Genre: haHA Emo. This is an old rant for me now and increasingly pointless, but there was a time when people got really fucking pissy about Emo. I think in retrospect it is one of those genre labels that is, by its nature, going to cause a strong negative reaction in am american male population before they have heard a note of the music. What is interesting is that the genre got little or no attention until it in some way matched the assumptions its name conjured. Then the record industry could market it. Except that Emo never represented the thing that the industry tried to push, and when they started pushing it all its adherents ran like cockroaches startles by a light.
I guess I should back up a bit. Emo is defined as "Emotionally driven punk rock." It emerged from the hardcore punk scene in the late 80s, early 90s. Some credit Fugazi as the first, though most reject that assertion, possibly because Fugazi talked about other things than emotion and most likely because real punx like Fugazi and they can't possibly like Emo.
The first band everyone agrees on (for the most part) is a DC hardcore band called Rites of Spring. like many hardcore bands they are hard to listen to, partly because of their anti-mainstream ethic, and partly because of the shitty recording equipment available for a band that was essentially only together long enough for the members to discuss the possibility of real recording before breaking up. But their performances are legendary. The lyrics would have emotional intensity born of writing about topics of personal importance to the singer, who would thrash around stage, often finding himself too far from the mic to make his singing cues. So he would scream the lines at the the mic, lending further intensity.
From these beginnings the genre built in the punk underground, which became, over the course of the 90s, the main spiritual counterpoint to the mainstream. By the late 90s this underground had emerged repeatedly under various genred guises to thrust artistic integrity into the spotlight, only for the Industry to coopt and discredit the superficial aspects of whatever genre gained attention. Punk itself became a victim, as by 1999 the pop charts contained a strong contingent of shitty pop punk bands what had as much to do with Minor Threat as they did with Liberance.
Within the underground world of punk Emo represented something that stood against the hard, ideological lines of the genre, and by its nature stood against the macho posturing of much of the hardcore movement from whence it came. Emo became an incubator for a variety of strains of punk that were more interested in artistic expression than meeting some random mob's definition of Punx. The genre included everything from old hardcore style bands, to bands working with synthesizers and exploring melody in a way that was kind of verbotten outside what remained of the pop punk scene. These bands had nothing to do with each other musically other than that they sang with emotional intensity and they did not conform the the increasingly archaic and rigid confines of punk.
Of course, having handsom young men sing sweetly about emotions is, to a record producer, a great way to break into the tingly panties of the teenage girl market, and so that is what happened eventually, and so the Dashboard Confessionals came to define the genre in the public mind, despite having little in common with most acts labeled Emo. Acts which, for the most part, forswore the name by 2001 or so. After that, most bands calling themselves Emo were of corporate manufacture.
So Atom and His Package. Most of the music is about topics that pertain specifically to Adam Goren, the spectacled, slightly doughy Jewish kid from Philly who was for most of the band's existence its sole member. Like songs wishing his best friend's two year old a happy birthday. Or about how he wishes his room mate would quit smoking. Or about how he wishes he could start a private high school for punk kids. The Package is a bunch of music processors and synthesizers that Adam bought so that he could keep preforming music after his last band broke up. As such Adam was one of the early pioneers of the notion that, by the late 90s, the classic rock guitair band setup was actually pretty expensive, and it was way more subversive to cheaply make music on a computer than shell out thousands of dollars for guitars that you will mistreat.
Despite previous membership in a hardcore band, and very clear devotion to the punk lifestyle and aesthetic, the music is very very different from classic punk. It tends to be major key and funny and not all that angry. It is decidedly populist, high energy, and intentionally DIY, but this often results in songs that get halfway through, and then finish out the last verse by quoting a particularly catch 80s pop song. The lifestyle advocated is less live fast and die young, and more crunchy gutterpunk, living in a downtown, eating Vegan, and trying to steer clear of tourists.
Where would I have heard of them: If the above sounds like it is not a recipe for pop stardom you get a doughnut. Atom and His Package toured relentlessly, and gained a large and devoted following in punk and later indie circles, but never ever desired mainstream success. So, you wouldn't have, unless you were a punk or an indie kid in the late 90s, early 2000s.
Anything of Note: I guess that the title of the album is a pretty funny little dig at himself.
Is it good: Atom and His Package can be an acquired taste. The intentional low fidelity and lack of interest in quality songwriting are obviously a turn off. I, however, fucking love Atom and his Package. I have a few of his albums and as he went along each became more catch and fun. I think it helps that Adam Goren seems like a genuinely humble and likable person, and only gets moreso as he stops making fun of his weight as much and focuses on stuff about his life. it also helps that, as technology got better, the fidelity improved, possibly by accident. At its best, AAHP deliver fun, funny, catchy songs with lovable charm. At its worst it is barely listenable, but there are always enough of the good songs to get you through the album. The stand out on this album is "If You Own the Washington Redskins You Are A Cock," but this is a pretty good album overall. It falls in the middle of his career with The Package and is a pretty even split between meh songs and fun catchy music. I don't think there's any really terrible ones on this installment, which is nice.
So, I think this is a good album. I dunno if you will but AAHP is worth a look.
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Sunday, June 1, 2014
Billy Bragg and Wilco - Mermaid Avenue
Genre: Modern Folk, Old School Folk
Where would I have heard of them: Well a few entries back I jizzed all over your computer talking about Billy Bragg, and a few years back the indie scene couldn't shut up about Wilco. They are one of the bands various people were addicted to in 2004. I should also include Woody Guthrie here because these are his lyrics, the music and arrangement are by the other two. Woody Guthrie wrote all the crypto-socialist nursery rhymes you learned in elementary school, like "This Land is Your Land." Woody Guthrie was born in Oklahoma, and was one of the tens of thousands of people who emigrated to California as a result of the Dust Bowl. When he saw the atrotious way the police in California treated the poor, we began a career writing protest music and singing folk songs that became widely successful due to the rise of the radio as a form of mass communication. He also happened to be on hand in New York City in time to participate in the burgeoning folk scene there that began in the 40s and burst into national relevance in the 60s. The songs contained in this disc were written by Woody Guthrie but never clearly set to music. His widow approached Billy Bragg after his death, and Bragg approached Wilco to help him do justice to the material, because of their capacity as a full band, because they were fellow modern folk artists with proven recording experience, and because they were talented musicians who would bring increasing levels of fame to the project that would help ensure a decent return on the investment.
Anything of note: I held off on getting this for a long time. I was not immediately enamored of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the Wilco album everyone went Beatles Fangirl over. The second Billy Bragg album I purchased was Internationale, an album he made singing well known protest songs, and it is alright. Honestly the latter fact made me a bit hesitant about Billy Bragg for a while. After finding that most of Bragg's other material was solid gold, including the recent Tooth and Nail, I figured I needed to give Bragg a chance with this one. After all, I also respect Guthrie, so it couldn't be terrible.
Is it any good: It is, in fact, not terrible. To the contrary, it is excellent. The three artistic poles here meld spectacularly to form a really excellent whole, though Billy Bragg clearly shines through maybe more than anyone else. Which is fine by me. Billy Bragg is the balls.
As we are accustomed to hearing from Bragg, there is a really confident mixture of humor and earnestness here. The fact that these are Guthrie's lyrics makes this rather special. One sometimes has to stop and remember that Guthrie had a sense of humor as scintillating as Bragg's, and the fact that these are the songs he left unrecorded because they were not important enough compared with his political music may help explain how well the two men's styles were able to meld so well, beyond the grave as it were. The fact that there are apparently several thousand of these songs, and Bragg and Wilco were free to hand pick the ones that got recorded, can't have hurt.
That said, I think Bragg and Wilco do a great job painting a picture of Guthrie as a whole person with their song selections. There are the requisite political songs (Unwelcome Guest), but the vast majority are personal and even romantic. I think Walt Whitman's Niece is a great way to start the album for this reason. It is more a humorous diary entry about a flirty, bohemian night spent with a friend and a woman reading poetry out of sight of the causes they may have championed. The fact that the song's structure is avowedly adrift from the standard rock song structure is a bonus, as is the way that the structure is consciously played for laughs. I think the first time I heard Wilco's background vocals, especially at the end of the first, uh, verse I guess you could call it, I had to pull over because I was laughing so hard.
This is an important point. I think it is easy to lose Wilco in this album. Much of this album is definitely an interplay between Bragg as vocalist and producer, and Guthrie, as respected artist and man. Wilco's Jeff Tweedy gets a few songs but mostly this is the Bragg Show from a vocal perspective. But Wilco's musical contributions shouldn't be ignored. Not that Bragg is a slouch musically, but there is definitely a note of Americana in the folk on tap here that speaks more of Wilco than Bragg, and is completely necessary in this context since, you know, this is Guthrie, the Oklahoma Cowboy we are memorializing here. More broadly, i think their wide open style plays well with Bragg's more intimate one. The result is an album full of songs that contain both broad scope and a rewarding richness.
Unfortunately Wilco seem to have also felt that this was a bit too much The Bragg Show and, though there is a Mermaid Ave II, these two artistic poles ended up parting ways before that album was fully in the bag, and Bragg finished it up himself. Which is fine, I plan on buying it. Just a good thing to be aware of here.
Anyway, this is a great album. go buy it. It is very rewarding.
Where would I have heard of them: Well a few entries back I jizzed all over your computer talking about Billy Bragg, and a few years back the indie scene couldn't shut up about Wilco. They are one of the bands various people were addicted to in 2004. I should also include Woody Guthrie here because these are his lyrics, the music and arrangement are by the other two. Woody Guthrie wrote all the crypto-socialist nursery rhymes you learned in elementary school, like "This Land is Your Land." Woody Guthrie was born in Oklahoma, and was one of the tens of thousands of people who emigrated to California as a result of the Dust Bowl. When he saw the atrotious way the police in California treated the poor, we began a career writing protest music and singing folk songs that became widely successful due to the rise of the radio as a form of mass communication. He also happened to be on hand in New York City in time to participate in the burgeoning folk scene there that began in the 40s and burst into national relevance in the 60s. The songs contained in this disc were written by Woody Guthrie but never clearly set to music. His widow approached Billy Bragg after his death, and Bragg approached Wilco to help him do justice to the material, because of their capacity as a full band, because they were fellow modern folk artists with proven recording experience, and because they were talented musicians who would bring increasing levels of fame to the project that would help ensure a decent return on the investment.
Anything of note: I held off on getting this for a long time. I was not immediately enamored of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the Wilco album everyone went Beatles Fangirl over. The second Billy Bragg album I purchased was Internationale, an album he made singing well known protest songs, and it is alright. Honestly the latter fact made me a bit hesitant about Billy Bragg for a while. After finding that most of Bragg's other material was solid gold, including the recent Tooth and Nail, I figured I needed to give Bragg a chance with this one. After all, I also respect Guthrie, so it couldn't be terrible.
Is it any good: It is, in fact, not terrible. To the contrary, it is excellent. The three artistic poles here meld spectacularly to form a really excellent whole, though Billy Bragg clearly shines through maybe more than anyone else. Which is fine by me. Billy Bragg is the balls.
As we are accustomed to hearing from Bragg, there is a really confident mixture of humor and earnestness here. The fact that these are Guthrie's lyrics makes this rather special. One sometimes has to stop and remember that Guthrie had a sense of humor as scintillating as Bragg's, and the fact that these are the songs he left unrecorded because they were not important enough compared with his political music may help explain how well the two men's styles were able to meld so well, beyond the grave as it were. The fact that there are apparently several thousand of these songs, and Bragg and Wilco were free to hand pick the ones that got recorded, can't have hurt.
That said, I think Bragg and Wilco do a great job painting a picture of Guthrie as a whole person with their song selections. There are the requisite political songs (Unwelcome Guest), but the vast majority are personal and even romantic. I think Walt Whitman's Niece is a great way to start the album for this reason. It is more a humorous diary entry about a flirty, bohemian night spent with a friend and a woman reading poetry out of sight of the causes they may have championed. The fact that the song's structure is avowedly adrift from the standard rock song structure is a bonus, as is the way that the structure is consciously played for laughs. I think the first time I heard Wilco's background vocals, especially at the end of the first, uh, verse I guess you could call it, I had to pull over because I was laughing so hard.
This is an important point. I think it is easy to lose Wilco in this album. Much of this album is definitely an interplay between Bragg as vocalist and producer, and Guthrie, as respected artist and man. Wilco's Jeff Tweedy gets a few songs but mostly this is the Bragg Show from a vocal perspective. But Wilco's musical contributions shouldn't be ignored. Not that Bragg is a slouch musically, but there is definitely a note of Americana in the folk on tap here that speaks more of Wilco than Bragg, and is completely necessary in this context since, you know, this is Guthrie, the Oklahoma Cowboy we are memorializing here. More broadly, i think their wide open style plays well with Bragg's more intimate one. The result is an album full of songs that contain both broad scope and a rewarding richness.
Unfortunately Wilco seem to have also felt that this was a bit too much The Bragg Show and, though there is a Mermaid Ave II, these two artistic poles ended up parting ways before that album was fully in the bag, and Bragg finished it up himself. Which is fine, I plan on buying it. Just a good thing to be aware of here.
Anyway, this is a great album. go buy it. It is very rewarding.
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