Review (of sorts): Van She – V

I honestly thought I could not be surprised by Australian music anymore. For what seemed an eon, that which was given the blessing of popular and critical acclaim was essential cock-rock, whether it was deemed mainstream or (and god forbid I even say this) alternative (ala the Triple J annointed). Obviously this state of affairs is in no way indicative of the actual talent and richness of the musical soil in this cultural unforgiving land – as there is an obvious plethora of acts that have a ridiculous amount of talent. It is rather a statement of what we choose to dedicated ourselves to. Large audiences fail to get behind the more daring, innovative acts and as such, they die out – ala You Am I.

An act I have just been made aware of through some freak occurance is Van She. Normally I would never pursue a band after knowing that they are Australian (and yes I realise my own hypocrisy, but I have become disillusioned with our music industry). However, I did. They have just released their first LP after what appears to be a good solid 3 years of EPs and a ridiculous amount of remixes of songs by bands from Feist to Muscles.

Learning To Play Guitar

So I learnt to play guitar a great many years ago, but I never stuck with it. “Learnt to play guitar” is probably a bit of a stretch actually, all I can remember to do now is tune the bloody thing and strum a G chord. I always found it kind of confusing the way notes were scattered on the fretboard. There is a logical order to it but as a piano player where the keys are situated linearly in front of you in a single row going to a completely new thing is kind of weird. This wasn’t really the main reason of course, it was just hard to persist with something you suck at and don’t see quick results with. But this time I will try to persist.

I will be taking notes throughout my lonely afternoon adventure.

The Golden Record and the Music Industry

The Voyager program consists of a pair of unmanned scientific probes, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable planetary alignment of the late 1970s. Although they were officially designated to study just Jupiter and Saturn, the two probes were able to continue their mission into the outer solar system and beyond. [link]

The Voyager Golden Record is a phonograph record included in the two Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977. It contains sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth. It is intended for any intelligent extraterrestrial life form, or far future humans, that may find it.

[Permission was asked] to include “Here Comes the Sun” from the Beatles’ album Abbey Road. While the Beatles favoured it, EMI opposed it and the song was not included. [link]

We Ain’t Having Sex

I thought this season’s finale of Saturday Night Live hosted by Steve Carell was… kinda shit. But it was brightened up by the hilariously awesome musical numbers by Usher. Yeah you heard me.

My Bloody Valentine Are Bloody Brilliant

My Bloody Valentine.

This post is for those who don’t know much about them, or have heard Loveless, loved it and always had it as a goal to listen to more.

Are you ready for Canning?

Well, judging from the set-list that Broken Social Scene played at Manning Bar earlier this year I could have sworn that it would be a Andrew Whiteman episode in the new Broken Social Scene Presents… series. Songs like Water in Hell seemed to be introduced in a way that we would be sure to see them released in this context.

Nevertheless, I am not complaining. Bredan Canning is the next in line for this series, and no doubt, this will be a Canadian round-up the likes of which I can not show to be knowledgeable of in any meaningful way…

Except for that he is pretty much the dude in the Canadian music scene. As such, about 392 people feature on the record. Arts and Crafts have a neat little promotional voyeur thing going on over at their site for the release, slotted for 22nd July, 2008. Apparently soccer and not answering your phone are inherently linked in Canada.

How’s the Pressure?

Ben Gibbard is eloquent, this we know from the apt turns of phrase and allegorical lyricism. However, I think that his recent essay (somewhat ominously titled “The Meaning of Life”) for Paste Magazine not only revels much about his personality and his attitude towards himself and his work, but also for us, as fans, and as a general audience to the music industry.

This article shows the enormous pressure that we as an audience place on the artist and their work. Our child-like immaturity and nonsensical tantrums of indie-bashing et al almost force artists into a world where they are constrained, they are straight jacketed into categories, tags and labels. Ben Gibbard’s essay establishes what he thinks of the ridiculousness of how people use his band as some sort of meter or yard stick through which to judge people. Internet culture and its inherent attitude of judgment and opinion masked as stated fact has destroyed any life in the joy of simply enjoying music. As Gibbard notes, it almost seems like people sometimes have to confess that they like DCFC.

Like any market place, the music industry and the perceived likes and dislikes of the audience have never operated solely on the quality or innovative aspect of the music. It reacts to market forces, to fashion, to cultural paradigms and on the most basic level, a type of social bullying. People listen to certain types of music perhaps because they align themselves to a lifestyle,and perhaps it is this that dictates what they should listen to. Adorno says as much. It’s what sounds most familiar to what you are – and in a consumer society we are market forces ourselves, mostly unconscious of how we are perpetuating the largest fraud in the history of mankind – the fraud of ourselves.

Grow up. Listen to it because it moves you. It’s how Ben wants you to react to his music and he is right.

By Konrad Overdrive

Review: The Wombats – A Guide to Love, Loss & Desperation

Everything about this record is surrounded by this pretentious indie scene grimmace. That is to say, their fence straddling between indie and… well, pop makes them completely abhorrent to the former – and as such, are reviewed accordingly by dictatorial indie stalwarts for being complete sellouts or just completely lame with no real ability to continue post-debut album.

As such, I feel as though a review would be entirely about defending what they are, and what this album is against ridiculous opinions that, let’s face it, are completely boring and derivative. It takes more skill and more of a person to actually listen to something and be able to not spew forth vitriolic, unimaginative bullshit that simple affirms one thing – that you are the tosser and that you are the one that deserves 3/10.

Now that that is out of the way, let’s talk about this great record.

Jenny Lewis: Superhero

http://www.myspace.com/rilokiley
http://www.myspace.com/lewiswithwatsons

The Ben Gibbard sandwich

So there is this cool site called ‘Cooking With Rockstars’. I think this is just the most perfect idea for a site because it combines my two likes of watching food programs and indie rock, even if said songwriters tend to be pretty terrible cooks. Something else I find pleasing about this site is that the interviewees genuinely seem very open and down to earth. I guess after doing the same music interviews over and over again this is an odd and unexpectedly pleasant alternative.

There is a video on there with Ben Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie, Postal Service) who talks to the host, Jen, detailing his “proficiency” in the culinary arts and giving a short tour of the kitchen section of their bus. I’m going to focus on the recipe from this section (the Ben Gibbard sandwich) which is an open-faced sandwich, toast with peanut butter with a layer of veggie sausages.