Tuesday, October 17, 2017
The Advantage
The Advantage covers the songs from various Nintendo game soundtracks using traditional guitar, bass, and drums instrumentation. They stick strictly to original NES games. There are never any vocals, and usually there aren't any keyboards either. It's a bit of a novelty act, but it seems they were one of the first to do it. In fact, they are given credit for creating the genre known as Nintendocore (although Horse The Band actually coined the term). There are several other bands subsequently doing this type of thing; Powerglove and Minibosses come to mind.. These guys started doing it in high school in California in 1998. They play with the drummer from Hella. They have two albums. I listen to them a ton because of my obsession with instrumental music. I've heard each of the 30 songs on their 2004 self-title album many times, though rarely in order as a full album. Some of these works so well as real rock songs. Sure, we all love hearing the Mario songs, but who knew "Metal Gear (Jungle)" was such a slamming metal song? This was also the first time I noticed that the soundtrack from the Goonies video game contains an allusion to the Cyndi Lauper song from the movie soundtrack (,which from now on I will always associated withe the time I saw Corey Feldman and his Angels sing it live). I was less familiar with 2006's Elf Titled, but it is more of exactly the same. Only their 2010 B-sides anthology adds occasional electronica elements. Some of the songs on that album are labeled: (2005 tour). They don't sound live, so maybe these are just additional songs recorded for a CD to sell on tour. As a matter of fact, I saw them on their 2005 tour, downstairs at the Middle East in Boston. It was good, packed, and well-received, as I recall. It went something like this:
Sunday, October 15, 2017
Adia Victoria
I was first introduced to Aida Victoria by local "adult-alternative" radio station, WTMD. I may have even heard an interview and live performance she did there. She's only got one album under her belt so far, but besides great music she's got really compelling ideas about music and politics and such- some of which we might have to talk about. She's got interesting, complex ideas about the contemporary social landscape that she's adept at expressing effectively, not just in song. She's penned some great articles dealing with race and gender (and one can assume, indirectly, class), and her interviews are always refreshingly fierce. Yes - there is also poetry.
It's crazy-girl modern Southern gothic psychodrama and social commentary. She is both of the South and loudly proclaims, "Fuck the South!" That dichotomy is exploited fruitfully, brilliantly. She's from Spartanburg, SC, tried NYC, and is now based in Nashville. Her work is both deeply personal and lushly literary. The radio needs more of this, please. Contemporary music needs more harsh and unflinching critics from within like this.
Beyond the Bloodhounds comes out in 2016, but she put out one of the best tracks, "Stuck in the South," a year earlier, making this a "highly anticipated" debut album. And it is really impressive for its already fully-formed artistic vision and sound. The band jams well, and they sound like they have been playing together forever; they have not. If you guessed that the title of the album is a reference to escaping actual slavery you'd be correct. However, even more specifically, it's apparently a direct reference to Harriet Jacobs's slave narrative, which is pretty famous if you're a scholar of early American literature but is otherwise a fairly deep reference. The album's producer also worked with Sleater-Kinney and Yo La Tengo. Despite being ostensibly roots-music she says her favorite band is Nirvana, and also cites Miles Davis and Fiona Apple as influences, which makes for a nice American-music gumbo. She unabashedly rocks out hard like Kurt Cobain, she gets expansive like Miles, and she's got that crazy glint in her eyes like Fiona Apple. Crazy, but salient- in a good way. Besides the modern influences, she seems to be really into the deep tradition of American blues. You know - the black people the Led Zeppelin ripped off.
As this great Washington Post piece suggests, listeners can virtually hear the ghost of Nina Simone wailing on this album. (The article outlines a political spat she was in, one of several, after she felt like the "Americana" music folks we're co-opting and unfairly appropriating her sound, claiming it as their own when shes sees it as much more in an African-American insurgent tradition, as opposed to country music for enlightened hipsters; it offers a sample of her unflinching racial and musical politics.)
"Stuck in the South" got all the buzz for it's frank look at the South's, let's say, "complicated legacy," and it's a great song, but it gets buried here towards the end here- almost deliberately as if she wants to emphasize that's not the only thing she has to say on the subject. "Dead Eyes, " at a tight 2.5 minutes, got played on the radio a bunch, so that's a good one too; it's appealing to me because of it's vaguely wicked yet cutesy delivery, but many of her songs have the same allure. "Head Rot" is another enjoyable rocker. Perhaps the album's central track, and a favorite stand-out, is "Sea of Sand," at over five-minutes an almost prog-rock, self-aware song about touring and everything else. I love the heartfelt sarcasm of this drawled line: "Here's a song for all my friends, I hate every single one of ya'll." "And then You Die" is alternately eerie and tight rocking- so that's good too. Much has been made about her impressive guitar playing as well, and how she can coax a slinky drawl out of her ax that's like a lazy Southern belle sipping sweet-tea on Sunday. But of course she don't know nothing about Southern belles, but can "tell you something about Southern hell." No doubt. I've been down there, and can only imagine her experiences beyond my peripheral view.
She's not one to ever shy away from expressing her views. This MTV article has an awesome quote from her: “When I’m onstage, I don’t want men thinking about fucking me...Because one, I ain’t gonna fuck you. And two, I’m telling you real stuff." Fair enough. I have a very complex reaction to that quote. In one sense, I want to stand up and cheer; this is the exact opposite of what we might expect from a modern American rock star, especially a rocking lady, but it needs to be said. Especially when we've got pop stars like, say, Tove Lo at the logical extreme on the other end of the spectrum, up there on stage trying to make a virtue of trashiness and literally flashing her tits at every opportunity. We should all be there for the music after all, right? However, as both a feminist and a guy who like girls in bands, I feel a bit maligned by the quote. If I'm looking at a pretty girl singing a good song then I might be enjoying that more than, say, looking at a 300-pound man singing the same song, but it's not because I'm thinking about fucking anybody. Is that what attraction means? Can't one find someone aesthetically pleasing without wanting to fuck her or him? While I certainly appreciate where she's coming from, and don't begrudge her resistance to being unfairly objectified, the stance seems to be a bit reductive. Sorry as I stumble with my male gaze through the pitfalls of 3rd wave feminism and it's intersections with popular culture. Maybe she's just not talking about me. Then again- as an ostensibly-heteronormative cis white American male, if she's not talking about me then who is she talking to?!
She did a Tiny Desk Concert that is extremely compelling, despite all the lights being on (and the set-up in no way being interestingly tiny). It does confirm that this awesome band is kinda proggy, and she might be super impressive in many ways, but she's lucky to also have a super smart and tight band backing her up and jamming with her. This band has only been together since Jan. of 2016, but they jell greatly. It's another paradoxical dichotomy: the solo-artist with an incredible full-band sound.
The only other thing she officially put out so far is an EP, How it Feels, that just came out this year (2017). It's fine, and interesting. I love the way speaking a few French lines classes-up an American song (see Blondie or an attempt by Billy Joel, for example ), but throwing some American lines into any otherwise French song is like dragging it through the mud for a hot second - in the best possible way. She knows this, and the EP is delightful, but I want more. I'd definitely give another full album from her my undivided attention. I look forward to hearing that, or the latest articulation of her societal views, soon.
It's crazy-girl modern Southern gothic psychodrama and social commentary. She is both of the South and loudly proclaims, "Fuck the South!" That dichotomy is exploited fruitfully, brilliantly. She's from Spartanburg, SC, tried NYC, and is now based in Nashville. Her work is both deeply personal and lushly literary. The radio needs more of this, please. Contemporary music needs more harsh and unflinching critics from within like this.
Beyond the Bloodhounds comes out in 2016, but she put out one of the best tracks, "Stuck in the South," a year earlier, making this a "highly anticipated" debut album. And it is really impressive for its already fully-formed artistic vision and sound. The band jams well, and they sound like they have been playing together forever; they have not. If you guessed that the title of the album is a reference to escaping actual slavery you'd be correct. However, even more specifically, it's apparently a direct reference to Harriet Jacobs's slave narrative, which is pretty famous if you're a scholar of early American literature but is otherwise a fairly deep reference. The album's producer also worked with Sleater-Kinney and Yo La Tengo. Despite being ostensibly roots-music she says her favorite band is Nirvana, and also cites Miles Davis and Fiona Apple as influences, which makes for a nice American-music gumbo. She unabashedly rocks out hard like Kurt Cobain, she gets expansive like Miles, and she's got that crazy glint in her eyes like Fiona Apple. Crazy, but salient- in a good way. Besides the modern influences, she seems to be really into the deep tradition of American blues. You know - the black people the Led Zeppelin ripped off.
As this great Washington Post piece suggests, listeners can virtually hear the ghost of Nina Simone wailing on this album. (The article outlines a political spat she was in, one of several, after she felt like the "Americana" music folks we're co-opting and unfairly appropriating her sound, claiming it as their own when shes sees it as much more in an African-American insurgent tradition, as opposed to country music for enlightened hipsters; it offers a sample of her unflinching racial and musical politics.)
"Stuck in the South" got all the buzz for it's frank look at the South's, let's say, "complicated legacy," and it's a great song, but it gets buried here towards the end here- almost deliberately as if she wants to emphasize that's not the only thing she has to say on the subject. "Dead Eyes, " at a tight 2.5 minutes, got played on the radio a bunch, so that's a good one too; it's appealing to me because of it's vaguely wicked yet cutesy delivery, but many of her songs have the same allure. "Head Rot" is another enjoyable rocker. Perhaps the album's central track, and a favorite stand-out, is "Sea of Sand," at over five-minutes an almost prog-rock, self-aware song about touring and everything else. I love the heartfelt sarcasm of this drawled line: "Here's a song for all my friends, I hate every single one of ya'll." "And then You Die" is alternately eerie and tight rocking- so that's good too. Much has been made about her impressive guitar playing as well, and how she can coax a slinky drawl out of her ax that's like a lazy Southern belle sipping sweet-tea on Sunday. But of course she don't know nothing about Southern belles, but can "tell you something about Southern hell." No doubt. I've been down there, and can only imagine her experiences beyond my peripheral view.
She's not one to ever shy away from expressing her views. This MTV article has an awesome quote from her: “When I’m onstage, I don’t want men thinking about fucking me...Because one, I ain’t gonna fuck you. And two, I’m telling you real stuff." Fair enough. I have a very complex reaction to that quote. In one sense, I want to stand up and cheer; this is the exact opposite of what we might expect from a modern American rock star, especially a rocking lady, but it needs to be said. Especially when we've got pop stars like, say, Tove Lo at the logical extreme on the other end of the spectrum, up there on stage trying to make a virtue of trashiness and literally flashing her tits at every opportunity. We should all be there for the music after all, right? However, as both a feminist and a guy who like girls in bands, I feel a bit maligned by the quote. If I'm looking at a pretty girl singing a good song then I might be enjoying that more than, say, looking at a 300-pound man singing the same song, but it's not because I'm thinking about fucking anybody. Is that what attraction means? Can't one find someone aesthetically pleasing without wanting to fuck her or him? While I certainly appreciate where she's coming from, and don't begrudge her resistance to being unfairly objectified, the stance seems to be a bit reductive. Sorry as I stumble with my male gaze through the pitfalls of 3rd wave feminism and it's intersections with popular culture. Maybe she's just not talking about me. Then again- as an ostensibly-heteronormative cis white American male, if she's not talking about me then who is she talking to?!
The only other thing she officially put out so far is an EP, How it Feels, that just came out this year (2017). It's fine, and interesting. I love the way speaking a few French lines classes-up an American song (see Blondie or an attempt by Billy Joel, for example ), but throwing some American lines into any otherwise French song is like dragging it through the mud for a hot second - in the best possible way. She knows this, and the EP is delightful, but I want more. I'd definitely give another full album from her my undivided attention. I look forward to hearing that, or the latest articulation of her societal views, soon.
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