Day 18: Joy and Cramps

I finished the book I had been working on, Babbitt, today. I recommend it, even if The Jungle turned you off of Sinclair Lewis. Its pretty short, and very interesting to read after The Society of the Spectacle. Anyway, let's talk music.

Amy Winehouse made a posthumous visit in the form of Back in Black. I never really got into her when she was alive, and it seems disingenuous to do so now. I will say that she has a fascinating voice. Motion City Soundtrack and a drive-by Ani DiFranco led up to my introduction to The Cramps and my first venture into psychobilly. For me, the sound is tightly wound up with a romantically grungy image of late 80's and early 90's NYC. It gets filed in my head right next to Stranger Than Paradise, a quintessentially artsy black and white romp through the drifting youth of an increasingly postmodern culture. Or some shit like that.

I dig the slow swank they throw around in this song. The off-kilter vocal jumps, the crazed triplet stutters, and Lux gasping and gawking with a seedy drawl provide the right amount of grit I crave. This segued nicely to another intervention by Bad Religion. Also, Warren Zevon wiggled his way in somehow.

The next band I'd like to draw your attention to is The Joy Formidable, a trio that uses electronic haze and droning synths to create a dreamy bed for their vocals, sliding in and out of focus.

The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade starts off distantly, like its echoing from far off in the distance. The combination of the major chords and distant, almost chant-like melody with the actual chanting of "this dream is" adds to the meditative space it carves out in the distance. (By this point you have hopefully already toked out before listening to this song, otherwise you might miss this.) And this distance makes the climax in the second half more gratifying as the distant instrumentation comes together, emphatically lifting the chant "happy for you" up and away, another echo in the distance.

This chill set up was kind of shat on by Vanessa Carlton and her album Be Not Nobody. If the name doesn't ring a bell, try this. That's right, let it all soak back in. Its not that I think she's necessarily a bad singer, per se. Its why I consider Matthew Good a Mediocre Master whereas B*Witched is an aural abortion: the banality of their lyrics and conventionality of their music smother whatever talent they might have. Its not like they shaved their armpits into a microphone for an hour and tried to sell it. They just haven't made it past the "facile regurgitation" stage that artists have to go through.
Coming next time: prog.

Music left: 162.46gb

Cheers,
Bodhisvaha