Just thought I would share a couple of videos I made on Sunday, Jan. 29 at the Chinese New Year festival in Austin, Texas. They do this every year at the Chinatown Center, a retail center anchored by MT Supermarket (A very cool place to buy groceries. It’s actually a Vietnamese grocery store – the whole complex is pan-Asian, really). I try to make it out there every year to see the dragon and lion dances and watch them set off an insane number of firecrackers. It’s especially fun when you can take kids along. One thing I found out though… Don’t go late or you won’t find parking. I must’ve walked 8 blocks.
When I was a teenager, I read a story by Orson Scott Card that made a big impression on me. “Unaccompanied Sonata” tells the story of a young prodigy in a future society where talented musicians are isolated and forbidden from listening to the music of others, to prevent their work from becoming derivative.
I don’t want to give too much away, but he rebels, listening to a beautiful piece by Bach. He is forbidden from making music. He does it anyway and is repeatedly punished in horrible ways that ultimately make it impossible for him to make music again. In the end, he becomes part of the very establishment that tormented him so.
I thought of that story when I discovered Everything Is a Remix, a blog about the video series by the same name by New York filmmaker Kirby Ferguson (the one who produced this video about Protect IP, mentioned previously on my blog). The first three videos in the series have been produced and a fourth one is on the way. They can be found on Ferguson’s Vimeo channel as well as Youtube and I recommend them highly. They are fascinating.
The video series points out – very effectively – that very little if any of the entertainment we enjoy is truly “original.” Everything borrows from something else. Movies, music, ideas. And that’s not a bad thing. Bits and pieces of art can recombine and become fresh and new again. I love the old blues music Led Zeppelin ripped off, but I also love Led Zeppelin, can’t imagine what my teenage years would’ve been like without them. Amazing powerful stuff. And much of it purloined.
Same thing with hip hop. That used to be one of my complaints about hip hop before I learned to enjoy it: “It’s just someone talking over someone else’s song.” Sometimes that’s all it is, but in the hands of someone creative, it becomes something much more.
Anybody remember the outlaw album DJ Danger Mouse put out in 2004? He took Jay-Z’s Black Album and mixed it with songs from the Beatles’ White Album, to create The Grey Album. Modern, streetwise rap music, mixed with some of the most beloved classic rock there is. It took off like gangbusters. The studios’ reaction to that very pirate project was predictable. EMI tried like hell to get it off the Internet, even though Paul McCartney and Jay-Z were fine with it, but there was no stopping it. The album went viral and was a very hot topic in the music press for a while.
Something else that will freak you out… Sometime watch Zero Hour, a movie about a plane trip that goes awry when the crew gets sick and a passenger – a washed up, nervous ex-pilot – has to take the controls. Sound familiar? That’s because they borrowed the same exact plot for the comedy Airplane!
Watch the Everything Is a Remix for plenty of other examples. Here is the first installment:
When I think of electronic music, I think ’90s, or ’80s at the earliest. I definitely don’t think of the 1960s, yet there was a group back then that made shockingly futuristic music for its time – The Silver Apples. They were around from 1967 to 1969 (and again in the 1990s), performing a kind of psychedelia using an oscillator to produce pulsing electronic sounds. They also remind me a bit of Krautrock groups like Can.
The first installment of the Doleful Lions vs. the PMRC, Jonathan Scott’s “Filthy 15″ cover project, is now available for streaming and purchase – a cover of Prince’s “Darling Nikki” – very different from Prince’s original version. I interviewed Jonathan about his cover album project here. And I wrote more in depth about the PMRC here.
A couple of years ago when I used to frequent a certain social media/music promotion website, I would occasionally run across submissions by a group of teenagers from England called Escape Route 36.
At first I didn’t pay much attention. Teenagers with a band, how good could that be? But soon I began to notice Josie Charlwood, the female lead singer with the flaming red hair. She could really belt ‘em out. It was shocking to hear such a powerful voice coming from such a small package. I thought, this girl is going places.
After hearing some of Josie’s recent solo work, I think I was right. Just 17, Josie is already developing a devoted following on the web with her videos, which demonstrate her use of loop pedals and a powerful set of pipes. Her songs include covers of bands like MGMT and the Gorillaz, as well as originals.
I just interviewed Josie via e-mail and got some great answers:
You’re 17 now, is that correct? How old were you when you realized you had musical talent?
I am indeed 17 at the moment but turn 18 this July. I never touched an instrument until I was around 11 – I have my cousin to thank for that. She’d just got into singing and I wanted to do the same! Instead of buying the karaoke machine I desperately wanted, my Dad insisted he’d teach me the chords to any song I wanted to sing so I could play along on the keyboard. He indeed did this and that is how my interest in piano and singing began.
How did you get involved with Escape Route 36? Can you give me a few details about the band – who the members are, what they’re up to now, etc.?
Escape Route 36 was essentially a project we started in our school days to help inspire all of us in terms of the music. At school I had a tough time with music in general (I think I can speak for the boys too) as we were never really given the encouragement when it came to performance and/or creativity. In contrast to this, the band was a great thing which we all enjoyed and helped me at least get through exams and stuff. The ER36 project started when we were all 14/15. The boys were all from school too and we’re still great friends, even though we’ve taken different paths. I’m not sure if they would all want their names mentioned but I can tell you one’s going into photography as far as I know and one into music production (specialising in Dubstep).
How long did you work with ER36 and when did you start recording solo?
As a band we worked together for around 2 years I think. Things changed when we left school and wanted to concentrate on other things. It was however a great experience for me (and I hope the boys too) and I learnt a lot about performance, arrangements and working as a team on the whole. After the “No Divider” album I obviously wanted to keep recording and experimenting with my originals. The first single was “The Mirror” with two of my good friends sessioning; Dan Hardingham (drums) and Blyss Gould (bass). Shortly after this (and a few other tracks!) I really got into filming for Youtube; this is when solo stuff became more prominent for me.
Why did you decide to use looping and how do you see that process developing as you create new songs?
I first got into looping after being massively inspired by singer-songwriters Ed Sheeran and KT Tunstall, both well known names now! I’m all for trying new arrangements and looping was something I’d never tried so I decided to give it a go. People sometimes ask me if I’d had “lessons” as such; this never happened. In fact I bought a BOSS RC-30 loop pedal back in April 2011 and just began experimenting. I paid a lot of attention to how loop artists break their tracks into parts. After a week or so (and some serious practice) I filmed my arrangement of “Electric Feel” by MGMT.
How is working on your own different from being in a band?
It’s very different. When working with a band you have so many ideas to share and compromise with, which always results in new things. You also have people to share the music with and that’s such a good feeling. However, it can also be hard work and a lot harder to arrange compared with a solo gig. With solo rehearsals you can put in as much or little as you want, whereas with a full band everyone has to be fully focused else it won’t go anywhere.
Do you still collaborate and if not is that a possibility for the future? What about working with other musicians?
Of course, I love to work with other musicians! I’ve made tracks like “My Life Begins Now” and “The Mirror” where I’ve done live session work with other musicians and that’s been great. I also have a growing interest in the electronic music industry and have collabed on several tracks with Dubstep/DnB producer Filthzilla, who is a very close friend of mine. Both of these things are ongoing projects and I am always eager to work/share ideas with new musicians.
What has gigging been like? Have you been able to perform live very much? Does your age complicate that because of age restrictions at clubs, etc.?
I love gigs, but in the last year or so have done very little. I’ve sung at a couple of small events but have mainly been concentrating on exams – I’m sitting my A Levels at the moment and want to get this right! There will always be time for gigs in the future. The amount that I’m doing at the moment age isn’t really an issue and I should be 18 by the time I get back into serious gigging.
I understand your parents have been involved in the music business. Could you tell me a bit about that? I think your father sang and is your manager now and your mother also was a singer?
Erm, well Dad [Toby] is now a producer (formally a chartered accountant) and Mum [Annie] a music teacher at the local Primary School. They have both been musicians for a while now, in fact they met through playing in a band together. Dad now runs the tobesmusic.com independent record label, which all my music is released through.
How did your parents influence you musically?
I think my parents are the reason I’m so into music these days. They have always supported my growing interest, right from the start. Dad essentially taught me most of what I know about harmony and theory and was my main teacher when learning keys. I never really had formal piano lessons. The only instrument tuition I’ve had was singing lessons for just less than a year, a few years back. My parents are still so supportive and I learn new things from them all the time, whether it’s based around guitar, piano, or music technology.
What bands have influenced you most and who are your current favorites?
This is a hard question! I really am into such a wide range of music. For looping, Ed Sheeran and KT Tunstall. For songwriting, so many artists inspire me. I’m really into funk and love music from people like Stevie Wonder and bands such as Steely Dan. I’m a great Genesis fan too – we had their albums in the car for a bit when I was younger. In terms of more recent bands I enjoy alternative music such as Porcupine Tree, Bloc Party and Everything Everything. There really are too many artists to list.
Do you have an album in the works?
Indeed I do! It’s on my list of things to get done (alongside my A Level exams and driving test). At the moment it’s more about building my portfolio, especially online – gotta keep the Youtube channel active. However, I am working on an album to hopefully be released this year.
What are your long term plans? Are you going to make a career out of this? Are you thinking of getting signed to a label or would you rather stay independent and release music digitally?
I am definitely looking into a music career whatever the case, but I’m still unsure of what I want to do. I’ve got myself a degree placement in London, beginning this September and plan to come out with a full music degree before I really decide what to do for the future. Until it (hopefully) becomes a career I am in no rush to be signed to any label nor make any money out of my art. However if I could eventually make a living out of what I love, that would be amazing.
It looks like you’ve got a growing fan base on Youtube and recently got some nice attention from Reddit. Is the Internet your primary source of marketing? Do you think you could do this without the Internet?
The internet is definitely the reason my music is “out there.” I’ve been able to build an active online profile essentially from home, whilst still concentrating on my education and other things. It’s great that people are enjoying my music from all over the world! At this age especially, I would not have achieved that otherwise.
I’ve noticed you get a lot of comments about your hair. Is it more pro or con? (Heard enough redhead jokes yet?)
Haha, this is the first time that question’s come up in an interview. I get plenty of redhead jokes, but I don’t mind them. People are always going to find something to comment on, after all. I like the colour of my hair and it makes me more recognisable too! Someone stopped me in a shop in Chichester and said “excuse me, are you Josie Charlwood?” Could just be my point of view but I’m sure that wouldn’t have happened if I were a brunette. Overall I don’t think there are any “cons” to being a redhead, except being terrible at hide and seek.
This cover of MGMT’s “Electric Feel” may be my favorite performance so far.
She also has some great originals, such as “Better Days.”
I’m kind of glad she didn’t get that karaoke machine.
I think my mother considers me to be something of a computer expert. News flash: I’m not. At all. I know just enough about computers to know when it’s time to call in someone who really knows about them so I don’t break something important.
That’s what I wish Congress had done before they decided to take on Internet piracy. Two bills — SOPA in the House of Representatives and Protect IP Act or PIPA in the Senate — claim to be about protecting intellectual property, but they were written with the help of Hollywood lobbyists who just did not understand how the Internet works. They did not get enough input from the technical experts who might have helped create laws that worked, and are fair.
If these bills make it through Congress, the Internet will end up being severely disabled. Legitimate websites will go out of business and many businesses of the future will be stillborn. And the pirates will go right on pirating.
If you haven’t heard much about these bills it’s understandable. They have barely been mentioned by the mainstream media. Luckily, the Internet has a bit of sway as well. The word is starting to get out. Today, some high profile websites, including Reddit and Wikipedia are blacking out their websites to protest the proposed legislation and get people to call congress. Google has posted an anti-censorship message and plea to contact congress. That ought to carry some punch.
I don’t think I can actually do a “blackout” on a WordPress.com blog, but I’d like to pitch in. These bills need to be stopped.
The legislation is complicated, but this article does a pretty good job boiling it down and explaining how it could hurt the Internet. I found it to be a pretty easy read:
Edit: It looks like RateYourMusic.com, my favorite album rating site, is also having a blackout today to protest SOPA/PIPA. Good for them. Site owner Hosseign Sharifi gives a great explanation of how his perfectly legitimate, non-pirating website could be shut down by this legislation. Click that link and read it for yourself.
Back in the heyday of TheSixtyOne, I discovered a wonderful singer-songwriter from Ireland named Peter Doran. I haven’t written about him yet, but it’s been on my to-do list. Peter is working on a new album and needs help from fans to bring it to completion. He’s using Pledge Music, which is essentially a European version of Kickstarter. Last time I checked he had collected 99% of what he needs, with about 4 days left to get the final amount. I have a lot of respect for Peter and his music, so I thought I’d put out the good word.
I love a good revenge story. Doleful Lions frontman Jonathan Scott will exact his revenge on moral crusader Tipper Gore and the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) throughout 2012.
The year-long project, Doleful Lions vs. the PMRC, will cover the so-called “Filthy 15” songs most harshly condemned by the PMRC during the 1980s.
The Doleful Lions will release up to one song a month throughout the year, with bonus tracks around the holidays. “I am already coming up with a lot of ideas for what I want to do. Some of the songs will be really straight and some won’t,” said Jonathan.
The Doleful Lions’ occult/gothic pop would likely be targeted by the PRMC if the organization was still active, but Jonathan’s motive is intensely personal. “I blame Tipper for fucking up part of my childhood so I guess I want revenge,” he said.
“In the mid-‘80s my mom read Tipper Gore’s book [Raising PG Kids in an X-rated Society] and came to the conclusion that the weird music I listened to played some part in my being bad in school and getting in trouble all the time. So she went through all my records and listened to the songs and wrote down all these lyrics that she said she objected to and wanted to know why I liked all this occult violent music — that is how she saw it anyway — and one day when I was at school she threw out all my records. My parents made some rule where I could only listen to music approved by them and all of it had to be from the 60s or something. It was a weird time.”
The Filthy 15 list was part of a Washington Post article in which the PMRC suggested (per Wikipedia) that the RIAA and the music industry “develop ‘guidelines and/or a rating system’ similar to the MPAA film rating system,” as well as “printing warnings and lyrics on album covers, forcing record stores to put albums with explicit covers under the counters, pressuring television stations not to broadcast explicit songs or videos, ‘reassess[ing]’ the contracts of musicians who performed violently or sexually in concert, and creating a panel to set industry standards.”
The article got rock music and magazines removed from from American stores including Walmart, J. C. Penney, Sears and Fred Meyer.
The moral crusade didn’t stop there. In September 1985, the Senate held a hearing on so-called “porn rock,” taking testimony from musicians Dee Snider, Frank Zappa, John Denver, as well as PMRC representatives and Senators Al Gore and Paula Hawkins. The Dead Kennedys were actually put on trial for violating obscenity laws (it ended in a mistrial).
It was a strange time to be alive.
Songs on the Filthy 15 (with their lyrical sins) include:
1 Prince “Darling Nikki” (Sex)
2 Sheena Easton “Sugar Walls” (Sex)
3 Judas Priest “Eat Me Alive” (Sex)
4 Vanity “Strap on Robbie Baby” (Sex)
5 Mötley Crüe “Bastard” (Violence)
6 AC/DC “Let Me Put My Love into You” (Sex)
7 Twisted Sister “We’re Not Gonna Take It” (Violence)
8 Madonna “Dress You Up” (Sex)
9 W.A.S.P. “Animal (Fuck Like a Beast)” (Sex/Language)
10 Def Leppard “High ‘n’ Dry (Saturday Night)” (Drug and alcohol use)
11 Mercyful Fate “Into the Coven” (Occult)
12 Black Sabbath “Trashed” (Drug and alcohol use)
13 Mary Jane Girls “In My House” (Sex)
14 Venom “Possessed” (Occult)
15 Cyndi Lauper “She Bop” (Sex)
“I am surprised no band has ever done these songs in this way before,” Jonathan said. “The Filthy 15… the whole concept was so ridiculous. I watched a couple of hours of the PMRC hearings on CSPAN the other night, it was really amazing to watch these Senators wasting time and money on such bullshit. I think the project will be pretty fun.”
I would like to bring everyone’s attention to an ambitious project by Chicago-based singer/songwriter Daniel Knox. Daniel just raised over $10,000 in a Kickstarter campaign, allowing him to give a multi-media performance with photographer John Atwood. The long form composition, “Black and Whites” will premiere Jan. 25, 2012 at 92YTribeca in New York City along with an exhibition of Atwood’s photos. He’ll be working with some fabulous musicians. You can find out more about it here, and here. And on his Tumblr page. He is also doing a residency and open rehearsal in Watermill New York.
I almost cheated and made Daniel Knox’s - Evryman for Himself one of my top 5 picks for 2011. It was officially released 2011, but the truth is I’ve had the previous independently-produced version of this album in heavy rotation since 2010. The two versions are slightly different (so slight, I can’t really tell unless I strain my ears). If you haven’t heard it, do yourself a favor and get your copy from his new label, La Société Expéditionnaire.
This is the song that made me a Daniel Knox fanatic:
Americans who depend on the Internet are worried about censorship lately, and with good reason – SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) in the House and Protect IP in the Senate will likely be serious threats to freedom of speech on the Internet if they pass. But these threats are nothing new.
Right now, the boogeyman the folks in charge and the companies that lobby them use to try to restrict the free flow of information is Internet piracy – It’s a real problem with real consequences, but the proposed solution is akin to curing the disease by killing the patient.
In the past, the boogeyman was obscenity. America has always had a tug of war between cultural conservatives and people who like to push boundaries through art and music.
In the 1960s, all it took was a few bad words to get you in trouble. Censorship wrecked the career of stand-up comedian/spoken word artist Lenny Bruce, who was arrested a number of times on obscenity charges. Most of the charges were defeated in court, but fighting them ruined him financially. TV and radio were heavily censored and musicians had to be careful to disguise themes such as sex and drugs in metaphor. There were others who paid a price as well.
After a period in the ‘70s when the culture lightened up about topics like sexuality and drugs, there was another crackdown in the ’80s as evangelical Christians and clergy suddenly found themselves with some serious political power and decided to throw their weight around. Tipper Gore and the PMRC went after heavy metal, punk rock and rap. In 1985, representatives of the PMRC, musicians Frank Zappa, John Denver and Dee Snider of Twisted Sister, and Senators Paula Hawkins and Al Gore testified before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on the subject of record labeling and obscenity. (Check out the Wikipedia page. It’s a pretty good read.) Snider in particular shocked a lot of people by not being the dummy they expected and putting the moralizers on the defensive.
The push to censor and control the sale of music with explicit lyrics continued into the ’90s. Store clerks got arrested for selling the rap record “As Nasty As They Wanna Be.” A record store owner in Florida was put on trial and convicted (overturned on appeal) and the rappers themselves were put on trial for obscenity (acquitted). I bought a copy of 2 Live Crew’s album after I heard about the arrests – I wasn’t even into rap at the time, but I couldn’t abide that kind of censorship and I wanted to know what the fuss was about. Turned out to be nasty as you would expect and also damn funny.
It’s hard to even remember what the mindset was back then. Check out this excerpt from the TV show Quincy (which incidentally featured a performance from bona fide punk group Mayhem). It’s funny today, but it was dead serious at the time.
America has changed since then. Rap has become mainstream. Formerly scary rappers Ice Cube and Ice T have acting careers (Ice Cube has been in a kids’ movie and Ice T played a cop on TV). The country lost its fear of heavy metal, thanks in part to the parody “This is Spinal Tap.” Punk rockers grew up and went mainstream. Henry Rollins of Black Flag is working on a show for National Geographic. How mainstream is that? History tells us that sooner or later we’ll get another moral crusade, however.
Check out Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys taking on Tipper Gore on the Oprah Winfrey show in the ’80s. I think the PMRC folks thought they were getting a punk rock moron like Sid Vicious when they took on Jello, but he turned out to be anything but. He gives Tipper a pretty good shellacking in this clip.
Fear is a powerful tool, one that politicians can’t resist. Whenever anything new pops up in the culture that they find threatening (the Occupy Movement for example), the folks in power will appeal to our moral sensibilities to try and stop it. And it might actually work, for a while… But sooner or later change will come, whether they like it or not. Americans are very adaptable and I think the country will evolve into something better than what we have now — but that doesn’t mean the process will be painless.
I am just wrapping up a post about goth pop artist Jonathan Scott of the Doleful Lions, who was personally affected by the PMRC and is working on a fascinating musical project to remind people of that era.
Before you point a finger, remember ‘Everything is a Remix’
When I was a teenager, I read a story by Orson Scott Card that made a big impression on me. “Unaccompanied Sonata” tells the story of a young prodigy in a future society where talented musicians are isolated and forbidden from listening to the music of others, to prevent their work from becoming derivative.
I don’t want to give too much away, but he rebels, listening to a beautiful piece by Bach. He is forbidden from making music. He does it anyway and is repeatedly punished in horrible ways that ultimately make it impossible for him to make music again. In the end, he becomes part of the very establishment that tormented him so.
I thought of that story when I discovered Everything Is a Remix, a blog about the video series by the same name by New York filmmaker Kirby Ferguson (the one who produced this video about Protect IP, mentioned previously on my blog). The first three videos in the series have been produced and a fourth one is on the way. They can be found on Ferguson’s Vimeo channel as well as Youtube and I recommend them highly. They are fascinating.
The video series points out – very effectively – that very little if any of the entertainment we enjoy is truly “original.” Everything borrows from something else. Movies, music, ideas. And that’s not a bad thing. Bits and pieces of art can recombine and become fresh and new again. I love the old blues music Led Zeppelin ripped off, but I also love Led Zeppelin, can’t imagine what my teenage years would’ve been like without them. Amazing powerful stuff. And much of it purloined.
Same thing with hip hop. That used to be one of my complaints about hip hop before I learned to enjoy it: “It’s just someone talking over someone else’s song.” Sometimes that’s all it is, but in the hands of someone creative, it becomes something much more.
Anybody remember the outlaw album DJ Danger Mouse put out in 2004? He took Jay-Z’s Black Album and mixed it with songs from the Beatles’ White Album, to create The Grey Album. Modern, streetwise rap music, mixed with some of the most beloved classic rock there is. It took off like gangbusters. The studios’ reaction to that very pirate project was predictable. EMI tried like hell to get it off the Internet, even though Paul McCartney and Jay-Z were fine with it, but there was no stopping it. The album went viral and was a very hot topic in the music press for a while.
Something else that will freak you out… Sometime watch Zero Hour, a movie about a plane trip that goes awry when the crew gets sick and a passenger – a washed up, nervous ex-pilot – has to take the controls. Sound familiar? That’s because they borrowed the same exact plot for the comedy Airplane!
Watch the Everything Is a Remix for plenty of other examples. Here is the first installment:
Everything is a Remix Part 1 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.
1 Comment
Filed under commentary, video
Tagged as Beatles, Danger Mouse, derivative, Everything is a Remix, Grey Album, Jay-Z, Kirby Ferguson, Orson Scott Card, PIPA, Protect IP, SOPA, Unaccompanied Sonata