Further Thoughts on Retromania

(The book spurred so much thinking that a separate post is needed. I didn’t want to clutter the review with my own load of “cool story, sis”, so here you go!) 

Bands Reuniting: 

Why Bother When There Ain't a New Album?

I do want to see Talking Heads record a new album, especially from all their years of doing their own thing (Tom Tom Club and their dance-pop resurrection, Byrne’s appreciation for world music, and Harrison’s love affair with alternative rock). But at the same time, I also don’t want them to reunite. Maybe, in the unusual grand scheme of things, Naked was meant to be their last album. I love them enough to want nothing more than for them to not become empty shells of themselves that tour just for money. Those Remain In Light days are long over. There ain’t never gonna be another Stop Making Sense. If Byrne still hates the hell out of Harrison, Frantz, and Weymouth; well, as Porky Pig once said "that's all folks".

And even if my favorite bands did reunite, I usually expect (90% of the time, actually) that they would record a new album. And I would probably expect the album to have their signature sound, only much older and obviously different-sounding from the many years of musical experimentation. By the way, the only band to record after reuniting… Fleetwood Mac. Yeah, bad odds, eh?

Don’t get me wrong. This doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t go buy tickets to their Texas tour stop if Talking Heads ever did reunite. I’m no fool.

When I got into The Police, I read over and over again that there would be no chance of a reunion. Well, in ’07, it happened. I bought tickets to one of their stops in Texas, thrilled to finally see them live. After all the touring dust settled, they would go right back into the studio and make a worthwhile 6th album (that was my hope, at least). Imagine my utter disappointment when that didn’t happen. I then wondered “what the f*** is the point of reuniting if you ain’t gonna make a new album?” Well, blah blah touring makes more money than album sales blah blah. And who knows, maybe Sting still hates Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers.

As for Steely Dan, I’m still fairly upset they haven’t recorded an album, even with all this touring they’ve been doing. Sure, the duo have released solo albums, but not joined forces and made something that would make me forgive them for the elevator jazz that is Everything Must Go. But again, see what happened with The Police. Plus, as I noted about their last album, that and Two Against Nature were honestly not their best efforts. They became shadows of themselves, a strange jazz-rock lounge act instead of the edgy poetry-popping studio phenomenon they were back in the seventies. I understand that age has a role in this. Also, it is flat-out unfair to expect long-running bands to always sound like they did in their best albums.

I guess, it makes more sense to reunite and tour than make a new album. The former is all about money and nostalgia, while the latter may be fraught with unresolved issues (Talking Heads, The Police) and interest in other things (Steely Dan). It is unfair of me to expect that from my favorite reunited (and not) bands. But I always hope for reconciliation. Damn me and my optimism.

On Originality: 

Or Why I Hate Vampire Weekend For Trying Too Damn Hard to Be Talking Heads 2.0

I was thinking about Reynolds’ criticism that there isn’t that much new innovation in music, just resurrections of various genres. There is a striking similarity to that and the complaints about genre fiction and its “same-ness”. I can understand how copying a style and trying to pass it off as innovative without any outstanding originality is just silly. Do musicians not have the same freedoms as novelists when it comes to adopting a genre? I mean, writers are given grief also, but it seems like music critics give their idols a harder time. Personally, this whole problem strikes me as unrealistic and a bit snobbish. This doesn’t mean there isn’t any room for innovation, heavens no. I think music fans and critics are mistaking innovation for brand-new genres, when all that humans are capable of is original refashioning and storytelling.

Here’s a thought: The Dead Weather, sonically, sound like a heavier Creedence Clearwater Revival. It’s cool that they sound a bit similar to CCR, but it’s even better that they add their own personal touches (a female vocalist, lyrical content, talk box, and fuzz distortion). That is likely what Reynolds meant in this part here:

Where they [certain bands] really failed was on the expressive level; you rarely got the sense there was anything much in the way of felt emotion behind the songs; they seemed born of fandom, a love for the stylization of emotion in music.

- from page 137 of Retromania by Simon Reynolds

And those kinds of artists? They are obvious, especially if you have an ear for music. I have experienced a few of these. Mainly, Vampire Weekend, with their Paul Simon-from-Graceland and Talking Heads-goes-Afro-punk sound and lyrical content. Man, talk about not even trying. Even the delivery of the lyrics is David Byrne-esque.

Either way, Reynolds may have been a little too hard on this front.

~
COPYRIGHT NOTE: all bold quotes are from the novel and were written by the author himself. Those words are not my own.
~

And thus, you have it. More reviews, random thoughts, and writing things coming your way! So duck or at least, get yourself a sturdy umbrella.

Haruki Murakami Reading Challenge 2011: Book Review 2 of 5

after the quake
By Haruki Murakami
Barnes & Noble link

*Note: this is the second of five reviews for the Haruki Murakami Reading Challenge*

Short stories are a strange animal. You are telling the story of people, places, and things; and yet you only have a limited amount of time. All there is time for is the important stuff, the "greatest hits" of it, if you would. It takes a different set of skills to reach shortened-literary perfection. Even novelists are daunted by them. Haruki Murakami remained, as usual, undaunted by a challenge. While he's done it before, he achieved his finest hour in after the quake.

The book, containing six stories, is a condolence letter to a confused and hurt nation. At the time of writing, Kobe was struck by a massive earthquake. It killed many, destroyed infrastructure, and sent the whole nation into a dark state of worry. Each tale focuses on how the earthquake has affected the denizens. All share one thing in common: it is a time of growth, a time of change, and a time for courage.

The one story that I always return to in this book is the concluding "Honey Pie", about Junpei and his longing for his best friend Sayoko. She had married Junpei's best friend and had a daughter named Sala. Eventually, the couple divorced. The earthquake complicated matters more (it gave Sala nightmares). To comfort the scared child, Junpei tells her the story of two friendly bears. Throughout, the story begins to reflect the situation between Junpei and his friend. And the more Sayoko sees of Junpei, the more the longing becomes undeniable. "Honey Pie" is sad, full of regret and unrequited love. It is a true representation of what happens during a national tragedy: it marks the air, but time ticks on.

All the stories deserve attention. They are surrealistic ("Super-frog Saves Tokyo"), reflective ("Landscape in Flatiron", "All God's Children Can Dance"), and bittersweet ("UFO in Kushiro", "Thailand"). All different flavors of human experience. And they are classic Murakami. People in unusual situations, asking how to continue even during a time of fear and mourning.

With the citizens struggling to shake off the recent tragedies in Fukushima and the rest of northern Japan, the book and its stories become not just a symbol of the past, but of the present times. Literature can scare us, inform us, and trick us. But it also can heal us. Remind us of the silly old sayings that we tell ourselves each morning: "life will go on", "tomorrow is a new day", etc. Even if you don't believe that, it helps to see that you are not alone in the struggle to survive.

May this book and many others like it heal us all during this times of rage and thunder and quakes.

"Our hearts are not stones. A stone my disintegrate in time and lose its outward form. But hearts never disintegrate. They have no outward form, and whether good or evil, we can always communicate them to one another. All God's children can dance."

- from "All God's Children Can Dance" on page 68

COPYRIGHT NOTE: all bold quotes are from the novel and were written by the author himself. Those words are not my own.