion at number 13 (two weeks after it debuted at number 38 on the Top Independent Albums chart based purely on vinyl sales), and Bon Iver’s Blood Bank EP rounded things out at number 16 (For Emma, Forever Ago, has also been storming the charts as of late—it entered The Billboard 200 at number 198 in December after 10 months of release, and is now at number 85). It is reassuring to have these tremendous artists actually have record sales that reflect their levels of talent to some extent, and hopefully this is indicative of a strong year for sales of independent releases in 2009. [Erik Thompson]
AnCo: Merriweather Post Pavilion is genius. It really is. But some of the commentaries that followed are the most interesting that I’ve ever read in relation to the defense of taste and music—particularly HRO’s Animal Collective is a Band Created By/For/On the Internet and Nick Sylvester’s Re Hipter Runoff’s Animal Collective Post. Say what you will about HRO, but many of the questions raised by his article are valid and arguably suggest some potential truths regarding the commercialization of Animal Collective. Topping it is Sylvester’s lengthy rebuttal which not only presents a poignant profile of HRO and it’s general appeal, but offers one of the best critical approaches to defending personal taste and the importance of personal exploration. You owe it to yourself to read these articles and find out how this all fits into the context of MPP. [Chris DeLine]
Best New Music of 2009 Already out in January: I have the new Animal Collective, Antony and the Johnsons, Alela Diane, Bosque Brown, Cotton Jones, N.A.S.A., and Dark Was the Night compilation all on constant rotation—if the quality of music being released this years stays constant this will be pretty much the best year ever for music. [Jon Behm]
Antony and the Johnsons The Crying Light: An album that gets better and more moving with each listen. Antony bares the deep recesses of his soul yet again on an impassioned, plaintive record that is sure to make many best-of year end lists in 2009. The songs on The Crying Light are more immediately accessible than the tracks on Antony’s previous two records, but no less sincere and stirring. He is a truly singular artist whose music can’t be categorized or summarized in a paragraph. It’s best just to listen to the record and form your own opinions. I can’t wait for their show at the Pantages on Valentines Day. [Erik Thompson]
— Four Takes on Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion
— Animal Collective “My Girls” Video
— Four Takes on Antony and the Johnsons’ The Crying Light
— Antony and the Johnsons “Epilepsy Is Dancing” Video
— Alela Diane “To Be Still” Review
— Alela Diane “White As Diamonds” Video
— Cotton Jones “Paranoid Cocoon” Review
— N.A.S.A. “The Spirit of Apollo” Review
First Listens to Upcoming Music: Without succumbing to too much hyperbole, first listens to three discs showed me albums that are making 2009 look like it might be an amazing year for music. New discs by the Handsome Furs (due out in March), Beirut (February) and P.O.S. (February) have all blown me away and show significant growth for these three artists who have made some of my favorite CDs of the last few years. In addition to these three amazing albums, I have also really liked what I have heard from Gospel Gossip, Military Special, Black Lips, and the Dark Was the Night compilation. [Josh Keller]
P.O.S.’s Never Better: If I had just one recommendation to make regarding January releases, it would be to listen to Never Better. Not to downplay any of the talent from a city overflowing with phenomenal artists, but at this very moment P.O.S. is king of the mountain. He is willing to experiment while staying true to the sort of gut instincts that internally drive us all—he’s not in Building Better Bombs to make a chic statement about his musical dexterity, and he hasn’t released Never Better because it’s fashionable. P.O.S. is the real deal. [Chris DeLine]
— Handsome Furs “I’m Confused”
— Beirut “La Llorona” Video
— P.O.S. “Never Better” Review
— P.O.S. “Drumroll (We’re All Thirsty)” Video
— Gospel Gossip “Nashville”
Beyonce Singing “At Last” for the Obamas: This kind of moment is supposed to only happen in movies, right? [Kyle "Guante" Myhre]
Fleet Foxes on Saturday Night Live: Robin and the gang appeared a bit awestruck and nervous at times, but that didn’t stop them from delivering knock-out performances of both “Blue Ridge Mountains” and “Mykonos” that I’m sure expanded their fan-base considerably. It’s already been a great 2009 for Fleet Foxes, playing SNL shortly after Pitchfork awarded their self-titled debut and Sun Giant EP album(s) of the year for 2008. This young band deserves all of the accolades they have been receiving, for their music is both a subtle nod to the folksy harmonies of the 1960s and 1970s and a fresh new take on actual erudite songwriting that seems to be lacking in a lot of modern music. [Erik Thompson]
— Fleet Foxes on Saturday Night Live
My New Puppy, Marlow: I haven’t nailed down his musical tastes yet, but he seems to gravitate towards early Bowie, Nick Cave, and retro Brazilian psychedelia. Good dog! [Jon Behm]
2666 by Roberto Bolaño: It’s a dense, 900 page novel that completely revitalizes modern literature and has had me enthralled for all of 2009. It’s too bad that the Chilean-born author didn’t live to see the tremendous amount of praise that has been bestowed on the novel (Time magazine voted it the best book of 2008, amongst many other accolades), but unfortunately Bolaño succumbed to a rare liver disease in 2004, a year before the novel was originally published in Latin America. The book is a sprawling masterstroke from a truly gifted writer that died much too soon. [Erik Thompson]
Music Videos: January was a fantastic month for music videos, three of which are more than worthy of the “holy crap that was awesome” distinction. “Under The Pines” swims in cheeky mysticism and “In The Room Where You Sleep” captures a choir of youthful ghouls backing up a Hollywood heartthrob. There’s also “If I Had A Heart” which is, more than anything, the best makes-no-sense-but-is-wicked-artistic video since Grizzly Bear’s “Knife.” [Chris DeLine]
Blue Scholars and Common Market Dueling Videos: Blue Scholars and Common Market are two of the best indie hip hop groups in the nation and they share a producer, Sabzi. While the Scholars’ version is very nice, Common Market emcee Ra Scion delivers a pitch-perfect (and occasionally hilarious) parody. Really, Massline (their label) has enough extra money laying around that they can parody their own videos? Check them both out here. [Kyle "Guante" Myhre]
— Bodies of Water “Under The Pines” Video
— Dead Man’s Bones “In The Room Where You Sleep” Video
— Fever Ray “If I Had a Heart” Video
— Common Market “Tobacco Road” Review
Old Man Young: Neil Young continues to embody what’s right with the world. That’s all. [Chris DeLine]
yo’Chris, so since POS dropped should everyobody else just stop? His aggro-hop is nice experiment, carefully crafted, let’s be careful with the Animal Collective,NME-type hyperbole though.
Yes, everyone else should quit making music. That’s my opinion, and I’m sticking to it.
haha, love/love.
(bursts into tears)
oh and by the way, now that i’ve heard it, i HATE that new Eminem song as much as Chris like the new P.O.S. album.
which is, of course, a great deal.
I stand by that as well. I’m sorry you can’t stand white rappers Kyle, I hope that at some point in time you’re able to cut them some slack.
i could make a funny comment, but my humor doesn’t usually come across on the internet (there’s no spit-take emoticon), so i’ll play the straight man:
i don’t mind white rappers, i don’t even mind eminem, sometimes. but that song makes me want to go hang out with tipper gore and try to ban rap music. the icing on the cake for this song has to be the first line, where he brags about how many rapes he’s committed. that by itself is enough to hate the song. but then there’s em’s caricature-of-a-caricature persona, a lazily ghost-written dre verse, and some weird mumble-warbling by 50.
give him ten good dre tracks to just rip on some ol’ rappin’ ’bout rappin’ shit (something i generally don’t even like that much), and i bet he could put together a great album. but this cartoon gangsta pop song stuff is just cringe-inducing.
It’s not my attempt to glorify the subject matter, nor do I think it’s witty to stand by the “it’s a character” argument, but it just what it is and I like listening to it.
He’s not a raping (that I know of), murdering, “diabolic villain” – but he’s also not dense enough to think that people pursue his music only because he takes a character that promotes such subject matter (if he was, he might as well be in the Insane Clown Posse). Every now and then he throws a bone of rational commentary that somehow, someway, appears to make up for all the bullshit along the way. I guess when you’re comparing Eminem to Flo Rida or something, Eminem at least appears to be “deep.”
I’ll try to liken it to my appreciation for death metal. While I’m kind of an asshole, I don’t go around queer-bashing, judging people on race, or seriously glorifying murder or rape (and while I make a lot of jokes about a lot of things, I don’t go around sarcastically glorifying murder and rape).
It could be that I’m a lazy listener, or that I lack solid judgment to a point where things are black and white enough so that I’ll dislike anything that is of questionable taste. But I like death metal for its operatic thunder, its crushing delivery and the odd culture that surrounds it. What comes with the music however is (often) misogynistic lyrics that glorify violence, murder and hold a general contempt for morality. But I can’t bring myself to wince when I hear the music because much of it makes me feel good.
And I’ll stand by that, because I like the music–I won’t defend the lyrics, won’t say they’re they’re appropriate, but I also won’t say that they should be taken seriously or that there is a blanket way to approach all music. If I want serious metal, I’m not going to listen to Gorgoroth (who is actually helmed by an openly gay vocalist) nor will I listen to Eminem.
Nice duck, Chris. But you can’t make the lyrics go away, nor separate them from the song (more so in hip hop than death metal). You are what you ingest, taken seriously or not.
Wasn’t meant as a “duck,†just a thought. But the beat goes on… and I was thinking more about this later in day.
Two other things came to mind. The first was the idea that might ring similar to what you were saying: thought (or lyrics) beget action. The second dealt with an article that was floating around a few weeks back about the balance of freedom of speech in terms of shopkeepers refusing to sell records recorded by Neo-Nazi bands.
The Nazi band-thing was interesting, but not necessarily because of the main question it was asking “should retailers sell racist hate music?” or the legal and moral questions that trail that… but rather some stuff that wasn’t really touched on in any depth: implication and intent. Mentioned in reference was Ice-T’s “Cop Killer,” the related defense being ‘how can you sell cop killer but get on your high horse when it comes to selling this other music.’
Is it because retailers were separating the lyrics from the song in one case, but not the other? Maybe. But I think a lot of it has more to deal with implied intent behind what’s being said. Do people look at “Cop Killer” and honestly – ‘that guy is going to kill cops’? Some did (I imagine some still might)… some don’t. I’d side with the side that believes those words are empty. But how does that differ from an album called (this was the album quoted in the article) “Freezer Full of Nigger Heads”? I’m not saying that Em making good with Elton John on stage doesn’t mean he’s not a homophobe, but I’m also not going to say that him satirizing rape is on the same level as “Freezer” because of perceived intent. Empty lyrics don’t mean right or acceptable, and that doesn’t make them any less ugly or separate them from recognized meaning… but the implication behind the word does create a separation. If I say that I’m going to kill you, but don’t mean it, is that different than saying that I’m going to kill you while meaning it. Outside of the legal answer there, I’d say yes – based on intent. That doesn’t make my words, Ice-T’s words, Eminem’s words any less ugly, but it then comes down to a matter of taste. If you think I’m tasteless, so be it.
The flip side to that is the argument that even if you’re rapping about raping, you’re promoting and glorifying such actions: the “you are what you ingest” part of what you were saying.
No one is making the lyrics go away here – they are what they are… For sake of discussion, I’ll go back to the previous example – if I’m going to say that “Cop Killer” is an acceptable song how can I say that “Freezer” is not acceptable. Intent. Do I think it’s funny when South Park satirized the last Indiana Jones movie, saying that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg raped Indian Jones? Yeah, I do. Do I think that Eminem is funny in saying he’s got “a record of 17 rapes”? Not really, but I don’t see the intent there, taking pleasure in the destruction of innocent lives. Is he glorifying rape? No more than Cartman is. Is it in poor taste? That’s subjective, but… sure.
I’m just being consistent. I can’t say I hate something, or that its disgusting and turn around and say that it’s cool in a fairly similar context out of the other side of my mouth.
That’s where I’m coming from here.
This is quite an interesting debate here-the idea of separating the artist from their work, or holding them accountable for their work and all that is found within it. I do agree with your point, Chris, that it’s hypocritical to say that something is acceptable from certain artists, but not from others. That also brings up the free speech vs. hate/inflammatory speech debate as well. All very touchy subjects. And, as an advocate of free speech, I have to realize that within that struggle, I am bound to hear things that I completely disagree with, but have to agree with the persons right to voice it, no matter how strongly I take issue with what they are saying.
Also, we can add to the debate the film director and whether or not their violent pictures are glorifying violence and sadistic behavior, or if they are simply telling a story. Again, it’s a question of whether or not we are going to hold the artist accountable for their work, or if we just view it as Entertainment and give it a pass. And, does this prevalence of violence/hate/misogyny in film/music/television add to the problem in our society, or merely reflect those problems. In my mind, it adds to it-how else can you explain the high percentage of violent crimes in the United States when compared to other civilized countries? But at the same time, I realize that view is a bit of a cop out, because mankind has always had a violent nature, long before there were inflammatory films and music. So, the debate goes on….
I’m all for artists expressing their ideas, even if I completely disagree with them. I can simply not listen/watch/care, and instead enjoy work that is more representative of my own beliefs and reflects my own world view a bit closer.
jeez…why don’t you guys write a novel about it?
Yeah, I guess it would be easier for us to just take pictures to explain everything, hunh Jon?
“At this rate it wouldn’t surprise me to see Fred Durst come out of hiding and start spitting some fire on the mic. Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that.”
Damn you 1998!
http://www.spinner.com/2009/02/12/limp-bizkit-returns-with-every-original-member/