Perfect Sound Forever- Christgau issue
Jason Gross
So here it is... our issue edited by Robert Christgau. Now truly
proving himself a dean, he's culled the finest papers from his
Princeton classes, gathering up the next generation of great music
scribes.
So, in the latest issue of Perfect Sound Forever
<http://www.perfectsoundforever.com>, you'll find (among other
things):
THE SAVOY MUSIC CENTER
Saturday in Eunice LA
"Marc Savoy is standing behind the counter of his music center. On
weekdays, the Music Center is a Music Store, but Saturday is jam
day--all acoustic, all Cajun, all the time. Marc is Andre the Giant
older and sleepier, with a walrus mustache echoed by thick eyebrows
and a receding hairline that went into mourning the day Dylan went
electric."
SACRED STEEL
Hawaiian Guitar Gets Saved
"Despite Arhoolie's 1997 release of 'Sacred Steel: Traditional Sacred
African-American Steel Guitar Music in Florida' and the recent rise to
name recognition of Robert Randolph, most people still associate the
term 'Sacred Steel' with images of Arthurian knights rather than the
gospel jam sessions driven by lap-steel guitar that gave meaning to
the term."
KEITH GREEN
Christian Rock’s Great Refuser
"Upon his receiving an honor for being the youngest member ever to
join ASCAP, luminaries such as Sammy Davis, Jr. and Jack Benny invited
him to play on various nationally broadcast programs. He was even
approached by Colonel Parker, who told the Greens, 'If I wasn't tied
up full-time with Elvis, I'd take Keith on.'"
THE BURLESQUE REVIVAL
Crotch Level, Ten to a Table
"Burlesque is back, and with a vengeance—more sardonic, sexy, and
self-righteous than ever before. Old fashioned Burly-Q, the stuff of
pin-ups and lace-clad women, is revamped and institutionalized with
annual Tease-O-Rama conventions, Miss Exotic World pageants, and a
recently opened Burlesque Hall of Fame in Vegas."
JANET JACKSON
Not Just a Soft-Spoken Sexpot
"Maybe it's the warmed-over beats that new beau Jermaine Dupri
provided, maybe it's her increasingly nondescript, whispery tone, or
maybe she, Jam, and Lewis have just become a stale team. Somewhere
along the way, she started believing the soft-spoken sweetheart was
all she had to offer, but when Janet Jackson has something to say, she
can make some inspired music."
THE HILLS
Britney’s New Baby: Teen TV
"... if The Hills doesn't fit into any of these televisual traditions,
has it started a new one? Most people will tell you MTV stopped
playing music videos about the time Lauren Conrad was born, and
they're probably right. But they won't admit that MTV has recently
started playing them again. If The Hills continues a legacy, it's the
one left by those pop music videos that once drew the same kind of
crowd that now watches The Hills outside the Total Request Live studio
where once they'd maybe catch a glimpse of Joey Fatone's back."
EMO REVISTED
Thursday Fan Grows Up and Out
"As we move between the stages of youth, the way we connect to sadness
in song changes. So the emo that spouted what we
thought were universal profundities ('the needle is a vector, an
intersection we all must cross') seems meaningless a few years later.
I don't have a scientific explanation of how this happens, nor the
means to poll a large pool of teenagers. But maybe I can tease a
plausible answer from my stacks of melancholy albums begging to be
cried to and my peers whose tastes graduated from high school."
BEAT HAPPENING
Calvin Johnson Admits His Fears
"Despite naysayer claims of affected/ineffective neoprimitivism, there
is something so literal about Beat Happening's minimalism. Calvin
Johnson, Heather Lewis, and Brett Lunsford really couldn't play their
instruments or sing--so they worked around it. They didn't bother
practicing either--practice is no use when you suck that badly.
Instead Beat Happening relied on instinct, creativity, and
collaboration. The result? Pop music with all pretensions evaporated,
boiled down to its core..."
TIMBALAND
How Master Beats Happen
"Since his arrival as a producer in 1995, Timbaland has had an
overwhelming influence on the hip hop industry. Other than Dr. Dre's
clean and clear West Coast G-Funk revolution, no single producer has
had more power over hip hop and pop in general for longer than Mosley.
Garrett Kamps called him 'his generation's Phil Spector.' In an age
when most producers were digging through their vinyl collections and
created sample collages, Timbo was writing music, producing instead of
simply making beats."
KILLSWITCH ENGAGE
Metalheads in Synch
" Take a listen to some Killswitch songs and you'll notice that most
of them lack a crucial hallmark of nearly all
progressive/heavy/hardcore metal music today: technical
virtuosity—solos that say, 'I bet you can't play this.' This absence,
however, by no means diminishes the quality of their music—in fact, it
plays a crucial role in their success and likability."
OUTKAST
Andre and Big Boi in the ATL
"Before the Bush progeny shook their Polaroids or their un-Stankonian
begetter bombed Baghdad; in a world without 'Hey Ya!' before Dre
prematurely discovered the year 3000 and Big Boi slowed his flow down
to a whisper; in a different millennium when not everyone + Ken Burns
knew about crunk, a three-part history of OutKast and their first trio
of albums..."
JOE BUDDEN
Depressed Genius, Unabridged
"Given his f*ck-the-world attitude, I don't blame Joe for demanding to
know if we're 'in that mood yet?', his tag line
throughout the Mood Muzik series. He struggles mightily with
ambiguities in his personal life and career, frequently rapping 'I'm
stuck somewhere between the real and the fakeness.' Joe's gloomy
mannerisms and intense storytelling refuse you the luxury of sitting
back and enjoying."
SUBLIME
Just a Dad, Playing His Songs
"The biggest problem with Sublime--besides the alchoholism drug abuse
and night-shivers of marijuana dependence--is that they're all so
goddamn ugly looking. Bud's short and fat and hairy and his pointy
nose makes him look like a homicidal clown. Eric's taller and even
fatter and always wears a wife-beater. Brad is the only one whose skin
doesn't fold. But it almost
does. His cheeks and chest are hairless so he looks like a huge
infant."
KHALED
Arab Pop in a Post-9/11 World
"Shaherzad is just like Khaled's music, a melting pot that invites
people to look past language and cultural barriers and simply get
down. For me, born and raised a traditional Jew with anti-Arab
prejudices to boot, the fact that I count a Maghrebi Arabic singer
among my all time favorites is all the more reason to explore what
makes Khaled so special. Khaled's music reflects a tradition whose
modern era begins with the end of World War II, fifteen years before
Khaled's birth."
We're always looking for good writers and/or ideas so let us know if
you have anything to share.
See you online,
Jason
Perfect Sound Forever
online music magazine since 1993
<http://www.perfectsoundforever.com>
see website for contact information