(Editor’s Note: Nuns need to buy and use hammers just like the rest of us. I like to think that the sisters are heading back to the parish to break somebody’s kneecaps and are looking for just the right implement. (They do appear to be pretty engaged in the task of finding the best hammer.) If you’ve been involved in a gambling and/or protection ring run by nuns and/or friars, drop us a line in the comments.)
We’re kind of all over the map on Lazy Saturday, right? Sometimes I hit you with some tunes and some analysis of why I love them; sometimes I hammer out some reviews on stuff that’s been piling up; sometimes I don’t really do anything. Today, I’d like to take some time to complain about the state of the world of music. If that’s not cool, feel free to start your own blog (unless you’re one of the 74% of Americans that already have one).
This whole Danger Mouse thing is pissing me off for a number of reasons. I think that pretty much everybody involved is some sort of an asshole. (I’m going to proceed under the assumption that you’re hip to “this whole Danger Mouse thing.” If you’re not, read this from the New York Times. If you don’t want to read, here’s the wildly truncated version: dude made a record he can’t release for some vague legal reason, so he’s selling peeps a book of pictures and a blank CD for fifty bucks.) The things that piss me off break down into three distinct categories:
1. If you make art, it should be yours. Ian Mackaye got this one right. Dischord‘s introduction to this idea is as good of a description as any: “We do not work with contracts so our relationship with our bands is based on friendship and trust. New bands come into the fold when they have made a mark within our community and there is mutual agreement that we would be a good fit for each other.” This makes sense. Records labels ought to be in the business of disseminating art to the public, not making money. Art museums are (generally) non-profits, so are orchestras. Why is popular music any different? (I’m going with the more traditional definition of that term, not implying that something like, say, Gay Beast is “popular” per se.) Shouldn’t record labels exist to serve the public good and stay in the black? Then, presumably, you wouldn’t have stuffed suits influencing the ability of a piece of music to enter the hands of the consumer. In a vacuum, Danger Mouse ought to be the person making decisions about what bits of his art exist in a public sense.
2. Self-promotion, notably that which is nefarious or complex in nature, is stupid at best. I’m a little worried that Danger Mouse is just a really savvy dude. NPR is streaming the record in question; the New York Times wrote the aforementioned feature on it; the blogosphere is lighting on fire with downloads of this thing. It is entirely possible that this is all a stunt to generate attention and revenue. That would suck. You can buy the book and the blank CD for fifty bucks. They only printed 5000 of them. If there’s a second run of these things, I’m going to assume that this was just a douchey, masturbatory exercise in manipulation of the public. I’d love to be wrong on this one, but I think Danger Mouse just might be a Machiavellian manipulator of the internet.
3. Everybody should have equal access to art, independent of its value or their means. All of this points to how foolishly we interact with the arts. Books and paintings and music and plays and performance art and all the rest of the loosely defined “arts” should be wildly and radically publicly supported and funded. What if this book is a life-altering, paradigm-shattering piece of honest to god, high level, no bullshit art? I’m sure as hell not going to be spending fifty bucks on it. Does that mean that I don’t “deserve” the enlightenment it offers? That’s classist bullshit. If we sorted out a more rational way of doing this, artists could be compensated directly and everybody could have equal access to their products. Some other genius will need to figure out how that would actually work, but it would be sweet.
Here ends that rant. If you’re Danger Mouse and you’re reading, drop us a line; we’d love some clarity and/or evidence that this isn’t all a finely crafted marketing event. In the meantime, for the rest of you who aren’t Danger Mouse, we’ve got four killer tracks. The first two come from bands that we’ve hit recently (and that Kevin loves) and kind of just give me an excuse to post twenty plus minutes of deep hippie jams from moe. (Press play on “Buster” and then just zone out for a minute. Good times!) Lastly, I got my hard copy of The Eternal this week, so there’s also some classic live Sonic Youth. (This cut comes from that same compilation that the De La Soul song from earlier this week is found on. I’ve written about this version of “Wildflower” before. To paraphrase the kid at the surf shop in Point Break: “Sonic Youth’s the source man. Changed my life.”)
“Forest Knolls” – John Vanderslice – Chicago, 2009
“Cage the Songbird” – The Low Anthem – Washington DC, 2009
This was so much more than a rant. Thank you.
It is absolutely a fair conclusion that they really are just essentially assholes. Keep on keepin on brother.