1968 is Undead

Hello folks,
I'm back from honeymoon and yes, I'm officially married now. It feels good. Also, I'd like to point out that I hate the Phillies fans who were screaming and honking outside my window until 3AM last night.

In lighter news, let's talk about death.

Marco Lanzagorta has assembled a collection of 30 fantastic essays prepped for the 40th anniversary of George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (including an intro by the man himself) and not only is this a fascinating compendium, but yours truly has an essay in it, published in today's segment.

1968 is Undead touches on the ways that we are "haunted" by the 1960s, even today (and this essay was written before Bill Ayers, a Weather Underground member turned college professor, became such a central figure behind John McCain's campaign).

Here's the rest of the feature. When you get a chance, you really should go through a check out a few or all of them.

Monolake and Joe Gibbs

Two new reviews on reissues:





Monolake- Hongkong Remastered
Their classic album retooled.


Joe Gibbs- Scorchers from the Mighty Two
The late reggae hitmaker has some of his best compiled.

"People’s homes were just a medium for the redistribution of wealth"

Douglas Rushkoff on the credit crisis, published a while back but recently reprinted by the revived Arthur Magazine ofr its poignancy with regards to...well, you know.


Also, interesting of note to anyone annoyed by or entertaining the notion of Obama's supposed ties with Bill Ayers, Max Blumenthal and David Neiwert explore the cozy relationship between Palin and the secessionist, anti-American Alaska Indendence Party in this article over at Salon.

RIP Alton Ellis

Author of one of the most gorgeous love songs ever written (see above) and the godfather of Rocksteady

Partial Blackout

I've been real busy lately. I'm getting married in less than a week, so it's been hard to keep up. Here's a few I recently wrote:

Populous and Short Stories- Drawn in Basic

Max Richter- 24 Postcards in Full Colour
More on that one soon, I hope.

Adventure- Adventure
Although I don't think my article makes its case that well, it was interesting to see an essay by Simon Reynolds for The Guardian reference the same idea of background sounds in childhood television as instructive electronic tools (as discussed in this article about the BBC Radiphonic Workshop). I think 8bit chiptune music, like the Nintendo songs heard on endless loop during childhood play, were equally the base of electronic music fanaticism. The fact that the Nintendo experience was more tactile just reinforces the intimacy of the connection to electronic sounds, which were at one time totally weird and progressive. That the airwaves were peppered with new electronic sounds as new wave, freestyle, and even soft rock was overtaken by Casio and Roland, and television and film composers fired their orchestras and hired a single synth player to score the mess of 80s action and comedy, is secondary. Nintendo sounds produce Pavlovian responses because they were directly linked to the adrenaline and endorphins released under the tension of game-playing.

For more on BBC Radiophonic Workshop, see The Alchemists of Sound documentary in its entirety on Youtube (under the user's video. See part one below)



Also check out:
Make Believe Maverick by Tim Dickson (Rolling Stone)- A total smear to be sure, with its share of distortion, but still a concise biography of a man who has used a cozy relationship with the media to win popular support around a biography that's not even remotely accurate.

The Problem With Obama

Interesting take on the Obama campaign by Matt Taibbi:


"What's confusing about Obama is that he's so successful at projecting an air of genuineness and honesty, even as he navigates the veritable Mount Everest of fakery and onerous bullshit that is our modern electoral system. And the reason it's confusing is that we've grown so used to presidential candidates who fall short of the images they present in public, we don't even know anymore what a man worth the office would look like. Is this him? Or is this just a guy with a gift for concealing the ugliness of the system he represents?"

In part, it seems like what America has at stake in this election is more than just the issues, which are dire enough to make the decision about the incoming commander-in-chief absolutely vital. The promise of Barack Obama (who i obviously, though sometimes reluctantly, support) is as much about a contract with reality as it is about any evaluative criteria for a governing body. The people's hope in his candidacy correlates to that old religious stalemate; faith. But rather than a superstitious kind of faith (though perhaps some could justifiably dismiss it as such), Obama's supporters' faith is a belief in the power of iconoclasty to come alive, and simultaneously self-destruct. The hope is that Obama, by gaining the most title of perhaps the most artifice, will become a symbol of the death of artifice.

Obaama's campaign may use "Hope" as a kind of PR shorthand to huddle the masses behind him, but the emotions behind it, even if exploited for political gain, are real. In the broadness of the theme, Obama and his campaign have allowed for a multiplicity of meanings, all of which can be genuine and empowering. You almost get the sense that Obama's kind of adept at the game. As an insider, he knows he can never overthrow the machinery. But since only insiders can get elected, he can still empower the populace to become the changes they want to see in the world and swing politics out of their current, and perhaps perpetual, corrosiveness.


"The challenges we face will not be solved with one meeting in one night... change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. WE are the change that we seek."

What is perhaps most remarkable about this election is the hubris with which Obama (or candidate Obama, the hope simulacrum- take your pick) acknowledges his inconsequentiality. What he represents is far more important than what he is. In an age where cynicism is not so much a choice as a prerequisite, Obama's campaign represents a desire to one day become a civilization that actually is who it says it is.



Of course, the saccharine music in the above video betrays the politicking involved in this election, the ways in which it is working within the superstructure of a hyperreal culture. However, the very message of the video is about transcending the noise of the political climate and becoming something more than just perception. It's ten shades or irony, of course, but that doesn't mean that it's not working.

Martin Luther King Jr's call to "keep hope alive" swept through the 1960s like a mad rush, exploding throughout the civil rights, antiwar, and free speech movements and beyond. It was a note struck in the midst of apocalyptically tumultuous times. Nations were collapsing, atomic war loomed large, assassination was commonplace, riots were omnipresent. It took a while, but the power structure eventually collapsed that hope. It embedded in us a notion that the system would never change, that we should always vote for the lesser of two evils, that the best we can hope for in minor incremental improves which dull and damage the momentum of hope. Obama's compromised policy initiatives don't promise a severe change from that political disconnection (though his platform's the most progressive that the democrats have run on since the 1970's), but his rhetoric is undeniably populist and people-powered. You really do get the sense that he believes America is a land for all people, where masses can rises and mold government. Whereas with most politicians, you only get the sense that democratic government for them is whatever they say it is (witness John McCain's behavior during this whole bailout fiasco).

You get a lot of senses with Barack Obama. The sheath of political ambivalence and falsehood looms so large its hard to tell what's if any public statement all could be anything but a mirage. It's perhaps the cold-hearted skeptic, the one whose consummate distrust has colonized all but a small margin of my being, that wants Obama to succeed the most. It's a suicide plea for him to at least be granted the possibility of becoming who he says he is.

Because oh sweet lord almighty, I'd love to be wrong about America. I'd love to believe that all the horrible shit we've done to ourselves and to the rest of the world stems from some deep-seeded cynicism, from a belief that the best we can do is grab at straws while the almighty oligarchical overlords decide our fates, that we're not really so cold, shallow, individualistic, materialistic, that deep down we're more than just the products we buy, the color of our skin, the presidential candidates we pick. Because if Barack Obama can really turn us into the ones we've been waiting for, maybe it is possible that he is the light that shines through. Because if not, we are truly fucked.

Spooky Mixology

My review of DJ Spooky's new audiologue of the Sub Rosa archives, released in tandem with his new book (which I haven't read yet) is up over at PopMatters.
Unbeknownst to me, the editorial board decided to turn the review into a feature under the headline "Why Does the Mix CD Still Exist?" Had I known about this, I probably would have changed the wording slightly. I think the question is misleading. It's not a matter of why the mix CD exists. I think the mix CD is a robust form, one that's deeply ingrained into DJ culture and has every right to exist. My question is what does the mix CD still have to offer in a commercial format? Pirate copy and bootleg mix tapes are abound and you're more likely to see a widespread dissemination of material on the internet both in the form of mixes and podcasts than you would with a physical CD, something that most can agree no one seems to be buying any more.

It's a question I'm not really sure I can answer, because I do think they offer something more than just the material artifice of possession and the quasi-mystical allure of intimacy associated with private ownership. But I also agree with Spooky's thesis that the Sound is unbound. It's part of culture that any of us can and should freely remix, making the latter point about possession and intimacy moot.

RIP

Richard Wright, Pink Floyd


Norman Whitfield, song writer and producer extraordinaire.

For an incredible article of what Whitfield did with the Temptations, check out this archived one at Stylus

Latest and Greatest

Latest, Folks...

Reviews on:


Pole- 1 2 3



Morgan Geist- Double Night Time
(feat. Jeremy Greenspan of Junior Boys)



High Places- High Places



All great albums. All recommended.

The Problem With Obama

Interesting take on the Obama campaign by Matt Taibbi:


"What's confusing about Obama is that he's so successful at projecting an air of genuineness and honesty, even as he navigates the veritable Mount Everest of fakery and onerous bullshit that is our modern electoral system. And the reason it's confusing is that we've grown so used to presidential candidates who fall short of the images they present in public, we don't even know anymore what a man worth the office would look like. Is this him? Or is this just a guy with a gift for concealing the ugliness of the system he represents?"

In part, it seems like what America has at stake in this election is more than just the issues, which are dire enough to make the decision about the incoming commander-in-chief absolutely vital. The promise of Barack Obama is as much about a contract with reality as it is about any evaluative criteria for a governing body. The people's hope in his candidacy correlates to that old religious stalemate; faith. But rather than a superstitious kind of faith (though perhaps some could justifiably dismiss it as such), theirs is a faith in the power of iconoclasty to come alive, and simultaneously self-destruct. The hope is that Obama, by gaining the most title of perhaps the most artifice, will become a symbol of the death of artifice.

"The challenges we face will not be solved with one meeting in one night... change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. WE are the change that we seek."

What is perhaps most remarkable is the hubris with which Obama (or candidate Obama, the hope simulacrum- take your pick) acknowledges his inconsequentiality. What he represents is far more important than what he is. In an age where cynicism is not so much a choice as a prerequisite, Obama's campaign represents a desire to one day become a civilization that actually is who it says it is.



Of course, the saccharine music in the above video betrays the politicking involved in this election, the ways in which it is working within the superstructure of a hyperreal culture. However, the very message of the video is about transcending the noise of the political climate and becoming something more than just perception.

Apparently....

We're living in the 1930's....

The State of Pluxembourg

There's a review of Solid State over at theme there PopMatters, that was written by me. Their name, which has a history that long precedes them (they used to make bubbly analogue music- the kind that got them on Suction Records' excellent Snow Robots comps), sounds a bit like a portmanteau of PLUR and Fluxus, though their music hardly sounds like what you'd expect from a name like that (come to think of it, what would a band like that sound like?).

Here's some interesting news:

As if the noise community wasn't alienating enough to the rest of the country, a new group has emerged :Noise for Obama. It's thus far a modest effort- very basic HTML, statements from members of Lightning Bolt, No Age, Deerhoof, etc. , and calls to get involved.

In a related story, No Age and Deerhoof are now considered noise music.

Seems kind of micro in scope, but wouldn't it be great if Obama made a surprise appearance at the No Fun Fest (I know that was several months ago, shhh) like his infamous Wilco appearance? "I love Macronympha..." Imagine what kind of ammunition an association with noise music would give Republicans?

Some Things Just Can't Stay Buried

I've got a feature article over at PopMatters about the bloke pictured above. Who he is and why not knowing who he was mattered.

You can read it here: Some Things Just Can't Stay Buried



Univers Zero


I also have a review on the rerelease of the incredible French Chamber prog group Univers Zero's debut LP. It's probably not as overall solid or conceptually taught as the followup, Heresie, but this stuff sounds amazingly forward-thinking in the age of Zorn.

Be Kind, Redefine

There's a new review over at Edge on Son of Rambow, newly released on DVD.

McCain on Publicly Sanctioned Intolerance in his Home State