What a year this was!
I like to review the end of the year by looking at the pictures on my iPhoto that I took during it. Even though my natural pace is a fast one, reviewing the photos made me go: 'Whoa, Nelly!, that's a lot of year, Bri!'
Last January, I remember reviewing 2009 the way it looked in music. You can revisit that piece here. Incidentally, that piece is also the one that attracted the largest number of traffic to date.
This time around I decided to go through it in picture. Most of this year up to late Summer, I was in Ohio, writing away, teaching courses in my area of expertise, and presenting at academic conferences. I got another article published, gave presentations on a few campuses, and, last but not least, managed to score some tickets to the Real Time with Bill Maher show out in Los Angeles.
Seeing Maher live was as much fun as presenting my latest article on 500 Days of Summer and how I see it as an example of suburbia's almost innate ability to whip most things into submission including punk art. But I see that I've now embarked on a non sequitur and this is not that kind of post.
Summer time had me traveling out West, the land that I love, then back East, the land that holds many of my special people and loved ones, and eventually out West again. This time to live and work in it.
I got to learn how to milk a cow, feed a calf, take a picture with an American Idol out by Rodeo Dr. in Los Angeles, and what else, ah and of course, I went to a bunch of concerts but that is not necessarily report-worthy again as it already got a good chunk of my attention here as well as in my quotidianity. This is not a post about music, neither.
So, what was the theme of this year? Well, the theme would be a soup of light and heavy. Sort of like 'light pop sauteed in substance'. Lightness and severity need to get mixed up, after all.
And the one picture that would do justice to this last paragraph as well as the year in general would be the one featured here taken in May in Los Angeles with me and Casey James, the singer of American Idol fame. No, I don't watch American Idol. Yes, it's the perfect visual of a year where light and heavy coexisted almost too beautifully.
Happy 2011, everyone! What better wish can I have other than to take it as it comes and do the best you can with it....
I've been living in the Pacific Northwest now since Summer. I've always maintained that the pace of the Northwest is much in tune with my own pace. What makes the Pacific Northwest particularly gripping is, and there's no other non-trivial to say this, music. I love the music scene from this neck of the woods. I especially love the text of music here. Music just feels different here. I illustrate. While driving South, Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" pops up on my iPod. I don't know how Gaga managed to creep into my playlist. It's a mystery. It's as much a mystery as Gwen Stefani's Love. Angel. Music. Baby. I don't know how it got on my iPod but it did. I took a glimpse of my Dad in the back seat and he was clearly digging Gaga. In shock, I turned around and said, 'wait, you like this?' He says "I do. It's catchy. Yeah, don't change it. Let it play" Deep down I'm thinking, "dude, my Dad's into Gaga?!" But then she kind of sort of grows on me. Maybe it's because those around me are sort of inclined to like her. No, I'm not going all the way Gaga. Can't see it happening anytime soon. I've got too much new music to explore around here.
What's gripping about music is that it allows you to reconsider where you stand vis-a-vis your tastes and what the world has to offer. Music makes one more adaptable, even flexible. I'm not saying I'm morphing into a Gaga fan anytime soon. What I'm saying is that music, like few other things out there, has the power to make one revisit choices and attitudes.
My good friend just sent this to me. Alas, much of it is true. It's especially interesting if one has a graduate degree, is a college professor, and has had countless conversations with students who come for advice whether or not to go to graduate school.
Kings of Leon are not just a good band. They're a hot band. The latter matters so much more than the former. Let's be truly honest for a minute here. This is rock 'n roll, after all. The way I look at it, you either like their music (and other like music) or you don't. There are rock 'n roll-oriented people out there. And other kinds of people. Naturally, and not in the spirit of preclusion of course, this targets the former more the latter. I've often talked about tastes revealing much more about us than what we happen to like. The aesthetics of rock 'n roll is almost as important as the content of rock 'n roll. Kings of Leon are one of those very, very few bands that espouse both.
The thing is, you either react to Caleb Followill's voice, or you don't. He has a kind of vocal quality that not only begs for attention, it begs for actual sentiment. Whether I'm listening to this record when behind the wheel, running, on the bike, or while talking about something seemingly inconsequential to someone, it is the kind of voice that says: 'I matter. Heed.'
Followill's voice takes me back to that hot summer day when I sat on my stoop, reading the Rolling Stone feature article on this new, awesome band from the South comprised of brothers and a paternal cousin. I remember reading the Stone feature while listening to "Sex on Fire" and "Use Somebody" on my iPod. It was a good summer evening. It was too good. It forced me to do that which only music tends to do to me: It forced me to be introspective and feel okay about it. That's the power of certain kinds of music. It serves as a master key that opens every lock of one's inner worlds and secrets.
I remember sending texts to my musician pal and asking him if he could bear the intensity of tracks like "Use Somebody." He said he barely could. As could I. And that, folks, makes a good track.
The new album Come Around Sundown is important to Kings of Leon because they apparently had the freedom to be as creative as they could have been. The label was not going to restrict them horribly and they could be what they could be best: their own family-informed, alcohol-induced, and music-worshiped selves with all the drama that the formula entails.
I was talking to a new friend of mine the other day and he noted that he found it funny that they had a fiddle on the "Back Down South" track. I think I smiled when I heard that. I smiled because I also remembered all of my experiences in the American South, what it's like to witness people say 'y'all' as often as young people say 'like' in Orange County, or what it means to have b-b-q and lemonade on a hot Memphis day. Again, that's what actual rock 'n roll does: it transports you to your own past, immediate and/or truly past, and it forces you to face it and the stories it has spawned.
The new album feels like a family reunion in the deep South. There's plenty of food and games in the sun. But there's also plenty of drama. Then comes the track "Pony Up." Caleb's vocals get so crisp, I wondered if he had a vocal coach in the studio the day the record was cut as they sound too impeccable. The track's a good segue to "The End" (even though "The End" is the first track of the record). The track, quite apropos named, makes me think of a Killers-meets-The-Bravery-type-of-fusion. It's odd but it works. "The End" is an ideal break-up song that other couples are bound to use as their 'love' song. The dichotomy itself is what's poetic. It's both happy and sad. Much like the Kings of Leon themselves.
See them live one of these days and you'll know what I mean. I can't verbally explain what this means. They epitomize a kind of sadness a-la-Don-Draper that you have to 'get' experientially. If you don't get that kind of sadness then you haven't had a chance to 'get' poetic sadness yet. Which is fine. It's not meant for everyone, after all. Much like marathons. There are other things in life to get.
And then there's "Mary." My heavens, "Mary!" What a great track! It's so great, I wish I had stuck with my guitar lessons just so that I could play this badly on my own, in my basement, when everyone else is asleep late at night.
In sum, the new alum is good. No, wait, it's better than that. It's friggin' awesome. However, it's not "Sex on Fire." Which says one fundamentally true thing about expectations: they are never matched. Of course, no track on the album is as harrowing as "Sex on Fire" or "Use Somebody," for that matter. The album as a whole, however, is good, solid, inspiring. Of course it's not "Sex on Fire" but then again, maybe it's not supposed to be. Most things are not supposed to be that dangerous, no? Music doesn't have to be extreme to be great. Even rock n' roll. Or especially rock 'n roll. If you don't own a copy of Come Around Sundown, you need to rectify it and get one now. It's better than most albums you have bought so far in 2010.
And, if you have not seen these guys perform live yet, do so. This is quite a family with quite a gene pool. And everyone needs to see Caleb sing live!
And here's the guys discussing the new record here:
I know my iPhone can do a lot of things. These guys from the rock band Atomic Tom show that it can do so much more. I wish I were on that New York subway. I love this. I absolutely love this!
Much of my professional research in the realm of the Middle Ages has tackled issues of beauty and aesthetics. Naturally, a good measure of the same ideas are bound to inform my appreciation of modern themes. The latter is what this podcast discusses.
Recorded at The Ohio State University. Tip of the hat to Paul for the editorial assistance.
Here you can see me discuss the brilliant HBO series Bored to Death. If, for some odd reason, you are not privy to it, do rectify the mistake and get on the Jonathan Ames train. It's a very good train to be on. It's, simply put, one of the best delights of good literature on the small screen. For without some access to good literature, what are we after all? You can see me discuss the series here.
Below you can see me discuss the Showtime Series The United States of Tara. I am making my podcasts available over YouTube and will be posting and linking them here from the YouTube channel.
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