Sunday, August 17, 2008

Last week was Part 1 of my "Random Thoughts About Music, Loosely Organized Around Stuff I Like" serial.  In case you missed it, I left off talking about the difference to me between pre-programmed music (things like electronic music and pop music) and "music of the moment" (things that I’m going to talk about today).  So join me, if you will, as I play my own version of "Brain Notes", which is the approximate equivalent of walking into my room, finding it completely destroyed, and spending two weeks cleaning it up a little bit.  Or at least trying.

I’ve been doing a lot of real cleaning as of late, actually.  Sometimes I’ll clean with the television on, but as I’ve been out a TV since one of my roommates moved out, the responsibility of keeping me company fell on the shoulders of my vinyl collection, which has recently been resurrected by another roommate having a turntable (mine’s still broken).  Anyway the point is I’ve been listening to a lot of Wilco albums again, which will factor heavily into our discussion.

Also, so this doesn’t look so daunting, I made up some cheesy little sub-headings to divide the post up.  Here’s the first one:

Shrink-Wrapped Box Full of Sweet Guitar Solos / "Misunderstood" That Last Key Change

I set up a distinction last week, trying to identify how exactly music differs based on how it’s made.  Now, I downgraded songs that followed the "pre-programmed" route, citing their inability to feel organic to me, always cold, dry and fake, at least in the realm of listening to music for the pure enjoyment of it.  The other extreme, of course, is something like improvised music, with no plan at all.

Now, I wont go so far as to post a bunch of ridiculous improvisations, because quite frankly, John has better things to do with his server space than host 12 minutes of Jim O’Rourke slamming two keys on a piano.  And I don’t really find it al that interesting.  But there are bands who take a less rigid approach to creating music than some formulaic songwriters.  That’s where, as usual, Wilco comes in.

 In 1996 Wilco released Being There, which kicked off the change in direction from Tweedy’s old days in Uncle Tupelo.  A large portion of Being There was recorded live, with minimal planning ahead of time except a general explanation of song structures, and what parts might be coming up.  With a few takes, songs came together, but in almost every track you still get the feeling that you on tape a record of a song being created.  And you know what, I think that’s pretty damn cool.

For another side-by-side comparison, have a listen to these two tracks. The first track, "Box Full of Letters" is off Wilco’s first record A.M.  A great song to be sure, but listening to it still feels like I’m just a consumer, purchasing a nicely packaged product for 3 minutes and 6 seconds of blissful guitar hooks and cymbal crashes.

:Wilco - Box Of Letters:

Now listen to Misunderstood, off Being There, and tell me you don’t hear a difference.  Not a difference in the song style (it’s slower, rowdier, and more depressing obviously), but in the subtle nuances you hear in the background: the way the organ struggles to keep up with the guitar, Tweedy’s difficulties fitting the lyrics into the melody properly at times, the uncontrollable guitar feedback that rips through the mix.  Rather than a song being performed, this track is truly a song being made. Even at concerts since, I’ve never heard the same version of it.

:Wilco - Misunderstood:

I Am Trying To Make A Point

My point in all of this isn’t to berate music that doesn’t live up to those "standards" of being created at least partially on the spot.  But last week I tried to make the distinction between music as entertainment and music as art.  A blurry division at best, but one that I think is important to my whole basis for enjoying music in the first place.  As an art form, music is one of the only mediums that can be both a finished work of art and encapsulate a living record of it’s creative process at the same time.  And seriously folks, I think that’s pretty damn cool.

A lot of that is why I think Wilco is such a great band: they embrace that duality of music and create really enjoyable albums that don’t make me, as the listener, feel completely disjointed from the creative process.

That’s why the movie I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, which chronicles the making, un-making, and rebuilding of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, works so well as a companion to the record.  It expands on the creative elements of the record, effectively doing two things: a) giving me things to watch on a rainy day, and b) expanding on the best parts of the album by explaining where they came from in the creative process.  Think of it like a Wikipedia article: click on that piano loop in the album and you’re hyperlinked to some scene in I’m Trying To Break Your Heart where you can learn more about the history of that loop.

Check out Poor Places being conceived by Jay Bennett (who is kind of an asshole).  Then listen to the track from the record, and see if you can’t spot some of the things they’re talking about.

:Wilco - Poor Places:

The Wire / Final Thoughts

So that’s what makes music worthwhile to me, the ability to see the creative process and connect with the people who are creating; to be a part of the process instead of the end of it.  If it weren’t for music’s ability to go beyond sheer enjoyment and get at the true qualities of the human spirit that made it, listening to 12 hours of music a day would be on par with watching a season of The Wire every day.  Not a bad way to spend a day, granted, but still not quite the same.

Notes / Apologies

Apology: I meant to talk about where buying albums on vinyl fits into all of this.  I didn’t.

Apology: I kind of poo-pooed on electronic music, so here’s a song I think is really cool, and fits most of the “good” criteria above. Sure most of this was “made on a computer”, but they do a great job of incorporating that “human element” I was blabbering on about.

:Black Moth Super Rainbow - Happy Melted City:

Note: Next week, I’m planning on going back and noting a few albums I was late to get in on, but still really like this year.

Apology: Fall semester starts for me next week, so that last "note" might not quite happen, but I’ll try.

- John Michael Cassetta -



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