Blog Post
The Diversifyin’ Late 60s/Early 70s, Part I: The Name of The Band Is Yes
by John J. Madonna
Most people (rightfully) believe rock music came from the hybridization of country and blues music. After all, the early rock and rollers like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee Lewis played nothing more than twelve-bar blues with a country backbeat. But toward the end of the sixties, rock music had a sub-genre explosion, with rock and roll giving way to [blank]-rock (the blank filled with some adjective, e.g. “hard,” “country,” “blues,” and cetera.) Progressive rock, though, while still in the blanket term of “rock,” has little to no blues background. Yes, especially by the time they hit their stride with The Yes Album and Fragile, were little more than a classical music ensemble playing rock instruments.
Their harmonies came straight from The Rutles and Simon and Garfunkel, but their music had serious classical influences. Guitarist Steve Howe was classically trained, on Fragile, keyboardist Rick Wakeman played Brahms, and rather than the three minute pop song, Yes compositions ended up as ten minute suites, seldom in the usual verse chorus bridge from. Progressive rock was the antithesis of garage bands. The musicians in Yes and other bands like King Crimson, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, and Genesis studied for most of their lives on their instruments and knew music theory. When they finally interrupted the six minutes of instrumental noodling for singing, the lyrics would usually be nonsense strung together with Lewis Carroll imagery. Garage bands tend to practice for all of ten minutes before writing some three-chord verse-chorus songs with angst-ridden lyrics.
To be sure, the same noodling that made the progressive rockers famous also ended them when they got too much ego. When it came time for Yes to release a follow-up to the wildly successful Fragile, they released Close To The Edge, a three-song LP full of self-importance, which no one wanted to hear and certainly now sounds dated. But Yes left their legacy throughout the bands in the seventies. Gone were the days of wunderkinder in bands that taught themselves guitar by listening to beat-up blues forty-fives. Too many kids grew up listening to virtuosi like Clapton or Howe, and by the time the middle of the seventies came, every band seemed to have a well-educated, studied, crackerjack guitarist that could play anything, leading to bands like Foreigner or Styx or Van Halen Musical Group (not that there is necessarily anything wrong with that.)
What impact did this have on popular music? Well, that’ll be in Part II...
Blog Post
IBM 1401
by Employee 37
In 1971, the father of Icelandic musician and composer Johann Johannsson, bemoaning the deaccession of his office IBM 1401, and in one of the earliest examples of techno-romanticizational archival preservation(TM), made a recording of the sounds and electromagnet waves that the 1401 produced, utilizing a radio receiver and a reel-to-reel tape machine. It was nearly 30 years before his son rearranged these recordings, combined them with excerpts from an original audio instruction manual, and set the whole thing to a post-modern orchestral score. IBM 1401: A Users Manual is the result. You can click here to read a story from NPR's Song of the Day and listen to a sample track from the album.
Blog Post
The Only Band That Matters
by John J. Madonna
The Band went from backing Ronnie Hawkins as The Hawks to backing Bob Dylan when he did his electric tour to being the most unsung band out there. While they achieved popularity in their time, scored hits, and certainly had the respect of all of their contemporaries, history unfortunately hasn’t yet brought Music From Big Pink and The Band to the forefront of classic rock must-haves like Let It Bleed, Who’s Next, or any The Rutles record.
Their first record, Music From Big Pink, broke ground with its traditionalism. Odd as it may be, The Band released their record in 1968, a time when psychedilia was transitioning to harder rock. Big Pink opens up with the slow song “Tears of Rage,” unheard of in 1968 when the conventional wisdom was opening with a rocker, and presents a return to folksy, roots-rock. The band of Canadians really knew American folk music and knew how to write songs about the American experience. While The Band initially drew attention because they featured several songs written by Bob Dylan (which were recorded earlier and appeared in an alternative from on The Basement Tapes,) people soon realized Robbie Robertson was a gifted writer himself, as it also held The Band’s most remembered and celebrated recording, “The Weight.”
The follow-up, The Band, didn’t have the standout hit like “The Weight” (though it did have “Up On Cripple Creek,”) but the music continued in its Americana tradition with songs of the Civil War like “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” as well as the fiddle masterpiece “Rag Mama Rag.” My personal favourite on the record is “When You Awake.”
The Band consisted of five very talented musicians, with Robertson in the upper echelon of guitarists and with a sparse, economical playing style similar to George Harrison. They released albums together for eight years before calling it quits, and in between Music From Big Pink and The Last Waltz, they left a deep footprint on the musical landscape.
Blog Post
Graduation by Kanye West
by detra
Graduation is the third installment in Kanye West's "education" series. This CD is fresh and innovative (and even somewhat eclectic). If you like hip-hop music, you will love Graduation. In my opinion, it is the best hip-hop CD of 2007!
Blog Post
I Don't Feel Like Dancing
by John J. Madonna
As far as my musical tastes go, I have two main tenets. Firstly, I hold that Queen is the greatest band that ever was or will be. Second, I don’t much fancy music in the "Dance/Electronica" genre: just not my cup of meat. That being said, I tuned into Saturday Night Live back in 2004 and saw the obscurely obscenely named band Scissor Sisters. Taking one look at their falsetto lead singer wearing a onesie and listening to the music, I realized something. These people love Queen almost as much as I do, because “Take Your Mama” (the song I was hearing) could easily be on any of Queen’s records.
As soon as I could, I checked out Scissor Sisters’ debut eponymous album. It was okay by my tastes (though highly praised by those in the Dance crowd.) The two tracks I had heard on SNL ended up being the only two I really liked, “Take Your Mama,” which was something of a mix of Elton John, Queen, the disco-years BeeGees, Michael Jackson (the MJ from Thriller and Off the Wall,) and just enough of Scissor Sisters’ dance sensibilities to really make it their own, and a cover of ’s “Comfortably Numb” that melded it to “Edge of Seventeen” in a way that Floyd purists balked at, but as a person who doesn’t much care for The Wall, I actual prefer it to the original. And even though I didn’t really like their debut that much, their influences were clear in every track, the live show was great, and if they ever decided to tone down the Dance themes in their music, they could release one great rock album.
Ta-Dah, that next album, finally came back in 2006 and it certainly lived up to expectations. I knew they’d never give up Dance music, as they clearly loved it, but I knew I would also hear some tunes in the same vein as the rocking “Take Your Mama.” The song “Lights” is probably more BeeGees than The BeeGees, and if tracks like “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’” or “Intermission” (an absolutely amazing song) sound a little too Elton John-ish, it’s because John is actually either playing the piano or he co-wrote it.
Scissor Sisters are a band I never thought I would like, but they are not a run of the mill band vying for a spot on the next edition of DDR, rather eclectics that integrate pop, rock, disco, glam, and everything else into what they do, not to mention a good dose of originality. And frankly, as far as I’m concerned, any band with a lead singer in a unitard deserves a second look.
Blog Post
Her name is Vega
by manz
American contemporary folk artist and popular musician Suzanne Vega is performing live at The Ark in Ann Arbor on Saturday, September 29. Vega began releasing albums in the mid- 1980s and her first big success came with the singles “Luka” and “Tom’s Diner” (you know, that song that always got stuck your head.) Her latest release, Beauty & Crime, brings further proof that she’s got something to say that’s worth listening to. You can see more of Vega at her website.
Blog Post
(Standing In The Shadows Of) Motown
by John J. Madonna
The Funk Brothers, Motown’s house band, had as much to do with the signature Motown Sound as anybody else at the studio. The group of jazz and blues musicians integrated their non-pop musical background into creating the arrangements and style now associated with Motown. Also, like Booker T. and the MGs—their Stax Records equivalents—they were an integrated band, a rarity in the late 50s, early 60s. Their story is outlined in the insightful, rocking, and occasionally touching documentary Standing In The Shadows of Motown.
The documentary shows a wonderfully tight and skilled band that played so many records and so many hits. Through the 12th Street Riot and all of the racial tension of the 60s, Motown, "The Sound of Young America," and The Funk Brothers soldiered through with their unique form of R&B that found success with everyone in the country. But when Berry Gordy abandoned Detroit (and I mean abandoned) in favour of L.A., he left The Funk Brothers to fend for themselves, and that’s where the tragic elements of their story come in. But but beyond the tragedy, they leave a legacy of twenty number one hits in the sixties alone on the Hot 100 (and more on the R&B), and their music influenced all sorts of groups, including a few in England like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, who not only covered Motown songs, but used the The Funk Brothers' playing style in their rhythm sections with melodic bass lines and the sound of the drums.
The library has a large amount of Motown recordings, including four CD collections for 1958-1971 and 1972-1992. While certainly not complete collections, they are quite comprehensive. For the audiophile, check out Motown 1s. Though it has no tracks not already on the box sets save for a cover of "Ain’t No Mountain High Enough" by Michael McDonald—and who wants to hear that—the tracks are all in glorious stereo as opposed to the box set, which is mono for most of the earlier recordings.
Blog Post
Cheer Up Sleepy Jean: The Monkees Story
by John J. Madonna
The National Broadcasting Corporation formed a band in 1965 called The Monkees. Their moptop haircuts, singer/tambourinateer with a British accent, jangly rhythms, tight harmonies, and misspelled-animal-as-band-name were all bold and revolutionary... when The Beatles did it. Combine the fact that their first two albums—More of the Monkees and The Monkees—featured little to no original material and studio musicians playing the backing tracks, and the band that doesn’t it make it easy for music snobs to like them. But once this band, which consisted of two very extraordinary musicians and two… other people, had the reigns of their career, they went forth to produce some very fine and very overlooked material.
Over the past two years, Rhino Records has been releasing The Monkees’ back catalogue. Last year, their “Pre-Fab Four” first two albums made their ways back to the shelves, and now in 2007 we can once again listen to their breakout records Headquarters (a sadly overlooked album that hit number one for one week, but was subsequently stuck at number two behind Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band) and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. Their music has a wonderful psychedelic pop feel, their earlier releases feel a little more legitimate as, even though the backing tracks are all studio musicians, we know it’s more from a studio refusing to let a bright young band play and not incompetence. And we can only hope that with the release of Headquarters and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. this year, it is only a matter of time until the DVD release of their Jack Nicholson-penned film “Head.”
Blog Post
If you like Irish music....
by Maxine
This Friday evening, September 14, Liz Carroll, fiddler extraordinaire will be performing with equally talented guitarist, John Doyle at The Ark. Carroll's and Doyle's joint performances, in concert and on cd have been described by the Irish Echo as "...a magnificent balance of virtuosity, drive, and finesse .... Carroll's bowing and Doyle's picking represent a kind of soloing in sync, each supporting and inspiring the other without a whiff of self-indulgence."
Check them out, if there are still tickets left. And look for a size able collection of Irish music at the Library.
Blog Post
The Jitterbugging ‘00s, Part I: Britney Spears and Other Mistakes
by John J. Madonna
Part of me is surprised that I didn’t write on this Monday when I came into work. At the time, The Zombies seemed much more important. But I’ve reconsidered the significance of Britney Spears’s poor performance at the VMAs last weekend. People went nuts over her lackluster dancing/walking, poor lip-synching, and her out-of-shape body (of course, people, she wasn’t out of shape. Certainly less in-shape, but not out of shape,) but beyond all that, the incident marks a shifting trend and now Britney Spears, for the second time in her life finds herself the harbinger of change.
Popular music has cyclical trends, shifting focus from solo performer to band back to solo and back to bands. When Britney Spears first entered the genre of "teen idol popstar who probably wouldn’t be working were it not for her looks"--a well-established genre--boy bands and popstars had been gradually nailing the hard-working band’s coffin shut. Spears in this metaphor would be the hammer as she became way more successful than anyone else before her and opened the floodgates for more popstars. Now, though, her disastrous performance might just be hint that the pendulum could be swinging back. Much like when Michael Madsen buried the Bride alive in Kill Bill, Vol. 2, hard-working bands are still alive and currently punching their way out of their grave.
Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay, and plenty of other diverse and new groups are getting their share of attention, praise, and/or hits. Of course we have American Idols and High School Musical finding amazing success; people still love the pop vocalist. But I remember watching an episode of SNL in 2004 where Ashlee Simpson ran off stage after her lip synching failed and then get boos at the next Orange Bowl. Now two and a half years later, Britney Spears does a bad show and the entertainment media are having a veritable field day.
In a Times of India article, Fergie (a Black-Eyed Pea) commented the press’s treatment of Spears (as well as Lindsay Lohan,) "I think it is really unfair to them when they are trying to get help. We're all watching as a nation and commenting day by day on their rehabilitation. It's not fair." And she’s right. The tabloids are just taking potshots at Spears, at her figure (especially when tabloids also have no problem pointing out when celebrities are underweight) because she’s a celebrity. Frankly, when was the last celebrity faux pas, the bread and butter of the tabloids, that wasn’t highly publicized? But unfair as it is, it actually proves my point. Right now, the success of popstars is foremost dependent on their faces (and bodies) being everywhere. Music is second. That tenuous arrangement means "little mistakes" don’t exist for the popstar, because they are now front-page news. In the climate of the Aughts (the '00s,) hard-working bands thrive by their music and eschew tabloids, a huge advantage. Are we in the midst of a back swing from vocalists to bands? I’ll answer with the immortal (and famous last) words of Milli Vanilli, "Girl you know it’s—girl you know it’s—girl you know it’s—girl..."