Scritti Politti and deconstruction [01 Dec 2005|07:14pm] Here is a fascinating article on the band Scritti Politti and the deconstruction of pop music. The band is a fabulous mixture of postmodern theory and glamorous dance-pop.  I will post some of their music in the near future.  This article is part of a larger dissertation on deconstruction and music.  The structure of the dissertation is also worth mentioning, as it is presented as a sort of mind-map with interconnecting avenues.  There will be music arriving in a short while. post comment

Heliozoa [28 Nov 2005|11:15am] um, wow This site is giving me a migraine... in a good way.  You should investigate. 3 comments|post comment

Interview this morning [30 Sep 2002|08:59pm] So this morning myself and Mat (timorousme), who has the show before mine, interviewed Mild Mannerd (who insists on being referred to by his real name, Miles, in person). Here is the transcript, if you didn't catch it. The podcast is also available on the station's website http://www.wmucradio.com Matt: Miles, thank you so much for coming to the station, it's not every day we get a local icon like yourself on the air. Mat: Yeah Miles, it's a real pleasure. I haven't been researching the Paranoids like Matt has, but I'm a big fan of yous guys, and I love seeing yous guys play live. Miles: Well, it is always an interesting experience coming on college radio. The low end of the dial back in Los Angeles nurtured our band and we will always be forever grateful to the institution. It is simply one of the most pure and loving tributes to the power of music that you students are willing to devote your time and energy to the propogation of underground music. Matt: Um, don't lie to yourself, Miles. It's a power trip for most of us. We're all pretentious f... er, I mean, jerks. Mat: (Laughs) Yeah, tell me about it. And watch your mouth, Matt, the FCC is listening. Even at 4 in the AM. Anyhoo, Miles, let's begin. Can you tell us a little bit about what it was like living inside of Miles for the first 23 years of your life? Miles: Well, to tell you the truth, I don't exactly remember it. I don't know to what degree I was conscious, my first memory is from around 1974, I think. Around that time they were filling me with multitudes of growth hormones. All I really know are that I did have some sort of dialogue with my brother when I was inside. Perhaps the shock of being severed from his makeshift womb caused a form of amnesia or post-traumatic stress syndrome. I spent most of the 70's being taken care of by Miles, who recounted many of the conversations in which he had engaged with me. I only know of them secondhand, through Miles, and since he has altered the accounts of those conversations recently, I have begun to question their exact nature. Mat: Right, right Matt: So like tell us about your like earliest memories. Miles: Okay, well, around 1977, I had grown to proportions large enough that I could actually leave the house. At this point, Miles pretty much told me to go get a job. Oddly enough, with the amnesia, I still had an odd wealth of reference in my unconscious. Books that Miles had read, music he had listened to, some of them seemed to hang around. So back in the 60's, when Miles was attending UCLA, he enrolled in quite a few classes on English Literature, and I believe completed his major in that subject. In one of our conversations, he recounted that I had thoroughly enjoyed the poem when he read it to me back in 1966, and that I had convinced him to use that stanza for the chorus, which is why I decided to sue him. Then again, as I have no proof of any of this, the lawsuit is futile and I am going to withdraw the case shortly. But I digress. I found work at a small bookstore near the UCLA campus. It was called "The Blow-Out." They sold a lot of left-of-center books, like Mikhail Bakunin and J.G. Ballard, Jacques Derrida, but the owner also had a little obsession with the Romantics. When he gave me a volume of Byron, I eagerly read through it, and it triggered all sorts of memories. Mat: Right, right, the unconscious memories. So what is your favorite poem by Byron? Miles: Well, I absolutely love "Manfred." Mat: Matt, you're the English major here, do you know that one? Matt: Yeah, of course, I love that play. It's like all about, you know. Mat: Yeah, yeah. Oh, wait, no. What do you mean? Matt: Well, let's not like talk about it on the air. Miles, why did that one strike a chord? Miles: I just simply identified with Manfred. I understand his plight. Matt: Oh yeah (laughs) I know what you mean. So like tell me this, how did the Parasites get rolling? Miles: Well, you see, they were all regulars at the store. One day Art came in with this record by the Sex Pistols. I thought they were awful, but then, he showed me an article on them in the New Music Express, and I became absolutely fascinated by punk rock. Art was extroardinarily well informed regarding the local Los Angeles punk rock scene and we began fabricating a scheme to play the celebrirty game just like Johnnie Rotten was doing and Byron once had. Mat: Right, right. That's quite interesting, that connection. So is that how yous guys stumbled upon your wild theatrics? Could you tell us the story behind them? Miles: Well, you see, ahem, a good magician never gives away his tricks, as they say. I cannot delve into the specifics of my (clears throat) act, as it might give away a few too many secrets. Why don't we take a break from talking and play some music? Mat: Yeah, yeah, of course. What do you want to hear, can we play a classic Parasites song, maybe, um, I can't say the title on the air. "You know what in the Face?" Miles: No. Something more exciting that that. Do you have any Prince in your record library? Matt: Like, we should have a copy of "Dirty Mind" lying around here. Don't lie to yourself, I love that album. It's like such a perfect combination of synth-disco and power pop. Miles: Let's hear "Sister," that's my favorite song off that album. Mat: Right, right, it's like Prince's punk song. Miles: In a sense. --- The interview actually ended up stopping there, we sort of got caught up in playing music. With a few minutes of the show left, we finally got Mild to play a little song for us on Mat's guitar. He sang, of all things, Steely Dan's "Reelin' in the Years," a song that I never expected to hear come out of the pipes of a punk legend. After the performance, Miles commented "I've only begun to appreciate Steely Dan as of recent. They have an towering sense of studio and songcraft, and their music was always full of tastful cynicism. What other pop band could quote, as they refer to him as, Ted Adorno? They are a wonderful little band. I have to admit, though, I became intrigued with them by way of VH1's Behind the Music program a few years back. Daryl Hall and John Oates have also possessed me lately, for much the same reason. To be honest, I feel as though I would like to perform one of their songs now. Would that be alright?" Even though the next DJ was in the studio already, she agreed to give up some of her timeslot to allow Miles to sing a bit more. He broke out into the Hall & Oates obscurity "I Hear the Voices," an odd doo-wopp song that tells about a Serial Killer obsessed with the song "Duke of Earl." Finally, he played "Fuck You in the Face," which simply sounded bizarre sung solo. Once again, you can hear this entire show for the next week or so if you visit http://www.wmucradio.com and go to the show archives. post comment

Mild Mannerd [27 Sep 2002|07:35pm] So I saw the Parasites play at the Black Cat last night. If you're in the DC area, you really have to catch them. I cornerned Mild Mannerd backstage and tried to get a little bit of info about his brother. He seemed interested in the idea of someone doing academic work surrounding the Paranoids and wanted to be involved in some way. So I asked if we could meet up and have a chat when he was, ahem, a little more sober. He insisted on being interviewed on my show. So yeah, next Monday at 4 am, you can hear me interview Mild Mannerd. Tune in, if you're awake. post comment

urgh, I'm back [02 Sep 2002|07:21pm] Okay, so I got a little lazy over the summer. But hey, while I've been gone, has anyone noticed that the Paranoids became the biggest thing on the planet?! I think it has something to do with nobody really knowing their backstory. I mean, they got a GREAT make-up job in the video for "Dumpy Woman," because they look YOUNG. And man, that song, it totally sounds like it could be the Hives. Everywhere you go, you get people saying "hey, Matt, have you heard of this new band? You know, they're one of the "The" bands, like the Strokes and the White Stripes and the Hives and the Vines." And I always say "you mean the Paranoids?" And they are like "yeah dude, don't they rock? They beat the crap out of Britney Spears." Okay, I'm not gonna lie, I like the Paranoids and I try to keep myself away from being smug as much as possible, but that drives me crazy. Anyway, Jake Durkenbaum sorta came through on his promises, he did a great interview with Miles Lesser, who, if you don't know, is the lead singer of the Paranoids. Pick up this month's PMM and check it out. It's the first installment of "Purpose" without footnotes! I would say that this interview might make a dent in the image of the Paranoids, but hey, nobody actually reads PMM except for other music critics, and frankly, most of them knew about the Pranoids and knew they were an old band, so they won't care. The big breaking news of the month, however, is that Miles Lesser is the twin brother of Mild Mannerd from the Parasites. They were born with soem crazy condition called "fetus in fetu." Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetus_in_fetu for an explanation of what that is. Man, that's some crazy shit. Also, there is a lawsuit between the brothers regarding who owns the rights to "Dumpy Woman" and a few other Paranoids songs. This should get interesting. I will have to go and chat with Mild Mannerd one of these days. He comes to the station every now and then, and a lot of the DJ's at WMUIC are fixtures as Parasites gigs around here. More to come on that. 2 comments|post comment

Mark Stanley [15 Jun 2002|09:54am] So I didn't get to update for a little while, but Mark Stanley was here at the tail end of the semester. He was speaking at the Journalism school. He was actually much nicer than I imagined him being and was relatively eager to actually talk to the students. I had sort of assumed he would shy away from questions or give short, smug answers and dispose of conversation as quickly as possible. His gripe with contemporary criticism seems to be largely that most critics don't take experimental music seriously. This sort of makes sense coming from someone who was raised on post-punk, but then again, one might want to interrogate the roots of what Stanley considers "experimental" music. Stanley decried the recent outburst of "dance-rock" acts like !!!, claiming they were merely second rate rip-off of James Chance's innovations. For the sake of argument, it is worth mentioning that James Chance borrowed many rhythms from the near-by disco scene, which was about as commercial as music could get. At any rate, it seemed that Stanley's main problem is that critics today simply aren't interested in originality. After I told him about my thesis, he told me "that's fine to do, kid, but make sure you keep your bullshit detector turned on at all times." I told him I already had. If I'd had more balls, I would have added something snappy like "and it's going off right now," but that would have been disrespectful and I'm glad I opted out of it. Besides, he was a nice enough guy, just kind of out of touch. post comment

a topic! [07 May 2002|01:49pm] Okay. So I have sort of reconfigured this project into doing "field research" surrounding that band. I kind of feel like I am sort of hustling the department, because I'm pretty much just doing music journalism. They consider it to be an investigation into folk-art, though, and I certainly agree with them, but this feels too easy. I suppose this will be rather rigorous music journalism? Also, it looks like there is a bit of animosity between Jake Durkenbaum and Mark Stanley now. Mark Stanley is actually speaking down here in two weeks, I think it's jointly sponsored by the Journalism school and WMUC. (by the way, if you get the chance, listen to my radio show. I have the graveyard shift, from 4AM to 6 AM on Monday mornings. If you're in the College Park area, the frequency is 88.1 fm, or you can listen online at www.wmucradio.com) I heard him on NPR last week and he was bashing Durkenbaum, calling all sorts of names like "stupid postmodernist" and "phony." He went on this long rant decrying the lack of authenticity in musical taste these days. He was particularly perturbed by this new upstart called Pitchfork (you can check them out at www.pitchforkmedia.com) whom he said were the worst thing to happen to music criticism since Lester Bangs kicked it. As far as I'm concerned, that doesn't make them too bad, but then again, Stanley was bred in the Max's/CBGB's scene, so you know. I will try to corner Stanley and get a few words out of him, and maybe even get a little bit of insight into the Paranoids if I can. Speaking of those whose umbilical chords are still attached to Max's Kansas City, for kicks, check out Stephen Thomas Erlewine's review of the second New York Doll's album over on www.allmusic.com. I'm starting to wonder whether he is being ironic when he says "they really mean it man!" But yeah, that review is the epitome of what I've been on about lately, all the bullshit worship that goes into rock criticism. He talks about how slick Shadow Morton's production is (which isn't really all that slick), but really uses that as this argument to talk about the "essential rawness" of the New York Dolls, pretty much saying that they are such a "raw" and "authentic" band, that it shines through even the shiniest production. This irritates me to no end. There are a bunch of bands around these days that are sort of amping up that whole "we play it raw because we are just sooo real" kind of angle. The Strokes, for example, tout themselves around as the dirtiest band on the planet, and they put all that fake distortion over Julian Casablancas's voice. What a joke. These days, with all that computer software you can record on, it's cheaper to make nice, clean sounding records than dirty ones; you either have to artificially inset noise and tape hiss over top of the recording or you have to go and seek out vintage, trashy analog gear, which is pretty expensive. That being said, I do like the Strokes. I think they write well crafted, catchy little songs, but I wish they would record them with real production values. They're not fooling me. post comment

The Paranoids? [03 May 2002|03:34pm] Yeah, so did anyone read Durkenbaum's column yesterday? I hate to admit it, but he's actually one of my favorite music critics out there. I mean, he sort of writes like a jackass and pseudo-intellectualism just seethes through his articles. I mean, come on, he has to be the only guy writing for a music magazine that actually footnotes his articles. It's as if to remind everyone that he does indeed have a PhD and could be out teaching at a University, writing REAL criticism, but he just chooses to write for a casual magazine like PMM. I mean, even Mark Stanley doesn't footnote his articles. Nobody does that. Speaking of Mark Stanley, Durkenbaum really went to bat with him over that Paranoids song. By the way, what a great song! It works beautifully in that commercial, too. I am sort of leaning towards using that as one of my main texts in my thesis. Speaking of which, I submitted my proposal last week, and it got... not quite rejected, but you know, they said I need a bit more of a focus, so I think I may work on a few specific commercial/musical meeetings. More to come. post comment

New Blog [07 Apr 2002|12:22pm] So I decided to cancel my old livejournal (acefacematt, for those of you who read it), and decided I'm finished with that emotional blogging bullshit. There are far too many Werthers out there in the blogosphere. So anyway, this one will deal moreso with my academic stuff, less with the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. For the most part, I plan to casually discuss my senior thesis, as it develops, as well as post some mp3's here and there. I will probably also talk about other things, we'll see. For those of you in my thesis class who are reading this, you probably know the basic idea behind what I'm doing, but for those who don't, I pretty much wanted to investigate the marketing of music by way of commercial placement. Up until recently, it was really scorned for respected music to make its way into commercials. Everyone remembers the collective groan uttered by the world when "Revolution" popped up in that Nike commercial, right? Well, as of recent, it has not only become accepted, but artists such as Moby have developed a sort of symbiotic relationship with the advertising industry; the advertisers get music for their commercials while the artists gain exposure. This is really just a vague idea right now. Oren (voodoocharade) asked me a few days ago how I was able to get away with this in the English department. Well, the justification is that I will be reading these commercials as cultural texts; it's a sort of cultural studies project, if you will. I will have more of a justification later on as my thesis develops. 2 comments|post comment

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