Posted by Nick Meador on Apr 15, 2010 in News, Videos
I am hereby retiring the MusicEdge Blog and transferring the corresponding Twitter account over to the folks at MSU’s Spartanedge. I started the MusicEdge section there in 2007 while I was in the Masters of Journalism program. There are a variety of reasons for my decision, but the prevailing one is that my own professional goals have shifted — or I should say, they’ve become more focused and clarified. I started blogging about music in January 2006 on my Blogger.com page. Now my writing is more often about movies, books, culture, psychology and philosophy. Those are the topics I discuss regularly over at my Refractor blog, hosted on my DIY magazine Supraterranean.com.
Here are some of the other reasons for my decision.
- Spartanedge is a student publication. I haven’t been a student for two years. The blog sort of operates on its own, but for a while I’ve considered hosting the blog on my personal website. That’s where I’ll soon move it to: nickmeador.org.
- Since January of 2007 when this blog started, I’ve only received a total of 29 comments. And since I started logging site traffic in mid 2008, there have only been an average of 4-5 visits per day. The busiest day was last fall, when 600 visits came in from a post about Japandroids being listed on Digg or Reddit. I’m fine doing work that doesn’t gain wide exposure, but the work has to fulfill my true potential. Music writing is only a piece of that.
- The Music Festival boom is over. Rothbury is gone (what the hell were they thinking?!). Lollapalooza is kinda stinky — not just the line-up but also the organization in 2009 (there were much fewer porta-johns and more constrictive walking paths). And I’ll never get a chance to go to Coachella (plus I would miss half the bands I wanna see because they have so much overlap). Personally I think our music culture is undergoing a strange flux and the upcoming decade is going to be much different than the previous one. We’ll see what happens…
- Music writing limits my language and my ability to truly communicate myself. I’ve known this for a while, but I guess once I stopped freelance music writing, it didn’t bother me as much. I was able to write whatever I wanted on this blog — I had total independence. But the price of unabashed individuality is that no one pays attention (either that or you piss people off). Oh well.
- Music writing upholds the capitalist system that created entertainment monopolies and media conglomerates. That’s why Capitol Records and Live Nation even still exist after the onset of p2p networks — because we’re not actually “rebelling” against them. Or I should say, enough of the general population is still willing to listen to Top 40 and MTV artists, even if they claim to be interested in independent music. The point is not that you should listen to unpopular bands; it’s that you should listen to bands that aren’t prostitutes. Anyways, many of the indie bands simply make themselves into media darlings for the likes of Pitchfork (or Pitchfuck, as I like to call them). That’s still prostitution, even if they’re getting paid in “hipster cool points” instead of dollars.
- I fear I’ve acted in the hipster vein too often. By hipster I mean anyone who prefers to build an aura of “cool” instead of facing the difficulties of life, figuring out who they really are, educating themselves, and actually accomplishing something. That’s not to say that I wish I hadn’t written about independent music. It’s that I’ve now totally and officially unplugged from the music media machine. I couldn’t stand being dependent on Pitchfork when I hate everything they represent. Granted, I still see their “best new music” choices, and occasionally check for tour and album announcements on their news feed. But I now look at those things a couple times a month, instead of every day. Furthermore, I don’t intend to make “Best of XXXX” lists anymore. Actually the past few were “My Favorite Albums of XXXX.” I guess I might still do that. But I’m more interested in writing the story of what role that music played in my life.
- Sadly, there’s an element of music and music writing that distracts me from more pressing things going on, like the collapse of the industrialized world. This “distraction” factor is more true with TV and movies (and even books, especially contemporary fiction), or if you’re into pop stars. But even the way I track concerts takes up a lot of my time. Don’t get me wrong — I still love live music. And I think it’s great that, more and more, things are shifting towards electronica the live music scenes. But even at the Flying Lotus show at the Magic Stick on April 1, I kinda wished I hadn’t gone. I had just seem him the Friday before at the Blind Pig, and I was at the Magic Stick by myself. The show was sold out so it was really crowded, and the sound quality was really shitty. FlyLo’s music has a lot of detail that can get lost with poor sound engineering. The worst part is that I could have watched Serena Maneesh downstairs in the Cafe (though I did watch the first 20 min of their set). And Beach House was playing at the Pike Room in Pontiac! I probably would have enjoyed that more.
To anyone who knows me, I’m sure it’s obvious that I won’t stop writing about music altogether. It’ll just be mixed together with other topics, or it’ll take the form of an essay that I can publish on Supraterranean and somewhere else. Thanks to those who have read my posts. I had plenty of fun writing them.
To send things off the right way, here’s a playlist of videos from the Bassnectar & Major Lazer show at the Fillmore Detroit on 4/9/10. Enjoy!
Posted by Nick Meador on Mar 22, 2010 in MP3s, News, Records
Caribou’s new album Swim arrives in the U.S. on April 20 — but I’ve got a sneak preview for the MusicEdge Blog! Here’s the track “Lalibela”:
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I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty excited! It’s quite a departure from Dan Snaith’s earlier work under this name and, previously, as Manitoba. I wasn’t as thrilled by Andorra, his 2007 LP that had everyone in a tizzy.
Actually, if I were to compare this to any Caribou album, it would be 2001’s Start Breaking My Heart. Still, that was IDM with a strong percussion base. Swim is a more disco-centric affair, but with a scope that seems almost futuristic. In that way it’s a progression beyond the apparent influences like DFA and even Erlend Oye.
Snaith himself said it would be dance music that sounded like it was made with water. And look at that exquisite cover design! I couldn’t stop myself from posting it at full size. It’ll likely be among the best album artwork we see in 2010.
Dan Snaith is from Dundas, Ontario, yet somehow Caribou’s current European tour will be followed by a North American tour — that is, a tour that will snake through the U.S., Mexico and Canada — without a single stop in Michigan. It’s sad — Caribou’s live show has, in my mind, always been more interesting than the studio recordings, with two drummers and synchronized animation.
Maybe he’ll show up on the Lollapalooza 2010 line-up, which should be announced by late April or early May!
Ahhh…spring. No place comes alive in March like East Lansing. Students go out into the median of a boulevard and play frisbee! Or they go sit by the Red Cedar River to do some reading or watch the ducks bathe. St. Patrick’s Day marks the time to begin sitting on your porch and hosting barbecues for friends.
I don’t get that same feeling in Washtenaw County. The only change I noticed here was a much bigger afternoon crowd at the local coffee shop. Long-time readers of this blog will know that I pay a lot of attention to seasons — or at least, I used to. In a way I feel like people stop honoring seasonal shifts once they finish school. I think this contributes to (or is a reflection of) the zombie adult syndrome that’s widespread in modern society. Back around 2005 I started making seasonal mixtapes, and the tracks on my Spring Mix were arranged to come alive in much the same way that the season does. The first few songs are calm and darker (for cold, rainy days), and the last few are really spunky (for the sunny days that bridge into summer).
Posted by Nick Meador on Mar 5, 2010 in Features, MP3s
Phew, how does time pass so swiftly? Is it really the third month of 2010 already? Much of what I post on this blog lately reveals the connections I find between different kinds of music. I have a pretty wacky taste in music, which I attribute partly to the expansive forces of the Internet, and partly to my own multifarious personality. When I got to college in 2001, I really began to move away from the FM radio rock I was suckled on. That was thanks in part to the regular programming and evening shows on the Impact 89 FM, the college radio station at MSU.
My favorite show, “The Jazz Spectrum,” aired every Monday night from 8pm to midnight. Not only did it help me concentrate on homework, but it opened me up to the wonders of what some call America’s finest art form. But at some point after finishing my MA of journalism in 2008 (I went back to MSU after some time away), the Impact apparently canceled the show. Now their Monday evenings are occupied by “The Asian Invasion.” I only discovered this by accident, when attempting to listen to their online stream on a Monday not too long ago. I couldn’t find any explanation on their website, but I’m assuming that the host of the jazz program must have moved out of the area. To be honest, I was surprised at how long the show ran. I imagine the host might have started as a student, and then managed to stay in the Lansing area after graduation — which is a rare feat these days.
Posted by Nick Meador on Feb 11, 2010 in Features, MP3s
A couple weeks ago I began a short series looking at the current state of mash-up electronic music. Mash-up as a genre has probably existed since the beginning of the last decade. The earliest instance I’ve found was Soulwax, acting under their other name, 2 Many DJs. They released a ton of bootleg mixtapes that weren’t all that much different than what Girl Talk took so much credit for from 2006 on. In fact, some of the work Soulwax did was better, and they are commendable house producers aside from all that!
Posted by Nick Meador on Feb 5, 2010 in MP3s, News
Just a quick post tonight to let you know about the new MusicEdge Concert Calendar. For a few months I’ve been using Google Calendar to keep track of upcoming concerts. Then tonight I remembered that you can embed Google Calenders anywhere on the web, provided that you make them public so anyone can see the content. So I made a new page on this blog, with a new link that says “Concert Calendar” — LOOK UP AT THE TOP!
(click to enlarge)
It won’t contain every single upcoming show in Michigan, but it will definitely have every concert that I’m even remotely interested in. Most listings outside of Michigan will be music festivals, since people tend to drive up to 10 hours for those things. (Man, typing that reminds me that Rothbury isn’t happening in 2010. That still hasn’t fully hit me yet. What a sad thing though…)
Posted by Nick Meador on Jan 30, 2010 in Concerts, Videos
I’m thoroughly tired of all those year and decade lists, and I’m sure you are too. Now it’s time to move onto something else. Back in October 2009 I saw Neon Indian live at the Magic Stick. It was a decent show despite the relatively small audience. Luckily Alan Polomo’s debut under that name hasn’t gotten played out — especially now that I have a copy in lossless audio. With my new super-powered, sound-reducing headphones, it’s a transcendent listening experience!
I’ll include a few low-res videos from the show below, but that’s not what I intend to talk about here. I want to take a look at the current state of mash-ups. I think it’s still a viable way to make music, and it’s fitting for the ongoing proliferation of digitized culture. But most of the best mash-up artists get barely any attention. Girl Talk got so popular that it made the whole idea seem like a fad. Part of the problem is that there isn’t just one way to make a mash-up. Girl Talk’s Gregg Gillis claims he’s “playing his laptop,” as if it were an instrument in itself. What he’s really doing is picking and choosing bits of songs that he cuts up in advance, and the on-stage mixing is done with DJ software.
Despite being so connected that I often feel like Neo when he wakes up in his Matrix-pod all submerged in pink goo and attached to a dozen different wires, many of my favorite albums from any given year don’t make their way into my iTunes playlist until the the year after they’re released.
It amazes me how much effort I still put into finding new music. I don’t necessarily spend as much time as back in… say… ‘06 or ‘07. But that’s partly because web technology keeps improving, and it’s now easier for me to track various sources that announce new releases. Just to name a few, I get a weekly email from Allmusic.com, I’ve got Pitchfork and Metacritic in Google Reader, and I listen to Last.fm almost as much as my MP3 collection.
So in the interest of not leaving out those who should have been included in the first place, here are ten albums from 2008 that came to me too late to make that year’s wrap-up. The point is, I’m still listening to these, and you should too!
In the interest in getting all these wrap-ups over with, I’m going to try and make this really speedy. Don’t blink…
2009 Albums – Honorable Mentions
I couldn’t narrow it down to 10. Think of it as a game of Blackjack if that helps (as in, top 10 plus 11 honorable mentions).
21. Nosaj Thing – Drift: While not nearly as captivating as his 2006 EP Octopus Views, this is still a noteworthy release when viewed from the perspective of the budding electronic/instrumental hip hop scene in Los Angeles. The dark, futuristic sounds and L.A. stamp always make me think of Blade Runner. 20. Wild Beasts – Two Dancers: I’m no fan of Antony (Antony and the Johnsons, Hercules and Love Affair) and his sexually ambiguous cooing, and I was quick to group Wild Beasts in that same general category. However, I was also quick to admit my folly. This album offers operatic vocals and humid atmospherics, along with hushed guitars and keyboards that fit within the general New York indie rock style of the last decade (though this group is actually from England).
Wow, I have 17 unpublished drafts on this blog — and this is a new one on top of that. Apparently I’ve been totally overwhelmed lately (say, for the past five months straight). A boring winter might be just what I need!
To make this intro brief, I’m going to try and get through two or three more post of decade wrap-up before returning to the regular rotation of music news, concert reviews, and the like. With that said, here is a run-down of some of the bands that I feel didn’t get enough attention from either audiences or music critics. They weren’t invited to big festivals, nor did they ever sell many records. But they all recorded great music, and some — I can say from first-hand experience — are (or were) incredible performers. Here they are, in no particular order.
1. Doves – This British band released three amazing records in the 2000s before putting out the lackluster Kingdom of Rust in 2009. Like many bands emerging under the Brit-pop umbrella at the beginning of the decade, they were completely eclipsed by the major labor monster that Coldplay became. These fellows should be ranked among the U.K. greats in their genre: Badly Drawn Boy, Supergrass, even Radiohead (in their earlier, less godly existence). 2. Aloha – One of the many bands I found on the Xbox snowboarding classic Amped, I’ve found something to appreciate in every stage of their band development. 2000’s That’s Your Fire was a sprawling work with an abstract jazz flavor, mostly thanks to the prominent use of vibraphone. The middle phase of Here Comes Everyone and Some Echoes showed their growing confidence and pop sensibilities. Then the glistening, majestic Light Works appeared suddenly in December 2007 — and that’s the last I’ve heard from them. It’s a shame that they couldn’t garner the attention that other Polyvinyl artists (like of Montreal) have managed to. Oh well…
- The Ruminant Bant by Fruit Bats
- Logos by Atlas Sound
- Psychic Chasms by Neon Indian
- Eyelid Movies by Phantogram
- East of Eden by Taken by Trees
- Ephemeral Exhibits by Starkey
- Immolate Yourself by Telefon Tel Aviv
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