#4

Generalissimo Genre at your service.

"I Will Possess Your Heart" - Death Cab For Cutie

People are getting tired of the same ole college indie rock of the new millennium. Everyone, their mother, and their dog have been retooling their sound to stay current including the purveyors of the genre, Death Cab For Cutie. The term "indie" isn't defined anymore by just being signed to an independent label. It has become the status quo for labeling a band that simply has that textbook indie sound, isn't played on typical broadcast radio (satellite doesn't count), or doesn't receive Grammy nominations. Death Cab has achieved all of the above. So why are we still calling them indie? They are signed to a major label- check. They are played on the radio (college radio doesn't count either) - check. And they received a Grammy nod this past year for Best Alternative Music Album for their 2008 release Narrow Stairs- check. Yet we still can't break that steady habit of categorizing them as indie. Why you ask? Because this is the direction music is going in our present day thanks to sites like Myspace and Facebook. The artists we used to know as strictly “indie” (Death Cab, The Decemberists, Rilo Kiley) are being signed to the labels the music zealots were against. And so, being signed to a major label became synonymous to selling out.

I was skeptical when it came time to listen to Narrow Stairs, Death Cab's second major label release. Its predecessor Plans was far from exceptional in my opinion. It sounded like a commercialized version of the heavily lauded Transatlanticism. The same thing seemed to have happened with The Decemberists' first venture into major label territory with The Crane Wife (as mentioned in Post #3). And let us not forget Rilo Kiley's stink of an album Under The Blacklight. I still have a bad taste in my mouth from that LP. Out of these three bands Death Cab was the first to release a sophomore major label album so of course I was ready for another disappointment, but thankfully that was not the case. Death Cab threw what guitarist and producer Chris Walla dubbed as a "curve ball." Their previous albums had always sounded smooth with very few sandpaper moments. Narrow Stairs was the complete opposite with it being louder and more abrasive. The first single from it "I Will Possess Your Heart" with Gibbard's lyrics exclaiming, "You've gotta spend some time, love. You've gotta spend some time with me." still hails back to the pre-Atlantic days but with a new twist of jam-band swagger a la Wilco. It is a fine demonstration of a band trying something new without losing the formula that brought them to the stage in the first place.

With the shift in the music industry pointing more towards internet-only releases we are seeing the comeback of what indie meant in the first place- being able to get your music to the masses without the aid of a deep pocketed label. As the days go on though, more and more independent labels pop up from the ground. We also see more major labels turning their ear towards unsigned acts that are already doing a damn good job selling their music on their own. This is all well and good considering the marketing and money that is offered, but we should all share in the lesson that the label does not necessarily define the band. Let us not forget that it’s the poorly written, watered down, swill that a band may release that either makes them or breaks them in the major label world. I’m looking at you Rilo Kiley.

"Nice & Blue Pt. 2" - mewithoutYou

I've never felt inclined to prescribe to the genre of Christian rock, its repetition, or its message. It is filled with a congregation of carbon-copy bands and stale singer/songwriters that bring nothing that’s truly genuine to the table. Just the same two words- "Praise Jesus." That is all well and good for the usual Sunday morning into Sunday night church-goer. They think anything not approved by their sanctuary of choice is, well, the devil's work. Although some of the less orthodox forms of Christianity have swung a bit more to the left lately, but not that far. They still hate gays no matter how tolerant they claim to be. But this blog wasn't intended to step on the toes of the pious and devout. I am here to bring you my thoughts on music, but if that means rubbing the face of Christian music into the dirt a little along the way, then so be it. But worry not my god-fearing readers; there is light, hope, and a burning bush by the name of mewithoutYou, a band that has consistently proved me wrong time and time again that maybe there is a band with a venerable message that doesn't suck. Honestly, I could never bring myself to put the label of "Christian Rock" on mewithoutYou. It's just wrong.

At the root, mewithoutYou's music lends itself to the hard-hitting, pre-numetal grunge days of Helmet with a dash of the melodic side of Sunny Day Real Estate. What captures the listener more though is singer Aaron Weiss' thoughtfully and elegantly poetic lyrics sung in the style of a preacher witnessing to his flock. His message isn't the usual Christian one either. Instead Weiss gives the listeners an intimate look into his life and how he has walked the footsteps of Christ and what exactly that means to him. His message doesn't convey the idea of how to be a good Christian, but how to be a good person and leading others to do so by example. An idea that was the core of Jesus' teachings and has remained relevant to the morals taught to us today.

Now three albums deep (and a forth along the way) mwY have asserted their stance in the music world. This is the part where I swallow my pride and say that mwY deserves to be on a bigger label than their current one with the power to push them towards listeners who may not have heard them yet. Who knows, they have probably already gotten offers to step up on the ladder to join the bigwigs, but I am sure that they have respectfully declined for reasons that are obvious if you understand the significance and importance of what they are trying to do. And that is to just bring beautiful music into the hearts of the lost no matter what label, genre, or classification the public seems to want to nail them to.

“Shell Of Light” – Burial

Since we seem to be following the theme of genre generalization in this issue of 5SIAR I’m glad to see that my ipod has decided to enter the realm of electronic. Like indie, it’s another classification of music with an endless assortment of sub-genres. Every artist, producer, and DJ has put his or her mark on what was once just a style of music, but is now an entire culture. Like the previous artists in this issue, and their respective genres, the school of electronic has a penchant for churning out one-shot club hits with nothing else to solidify them as worth listening to while sober and stagnant at home. However, this is not the case with the electronic dubstep artist from the U.K. known as Burial. He has been able to craft two creditable albums, 2006’s self-titled Burial, and 2007’s Untrue (from which this track comes from) that house an eeriness that makes you feel like you’re on some kind of acid trip in a haunted house that’s stuck inside an dance club sized aquarium.

While “Shell Of Light” is a memorable track, it was the song “Archangel” that made everyone’s 2007 year-end mix, including mine. I think there were a few days where I had to play it at least ten times a day (Thanks, Aaron). Burial makes the kind of electronic that is repetitious, yet hard to get tired of. The steady two-step beat of Untrue is the album’s kernel, but it’s the mix of ethereal soundscapes and underwater vocal effects that give the album its push.

Not much was known about Burial at first. For a while the public didn’t even have a face to put to the music. A few speculations made the British tabloids as Burial being either Richard James (Aphex Twin) or Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim). The media’s thirst was finally quenched when a photo and a blog were released from the real Burial on to his Myspace page humbly stating, “I'm a low-key person and I just want to make some tunes, nothing else.” If only other artists would take from his mantra and stop focusing all their efforts on being the next big thing. Burial proves the point that if you just take a step back and concentrate on what you love to do it’ll come natural and it won’t sound like a pile of used rubbers falling to the floor- flat and unappealing- which is, unfortunately what most of the club anthems sound like these days.

“Time = Cause” – Broken Social Scene

Broken Social Scene is about as indie as indie can get. These canucks have provided its listeners with a treasure trove of various full lengths, EP’s, and solo albums from main songwriters (and pretty much the only two band members that don’t seem to come and go) Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning. Most of the band is made up of people from other Canadian bands from around the Toronto area including members of Stars, Emily Haines from Metric, and everyone’s favorite ipod commercial sweetheart Feist. What makes this band so inviting to the ears is their ability to string together so many different little odds and ends borrowed from all over the genre map and make it sound organized and pleasing.

BeeHives is comprised of nine mostly instrumental B-sides taken from BSS’s LP You Forgot It In People. Get it, BeeHives, B-sides, nevermind. Like Burial’s Untrue, BeeHives is another great record to just put on and let it carry you through your day. It’s mellow, but not enough to make you want to go to sleep (Listen to their debut Feel Good Lost for the purposes of slumber). “Time = Cause” was the B-side to the popular song “Stars and Sons” featured on the movie Half Nelson along with several other BSS songs. Though the song that clenches the heart the most is the stripped down piano version of the ballad “Lover’s Spit.” Feist’s soft and aching vocals make this song even more painful to listen to than the original version found on You Forgot It In People.

Even though BSS are still signed to an indie label that doesn’t mean that all of their albums have been pure works of genius. While at some points throughout BSS’s career they have hit the mark with beautifully arranged rock and pop, at other times their music comes off as stale and overdone. It’s an unbroken habit by many budding artists to just choose the safe route, though BSS is hardly a newcomer to the scene so I expect a little bit more. Pitchfork said it best in their review for BeeHives, “B-sides are B-sides for a reason.”

“Spitting Venom” – Modest Mouse

Modest Mouse is yet another fine example of a small indie label band turned major label, platinum-record rock stars. What was once a band that used to open for Built to Spill in bars is now all grown up and headlining shows of their own at much bigger venues. It took them long enough too. How many albums does Modest Mouse have? It seems like more than a dozen and it could very well be considering that they’ve been around since the early 90’s. Their success came in the form of the albums The Moon & Antarctica and Good News For People Who Love Bad News from which the radio and bar jukebox hit “Float On” comes from. Since then they have also added on to their line-up including The Smith’s guitarist Johnny Marr and percussionist Joe Plummer formerly of The Black Heart Procession for the help on their 2007 LP We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank.

“The opinions that I do not give are the opinions I ain't got,” sings Isaac Brock during the first few verses on this track, a track that is definitely one of my personal favorites from We Were Dead. The quote stands out to me because as I’m traversing down the long road of becoming a music critic and journalist I find it difficult to just sit down, listen to an album, and give it an objective review. Music is subjective, different people have different tastes. What I say about a song or album may not translate to what a person feels from that particular piece of music. No one is ever going to completely agree with what anyone may think or write. You become offended if you see someone talk bad about an artist you might love; and such is the dilemma of reading reviews. Sometimes we take it a little too personally.

Modest Mouse has joined the ranks of other bands that have made the crossover to major label while still being able to capture audiences and procure Billboard chart success. They have left fellow west coast indie rockers Built to Spill in the dust even though BtS had achieved major label status long before the Mouse did. I’m quite positive we’ll be seeing good things from this seasoned band as they continue to sprig new signs of life into the songs that have already given them the grandiose status they rightfully deserve. Maybe they could possibly fill in for the recently vacated spot from Amy Winehouse on the Coachella bill? Morrissey will also be playing Coachella this year. It would be about as close to a Smiths reunion I think we’ll ever get.