Book Review: William Morris- From Romantic to Revolutionary by EP Thompson

       William Morris is the British artisan generally credited with inspiring the larger "Craftsman" movement, familiar to many Californians as a style of house architecture popular in the early part of the 20th century ("Craftsman style house").  EP Thompson is a British writer whose "History of the English Working Class" is as seminal a piece of writing as you are ever likely to read.  William Morris: From Romantic to Revolutionary is Thompson's biography of Morris-the-socialist.

      Like many famous socialist's of the 19th century, Morris came from a privileged background.  He never had to work for a living.  As a young university student, he fell in with a group of English artists who espoused Romantic believes.  During that period, he wrote several pieces of epic poetry that found a huge audience in the UK (though no one reads it today.)


      During this same period, he started "The Firm" a full service interior design firm where he actually made all the stuff he sold to rich people.  He was also active in the first rumblings of what today we would call the "Historic Preservation" movement.  From here, he moved decisively into socialism.  This happened during the 1880s, and at the time he was likely the first semi-respectable intellectual in all of England to go all in on socialism.  At the time, socialism was a pretty fluid concept, and the border lines between socialism/communism/anarchism were hard to determine.

    I found the description of the early period of English socialism to be hilarious, particularly when Thompson describes the realization by the intellectual socialists that at some point, they would actually have to interact with the working classes who they claimed to be speaking for.  We all no how that turned out:  The Working Classes had no problem working within parliamentary democracy and they were less interested in revolution then an 8 hour day.

    Morris was an opponent of "Parliamentary Socialism" preferring instead to wait for some magical transformation from capitalist to socialist paradise.  There is some irony in the fact that although he spend most of his passion espousing socialism, he is today remembered more for his aesthetic theory.

   In the end, Morris missed the trend which would simultaneously prove to be the death of any broad socialist revolution AND would be key to the rise to prominence of his craftsman aesthetic.  And that trend?  Why consumer capitalism of course.  He missed the boat on that, but you can hardly blame him since he lived in a time where consumer capitalism was in a nascent state.  But when capitalist figured out to generate desire in their audience, and then to satisfy that audience with consumer goods.  Well, that was all she wrote for socialist revolution in the west.  The working class didn't want a revolution, they wanted a television.

Ben Allen Produced Whigs Albums Scores 3.6 on Pfork

The Ben Allen produced Whigs Album netted a 3.6 on Pitchfork.  And the review is a real gem:

While the songs certainly do the Whigs no favors, the production and mixing on Dark are downright unconscionable, making one long for the relative restraint of Don Gilmore or Andy Wallace. Gispert's weathered rasp was always the Whigs' distinctive trait; throughout Dark, however, his voice is so muffled and smoothed that it barely registers. And while no one would dispute that Julian Dorio is a superb and technically gifted drummer, Dark seems designed to convince an army of imaginary skeptics, with each snare hit ratcheted up to a comically absurd level. Dark is processed to the point of pasteurization, a record that conjures images of mixing desks and vocal booths as opposed to beer-soaked stages. They may no longer be amateurs, but with Dark, the Whigs prove that professionalism has its own perils.

(PITCHFORK)

John Ruskin, Thomas Carlyle and the So-Called Aesthetics of DIY

Aesthetics (wiki entry) ("Modern Aesthetics interior section")
John Ruskin (wiki entry)  Section 2.1 Art and Design Criticism
Thomas Carlyle (wiki entry) (Sign of the Times essay)

    I was reading the Los Angeles Times free weekly the other day and I saw an alternative headline for the "Queens of Lo Fi" article.  The alternative headline, used for the cover of the free weekly, but not the newspaper articles was "Lo Fi is DIY"- and then it was the same article inside.  That is an equivalence I subscribe too, personally.  The essence of whatever you want to call lo fi is homemade, bedroom pop by individuals in non-professional surroundings.  As I said before, it is the mode of production, rather then any particular sound that results, which describes "lo fi" and therefore lo fi is simply an update of the familiar diy music phenomenon.

    In an attempt to describe a particular SOUND or LOOK or FEEL people will sometimes discuss the "Aesthetics" of a certain category of art.  "The aesthetics of diy" for example, though it could be "the aesthetics of heavy metal" or something not involving music at all.  Aesthetics has a visual and thematic aspect that recalls it's role in history as the "science of beauty."  Beauty takes many forms.  Aesthetics is the study and description of beauty.

       The first important point to make is that the discussion of aesthetics was not confined to debate over what popular musician is better then another popular musician or the merits of the latest Rodarthe rtw  line.  In England, in particular, writers like Thomas Carlyle and most importantly, John Ruskin created a comprehensive critique of 19th century industrial age English society by focusing on the ugliness of the environment.  These guys were super hoity toity intellectuals, criticizing  directly from where they considered themselves "above" i.e., they were into medieval architecture, understood the importance of craftsmanship in production, thought the middle class was stupid, etc.

      But when you talk about an aesthetic of diy, you are essentially talking about John Ruskin.  His ideas in turn inspired William Morris, who inspired the "Craftsman" movement of the United States in the early 20th century.  Perhaps the major difference between the aesthetics of John Ruskin and William Morris vs. the DIY ethic of today is that DIY today is slap dash and amateurish.  People aren't even trying for beauty, it is more important to experiment, express raw emotion or simply to exist.

     However, the larger audience has been taught by culture to seek beauty from art (see above) so these attempts, however satisfying they may be to the artist, are doomed unless they comport with contemporary ideas of beauty.  You might ask yourself, if you are going to make something that people will not consider beautiful, "Why bother?"  The value of art absent an audience is dubious.  The idea of art or beauty without an audience to perceive it is something that would have been foreign to the ancient Greeks (who invented the science.)  On the other hand, it is well in line with the aesthetic theory of the romantics (i.e. wildness, individualism, disregard of the group, etc.)

     Ruskin and Carlyle are more in line with the Ancient Greeks- that's something that separates their thought from the larger romantic movement in the UK and Europe.  Their whole goal is to persuade society of the rightness of their position, they actually involve out of the passion of romanticism.  Romanticism came first, then came the aesthetics of John Ruskin.

    Modern DIY is different from all this because the beauty is in the background.  It needs to be in the foreground.  An Aesthetic that isn't consciously concerned with the description of a particular kind of beauty, is not, in fact, an aesthetic at all, and so to the extent that DIY is not concerned with beauty, it is not an aesthetic at all, but simply a description of a particular form of mass production within consumer capitalist society.

Show of The Month: Past Lives, Heavy Hawaii, Nude Boy, Jungle Fever

    Come see the bands Pitchfork will be talking about in 18 months.  Or, in the case of Past Lives, talking about right now.  (PITCHFORK)

PAST LIVES  HEAVY HAWAII  NUDE BOY , JUNGLE FEVER

$8 THE CASBAH MARCH 16th 2010 (BUY TICKETS)

Show Review: Beaters, Moving Units @ The Casbah

    The Beaters played at the Casbah last night.  During their set, I was thinking about the Soft Pack nee Muslims, and what it was like to see that band play it's very first show, watching them play their fifth show, their 10th show, and seeing them move on.  I was also thinking about the Sess.  I think my first blog post was a review of a Sess show at a house party in City Heights in early 2006. (BAM)

   So what can you say: I felt old.

   You can call me "Grandpa" or "Gramps" if you are going to shorten it.  Someone pointed out (actually at least 3 separate people) the presence of Felicia Canales.  She is known for her defunct-for-now sdgossipscene.com. She has moved to twitter.  She has been written about in the Reader and City Beat

    I learned about sdgossipscene a minute ago.  Not a fan, but you know- I appreciate the effort.  Same way I appreciated  SD Fucko when that was going on.  I like her twitter fight with Josh Damigo.  Kids!

  Here is the bit.  I was standing there with a friend who knows her and he says to her, "Do you know who this is?" and she looks at me and says, "No I don't know you- are you sdfucko.com?" My three og readers understand how hilarious that line is.

   The Beaters were great- they are rounding into form.  I except them to sell some records on their tour with the Soft Pack.  I think they are a good opening band for alot of popular indie acts.  I wonder if they will be able to tour full time if they had the chance and I think...not.  We'll see.

  The Moving Units.  Ohhhhh.... the Moving Units.  A lot of people were there.  12 dollar cover. Place was packed.  And... that's it.

   And as far as scene gossip stuff goes.  I regret my involvement in that in the past.  The fact is... the internet is def. all about gossip, and there is a lot of interest, page views, traffic, etc.  But, in the end, the readers are using the blogger to be, in a sense, bad people.  Malicious people.  And while it's fun to be bad, in the end... everyone gets tired of it.  Then what are you left with.  Nothing.

  Personally, I wish music bloggers like Brooklyn Vegan would take some fucking responsibility for the sexist and racist comments that occur on their blogs.  Free speech is great, but a music blog isn't exactly War and Peace,  ya dig?  Bloggers of all shades and stripes need to own up to the fact the rumor mongering is the quickest way to go from "nobody cares" to "people read my blog"

      Whether it's Felicia herself or The Reader's exceable Blurt or City Beat's more tolerable whatever they call it. Or whether it's Brooklyn Vegan commenter, Perez Hilton, D-Listed or any of the other straight celebrity gossip blogs.  I'm not trying to single anyone out.  It's all gross, it's all stupid, and the fact that it is in some way co-terminus with local music speaks poorly to everyone involved.

     What does it build to?  A career talking shit about people or trashing artists?  Is that the goal? Sad.

Book Review: Soulsville USA: The Story of Stax Records

    Stax Records was started by a white banker in the early 60s.  Originally, Stax was a recording studio and a record shop (Satellite Records) operating in the black part of Memphis.  Stax had early success, and drew early attention.  Atlantic records signed them a distribution deal within a year of their operating as a label.  Early hits were entirely 45s- in those days "Black" music was sold almost exclusively through the 45 format (the early 60s).  Stax sold entirely to mom and pop stores in black neighborhoods.  Though they had hits prior to his arrival, Otis Redding was the first star of Stax records.  A Stax Revue toured the UK and northern europe in 1967, and that was followed by a headlining performance of Redding at the Monterey Festival.  That was the turning point for Stax in terms of viability.
 
  Unfortunately, shortly after that Redding died while piloting his small plane (Musicians- stay away from the small planes!) and after that Stax learned that the "distribution" agreement that they had reached with Atlantic actually had a "sneaky" provision that gave right to all the master recordings to ATLANTIC.  Boo-yaaa!!!!

   Starting over in the late 60s, Stax scored big with Issac Hayes LP Hot Buttered Soul.  Hot Buttered Soul was a sales phenomenon, though it's successs was pre-saged by the fact that Hayes, with writing partner David Porter, actually wrote many of the early Stax hits- including Sam and Dave's "Soul Man" and "Hold on I'm Coming."

     The lessons start flowing fast and furious after the release of Hot Buttered Soul.  Stax agreed to sell itself to Gulf & Western (Paramount Pictures), Gulf and Western was clueless, so they bought the label back for millions more then what they sold it for, and then reached another distribution with Clive Davis and CBS.  Shortly after that, Clive Davis was fired, and the new management didn't understand what they were supposed to do with Stax Records.

    By the mid 70s it all ended and tears- and the main players at Stax- Jim Stewart and Al Bell lost everything.  EVERYTHING.  The only one who got out was Stewarts sister, Estelle Axton- (ST-AX), who had mortgaged her house to pay for the original building.  She got out in the late 60s.

    This book made me wonder why Stax needed to be so ambitious.  They had some hit records, they were making alot of money, but it wasn't enough.  They needed to expand, they needed to diversify, they needed to partner with major labels.  Why?  Because they weren't making enough money- they were.  The problem is that they were spending money on huge concerts (Wattstax), movies and gold plated Cadillac's for Issac Hayes.

   When people hit the good times, they think the good times will never end- but often times, people who succeed don't really understand how they succeeded, and that causes them to misinterpret the nature of their success.  While the music of Stax remains, the label does not, and it's both an enlightening and cautionary tail  I saw almost zero logic for every decision they made after mid 1967.  All of their business decisions were bad.  They were like pro athletes who get their first big contract and spend it all on cars.

   They could have stayed smaller and stuck around forever, but it wasn't good enough for Al Bell.  They had to go for broke.  And now they are all broke.