The Year in Music 2008:
A new set of touchstones for rocky times
Pet Sounds (Capitol, 1966) not Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Capitol, 1967). For that matter the Plastic Ono Band rather than the Beatles, and Brian Wilson before Paul McCartney. Scott Walker, not Paul Simon. Arthur Russell, not David Byrne — though regards to the Talking Heads.
'Fraid no Bruce Springsteen but plenty of Neil Young. The Band not ... well, Bob Dylan hangs on despite the unfortunate I'm Not There (2007), the seeming party-stopper in a never-ending stream of Dylan books and arcana. Prince, in lieu of Rick James, bitch.
Low-budg bedroom production, not Chinese Democracy (Interscope). Not reggaetón but Krautrock. Not Afro-Cuban but African. Not doo-wop but girl group. Nope to Phil Spector but yes to Lee Hazlewood or, better, Lee "Scratch" Perry. Stock on the Replacements and Hüsker Dü is way down, but Bad Brains and Black Flag shares are up.
Sorry, the Who isn't all right but Zep's song remains the same. Nevermind Nirvana but hello, Sparks — and no, not Jordin Sparks. And oddly enough, not the Tubes or Huey Lewis and the News, but Journey — and specifically "Don't Stop Believin'."
Now repeat, twirl around, pat your head whilst rubbing your stomach, click your heels together twice, and commit the aforementioned to memory: this is your new rock canon.
Just trust me on this. I've read a lot of music stories and CD reviews in '08, and since I'm missing the crucial math gene, I can't quantify the exact number of times the hallowed names of Arthur Russell, Neil Young, or Brian Wilson have been invoked, but believe me, they have, more times than group-think-phobic music writers care to admit.
And that's not to say the artists and recordings these canonical creators have displaced are now worthless: even admitting that a canon (or three or four) exists, let alone articulating one, can be a dicey proposition — whether you're among lit professors or cruising music crit circles.
The very idea evokes exclusivity, hierarchy, neocon grandstanding, worries about exclusion, and allusions to dead white men. "I think most professors would not want to say there's a canon but if you teach a course on American literature there are still things you want to teach," opined one tenured prof pal. "They're critical of a canon but they still are creating a canon. It's very implicit and unconscious in some ways."
Yet anyone who's cared deeply enough about pop to critique it can't help but notice the seismic shift in the '00s — even as the state of criticism seems to wax and wane with the fortunes of a music industry still searching for an uploadable business model; music mags busily folding or scrambling for lifestyle advertising; and newspapers gutting their staffs and substituting arts criticism with reviews wrought by, say, sports copy editors.
Meanwhile blogs generate a still-fluid mixture of earnest criticism, bracing truth-telling, and hands-free promotion. A canon — or the very idea of classics and common musical references that all agree on — presupposes a foundation of critical thought, and who can afford to judge amid the hand-wringing desperation of today's music marketplace?
Who instigated this changing of the guard, this revised rock 'n' roll canon? Tastemakers, tastefakers, marketing minons, and branding blowhards? Writers, DJs, musicians, music store staffers, promoters, and Robert "Dean of American Rock Critics" Christgau? All Tomorrow's Parties, Arthur, Pitchfork, and the Chunklet writers who dreamed up issue 20's music journalist application form ("Would you admit to not actually being that familiar with your frequent points of reference you name-drop [e.g., Captain Beefheart or Gang of Four]?")?
This very humble independently owned, independent-minded rag? We'll never admit it — because the very notion of forging a new pop canon in this fragmented, un-unified, de-centered vortex of music-making, consumption, and collecting seems utterly ridiculous, if not downright moronic.
Yet a generational aesthetic realignment has occurred, and as a wise friend once told me, shift happens.
(2008 Dec 17 / Kimberly Chun)
This & KIMBERLY CHUN'S VITAMIN-FORTIFIED TOP 10-PLUS on:
http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=7723&catid=&volume_id=398&issue_id=410&volume_num=43&issue_num=12
The Undercover Myspace Indie Act of the Day has today come across Chris English, a singer songwriter from Charlotte, North Carolina.
In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit this before proceeding with the article. I think I have a crush on Heather Robb, one member of the talented trio the Spring Standards, out of New York City.
His name may not be mainstream in the music world, but to die-hard pop lovers Todd Rundgren is a genius.
For those who know of Vanity Fair only in its most recent incarnation -- that is, over the last 25 years -- and are unaware of its justifiably storied past, Vanity Fair The Portraits: A Century of Iconic Images may prove to be an eye-opener on various levels.
NPR.org, December 17, 2008 - It's fair to say that this music, recorded live at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C., is the best new material from Brian Wilson in more than 30 years.
Photo: Celebrity devotees of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and friends, at his academy in India, high up in the Himalayas, where they are studying transcendental meditation, March 1968. From left to right: Patti Boyd, John Lennon (1940 - 1980), Mike Love of The Beach Boys, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1917 - 2008), George Harrison (1943 - 2001), actress Mia Farrow, Donovan, Paul McCartney, Jane Asher (at one time McCartney's fiancé), Cynthia Lennon.
2008
With their sophomore album Sea Lion, New Zealand’s The Ruby Suns have left behind the simple Beach Boys-inspired psychedelia of their self-titled debut and vaulted into the 2000s.
The Year in Music 2008:
GROOVING: Studio musicians shine in the background.
Character Driven Productions is now selling director Shawn Swords' documentary "The Wage$ Of $pin," about the Philadelphia music scene between 1952 and 1963 and about "American Bandstand" host Dick Clark's pay-for-play activities from which he emerged unscathed.
Brent Randall & His Pinecones -- We Were Strangers in Paddington Green (Endearing Records, 2008)
Ronnie Spector, Mohegan Sun, 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 19
1978
by Steve Levine, Producer BBC Radio
Messiaen's best loved symphony and music for four guitars at Yale.
Cameras roll on musical doco about versatile Mexican-American artist whose story will "rewrite the history of rock 'n' roll."
On the musical docket: Four Freshmen, Legendary Diamonds, a sold-out Phil concert.
Quote:
Career-Spanning Collection, to be Released February 10 by Capitol/EMI, Includes Campbell's Most Popular Grammy-Winning and Chart-Topping Hits
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