The A to S of Music, Via MBV
Aug 28th, 2007 by Donagh
Image via Meshmag’s flickr photosteam
Being a dad you soon begin to feel that you are no longer cool. Popular trends start to pass you by. The Internet is great, but it can give you the impression that you’re informed about the latest THING when in fact you’re just barely scratching the surface of what’s actually happening. It allows you to create a little bubble for yourself in which you bob around haplessly, viewing a simulacrum of what’s REALLY happening, out there, on the streets.
The bubble bursts when in the company of teenagers. After spending about ten minutes or so yakking frantically about this band or that DJ you realise that rather than smiling with concentrated interest at what you have to say, they are in fact laughing their faces off at what a pitiful fool you are. You have just become what you used to, and which they now, hate.
Fortunately I’ve never been cool, so don’t feel a desperate need to keep up. But there are times when I wonder what going on in the underground.
Which is why the latest interview on Brooklynvegan with Ian Matthias Bavitz - aka Aesop Rock is so informative. Bavitz is promoting his new album None Shall Pass which is being released today on Def Jux.
About the underground Bavitz says:
“In the underground you’re not suppose to be a biter, you’re suppose to bring your own shit to the table.”
As I thought, it’s just an elaborate sewage system. Fortunately Aesop Rock is the good shit rather than the bad.
At another point in the interview Bavitz is asked about indie rock:
“W: You did a song (”Coffee“) with John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats for this album. Are there any other indie rock musicians whose music you enjoy and you’d want to work with?
AR: Not really. I don’t really listen to so much of that stuff.”
Which is pretty cool. And so is this:
Coffee via The Bathysphere.
Another musical act, more of my (ahem) generation is My Bloody Valentine.
Brooklynvegan also informs me that they are planning to go the Jesus and Mary Chain route and are scheduled to play ‘Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, CA in April, 2008’.
The details come from The Daily Swarm, which in an onrush of gushing music blog prose, tell us that the My Bloody Valentine MySpace page set up earlier in the month is official, according to Kevin Shields’ manager Vinita Joshi. The MySpace page also links to a placeholder website for the band.
Is this an indication that we can expect tour dates in various festivals next year? Probably, but I’m not getting too excited by it. I missed them when they planned their one and only gig in McGonigles, but I heard that I didn’t miss much. All the technology needed meant that there were long gaps between songs, so punters got bored.
McGonigles though used to have a light that came on when the decibel level went beyond what was safe for the human ear to endure without damaging itself. I heard that the light stayed on the whole time during the gig. When the band was actually playing music that is.
Going back even further, here’s another band that used to play McGonigles far more regularly than MBV. Stars of Heaven.
Dear sweet God. If it wasn’t the Coachella guys saying that MBV are reuniting, I’d dismiss this rumour out of hand.
Loveless is still, for me, the greatest.
It’s one of the few albums that still has to played all the way through.
I’ve yet to find a stereo that can play it loud enough.
It’s my head-cleaning music.
I can’t focus on anything else when it’s on.
It’s from a hundred years ago and nobody has the better of it yet.
I’m completely unsure if I want to see MBV live again.
Yep I still like it too, though I don’t play the album all the way through these days.
I’ve yet to find a stereo that can play it loud enough.
Always the way with MBV. All its shortcomings are down to the limitations of technology.
I’m completely unsure if I want to see MBV live again.
Maybe we should start a campaign to stop them reforming. We’d call it the Kevin, Just Say No! Campaign.
Would be nice if one band had the sense to resist the heritage trail, alright. I blame Mojo
It’d be better if MBV recorded another bloody album, but its probably too late now. I just noticed in wikipedia it says this:
“As reported on Pitchfork Media, Shields said in an interview in the January/February 2007 issue of Magnet that My Bloody Valentine will record another album “100%” . . . “unless we die or something.”
Now there’s a coincidence - I was listening to Loveless today for the first time in a while (father of 3, love MBV) and would go to see/hear them at the drop of a hat, or truss as the case may be. And now here I am reading this rantette.
To be honest, Hugh, if they were to play Dublin I’d go too. I suppose my rantette comes from the disappointment that there was nothing to follow up Loveless. Maybe nothing is needed. But if I did go, I’d have fairly low expectations. Also, I hate the way that bands feel its suddenly time to play and tour again.