Thoughts on Raucous Rock’n’Roll

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:

Veronica Falls live at the Norwich Art Centre, 27th of January

On Friday the 27th I had the pleasure of seeing Veronica Falls play the Norwich art centre. I'm always looking to see good gigs and Veronica Falls have had some positive attention lately. I've duly noted their associations with The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, a band I like to listen to very much. The four piece had their self-titled album out in 2011 which met a positive reception that ensures that future endeavours ought to be well promoted. For my part I didn't find my listens particularly memorable, but things can change on the stage. Live verdict after the jump.

Music Writing and the Problem of Values

The impetus for this post really came from considering my process for writing about music. I've been considering metaphor, simile and something approaching but not exactly a sense of dialectic. I suppose what I refer to is background and choice of assumptions. There are some obvious examples of this, like popularity--you can write about artists as waves: charting their bearing in the public conciousness through time until they crest and break, lost in the undertow. My colloquialism for this is "what's up, what's down?" This is chart or more recently 'buzz' or 'viral' based writing. That said, one mustn't discount the artist's need for good press, particularly when it comes from influential outlets.

Thoughts on the background and assumptions behind "what's up, what's down" and other modes of music writing after the jump. Also, the thing that brought on this blog post: the second edition of The Dark Stuff: Selected Writings on Rock Music (2002) by Nick Kent.