Three Books

No one has ever asked me "Which three books have been most influential on your intellectual development?" but if they did, here is my answer:

1. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life- Erving Goffman

2. The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity: Twelve Lectures- by Jurgen Habermas

3. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge- by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann

The Social Construction of Reality I just read, but I've known about it since I read the other two books that come first on that list, and now that I've read it- wow. These three books, taken together, considered together give you pretty much all the information you need to succeed in life. And none of them involve bullshit self-help or mysticism. I recommend all three to readers of this blog.

Bathroom @ The Smell Los Angeles, CA.

Bathroom @ The Smell Los Angeles, CA., originally uploaded by catdirtrecords.

Memories... mists, water colored memories... of the way we were...

The Rise of No Age and the Growth of Abstraction in Popular Indie Music

I call my new project "Grass Thumb"


As should be perfectly clear to a perceptive observer of contemporary popular music, No Age started something. But what did they start? Take a look at the photograph above- What's going on there?

1. Some idiot was getting ready to take a photo of someone and snapped a picture of the ground where he was standing.
2. Some idiot was trying to take an "artsy" photograph of grass and covered the lens with his thumb.
3. Some genius was trying to take an "artsy" photograph involving the play of morning light on the grass, and stuck his thumb in front of the lens.
4. Someone was trying to purposefully take a photograph of a field of grass with a thumb in the photograph, to make some kind of artistic point about the nature of photography in contemporary life.

These four takes on the photograph are somewhat analogous to the reactions elicited by No Age, Abe Vigoda, Crocodiles, Wavves, etc. The albums released by these artists are like the photograph that leads this post. In the sense that, I'm writing about that specific photograph that is up there- not some abstract idea of a photograph that I'm describing to you. Listeners look at the photo/hear the record and generate an opinion based on the text in front of them.

Heres the point: The judgment on the photograph above in large part depends on the context. I.E. if that photo is hanging in a museum of Modern Art with 150 similar photographs taken by the same artist as part of a giant project on grass/thumbs/shadows, that's one thing. If your idiot buddy shows you this photo as you are standing around in the backyard with your pals waiting for him to put his damn camera phone away, it's different.

And all I'm saying about bloggers and their reaction to this abstracted pop music/noise/low fi indie rock, is this "They have no idea what the context of this music is." They don't know the artists, they haven't any idea whether this music is created by an actual individual or some kind of giant plot by the manager of L'il Wayne and Columbia Records. And the context makes a difference.

Let me say one last thing: All the artists discussed in this article share the same context. It isn't some random coincidence, it's the culmination of lots of bands, lots of shows, lots of thought. I can personally attest that while the music industry has taken big notice, their input in the creation of this music of is present mostly by it's total absence: Labels, Managers, A&R, etc. I'm not talking about the reception/dissemination of the music, rather the production of the music.

In that way it's similar to other great american musical genres. Why do you think Fat Possum released both Wavves and Crocodiles? Think about it.

Show Preview: Anti Monday League Presents Spectrum, Crocodiles

Next Monday, May 11th, Anti-Monday League presents Spectrum, Crocodiles & Tape Deck Mountain @ The Casbah tickets $8/$10. Don't miss this exciting show combining the young with the experienced. It will certainly be an outer space experience for your ears.

Crocodiles One Year Promotional Cycle is Off With A Bang!

brandon of the prayers @ beauty bar san diego 2006

The Crocodiles are about a week into their year long promotional cycle for Summer of Hate and Wow! It looks like it's going to be a great promotional cycle for them. They have dates line up all over the U.S. through June, and many of those places are places they've already toured once, before anyone cared. Extra hipster bonus point! Music professionals describe the post-release period as the promotional cycle, the standard period is one year, so this is almost as good it can get- with actual conflict being generated in terms of a critical response. That's even better then uniformly good reviews.

They'll be playing the Beauty Bar on May 7th in Las Vegas and have what can only be described as a triumphant home-coming show on May 11th at the Casbah. I wonder if anyone is going to come to the San Diego show? It would be funny/sad if it wasn't that crowded, but the Crocodiles have achieved everything outside of San Diego.

I think you would have to say that they are guaranteed a second record with Fat Possum, so they should probably be working on that right now so they don't lag between cycles of promotion...

"New" Band Alert: Ale Mania

Ale Mania is a Puzzle

Ale Mania (ex-Sess) just posted some neu cuts: Rampage, DC Rails, Vomit Pig and they are kind of picking up/expanding from where the Sess left out. Here is what I'm going to say about Ale Mania: Andrew has the producing chops to make a respectable indie label sit up and take notice and I hope they have their s**t together enough to make it that far. What I like about these guys mainly is that they have a good time.

This is one of those bands that should not even worry about San Diego and look for a label that will put out the record- a label not from San Diego, but someplace like LA or NYC.

They have a show at the Whistle Stop on May 25th- Monday night yay! And I for one, have their back. Go Ale Mania

New York Times Loves Crocodiles

Who needs Pitchfork when you've got the New York Times backing you? Seriously- I'm asking...

CROCODILES
“Summer of Hate”
(Fat Possum)

Crocodiles, a San Diego duo, caused a stir in the indie blogosphere late last year, even before releasing an album or signing to a label. What started it all was a peer review: No Age, a big fish in the Los Angeles art-punk pond, listed the Crocodiles tune “Neon Jesus” as one of the year’s best songs. Soon the band — Brandon Welchez on vocals, Charles Rowell on guitar — had plans to release its debut, “Summer of Hate,” on Fat Possum.

Now that album is here, and among its small surprises is the omission of “Neon Jesus,” a compact blast of post-post-punk in which Mr. Welchez sings this promising couplet: “I’m a stranger in the Holy Land/But I keep my strangeness close at hand.” There’s nothing quite so memorable on the nine tracks of “Summer of Hate,” unless you count the title refrain of “I Wanna Kill,” which drips with too much smugness to feel like a threat.

To their credit, Mr. Rowell and Mr. Welchez aren’t cagey about what matters to them, including the Jesus and Mary Chain, whose sound they flagrantly evoke, and Echo and the Bunnymen, whose album “Crocodiles” clearly means something to them. The crude drum programming and pealing guitar distortion on this album are badges of taste, as is the strobelike synthesizer drone on a hazy reverie like “Sleeping With the Lord.”

But if Crocodiles revel in a strain of insolence too familiar to feel transgressive, the band also manages some catchy choruses and efficient low-fi landscapes. The album’s retro-trashy title track leads compellingly into “Young Drugs,” a synth-pop valediction; “Soft Skull (in My Room),” with its tangled layers and dirty echoes, needs no improvement.

And “Flash of Light,” a dark prowl, ends with Mr. Welchez repeatedly singing “one flash of light,” before the song dissolves in a feedback loop. Whether that’s a metaphor for the trajectory of Crocodiles hasn’t yet been decided; the band is on a tour that brings it to the Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on May 22 and the Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan on May 23. NATE CHINEN

Some Observations About Adult Contemporary Music

The Fray: Denver's Augustana and Adult Contemporary Stars

Some people ask "What is the artistic intent?" behind a music act. I think a better question is "What is the commercial intent?" This is yet another spin-off of the entire "Why does Pitchfork likes Wavves and not Crocodiles question?" although it isn't related to either of those bands.

I would postulate that Billboard's "Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks" is the lode-stone, not just of american radio programming, but also of the entire American music industry. To a lesser extent "Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks" shares that status, but Hot AC is the tops.

Now, let me ask you a question, "What music do young white people with terrible taste in music and culture listen to?" Answer: The music on the Hot AC chart. Why? Because it's on ALL THE TIME EVERYWHERE THEY GO.

Here is an additional observation that ties to the fact that people with no taste in music buy/listen to Adult Contemporary acts: You only need one album, because adult contemporary fans only want to hear "the hits" and don't care how crappy the rest of your music is.




Tell me, is your lead singer this pretty?(Augustana)A band like The Fray or Augustana, they don't come from nowhere. I notice they tend to have piano playing lead singers and traditional rock formulation behind (drummer, bassist, guitarist.) Can Piano Rock be anything other then "Adult Contemporary" music? But note who they toured with initially: Weezer and Ben Folds Five.

Another commercial trend in this area is the integration of hip-hop acts. I won't go there now but I will say to all the mellow rock acts out there in San Diego- you know who you are- "What's going on in your band that makes you think it could be listened to by the people who listen to adult contemporary music?" You're far more likely to get there then the rock chart. If you look at the "rock" acts your looking at acts that are much "harder" then your typical retro/soft San Diego rock four piece. Indie bands can learn everything from just listening to the songs that are on the hot ac chart- that is what America wants to hear. Sad but true.

Define "Adult Contemporary" Music

Subject: Things I thought about in Las Vegas.

Adult contemporary music. Here was my thought: Those songs are all hits. Know any not-famous adult contemporary songs? Probably not. Know any hits that would be called "adult contemporary"? Probably a million. And I'm not talking about "anybody" I'm talking about you- the one of seven or eight people who actually reads this blog. What does that tell you about adult contemporary music?

Here is the (weak) Wiki lede:

Adult contemporary music (frequently abbreviated AC) refers to a broad style of popular music that ranges from lush 1960s, vocal-based music to predominantly ballad-heavy music with varying degrees of rock influence". AC radio plays mainstream music excluding hip hop, hard rock, some teen pop music and rhythmic dance tracks (though during the 2000s, these have been included), which is intended for a more adult audience. AC is generally divided into 4 groups: "hot AC," "soft AC" (also known as "lite"), "urban AC," and "religious AC." Some radio stations play only hot AC; some play only soft AC; and some play both. Thus it is not usually considered a specific genre of music, since it is merely an assembly of selected tracks of musicians of many different genres.

(Wiki)

In other words, to even be "classified" as adult contemporary, the song has to be a hit already. I think wiki is wrong here- I think adult contemporary is quite so a genre. It's no broader then the group of artists considered 'hip-hop' or 'r&b.' If anyone even calls an act 'adult contemporary' it means "hey, you made it."