For a long time I haven’t really been thinking of Rock’n’Roll too much. It’s true that here and there were flickers all along the other stuff. To tell the truth, a lot of my focus has been on the music of Devo.
Devo rock, sure, but they're not really rock. To me they're above the fray of genre.
I’ve decided that I really like the lyrics of their 2010 album, Something for Everybody—I was into the music for a while but the lyrics suddenly came into focus. It’s unique album that manages to fuse the sometimes patchy band’s best form with contemporary concerns and production. The album’s provenance is also highly interesting: the title stems from the band’s decision to operate like a multinational corporation and employ focus groups to choose the track list.
Devo are currently zeitgeist because of their anti-Romney song:
It is self-aware, increasingly electronic music which is getting a lot attention. There is strong emphasis on EDM linked music, much to the consternation of some. Simon Reynolds wrote an excellent piece on it for The Guardian. Then there’s Synth Pop related fair, of which Part Time is a genuine favourite.
Now, you’ve likely read a lot about the straight ahead rock formats struggling, and to an extent it’s true, but I thought I would plug a friend’s band to emphasise that music is a network distinct from journalistic narratives. Youthbitch! Are practitioners of a form of music that will not truly go away for a long time.
See their bandcamp page. Regrettably I haven't heard all of the tracks yet, I'm willing to take a risk though and vouch for it. Go.
I have previously written about why I find Gender explications of Rock unconvincing. This is certainly true when it comes to explaining its appeal on a phenomenological appeal. If you take a piece like William S. Burroughs’ on Led Zeplin for Crawdaddy Magazine, with its intangibles of energy and magick, then you begin to get closer to what I feel to be true. The emphasis on collective, purposeful effervescence—the distance between gendered explications and experiential truth, was emphasised for me by watching a video recording of Primal Scream playing on their still recent Screamadelica anniversary tour. It’s not a question of mumbo jumbo, as Burroughs explains: it’s a question of purpose.
William S. Burroughs on Led Zeplin
It was after discovering long time Punk/ Garage Rock/ Power Pop band Redd Kross’s new album that I was reminded that good rock seems intrinsically appealing. Left-wing critics may find it to be “lifestyle” music that is fundamentally promotion of conspicuous consumption. Some people believe that the only form of self-expression available to many white people is consumerism. For the record I'm yet to be convinced that The Black Keys aren't lifestyle, I could be wrong.
Redd Kross can come across as Rodney Bingenheimer-esque collectors of pop-culture’s peripheral souvenirs. I wouldn’t have it any other way. To me one of the joys of rock music especially, is its tendency to contain a historical commentary on what’s come before. Discovering the Blues flits between Appetite for Destruction-era Guns N Roses “Modern Rock,” Plimsouls heartbreak, and riffs reminiscent of Elliot Easton at his New Wave best in The Cars.
This is a band that learned its chops supporting Black Flag, by the way.
The transgressive, teenage feelings of Rock’n’Roll are to me found much more in its musical character than its lyrics anyway. Sure there are some good rock lyrics, but who wants to be a Boomer messiah? It occurs that lyrics focus, which can pervade feminist critiques of rock music like Simon Reynolds and Joy Press’s The Sex Revolts, can be found in recent digital distributions of The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street. They really bump up Jagger’s vocals in the mix. I can’t say exactly what in the mix accounts for this, or if it’s to do with the phase relationship of the left and right channels, or just overall compression but something's going on there.
With Researching the Blues there’s strong cadence, with that insistent pulse and rhythm derived feeling David Wondrich calls ‘Stomp’ (see his informative book, Stomp and Swerve). There is also the liberating feeling that a great song, record, might be made out of any old trash. By the same token, there is the possibility that it might usefully reflect the trash we buy in supermarkets. The Rock ‘n’ Roll umbrella is like an annoying child’s ‘it just is’ appeal to tautological authority. It is an amorphous form of production that can slough its skin like a snake and swallow its tail like the ouroboros.
Seeing as I am flitting about, why not buttress the general thrust of things with three items of news: Foo Fighters play well received set demonstrating that even if their radio genre of rock music is dated and Bob Mould, who came up with much of the sound in question, is back with a new album entitled Silver Age which you can stream here. You can see the nice video for ‘The Descent,’ seemingly shot in Oregon, here. Oh, and Dinosaur Jr have an album called I Bet on Sky Coming Out, too. I am hoping to turn in reviews of the Dinosaur and of Bob, check out video footage of Foo Fighters and The Cure at Reading if you can—very enjoyable.
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