Sirens come up to greet me.

If you know me in real life (or IRL for my nerd pals) and I have not made you listen to Longwave before, I have failed you as a friend... until now.


Longwave - State of Mind

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My love affair with this band started as so many great things do, which is to say completely unexpectedly.  Apparently, in the last days of OKC's famous Rainbow Records, I was one of the only frequent customers because I don't see how this possibly could have happened otherwise.  I remember going in between classes at OCU right down the street to browse frequently, often walking out with at least some small item of interest.  On one such occasion, the guy who ran the place (his name escapes me) asked me out of the blue, "Hey, do you like The Donnas at all?"  I of course replied, "Yeah, they're not bad."  He then tells me that he has two free promotional tickets to their show at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa that week.  "You can have 'em if you want.  I'm not really into that stuff."  I of course accepted and immediately got on the phone to find someone who might want to go.  Reliable as ever, my friend Scott (who I will probably try to convince to write for this blog at some point) said he would go.  Sweet deal!  Last minute road trip to Tulsa just because the concert was free!


Longwave - Tidal Wave

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So the day of the concert arrives and we show up with our friend Alex in tow who was attending university in Tulsa at the time.  This was my first of what would be many concerts at Cain's Ballroom and I was immediately taken with the place.  The wood floor, which has since been replaced, felt like it could cave at any minute and there were pictures of all sorts of country legends on the walls; the kind of country legends Hank III is enamored with.  The lights dimmed (like they do) and out stepped this group fronted by a slightly awkward looking skinny dude with the curliest blonde hair I'd ever seen.  They proceeded to erupt into the brightest most glorious sounds I'd heard at that point in my life, which I later found out was fittingly referred to as "Dream Pop."  Chimey guitar melodies laden with delay, reverb and just the right amount of crunchy tube distortion, with hazy pop melodies laid over the top.  Who WERE these guys?!


Longwave - Underneath You Know the Names

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After they finished their criminally short set, I snapped out of my euphoric delirium, hot-footed it straight to the merch table and purchased a copy of their latest release at the time, the "Day Sleeper" EP.  I about wore it out for a week straight.  (If you're wondering what happened to the rest of the concert at this point, Ok Go was surprisingly not bad and 3/4 of the Donnas were pretty hot.)  A short time after, they released their second full album "The Strangest Things," which brought them REALLY close to dethroning Radiohead as my favorite band of all time.  Come to think of it, I should probably buy another copy of that record before I can't find it anymore.  My copy is looking a bit worse for wear...


Longwave - Sirens in the Deep Sea

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For those of you who haven't listened to the tracks littered throughout this post but have seen fit to read this rambling nonsense through to the end, consider picking up "The Strangest Things" and their latest record "Secrets Are Sinister."  Those are far and away their most solid albums, but they've yet to release something that isn't good.  Then again, you're talking to a guy who has obsessively tracked down physical copies on vinyl and CD of nearly all of this group's recorded output.  If you're the kind who doesn't like paying for music, the kind folks over at Daytrotter recorded a live session with them which you can download for free.


Longwave - Below Bellow

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I promise that's it for now.

On Lady Gaga, Extreme Metal and Shock Pop

I didn't think I would ever have anything to contribute to the ongoing mass-media dialogue surrounding the collective fascination with Lady Gaga, but here I am.  I can't say that I find her fascinating, as so many in the business of shaping opinions about music and fashion seem to do.  I, like many people who pay any attention to popular music, first became aware of her after hearing her single "Poker Face," but I first became genuinely interested in her as a subject after hearing this:

Lady Gaga/Meshuggah - Paparazzi/Bleed "Mash-up"

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Now, HERE was something I could get into. While I can't say I'm a fan of Lady Gaga's OR Meshuggah's music overall, the combination of these two seemingly incompatible musical forces struck a chord with me somewhere. Here was something that was both brutal and catchy, flavors which I have come to value to varying degrees, but rarely get to savor in the same mouthful. And while neither artist had anything to do with the creation of this mash-up aside from having created the source material, it made me wonder what it was about Gaga that would lead a metal fan to create something like this using a popular artist. (It had to be a metal fan because, let's face it, what person who primarily consumes radio-friendly Pop music is even going to know who Meshuggah is?)

This led me to do some reading about Lady Gaga. I learned that she briefly attended NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, gaining entry at the age of 17 to study music. Impressive. Not what I would have expected given the brand of music she creates. I read about how she draws much of her musical influence from glam-rockers like David Bowie and Queen ("Radio Ga Ga" was the inspiration for her stage moniker). I was not surprised to learn that, artistically speaking, she was hugely influenced by the likes of Andy Warhol. I saw in interviews that she is intent on creating a pop-culture empire the likes of which Madonna could only dream. She doesn't take herself too seriously and knows that her music bears virtually no artistic relevance whatsoever.

That's all fine and good, but what's the big deal? My friend Grace over at the High Fashion Girl blog wrote about Gaga as a post-postmodern provocateur (altermodern is the word actually, but this a music blog, not an art & philosophy blog and music fans are intimately familiar with the word "post"). To quote her at length:

The only thing Lady Gaga is selling is herself (and, herself as revolution). She knows exactly what she is and she impeccably performs her duty. Because of this, she is an Altermodern Messiah. I don’t think she ever set out to be an Altermodern Messiah, nor does my heaping intellectual praise have any affect on what she says or does. However, there is intent behind Lady Gaga’s actions.  She is a post-capitalist revolutionary who is brilliantly exploiting the failings of the system and who brilliantly manipulates the media. This self-awareness and self-referential brand of marketing is changing the way we think.

Her article is a great read.  While the above paragraph isn't exactly her thesis, it mirrors a lot of what is being written about Gaga in all sorts of publications, both digital and analog.  Although I find it fascinating that a pop star is garnering all of these accolades from people who ordinarily wouldn't have anything to do with her kind, I can't bring myself to get on board with it.  Maybe I'm too cynical, maybe I'm too contrarian or maybe I just don't "get it," but it seems as though Gaga's attitude is something only new to western pop culture, but not new to pop culture on a global scale.


In Japan, there are musical performers referred to literally as "idol singers."  They began to emerge from the burgeoning J-Pop scene in recent decades and are similar in many respects to the American pop idols of the 60s and 70s.  They are literally products to be sold in as many forms as people are willing to consume.  J-Pop idols and their music aren't generally considered to be "artistically" important, even by the artists themselves, but they make a crap-ton of money.  By contrast in the US, both performers and fans have a tendency to view popular musical products as serious art.  There's a light gloss of pretense over American popular music that isn't really warranted or appropriate.


How does this relate to Lady Gaga?  Well, to quote Gaga herself "... I make soulless electronic pop music."  She is aware that she is a product and she lets her audience know that she is aware of this fact as well.  Now, again this isn't that revolutionary, but it is a breath of fresh air to someone like myself who's seen all of the corporate music garbage being pumped out by the major record labels for what it is for years.  I can only hope that the public at large will begin to view the landscape of pop music the way Gaga views her own music: "Soulless electronic pop."  Now, this is actually fairly endearing on a personal level, but again, I'm not buying into the hype just yet.  An admitted corporate shill is still a shill.  Sorry.


There's been much ado about how "strange" she is when it comes to her fashion sense and her music videos.  Her style is confrontational and it's not easy to swallow.  If I were to compare her visual style to something musical, I'd liken it to something like the piece "Alice" by Sunn O))) on their most recent album "Monoliths & Dimensions."  Within the same piece of music, one can hear very "ugly" down-tuned, distorted guitars droning on dissonant chords while moments later, a sublime, melodic free jazz trombone (played by the legendary Julian Priester for those of you who are familiar) soaring over a swirling tapestry of harp, strings and horns.


Sunn O))) - "Alice"

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The general public aren't used to seeing these sorts of stark contrasts of images in their popular music performers and having this sort of juxtaposition thrust upon oneself without sufficient preparation can be striking, arresting and devastating.  It turns the recent trends in popular music on their heads.


And that is EXACTLY what needed to happen for her brand of pop music to remain viable as a means of achieving superstardom.  I'm not naive enough to think that she represents the last dying gasp of the pop star as we know it.  These things do come in cycles after all.  All of her extravagance is simply a means of survival which, by design or accident, serves to prop up and possibly save a business model which is in serious danger of collapsing altogether.  She's not really that different at the core.  Her attitude is different.  Her style is different.  Her ends are the same.  It's still style over substance.  Controversy sells.  It's worked for everyone from Elvis Presley to Alice Cooper.  From Madonna to Marilyn Manson.  It's just that simple.


Yet still, after all of this, I can't figure out why a metal head would gravitate toward her... but I did manage to get you to listen to Sunn O))) by talking about Lady Gaga, so I think that's an accomplishment.

Grinning ear to ear, time and time again

There aren't many records that I would equate with pure, unadulterated joy.  "Dream Happy Dreams" by Florida duo SUNBEARS! is one of those records.  A friend of mine made me aware of these guys after going through a backlog of live performance videos from The Granada Theater in Dallas, discovering that these two wonderful dudes had toured with Mates of States (see: pure, unadulterated joy).  They make a brilliant mix of indie pop that might bring to mind groups like The Flaming Lips, The Polyphonic Spree and The Helio Sequence.  If this doesn't make you happy, I shudder to think of the depths to which your spirit has fallen.


SUNBEARS! - A Lovely Tuesday Afternoon in June

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Heavy Rocks

Have you heard of a fancy little group called Karnivool?  Well, if you're not from Australia or into not-quite-mainstream rock music, probably not.  These guys played with Fair to Midland in Houston last night at a small venue called Scout Bar and pretty much destroyed everyone in the room.  If you like your rock music heavy, melodic and with a healthy helping of psychedelia (see: Isis, Tool, Porcupine Tree), you're going to dig this.  It's off of their latest record "Sound Awake."

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Firsties

Those who know me know where the title is coming from. This is going to be a music blog. I am going to do my best to guide you toward music which is good and try to avoid slagging on music which I don't necessarily enjoy (though I can't promise I won't rage against Hinder from time to time).

This is content.

Get ready to thank me. You will.