Music Dump - The Fall of Nicki Minaj's Rollins Stones K-Pop
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Life Lessons: Mark E Smith On Bullying, The Occult And Why Stalin Had The Right Idea by Robert Chalmers (The Independent): I once had the pleasure of playing in a band supporting Mark E Smith’s band The Fall, and though I didn’t have an incredible amount of contact with him, from what I observed he was fairly polite and mild-mannered. This was not Robert Chalmers’ experience interviewing him though! Because Mark E Smith is a celebrated hater - he hates everything; from Manchester, to David Bowie, to Australia, to red wine, to psychologists, to “soft lads that blab”. As Chalmers describes, ‘the tirade is his default mode of communication’. Thankfully, for someone so full of vinegar, Smith is hilarious. ‘What, I ask, are his future plans? "Me? I'm coming to live with you. Tomorrow."’
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The Curious Case Of Nicki Minaj by Caryn Ganz (Out): The world of hip-hop isn’t so welcoming to the LGBT community, outside of a bit of girl-girl action for the boys. But perhaps that tide is slowly turning? Certainly Nicki Minaj has a certain appeal in this area, what with her witty put-downs, and larger-than-life persona. She doesn’t claim to be lesbian, mind you, but she has talked about not being entirely straight. But the question Ganz asks here is: Is Minaj (like Katy Perry) faking it for the amusement of boys, or is she the real thing? (Also, this piece is in the new Best Music Writing of 2011 book edited by Alex Ross and Daphne Carr (link), which you possibly may be interested in if you’re a regular Music Dump reader, you handsome devil, you.)
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The Rolling Stones: That 50-Year Itch by Elizabeth Day (The Guardian): The Stones are re-releasing their (great) 1978 album Some Girls in fancy deluxe edition version, and as a result are talking to journalists. Word of warning: in this piece in the Guardian, make sure you get past the breathless hype about the Stones at the start (yes, yes, we know they’re icons who have made all that classic music) and into the meat of the interviews with the band members, which are gold. Keef calls Mick “Maria Callas”, Ronnie Wood estimates that he’s spent 20 million pounds on drugs and alcohol, and Charlie Watts – after being in the Rolling Stones for 50 years – says he likes playing drums and having people applaud, but never really dug the music.
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The Internet And Your Cultural Irrelevance by Edith Zimmerman (New York Times): There will come a point where your music taste becomes irrelevant, where you realise that you no longer ‘get it’. Once upon a time, I could pick the hits, the songs that people would gravitate to – I remember hearing The Whitlams’ ‘You Sound Like Louis Burdett’ one of the three or four times JJJ played it in 1996, and being certain it was a hit. Which it eventually was. In 1998. But now, as a 29 year old, I feel pretty culturally irrelevant when I turn the dial to Triple J these days – I just never got with the electro Presets/Art vs. Science stuff they seem to spend most of their time playing. I admit it doesn't resonate with me, and so have moments thinking “Those damn kids!” Edith Zimmerman has similar thoughts about ‘Gucci Gucci’ by Kreayshawn – what was she missing? Why did people care? Was she culturally irrelevant?
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Interview With Henry Rollins: Punk Rock World Traveller by Jim Benning (WorldHum): Henry Rollins has mellowed over the last decade or so, and he puts it down to his yearly practice of spending a quarter of the year exploring the world. Here he discusses the travels he’s had around the off-the-beaten-track parts of the world – from seeing dignified Bangladesh women picking through garbage to survive, to seeing an Indonesian woman wearing a Black Flag t-shirt, clearly with no idea who he was.
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To Anyone: The Rise Of Korean Wave by James Brooks (Pitchfork): Hey, you! You probably watched Video Hits on a Sunday morning every so often (if only in horror), and were probably unimpressed that it was axed for The
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Men In Music (Masonic Boom): So, like, it’s almost time for those end of year Best Of 2011 lists, and it’s going to be like every other year – completely dominated by female writers, what with their cultural hegemony and oestrogen-drenched consensus. You know how they really focus on female artists and pretty much ignore male music? Well, if you’re one of these dominant female writers, Masonic Boom have some pointers for you! Most importantly, she reminds you that you should include some token male acts into your list – I mean, have you noticed all those dudes going on about Radiohead? It’s probably a safe bet to list them in your Top 10, just to be on the safe side. But you should also include some dude who plays the harp, because that’s totally new and original to have a guy doing that – he’s male! How could he be influenced by females? That doesn’t happen. There are totally separate lines of influence. Of course, don’t forget to compare every female artist to Kate Bush male artist to Roy Orbison. [Also, see this more serious-toned piece in Pitchfork about the narrowness of the boxes women musicians get put into].
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What Makes Music Boring? by Steven Hyden (The AV Club): The recent fuss about Nitsuh Abebe’s New York Magazine article (see here and here ) about how some people think Wilco are boring, has gotten Hyden thinking. One of the things about boring music is that there’s two reasons it might be boring: one is that it is inherently boring despite the fact it's trying to appeal to you. The other is that it is boring because it is not trying to appeal to you.
It seems to me that one of the most rewarding things about being a music fan is when a different genre of music clicks; when you can hear familiar emotions and situations in different forms of music. And so you might find yourself drawing a link between Joni Mitchell’s Blue and, say, Kanye West’s 808s And Heartbreak -- which arguably has a similar emotional palette (all lacerating post-breakup self-analysis), if a dramatically different sound. Trying to figure out the appeal of other music can make you realise that some of the other things going aren’t that different from what you like. And if you don’t make these links between your music and other music, your music taste turns to stone – you get stuck in your own rut.
Tim Byron
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