Joanna Newsom's Take on Lady Gaga

In the six years since Joanna Newsom released her debut album, The Milk-Eyed Mender, she has remained a constantly surprising presence. The reasons are legion. She makes ambitious folk-inspired records in an era when the album is meant to be dead. Her lyrics mix archaic language with modern vocabulary, sung in a distinctive, stark voice – which a critic for AllMusic.com described as "somewhere between Bjork and a handbrake". She has made harp music influenced by Venezuelan and west African rhythms fashionable to indie fans. And stranger still, this mix sells out venues such as the 3,000-capacity Royal Festival Hall in minutes.

Newsom, however, worries that she doesn't read enough and watches "too much crappy TV". She's also a big fan of Jay-Z and Kanye West – though not Lady Gaga. "I'm mystified by the laziness of people looking at how she presents herself, and somehow assuming that implies there's a high level of intelligence in the songwriting. Her approach to image is really interesting, but you listen to the music, and you just hear glow sticks. Smart outlets for musical journalism give her all this credit, like she's the new Madonna …" She breaks off and laughs. "Although I'm coming from a perspective of also thinking Madonna is not great at all. I'm like, fair enough: she is the new Madonna, but Madonna's a dumb-ass!"

Later, she emails to clarify what she describes as her "late-afternoon dopiness" on this subject: "I may have contradicted myself. My problem isn't actually with Lady Gaga. But there's not much in her music to distinguish it from other glossy, formulaic pop. She just happens to wear slightly weirder outfits than Britney Spears. But they're not that weird – they're mostly just skimpy. She's fully marketing her body/sexuality; she's just doing it while wearing, like, a 'fierce' telephone hair-hat. Her sexuality has no scuzziness, no frank raunchiness, in the way that, say, Peaches, or even Grace Jones, have – she's Arty Spice! And, meanwhile, she seems to take herself so oddly seriously, the way she talks about her music in the third person, like she's Brecht or something. She just makes me miss Cyndi Lauper." And on the subject of Madonna: "I shouldn't have called Madonna a dumb-ass. Her music and she have just gotten so boring to me, this last decade. I think maybe she doesn't hold her money very gracefully, the way some people can't hold their drink. But one thing she is surely not is dumb." Newsom says it as it is in the truest and bluntest form, and I, for one, agree. And as the smart artist she is, I'm glad she re-assessed and clarified her opinions.

Music Video of the Day: Mario Basanov & Vidis - I'll Be Gone

This video is as intricately composed as the music itself. The director ingeniously brings sound directly to picture by illustrating four different polygraphs in four corners picking up on specific sounds within the composition itself. Regardless of its simplicity, the video does not allow our eyes to drift away, instead creatively warps our perception. The red ink on white paper (which I find to symbolize energy in sound form) is a moving and evolving entity within the video and its illustrated in a fantastic way by mixing live video with computer animation. Probably one of my favourite videos.

New Artists to Pay Close Attention To

Abel Tesfaye is a Toronto-based singer/song writer/producer. He steps outside of the box and challenges the structural definitions of genres, particularly R&B. He is the one-man project of The Weeknd; a futuristic, drugged-out, after-after-party take on R&B, yet I would not consider it R&B nor dubstep. Alongside R&B vocals, he incorporates dubstep and indie rock style instrumentation. As a result, he creates some amazing atmospheric elements to involve the listener into pure euphoria. His astounding debut, House of Balloons, truly hits you in the gut--not only emotionally, but as a music fan as well. He breathes life into the boring and stale R&B music culture today.

The Weeknd - What You Need by ajay-patel

Experimental Brit artist, James Blake, arrived with a large splash following his stunning cover of Feist's beautifully elegiac Limit to Your Love. As an artist he is a disciple of the less-is-more school with his self-titled debut album characterized by a predominant sparsity. His music is often introspective and undefined, charting to strange landscapes and unknown textures. Unlike The Weeknd, James Blake's atmosphere is a lot more experimental and minimalistic. There is something about how he provokes emotion in silences and spaces that lie in his songs--makes you want to lye down in them for a while.

James Blake - Air & Lack Thereof by ajay-patel

British producer, Jamie Smith of indie-pop band The xx, made himself a powerful ingrediant of dubstep overnight from his debut, We're New Here, with Gil Scott-Heron. Jamie xx knows how to seamlessly sample poetry and spoken-word into trance-inducing music. As a result, he creates some cutting-edge, high-quality post-dubstep tracks. His sound is said to be influenced by fellow British acts Burial and Kode9.

Album of the Day: Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - The Doldrums

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - The Doldrums (2004)
lo-fi, psychedelia, psychedelic rock

After years of recording in relative seclusion in the hills of Los Angeles, Ariel Pink—or otherwise known as Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti—makes his official Paw Tracks debut with The Doldrums, an avant-guard psychedelic album. Originally a handmade CD-R release a couple years before its official release, The Doldrums was discovered by Animal Collective during one of their west coast tours and became an immediate favourite.

Ariel Rosenberg (his real name) creates music that stretches imagination in incredible depth and surrealism. Recording at home with only a guitar, keyboard, 8-track, and drum sounds unbelievably created with his voice, Rosenberg manages to blend lo-fi pop with 70s mono-rock into something beautiful and confusing, yet highly addictive. The album tends to paint a picture or poem in the air from that era. However, I think Rosenberg did something interesting to the 1970s. It wasn’t what was heard, it was more of what the child’s minds was thinking during that time, especially his. Most people in the 70s do not have many luxuries that we have today. They did not have cable, and so Rosenberg escaped to some place quiet and created his entertainment from the memory of things he picked up in his head. This clutter of synths, drugs, cheap drum loops and effeminate young men with lined eyes was all that was needed to amuse a child to salvation.

There are many highlights on The Doldrums. The album opens up with Good Kids Make Bad Grown Ups, an almost nauseating acid-trip tune with Ariel Pink’s David Bowie-esque vocals when he sings in his lower register. For Kate I Wait and Among Dreams are two of my favourite songs. There is a sense of innocence to both songs, being upbeat yet gentle at the same time. He sings in his higher register in Among Dreams, bringing out a more annoying nasality to his voice; whereas in For Kate I Wait, he dips down in his Bowie-sound-a-like, bringing out his more haunting and less playful atmosphere. The Ballad of Bobby Pyn is a collection of hypnotizing and mad sounds from synths, voice and found sounds. I love how this song starts as a structured song, and gradually transforms into the most indescribable trip through the brain. There is something to say about the simplicity and complexity of the song, and the entire record for that matter. The Doldrums is very avant-garde for this century because of this ability to combine hot and cold together yet separate simultaneously.

It’s really difficult for me to describe this album. It is unlike anything I have heard or felt before, and I love every minute of it. The music is nostalgic, psychedelic, confusing, dreamy, and utterly insane. I am immensely pleased that there are people who still believe in breaking boarders beyond the first boarders to begin with. The Doldrums is a piece of fascinating art that literally takes one to another galaxy; no-man’s-land if you will. Being the first non-Animal Collective member on the Paw Tracks roster, Ariel Pink proves to be a highly creative individual that lets nothing stand in his way to create the sounds he wants with the voice of many octaves warped by the sun. Thank you for messing with out minds, Ariel Pink.



Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - For Kate I Wait by ajay-patel

Pop = Electro?

Is it me, or has most pop turned electro? Thanks to David Guetta, who is a huge sell-out slut, electro made its popularity into mainstream pop music. Guetta was amazing in being unique and interesting as a solo artist, but is now slowly blurring away from that. I can't tell pop artists apart anymore--they all want to be dance divas, or rather gods/goddesses. Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga, Kesha, and J. Lo all sound the same that they are pretty much the same person. Kelis is the only exception because she created an exquisite and captivating album garnering talent from Benny Benassi as well as David Guetta that flies beyond what other pop "divas" are capable of. Pop stars need to stop using electro unless they know what they are doing. Otherwise, it's just a huge embarrassment to electro music, including Peaches and Ellen Allien. Believe it or not, artists will get more respect for being themselves rather than being posers and keeping up with trends--crazy, I know.

Music Video of the Day: Dan Black - Symphonies

This video is neat and creative homage to typography and film. An array of film styles tell the story of the Black's song. Various titles and credits run throughout the video in styles from western to romantic comedy to sci-fi to animation--they reflect the lyrics sung by Dan Black. This is very new and different approach to a music video that I find to be clever and visually stimulating. The visuals almost make you forget what the song is actually about because the video is constantly changing in style, yet at the same time, keeping them cohesive to each other. The video is constantly changing and provides excitement. This is a novel approach to a sing-a-long.

The Day the Concert Stood Still

The nature of a concert varies by musical genre and the individual performers. Nevertheless, we all admire a thumping sound system at a concert; that bass drum the kicks you in the gut, that guitar solo cutting through the air like a sonic razor. A concert, in many ways, is a spiritual connection between the artist and audience, through music or more specifically, emotion. With some dough, one has the opportunity to be in the presence of an admired musician or musicians and to feel them for who they are. So, why then would artists destroy this special interaction with lip-syncing, overpowered visuals, and album replicas? Corporate media has taken control over artists, and because of that, artists gain evil power or lack thereof on as well as off-stage. There was a time when bands like The Beetles, or artists like Nick Drake relied solely on their own raw talent. Today, for the most part, is a different story.

Lip-synching is a commonly-used shortcut in live music, but also considered to be controversial. As more elaborate shows came into place in the 1990s, lip-synching was introduced as a tool to dance, sing, etc. simultaneously and accurately. For example, Michael Jackson has performed complex dance routines while lip-syncing and live singing on stage. Unfortunately, artists like Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Rihanna and the like of them have taken extreme advantage of this tool to fool-proof their entire shows. According to The New York Times, the increased use of lip-syncing has made legislators in New York and New Jersey irritated, and suggests informing concert-goers that they are essentially paying for a non-live live concert.

Name any band or artist in mainstream pop culture—they are guaranteed to be satans of the lip-syncing machine. Music making is becoming too easy in this generation to the point where power, creativity and raw energy have trivially fluttered out the window in exchange of the power of purgatory perfection. In today’s brainwashed culture, concert-goers expect nothing less than perfection and any off-note or mess-up is deemed unacceptable. The difference between Cat Power and Kesha is paranormal advertising empowerment. Kesha is an image that has been stripped from her humanity to become a product—the pressure for perfectionism is greater here. However, better isn’t always good; more isn’t always beneficial.

Whether it’s Britney Spears in a 2009 Australian show, Luciano Pavarotti at the 2006 Winter Olympics or Ashlee Simpson on Saturday Night Live in 2004, lip-syncing has undeniably created a bad and non-credible image in which people nevertheless blindly eat up. Therefore, the process repeats itself until the very definition of a live show becomes the very definition of a digital download of the album.

So that begs the question: What are we actually paying for if the concert we’re viewing is a hoax? The answer is the artist brand. Every artist/band has a brand and hype surrounding that brand. This is why Madonna’s concerts are $300+ and Devendra Banhart’s are $40, if that. Tactlessly, the fact that one is a real musician/singer and the other is a performer who uses fake means to get by is completely irrelevant when it comes to branding and revenue. It’s a sad, yet unnecessary truth in the music industry. Plainly, authentic artists are not popular, which garners more fake imitators to merge into the music industry.

The ‘80s, 70s, and even earlier years were fundamental times in concert history: the popularity of experimentation and improvisation. The goal and purpose for a concert back then was not to mimic songs in the exact deliverance of a record or cassette tape, but rather create an atmosphere of emotion and humanistic connection. Music is a living, breathing entity, and when played live, songs change in shifting rhythm and details of instrumental performance—whatever the mood may strike at a certain time. A great part of Hendrix’s popularity came from his pure vigor and improvisation on stage. It was this that made fans yearning for a personal assembly for something fresh, real and animalistic. Jazz has been implementing these stage characteristics since the 1950s. Free Jazz, in particular, was a response to the dissatisfaction on the limitations on already established 1940s jazz. Come 1980s, freestyle made its way to modern settings, introducing rap battles and beat boxing. The craft of freestyle rap is improvising rhymes on the spot, and the art still exists today.

There has been a great speed of careless emergence of technology from the ’90s up until now. For better or worse, technology makes situations easier and more convenient. Consequently, media culture grabbed technology by the throat and altered the outlook on the process of human life, and specifically how concerts were to be executed. Enter the music industry. Alongside lip-syncing, Auto-Tune and scarce instrumentation in songs cultivates faster than The Spice Girls receiving their first record deal. In response to the decline of revenue from experimentalism and popularity of widely accessible generic pop, rock, etc., managers and major record labels placed artists into predetermined boxes, employing an apparent middle finger between creativity and music. Concerts became structured and although experimentalism still existed, the feeling was quickly forgotten by the large majority due to the role of the sheep in an overly produced world.

Furthermore, I should point out there is a vital difference between experimentalism and simply creating clutter. Discerning how much processing occurs on an album in comparison to the live show is incredibly easy to pinpoint. The Black Eyed Peas is a superior example of a band who are 100 times worse on stage than their actual recordings present (and this is during the technological age). They are filled with so much ego that they focus on sales rather than talent and skill.

Speaking of skills, many people today who have played an instrument for about a decade might easily become divorced from it. The main reason behind this is due to never instilling the instrument as part of his or her emotional being, but rather primarily learned as a mechanical device to be operated, not a living process in which to invest thoughts and feelings. Because of this notion, we see musicians taking more shortcuts than ever before into stardom, and concerts do not differ. It’s a story of the cookie cutter.

Today, artists are essentially slaves driven by egoism. There is no soul, no presence, no anything. An event that once drew the public to a whole new universe, is a puppet-show run by corporate media. That’s not to say all bands and artists are awful live. However, to find them we must delve underground. Animal Collective is just one band that stands apart from the rest by entrancing a group of fans into an all-night psychedelic euphoria. They are not corrupted by media and stay true to their genuine selves. Their live shows are heavily experimented and use visuals as a supplement to their outlandish songs. The point being, there is still hope in the world for honest shows. Underground bands are the role models for change, and are increasingly being discovered and uncovered by its shrouds. However, in a way, I'd prefer the underground bands to remain as such so as to prevent another musical homicide.

© Ajay Patel