In class 6, we will do our in class writing, talk about the potential of getting credit for this class, and we will talk about genres. What bands/songs are important in a particular genre? Are they the best bands or just the most popular?
Homework:
Read Deadheads & Jam Bands and Queens of Punk, and answer these questions for each essay:
1. What did you like and/or dislike about the essay?
2. What ideas did it help you generate for your own genre essay?
Write your own genre essay and post it to the blog by Tuesday (Feb. 26) at 9am; answers to your questions can be emailed/turned in by the beginning of class on Wednesday (Feb. 27).
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(Sorry about the deletions and re-posts, but there were some errors that were bugging me.)
Noise Music: The people who ask use to turn down the volume, have no idea what they’re getting themselves into.
Preface: I could wait till morning to write this, but where would the fun be if I did that? I didn’t write this all in one day, as that would be insane and damaging to the work. Noise music is chaotic, even when perfectly mapped, it is beautiful in its ugliness, I could go on like this but you get the point, it’s a walking, screaming, jarring and whirring contradiction of it’s self. People making anti-music in order to push the boundaries of what music can and should be, if not all the time. Many great experimenters use noise music as a place to start, for it’s able to bend and twist and make people look at paintings in completely different ways then it did before. There is a lot of bad music out there, conventional and unconventional. In this essay, I’ll take you through some excellent noisy, unconventional work, which, while not covering everything because that would be insane, will showcase some definitive works, artists and scenes of noise music and hopefully, will allow you a greater understanding of life, the universe and everything… yeah right…
1. The Velvet Underground: White Light/White Heat/White Noise, anything else?
While it is difficult to pinpoint the start of noise music, there are many artists who have helped it develop into what it is today. One of these being the Velvet Underground: the in-house band for Andy Warhol’s factory. Led by Lou Reed and John Cale, the Velvet Underground were early experimenters in noise music, particularly on their album White Light/White Heat (1968), which featured prominent use of feedback and dense walls of sound. John Cale once called the album “Conscious Anti-Beauty” and the band during this time was well known for lengthy live improvisations that grew progressively harsher and harsher the longer they went on. The Velvet Underground’s genius wouldn’t be recognized by the general public until long after the band had split up, but the steps they took in the noise music genre are unmistakable. Lou Reed would continue this kind of experimentation in his solo career, releasing Metal Machine Music in 1975, which was an album comprised entirely of guitar feedback played at different speeds.
2. The No Wavers: Nihilists make music for nihilists which makes them less nihilistic.
At CBGBs in New York in the late 1970’s punk was exploding, with the city being the home of the Ramones, Richard Hell, Patti Smith, the Talking Heads and many more, the city was quickly becoming a breeding ground and Mecca for the young genre. But while punk was growing, something dark was festering in the city, it’s tendrils finding it’s way into Max’s Kansas city and CBGB’s, along with the punks. This thing was No Wave, so named in a direct opposition to new wave music which was becoming popular. Where New Wave was popular and listenable, No Wave was consciously abrasive and menacing. As Lydia Lunch would later explain, “No wave wasn’t created by people who wanted make music; it was created by people for whom music was the only way for them to communicate their sickness”. The No Wave scene was effectively a collective exorcism of the sickness, pain and misery that had infected the people within it.
The most prominent of the No-Wavers was Lydia Lunch, with her band Teenage Jesus and The Jerks, who were known for playing short, jagged pieces at high volumes with screamed lyrics. Lunch later stated that the purpose of the band was to “Separate the sane from the insane people in the crowed”, you could tell the difference because the sane people left the show. Other bands in the no wave scene were DNA and Mars, who both created songs based more on sonic texture then actual melody. Arto Lindsay of DNA has said that while he “couldn’t play chords”, he managed to get what he wanted from his guitar, even if what he was getting didn’t sound like conventional music. Most all the music in the no wave scene was claustrophobic and alienating, sounding like a tortured man being drowned in a well with little of no understanding of why this is happening.
One of the bands, The Contortions, was a tighter outfit. The Contortions played a kind of funk-punk fusion while James Chance, their front man, barked out tales of nihilism and pitiless woe. All of these groups had influences on noise music, and laid templates for later works by Sonic Youth and Swans. Both bands initially began by continuing the harsh sound of the No Wavers, with Sonic Youth eventually developing and shaping the alt-rock sound of the late 80’s and early 90’s. The band has continued to record and perform into the twenty-first century. Meanwhile, the Swans, with their tales of suffering, insanity and the general debasement of the human condition, furthered their bludgeoning sound into a sharper, but no less demanding attack, eventually disbanding in 1997. Michael Gira of the Swans went on to form the Angels of Light, a musically more melodic, but lyrically no less vicious outfit.
3. Yamataka Eye: Andrew represents his ideas of Japanoise based on his personal beliefs and carefully researched facts.
When I was in Japan, three or four years ago now, it struck me as a very up tight place. Both an uncle and an aunt of mine have lived there, and the country often seems like one with a lot of emotional repression. Of course, this is just the way I’ve seen things and is probably way off. But if I’m not, then it’s especially interesting to note that the Japanese do some of the best noise music in the world. Living in a (seemingly) strict environment like Japan would defiantly foster feeling of rebellion, and the chaos of noise rock seems perfectly adapted for such a place. One such Japanese rebel is Yamataka Eye, a fan of Sonic Youth and Funkadelic, who formed a band named after the Buzzcock's song Boredom. With the Boredoms, Eye and his compatriots have created some of the most bizarre, challenging and unique music ever to come form a group of human beings. The Boredoms take genres, filter them through their warped perception of the world and spit them back out again almost completely unrecognizable from what they were before. On their album Pop Tatari (1992), they tackle lounge music, Funk and hardcore punk one after the other, without changing a beat. Actually that’s a lie; they’ve got three drummers sometimes, so beats change a lot. Eye himself is the lead vocalist of the group, eschewing with regular singing, in favor of Dadaist screams, gurgles, roars and cackles, preferring to communicate feelings rather then thoughts. Eye once stated that the purpose of the music is not to annoy (a claim some would dispute,) but rather to challenge any and all previously held convictions about what music is and can be.
Over the years Eye has also developed a friendship and strong working relationship with Avant-Garde composer/saxual master John Zorn, collaborating with him on his Naked City and Painkiller projects, the latter of which being a Grindcore band formed with Bill Laswell of Last Exit and Mick Harris of Napalm Death. Both Eye and Zorn have also contributed to Praxis; a revolving door project headed up by Laswell. The album they contributed to, Sacrifist (1992) featured all the members of Painkiller as well as the band Blind Idiot God, guitar virtuoso Buckethead and two former P-funkers; Bootsy Collins and Bernie Worrel. The Eye/Zorn duo has continued working together into the twenty-first century, both of them pushing the boundaries of the meaning of the word “music”.
4. Shoegazers: Noise Pop? Yes, sort of…
While the No Wavers had the monopoly on the dark and abrasive side of noise music, someone had to make it poppy. I’m speaking of the Jesus and Mary Chain, a group of Scotsmen who, with their debut album Psychocandy (1985), created beach boys-like songs that were drowned in guitar feedback. While the idea of taking a perfectly good pop album and then saturating it with feedback sounds egotistical (which it probably is) when done effectively, created an album of beautiful textures and which sometimes feel like they might make a better viewing then listening experience. The idea of beauty in the noise was carried on by bands like Curve and My Bloody Valentine, the latter of whom nearly bankrupted creation records, with the cost of making their sophomore album Loveless (1991). Kevin Shields, of My Bloody Valentine, sought to create the perfect sound for the album, an endeavor which took seventeen different engineers and nineteen different studios to accomplish. The result was one of the most acclaimed albums of the 1990’s, which has often been called the greatest album of all time and has been cited as a strong influence by MBV contemporaries like Nine Inch Nails and The Smashing Pumpkins. The benefits outweighed the cost, but MBV have never made a follow up album. Such a loss…
5. Big Black and Steve Albini: Music for industrial workers.
Big Black might’ve been the PMRC’s (Parents Music Resource Center) worst nightmare, and could’ve been the single handed reason for the Parental Advisory Sticker, if they had been well known enough for that. The music itself not withstanding, Big Black’s name and subject matter were provocative and often downright sickening. Steve Albini’s song writing covered topics that would make your stomach turn, like running your brother, who was born with fetal alcohol syndrome, over with a car because you were sick of his stupidity… If you’re horrified, don’t worry, he didn’t actually write that song, but it gives you an idea as to what he was getting at. It is important to note that while their songs were horrifying, they weren’t actually out to glorify the things they sang about, just piss people off. Fortunately, you usually can’t hear the lyrics as they are submerged by the power drill guitars and trash compacter drums. The band didn’t actually have a drummer, so Albini’s faithful Roland TR-606 drum machine got the credit. Albini’s abrasive, sickening lyrics and the bands overall sound, that of your back molars being jack hammered, makes one wonder, what is the redeeming social value. Simple; Big Black was one of the best examples of the DIY ethic. They booked there own shows, managed themselves, organized their own tours, paid for their own recordings and produced them themselves.
They may have been cynical, sarcastic and downright freighting at times, but they are a benchmark in noise music and helped pave the way for the industrial sound later made popular by bands like Ministry and Nine Inch Nails. Albini later went on to become a fairly acclaimed producer, having worked with everyone form Nirvana to Gogol Bordello to Godspeed You! Black Emperor. He also continued to be confrontational, forming the band Rapeman in 1987 and disbanding it a year later. He is currently in a minimalist rock trio called Shellac, writing songs about angry squirrels. Like me, he is an opinionated pundit and spends a lot of time ranting about music, unlike me, people actually listen to him…bastard…
6. Hemophiliac: The sound of two men and one woman hemorrhaging music uncontrolably.
John Zorn, Ikue Mori and Mike Patton have all been in their fair share of noisy projects.
Ikue Mori was the drummer for DNA, an alienating No Wave outfit, and has collaborated with John Zorn on numerous projects including Locus Solus (Which also features Arto Lindsay) and Cobra, as well as more ambient projects such as Death Ambient (with Fred Frith and Hideki Kato).
John Zorn headed up the aforementioned Locus Solus and Cobra projects, along with numerous others like Painkiller, Naked City and Moonchild (Which features Patton), as well as contributing to one of Bill Laswell's Praxis albums. That being said, the alto saxophonist is no stranger to noise music.
Mike Patton was the front man of both Faith No More and Mr. Bungle, both of which have disbanded. Following that, he formed the band Fantômas with Buzz Osbourn (Melvins), Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle) and Dave Lombardo (Slayer.) The band performs an eclectic mix of Heavy Metal, Experimental Noise and, at times, such far reaching genres as electronica and Ambient. Like Yamataka Eye, Patton doesn’t sing words with Fantômas, preferring his own mix of scat singing and voice music. Patton has even stated that, the music of Fantômas is too complicated to try to fit words into, “the point is the music, there’s no room for my innermost thoughts here”. They perform some pretty badass stuff too.
All three of these musicians, Zorn, Mori and Patton, make up Hemophiliac, a group that has more or less done away with song structure in favor of improvisational lunacy that could only be created by top of the field musicians. Mori creates electronic soundscapes and washings while Patton and Zorn alternately Squawk, Howl, Squeak, roar and thunder over them, Patton with his voice, Zorn with his Sax. It’s highly experimental music and sometimes it doesn’t quite go anywhere, but most of the time it does, and when that happens, they create something of unique beauty, even if it is noisy as fuck.
Wrap-up (sort of)
Noise Music as it stands today is just as far reaching, intricate and multipurpose as any other genre like Jazz or Rock. The number of artists is limitless, each one following on the foundations laid by previous composers or making it up as they go along. So ultimately, it’s not so different from any other music… that’s a lie, this music might send you screaming from the room faster then a bullet train, but you get the point. I hope.
Appendix:
-White Light/White Heat by The Velvet Underground
-Metal Machine Music by Lou Reed
-No New York by Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, Mars, DNA, James Chance & The contortions
-Bad Moon Rising by Sonic Youth
-Filth by Swans
-Pop Tatari by Boredoms
-Naked City by John Zorn
-Guts of a Virgin by Painkiller
-Sacrifist by Praxis
- Birthday Celebration Vol. 10 by Yamataka Eye/John Zorn Duo
- Psychocandy by The Jesus & Mary Chain
-Loveless by My Bloody Valentine
-Songs about Fucking by Big Black
-Locus Solus by John Zorn
-Moonchild by John Zorn
-Fantômas by Fantomas
-Birthday Celebration Vol. 6 by Hemophiliac
There’s much more out there…
-Andrew M. Marques
Ghettotech is a very new genre just emerging in mainstream hip-hop. It is said that this genre was birthed in Chicago then migrated to Detroit. This mash of electronic and hip hop have run parallel with each other for a while and have now started to merge. Ghettotech has spread across the world and is blooming as an established genre.
Hip Hop has always has always mixed like DJs. Hip Hop has mixed canellas, cuts and other artists beats. Some of the artist in the genre includes Cool Kids, Uffie, and Hollywood Undead. Cool Kids come from the birthplace of Ghettotech, Chicago. Uffie has surfaced in Paris. Finally Hollywood Undead is from none other than Hollywood. These bands are a part of the core Ghettotech community.
Ghettotech is emerging quickly in mainstream Hip Hop. Kanye West has just come out with the first billboard Ghettotech single, “Stronger.” “Stronger” takes the beat from Daft Punk’s “Better, Harder, Stronger Faster” and Kanye raps over this techno song. This brought Ghettotech to the eyes of the whole Hip Hop populous.
Ghettotech I believe will be the next stage of Hip Hop. Although Hip Hop mostly sucks like steroids, this new genre is giving it an extra boost to become good again. Thanks to Acid House and other forms of techno the Hip Hop and techno worlds are starting to merge.
Prior to the end of WWII, what most teenagers took life way more seriously than most do now. The generation gap between them and their parents was much smaller, and expectations for them were different. Men were expected to find a job and make money, while women were expected to find a man and make babies. However, all that began to change after the war ended. Teens were granted allowances and free time after school, and were making decisions for themselves that their parents didn’t always like. By the 50’s, a prominent youth culture that had previously been absent had formed, full of rebellious kids sneering at authority. Music was one of the most important parts of that culture and its most important style of music was rockabilly.
As with much of American music, rockabilly has roots in black music, being at its most basic a hybrid of country and blues. Some of its most immediate predecessors of the 30’s and 40’s were black, such as blues musicians Meade Lux Lewis and Pete Johnson, and others were white, country musicians like Moon Mullican and the Delmore Brothers. The Maddox Brothers and Rose were another one of these white groups, and were at “the leading edge of rockabilly with the slapped bass that Fred Maddox had developed.” Some go so far as to say they were the first rockabilly band ever. In any case, rockabilly grew to be considered the first style of rock n’ roll to be played primarily by white people.
Rockabilly’s popularity exploded early in 1956 with the simultaneous releases of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues,” Carl Perkins’ “Blue Suede Shoes,” and Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel,” among other singles. The following years saw many other rockabilly artists rise to fame, including Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Gene Vincent, and Eddie Cochran. After 1960, peoples’ tastes had changed, and also partly as a result of Buddy Holly’s death and Elvis getting drafted into the army, rockabilly was heard less and less on the radio. In England, however, it kept its popularity until the mid-60’s.
Speaking of England, one of the big things influenced by rockabilly was the British Invasion. The Beatles especially were influenced by the rockabilly they heard from America. Listen to the crappy home recording and other early recordings they made before they got famous. They started out playing songs like Eddie Cochran’s “Twenty Flight Rock” and Buddy Holly’s “That’ll Be the Day,” and dressed like Gene Vincent, in tight pants and leather jackets with their hair piled high in pompadours. Even their name was inspired by Buddy Holly’s group, The Crickets. The Beatles are the most obvious example, but they weren’t the only British Invasion band to have anything to do with rockabilly. The Rolling Stones covered Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away,” and the Who, even though being in the mod camp, covered Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues.”
In the 70’s, rockabilly was resurrected somewhat, as a reaction to all the crap on the radio at the time. All the soft rock and disco and prog rock really started getting on a lot of peoples’ nerves. While some of those people responded with simple three chord song structures and a lot of yelling, creating punk rock, others turned back to the old music. One band who did such was the Stray Cats, and they were the most notable of the few who got any commercial success in the early 80’s. Other artists who were active in the rockabilly revival included the Rockats, Danny Dean and the Homewreckers, The Shakin' Pyramids, The Polecats, Zantees, The Kingbees, Leroi Brothers, The Nervous Fellas, Lone Justice, and Chris Isaak. Today, rockabilly is still alive, with vibrant scenes all over the US, especially on the west coast. If you ever feel like listening to any, new or old, you should tune in to 90.3 KEXP on Friday night 6—9 for their rockabilly show, “Shake the Shack.” The host is kind of annoying, but it’s still a fun show.
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